=Captain Becknell the First Trader.= Although a few earlier trips were made, the trade with Santa Fe really began in the year 1822 with the journey of Captain Becknell, of Missouri. He had started out the year before to trade with the Indians, and had gone on with a party of Mexican rangers to Santa Fe where he sold his small supply of merchandise so profitably that he decided to try again on a larger scale. In 1822 he took about thirty men and five thousand dollars’ worth of merchandise. His success encouraged others, and a regular trade with Santa Fe was soon established. [Illustration: SCENES IN EARLY SANTA FE. Left, a street scene. Upper right, an adobe house. Lower right, the old “Palace,” used by the Spanish and Mexican authorities as government headquarters for about two centuries. It was in this building that Pike was held prisoner.] =Merchandise Carried on Pack Mules=. For several years most of the transportation along the Trail was done with pack mules. A caravan of pack mules usually numbered from fifty to two hundred, each animal carrying about three hundred pounds of merchandise. From the earliest times the Mexicans had used pack mules as a means of transportation, and were skilled in handling them. For this reason the American traders usually employed Mexicans for the work of the pack train. The average rate of travel of a mule train was from twelve to fifteen miles a day. Since the Trail was nearly eight hundred miles long, fifty to sixty days were required for the trip. =Wagons Used on the Trail=. Probably the first time that wagons were used was in 1824, when a company of traders left Missouri with twenty-five wagons and a train of pack mules. This experiment was so satisfactory that the use of wagons soon became general and mules were used less and less as pack animals. =The Traders and the Indians=. Travel over the Santa Fe Trail rapidly increased, and the history of those days is filled with stories of exciting adventure, of danger, of privation, and of deeds of courage. The source of greatest danger and excitement was the Indians, for they did not take kindly to the white men’s use of their hunting grounds. For several years the traders crossed the plains in small parties, each man taking only two or three hundred dollars’ worth of goods, and they were seldom molested. But peace did not last long. The Indians soon learned more about the journeys of the traders and how to estimate the value of their stock. Also, many of the traders considered every Indian a deadly enemy and killed all that fell into their power simply because some wrong was known to have been committed by Indians. This treatment tended to stir up the hatred of the red men and to make them watch every opportunity for revenge.