Correspondence regarding the desired repatriation of historically valuable documents taken from Lieutenant Zebulon Montgomery Pike during the course of his 1806-1807 expeditions in New Spain (1535-1821). Letter dated July 16, 1910 is from U.S. Acting Secretary of State Francis Mairs Huntington Wilson to Colorado Representative Franklin Eli Brooks (Colorado Springs). Letter copy dated May 17, 1910 is from Henry Lane Wilson, United States Ambassador to Mexico, to Enrique Clay Creel, Mexican Ambassador to the United States. Letter copy dated June 8, 1910 is from Enrique C. Creel to Henry Lane Wilson. Correspondence refers to historian Dr. Herbert E. Bolton of the Carnegie Institution of Washington having found the Pike documents in the Archives of the Mexican Government during 1907-1908.

Description: 3 volumes (bound together). This collection includes three journals bound into one volume: two by William Dunbar and one by Zebulon Pike. Both manuscripts by William Dunbar document the expedition up the Red and Ouachita Rivers to the Hot Springs of Arkansas in 1804-1805. The "Journal... to the Mouth of the Red River" (200p.) is the fullest available record of the activities of the expedition from the time of their departure from St. Catharine's Landing on October 16, 1804, until their return to Natchez, Miss., on January 26, 1805. The "Journal of a geometrical survey" includes a record of course and distances as well as a thermometric log and other brief notes. The two are bound together in a volume with Zebulon Montgomery Pike's journal of a voyage to the source of the Mississippi, 1805-1806. The Pike journal documents the expedition to explore the geography of the Mississippi River led by Lt. Zebulon Montgomery Pike in 1805-1806, and his attempts to purchase sites from the Dakota Indians for future military posts, and to bring influential chiefs back to St. Louis for talks. Less a literary masterpiece than a straightforward record in terse military prose, the journal provides a day by day account of the journey and the activities of Pike and his small contingent during this early exploration of present day Minnesota. It was printed with variations and omissions in An Account of Expeditions to the Sources of the Mississippi and through the Western Parts of Louisiana... (Philadelphia, 1810), and was edited in Donald Jackson, ed., The Journals of Zebulon Pike: with Letters and Related Documents (Norman, Okla., 1966).

General and personal letters from Zebulon M. Pike to George W., Isabel, Maria, and Major Zebulon Pike.

Two handwritten and signed letters. One of these items is dated June 12, 1798 and is addressed to John Wilkins. It certifies that a Joseph Henry of the quarter master department is entitled to compensation for his services. The second item is dated March 1, 1813 and is addressed to M.L. Wolsey. It is a request for sleighs and provisions needed for Pike's regiment during the War of 1812.