Note I — XIX IN THE HANDS OF THE SPANIARDS

All the Rio Grande River which flows southward through south central Colorado into New Mexico was Spanish territory. The Lieutenant Pike party had crossed the Sangre de Cristo Range and had struck the Rio Grande near present Alamosa in the southern half of Colorado’s great San Luis Park or Valley. The largest of the White Mountains, on the east, was Sierra Blanca (“White Mountain” today), altitude 14,390 feet, ranking third among the peaks of the Rockies. From the camp at the river the Pike men had travelled south, and built their stockade about five miles up the Conejos (Rabbits) River, which enters the Rio Grande from the west. Did he know this to be the Rio Grande del Norte, or did he really think it to be the Red River? Why did he stop in what was certainly Spanish territory? Did he wish to be captured? Or did he only take a chance? Historians have puzzled over this ever since.