18 ORIGIN OF THE 



tlements of New Mexico, he set out in compa- 

 ny with a party of these savages, and descend- 

 ed, in 1805, to Santa Fe, where he remained 

 for several years — ^perhaps tUl his death. It 

 does not appear, howevei", that he took with 

 him any considerable amount of merchandise. 

 Although Captain Pike speaks of Pursley 

 as the first American that ever crossed the de- 

 sert plains into the Spanish provinces, it is 

 nevertheless related by the same writer, that, 

 in consequence of uiformation obtained by the 

 trappers, through the Indians, relative to this 

 isolated provmce, a merchant of Kaskaskia, 

 named Morrison, had aheady dispatched, as 

 early as 1804, a French Creole, by the name of 

 La Lande, up Platte river, with directions to 

 pu.sh his way into Santa Fe, if the passage was 

 at all practicable. The ingenious emissary 

 was perfectly successful in Ms enterprise ; but 

 the land and generous treatment of the na- 

 tives overcame at once his patriotism and liis 

 probity. He neither returned to his employer 

 nor accounted for the proceeds of his adven- 

 ture. His expansive intellect readily conceiv- 

 ed the advantages of setting up in business 

 for himself upon this 'borrowed' capital; 

 which he accordmgly did, and remained there' 

 not only unmolested, but honored and es- 

 teemed till his death, which occurred some 

 fifteen or twenty years afterward — leaving a 

 large family, and sufficient property to entitle 



liim to tlie fame of rico among his neigh- 

 bors. 



■; The Santa Fe trade attracted very httle no- 



