Explorers and Travellers Part 9

The obtaining of information for the solution of these problems was intrusted, in the order named, to a young and promising officer of the regular army, Zebulon Montgomery Pike, then a first lieutenant and paymaster in the First regiment of Infantry. Pike was of military stock, as his father, Zebulon Pike, had served as a captain in the war of the Revolution, and even then a major of his son's regiment was destined to live to see that son fall as a general officer. The son, born at Lamberton, N. J., aspired early to military life, and from a cadet in the ranks rose through the grades regularly.

I. THE SOURCES OF THE MISSISSIPPI.

In 1805 the governor of Louisiana was James Wilkinson, a brigadier-general in, and commander-in-chief of, the army of the United States, who was then stationed at St. Louis. Pike appears to have been considered by Wilkinson as an officer well suited to obtain definite information about this vast territory, and consequently Lieutenant Pike, with twenty enlisted men, was furnished provisions for four months, and, under orders to visit the sources of the Mississippi, left St. Louis in a large flat-boat, at about the worst season of the year, on August 9, 1805.

The first experiences were not encouraging, for the crew, through inexperience or ill-luck, developed a faculty of picking up sawyers, or submerged trees, which on one occasion stove the boat so badly that, half-sinking, she was dragged with difficulty on a shoal where the baggage could be dried and the boat repaired.

[Ill.u.s.tration: General Z. M. Pike.]

Here and there along the river were seen small bands of Indians, and in due time the village of the Sacs was reached at the head of the Des Moines rapids. The Sac chiefs, a.s.sembled in council, were told that their great and new father had sent one of his young warriors to their nation, in the lately acquired territory of Louisiana, to inquire as to their wants, to give them good advice, to make peace, and to locate, according to their wishes and needs, trading establishments and posts.

The Indians answered acceptably, but appeared to appreciate the presents of knives, whiskey, and tobacco more than the speech. Vague rumors obtained as to the value and importance of the lead mine near, below Turkey River, but Mr. Dubuque, the proprietor, was too shrewd for the young officer, and to his inquiries said that information as to the grant, etc., was in St. Louis, that he made from ten to twenty tons of lead yearly, and gave equally indefinite answers to other questions. A journey of four weeks from St. Louis brought Pike to Prairie-du-Chien, then the only place settled by white men in the whole valley of the Mississippi above St. Louis. Originally occupied by three Frenchmen, Giard, Antaya, and Dubuque, in 1783, it was now a scattered settlement of thirty-seven houses, with about three hundred and seventy whites. The Wisconsin River, which here joins the Mississippi, was yet the great line of communication between the great lakes and the entire valley from St. Louis northward, all goods and furs pa.s.sing to and fro over the route first traced by Joliet in his adventurous voyage of discovery in 1673. At Prairie-du-Chien the Indians a.s.sembled each autumn for the annual trade or fair, and every spring the Indian traders here paused in their western journey before plunging into the savage wilderness. Both these occasions, it is needless to say, furnished frequent scenes of violence and dissipation.

Unable to get his large barge above the rapids at Prairie-du-Chien, Pike hired other boats above the falls and proceeded, his party augmented by an interpreter, Pierre Roseau, and Mr. Fraser, a trader who was going to the Falls of St. Anthony on business.

A short distance above Prairie-du-Chien, Pike had a council with the Sioux, who evidently were recovering from a feast, and here he saw a religious puff dance, "the performance of which was attended with many curious manoeuvres. Men and women danced indiscriminately. They were all dressed in the gayest manner; all had in their hands a small skin of some description, and would frequently run up, point their skin, and give a puff with their breath; when the person blown at, whether man or woman, would fall and appear to be almost lifeless, or in great agony; but would recover slowly, rise, and join in the dance. This they called their great medicine."

Tobacco, knives, vermilion, and whiskey cemented the good feeling, the eight gallons of whiskey being more show than reality; for it appears from the context to have been three-fourths water, and probably was of the kind which Pike elsewhere called "made whiskey."

The uncertain weather of Lake Pepin nearly shipwrecked the boats, which reached the Sioux village at the junction of the Mississippi and St.

Peters, or Minnesota, on September 11th. Here a council was held with the Sioux, wherein two of the chiefs formally signed away a square league of land at the Falls of St. Anthony. The true value of their signatures may be estimated from Pike's letter to General Wilkinson, wherein he says: "I had to fee privately two (doubtless the signers) of the chiefs, and besides that, to make them presents at the council." In addition to the transfer of land Pike pledged to have a trading post established there, and urged that the Sioux maintain peaceful relations with the Chippeways.

It is somewhat amusing to read Pike's address, where in one breath he states that rum "occasions quarrels, murders, etc., among yourselves.

For this reason your father has thought proper to prohibit the traders from selling you any rum;" and then accepting the situation, adds, "before my departure I will give you some liquor to clear your throats."

There were two hundred and fifty warriors present, and it appears to have taken sixty gallons of liquor to effect the clearing operation, while peace with the Chippeways a.s.sumed an indefinite phase.

The Falls of St. Anthony were pa.s.sed by land portage. These being the first boats to make the portage, as Pike claims, it was with no small feeling of relief that he saw his boats in the upper river, loaded for the journey, on September 30th. His condition was at the best discouraging, for as he says, "I had not accomplished more than half my route; winter fast approaching; war existing between the most savage nations in the course of my route; my provisions greatly diminished, and but a poor prospect of an additional supply. Many of my men sick, and the others not a little disheartened; our success in this arduous undertaking very doubtful, and about to launch into an unknown wilderness."

Rapids and shoals impeded progress somewhat, but the 10th of October brought them to an island where the interpreter had wintered with another Frenchman in 1797. Pike made every exertion to hasten, for he was very desirous of reaching Crow-wing River, the highest point ever attained by trappers in birch canoes. The bad weather, snow, injury to his boats, and the breaking down of several of his men, combined to render further advance impossible, and on October 16th he fixed his winter quarters at the mouth of Pine River, 233 miles above the Falls of St. Anthony. Pike's intentions were far from pa.s.sing the winter himself in a wretched cantonment, for his was a nature foreign to such isolation and inactivity as the place promised.

Elsewhere he adds: "It appears to me that the wealth of nations would not induce me to remain secluded from the society of civilized mankind, surrounded by a savage and unproductive wilderness, without books or other sources of intellectual enjoyment, or being blessed with the cultivated and feeling mind of the civilized fair."

Huts were built, canoes made, game obtained, all with great difficulty and hardship, for every burden fell on Pike, without the aid of a doctor or a.s.sistant as his second in command. In a game country, and under conditions where his insufficient food-supply must be eked out by the rifle, he was such an indifferent hunter that he did the maximum of work with the minimum of result. Unskilled in canoe-making and management, he succeeded in building three canoes, of which one sank, wetting and injuring his supply of ammunition, with the result that finally he blew up his tent in drying out the powder.

Occasionally small hunting parties of Sioux or of Menominees came to the camp, and on December 3d Mr. d.i.c.kson, who had a trading post sixty miles to the south, visited Pike and cheered him up. d.i.c.kson possessed much geographical information about the western country, and in addition to useful directions as to the best route for Pike to follow, expressed his confidence in its fullest success.

It would seem doubtful if the men shared the enthusiasm for a mid-winter trip through an unknown country filled with savages and where game must form a considerable part of their food. At all events, they managed to split a canoe which their commander relied on for the journey. Pike was dissatisfied, but not discouraged, and on December 10th started northward with eleven men, a boat, and five sleds.

At the stockade there were nine men under Sergeant Kennerman, who was given detailed written instructions as to his duties. Mindful of the possible dangers to his own party, Pike also gave orders as to the course to be pursued if his own party did not return to the cantonment by a given date the following spring.

A boat was taken along, which the freezing river soon obliged Pike to abandon and intrust to a young Indian for the winter. The journey was practically made by common sleds, dragged by men harnessed up two abreast. Often the sleds broke down, making necessary frequent changes and portages of the baggage, but they were greatly encouraged by camping at Crow-wing River, the farthest point ever reached by canoe.

In early January they ran across four Chippeway Indians, the tribe from which hostility was possible. Their anxiety was speedily relieved by finding that they were companions of Mr. Grant, a trader from the post on Sandy Lake. Grant turned back with them, and they reached the trading-post on Red Cedar Lake on January 3, 1806. Pike's satisfaction at seeing a house once more was tinctured with chagrin at finding it surmounted by a British flag. Here he tarried only a few hours and then pushed on to Sandy Lake, where he was later joined by his men, who were delayed by their heavy sleds. He was much surprised at the air of comfort at Sandy Lake, where potatoes were grown in great quant.i.ties, fish and game abundant, while the Indians furnished in trade maple-sugar, wild oats, and rice. The Sandy Lake trading-post had been established in 1794, and might be considered the headquarters of the Fond-du-Lac department, in which, in 1805, there were one hundred and nine employees, with fifty children and twenty-nine women, who were all Indian or half-breed, there not being at that time a single white woman northwest of Lake Superior.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Indian Snow-shoes.]

Pike's discerning mind noted that his methods of travel were inferior to those followed in the country, so he built sleds after the Hudson Bay pattern, adopted the racket or snow-shoe for the winter march, and hired local Indian guides. Grant, the trader, accompanied him to Leech Lake, which Pike believed to be the main source of the Mississippi, but he could not consider it as an original discovery, as the ubiquitous Northwest Company had an establishment on this lake, under Hugh McGillis, in 47 16' N. lat.i.tude, about twenty miles east of Lake Itasca, the true source of the Mississippi. On February 14th Pike visited Red Lake and pa.s.sed to the north, which carried him to the drainage-basin of the Red River, in lat.i.tude 47 43' N. Evidently familiar with Carver's travels, he fell into the not unreasonable error of thinking this land "to be the most elevated part of the northeast continent of America," whereas the head of the Minnesota is some four hundred feet higher.

Pike held a council with the Chippeways at Leech Lake on February 14th, when he persuaded the chiefs to give up their British flags and medals, to promise peace with the Sioux, and to send two of their young chiefs with him to St. Louis.

As to the trading establishments, he generously refrained from seizing the goods, but hauled down the British flag; required the agents of the Northwest Company to promise to issue no more flags or medals to Indians, to have no political dealings with them, but to refer them to agents of the United States; to obtain licenses for Indian trade from and pay duty to the United States for all imported goods.

On February 14th he turned his face toward home, his mind free from anxiety, though he knew the hard marches, extreme cold, and many hardships before him. He now wore snow-shoes, but on one long march the pressure of his racket-strings brought the blood through his socks and moccasins, yet he marched on, keeping pace with his guide despite the excruciating pain.

March 5th found Pike back in his stockade at Pine River, his adoption of local methods having facilitated travel to such an extent that in his return he nearly tripled the length of his outward marches. He found the garrison well and safe, but was greatly disturbed to find that his trusted sergeant, Kennerman, had indulged in riotous and extravagant living, having drank up, eaten, given away, or traded off the best of the food and the greater part of the liquor. The natural sequence of such conduct appeared in an escapade where the sentinel made a Sioux Indian drunk and then ordered him out of the tent, when the intoxicated savage fired on the sentinel, fortunately without harm. On his return he was fortunate enough, in a Menominee camp near the stockade, to see a dance, called the feast of the dead, at which "every three were served with a panful of meat, and when all were ready there was a prayer, after which the eating commenced. It was expected we would eat up our portion entirely, being careful not to drop a bone. We were then treated with soup. After the eating was finished the chief again gave an exhortation, which finished the ceremony. They gather up the fragments and threw them in the water, lest the dogs should get them. Burning them is considered sacreligious."

Leaving his cantonment at Pine River, by boat, on April 7th he descended the Mississippi without any strikingly new experiences, and on the last day of the month drew up his boat at St. Louis, with undiminished numbers, after an absence of nearly nine months.

Pike had more than carried out his orders to explore the sources of the great river, and did something more than give to the world the first definite and detailed information as to the upper river and its tributaries. He discovered the extent and importance of the British trade in that country, brought the foreign traders under the license and customs regulations of the United States, and broke up for all time their political influence over the Indians. He did much to restrain the unlawful sale of liquor to Indians by domestic traders, and not only inspired the Indians with respect for Americans, but also induced them to at least a temporary peace between themselves. He replaced a foreign flag by the ensign of his own country, and for the first time brought into this great territory the semblance of national authority and government.

II. THE UPPER ARKANSAS RIVER AND NEW SPAIN.

Pike returned to find his services in demand for a second expedition to the head-waters of the Arkansas and Red rivers. The original arrangements contemplated the detail of another officer, but Pike, at the solicitation of General Wilkinson, consented to take command of the party, commenced his preparations at once, and received his formal orders on June 24, 1806, less than two months after his return from the north. In accepting this long and dangerous service, he indicates clearly the soldierly sense of duty which actuated him. "The late dangers and hardships I had undergone, together with the idea of again leaving my family in a strange country, distant from their connections, made me hesitate; but the ambition of a soldier and the spirit of enterprise which was inherent in my breast induced me to agree."

The primary object of the expedition, according to the letter of instructions, was to conduct to Grand Osage a deputation of freed captives of the Osage Nation, while the subordinate purposes were the accomplishment of a permanent peace between the Kaws and Osages and the establishment of a good understanding with the Comanches, which latter object, the letter runs, "will probably lead you to the head branches of the Arkansas and Red rivers, approximated to the settlements of New Mexico, and there you should move with great circ.u.mspection, to keep clear of any reconnoitring parties from that province, and to prevent alarm or offence. The executive," it was added, "is much interested in ascertaining the direction, extent, and navigation of the Arkansas and Red rivers," which Pike was charged to determine by sending one party down the Arkansas, while he should return by the Red.

The written instructions were doubtless supplemented by verbal orders, for Pike says: "The great objects in view (as I conceived) were to attach the Indians to our Government and to acquire such geographical knowledge of the south-western boundary of Louisiana as to enable our Government to enter into a definite arrangement for a line of demarcation between that territory and North Mexico."

Captain Pike's[1] force consisted of two officers, an interpreter, and nineteen men of the army. The officers were Lieutenant James B.

Wilkinson, son of and aide-de-camp to General Wilkinson, and Doctor John H. Robinson, the latter a volunteer without pay. The party, with fifty-one Osage Indians, left Belle Fontaine, July 15, 1806, and travelling by boat up the Missouri and Osage rivers reached Grand Osage, near the head of the river, August 18th, thus accomplishing the "primary object."

Pike found no difficulty in obtaining an audience for speeches, though he was somewhat dismayed at the presence of one hundred and eighty-six warriors at an a.s.sembly, to all of whom he was obliged to give liquor.

It was quite different when men and horses were wanted, and it was with the utmost endeavor that he was able to start westward on September 1st, with fifteen horses for his baggage, accompanied by only three p.a.w.nees and four Osages.

Crossing the Grand and Verdigris he pa.s.sed through a beautiful country with abundant game, but the Indians became restless, and despite his presents and persuasions, only three accompanied him to the p.a.w.nee village on the Republican fork of the Kansas.

The information here obtained and the stand taken by the p.a.w.nee chief would have deterred a less courageous and determined man than Pike from pushing beyond. A large Spanish force, some six hundred men, had a few days before visited the p.a.w.nees, when they had turned back on a.s.surances from the chief that he would turn back any American force.

It appears that foreign emissaries at St. Louis had sent word to the authorities of New Spain of Pike's contemplated expedition, and steps were immediately taken to defeat its objects. The command of the Spanish force was a.s.signed to Lieutenant Don Facundo Malgares, an officer of reputation in Indian warfare, who collected one hundred dragoons and five hundred militia at Santa Fe, N. M. Each man was mounted, had three led animals and six months' supply of ammunition. First they descended the Red River about seven hundred miles, with the expectation of meeting and turning back Pike, but learned that no force had pa.s.sed that way.

The Spanish commander, after holding a council with the Comanches for the purpose of winning them over to the interests of New Spain, then turned north to the Arkansas. Here Malgares put in camp two hundred and forty of his men, with the worn-out and disabled stock, and with the rest proceeded to the p.a.w.nee village, where he distributed medals, Spanish flags, etc., and after prejudicing them against Americans and drawing the p.a.w.nee chiefs as closely to Spain as possible returned to Santa Fe, arriving there in October. This armed invasion of the acknowledged territory of the United States and deliberate tampering with the Indian tribes probably arose from the strained relations between the two countries, which nearly resulted in hostilities on the frontiers of Texas and Orleans territory in 1806, when the local forces tacitly agreed to regard the Sabine River as the temporary boundary.

Pike first made the Osage and Kaws smoke the pipe of peace and then held a council with the p.a.w.nees. These latter Indians, strongly impressed by the grand show made by the Spanish cavalry, regarded with doubt the small force of Americans. What Pike lacked in numbers and display, he made up in boldness of demands and in display of self-confidence. He obliged them to take down the Spanish flag and hoist the American ensign, but gave them permission to retain the foreign flag for protection if the Spaniards should return.

The chief, however, insisted that the Americans must turn back, and said that he would resist any advance by force of arms. Captain Pike, already indignant at the unauthorized raid of the Spaniards into the territory of the United States, listened with impatience to this threat, and answered that so far he had not seen any blood on his path, but the p.a.w.nees must know that the young warriors of their great American father were not women, to be turned back by words; that they were men, well armed and prepared as braves to sell their lives dearly; that they should go on, and if the p.a.w.nees opposed, the great American father would send other warriors to avenge the dead. This bold talk had its effect, and the onward march met with no active opposition.

Striking southwest, and following as well as he could the broad trail left by the Spaniards, Pike reached Arkansas, where he stopped long enough to build canoes, in which Lieutenant Wilkinson with five soldiers and two Osages descended the river. This officer reached the post of Arkansas on January 6, 1807, after a journey marked by many hardships, but no great dangers.

Captain Pike and Doctor Robinson pursued their route up the Arkansas with the party, now reduced to fourteen soldiers and the interpreter, Vasquez. On the 2d of November, they fell in with a large herd of wild horses, beautiful bays, blacks, and grays, whom they were unable to capture even with their fleetest coursers. Here also the buffalo were present in numbers beyond imagination, as Pike thought.

The 15th of November was a marked day, for Pike records that "at two o'clock in the afternoon I thought I could distinguish a mountain to our right, which appeared like a small blue cloud.... In half an hour they appeared in full view before us. When our small party arrived on the hill they with one accord gave three cheers to the Mexican mountains."

The peak, first seen by Pike, remained in view from that day to the 27th of January, and in eternal commemoration of the hardships and dangers of the discoverer in that journey fittingly bears in our day the name of Pike's Peak.

Here they first strikingly realized the transparency and purity of the mountain air, which to the eye quite annihilates distance. He writes: "Marched at our usual hour, pushed with an idea of arriving at the mountains, but found at night no visible difference in their appearance from what we did yesterday." It may be added that eight days' march brought the party only to the base of the mountains.

On November 22d he fell in with an unsuccessful war-party, composed of sixty p.a.w.nees, returning from a foray on the Comanches. The savages at first acted in a friendly manner, but receiving some small presents, demanded ammunition, corn, blankets, kettles, and indeed everything they saw. Being refused they threw away in contempt the articles given. Pike ordered the horses packed, when the p.a.w.nees encircled the small party and commenced stealing everything they could, when Pike commanded his men to stand to arms, and to separate themselves from the savages. This done an order was given to kill the first Indian who touched any piece of baggage, when the p.a.w.nees, realizing that further misconduct meant fight, filed off and allowed them to depart.

The party was now at the present city of Las Animas, where the Arkansas forks, and as the Spanish troops followed the main stream instead of the Purgatory, Pike took the same route. At the Herfuano he decided to put the main party in camp while he explored the surrounding country, so he threw up a small breastwork, opening on the river, somewhat to the east of the present city of Pueblo. Starting to ascend the north fork (the main Arkansas) to the high point of a blue mountain, which he conceived would be one day's march, it took two days to reach the base and more than another day to reach its summit. He records that his men had no stockings, were clad only in light summer overalls, in every way unprovided for the inclement surroundings, the snow to their hips, the temperature nine degrees below freezing, while in forty-eight hours the four men had for food only one partridge and a piece of deer's rib, but adds that they were amply compensated for their toil and hardships by the sublimity of the view--an unbounded prairie overhung with clouds.