After American explorer Zebulon Montgomery Pike (1779-1813) encountered the Colorado mountain peak that bears his name, Spanish authorities decided he had seen enough of their Southwest. Pike and his men had supposedly been sent by Gen. James Wilkinson, the U.S. Army commander at New Orleans, to make friends with the Indians, drive out unlicensed traders, and locate the headwaters of the Arkansas River before returning via the Red River to Natchitoches, Louisiana. Suspicious but hospitable Spaniards detained the party near present Sanford, Colorado, in February 1807 and led them first to Santa Fe and then to Chihuahua City for questioning by authorities. After their release, Pike and his men were escorted across the Rio Grande to San Antonio, then along this road until they reached American soil at Natchitoches. Pike noted their crossing of the San Marcos River on Sunday June 14, 1807, observing that the river was "thirty yards in width; a clear and navigable stream for canoes."