was the offering to him of an important trust without
solicitation on his part. Immediately on arriving at Taos, he wrote
an answer to the authorities at Washington, in which he expressed
his willingness to serve the government, and the pleasure he felt
in accepting the office; at the same time he sent the necessary bond
required of persons who hold this appointment.

Hardly had Kit Carson been ushered into his new duties before the
Jiccarilla Apaches, who formed one of the tribes of his agency, began
to show new signs of dissatisfaction by committing various kinds of
outrages on the property and lives of the citizens of the northern
part of New Mexico. To arrest them in their career and make them
amenable for the crimes they had already committed, Lieutenant Bell,
of the 2d Regiment of United States dragoons, was sent in quest of
them. He found them on the Red River, and at once commenced operations
against them. At first, these red men were equally ready to break a
lance in combat with their foes; but, after the soldiers had made two
charges and penetrated through and through their ranks, they were,
although in superior numbers, glad to give up the mastership of the
field, and run away. In this fight, the Apaches lost, by his being
killed, one of their great chiefs, besides many warriors. On the side
of the soldiers, two men were killed and several seriously wounded.

A short time after the news of this skirmish had reached Taos,
Kit Carson found it necessary, in order to attend to some official
business, to proceed to Santa Fe; but, just as he was on the point of
setting out, he was informed that a large party of these Jiccarilla
Apaches had recently arrived at a place in the mountains only about
twenty miles from Taos, and were there encamped. With the view of
pacifying them if it was possible, Kit Carson immediately
posted thither; and, with no small degree of peril attending his
movements--for he went unattended, and among Indians who were at the
time very bitter against the whites--he confronted their "head men" in
their den. He needed no introduction, for, during many years, he had
been well known to them. Therefore he proceeded, at once, to business.
After passing through the usual Indian salutations, he commenced by
haranguing them, in a style that most pleases their fancy, thereby
fixing their attention on what he was saying. Among other things, he
forewarned them that the course they were pursuing, if persi