352 SANTA EE TRADE EIRST ADVENTURERS CARAVANS. 



equally ready for a bargain or a battle, did not commonly amuse 

 themselves either with correspondence or authorship, and accord- 

 ingly, "The Santa Fe Trade" remained as much a matter of mys- 

 tery to the mass of Americans as the marches of those great cara- 

 vans which in the east annually traverse the desert towards the 

 tomb of the Prophet. 



The origin of this trade is not definitely known. A certain James 

 Pursely, who wandered in the lonely regions west of the Missis- 

 sippi about the year 1805, and learned something respecting the 

 settlements in New Mexico from Indians near the sources of 

 the Platte river, is supposed to have been the first American who 

 visited Santa Fe in this direction ; though, in the previous year, a 

 French Creole, named La Lande, had been despatched by Mr. 

 Morrison, a merchant of Kaskaskia, with orders if possible to reach 

 Santa Fe. It is known that this person arrived at his destination, 

 but was so delighted with the country and so well entertained, that 

 he never returned, and . probably established himself in successful 

 trade upon the capital of his confiding employer. 



From this period, and after the Southern Expedition of Captain 

 Pike, very little is heard of this distant region until a caravan was 

 fitted out under the auspices of Messrs. Knight, Beard, Chambers, 

 and about eight other persons, in the year 1812. They reached 

 Santa Fe in an unlucky hour. The revolutionary movements 

 which had been disturbing Mexico were just then checked by the 

 successes of the royalists, and the traders were siezed as spies, 

 their goods confiscated, and themselves confined in the prisons of 

 Chihuahua for nine years, when McKnight and his comrades were 

 finally released. As soon as these luckless adventurers reached 

 the United States, their return, their narratives and the probable 

 settlement of the Mexican revolution by the successes of Iturbide, 

 induced others to fit out expeditions at once. A merchant of Ohio, 

 named Glenn, and Captain Becknell, of Missouri, set out forthwith ; 

 and in 1824, about eighty traders, accompanied by several intel- 

 ligent and cultivated Missourians, departed not only with pack- 

 mules, which had hitherto served for the transportation of goods, 

 but with twenty-five wheeled vehicles of which one or two were 

 stout road wagons, the whole conveying a freight of near thirty 

 thousand dollars in merchandise. The caravan crossed the desert- 

 plains after an eventful journey; and some years after — as the 

 early adventurers had experienced no serious molestations from the 

 Indians, — a wealthier class of traders, availed themselves of the 



