Chapter II: Foreword

This story takes the adventure trail of that young soldier-explorer Zebulon Montgomery Pike, who was lost in the mountains of southern Colorado one hundred years ago. Another story in the Trail Blazers Series has told of Captains Lewis and Clark, who explored the northwestern part of the new Louisiana Territory. They, also, were young. Captain Lewis had just turned thirty. But Lieutenant and Captain Zebulon Pike was younger yet. He was only twenty-seven when, while Lewis and Clark were still out, he was sent to lead a handful of men into the unknown Southwest.

The vast Province of Louisiana, bought by the United States from France three years before, for $15,000,000, was thought by the United States to extend, in the north, from the Mississippi River to the Rocky Mountains; in the south it tapered off to the Gulf of Mexico at New Orleans.

The southwestern boundary was uncertain. The United States claimed clear to the lower Rio Grande River, across Texas; Spain, which had owned Louisiana Territory before the United States bought it from France, claimed north even to the Missouri River. Some said that the Arkansas River of southern Colorado should be the boundary, there; some said the Red River, further south――which was confused with the Canadian River. And when Lieutenant Pike was started out, the United States soldiers and the Spanish soldiers of Mexico faced each other across the Sabine River of the western border of Louisiana State.

So the trail of young Pike and his handful of men pointed into a debated land. If the Indians did not get them, the Spanish might. He had been instructed not to offend the Spanish, and to keep away from their settlements of New Mexico; but he was resolved to stand his ground when he deemed that he was in the right, and to defend the Flag. The Spanish had sent six hundred soldiers, with over two thousand horses and mules, to look for him. He would certainly have fought them all, with his twenty men, had they tried to stop him anywhere outside of New Mexico.

No braver soldiers ever marched than Lieutenant Pike and his little platoon. They lost their way; they struggled with cold below zero and snow to their waists, in the bleak high mountains. They had left home with only summer clothing; they were ragged and lean, and their feet froze until the bones came out. They went days at a time without food. And they were utterly lost, in a winter country; alone, one thousand miles from home.

But only once did a single man complain aloud. Their wonderful leader sternly silenced him, by reminding him that they all were sharing and suffering alike.

When their lieutenant had been gone from them two days, seeking meat to relieve a famine, at his return he writes in his journal: “On the countenances of the men was not a frown, nor was there a desponding eye; all seemed happy to hail their officer and companions; yet not a mouthful had they eaten for four days.” Indeed, they were planning to send out and rescue _him_.

It was this same spirit which made the American soldiers in France press forward, ever forward, and yield not an inch of ground.

Lieutenant Pike was an officer to love as well as to respect. He asked no favors; only obedience, and willingness to endure what he had to endure. He never spared himself. While others might stay in camp, he it was that went out into the cold and snow, hunting for meat. He made it plain that his honor, his country and his duty were more to him than his life. These were the three ideals that inspired him to go on when he might have been excused for camping in safety and giving up his search for the Red River.

The name of Pike lives in history. We have a famous mountain named for him, and we know that he died――“killed in action”――as a brigadier-general, aged thirty-four. The names of his brave men have vanished. What became of John Sparks, Pat Smith, Jacob Carter, and the rest, we do not know. We do not know that the Government even rescued from the Spaniards those whom their lieutenant had been obliged to leave. We do not know that any of them received gifts of land and extra pay, such as the Lewis and Clark men received. But heroes they were, every one, who did not fail their leader nor their flag.

So their company roll is printed in this book, that they also may live again.

THE AUTHOR

CONTENTS

CHAPTER PAGE
I. THE COMING OF THE SPANIARDS 19
II. THE COMING OF THE AMERICANS 36
III. THE PAWNEES ARE OF TWO MINDS 52
IV. ON THE TRAIL OF THE SPANIARDS 70
V. THE CHASE OF THE BIG ELK 85
VI. LIEUTENANT WILKINSON SAYS GOOD-BY 99
VII. “THE MOUNTAINS! THE MOUNTAINS!” 112
VIII. BAD HEARTS IN THE WAY 127
IX. A TRY AT THE “GRAND PEAK” 139
X. ONWARD INTO WINTER 156
XI. SEEKING THE LOST RIVER 167
XII. IS IT FOUND AT LAST? 176
XIII. MEAT FOR THE CAMP 187
XIV. A TRAIL OF SURPRISES 200
XV. NOT YET DEFEATED 225
XVI. BLOCKED BY THE GREAT WHITE MOUNTAINS 237
XVII. THE FORT IN THE WILDERNESS 250
XVIII. VISITORS FROM THE SOUTH 261
XIX. IN THE HANDS OF THE SPANIARDS 275
XX. STUB REACHES END O’ TRAIL 289
XXI. GOOD-BY TO LIEUTENANT PIKE 306

ILLUSTRATIONS

PAGE

“It’s the Wrong Peak, Men――Yes, the Wrong Peak”
_Frontispiece_

Lieutenant Zebulon Montgomery Pike 15

“I Bring You the American Flag” 55

Whang! It Buried Itself Almost Out of Sight Behind the
Elk Chief’s Ribs 97

But Stub Never Felt the Final Crash 203

“In My Proper Character, Sir: An Officer of the United
States Army” 298

MAP

The Trail of Lieutenant Pike 19

From the First Edition of His “Expeditions” Philadelphia, 1810]

BRIGADIER-GENERAL ZEBULON MONTGOMERY PIKE

A noble young American soldier and explorer, whose guiding purpose was: Honor, Country, Duty.

Born January 5, 1779, at Lamberton, near Trenton, New Jersey.

His father was Captain Zebulon Pike, of the Fourth Continental Dragoons, in the War of the Revolution; later major in the Third and the First Regiments of Infantry, U. S. A., and brevet lieutenant-colonel.

The boy Zebulon was brought up as a soldier.

At fifteen he was a cadet in his father’s infantry regiment of the United States Third Sub-Legion.

At twenty, or in March, 1799, he was commissioned second lieutenant in the Second Regiment of Infantry, U. S. A.

Commissioned first lieutenant, November, the same year.

Transferred to the First Infantry, of which his father was major, in April, 1802. In this regiment Meriwether Lewis, of the famous Lewis and Clark expedition to the mouth of the Columbia River, was then a captain.

At the age of twenty-six, while Captains Lewis and Clark are exploring through the far northwest of the new Louisiana Territory purchase, he receives orders, July 30, 1805, from General James Wilkinson, Chief of the Army, to ascend the Mississippi River from St. Louis to its source. He is to report upon the country, the Indians and the fur trade of this, the eastern border of Upper Louisiana.

Starts from St. Louis, August 9, 1805, with twenty enlisted men of the regular army, in a keel-boat seventy feet long, provisioned for four months. Suffers many hardships by storm, cold and hunger, but returns successful on the last day of April, 1806, after an absence of almost nine months.

In less than two months, or on June 24, 1806, he is directed to ascend the Missouri and Osage Rivers, and restore forty-six Osage Indians, rescued by the Government from the Potawatomi Indians, to their people of the Osage towns in western Missouri. He is to make peace, by order of their American father, between the Osage and the Kansas nations. He is then to continue to the Pawnees of present northern Kansas, and ask them to help him on to make peace with the Comanches in the southwest on the borders of New Mexico. While with the Comanches he is to explore the head-waters of the Arkansas and Red (Canadian) Rivers, but he must avoid trespassing upon the Spanish territory of New Mexico. Spanish territory is supposed to extend south from the Red River, although the Spanish claim that it extends much farther north, even through Kansas.

Again he leaves his family, and embarks, July 15, 1806, with First Lieutenant James B. Wilkinson, First Infantry, the son of General Wilkinson; Civilian Surgeon John H. Robinson, an interpreter, and eighteen enlisted men, in two boats. The majority of the enlisted men had been with him up the Mississippi.

He visits the Osages, who welcome the return of their relatives, and agree to peace with the Kansas. The Pawnees try to stop him, by order of the Spanish, but he defies them. He fails to find the Comanches. His march by horse and foot takes him along the Arkansas River clear to the Rocky Mountains, where he sights the great Pike’s Peak (later named for him) of Colorado, and attempts to climb it. Searching for the head of the Red River, that he may follow down to the military posts of the United States frontier, he loses his way completely. In the bitter cold and deep snows of a terrible winter he crosses the front range of the Rockies, and builds a stockade upon a stream of the Upper Rio Grande River in the lower end of the San Luis Valley, southern Colorado.

Here in mid-winter Spanish soldiers from Santa Fé come upon him and inform him that he is in Spanish territory. They take him down to Santa Fé, the capital of the Province of New Mexico. He is sent on down to the military headquarters at Chihuahua, Mexico. From there he is sent to the United States, and arrives at the American post of Natchitoches, western Louisiana, on July 1, 1807, after travels of a year.

As the first Government explorer through far southwestern Louisiana Territory he brings back much valuable information upon the country and Indians, and upon the people, military forces and customs of Mexico. Captains Lewis and Clark have brought back also their information upon the far Northwest.

Meanwhile, as a reward for his services, he had been promoted to captain, August 12, 1806.

Commissioned major, in the Sixth U. S. Infantry, May, 1808.

Commissioned lieutenant-colonel, Fourth U. S. Infantry, December, 1809.

Commissioned colonel, Fifteenth U. S. Infantry, July, 1812.

Appointed brigadier-general, adjutant-general and inspector-general, U. S. A., March, 1813.

Killed in action, April 27, 1813, while commanding the assault by the American troops upon York, at Toronto, Canada. The retreating British garrison blew up a powder magazine, and a fragment of rock crushed his back. He died wrapped in the Flag, amidst victory, at the age of only thirty-four.

THE PIKE PARTIES

UP THE MISSISSIPPI (1805–1806)

First Lieutenant Zebulon M. Pike, Commanding

Pierre Rousseau, Interpreter

Sergeant Henry Kennerman (reduced to the ranks)

Corporals
Samuel Bradley
William E. Meek

_Privates_
Jeremiah Jackson
John Boley
Thomas Dougherty
Solomon Huddleston
Theodore Miller
Alexander Roy
Patrick Smith
John Brown
Jacob Carter
David Whelply
William Gordon
John Mountjoy
Hugh Menaugh
John Sparks
Freegift Stout
David Owings
Peter Branden

INTO THE SOUTHWEST (1806–1807)

First Lieutenant (and Captain) Zebulon M. Pike, Commanding

First Lieutenant James B. Wilkinson (descended the Arkansas
River)

Civilian Volunteer, Doctor John H. Robinson (went through)

Baroney Vasquez, Interpreter (went through)

Sergeants
Joseph Ballenger (accompanied Lieutenant Wilkinson)
William E. Meek (went through)

Corporal Jeremiah Jackson (went through)
Private John Brown (went through)
Private Jacob Carter (went through)
Private Thomas Dougherty (went through)
Private William Gordon (went through)
Private Theodore Miller (went through)
Private Hugh Menaugh (went through)
Private John Mountjoy (went through)
Private Alexander Roy (went through)
Private John Sparks (went through)
Private Patrick Smith (went through)
Private Freegift Stout (went through)
Private John Boley (accompanied Lieutenant Wilkinson)
Private Samuel Bradley (accompanied Lieutenant Wilkinson)
Private Solomon Huddleston (accompanied Lieutenant Wilkinson)
Private John Wilson (accompanied Lieutenant Wilkinson)
Private Henry Kennerman (deserted)

LOST WITH LIEUTENANT PIKE