plateau, more than
a mile above the sea level, with another snow capped mountain rising a
mile higher. The climate is delightful and the supply of water from the
springs and mountains is of the finest quality.

Santa Fe, when first visited by the Spaniards in 1542, was a populous
Indian pueblo. It has been the capital of New Mexico for nearly two
hundred and fifty years. The houses of the ancient town are made of
adobe, one story high, and the streets are unpaved, narrow, crooked and
ill looking. The inhabitants are of a low order, scarcely entitled to
be ranked above the half civilized, though of late years the infusion of
western life and rugged civilization has given an impetus and character
to the place for which, through three centuries, it waited in vain.

The company to which young Kit Carson attached himself, was strongly
armed and it made the perilous journey, across rivers, mountains and
prairies, through a country infested with fierce Indians, without the
loss of one of their number. This immunity was due to their vigilance
and knowledge of the ways of the hostiles who, it may be said, were on
all sides, from the beginning to the end of their journey.

After reaching Santa Fe, Carson left the party and went to Taos, a small
station to the north of Santa Fe. There he stayed through the winter of
1826-27, at the home of a veteran pioneer, from whom he gained not only
a valuable knowledge of the country and its people, but became familiar
with the Spanish language--an attainment which proved invaluable to
him in after years. In the spring, he joined a party which set out
for Missouri, but before reaching its destination, another company of
traders were met on their way to Santa Fe. Young Carson joined them, and
some days later was back again in the quaint old capital of New Mexico.

The youth's engagement ended with his arrival in the town, but there
was nothing indolent in the nature of Carson, who immediately engaged
himself as teamster to a company about to start to El Paso, on the Rio
Grande, near the frontier of New Mexico. He did not stay long before
drifting back to Santa Fe, and finally to Taos, where he hired out as
a cook during the following winter, but had not wrought long, when
a wealthy trader, learning how well Carson understood the Spanish
language, engaged him as interpreter.

This duty compelled the youth to make another long journey to El Paso
and Chihuahua, the latter being the capital o