SANTA FE TEADE 19 



tice, hoAvever, until the return of Captain 

 Pike,* whose exciting descriptions of the new 

 El Dorado spread hke wildfire tlirougliout the 

 western country. Li 1812, an expedition was 

 fitted out under tlie auspices of Messrs. Mc- 

 Knight, Beard, Chambers, and several others 

 (in all about a dozen), who, following the di- 

 rections of Captain Pike across the dreary 

 western wilds, finally succeeded m reaching 



* This celebrated officer, who was afterwards promoted to the 

 rank of General, and died in the achievement of the glorious vic- 

 tory at York, Upper Canada, in 1813, was sent, in 1806, on an 

 exploring expedition up the Arkansas, with instructions to pass 

 to the sources of Red River, for which those of the Canadian were 

 then mistaken. Captain Pike, however, even passed aroupd the 

 head of the latter; and, crossing the mountain with an almost in- 

 credible degree of peril and suffering, he descended upon the Rio del 

 Norte with his little party, then hut fifteen in number. Believing 

 himself now upon Red River, Avithin the then assumed bounds oi 

 the United States, he erected a small fortification for his company, 

 till the opening of the spring of 1807 should enable him to continue 

 his descent to Natchitoches. As he was within the lilexican ter- 

 ritorj'» however, and but sixty to eighty miles from the noilhern 

 settlements, his position was soon discovered, and a force sent out 

 to take him into Santa Fe, which, by a treacherous manoeuvre, 

 was effected without opposition. The Spanish officer assured him 

 that the Governor, learning he had missed his way, had sent animals 

 and an escort to convey his men and baggage to a navigable point 

 on Red River (Rio Colorado), and that his Excellency desired very 

 much to see him at Santa Fe, Avhich might be taken on their way. 

 As soon, however, as the Governor had Captain Pike in his power, 

 he sent him with his men to the Commandant General at Chihua- 

 hua, where most of his papers were seized, and he and his party 



were bent under an escort, via San Antonio de Bexar, to the United 

 States. 



The narrative of Captain Pike gives a full account of this expe- 

 dition, both previous and subsequent to its interruption by the Spa- 

 niards ; but as this work is now rarely met with, the foregoing note 

 may not be deemed altogether superero,2:atory. JVIany will believe 

 and assert to the present day, however, that this expedition had some 

 connectioi. with the famous project of Aaron Burr ; yet the noble 

 anil patriotic character of the officer who conducted it will not 



permit us to countenance such an aspersion. 



