sight can extend." The party came to a high ridge, which Pike describes as the dividing line between the waters of the Osage and the Arkansas (which Pike spells Arkansaw). Still marching westward, the party reached the Neosho, and crossing it followed the divide, as Pike says, between the Neosho and the Verdigris. On the 17th of September, going northward, they arrived at the main southwest branch of the Kansas river, the Smoky Hill, and, two days later, a large branch of the Kansas river strongly impregnated with salt.

19. Crosses Trail of Spanish Troops.-It was at about this time that Pike discovered that he was not alone in Kansas. He came across the trail of 300 Spanish troops. The Spanish authorities in New Spain, hearing from St. Louis of his departure, had sent Lieut. Malgares with a large party to intercept him. Malgares had gone down Red river, thence north to the Arkansas, and so on to the Saline, but the parties had missed each other. Lieut. Pike was destined to meet Lieut. Malgares later.

20. Pawnee Village.-Pike's party reached the Pawnee village on the 25th of September, 1806. The site of the village has been a matter of some discussion, but the latest investigation would locate it on portions of sections 2 and 3, township 2, range 5 west, in White Rock township, Republic county, Kan.

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21. "Stars and Stripes" Replaces Spanish Flag.The spot was made memorable. Pike had but sixteen white soldiers, his Osage allies he probably did not count for much, since he describes them as "a faithless set of poltroons, incapable of a great and generous action," but with his little force he overawed the sullen and hostile village. He

met in council 500 Pawnee warriors. He found the Spanish flag flying from a pole in front of the council lodge, and he ordered it lowered, and the American flag raised in its place. It was done, and the Stars and Stripes for the first time was given to the Kansas breeze. Regardless of the temper of the Indians, he remained in the neighborhood until the 9th of October, when he marched off in the direction of the Great Bend of the Arkansas.

22. Party Divided at Arkansas River.-Arrived at the Arkansas, Pike divided his party. Boats were constructed, one canoe made of four buffalo hides and two elk skins, and a wooden canoe of green cottonwood, and in these Lieut. Wilkinson, son of Gen. James Wilkinson (under whose orders Lieut. Pike had set out), six soldiers and two Osages embarked with the intention of reaching Fort Adams on the Mississippi. The party were soon obliged to abandon their canoes and make their way on foot, suffering greatly from the cold. Lower down the river, they made some wooden boats, and, greatly hindered by sand bars and by floating ice, managed to reach Arkansas Post in safety by the 9th of January, 1807.

23. Re-crosses Spanish Trail to Westward.-Pike, with the remainder of his party, now stood on the low, bleak shore of the Arkansas, in the last of October, with snow falling every day. Why he did not march south to Red river, according to his instructions, has never been made clear; instead, he moved up the Arkansas, climbing the long slope to the Rocky Mountains. The country was fullof wild horses; Indians were met frequently, and again the Spanish trail was crossed that Pike had encountered in Northern Kansas.

24. Mexican Mountains Sighted.-On the 15th of November, Pike saw something else. "At two o'clock in the afternoon," he writes, "I thought I could distinguish a mountain to our right, which appeared like a small blue cloud; viewed it with a spy glass, and was still more confirmed in my conjecture, yet only communicated it to Dr.

Robinson, who was in front of me, but in half an hour it appeared in full view before us. When our small party arrived on the hill, they, with one accord, gave three cheers for the Mexican Mountains.'

25. Pike's Peak.-What Pike saw at first as a "small blue cloud," was the Great White Mountain of the Spaniards, the majestic eminence afterward called, in his honor, Pike's Peak. He measured the altitude of the mountain,

making it 18,581 feet above the sea, and made efforts to reach the mountain itself, but without success. Afterwards he records, "In our wanderings in the mountains it was never out of our sight, except when we were in the valley."

26. Pike Taken Prisoner.-These "wanderings" entailed fearful suffering from cold on the thinly-clad soldiers and the animals. Pike reached the west fork of the Rio Grande del Norte and built a stockade, and here he was captured by a party of Spanish soldiers, as an intruder on Spanish territory. His instruments and papers were taken from him, and the command were marched as prisoners to Santa Fe, but were everywhere treated with kindness by the people. The escort, as it might be called, was commanded for some time by Lieutenant Malgares, who had sought for Pike in Kansas. The young American officer, treated more as an honored guest than a prisoner, was taken to Chihuahua, then a fine city of 60,000 inhabitants; thence he was taken to within three days' march of the American frontier and liberated, reaching Natchitoches, Louisiana, on the 15th of July, 1807, nearly a year after he left Bellefontaine.

27. His Death-Toronto.-After his return to his own country, he continued in the army, where his rise was rapid. In the thirty-fourth year of his age he was a brigadiergeneral in service on our Northern frontier, and we were at war with Great Britain. He planned and carried out an attack on York, now Toronto, Canada, on the 27th of April, 1813, and was fatally wounded at the moment of victory. At his request, the flag of the captured garrison was placed beneath his head, and the chronicler of the time wrote, "He happily expired on the conquered flag of the foe."

28. Prominent in Kansas History.-The name of Zebulon Montgomery Pike forms a part of the history of Kansas, and should be mentioned with honor, because he was the first intelligent American explorer of the interior of Kansas, and the first to raise the flag of the United States within its present borders, and the first to record observations of the Great Plains country of which Kansas is a part. His journal was published in this country in 1810, and an abridgement afterward published in London, and the. story of natural Kansas was thus spread about the world.

29. Papers Preserved at Larned.-A few years since. many of the papers of General Pike, including the precious scrap on which were written the last words he addressed to his wife, were still carefully preserved by his niece, the venerable Mrs. Sturdevant, of Larned, Kansas.

30. Long's Expedition.-The expedition of Pike was followed by that of Major Stephen H. Long, who, in 1819, ascended the Missouri in the first steamboat, the Western Engineer. Pike's narrative, however, continued to be for a long time the most complete account of the regions embraced in Kansas, Colorado and Northern Mexico.

SUMMARY.

1. Jefferson sent Lewis and Clark expedition across Territory. 2. Fourth of July, 1804, was celebrated at Atchison.

3. Pike's expedition crossed Territory in 1806.

4. Spanish soldiers had not yet been withdrawn.

5. Spanish flag was lowered and the Stars and Stripes raised at the Pawnee village. Supposed to be in what is now Republic county.

6. Pike's Peak was sighted at 2 o'clock, P. M., November 15, 1806.