University of Virginia Library

6671. PIKE (General Z. M.), Mission.—

I think that the truth as to Pike's mission might
be so simply stated as to need no argument to
show that (even during the suspension of our
claims to the eastern border of the Rio Norte)
his getting on it was a mere error, which ought
to have called for the setting him right, instead
of forcing him through the interior country.—
To James Madison. Washington ed. v, 294. Ford ed., x, 195.
(M. May. 1808)