lean work which has furnished for the
world a practical knowledge of the western half of the North American
continent. We shall see in the progress of this work whether the
adventures of Kit Carson entitle him to a place in the heart of the
American nation on the same shelf with his compeers.

In that day, the fierce red-man chief scoured the broad prairies, a
petty king in his tribe, a ruler of his wild domain. Bold, haughty,
cautious, wily, unrelenting, revengeful, he led his impassioned
warriors in the chase and to battle. Even to-day, the lurking Indian
foeman is no mean adversary to be laughed and brushed out of the way,
notwithstanding disease, war, assassination and necessary chastisement
have united rapidly to decimate his race, thereby gradually lessening
its power. Thirty years ago the rolling plains were alive with them,
and their numbers alone made them formidable. It is not strange that
the untutored savages of the prairie, like those of their race who
hailed with ungovernable curiosity the landing of the Pilgrims on
Plymouth Rock, should have been attracted by the wonderful inventions
of the white-man intruder. A very short period of time served to turn
this ungovernable curiosity into troublesome thieving. Knowing no law
but their wild traditionary rules, they wrested from the adventurous
pioneer, his rifle, knife, axe, wagon, harness, horse, powder, ball,
flint, watch, compass, cooking utensils, and so forth. The result was,
sanguinary engagements ensued, which led to bitter hostility between
the two races. Doubtless the opinion may be controverted, but it
nevertheless shall be hazarded, that, until the weaker party shall be
exterminated by the stronger, the wild war-whoop, with its keen-edged
knife and death-dealing rifle accompaniments, will continue, from time
to time, to palsy the nerve, and arouse the courage of the pioneer
white man. The Indian, in his attack, no longer showers cloth-yard
arrows upon his foe. He has learned to kill his adversary with the
voice of thunder and the unseen bullet.

The bold traveller, whose pathway lies over those great highroads
which lead to the Pacific, must still watch for the red man's ambush
by day; and, by night, sleep under the protecting vigilance of the
faithful, quick-sighted sentinel. The savage never forgives his own or
his ancestor's foe. Every generation of them learns from tradition the
trials and exploits of its tribe. From earliest boyhood these form