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Show 462 LEADING FACTS OF NEW SPANISH HISTORY MEXICAN Wilkinson was the commander-in-chief of the army of the United States, and, at the time, was governor of the territory of Louisiana. It was thought that some bond of union between Wilkinson and Burr existed. The country was in a high state of alarm over the supposed designs of Burr, and Wilkinson was under great suspicion in some quarters. He was afterwards acquitted of any complicity in the plot. Major Pike, then a lieutenant, was a friend of Wilkinson, and it was from him and not from the American secretary of war that the orders for the expedition came. It was said, at the time, that Pike was an emissary of Burr and Wilkinson, and that the expedition was all in the interest of Burr and his enterprises. Pike, upon his return, promptly denounced his calumniators, and a reading of his journal ‘*® dispels at once any suspicion of his fidelity to his country. In point of daring adventure and enduring fortitude the journey of Pike is not surpassed in the annals of American history. Without provisions of any consequence, with a handful of men, in the dead of winter, marched this intrepid American soldier into the heart of the Rocky mountains, eight hundred miles from the American frontier. Indeed they were 4 band of heroes; emaciated, half clothed, half frozen, they pierced the fierce canyons of the Sangre de Cristo. But why did he cross these mountains from the Arkansas? *°° The exact line of his 489 Pike, Zebulon Montgomery, Major 6th Reg. U. S. Inf., Exploratory Travels through the Western Territories of North America, ete. In the year 1808, Pike secured a copyright for a book, the title of which was, ‘‘An account of Expedition to the Sources of the Mississippi, and through the western parts of Louisiana, to the sources of the Arkansaw, Kansas, La Platte and Pierre Juan rivers. Performed by order of the Government of the United States, during ‘the years 1805, 1806 and 1807. Spain, when conducted in the year 1807. And a tour through the interior parts of New through these provinces By Major Z. M. Pike.’’ by order of the captain-general This book was printed by John Binns, of Philadelphia, and was published by C. & A. Conrad & Co., of Philadelphia. Pike. The date of publication is 1810. The book contained a portrait . The text is full of errors and the book, a cramped octavo, is quite ua worthy of the great story it contains. Copies of this publication are found only im very old libraries or in the hands of lovers or dealers in rare old books. In the year 1811 the work was re-published in London, in quarto form, on hand-made paper, by Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme and Brown. The text 18 changed somewhat from the American edition, but it is an improvement upon the work of Binns in every respect. It was undoubtedly an authorized edition. This edition is also very rare, copies only being found in the hands of collectors or in the old libraries. _ *90 Many of the stories about Major Pike are untrue. lieves that he climbed the peak bearing his name. shows that he failed to do so. He probably climbed Nearly He did not. everyone a His diary Cheyenne mountain. Major RULE, 1700 TO 1822 463 march is not easily traced. One cannot identify the streams mentioned, inasmuch as the Spanish general confiscated his notes and Pike was compelled subsequently to use Spanish maps in the preparation of his journal and book. On the 28th of January, 1807, Pike reached the San Luis valley at a point on the Rio Grande near where the town of Alamosa now stands. He followed down the Rio Grande to the Conéjos and, upon the south bank of that stream, at a point five or six miles above its junction with the Rio Grande, built his fort. The Spanish records all indicate that the prairie opposite the mineral springs and high hill on the south bank of the Conéjos was the spot where the American flag first floated in New Mexico. Pike was at once a picturesque and bold figure. There is no doubt that Pike had further instructions than those which appear of record, and in this fact may be found an explanation for his conduct. There was every probability of war with Spain, in which case a strategic demonstration upon the headwaters of Red river, or upon those of the Rio Grande, even with his small force, might be important. It was also necessary, should certain events occur, that a line of march to the capital of New Mexico be known. When Pike reached the Rio Del Norte, or Rio Grande, as he says, he believed he was on Red river, and his plan was to descend that Stream in boats or rafts to Natchidoches, and on that account he Sought a suitable spot for a fortified camp,**' where the necessary Long was the first to ascend Pike’s Peak. It is also supposed that Pike had There is also This is untrue. many encounters with the Indians of the plains. a belief that mining was at this time being prosecuted by the Spaniards in what is now the state of Colorado. This is also untrue. As a matter of fact there was not a man of European birth or ancestry in the limits of that state a8 now constituted. ; : 491 Pike, Major Z. M., Ibid, page 231, note: ‘‘The stockade was situated in a small prairie, on the west fork of the Rio del Norte. The south flank joining the edge of the river (which at that place was not fordable), the east and west curtains were flanked by bastions in the N. E. and N. W. angles, which likewise flanked the curtain of the north side of the work. The stockade from the centre of the angles of the bastions was thirty-six feet square. There were heavy cottonwood logs about two feet in diameter, laid up all round about six feet, after which lighter ones until we made it twelve feet in height; these logs were joined together by a lap of about two feet at each end. We then dug a small ditch on the inside all around, making it perpendicular on the internal side, and sloping next the work; in this ditch we planted small stakes of about Six inches diameter, sharpened at the upper end to a nice point, slanted them over the top of the work, giving them about two and a half feet projection. We then secured them below and above in that position, which formed a small have been pointed frieze, which must have been removed before the works could Lastly, we had dug a ditch round the whole four feet wide and let the Sealed. |