[II-42] The "front only," a phrase italicized in the original, means that only the vanguard of the army met the insolent Pawnees. This probably consisted of Pike, Robinson, and Vasquez; the rest of the invading forces, being 13 rank and file, main column and rearguard combined, having not yet come up to engage the enemy. [II-43] The Huerfano (Orphan) r., marked "2nd Fork" on Pike's map, is passed to-day without remark--no doubt Pike was thinking more of Pawnees than of geography. In consequence of the fracas, little progress was made; probably less than 17 m., as we see by the mileage assigned to the 23d. Camp can be set little if any beyond the site of old Fort Reynolds, which stood on the S. bank of the river, about opposite the mouth of Black Squirrel or Chico cr. This falls in from the N., on a course parallel with that of Fountain r.; it arises by several heads in the Arkansaw divide, N. E. of Colorado Springs, opposite heads of Kiowa and Bijou creeks (branches of the South Platte); at its mouth is Chico sta. (Nyburg), on the N. side of the Arkansaw, 12 m. E. of Pueblo. Nearly opposite the mouth of the Huerfano is Booneville; this locality used to be a regular camping-ground on the old Cherokee trail, and here was a ford across the Arkansaw, opposite Charles Audebee's (or Autobee's) house. [II-44] Pike's Third Fork, charted "3d Fork," is the San Carlos or St. Charles r. His Grand Forks is the confluence of Fountain r. with the Arkansaw, at present city of Pueblo--perhaps the best known place where we have found him since the Expedition started. The Charles arises in the Wet mts., where also heads its main branch, called Greenhorn r., as in fact the Charles itself often used to be. Their streams unite in the prairie 8 m. S. of Pueblo, and fall into the Arkansaw 7 m. E. of that city, or about halfway to Fort Reynolds. It was in this vicinity that the old Cherokee trail forked, the right-hand road taking up toward the gold diggings, while the other kept on to Pueblo. The Greenhorn mt., about which the San Carlos heads, has an ascertained altitude of 12,230 feet. Fountain r. is still called Fontaine r. by those who prefer French to English, and used to be more elaborately styled La Rivière de la Fontaine qui Bouille, River of the Boiling Spring--not that the water is hot, but that it bubbles as it wells out of the rocks, as if it were boiling. "This spring," says Marcy, Pra. Trav. 1859, p. 300, "or, rather, springs, as there are two, both of which boil up out of solid rock, are among the greatest natural curiosities that I have ever seen. The water is strongly impregnated with salts, but is delightful to the taste, and somewhat similar to the Congress water." But before General Marcy's time the springs had become noted. On the 17th of July, 1843, they were visited by Frémont, who describes them at length in his Rep., orig. ed. 1845, p. 117; Mr. Charles Preuss, of his party,