ZEBULON M. PIKE
III
On November 22, as Pike and Dr. Robinson, and Vasquez, the interpreter,
were riding ahead of the command, they met a party of sixty Pawnees
returning from an unsuccessful war party. Half of them were armed
with guns, and about half with bows, arrows and lances. They met the
white men in a very friendly manner, but crowded about them; and at
the same time treated them in so boisterous and disrespectful, and yet
good-natured a way, as to cause them some uneasiness. Pike prepared to
smoke with them, and offered them some small presents, with which they
were quite dissatisfied; so that for some time the pipes “lay unmoved,
as if they were undetermined whether to treat us as friends or enemies;
but after some time we were presented with a kettle of water, drank,
smoked and ate together.” The Pawnees treated the presents given them
with more or less contempt, and some even threw them away.
“We began to load our horses, when they encircled us and commenced
stealing everything they could. Finding it was difficult to preserve
my pistols, I mounted my horse, when I found myself frequently
surrounded; during which some were endeavoring to steal the pistols.
The doctor was equally engaged in another quarter, and all the soldiers
in their positions, in taking things from them. One having stolen my
tomahawk, I informed the chief; but he paid no respect, except to
reply that ‘they were pitiful.’ Finding this, I determined to protect
ourselves, as far as was in my power, and the affair began to take
a serious aspect. I ordered my men to take their arms and separate
themselves from the savages; at the same time declaring to them that
I would kill the first man who touched our baggage. On which they
commenced filing off immediately; we marched about the same time, and
found they had made out to steal one sword, tomahawk, broad-ax, five
canteens, and sundry other small articles. After leaving them, when I
reflected on the subject, I felt myself sincerely mortified, that the
smallness of my number obliged me thus to submit to the insults of
lawless banditti, it being the first time a savage ever took anything
from me with the least appearance of force.”
It was near the end of November. Provisions were scarce; but on the
26th, Pike killed a “new species of deer”--a blacktail, or mule deer.
The real troubles of the expedition were beginning, for the weather
was growing cold, snow fell, and the water was freezing. The men who
had started from St. Louis in July, prepared for a summer excursion,
had worn out their shoes and clothing, and were half naked, in winter,
among the high mountains of the Rockies. Some of them froze their
feet. They made such foot gear as they could from the hide of the
buffalo, but many had used up their blankets, by cutting them to pieces
for socks, and had nothing with which to cover themselves at night, no
matter how cold the weather, or how deep the snow. Pike worked backward
and forward among the canyons, on streams at the head of the Arkansas,
and passed over the divide between that river and the head waters of
the South Platte, and then back on to the Arkansas, near what is now
called the Royal Gorge. Here he came on the site of an immense Indian
camp, occupied not long before, which had a large cross in the middle;
and which, though he then did not know it, was a big camp of Kiowas and
Comanches, with whom had been a white man, James Pursley. The party
was constantly suffering for food, and often went for days without
eating, and were almost without protection from the weather. Pike
never ceased his efforts to cross the mountains to the supposed head
of the Red River (the Canadian), which he had been ordered to find.
Deep though the snow might be, and bitter the cold, with his men and
himself equally hungry and equally frozen, passing through a country
almost impracticable for horses, where the animals themselves had to be
dragged along, and often unloaded and hauled up steep mountain sides,
he kept on. On some occasions the little party of sixteen were divided
into eight different expeditions, struggling not along the trail, but
to get over the mountains, on the one hand, and on the other, to
kill something which might give food to the party. Their guns now had
begun to fail them; a number burst; others were bent and broken by the
rough usage. Even Pike, who scarcely ever permits a word of complaint
to escape him, says, on January 5, after breaking his gun: “This was
my birthday, and most fervently did I hope never to pass another so
miserably.”
Matters had reached such a point that it was useless to attempt to drag
the horses any further. Pike determined to build a small block-house,
and leave there a part of his baggage, the horses, and two men; and
then, with the remainder of their possessions on their backs, to cross
the mountains on foot, find the Red River, and send back a party to
bring on the horses and baggage by some easy route. They started on
January 14, each carrying an average of seventy pounds, and marched
nearly south, following up the stream now known as Grape Creek. They
had not gone far before the men began to freeze their feet, and
were unable to travel. They had little or no food, but, at last,
Dr. Robinson, after two days’ hunting, during which they met with
constant misfortunes, managed to kill a buffalo, loads of which were
brought back to camp. Leaving two of the disabled men behind, with as
much provision as possible, promising to send relief to them as soon
as they could, Pike and the others pushed on, making their slow way
through the deep snow. They were soon again without food; and again
the doctor and Pike, who appear to have been by all odds the men of
the party, succeeded in killing a buffalo, and satisfying the hunger
of the company. It was on this day, January 24, that Pike heard the
first complaint. One of his men declared “that it was more than human
nature could bear, to march three days without sustenance, through
snows three feet deep, and carry a burden only fit for horses.” This
was very bitter to the leader, and he administered a rebuke, which,
though severe, was so eminently just and sympathetic as to increase the
devotion which his men must have felt for such a leader.
For a little time they had food, and the weather became more mild.
Now turning to the right, they crossed through the mountains, and
came within sight of a large river, flowing nearly north and south.
This, although the explorer did not know it, was the Rio Grande del
Norte. Travelling down toward this stream, they came to a large west
branch; and here Pike determined to build a fort, for a protection for
a portion of his party, while the remainder should be sent back to
bring on the men who had been left behind at different points. Deer
were plenty, and it seemed to be a spot where life could be supported.
Pike laid out a plan for his block-house, which was on the edge of the
river, and was surrounded by a moat, and a dirt rampart.
From this point Dr. Robinson set out alone for Santa Fé. The purpose
of his trip was to spy out the land, and to learn what he could with
regard to the Spanish government, and the opportunities for trade
there. In the year 1804, Mr. Morrison, a merchant of Kaskaskia, had
sent across the plains a creole of the country, one Baptiste La Lande,
with goods which he was to trade at Santa Fé. La Lande had never
returned, and it was believed that he had remained in Santa Fé, and
had appropriated to himself the property of his employer. When Pike
was about to start on his westward expedition, Mr. Morrison made over
to him his claim on La Lande, in the hope that some of his property
might be recovered, and this claim assigned to Robinson was the pretext
for his trip to Santa Fé. In other words: Robinson was, as Dr. Coues
remarked, a spy. It is true that Spain and the United States were not
then at war, but there was a more or less hostile feeling between the
two governments; or, if not between the two governments, at least
between the citizens of the two powers residing on the borders of the
respective territories. More than that, as already stated, the Aaron
Burr conspiracy--with which Pike was wholly unacquainted--was known to
the Spaniards, as was also Pike’s starting for the west. The Spanish
authorities unquestionably connected the two things, and were disposed
to look with great suspicion on any Americans who entered their
territory.
Dr. Robinson set out for Santa Fé on the 7th of February; and until
the 16th Pike was occupied in hunting, building his block-house,
reading, and studying. On the 16th, while hunting, he discovered two
horsemen not far from him. These, when he attempted to retreat, pursued
threateningly; but if he turned about to go toward them, they retired.
As he was doubtful where he was, and uncertain if the territory was
Spanish or American, he was unwilling to act on the aggressive; but
finally he lured the horsemen so close to him that they could hardly
get away, and after a little they explained their presence. It seemed
that four days before Robinson had reached Santa Fé, and that the
Governor had sent out these scouts to learn who the strangers were. The
next day they departed for Santa Fé, which they said they would reach
on the second day.
Within the next two or three days all the men he had left behind save
two--Dougherty and Sparks--had come in; and on February 19 Sergeant
Meek, with Miller, was ordered to go back to the point where they
had left the interpreter, Vasquez, with one man and the horses, to
bring them on, and on his way to pick up Dougherty and Sparks, who,
on account of their frozen feet, had been unable to walk. Pike pays
touching tribute to the heroism of his men, saying: “I must here
remark the effect of habit, discipline, and example, in two soldiers
soliciting a command of more than one hundred and eighty miles, over
two great ridges of mountains covered with snow, inhabited by bands of
unknown savages in the interest of a nation with which we were not on
the best understanding. To perform this journey, each had about ten
pounds of venison. Only let me ask, What would our soldiers generally
think on being ordered on such a tour thus equipped? Yet these men
volunteered it with others, and were chosen, for which they thought
themselves highly honored.”
On February 26 a detachment of Spaniards, consisting of two officers,
with fifty dragoons and fifty mounted militia, reached the post.
The sentry halted them at a distance of fifty yards, and Pike made
preparations for their reception. He insisted that the Spanish troops
should be left at some little distance from the fort, while he would
meet the officers on the prairie. This was done, and then he invited
the officers to enter the fort, where he offered them his hospitality.
It was then for the first time, Pike tells us, that he knew that the
stream on which he was camped was not the Red River, meaning the
Canadian, but was the Rio del Norte, which, though known by several
other names, is what we now call the Rio Grande, and now forms the
boundary line between Texas and Mexico. The officer in command stated
that the Governor of New Mexico had ordered him to offer Pike mules,
horses, money, or whatever he might need to conduct him to the head of
the Red River, and requested Pike to visit the Governor at Santa Fé.
Pike at first declined to go without his whole command, but after a
time was persuaded to go to Santa Fé, leaving two men in the post to
meet the Sergeant and his party, and to convey to them his orders to
come to Santa Fé.
Naturally Pike did not wish to resist this invitation, or to be put in
the position of committing hostilities on the foreign soil which he had
invaded, since his orders did not commit him to any such course. Having
made the error of entering the territory of another power, he thought
it better to explain matters, rather than to commit an act which might
involve his country in war. His compliance with the request of the
Spanish officer seemed to be received by them with great satisfaction;
but, he says, “it appeared to be different with my men, who wished to
have ‘a little dust,’ as they expressed themselves, and were likewise
fearful of treachery.” After making the necessary preparations, and
leaving orders for Sergeant Meek, Pike set out with the Spaniards to
their camp on the Rio del Norte, and thence to Santa Fé. His passage
through the country was an interesting one, and everywhere he was
treated with the greatest kindness and hospitality by the people. At
the pueblo of San Juan he met the man Baptiste La Lande, who professed
to be an American, and endeavored to learn from Pike something of his
journeying and his purpose; but Pike, suspecting his designs, and after
a little talk satisfying himself as to what they were, had the man shut
in a room, and threatened him with death if he did not confess his
perfidy. La Lande was greatly frightened, and declared that he had been
ordered by the Government to find out everything possible about Pike.
Not only did the common people treat Pike’s men with great kindness
and hospitality, but the priests and those of the better class were
courteous, cordial, and very much interested in the explorer.
Santa Fé was reached March 3. It then had a supposed population of
four thousand five hundred souls, most of whom, we may imagine, turned
out to see the Americans. Pike’s visit with the Governor was brief.
He denied that Robinson was attached to his party, excusing himself
to himself on the ground that Robinson was a volunteer, and could not
properly be said to be one of his command. The Governor’s reception was
haughty and unfriendly. Pike bore himself with great dignity and wasted
no words. At a later interview that day his papers were examined by
the Governor, and after they had been read his manner changed, and he
became much more cordial. Pike’s trunk was locked and the key given to
him, the trunk to be put in charge of an officer, who was instructed
to escort him to Chihuahua, where he was to appear before the
Commandant-General. That night he dined with the Governor, and received
from him money for the expenses of himself and men as far as Chihuahua.
The story of the march from Santa Fé to Chihuahua is interesting. Not
far from Albuquerque they met Dr. Robinson. He was hardly recognized by
Pike, for he was fat, sleek, and well looking, as different as possible
from that Robinson who had left the camp on the head waters of the Rio
del Norte, “pale, emaciated, with uncombed locks and beard of eight
months’ growth, but with fire, unsubdued enterprise, and fortitude.”
The party crossed the Rio Grande at El Paso del Norte, then a great
crossing-place for travellers north and south, and just over the river
from our present Texas town of El Paso, situated on one of the great
transcontinental railroads.
Chihuahua was reached April 2, and Pike immediately had an interview
with the Governor, who treated him with reasonable consideration.
Almost the whole month of April was passed here, and during this
time Pike was entertained by the people of the town, among whom, we
may infer, he was regarded partly in the light of a hero, and partly
in the light of a curiosity. On one occasion he was warned by the
Governor that he spoke too freely with regard to religion, government,
and other matters, to which he made a very free response, justifying
himself for whatever he had done. Pike left Chihuahua April 28. He had
become suspicious that there was danger that his private notes would
be taken from him, so he took his small note-books and concealed them
in the barrels of the guns of his men. It was now May, the weather
growing very warm and dry; and sometimes as they marched they suffered
from lack of water. Almost everywhere Pike continued to be received
with great kindness by the people, both in the towns and by the rich
haciendados, whose ranchos were passed in the country. He frequently
met men of English, Irish, and American birth, most of whom were kind
to him; and, on one occasion, conversed gladly with an American whom
he shortly afterward learned to be a deserter from the United States
Army. This made him very indignant, and he sent word to the proprietor
of the house where they were stopping that if this deserter appeared
at another meal all the Americans would decline to eat. His firmness
brought an apology from the host, who took steps that the deserter
should not again appear.
The month of June was spent in journeying through Texas, eastward,
to the borders of Louisiana. Pike speaks in the warmest terms of the
two Governors, Cordero and Herrara, whom he met at San Antonio. They,
and all the other Spaniards whom he met in Texas, were kind to him.
On the first of July the party reached Natchitoches about four P. M.
“Language cannot express the gayety of my heart when I once more beheld
the standard of my country waved aloft. ‘All hail!’ cried I, ‘the ever
sacred name of country, in which is embraced that of kindred, friends,
and every other tie which is dear to the soul of man!’”
It was in August, 1806, while he was on his way westward, on this
second expedition, that Pike was promoted to be a captain, and his
promotion to a majority followed soon after his return. With successive
promotions in 1809, he became lieutenant-colonel, and with the coming
of the war of 1812, Pike, now a colonel, was sent to guard the northern
frontier. He was appointed to be brigadier general March 12, 1813.
There was some fighting, but not much; but on April 27, 1813, while
leading an attack on Fort York--now Toronto--he was killed by the
explosion of the magazine, which the retreating enemy had fired. As an
eye-witness said: The Governor’s house, with some smaller buildings,
formed a square at the centre battery, and under it the grand magazine,
containing a large quantity of powder, was situated. As there were
only two or three guns at this battery, and it but a short distance
from the garrison, the troops did not remain in it, but retreated
to the latter. When the Americans, commanded by one of their best
generals, Pike, reached this small battery, instead of pressing
forward, they halted, and the general sat down on one of the guns; a
fatal proceeding, for, in a few minutes, his advance guard, consisting
of about three hundred men and himself, were blown into the air by the
explosion of the grand magazine.
“... I heard the report, and felt a tremendous motion in the earth,
resembling the shock of an earthquake; and, looking toward the spot, I
saw an immense cloud ascend into the air. I was not aware at the moment
what it had been occasioned by, but it had an awfully grand effect;
at first it was a great confused mass of smoke, timber, men, earth,
etc., but as it arose, in a most majestic manner, it assumed the shape
of a vast balloon. When the whole mass had ascended to a considerable
height, and the force by which the timber, etc., were impelled upwards
became spent, the latter fell from the cloud and spread over the
surrounding plain.”
Struck by a fragment of rock, Pike was mortally wounded. As he was
being taken on board the flagship “Madison,” he heard the cheering on
the shore. He asked what it meant, and was told that the Stars and
Stripes were being hoisted over the captured fort. A little later the
captured British flag was brought to him; he motioned to have it put
under his head, and soon after this had been done he died.
It is a melancholy commentary on the shortness of human fame that
to-day the number of Americans who know who Pike was is very small.
Few men have done more than he for their country. Few men in their
time have attracted more attention. Pike’s name has been given to
mountains, counties, cities, villages, and even to islands, rivers, and
bays; and while, as Dr. Coues suggests, it may well enough be that not
all these are named after Pike the explorer, yet we may be sure that
the enthusiasm of the people for Pike at the time of his death, and
for some time afterward, led to the giving his name to many natural
features of the land, and to many political divisions within the
States. After all, Pike’s most impressive and most enduring monument
must always remain the superb mountain which bears his name. If Pike
did not discover this, “the grim sentinel of the Rockies,” which towers
fourteen thousand one hundred and forty-seven feet above the sea, at
least he was one of the first Americans to see it. He calls it, fitly,
the Grand Peak. Nearly fourteen years later, during Major Long’s
expedition to the Rocky Mountains, it was named James Peak; but this
name, though often mentioned in books, did not long endure, and the
name Pike’s Peak, first used some time during the decade between 1830
and 1840--for example in Latrobe’s “Rambler in America”--is now firmly
established, and will ever remain the mountain’s designation.
The death of Pike at the early age of thirty-four, so soon after he
had attained the summit of his ambition, the rank of general and at
the moment when the force under his command had won a notable victory,
seems very pathetic; and yet, after all, may not this have been a
happy fate? For we cannot tell what sorrows and disappointments a
longer life might have brought to him. It seems almost as though he may
have had a premonition of the fate in store for him, since, in his last
letter to his father, written just before he set out on his expedition,
he writes as follows:
“I embark to-morrow in the fleet at Sackett’s Harbor, at the head
of a column of one thousand five hundred choice troops, on a secret
expedition. If success attends my steps, honor and glory await my name;
if defeat, still shall it be said we died like brave men, and conferred
honor, even in death, on the American name.
“Should I be the happy mortal destined to turn the scale of war, will
you not rejoice, O my father? May heaven be propitious, and smile on
the cause of my country. But if we are destined to fall, may my fall be
like Wolfe’s--to sleep in the arms of victory.”
It was so that Pike fell asleep.