Thus Pike's explorations would take in all the great central region lying between the waters of the Red and Platte Rivers and the Rocky Mountains, which to-day is perhaps the most fertile and populous of all the Great West. But Pike's plans were doomed to meet failure, and he himself to sufferings which a man of weaker mould would have sunk under. As it was, they served to bring out those splendid qualities which raised him to the rank of general at the age of thirty-three, and made his name renowned in our military annals. On the 15th of November he came in sight of the lofty Spanish Peaks. Soon the diminishing river he was following buried itself among the hills, where it was lost to view. Thinking thus to get a better idea of the country round him, Pike set out on a prospecting tour, in the course of which he climbed the elevated peak now so fitly bearing his own name, and saw the matchless view outspread from its summit. Winter had now set in. Day by day difficulties multiplied. The streams were frozen up or buried in snow-drifts, so that it was next to impossible to follow them into the ravines which gave them birth. Where to look for the sources of Red River, Pike knew not. Decoyed among the hills, till all bearings were lost, his search for it was in vain. Beaten back, but not dismayed, he then spent days in trying to recover the trail made by the Spaniards in going from Santa Fé to the Platte. It was obliterated by frost and snow. Baffled everywhere, his party wandered to and fro like lost men, often without food or shelter, but directed and encouraged to new efforts by their unconquerable leader. [Illustration: PIKE'S PEAK.] At last, when nearly spent, the party reached the banks of a stream which Pike believed to be the one he was in search of. One can hardly realize to-day this desperate struggle for life as taking place among the pleasure-grounds of Colorado. Men and animals being broken down with fatigue, and all in danger of perishing for want of the necessaries of life, Pike resolved to send to Santa Fé for the help without which he could not stir from the place where he then was. Dr. Robinson offered himself to go on this errand. He was one of the strongest men of the party, and second only to Pike as a hunter. The hopes of the explorers went with him. When he had gone, all who could still work were set to building a block-house, for shelter or defence. One day while Pike was out hunting, two strangers rode up to him. They had come from Santa Fé. Robinson had safely arrived, and would soon be heard from. Feeling no mistrust of them, Pike took these strangers back to his camp. To his surprise he then learned that he was but two days' journey from Santa Fé.