Those who proceeded to the horrors of the mountains in midwinter and subsequent capture by the Spaniards were: Captain Pike; Dr. Robinson; Interpreter Vasquez; Sergeant Meek; Corporal Jackson; Privates Brown, Carter, Dougherty, Gorden, Menaugh, Miller, Mountjoy, Roy, Smith, Sparks, Stoute—16 all told: compare date of [Oct. 7th, p. 419] and [note2, p. 360].
Pike now starts up the Arkansaw, to which he holds till he reaches the site of Pueblo, Col.
[II-17] Taking the party past Pawnee rock and the mouth of Ash cr., to a point about midway between the latter and the mouth of Pawnee fork. They traveled on the left or N. side of the river, approximately along the track of the A., T. and S. F. R. R., passing Dundee station and the small town of Pawnee Rock; Hubbard cr., on the other side of the river, is also passed, and camp is set a little beyond it, over the border of Barton Co., in Pawnee Co. The town of Pawnee Rock takes its name from the remarkable natural object of the same designation, also sometimes called Painted rock, which was a great landmark in old times. This is the most prominent point of a sandstone ridge of notably reddish color and in part scoriaceous; it is about 20 feet high, and stands off to the right of the road as you go up—about 2 m. from the Arkansaw r., before you come to the crossing of Ash cr. It was a convenient place for the Indians to exercise their pictographic art, and when the road came to be traveled by the whites the rock was soon covered with inscriptions of names, dates, and the like. It is about 9 m. by the road from the town of Pawnee Rock to the crossing of Pawnee fork.
[II-18] Passing Pawnee fork and Larned, Pawnee Co., to camp on the left or N. W. bank of the Arkansaw, about 5 m. beyond. Here is the place where the old Santa Fé road forked, in the days of the caravans and stages. The main road followed up the Arkansaw; but the right-hand road sheered off from the river to take up what was known as the "dry route"—a sort of cut-off which looked promising and became a regular stage-road, but was no great advantage when you had to go slowly and camp out, as the lesser distance was offset by lack of wood at all times, and of water at most seasons. Having been over this road, I can certify to the remarks of Gunnison and Beckwith, P. R. R. Rep. II., 1855, p. 24: "Five miles from camp [on Pawnee Fork] the road forks ... and one branch follows near by the windings of the Arkansas, to secure grass and water, while the other appears to push off for a 'short cut' and 'dry route' to Fort Atkinson, near which they again unite on the Arkansas river; but this appearance is deceptive; for after going a few miles it turns abruptly southward, and follows but a few miles from, and parallel with, the other road, keeping it generally in sight, as it does also the trees and sand-hills upon the banks of the Arkansas river, and is, except in the rainy season, without good grass and badly watered." The air-line distance of the "dry route," from the point where Pike is now to Dodge City, is about 54 m.; the actual travel is nearer 60. The ground passed over is that sometimes watered by the Coon creeks, and the road coincides to some extent with that now traversed by the A., T. and S. F. R. R. Of late the face of the country has been modified by the Eureka Irrigating Canal, which starts from the Arkansaw at Ingalls, hugs the river more or less closely to the bluffs below Dodge City, and then starts off across country in the direction of Spearville and Kinsley.
[II-19] Pike camps to-night about opposite Garfield, a railroad station and small village on the left or N. W. bank of the river. He started up on that side (having the river to his left), but crossed over on the 30th, and will continue the whole way to Pueblo up the right bank, having the river on his right. The general course of the river being from W. to E., its right bank is on the S., and thus N. of Pike.
[II-20] Kinsley, county seat of Edwards, is something of a town in these parts, situated a mile or two W. of the river on that one of the Coon creeks which runs oftener than the other one does, and which, when it has any water to discharge, falls into the Arkansaw at Garfield, after skirting the river for many miles. The nomenclature of Big and Little Coon creeks is reversed on some maps. I find that I was camped on one of them, 24 m. from Fort Larned, June 1st, 1864, under which date my old journal calls it "a puddlesome slough on the prairie." Thirty years ago it was good buffalo country, and consequently bad Indian country. A note I penciled June 3d, 1864, runs thus: "Our route since leaving Larned has been mostly along the north bank of the Arkansaw. Queer river that—a great ditch, chock full of grassy islets, stretching through the treeless prairie like a spotted snake, some seasons so dry you can't wet your foot in it for miles, and have to dig for a drink, sometimes a raging flood 200 yards wide. Traveling without military escort is risky. The Cheyennes are on the rampage; Comanches and Kiowas too." On the 6th, nearing Fort Lyon, we passed an Indian camp; "it was a band of Arapahoes, at war with the Cheyennes."
[II-21] No mileage for to-day. By Pike's map, camp is at an elbow of the river, which denotes that curve the Arkansaw makes in passing from Ford into Kiowa Co. There is no place to name in this vicinity, and the best maps, on a scale of 2 m. to the inch, do not give any island hereabouts. We will allow Pike 16 m., and set camp in Ford Co., just over the border of Kiowa.
[II-22] To "crease" a horse is to hit him with a bullet somewhere along the nape of the neck, close enough to the cervical vertebræ to stun him by the shock to the spinal cord, or to the ligamentum nuchæ, yet not to inflict permanent injury. When this is nicely done the horse falls as if killed, and is roped before he recovers. But it takes a very good shot, like "driving the nail," "snuffing the candle," "barking the squirrel," and other feats of skill which our backwoodsmen used to practice.
[II-23] Since he left Great Bend, Pike has had hilly country continuously on his left, with only a very narrow river-bottom on that side, in comparison with the breadth of the low-lying land on the W. or N. In fact, it is this series of countless thousands of hills and hillocks which causes the deflection of the river northward, thus making the "great bend." The place where the change occurs, and where Pike camps, is at Ford, a town in the county of that name, on the S. bank of the Arkansaw, or rather on the E. and S. bank of Mulberry cr., a stream from the S. W., which winds around the town on the W. and N., and falls into the Arkansaw a mile or so lower down. A branch of the Chic., Kas., and Neb. R. R. runs through Ford from Bucklin to Dodge City, Ensign, and Montezuma.
[II-24] Taking Pike past the site of old Fort Dodge and of present Dodge City, nearly to the boundary between Ford and Gray cos.—say halfway from Dodge to Cimarron, and thus about opp. Howell station of the A., T., and S. F. R. R. Dodge started on the N. bank, but has overgrown the river, and is now built up on both sides, with two bridges across. Dodge is 17 m. by rail above Ford, and almost exactly on the 100th meridian—probably some of the houses are built on each side of this line of longitude. At or near Dodge were the long-noted "Caches," of which most of the early travelers speak, but which seem to have been latterly lost sight of. I cannot locate the exact spot, but it ought to be easily recoverable by those who have the data I happen to lack. The place used to be spoken of as near the meridian just said—though that does not help us at all, as the maps of those days were mostly 30´ out of the way in longitudes. Thus, even Gunnison and Beckwith's route-map of 1853 runs the line E. of the mouth of Mulberry cr. where Ford now stands, and thus about 99° 40´. Gregg's is much closer than this, though it is on a much smaller scale; his 100th line runs midway betwixt the mouth of Mulberry cr. and the "Caches." Wislizenus' route-map, accompanying his report to Congress (Senate Misc. Doc. No. 26, 30th Congr., 1st Sess., pub. 1848) is closer still; for the "Caches" are marked scarcely W. of 100°. Wislizenus gives us another clew, as he marks "Fort Mann" at the "Caches." The "Caches" were also about the place where the dry cut-off, described in [note18] above, reached the Arkansaw—in short, everything points to the immediate vicinity of Fort Dodge as the place where these caches were located. "The history of the origin of these 'Caches' may be of sufficient interest to merit a brief recital," as Gregg says, Comm. Pra. I. 1844, p. 67, where, and on p. 19, we have the account. In 1812 was fitted out the first expedition which attempted to reach Santa Fé by following the account of Pike's journey now before us. This consisted of about a dozen men, among them two named Beard and Chambers, who had succeeded in reaching Santa Fé with the others, and had returned to the United States in 1822 (Chambers had done so by way of the Canadian r.). These two interested some St. Louis capitalists to join an enterprise in the Santa Fé trade, and then undertook to return to Santa Fé in the fall of 1822 with a small party and an assortment of merchandise. "Reaching the Arkansas late in the season, they were overtaken by a heavy snowstorm, and driven to take shelter on a large island. A rigorous winter ensued, which forced them to remain pent up in that place for three long months. During this time the greater part of their animals perished; so that, when the spring began to open, they were unable to continue their journey with their goods. In this emergency they made a cache some distance above, on the north side of the river, where they stowed away most of their merchandize. From thence they proceeded to Taos, where they procured mules, and returned to get their hidden property. Few travelers pass this way without visiting these mossy pits, many of which remain partly unfilled to the present day."