tures to be encountered in
the boundless West, a party of traders came along, who were on the route
for Santa Fe. This city, renowned in the annals of the West, was the
capital of the Spanish province of New Mexico. It was situated more than
a thousand miles from Missouri, and contained a mongrel population of
about three thousand souls. Goods from the States could be readily sold
there at a profit of one or two hundred per cent. Cotton cloth brought
three dollars a yard.

Captain Pike, upon his return from his exploring tour, brought back quite
glowing accounts of Santa Fe and its surroundings. It was a long and
perilous journey from Missouri. The party was all strongly armed, with
their goods borne in packs upon mules and horses. They expected to live
almost entirely upon the game they could shoot by the way. Kit, purely
from the love of adventure, applied to join them. Gladly was he received.
Though but a boy of eighteen, his stable character, his vigorous strength,
and his training in all the mysteries of frontier life, rendered him an
invaluable acquisition.

The perils to which they were exposed may be inferred from the fate which
some traders encountered soon after Kit Carson's party had accomplished
the journey. There were twelve traders returning from Santa Fe. To avoid
the Indians they took an extreme southern route. Day after day they toiled
along, encountering no savages. It was December, and in that climate mild
and serene. A caravan of twenty horses or mules travelling in single
file, leaves a trail behind which can easily be followed.

Our adventurers were on a treeless prairie, an ocean of land, where
nothing obstructed the view to the remote horizon. One beautiful morning,
just after they had taken their breakfast and resumed their march, they
perceived, not a little to their alarm, some moving object far in the
distance behind. It soon resolved itself into a band of several hundred
Indians, well mounted, painted and decorated in the highest style of
barbaric art. They were thoroughly armed with their deadly bows and arrows
and spears. It was indeed an imposing spectacle as these savage warriors
on their fleet steeds, with their long hair and pennons streaming in the
wind, came down upon them.

The little caravan halted and prepared for defence. There were twelve bold
hearts to encounter several hundred foes on the open prairie. They knew
that the main object of the Indians would be to seize the hors