USA > New Mexico > Historical sketches of New Mexico : from the earliest records to the American occupation > Part 20
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CHAPTER XVIII.
THE SANTA FÉ TRAIL.
T HOUGH Mexico was settled early in the sixteenth century, and the Spaniards soon after penetrated over 1,500 miles to the north and occupied the valley of the Rio Grande as far as Taos and the Chama in northi- ern New Mexico, and another colonization from En- gland and France had populated the eastern shores of what is now the United States and Canada early in the seventeenth century, and had extended westward to the Mississippi Valley, and was constantly pushing on further into the wilderness and advancing the pioneer line of its civilization toward the setting sun; yet strangely enough, it was left for the nineteenth century, in which we live, to see any communication whatever between these two populations, situated on the same continent, yet separated by mountains and rivers and by the great expanse of what was then believed to be desert plain.
The French and Spaniards had successively been the rulers of the vast territory extending westward from the Mississippi to the limits of Mexico and the shores of the Pacific, and then all included under the name of Louisiana ; yet the people of neither of those nationali- ties had displayed the enterprise or spirit of adventure requisite for an attempt to cross the intervening space be ween themselves and New Mexico, and brave the hostility of the tribes which roamed over the plains between.
It was not until after the acquisition of Louisiana by the United States that such a journey was accom- plished, or even attempted. In 1803 President Jefferson completed the negotiation for the purchase of Louisiana
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THE SANTA FÉ TRAIL.
from the Emperor Napoleon, and the sovereignty of that vast domain was transferred from the French to the Americans. The chief city of the Mississippi Valley, in the newly acquired territory, was St. Louis ; the prin- cipal settlement on the easterly side of the river, within the old boundaries of the United States, was Kaskaskia. Each of these places claims the credit of sending the first adventurers across the plains to meet the tide of Spanish colonization coming from the south, at Santa Fé; and it is difficult to say which has the prior right. In both cases, however, the accomplishment was rather the result of accident than intention.
In 1804 Mr. Morrison, an enterprising merchant of Kaskaskia, sent a man called Baptiste La Lande, whose name shows his French parentage, but who was born in Louisiana, to the head-waters of the Missouri and Platte, and furnished him with goods with which to trade with the Indians. Although the relative geographical posi- tion of places in that remote section was not well under stood, still the astute Kaskaskia merchant directed this La Lande, if it should be possible, to press on to Santa Fé. La Lande was evidently a man of energy, though we cannot admire some of his other qualities ; and suc- ceeded in reaching the Rocky Mountains, and finally in sending in some Indians to the Spanish borders, who gave a report of the arrival of this stranger from the far and almost unknown East. A party of Mexicans on horseback ventured into the mountains to meet him, and conveyed him and his goods into some of the north- ern settlements near Taos, from where he travelled on to Santa Fé, selling his merchandise as he went. Pleased with the country, in which he obtained far higher prices than he had dreamed of elsewhere, and where the hos- pitable people offered him land and other inducements if he would stay ; and captivated by some of the bright- eyed brunettes of the city, he concluded to return no more, not even to account to Mr. Morrison for his goods ;
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THE SANTA FÉ TRAIL.
and so, with the proceeds thus simply obtained, he set- tled down in the capital of the province.
Two years before La Lande left the banks of the Mississippi, James Pursley, an enterprising Kentuckian, who was by turns a hunter, trapper, and trader, and a fair type of the pioneers of those early days, left St Louis on a hunting expedition to the head-waters of the Osage River, in what is now south-western Missouri, with two companions ; and from thence with their pel- tries they started across the country to the White River, with the idea of descending that stream and the Missis sippi to New Orleans. But they had scarcely set out when the Kansas Indians stole their horses. They started in pursuit and recognized the horses at the Indian village, but could not regain them. Shortly after, Pursley saw his own horse carrying a burly Indian outside of the town, going to a little stream for water. He pursued stealthily and killed the horse at the river bank ; whereupon the Indian rushed back to his wig. wam, brought out his gun and attempted to shoot the pioneer. But the weapon missed fire, and Pursley, turn- ing, chased the assailant into the center of the village, where the latter, apparently panic-stricken at the temerity of his pursuer, took refuge in the midst of the women and children, while the other Indians were so struck with admiration that they restored the remain- ing horses.
Concluding to return to St. Louis, Pursley and his companions were already sailing down the Missouri in a canoe, when they met a French trader bound to the Mandan country ; and Pursley, always ready for advent- ure, left his companions and the prospect of home, and turned up the river in the employ of the Frenchman. The next spring he was sent with some goods in com- pany with several bands of Paducahs and Kyaways on a hunting and trading tour through part of what is now Nebraska; but the party was driven by hostile Sioux
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THE SANTA FÉ TRAIL.
into the mountains of Colorado, and travelled over the head-waters of the Platte and the Arkansas-a vast company of 2,000 souls, with 10,000 beasts of various kinds-until they reached the northern border of New Mexico. Wishing to ascertain whether the Spaniards would receive them in a friendly way and enter into trade, the Indians sent Pursley, with a small escort, to Santa Fé as a kind of ambassador. The Governor (Al- encaster) acceded to the request, and shortly afterward the whole band followed its advance-guard, and after some time spent in trading, set out on its return to the North.
But Pursley, tired of life among the savages, and glad enough again to be in the midst of Europeans and their civilization, which he had feared he would never more enjoy, concluded to remain in Santa Fé. He arrived there in June, 1805-over three years after his departure from St. Louis-and settled down to the pursuit of his trade as a carpenter; at which, we are told, " he made a great deal of money, except when working for the offi- cers, who paid him little or nothing." Here Pike found him in 1807, and had the celebrated conversation which has given to Pursley the fame not only of being the second (if not the first) who crossed the unknown coun- try which separated the United States from Mexico, but of being the first discoverer of the gold of Colorado- more than half a century before the discovery which brought so many thousands to Pike's Peak and the cañons and mountains of the centennial State. "He assured me," says Pike, " that he had found gold on the head of La Platte, and had carried some of the virgin mineral in his shot-pouch for months; but that being in doubt whether he should ever again behold the civ- ilized world, and losing in his mind all the ideal value , which mankind have stamped on that metal, he threw the sample away; that he had imprudently mentioned it to the Spaniards, who had frequently solicited him to
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THE SANTA FÉ TRAIL.
go and show a detachment of cavalry the place, but that conceiving it to be in United States territory, he had refused."
How different would have been the history of this great section of the continent, had this patriotic pioneer pursued a different course ; and the mineral wealth of Colorado been poured south into Mexico in the begin- ning of the century, instead of waiting for fifty years for the Anglo-Saxon immigration from the east to redis- cover and profit by it !
These two adventurous traders may be called the Fathers of the Santa Fé Trail, although the route which they travelled was far from direct, and their final arrival in New Mexico more the result of chance than of any calculation. The latter at any rate had no intention whatever of visiting the Spanish dominion; and the little that was known of the relative position of the dif- ferent parts of the continent is strongly illustrated by the fact that Lieutenant Pike, who was the next one to arrive at Santa Fé, and who had every advantage which instruments and the best maps of the period could give, and was actively engaged in an official exploring ex- pedition at the time, yet supposed himself on the waters of the Red River when he was really on the Rio Grande, and had not only crossed the boundary and trespassed on Spanish domain, but had actually built a fort and raised the United States flag on that foreign soil. His visit to Santa Fé in 1807 was rather involuntary than otherwise, yet from it flowed important results ; for the descriptions which he published of his travels on his return created much interest and some excitement throughout the West, and many of the adventurous sons of the border yearned to follow the path which led , to the city whose very isolation gave it an air of ro- mance.
.
The first expedition, however, of which we have any record, was undertaken in 1812 by a company of about
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THE SANTA FÉ TRAIL.
a dozen enterprising men of St. Louis, who fitted out a party under command of Mr. McKnight, which followed nearly the route described by Captain Pike. They ar- rived after various hardships, in safety, at Santa Fé, but only to encounter unexpected troubles. Unfortunately, their appearance at the capital was exactly at the wrong time. The attempted revolution under Hidalgo had just been put down, and every American adventurer was looked upon with suspicion as a probable agent of some newly projected revolt. McKnight and his party found themselves arrested as spies, their merchandise, which had been transported with so much labor across the plains, seized and confiscated ; and they were them- selves soon sent to follow Pike to Chihuahua, in the prison of which city they languished in rigorous con- finement until the success of the republican movement under Iturbide brought their release.
Almost simultaneously with their restoration to liberty, another adventurous spirit, an Ohio merchant named Glenn, arrived in Santa Fé with alittle caravan, having come by what appears still to have been the only known route-into the mountains of the present Colorado, and thence down the Rio Grande. From this time the trips across the plains became more frequent. The profits made on American goods successfully trans- ported were immense, because the only other route by which they could be received was by the sea to Vera Cruz, across the country to the City of Mexico, thence over the long and difficult road to El Paso, and finally by the semi-annual caravans up the Rio Grande,and cross- ing the Jornada, to Santa Fé. As an illustration of the enormous prices which such a long, expensive, and perilous trip occasioned, we are told that common cali- coes and even plain domestic cottons sold as high as $2.00 or $3.00 per yard, on the plaza of the Capital. It is not strange that the reports of such profits should have stimulated enterprise, and caused the adventurous
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THE SANTA FÉ TRAIL.
merchant to esteem the Santa Fé market as better than a gold-field.
In the same year, 1812, Captain Becknell, a Mis- sourian, who had made an expedition from Franklin to the Rocky Mountains, to trade with the Indians, con- cluded to seek the new Mecca of merchants to the south ; and found at Santa Fé a far better market than among the Comanches. Returning that winter with the fruits of his enterprise,and glowing accounts of the country he had visited, he raised a company of thirty friends, and with them and an assortment of goods which cost about $5,000, and was the largest venture of the kind yet made, started across the plains. Knowing from experience that the trail by the mountains of Colorado was a very cir- cuitous one, they determined to try a more direct route, and so branched off from the Arkansas River at the point called " the Caches," intending to march directly south- west to Santa Fé. But this daring enterprise came near costing them all their lives, for the unknown country into which they thus started as pioneers was utterly devoid of water. Their scanty supply was soon exhausted, and the horrors of thirst took possession of them. They killed their dogs and cut off the ears of their mules in order to endeavor to find a moment's relief by drinking the warm blood of the animals. Probably all would have perished, had not a buffalo, coming from a river whose nearness they had not sus- pected, appeared among them; and the water in his stomach afforded relief which enabled them to reach the river itself. Even then they did not find the route since so well known as the "Santa Fé Trail," for they passed to the north of the Raton range, and first reached the Spanish settlements at Taos
Early in May, Colonel Cooper, a neighbor of Captain Becknell, had left Missouri, about fifteen being in the party, and by pursuing the better known route up the Arkansas, had successfully made the journey. Down to
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THE SANTA FÉ TRAIL.
this time, and indeed until 1824, all of the expeditions were on mule-back, and of course the amount of goods that could be transported was comparatively inconsider- able; but in the latter year a new departure was made by the employment of vehicles. The caravan which then started consisted of twenty-five wagons of different kinds, the largest part being what were then called "Dearborn carriages," besides a number of the pack- mules which had usually been employed; and their suc- cess in making the trip, which presented fewer diffi- culties than had been anticipated, gave a great impetus to the Santa Fé trade. The original cost of the goods brought by this caravan was $25,000 to $30,000.
Thus far the occasional passing of a few adventurers had apparently not been noticed by the Indians, or rather, the first traversers of the plains traded almost as much for skins and furs with the Indians as with Span- iards, and took pains to keep on good terms with them. But as the traffic increased, among the men employed were many of the reckless and unprincipled, who seemed to regard neither the keeping of faith with an Indian, nor even the taking of his life, as of any importance. To use the language of Joseph Gregg, who spoke from long personal experience, " Many seemed to forget the wholesome precept, that they should not be savages themselves because they dealt with savages. Instead of cultivating friendly feelings with those who remained peaceful and honest, there was an occasional one always disposed to kill, even in cold blood, every Indian that fell into their power."
As the amount carried to the East by traders in- creased, troubles with bands of Indian thieves and ma- rauders became alarmingly frequent and grew more and more serious. The first difficulty of this kind was ex- perienced by a small party returning from a trading trip in 1826. They were encamped on the Cimarron, and very foolishly had but four guns among the twelve
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THE SANTA FÉ TRAIL.
persons who comprised it. A small party of Arrapahoes approached in a friendly way, but seeing the weakness of the trading party, went away for a short time and returned thirty strong. Their chief then told the Americans that his men needed horses, as they had none ; and the traders, hoping to satisfy them, gave them · one apiece. Then the Indians' demand increased to two horses for each of their number, and the traders, knowing resistance to be useless, again acquiesced ; whereupon the Indians, mounting their newly acquired steeds, and each swinging a lasso in his hand, took pos- session of the whole drove of animals belonging to the caravan, numbering about 500. This however only af- fected property ; soon lives were found to be unsafe. The first victims were two young men named McNees and Monroe, who had strayed a little way from their camp, and were wantonly shot almost within sight of their tents. While the party to which they belonged was engaged in burying them as best they could on the lone prairie, near the banks of the Cimarron, a small party of Indians, no doubt entire strangers to the mur- der, came near; and the Americans, full of indignation at the death of their comrades, and stopping to ask no questions, shot down all of them save one, who escaped to bear tidings of the slaughter, to his tribe. They in turn pursued the caravan of the traders, bent on aven- ging the death of their brethren ; and overtaking them at the Arkansas River, carried off nearly 1,000 head of horses and mules, though the owners themselves succeeded in escaping. Turning back towards their vil- lage, their vengeance far from satisfied until blood had been paid for blood, the Indians soon encountered an- other little returning prairie caravan, which they attacked, killing one man and running off all the horses. The profits of the trade at that time may be guessed from the fact that the men thus left to travel towards home afoot had each to carry with him over eighty
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THE SANTA FÉ TRAIL.
pounds of silver coin, which was his share of the gains of the trip.
The news of these assaults caused the Government next year to furnish an armed escort, consisting of four companies of troops under Major Riley, which was to protect the caravan as far as Chouteau's Island, in the Arkansas, and the various traders consolidated their trains into one long caravan. It was supposed that the road past that point was comparatively free from dan- ger, but the fallacy of this was shown on the first pos- sible occasion ; for the caravan had proceeded but two hours' march on its way, after parting with the troops, when the advance guard was attacked by Kiawas, and one man so unfortunate as not to escape was killed and scalped. Major Riley was at once sent for, and arrived with all speed, but the Indians had retired at the first sign of the presence of soldiers. The escort remained in camp on the Arkansas until the returning caravan in the fall required their services. But for some unex- plained reason the Government failed to furnish a similar military protection the next year, and it was only repeated on special occasions thereafter, as in 1834, when Captain Wharton's dragoons were detailed for the service, and in 1843, when a formidable army under Captain Cooke escorted two large caravans past the principal points of danger.
As early as 1825 the Government had taken the first steps in favor of encouraging the traffickers of the plains by appointing a commission, consisting of Messrs. Reeves, Sibley, and Matthews, to lay out a road from the border of Missouri to the confines of Santa Fé. While this work was never completed, yet it was commenced with some spirit by the commissioners, who held a council with the Osages în a beautiful strip of woods called Council Grove, long an important point on the Santa Fé Trail, and now the seat of justice of Morris County, Kansas. Here a treaty was made whereby the
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THE SANTA FÉ TRAIL.
Indians agreed to permit all traders to pass and repass› without interference, and in case of necessity, to lend their assistance to trading caravans. The line of the proposed road was determined as far as the Arkansas, and designated by mounds of earth; but it never seems to have been used by the travellers, who per- sistently refused to be carried off from the old trail, which had been the route of their predecessors, and which had the sanction of experience if not of scientific engineering.
The first route followed, as we have seen, was by a line almost directly westward to the mountains of Colo- rado, and thence south to Taos. Afterwards, when the trade assumed importance, a road along the Arkansas, and thence south-west to the Raton Pass, following sub- stantially the present line of the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fé Railroad, was sometimes used; but the route which was the ordinary and favorite one for a long series of years was that along the Arkansas, thence across to the Cimarron, and so entering New Mexico, proceeding in an almost direct line to the Wagon Mound-which made a conspicuous landmark-and thence to Las Vegas, San Miguel, and Santa Fé. A few trips were made by a more southerly route, starting from Van Buren, in Arkansas, instead of Independence; and Mr. Gregg pronounced this the most excellent natural line of travel. But it never became popular, or was more than an experiment.
In 1839 an attempt was made to establish a route from Chihuahua and El Paso to the East, without going to Santa Fé at all. This was undertaken chiefly by Mexican merchants, but Dr. Connolly took a leading part in the enterprise also. The expedition set out from Chihuahua, April 3, 1839, amid general acclama- tions, as the people saw in it the commencement of a great wholesale trade for their city. Seven wagons, with about $250,000 in bullion, constituted the caravan; and
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THE SANTA FÉ TRAIL.
for lack of knowledge of the country, lost considerable time, both in going and returning, having much trouble in crossing some of the intervening rivers, and did not reach Chihuahua, on their return (when they brought sixty or seventy wagons laden with merchandise), until August 27, 1840. A change, meanwhile, had taken place in the Mexican officials, which greatly affected the duties to be paid, so that the enterprise was a financial failure, and was never repeated.
Down to 1824 only pack-animals were employed ; in 1824 and 1825 pack-animals and wagons; and com- mencing in 1826, nothing but wagons. Oxen were first used in 1830. The following statistics, taken from Gregg's "Commerce of the Prairies," show the gradual increase in the business from its commencement in 1822 until 1843, when the trade was temporarily closed :-
Years.
Cost of Merchandise.
No. Wagons.
Men.
1822
$ 15,000
70
1823
12,000
50
1824
35,000
26
100
1825.
65,000
37
130
1826.
90,000
60
100
1827
85,000
55
90
1828.
150,000
100
200
1829
60,000
30
50
1830
120,000.
70
140
1831
250,000
130
320
1832
140,000.
70
150
1833.
150,000
105
185
1834
150,000
80
160
1835.
140,000.
75
140
1836.
130,000
70
135
1837
150,000
80 160
1838.
90,000
50
100
1839
250,000
130
250
1840
50,000
30
60
1841
150,000
60
100
1842
160,000
70
120
1843.
450,000
230
350
In the beginning of the traffic across the plains, those engaged in it were nearly all Americans or French, from the western States ; but gradually New Mexicans of wealth began to take part in the business, until in
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THE SANTA FÉ TRAIL.
1843, Gregg says, " the greater part of the traders were New Mexicans, and they bid fair to secure a monopoly."
While the time occupied in making the passage, of course, varied considerably according to circumstances, yet an average trip to Santa Fé, with loaded wagons, usually occupied about seventy days, and the return trip about forty days. The eastward loads then compara- tively light, usually from 1,000 to 2,000 pounds, and the approaching winter compelled haste. On one occasion a young man of Canadian descent, named F. X. Aubrey, rode, on a wager, from Santa Fé to Independence in five days and ten hours ; his own mare Nellie carrying him 150 miles of the distance.
Gregg, in his "Commerce of the Prairies," gives a graphic account of the way in which the movements of the caravan were managed and governed. The first business was to elect a " Captain of the Caravan," who directed the order of travel and designated the camping- grounds. While he had no legal authority, yet all by common consent obeyed his directions. The proprie- tors then furnished a full list of the wagons and men, and the caravan was then apportioned into about four divisions, each with a lieutenant in command, as they generally marched in four lines abreast. The guards were then arranged, the number of watchmen generally being eight, each man standing guard a quarter of each alternate night. From this duty no one, no matter what his circumstances, was exempt ; except in case of very apparent sickness.
The place of rendezvous for the caravan was usually Council Grove, the wagons leaving Independence at somewhat different times; and at the time of starting, which was generally after an early breakfast, the cry of "catch-up" was sounded from the captain's wagon and re-echoed throughout the camp, until the answering shouts of "all's set" from the teamsters in turn, an- nounced that the wagons were ready for the journey.
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THE SANTA FÉ TRAIL.
It was the custom when about 200 miles from Santa Fé to send a party of couriers, composed generally of proprietors or agents, and known on the plain as "run- ners," ahead to that city, with a view to procuring pro- visions, securing good store-houses, and if possible ar riving at an understanding with the custom-house officials. At the crossing of Red River, some part of the caravan frequently left the main body to proceed westerly to Taos ; and a little further on they were met by the custom-house guard, who came to escort the car- avan into Santa Fé to prevent smuggling. In the early days the village of San Miguel was the first reached, but subsequently Las Vegas was settled, and still later some American families built in the valley of the Mora, near the present town of Watrous.
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