reply.  His silence was ominous.  Perhaps it was intended as a warning to Hindman not to encroach too far upon his department; but that is mere conjecture; inasmuch as Pike had not yet seen fit to question outright Hindman’s authority over himself.  As if anticipating an echo from Little Rock of criticisms that were rife elsewhere, he ventured an explanation of his conduct in establishing himself in the extreme southern part of Indian Territory and towards the west and in fortifying on an open prairie, far from any recognized base.[403] He had gone down into the Red River country, he asserted, in order to be near Texas where supplies might be had in abundance and where, since he had no means of defence, he would be safe from attack.  He deplored the seeming necessity of merging his department in another and larger one.  His reasons were probably many but the one reason he stressed was, for present purposes, the best he could have offered.  It was, that the Indians could not be expected to render to him as a subordinate the same obedience they had rendered to him as the chief officer in command.  Were his authority to be superseded in any degree, the Indians would naturally infer that his influence at Richmond had declined, likewise his power to protect them and their interests.

During the night Pike must have pondered deeply

[Footnote 403:  His enemies were particularly scornful of his work in this regard.  They poked fun at him on every possible occasion.  Edwards, in Shelby and His Men, 63, but echoed the general criticism,

“Pike, also a Brigadier, had retreated with his Indian contingent out of North West Arkansas, unpursued, through the Cherokee country, the Chickasaw country, and the country of the Choctaws, two hundred and fifty miles to the southward, only halting on the ‘Little Blue’, an unknown thread of a stream, twenty miles from Red river, where he constructed fortifications on the open prairie, erected a saw-mill remote from any timber, and devoted himself to gastronomy and poetic meditation, with elegant accompaniments...”]

over things omitted from his reply to Hindman and over all that was wanting to make his compliance with Hindman’s instructions full and satisfactory.  On the ninth, his assistant-adjutant, O.F.  Russell, prepared a fairly comprehensive report[404] of the conditions in and surrounding his command.  Pike’s force,[405] so the report stated, was anything but complete.  With Dawson gone, there would be in camp, of Arkansas troops, one company of cavalry and one of artillery and, of Texas, two companies of cavalry.  When men, furloughed for the wheat harvest, should return, there would be “in addition two regiments and one company of cavalry, and one company of artillery, about 80 strong."[406] The withdrawal of white troops from the Territory would be interpreted by the Indians to mean its abandonment.

Of the Indian contingent, Russell had this to say: