Pike immediately ordered his flag to be taken down, for he considered he had committed trespass. From the Spanish point of view he had been a trespasser ever since he left the Missouri, and had he been on Red River it would have made no difference to them. As soon as he consented to go to Santa Fé to visit the governor, Don Ignacio ordered his men to supply the Americans with blankets and provisions, and from this time on they were comfortably fed again. The next day Pike discovered the agreeable Don Ignacio writing a letter addressed to the Governor, thus proving that he was not himself going on with Pike, and that the whole American company were really under arrest. They would not have been able to resist, anyhow, in their destitute condition. It was too late to change circumstances, so Pike went with the escort down the river. On the road at one of the villages Baptiste LaLande tried to play the spy upon them, but did not succeed. Arriving at Santa Fé, Governor Allencaster treated Pike politely, but he never swerved from his purpose of securing all of Pike's papers to send to headquarters. The conversation with the Governor was carried on in French, a language which neither appears to have wielded fluently. "You came to reconnoitre our country?" said the Governor. "I marched to reconnoitre my own," said Pike. "In what character are you?" asked the Governor. [Illustration: Vegetation of the South-West. Photograph by F. S. Dellenbaugh.] "In my proper character, an officer of the United States Army," replied Pike. Here he met Pursley, who had been nearly two years in Santa Fé, and who told him he had found gold on the head of the Platte, and had carried some of it about with him in his shot pouch for months, till he believed he would never again reach civilisation and threw it away. This is the first American mention of gold existing in that region. He told the Spaniards about it, and they wanted him to show the way, but he concluded it was on American territory, and also that such a discovery might interfere with his leaving the country. Copper mining was going on in New Mexico at a place down the river below Socorro. All the Americans were treated well at Santa Fé, and presently were sent under escort to headquarters of General Salcedo, at Chihuahua. The commander of the troop was Malgares, the same who had made the fruitless tour to the Pawnee country to intercept Pike. The journey to Chihuahua was most agreeable, for Pike and Dr. Robinson had become well acquainted at Santa Fé with Malgares and had found him a delightful personality. Robinson says, "He was a gentleman, a soldier, and one of the most gallant men you ever knew," consequently, excepting the fact that they were prisoners, the route southward, in the splendid sunny air of New Mexico and Old, was agreeable enough. The Americans were everywhere well received by persons in authority, and there was nothing to complain of in this respect.