Note III-46 — Chapter III · ITINERARY, CONCLUDED: IN THE MOUNTAINS OF COLORADO ON HEADWATERS OF THE ARKANSAW AND RIO GRANDE, DECEMBER 1ST, 1806-FEBRUARY 26TH, 1807.

My editorial function becomes extremely distasteful, with Pike's reiterated insistence upon affecting to believe himself upon the Red r., and expecting us to believe him. See note44, and imagine Dr. Robinson starting off alone to walk from the Red r. into Santa Fé! I have blinked the business thus far, but I cannot keep my eyes shut to the end of this chapter, as there is worse to come in the miserable straits to which Captain Pike reduces himself through his awkwardness and inexperience in telling lies. He bluffs the thing through, to be sure; but at the present juncture he catches himself in the meshes of his own falsification. For, supposing he had really been on the Red r., as he declared he believed; he had crossed that river, and gone 5 m. up a stream on the other side of it; so he was absolutely in Spanish territory, and this he must have known perfectly well. On the 22d he says, p. 507, that he "began to think it was time we received a visit from the Spaniards or their emissaries," which shows that he was expecting to be caught. When they come, he makes a show of resistance by blustering a little, then hauls down his flag and goes with them peaceably enough—probably not only a willing captive, but one who had all along intended and desired to be taken into the enemy's country for purposes of his own. And back of this sorry scene there looms the sinister shadow of General James Wilkinson, the traitor and conspirator with Aaron Burr—let the curtain fall.