Washington City .08
Jany. 26 ...
Sir!
I am at length enabled to present you with the reports of my late expidition from the period of our sailing from Belle Fontain on the 15th. of July 1806; to my leaveing my Stockade on the Rio del Norte under escort of the Spanish Cavalry; on the 27. Feby. 07.
They should have been presented some time since, had I not have been imployed by the Commander in Chief, for a very consedrable proportion of my time since my arrival at the seate of Goverment:—It must be recollected that the Spanish General seized on all my Documents in his power; Amongst which [were] the book of Charts protracted, daily, from my notes and the eye; and although I retained a Copy of Courses, Distances, &c—by which I have been enabled to retrace my plans, and routes, yet they necessarily are not so perfect as the Original and daily protractions would have made them: They likewise obtained, and retained a note book engrossed with Observations on the manners, morals, and habits of the Aborigines of the countries through which we passed; the loss of which naturally abridged my desertation on those heads; also all my Meteorological tables to the entrance of their country where [were] amongst the papers sized [seized]: But what I regret the most was my Astronomical Observations having taken at Several of the most important points, the necessary Data, from which on my arrival at the United States, and having it in my power to refer to the appropriate tables and Calculations, I could have fixed the Latt. and Longitude and thereby secured the Great Geographical Object of giving a Determinate position to Various and important points of our Country, from having it in my power to correct the Chart which I now present you agreeably to the true principals of spherical projections. The few notes you see of the Latt. are ascertained from letters I wrote Genl. Wilkinson at different periods and the Longitude would have been preserved in the same manner had I have had tables with me which would have enabled me to calculate the immersions & emersions;—as well as angular distances at the time the observations were taken.—In the Chart herewith I have included all the Country between the La Platte of the Missouri and the Red river of the Mississsippi; and although it is, and from the nature of our information, of that immense district must be, very imperfect; yet I do not hesitate to assert it is the best extant: I have carefully remarkd on said Chart all the parts by actual survey and the Gentleman by whom surveyed, in order that each may lay claim to his proper proportion of fame.—You have also herewith Lt. Wilkinsons report of his expedition after I detached him down the Arkensaw, (and his seperate Chart on a large scale), in which he encountered immense dificulties in the accomplishment of the desired end.
I have not the talents nor passions requisite for the Botanist or Mineralogist, but had I have possessed them; the various duties I was oblidged to perform of commanding Officer, Surveyor; Astronomer; hunter; and advanced guard, together with the dreary season in which we travelled part of the route; with our minds much more actively employed in forming resources for our preservation from famine; and defence against any savage enemy who might assail us, then [than] examining the productions of Nature which was under our feet and Instead of our eyes being directed to the Ground; they were endeavouring to peace [pierce] the Wild before us—or giveing distinction and form to moveing Bodies on the distant Prairies—or enjoying the rapturous sublimity of the unbounded prospects which were frequently presented to our View's. Yet Docr. Robinson who possessed both talents, and taste for those pursuits; has promised to enclose me some remarks which no doubt will be interesting; and if received shall be presented to the War Department.
After I entered the Spanish Dominions I was as careful to conceal any notes or observations, I made on their country as I had been indifferent to all that related to what was in the conceived Territories of the United States; Trusting to the dignified title of an American Officer; the Caution with which I conceived the Spanish Goverment would act and an Idea I had eroneously formed of their want of Energy; yet owing to some Indications I was induced to conceal my journal and other papers, leaving the Book of Charts &c for to lull any suspicions which might arise from their being no papers in the trunks. I now wish General Dearborne to signify to me the extent he wishes me to enter in the of my involuntary Tour through the Internal Provences of New Spain if it is thought proper: I can give (from the Notes and Documents in my possession) in addition to my Diary and Corrispondences with the Spanish Governors relative to my Detention, seizure of my papers, the subsistence of my party &c; A General Idea of the Commerce, morals, manners, Arts, and Sciences: A correct account of their Military posts, with a well founded estimate of the whole Militia of the Provences; their population, and relative connexion with each other. Also, an Idea of their Annual revenue, the monies coined at the mint &c. Some suggestions on the sate [state] and influence of the Catholc Religion, The Dispositions of the Inferior Clergy—to close whole with a view of the general tendency of the Country to a revolution, the interests of the United States in case of that event; or the best mode of Treating with New Spain in case of a rupture with the Mother Country; with a General Chart of those parts of the provinces through which we passed. This may be takeing to wide a field for the time, the Goverment may wish to allow me in making the report; or they may possess, information on those subjects from pens far abler than mine, who may have anticepated those suggestions in their full extent.
I beg leave at this moment to call the attention of the Secy of War to the situation of the remaining part of my Detachment in New Spain which consists of one Interpreter, a Young man of Good family in upper Louisiania whose salary is 500 Dollars pr—Annum, one Sergeant, one Corporal and five privates; several of those poor fellows have become cripples from their limbs being frozen, and are in a strange country amongst people whose language they cannot understand, from their long detention without any information from their native Land, dispair will seize their minds, and will picture to their immaginations Years of Confinement in a foreign Country—I who was late their Companion in dificulties and Dangers cannot so soon forget our forlorne situation, and the obligations I am under to them for the promtitude with which they encountered danger, and fortitude they exhibited, and the fidility and attachment they evinced to their Military Commander, and leader, through those scenes; as not to exert myself to call forth the attention of the Government in their favour: I therefore hope that General Dearborne will take such measures as may be deemed expediant in order to restore those poor Lads to the service of their Country.
I am Sir With High Respect and
Consideration
Your Obt. Sert.
[Signed] Z. M. Pike Captain
1st UStates Regt. Infy
The Honl.
Henry Dearborne.
Sec. of War.
[VI'-5]The dagger set at Mountjoy's name is probably an error: see [note2, pp. 358-360], and [note50, p. 510]. Mountjoy was certainly one of those who accompanied Pike from the Rio Conejos into Mexico, and there is no evidence that he was dropped anywhere in that country. Also, Pike says that only "five" privates were detained in Mexico when he made a report to the Secretary of War, dated at Washington, Jan. 26th, 1808: see [p. 853]. Furthermore, witness the following hitherto unpublished document, which I find in the archives of the War Department, and in which Mountjoy's name does not appear: