Note I'-1 — Chapter I · ITINERARY: THROUGH NEW MEXICO ON THE RIO GRANDE TO EL PASO, FEB. 27TH-MAR. 21ST, 1807.

The Mexican Tour trips at the start with misstatements which must have puzzled many a reader, as they did the present editor. Reference to p. 510 will show that yesterday, Feb. 26th, Pike "went up the river about 12 miles." He does not say what river; but as he was on the Conejos, we naturally take that to be the one he ascended that day—and we are right. But to-day he speaks of "ascending the Rio del Norte five miles more," implying that yesterday's march was up this river, as to-day's is said to be. Then we are confronted by the statement that to-day's course is "S. 60° W."—a direction in which it is impossible to ascend the Rio del Norte to any distance. The difficulty vanishes at once, if for "Rio del Norte" we read Rio Conejos. This emendation is confirmed by Pike's map, which contradicts the above text, showing no détour up the Rio Grande; the dotted trail goes from the stockade directly up Rio Conejos, to a point on its N. or left bank marked "1st. Camp"—i. e., the "place of deposit" to which the Spaniards took him on the 26th. This place, where the Spaniards had established themselves when they sent for Pike, was on the direct road by which they had come from Santa Fé, and not far from the present town of Conejos, though probably somewhat further down the river of that name. The road which now crosses the river at the town holds the course of a trail which ran N. to the Saguache mts. and through Cochetope Pass to the Gunnison and Grand rivers, and so on. This was formerly much used by the Utes en route to Santa Fé, and was no doubt in existence in 1807. Conejos, seat of the county so named, is a very well-known place on the river, in the plain between the San Luis hills on the E. and the foothills of the San Juan range on the W.; it is directly under Prospect Peak (9,900 feet; air-line 8 m.). Roads concenter here from various directions; that hence to Fort Garland, 35¼ m. N. E., crosses the place where Pike had his stockade; that S. W. to old Fort Lowell is 49½ m. Some small places in the vicinity of Conejos are called Guadalupe, Servilleta, San Rafael, San José, and Brazos. The route pursued hence is the old main road S. down the Rio Grande, but at a considerable distance W. of that river for the present (along long. 106° W. nearly).