Note IV'-16 — Chapter IV · OBSERVATIONS ON NEW SPAIN.[IV'-1]

To correct in detail all such statements would hardly come within the scope of cursory notes, and I usually pass them over, as anyone can easily inform himself of the adjustment required for geographical precision. But in this particular instance it is well to remember that Pike had acquired an erroneous notion of the source of the Yellowstone, from considering the South Platte to be the whole Platte, thus throwing the North Platte out of court. Having no knowledge of this great river, he fancied there was some spot whence he could walk in a day to the source of any one of the four he names—a feat for which the seven-leagued boots of fable would be required: see note5, p. 524. For some particulars concerning the Rio Grande, see note32, p. 642. To the different names which the river had in different regions, add Rio Abajo and Rio Arriba for lower and upper sections, not well defined but conveniently recognized, of Rio del Norte above El Paso. Pike is quite right in the matter of Rio Bravo—a name never applied to the river in any portion of its course which he traversed in New Mexico.