COMMERCE OF THE PRAIRIES. 



CHAPTER I. 



Origia and progressive Development of the Santa Fe Trade 

 Captain Pike's Narrative — Parsley — La Lande — Expedi- 

 tion of McKnight and others — Glenn— Becknell — Cooper 

 — Sutferings of Captain Becknell and his Companions 

 First Introduction of wheeled Vehicles — Colonel Marma- 

 diike — Hostility of the Indians— Recriminations — Indian 

 Ethics — Increase of Outrages — Major Riley's Escort — An- 

 noyed by the Indians — Government Protection — Composi- 

 tion of a Caravan. 



The overland trade between the United 

 States and the northern provinces of Mexico, 

 seems to have had no very definite origin ; 

 having been rather the result of accident 

 than of any organized plan of commercial 

 estabUshment. For a number of years its 

 importance attracted no attention whatever. 

 From Captain Pike's narrative we learn, 

 tliat one James Pursley, after much wandering 

 over the wild and then unexplored regions 

 west of the Mssissippi, finally fell in with 

 some Indians on the Platte river, near its 

 source in the Eocky Mountains ; and obtain- 

 ing information from them respecting the set- 



2* , 



