Footsore, weary, and half-starved though he and his followers were, Pike paused but long enough to ascertain the exact position of the source of the Arkansas, before he struck across country to work out the second portion of the problem given to him to solve, namely, how and where did the most southerly of the western branches of the Mississippi rise, and what was its course before entering the now well-known lowlands of Louisiana? Under the impression that the Red River must spring into being almost simultaneously with, and certainly at no very great distance from, its sister tributary the Arkansas, the young commander led his exhausted men in a southerly direction, and presently came upon a broad stream flowing in a south-easterly direction. Surely this must be what he was seeking; and, elated at the rapidity of his imaginary success, Pike erected a fort on the banks of the newly-found river, in token that it henceforth belonged to the United States. The next step was to embark on the stream, which, as the explorers hoped, would soon bring them down to the outpost of Natchitoches, near its junction with the Father of Waters. All went well for several days. Visits from Spaniards from the South only served to strengthen the impression that the Red River was found, but on the 26th February a terrible revelation was made by the arrival of a party of Europeans from Santa Fé, one of the Spanish stations in New Mexico, who informed Pike that a party of Utah Indians, members of the great untamed Shoshone family, were about to attack him, and that he was infringing the laws of the Mexican Government by navigating the Rio Bravo del Norte without permission. The report of the intentions of the Utahs seems scarcely to have troubled Pike, but at the mention of the Rio Bravo del Norte, he exclaimed, “What! is not this the Red River?” “No, sir,” replied the spokesman of the detachment from Santa Fé; “it is the Rio del Norte.” “Immediately,” adds Pike in his own account of this bitter disappointment, “I ordered my flag to be taken down and rolled up, feeling how sensibly I had committed myself.” He was right; the Spaniards had come out to make the intruders their prisoners, for New Mexico, Arizona, and Texas had not yet been ceded to the United States. In vain Pike pleaded that he had been acting in ignorance; he and his people were compelled to accompany the escort to Santa Fé, and though they were treated most courteously and hospitably, rather as guests than as captives, all hope of reaching the Red River had to be abandoned.