the Mexicans were a hundred in number. The rest were all
taken prisoners except two, who escaped and bore the news
to General Armijo, who was encamped with a large force
at Cold Spring, one hundred and forty miles beyond.

Kit Carson figured conspicuously in this fight, or, rather, immediately
afterward. His recital differs somewhat from Gregg's account, but the
stories substantially agree. Kit said that in April, previously to the
assault upon Armijo's caravan, he had hired out as hunter to Bent's and
Colonel St. Vrain's train caravan, which was then making its annual
tour eastwardly. When he arrived at the crossing of Walnut Creek,[22] he
found the encampment of Captain Philip St. George Cooke, of the United
States army, who had been detailed with his command to escort the
caravans to the New Mexican boundary. His force consisted of four troops
of dragoons. The captain informed Carson that coming on behind him from
the States was a caravan belonging to a very wealthy Mexican.

It was a richly loaded train, and in order to insure its better
protection while passing through that portion of the country infested
by the blood-thirsty Comanches and Apaches, the majordomo in charge
had hired one hundred Mexicans as a guard. The teamsters and others
belonging to the caravan had heard that a large body of Texans were
lying in wait for them, and intended to murder and plunder them in
retaliation for the way Armijo had treated some Texan prisoners he had
got in his power at Santa Fe some time before. Of course, it was the
duty of the United States troops to escort this caravan to the New
Mexico line, but there their duty would end, as they had no authority to
cross the border. The Mexicans belonging to the caravan were afraid they
would be at the mercy of the Texans after they had parted company with
the soldiers, and when Kit Carson met them, they, knowing the famous
trapper and mountaineer well, asked him to take a letter to Armijo,
who was then governor of New Mexico, and resided in Santa Fe, for which
service they would give him three hundred dollars in advance. The letter
contained a statement of the fears they entertained, and requested the
general to send Mexican troops at once to meet them.

Carson, who was then not blessed with much money, eagerly accepted the
task, and immediately started on the trail for Bent's Fort, in company
with another old mountaineer and bosom friend named Owens