Recollections of Mountain Life.

Position of The Spring.—­The Cache.—­Kit Carson’s Character and
   Appearance.—­Cool Bravery of a Mountain Trapper.—­Untamed Character
   of Many Hunters.—­The Surveyor’s Camp in an Indian
   Territory.—­Terrors from Indians.—­Joe Walker.—­A Mountain
   Man.—­Soda Lake.—­Optical Illusion.—­Camp on Beaver Lake.—­The
   Piyute Chief.—­Conversation with Him.—­An Alarm.—­A Battle.

CHAPTER XVII.

Frontier Desperadoes and Savage Ferocity.

Original Friendliness of the Indians.—­The River Pirates, Culbert
   and Magilbray.—­Capture of Beausoliel.—­His Rescue by the Negro
   Cacasotte.—­The Cave in the Rock.—­The Robber Mason.—­His
   Assassination.—­Fate of the Assassins.—­Hostility of the
   Apaches.—­Expedition of Lieutenant Davidson.—­Carson’s Testimony in
   his Favor.—­Flight of the Apaches.

CHAPTER XVIII.

The Last Days of Kit Carson.

The Hunting Party.—­Profits of Sheep Raising.—­Governmental
   Appointment.—­Carson’s Talk with the Apaches.—­His Home in
   Taos.—­His Character.—­Death of Christopher Carson.

CHAPTER XIX.

The Last Hours of Kit Carson.

CHRISTOPHER CARSON.

CHAPTER I.

Early Training.

   Birth of Christopher Carson.—­Perils of the Wilderness.—­Necessary
   Cautions.—­Romance of the Forest.—­The Far West.—­The
   Encampment.—­The Cabin and the Fort.—­Kit an Apprentice.—­The
   Alarm.—­Destruction of a Trading Band.—­The Battle and the
   Flight.—­Sufferings of the Fugitives.—­Dreadful Fate of Mr.
   Schenck.—­Features of the Western Wilderness.—­The March.

Christopher Carson, whose renown as Kit Carson has reached almost every ear in the country, was born in Madison county, Kentucky, on the 24th of December, 1809.  Large portions of Kentucky then consisted of an almost pathless wilderness, with magnificent forests, free from underbrush, alive with game, and with luxuriant meadows along the river banks, inviting the settler’s cabin and the plough.

There were then many Indians traversing those wilds.  The fearless emigrants, who ventured to rear their huts in such solitudes, found it necessary ever to be prepared for an attack.

But very little reliance could be placed even in the friendly protestations of the vagabond savages, ever prowling about, and almost as devoid of intelligence or conscience, as the wolves which at midnight were heard howling around the settler’s door.  The family of Mr. Carson occupied a log cabin, which was bullet-proof, with portholes through which their rifles could command every approach.  Women and children were alike taught the use of the rifle, that in case of an attack by any blood-thirsty gang, the whole family might resolve itself into a military garrison.  Not a tree or stump was left, within musket shot of the house, behind which an Indian could secrete himself.