rt that could not be happy were he not
daily doing some equitable and humane act to ameliorate the condition
of the Indian race. The strict duties of an Indian agent require that
he should receive and disburse certain sums of money in purchasing
such minor articles as the tribes over which he is placed may require.
He has to give monthly and quarterly reports to the General Government
and the superintendent of the Territory he is in, of the condition,
crimes, practices, habits, intentions, health, and such other things
as pertain to the economy of his charge. How seldom is this knowledge
properly attained and how often are these things intrusted to clerks
while the principal receives the emoluments of his office! Of the
details which make the Indian happy or miserable, he, too frequently,
knows but little about, except from routine. The agent, if he be a fit
man, and the Indian is by no means slow in forming his estimate of
the person he has to deal with, is received into the confidence of
the tribes, when, after sufficient trial, he has been proved worthy of
their esteem and friendship. When once he has gained a foothold in the
affections of the savages, his task assumes the condition of pleasure
rather than severe labor; but, if he is ignorant of the minute
workings of his business, he is generally imposed upon and always
disliked to such a degree that no honorable man would retain such a
position longer than to find out his unpopularity and the causes of
it. The Indian agent, to perform his duties well, must be continually
at his agency house, or among the Indians, in order that he may
personally attend to their wants and protect them from the mercenary
visits and contact of outside intruders, who are continually watching
their opportunity, like hungry wolves, to prey upon and cheat them in
every shape and form. In fine, he is to assist the superintendent in
managing the entire Indian family. .

The business of Indian agent, which he strictly and conscientiously
attends to, keeps Kit Carson employed during the most of his time;
yet, as often as once each year, he manages affairs so that he can
spend a few weeks in the exciting scenes of the chase. On these
excursions, which are eagerly looked forward to by his friends, he is
accompanied by the crack shots of the country, including his Indian
and Mexican friends. On horseback and on open prairies, Kit Carson is
indisputably the greatest hunter in America, if indeed he