Spain's Expedition Missed American Explorers

In August 1804, shortly after American explorers Meriwether Lewis and William Clark began leading the Corps of Discovery through the Louisiana Purchase, Spain sent a 52-person armed force north from Santa Fe, New Mexico, to intercept and imprison the entire expedition. American General James Wilkinson had warned Spanish officials that the expedition was crossing territory claimed by Spain. Two men named Pedro Vial and Jose Jarvet led the force to a Pawnee settlement on the Platte River in central Nebraska, where they learned that Lewis and Clark had passed through many days earlier. The Spanish mission failed without ever reaching its target.

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