ath. I first met him at the
house of a mutual friend, not far from Fort Lyon, C.T., late in the Fall
of 1867. He had then recently left the service of the U.S., having been
colonel of a regiment of New-Mexican volunteers during the war of the
rebellion.

"As I was a successful amateur trapper, he threw off all reserve, and
greeted me with more than usual warmth, saying, 'the happiest days of my
life were spent in trapping.' He gave me many practical hints on trapping
and hunting.

"He was then complaining of a pain in his chest, the origin of which he
attributed to a fall received in 1860. It happened while he was descending
a mountain. The declivity was so steep that he led his horse by the
lariat, intending, if the horse fell to throw it from him.

"The horse did fall, and although he let go the lariat, it caught him and
carried him a number of feet, and severely bruised him.

"In the Spring of 1868, he took charge of a party of Ute Indians, and
accompanied them to Washington and other cities, going as far east as
Boston. He consulted a number of physicians while on the trip.

"It was a great tax on his failing strength to make this journey; but he
was ever ready to promote the welfare of the Utes, who regarded him in the
light of a father.

"I saw him in April, 1868. His disease, aneurism of the aorta, had
progressed rapidly; and the tumor pressing on the pneumo-gastric nerves
and trachea, caused frequent spasms of the bronchial tubes which were
exceedingly distressing.

"On the 27th of April, Mrs. Carson died very suddenly, leaving seven
children, the youngest only two weeks old. Mrs. Carson was tall and
spare, and had evidently been a very handsome woman; she was thirty-eight
years old at the time of her death, and he informed me that they had been
married twenty-five years. Her sudden death had a very depressing effect
upon him.

"I called frequently to see him; and as he was living on the south side of
the Arkansas River five miles from Fort Lyon where I was stationed, and
the Spring rise coming on, making the fording difficult, I suggested that
he be brought to my quarters, which was done on the 14th day of May.

"This enabled me to make his condition much more comfortable. In the
interval of his paroxysms, he beguiled the time by relating past
experiences. I read Dr. Peters' book, with the hero for my auditor; from
time to time, he would comment on the incidents of his eventful life.

"It was wonder