There is a sameness about the many published portraits of Pike which shows that they were probably all taken from one original painting. Lossing's cut looks a little different from the rest, as it faces the other way, but it is the same picture reversed in copying, no doubt with the camera lucida. There is no mistaking the extremely long, large nose, above the full compressed lips, denoting the forceful character which Pike displayed conspicuously throughout his career, whether in leading a handful of men through an unbroken wilderness, or in heading the columns which assaulted an intrenched foe. The same uniform coat, with its epaulets, its high standing, embroidered collar, unbuttoned across the breast and the flap turned down on one side, appears in all these likenesses. Such are inserted in some of the editions of Pike's work; one of the reproductions forms the frontispiece of an early popular history of the war, and is called "a striking likeness" on the title page. They are all doubtless traceable to the painting which has long hung and still hangs in the historical gallery of Independence Hall at Philadelphia, alongside the portraits of Meriwether Lewis, William Clark, and many other noble men who loved and lived for their country. The painting which hangs in one of the rooms of the Minnesota Historical Society at St. Paul is believed to be a copy of this, though it differs in the introduction of a spirit hand, extended from an invisible arm, holding a wreath over the head—an attempt at symbolism in which the unknown artist has not been very successful. This portrait is dim and much cracked. I am informed by Mr. William M. Maguire of Denver, that a prominent citizen of Colorado has recently executed a bronze bust of Pike, to be placed in Manitou. Facsimiles of Pike's signature are seldom seen in print; Lossing gives one with the portrait on p. 586 of his Field Book. I am not aware that any facsimile of a letter in Pike's handwriting has hitherto been published. That one which is given in the present volume was selected from among many I have examined in the archives of the War Department, both for its intrinsic historical interest, and for the unusually well-formed signature it bears—that of one who died, as he had lived, for his country—of one whose fame that country will never permit to perish.
PIKE'S EXPEDITIONS.
Part I.
THE MISSISSIPPI VOYAGE.
CHAPTER I.
ITINERARY: ST. LOUIS TO ST. PAUL, AUGUST 9TH-SEPTEMBER 21ST, 1805.
Sailed from my encampment, near St. Louis, at 4 p. m., on Friday, the 9th of August, 1805, with one sergeant, two corporals, and 17 privates, in a keel-boat 70 feet long, provisioned for four months. Water very rapid. Encamped on the east side of the river, at the head of an island.[I-1]
Aug. 10th. Embarked early; breakfasted opposite the mouth of the Missouri, near Wood creek.[I-2] About 5 p. m. a storm came on from the westward; the boat lay-to. Having gone out to march with two men behind a cluster of islands, one of my soldiers swam a channel in the night, to inform me that the boat had stopped during the storm. I remained on the beach all night. Distance 28½ miles.[I-3]
Sunday, Aug. 11th. In the morning the boat came up and stopped opposite the Portage De Sioux.[I-4] We here spread out our baggage to dry; discharged our guns at a target, and scaled out our blunderbusses. Dined at the cave below the Illinois, at the mouth of which river we remained some time. From the course of the Mississippi, the Illinois[I-5] might be mistaken for a part of it. Encamped on the lower point of an island,[I-6] about six miles above the Illinois; were much detained by passing the east side of some islands above the Illinois; and were obliged to get into the water and haul the boat through.