1806.] pike's expedition. 289 



fulfilment the great ends for which the labors of Lewis and Clarke 

 were the first preparatory measures. 



During the absence of Lewis and Clarke, other persons were 

 engaged, under the orders of the government of the United States, 

 in exploring different parts of the interior of Louisiana. Lieutenant 

 Pike ascended the Mississippi to its head-waters, near the 48th 

 degree of latitude, where he obtained much useful information 

 respecting the course of that stream, and the numbers, characters, 

 and dispositions, of the Indians in its vicinity, as well as concerning 

 the trade and establishments of the North- West Company in that 

 quarter. Having completed this expedition, Pike, in 1806, under- 

 took another, in the course of which he travelled south-westward 

 from the mouth of the Missouri, to the upper waters of the Arkan- 

 sas, the Red River, and the Rio Bravo del Norte : on the latter 

 river, he and his party were made prisoners by the Spaniards of 

 Santa Fe, who carried them southward as far as the city of Chi- 

 huahua, and thence, through Texas, to the United States. The 

 Red and Washita Rivers were at the same time explored, to a con- 

 siderable distance from the Mississippi, by Messrs. Dunbar, Hunter, 

 and Sibley, whose journals, as well as those of Pike, subsequently 

 published, contain many interesting descriptions of those parts of 

 America. 



Thus, within three or four years after Louisiana came into the 

 possession of the United States, it ceased to be an unknown region, 

 and the principal features of the territory drained by the Columbia 

 were displayed. 



37 



