IIo 
their boats into Lake Pepin for shelter from 
a gale. Pike’s entry for September 17 is 
suggestive: 
‘‘ Although there was every appearance of 
a very severe storm we embarked at half- 
past six o’clock, the wind fair; before we 
had hoisted all sail those in front had 
struck theirs. ‘The wind came hard ahead. 
The sky became inflamed and the lightning 
seemed to roll down the sides of the hills, 
which bordered the shore of the lake. The 
storm in all its grandeur, majesty and hor- 
ror burst upon us in the Traverse, while 
making for Point De Sable, and it required 
no moderate exertion to weather the point 
and get to the windward side of it. Dis- 
tance three miles.” 
On September 21 the party reached the 
present site of St. Paul, where Pike had a 
big conference with the Sioux, who made 
a grant of 100,000 acres for a military post. 
In return they were given presents valued 
at $200. 
Above the Falls of St. Anthony the party 
found it hard traveling, being obliged to 
carry the boats over portages, force them off 
shoals and drag them through rapids. 
Wild game was plentiful and they had a 
good deal of sport hunting. ‘‘Killed three 
geese and two swans,” he writes October 2. 
They often shot wild ducks, grouse and 
prairie chickens. Big game, too, was abun- 
dant—deer, elk, bear and buffalo. 
Winter was now upon them—zero 
weather and snow in October. A number 
of the men were sick and Pike decided to 
build a stockade for winter quarters. They 
had now proceeded about 111 miles above 
the Falls of St. Anthony, and he abandoned 
all hope of returning to St. Louis before 
spring. The men who were able were busy 
hunting, building a blockhouse and making 
canoes. Sergeant Kennerman was left in 
charge of the fort, while Pike, with twelve 
men, started (December 10) on the journey 
to Leech Lake. Of this fearful winter trip 
he gives a characteristic account in a letter 
to General Wilkinson: 
“T marched with eleven soldiers and my 
interpreter 700 miles, to the source of the 
Mississippi, through (I may without vanity 
say) aS many hardships as almost any party 
of Americans ever experienced, by cold and 
hunger. I was on the communication of 
RECREATION 
Red River and the Mississippi, the former 
being a water of Hudson’s Bay. The 
British flag, which was expanded on some 
very respectable positions, has given place 
to that of the United States wherever we 
passed; likewise, we have the faith and 
honor of the N. W. Company for about 
$13,000 duties this year, and by the voyage 
peace is established between the Sioux and 
Sauteurs (Chippewa). These objects I 
have been happy enough to accomplish 
without the loss of one man, although once 
fired on. ; 
“T presume, General, that my voyage will 
be productive of much new, useful and 
interesting information for our Govern- 
ment, although detailed in the unpolished 
diction of a soldier of fortune.” 
As soon as the ice had broken up in the 
river, the exploring party left the stockade 
(on April 7) and descended the Mississippi, 
reaching St. Louis April 30, having been 
absent eight months and twenty-two days. 
The journey down stream was made in half 
the time it took to sail up the river to St. 
Paul. 
While Lieutenant Pike did not discover 
the real source of the Mississippi, the results 
of the voyage so pleased his superior officer 
that he was chosen to lead another expedi- 
tion. His second journey took him up the 
Missouri and Osage livers, and thence to 
the Pawnee village on the Republican 
River (near the present Nebraska-Kansas 
boundary) July 15—September 30. 1806; 
from here he went southward to the Arkan- 
sas River and then to the vicinity of Pikes 
Peak (October 1—November 30); in the 
Rocky Mountains he journeyed to the head- 
waters of the Arkansas and the Rio Grande 
Rivers (December 1, 1806—February 26, 
1807); southward he marched, a prisoner in 
the hands of the Spaniards, to Santa Fé 
(March 3), to El Paso, of Texas (March 21), 
to Chihuahua in Old Mexico (April 2), to 
the Presidio Rio Grande (May 31) and 
through Texas to Natchitoches in Louisiana 
(July 3). 
Space is lacking for an adequate summary 
of this long itinerary, occupying nearly a 
year. Pike begins his journal (July 15, 
1806) as follows: 
‘We sailed from the landing at Belle 
Fontaine about three o’clock P.M. in two 
