Chapter III (3)

[III-37] Taking the party over the low divide mentioned in the last note, from Custer into Huerfano Co., and from the Grape Creek watershed to that of the Huerfano. The exact spot is perhaps not determinable, but it was not far from Bradford, a place on Muddy cr., one of the first two forks of the Huerfano. The map shows that Pike has headed Grape cr. and got into another basin, from which he starts a river running out on the prairie to the Arkansaw. This is by mistake made out to be his "3d Fork," _i. e._, the St. Charles and Greenhorn; it is really his "2d Fork," _i. e._, the Huerfano.

[III-38] If we call the roll to-day we find: Vasquez and Smith left at Cañon City on the 14th; Sparks and Dougherty left at camp of the 22d; Menaugh left at camp of the 26th; present on the 27th, Pike, Robinson, Meek, Jackson, Brown, Carter, Gorden, Miller, Mountjoy, Roy, Stoute = 11.

[III-39] The Expedition crosses the Sangre de Cristo range to the basin of the Rio Grande, and is about to enter the San Luis valley. The matter of the pass by which they came has been much mooted and left in doubt. Thus we find Maguire saying in the preface to the Denver ed. of Pike, p. xi: "Whether this pass was the Mosca or the Medano (known also as 'Sandhill') or whether it was one still farther to the north as thought by some, cannot be definitely established." Governor Adams in his Address, p. 17, says "Medano or Music Pass." I think it is certain that the Expedition made the Sand Hill Pass, and I hope to be able to settle the question. The three passes to which Maguire refers, and the only ones to be considered for a moment, are the following, in order from N. to S.

1. A pass from Antelope cr., one of the heads of Grape cr., in Custer Co., over to a tributary of San Luis r. in Saguache Co., not traversing any portion of Huerfano Co., or barely touching the extreme N. W. corner of this county--in fact, Custer, Huerfano, and Saguache cos. meet in this pass, and Muddy as well as Antelope cr. heads there. This is the "one still farther to the north" to which Maguire alludes. It is the one marked "Music Pass" on the G. L. O. and U. S. G. S. maps of 1892 (but not the Music Pass of Hayden's map). This seems to me so far N. as to be out of the question, if any reliance is to be placed on either Pike's mileages or his map. Even after the utmost reduction of his distances that can be made with any regard to the topography of the region, we fetch him out of the Grape Creek basin, into that of the Huerfano, and thus well along in Huerfano Co. His map bears this out completely. Observe that on the 24th he has _crossed_ the head of Grape cr., left it a good way behind him, and marked his camp near the head of the other stream--the Huerfano. Notice also that from this camp of the 24th-26th the trail makes a sharp elbow _west_, and goes through the Sangre range in a gap next _below_ that one in which he makes Grape cr. head. Again, if he had made this northernmost pass he would have come out N. of the Sand Dunes, and had these on his left as he went S. in the San Luis valley; whereas, we find them on his right as he comes down from the mountains to the S. of them. Finally, the mileages of the San Luis Valley route do not fit so well from this pass as from the next one. These facts seem to me to prove that Pike made no pass N. of the sand-hills.

2. The Sand Hill Pass, also rightly Medano and wrongly Modenos Pass, called Music Pass by Hayden, and Williams' Pass by Gunnison and Beckwith, is that which connects Navajo or Greaser cr. (br. of Muddy cr.) with a certain tributary (Medano or Sand cr.) of the San Luis r. This is on the boundary between Huerfano and Saguache cos., about 5 m. (air-line) S. of Music Pass. The Huerfano gathers its waters in the valley called Huerfano Park. The three principal tributaries, from the N. to N. W., are Turkey, Wilson's, and Muddy creeks. The place Bradford, already named as that to the vicinity of which we traced the Expedition, without reference to any question of a pass, is on Muddy cr., and a road goes direct from this place through this pass. That branch of Muddy cr. by some called Navajo cr. drains from this pass, and Greaser cr. also heads in its immediate vicinity. Across the divide, which sinks to an altitude of about 9,800 feet at the pass, Medano or Sand cr. drains S. W. and then S. between the Sand Dunes and the mountains, in the San Luis basin (Saguache Co.). That Pike took this route I have no question. There seems also to have been no doubt in the minds of Captain Gunnison and Lieutenant Beckwith, who quote Pike on their approach to this pass, Aug. 25th, 1853, and add: "The course of Williams' Pass as we entered it [from the sand-hills] is N. 58° E., but it soon bends to the left to N. 27° E. We passed up it only about three-fourths of a mile. Its width is about 250 yards, rising gradually as far as we could see. Its walls of rock rise on either side to a height of some hundreds of feet, and are nearly vertical. Our guides represent it as continuing for 14 miles, both in character and direction as here described; beyond that it is more abrupt, terminating at its summit less favorably for a road than Roubideau's Pass. It is followed by a large Indian trail." (P. R. R. Rep. II., 1855, p. 43.)

3. Mosca or Musca Pass, also called Fly Pass by some, translating the Spanish, and by others Robideau's Pass, 6 or 8 m. in an air-line S. of the Sand Hill Pass, is a lower and better one. It connects the Bear Creek branch of May cr. (the latter a tributary to the Huerfano) with the branch of Mosca cr. on the other side of the divide. There is a place called Sharpsdale on Bear or May cr., whence a road goes W. up to the pass, and others N. to Bradford, E. through Poison cañon to Gardner on the Huerfano at the mouth of Muddy cr., and also E. down May cr. and along the Huerfano to Point of Rocks and Malachite, and so on to Gardner. On the subject of Mosca Pass Maguire's remarks seem to me judicious, and I transcribe them to express my concurrence in his decision: "In the early days of the settlement of the country the Mosca was well travelled by the Southern Utes on their journeys to the Plains, and their 'hieroglyphics,' of which Pike speaks, were to be seen cut in the bark of the aspen trees; but from the fact that on reaching San Luis valley on January 28th, 1807, the party marched some considerable distance on a course lying between the sand dunes and the mountains, the evidence would seem to warrant the belief that the pass used was north of the Mosca."

There are other passes of this range, as the one called Sangre de Cristo, and the Veta Pass (which latter is now utilized by the D. and R. G. R. R.). But these are altogether too far S., and have never been brought in question. There seems to be no named or used pass from the head of the Huerfano itself. The ultimate heads of this river drain N. from Cerro Blanco and Baldy Peak, with collateral sources thence along the line between Huerfano and Costello cos. to Grayback and Iron mts., etc., besides those from the W. on the line between Huerfano and Saguache cos. in the direction of Mosca Pass.

In view of the above considerations, we will proceed with Pike through Medano or Sand Hill Pass into San Luis valley (or Park). This is a plain between the Sangre de Cristo range on the E. and N. E., and on the W. and N. W. the San Juan and Sawatch ranges. It has a total length of about 110 m. from Poncho Pass on the N. to Taos valley on the S., with a maximum breadth of about 45 m., and an area of upward of 3,000 square miles. The general elevation is between 7,500 and 8,000 feet. The Rio Grande enters this valley at about the middle of its W. side, running E. and then sweeping in a long curve S.

[III-40] The billows of sand which Pike has on his right as he comes down Sand cr. from Sand Hill (Music, Medano) Pass are very remarkable formations, which alone would fix his position in the lack of any other data. West of these Dunes are several streams of the San Luis system, flowing southward to form sinks called the San Luis lakes, though Pike's map runs them into the Rio Grande. His camp is on or near Sand cr., at about the point where this and Mosca cr. join, or perhaps a little further along. Mosca cr. is the one that comes down from Mosca Pass, and if Pike had made this pass he would have fetched out in the valley at about the same spot--at or near Montville.

[III-41] About S., along the W. base of the Sierra Blanca, which is simply the continuation of the Sangre de Cristo range. Some of the summits Pike has on his left are: Grayback Peak, 12,387 feet; Bald, Baldy, or Old Baldy mt., 14,125 feet; and Cerro Blanco itself, 14,431 feet, giving name to the group. Pike goes from the vicinity of Montville past Zapato cr., probably on the present road through the town of the latter name on the creek, and camps in the valley at the place where timber reaches furthest from the mountains. A present road curves S. E. from this point, around to the S. of the range, where was built Fort Garland, probably 12 or 15 m. S. E. of to-night's camp. This was a sort of focal point to which roads converged from various points, and especially was it on the most direct route from any place in the lower part of the San Luis valley through Sangre de Cristo Pass to the Huerfano, and so on. Garland was on Ute cr., a branch of Trinchera cr., which latter falls into the Rio Grande about 3 m. above the Rio Conejos.

[III-42] Pike reaches the Rio Grande on a S. W. course, about the present position of the town of Alamosa, whence railroads now radiate in or converge from four directions. These branches of the Denver and Rio Grande system come from the E. through the Veta Pass, from the N. directly down the San Luis valley, from the N. W. down the Rio Grande, and from the S. up the same river. A few miles S. of Alamosa, Alamosa and La Jara creeks fall in close together, from the W. These are both indicated by a single unlettered trace on Pike's map. Next below Trinchera cr. falls in on the E. This is the one called Rio de la Culebra on Pike's map, which correctly brings it in above the one from the W. (Rio Conejos) on which he established himself. The Rio Culebra is the next one, from the E., below Trinchera and Conejos, and above Rio Costilla. Pike lays down the Costilla by its proper name, omits the Culebra, and calls the Trinchera by the name of the latter. In English, Rio Conejos would be Rabbit r.; Culebra, Snake r.; Costilla, Rib r.; and Trinchera, Cut-bank r. Alamosa should imply that the river so called were shaded with elms, though cottonwood (_Populus angustifolia_) is the actual growth. La Jara is properly the rock-rose (_Cistus creticus_), but as a name of this creek it refers to willow-brush.

[III-43] Of which about 13 (misprinted "18") was down the Rio Grande, the rest up the Rio Conejos; Trinchera cr. (the one from the E., which Pike's map letters "Rio de la Culebra") was passed a short distance above the Conejos. The latter is a large stream from the W. which arises in the San Juan range, in the vicinity of Conejos Peak (13,183 feet), leaves the mountains by the foot of Prospect Peak (6,837 feet), is joined in the San Luis hills by San Antonio cr. (its principal branch), and then seeks the Rio Grande by winding about the northern ends of the hills just named. The data already given, with those details which the text presently offers, serve to fix the present station with precision--about 5 m. up the Conejos, on its N. bank, at a point where it was not fordable, and directly S. of which was a high hill. A sufficiently large map, such as Sheet X of the Hayden survey, shows exactly these topographical details, and also marks two ranches in the immediate vicinity: see also Pike's own map. Under these circumstances it seems to me wasted ingenuity to find Pike's blockhouse in some other place; yet its locality has been disputed. Maguire puts the case well: "The exact locality of the site (a notable spot in Western history) is in dispute, owing to the discovery many years ago of the remains of an ancient log structure further W. on the Conejos, which some suppose to have been Pike's fortress; but everything in the narrative, as well as in the Spanish records, indicates the prairie opposite the mineral springs and high hill on the S. bank of the Conejos as the spot where the flag of the United States is first recorded as floating above the soil of Colorado." Gregg's map locates the place approximately, with the legend "[Symbol: Square] Pike's Stockade Whence taken to Santa Fé. Feb. 1807".

Concerning the exact location of Pike's post on the Conejos, I am favored with the following letter (cited in substance) from Mr. Maguire, an old resident of the San Luis valley:

"DENVER, COLO., _April 18th, 1894_.

"MY DEAR SIR:

"... As to the disputed stockade on the Conejos: I am
entirely familiar with that country, and had fixed it as
having been situated in the prairie on the N. bank of the
stream due across from what is known as the Ojo Caliente.
Before writing the preface to the Denver reprint of Pike, I
had made up my mind to that, although it was contended in
the neighborhood that the stockade had been situated some
14 or 15 m. from the mouth of the stream. This supposition
was due to the fact that Lafayette Head, the oldest
American settler on the Conejos, who came there early in
the fifties, was lieutenant-governor of this state, and a
man of high standing and much authority, had asserted that
the fort had been built much further up the stream than the
site I had accepted. In 1890 I saw Mr. Head upon the
subject, and he told me that when he first came to the
country there still existed on the Conejos the remains of a
structure of cottonwood logs laid horizontally, which he
had seen, and which was so old that the logs would scarcely
bear the weight of one's foot. Upon this evidence, with or
without suggestion from some source, he concluded it was
Pike's fort, and so gave out; whence the prevalent
impression. That Mr. Head saw this structure there is no
question. I have no idea what it was, or when or by whom
built; but it would be useless to pursue this matter,
because Mr. Head is positive that the location was on the
_south_ side, and therefore the structure cannot have been
Pike's. The Ojo Caliente above mentioned is on the property
of Mr. A. W. McIntire, as is also the prairie opposite, on
the north bank of the river. Mr. McIntire is a Pike
enthusiast, very much interested in the case. When in
Denver recently he startled me by stating that we had been
in error as to the exact location, as he had become
convinced it was about half a mile below the Ojo Caliente.
This half-mile bears a remarkable relation to the statement
in your letter to me: 'I have it probably within half a
mile.' Mr. McIntire says that the depression caused by
digging the moat is still visible. The place is on the
north bank of the Conejos, opposite some warm or mineral
springs flowing out of the hill on the south side; and Mr.
McIntire informs me that the spot is a little north of the
center of Sect. 7, T. 35, R. 11.

"Very truly yours,
"W. M. MAGUIRE."

Later correspondence on this subject with Mr. Maguire includes a letter and sketches from Gov. McIntire, who is satisfied that he has the exact site. He marks it on a township map which he transmits, as on the middle of the W. line of the N. W. ¼ of the N. E. ¼ of Sect. 7, T. 35, R. 11, just across the Conejos, under a hill from out of which flows a mineral or thermal spring which never freezes, at a point so chosen that the current in the river would not cut the ditch around the work. Gov. McIntire's sketch represents the ditch as 2½--3 feet deep, 68 steps long (including an unbroken place of 13 steps), and of semi-circular figure; the two ends of this figure against the river, in a small deep bend, so that the river and the ditch inclose an oval space 37 steps in the longest diameter. This seems large for such a temporary work as Pike started, but he tells us that it was never finished, and Gov. McIntire is persuaded that the ditch is not a natural formation. I am therefore led to believe that he has found the right spot.

[III-44] That our friend Robinson was, in plain English, a spy, is incontestible. If he had any other object in joining the Expedition, it is certain that he had no other in leaving it than to find out what he could about New Spain for the benefit of his own country. Had it been in actual war times he could have been hanged or shot by the Spaniards without violation of the customs of nations. As it was, Pike felt so apprehensive for Robinson's personal safety that when the two met in New Mexico Pike at first affected not to know Robinson, for fear of putting him in jeopardy, and he denied point-blank to the Spanish authorities that Robinson was one of the party. They had parted on the Conejos with a perfect understanding on such points; indeed, General Whiting calls it "in pursuance of a previous scheme" that Robinson set out alone for Santa Fé; meanwhile, Pike sat down on the Conejos to wait for the Spaniards to come and catch him. The ostensible object of Robinson's visit to Mexico was fictitious; Pike says himself that the commercial claim Robinson pretended to have was worthless "in his hands." Whiting observes that "it was transferred to Dr. Robinson, who was to make it a pretext for a visit to the place, and a cover for observing its trade and resources, for the benefit of his countrymen. He regarded the excursion as a romantic adventure, and in that mood detached himself from the protection of his friend and commanding officer." (Life of Pike, p. 272.)

The _ultima ratio_ of Pike's presence on the Rio Grande in Spanish territory will probably always remain in question, unless some documentary evidence, not yet forthcoming, should turn up to show whether he came there by accident or design. Perhaps the safest ground to take would be to suppose it the particular accident of a general design. His open and official instructions required him to "approximate" to the Spanish possessions; he was to spy out all the land and see how it lay, politically as well as geographically; hunt up the Comanches; and make a counter-demonstration to Malgares' spirited raid, involving a reconnoissance in force as a military operation. This may all be true of the general design of his expedition, but it may as easily be true that he lost his way in searching for the Red river, and only found his way to the Rio Grande by accident. This seems to be the view of his biographer, General Whiting, who was a very competent critic of Pike's military career, and who wrote in comparatively short historical perspective, though he does not seem to have possessed, or at any rate to have utilized, any private sources of information. Whiting fully acquits Pike of intentional errancy, and gives no hint that he is keeping anything back that would support any other view of the case than that which he presents, without apparent reserve or arrière-pensée. Some of his expressions may be here cited. Speaking of Pike's seeing a Mexican newspaper with an account of Burr's conspiracy, he remarks, p. 277: "This afforded a clew to the suspicions with which his movements on the Mexican frontier had most naturally been regarded. It was not surprising that he should have been looked upon as forming one of the ramifications of the revolutionary scheme which that distinguished individual had projected.... It was true, that he had been found, with a belligerent aspect, in the Mexican country; but his apology was ready, and, no doubt, acceptable; while he knew that the Mexican authorities had lately violated, in a similar way, the soil of the United States, for which no apology could be rendered.... His misapprehensions of the geography of the country, which led him to establish himself in such a suspicious manner, on a foreign river, were excusable, bewildered as he was among mountains and streams that were likely to confuse all calculations. Still, it was natural for the Mexican authorities to regard his conduct, at first, as the result of a design, rather than a mistake, particularly when taken in connection with Colonel Burr's contemporaneous movements; and their treatment of him must be considered under the circumstances, as having been marked by much consideration." General Wilkinson also alludes to the assertion that had been made, that the expedition which resulted in the orders he had given Pike "was a premeditated coöperation with Burr." The Mexicans, it seems, were not alone in their suspicions and expressions to that effect.

However the bottom facts of Pike's coming on the Rio Grande may turn out to be, it is certain that after he had been captured and taken to Mexico under the diplomatic disguise of a polite invitation to visit the governor, who had heard of his having lost his way, hastened to send to his rescue, etc., Pike turned spy and informer with great agility and signal success. He kept his temper well in hand, except on one or two occasions; and in several instances showed that art which diplomacy has been defined to be. He bore himself with courage, dignity, and much fertility of resources; while that duplicity and prevarication which he confesses his conscience condoned, if it did not justify, were never indulged from personal considerations, but from his intense patriotism. His love of his country was the crucible in which he assayed his own motives; that was fervid enough to relax the rigidity of morals he professed and practiced on all ordinary occasions, and induce a certain ethical elasticity, so to speak, if not actually to melt all scruples. Patriotism must sometimes shake hands with Jesuitism in this wicked world; and the majesty of the flag, like the glory of God, must be maintained by human means. Abstract questions of the adaptation of means to ends are best left with casuistry. Pike's methods, while he was the distinguished guest of a half-hostile foreign power, may be questioned by some, but his motives by none; and as for his ends, we know that nothing succeeds like success. The results are well summed by his biographer, p. 282, in words which I will cite:

"At the time Captain Pike explored those regions of our wide-spread interior, almost nothing authentic was known of them. More satisfactory information of the headwaters of the Mississippi than was in the possession of the public was highly desirable, and his narratives relating to them were read with interest. But his accounts of the Mexican territories were looked for with much more interest, and when they came out were received with avidity. The jealous policy of Spain had surrounded her provinces with guards and restraints, that rendered them almost inaccessible. Their condition and prospects were veiled from all foreign observation; and at the time Captain Pike obtained, through an unintentional aberration from his prescribed route, access to them, unusual attention was turned upon the Mexican country by the events of Burr's conspiracy. This extraordinary transaction had awakened an intense curiosity respecting a region which was known to abound with gold, and which precious metal was supposed to have been its ultimate object. The trial of Colonel Burr was beginning, or in progress, when Captain Pike returned, and was known to have visited the El Dorado, on which this individual was said to have fixed an eye of cupidity and ambition. Scarcely anything had been heard of Mexico since the conquest of Cortes, excepting vague reports of the unbounded wealth that flowed from its mines into the public and private coffers of Spain. It is not strange, then, that Captain Pike's tour through some of its provinces should have been regarded as a rare and most opportune work. His statements were of course founded on hasty and imperfect observations, it being obvious from his journal, that, from the time he left Santa Fe, until he reached the United States, he was under a surveillance, and could only take notes by stealth. He could neither survey attentively what passed beneath his eye, nor inquire about that which he did not see, without exciting suspicion and provoking a rebuke. Still, with an acute eye, and a retentive memory, he appears to have gathered up many new and interesting facts, that were well received at the time."

[III-45] It is uncertain to what work we are here referred. There may be some old military treatise, well known in Pike's time, to which he thus alludes; but I think it most likely that he means his own Observations on New Spain, which formed a part of the App. to Pt. 3 of the orig. ed. of this work, and which included a considerable account of the military establishment of that country. If so, the "Essai Militaire" in question will be found beyond.

[III-46] My editorial function becomes extremely distasteful, with Pike's reiterated insistence upon affecting to believe himself upon the Red r., and expecting us to believe him. See note 44, and imagine Dr. Robinson starting off alone to walk from the Red r. into Santa Fé! I have blinked the business thus far, but I cannot keep my eyes shut to the end of this chapter, as there is worse to come in the miserable straits to which Captain Pike reduces himself through his awkwardness and inexperience in telling lies. He bluffs the thing through, to be sure; but at the present juncture he catches himself in the meshes of his own falsification. For, supposing he had really been on the Red r., as he declared he believed; he had _crossed that river_, and gone 5 m. up a stream on the other side of it; so he was absolutely in Spanish territory, and this he must have known perfectly well. On the 22d he says, p. 507, that he "began to think it was time we received a visit from the Spaniards or their emissaries," which shows that he was expecting to be caught. When they come, he makes a show of resistance by blustering a little, then hauls down his flag and goes with them peaceably enough--probably not only a willing captive, but one who had all along intended and desired to be taken into the enemy's country for purposes of his own. And back of this sorry scene there looms the sinister shadow of General James Wilkinson, the traitor and conspirator with Aaron Burr--let the curtain fall.

[III-47] Doubtless the more eligible Mosca Pass instead of the Sand Hill Pass: see note 39, p. 492. A clause in Pike's next sentence is so singularly constructed as to leave the sense obscure; he simply means to call attention to the fact that Meek and Miller had asked him to order them on that trip.

[III-48] Rio Culebra of present maps--next below Trinchera cr.

[III-49] Escopets or escopettes: the carbine or short rifle used by Spanish-Americans.

[III-50] The roll-call now is:

1. Interpreter Vasquez and Private Smith on the Arkansaw. (2.)

2. Privates Dougherty and Sparks in the mountains, with frozen feet. (2.)

3. Sergeant Meek and Private Miller gone to the relief of the foregoing. (2.)

4. Corporal Jackson and one man (Private Carter) left on the Rio Conejos to await the coming of the foregoing six. (2.)

5. Dr. Robinson gone ahead to Santa Fé. (1.)

6. Pike therefore sallies forth under escort of the Spanish dragoons with the following: Privates Brown, Gorden, Menaugh, Mountjoy, Roy, Stoute. (7.)

Total 16, present or accounted for.