.--Joe Walker.--A Mountain
Man.--Soda Lake.--Optical Illusion.--Camp on Beaver Lake.--The
Piyute Chief.--Conversation with Him.--An Alarm.--A Battle.

CHAPTER XVII.

Frontier Desperadoes and Savage Ferocity.

Original Friendliness of the Indians.--The River Pirates, Culbert
and Magilbray.--Capture of Beausoliel.--His Rescue by the Negro
Cacasotte.--The Cave in the Rock.--The Robber Mason.--His
Assassination.--Fate of the Assassins.--Hostility of the
Apaches.--Expedition of Lieutenant Davidson.--Carson's Testimony in
his Favor.--Flight of the Apaches.

CHAPTER XVIII.

The Last Days of Kit Carson.

The Hunting Party.--Profits of Sheep Raising.--Governmental
Appointment.--Carson's Talk with the Apaches.--His Home in
Taos.--His Character.--Death of Christopher Carson.

CHAPTER XIX.

The Last Hours of Kit Carson.

CHRISTOPHER CARSON.

CHAPTER I.

Early Training.

Birth of Christopher Carson.--Perils of the Wilderness.--Necessary
Cautions.--Romance of the Forest.--The Far West.--The
Encampment.--The Cabin and the Fort.--Kit an Apprentice.--The
Alarm.--Destruction of a Trading Band.--The Battle and the
Flight.--Sufferings of the Fugitives.--Dreadful Fate of Mr.
Schenck.--Features of the Western Wilderness.--The March.

Christopher Carson, whose renown as Kit Carson has reached almost every
ear in the country, was born in Madison county, Kentucky, on the 24th of
December, 1809. Large portions of Kentucky then consisted of an almost
pathless wilderness, with magnificent forests, free from underbrush, alive
with game, and with luxuriant meadows along the river banks, inviting the
settler's cabin and the plough.

There were then many Indians traversing those wilds. The fearless
emigrants, who ventured to rear their huts in such solitudes, found it
necessary ever to be prepared for an attack.

But very little reliance could be placed even in the friendly
protestations of the vagabond savages, ever prowling about, and almost as
devoid of intelligence or conscience, as the wolves which at midnight were
heard howling around the settler's door. The family of Mr. Carson occupied
a log cabin, which was bullet-proof, with portholes through which their
rifles could command every approach. Women and children were alike taught
the use of the rifle, that in case of an attack by any blood-thirsty gang,
the whole family might resolve itself into a military gar