life
better suited to his tastes. Money-getting had no charms for him.
Had he chosen to accept some of the offers made him while then in San
Francisco, he could easily have amassed an immense fortune. But his
home had now the greater allurements, and a legitimate business gave
him the certainty of comfort. The power merely which wealth assumes,
Kit Carson never has desired to grasp.

The time had nearly arrived for the appearance of Maxwell. He finally
joined Kit Carson, when the two immediately engaged in the very
profitable work of disposing of their sheep. The market proved to be
quite active--so much so that they disposed of their entire flock at
high cash values without the least difficulty. The speculation thus
proved to be highly satisfactory to all concerned. In a monetary point
of view, the adventure proved to be the most fortunate in which
Kit Carson had been engaged. Heretofore, money had been a second
consideration with Kit Carson. He had directed his energies and
attention to almost everything, or at least to many things besides its
accumulation.

The sums which he had received for the important services rendered
both to government officers and private individuals, had been
expended on the wants of his family and on his suffering friends and
countrymen. A trifling amount had always sufficed to satisfy his own
immediate desires. The calls upon his purse, at the end of each year
had left, therefore, but little which he could call his own. The snug
sum now at his disposal, Kit Carson determined to lay by; and serving
as a nucleus, around it, he has since accumulated enough amply to
supply those comforts which will tend, in his old age, to make him
happy. Maxwell and Carson decided to return to their homes by the
southern route which runs through the country on and adjacent to the
Rio Gila. Maxwell determined to take a steamer down the coast as far
as Los Angelos, distant from San Francisco about three hundred and
fifty miles, and used his best endeavors to persuade his friend Kit
Carson to accompany him. In this however, he failed. Already one
cruise over a part of the ocean route which Maxwell contemplated
making, had been made by Kit Carson in 1846, and which had so sickened
him of sea life, that he resolved never to travel on salt water again
while it was in his power to obtain a mule to assist him in journeying
by land. Maxwell, by his water conveyance, reached Los Angelos fifteen
days in advance of Ki