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Show A RETROSPECT. 23 San Luis Valley, and built a fort on the Rio Grande del Norte, claiming the land in the name of the United States, for which he was taken prisoner by the Spanish soldiers, but afterwards released. It is said he was the first to fight the Indians with howitzers strapped on the backs of donkeys. When the fire was touched to them and the powder began to fizz, the donkeys whirled 'round and 'round like a mammoth Japanese pin wheel, while the men hugged ; mother earth so closely as to • leave a deep imprint of their forms, which can be seen to this day, by the aid of a double, back-action microscope of extraordinary power. This is supposed to be true, because you can generally tell where one has been lying. And then the ebbing wave of time threw a mist over the country for fourteen years more. In 1820, Col. Long was sent out to explore. He discovered Long's Peak, which was named for him. At least this is the historical supposition, but a Colorado barnacle tells me that this peak is so called " because it takes long to climb it." The curtain went down, and was rung up again in 1843, when General John C. Fremont passed through on his way to the Pacific. Soon after the great migration to California commenced, and Colorado became the gateway to the land of gold, her own treasure still sleeping, to startle the continent when its morning should come. PIKE'S CANNON. |
