[108] At this point Pike reached the Arkansas in October, 1806, on his way to the Rocky Mountains from the Pawnee village on Republican River. Here, also, the Santa Fé trail reached the Arkansas. From Independence and Kansas City the trail followed the divide between the Arkansas and Kansas, crossing the headwaters of the tributaries of the former. Above the Great Bend, the main route followed the river to Bent's Fort, where it forked as already described (see _ante_, note 43). A branch of the trail crossed the river in Gray County, Kansas, and traversed the semi-desert region to the southward, to the upper Cimarron; this branch was known as the Cimarron route. The use of the Santa Fé trail dates from time immemorial, but for purposes of trade was long precarious. It was of considerable commercial importance from the early twenties to the age of railroad building; in some years the value of the goods carried amounted to nearly half a million dollars. See volumes xix and xx of our series.--ED. [109] The Comanche (a word of Spanish origin, but of unknown meaning) were of Shoshoni stock, and roamed a vast territory extending from western Texas and Kansas to the foot of the mountains. They were fierce and predatory, and superb horsemen. Notwithstanding bloody wars and the ravages of small-pox, the tribe numbered probably about ten thousand at the middle of the nineteenth century. A remnant of about fourteen hundred of these tribesmen now lives on the Kiowa reservation, in Oklahoma.--ED. [110] We have since learned, from Major O'Fallon, that _Ietan_, the distinguished Oto partizan, had informed him, within a few days of this date, that he had just then returned from a war excursion in company with a small party of Otoes that he led. And the narration of his adventures satisfactorily proved, that it was he and his party that reduced the Ietan war-party to the condition in which they presented themselves to us.--JAMES. [111] Cow Creek, the largest tributary of the Arkansas between Walnut Creek and the Little Arkansas. It flows from Barton County southeast across Rice County; Hutchinson, seat of Reno County, is at its confluence with the river. The Santa Fé trail crossed the headwaters of several of its tributaries not far from the Great Bend.--ED. [112] The chief branch of the Little Arkansas heads near the northern line of Rice County, traverses the northeast corner of Reno County, and joins several smaller creeks in Harvey County. Thence its course is almost south; Wichita, Sedgwick County, is at its mouth.--ED. [113] Probably Chisholm's Creek, a small Sedgwick County stream.--ED.