o stay out and die
by themselves, rather than to go back to camp "and behold the misery of
our poor lads." All day they tramped wearily through the heavy snow.
Towards evening they came on a buffalo, and wounded it; but faint and
weak from hunger, they shot badly, and the buffalo escaped; a
disappointment literally as bitter as death. That night they sat up
among some rocks, all night long, unable to sleep because of the intense
cold, shivering in their thin rags; they had not eaten for three days.
But they were men of indomitable spirit, and next day trudging painfully
on, they at last succeeded, after another heart-breaking failure, in
killing a buffalo. At midnight they staggered into camp with the meat,
and all the party broke their four days' fast. Two men lost their feet
through frost-bite, and had to be left in this camp, with all the food.
Only the fact that a small band of buffalo was wintering in the valley
had saved the whole expedition from death by starvation.

Pike Reaches the Rio Grande.

After leaving this valley Pike and the remaining men of the expedition
finally reached the Rio Grande, where the weather was milder and deer
abounded. Here they built a little fort over which they flew the United
States flag, though Pike well knew that he was in Spanish territory.
When the Spanish commander at Santa Fe learned of their presence he
promptly sent out a detachment of troops to bring them in, though
showing great courtesy, and elaborately pretending to believe that Pike
had merely lost his way.

Pike is Sent Home by the Spaniards.

From Santa Fe Pike was sent home by a roundabout route through
Chihuahua, and through Texas, where he noted the vast droves of wild
horses, and the herds of peccaries. He was much impressed by the strange
mixture of new world savagery and old world feudalism in the provinces
through which he passed. A nobility and a priesthood which survived
unchanged from the middle ages held sway over serfs and made war upon
savages. The Apache and Comanche raided on the outlying settlements; the
mixed bloods, and the "tame" Indians on the great ranches and in the
hamlets were in a state of peonage; in the little walled towns, the
Spanish commanders lived in half civilized, half barbaric luxury, and
shared with the priests absolute rule over the people roundabout. The
American lieutenant, used to the simplicity of his own service, was
struck by the extravagance and luxury of the Span