rning to his comrades. He told the
Mexicans about the gold he had found, and they tried hard
to persuade him to show them the place. They even offered
to take along a strong force of cavalry. But Pursley
refused, and his patriotic reason was that he thought the
land belonged to the United States. He told Captain Pike
that he feared they would not allow him to leave Santa Fe,
as they still hoped to learn from him where the gold was
to be found. These facts were published by Captain Pike
soon after his return east; but no one took the hint,
or the risk was too great, and thus more than a half
a century passed before those same rich fields of gold
were found and opened to the world. If Pursley had been
somewhat less patriotic, and had guided the Mexicans to
the treasures, the whole history and condition of the
western part of our continent might have been entirely
different from what it now is. That region would still
have been a part of Mexico, or Spain might have been
in possession of it, owning California; and, with the gold
that would have been poured into her coffers, would have
been the leading nation of European affairs to-day.
We can easily see how American and European history in
the nineteenth century might have been changed, if that
adventurer from Kentucky had not been a true lover of his
native country.

The adventures of Captain Ezekiel Williams along the Old Trail, in the
early days of the century, tell a story of wonderful courage, endurance,
and persistency. Williams was a man of great perseverance, patience, and
determination of character. He set out from St. Louis in the late
spring of 1807, to trap on the Upper Missouri and the waters of the
Yellowstone, with a party of twenty men who had chosen him as their
leader. After various exciting incidents and thrilling adventures, all
of the original party, except Williams and two others, were killed by
the Indians somewhere in the vicinity of the Upper Arkansas. The three
survivors, not knowing where they were, separated, and Captain Williams
determined to take to the stream by canoe, and trap on his way toward
the settlements, while his last two companions started for the Spanish
country--that is, for the region of