e. To procure such a hat as he felt he had
earned, required several months; but one day the Indian Agent at Taos
received a superb piece of head gear within which was the following
inscription:

AT 2 O'CLOCK.

KIT CARSON, FROM

MAJOR CARLETON.

Dr. Peters adds that a gentleman who was a member of the expedition
subjected Carson some years later to a similar test, and he came within
five minutes of naming the precise time when a band of fugitives was
overtaken.

Having done all that was possible, Major Carleton returned with his
command to Taos and Carson resumed his duties as Indian Agent. Some
months later, another expedition was organized against the Apaches but
it accomplished nothing. In the latter part of the summer Carson started
on a visit to the Utahs. They were under his especial charge and he held
interviews with them several times a year, they generally visiting him
at his ranche, which they were glad to do, as they were sure of being
very hospitably treated.

This journey required a horseback ride of two or three hundred miles,
a great portion of which was through the Apache country. These Indians
were in such a resentful mood towards the whites that they would have
been only too glad to wrench the scalp of Father Kit from his crown; but
he knew better than to run into any of their traps. He was continually
on the lookout, and more than once detected their wandering bands in
time to give them the slip. He was equally vigilant and consequently
equally fortunate on his return.

Carson found when he met the Indians in council that they had good
cause for discontent. One of their leading warriors had been waylaid
and murdered by a small party of Mexicans. The officials who were
with Carson promised that the murderers should be given up. It was the
intention of all that justice should be done, but, as was too often the
case, it miscarried altogether. Only one of the murderers was caught and
he managed to escape and was never apprehended again.

To make matters worse, some of the blankets which the Superintendent had
presented the Indians a short while before, proved to be infected with
small pox and the dreadful disease carried off many of the leading
warriors of the tribe. More than one Apache was resolute in declaring
the proceeding premeditated on the part of the whites. The result was
the breaking out of a most formidable Indian war. The Muache band of
Utahs, under their most distinguished chieftai