7. How much of Kansas did the Louisiana Purchase include?
8. What Indian tribes lived within the present bounds of Kansas? Locate and tell something of each.
9. When was Kansas Territory organized? How long was this after the Louisiana purchase?
10. What use did the white people make of Kansas during this period?
[Illustration: THE SANTA FE AND OREGON TRAILS, AND EARLY LINES OF RAILROAD, THROUGH KANSAS.]
=Mexico a Century Ago.= Nearly three centuries passed from the time Cortez led the Spaniards into Mexico until Kansas became a part of the United States. During those years Spanish settlements had increased in number until at the time of Pike’s expedition Mexico included most of what is now California, Nevada, Utah, Arizona, New Mexico, and Colorado.
=Old Santa Fe.= Santa Fe, said to be the second oldest city in the United States, was the most important point on the northern frontier of Mexico. In those days it was not like the busy American Santa Fe of to-day. It had about two thousand inhabitants, practically all Spaniards, and they lived in little adobe houses arranged around a public square after the manner of Spanish cities.
=Origin of the Santa Fe Trail.= The “Great American Desert” lay between Santa Fe and the settlements of the western border of the United States. But Captain Pike’s interesting descriptions of the wealth and resources of the Spanish country stirred up enthusiasm, and Americans began to make their way across the plains to trade with the Spaniards. Santa Fe soon became an important trading point for all of northeastern Mexico. The traders, on their journeys to the Spanish city, wore a pathway that crossed the length of Kansas. This pathway came to be called the “Santa Fe Trail.”
=Captain Becknell the First Trader.= Although a few earlier trips were made, the trade with Santa Fe really began in the year 1822 with the journey of Captain Becknell, of Missouri. He had started out the year before to trade with the Indians, and had gone on with a party of Mexican rangers to Santa Fe where he sold his small supply of merchandise so profitably that he decided to try again on a larger scale. In 1822 he took about thirty men and five thousand dollars’ worth of merchandise. His success encouraged others, and a regular trade with Santa Fe was soon established.