t the men would follow him; but they only stood
in gaping wonderment at his bravery, not daring to venture after him.
He did not discover his dilemma until he had advanced so far alone that
escape seemed impossible. But here his coolness, which always served him
in the moment of supreme danger, saved his scalp. As the savages turned
on him, he threw himself on the off side of his horse, Indian fashion,
for he was as expert in a trick of that kind as the savages themselves,
and rode back to the little command. He had six arrows in his horse and
a bullet through his coat!

The Indians in those days were poorly armed, and did not long follow up
the pursuit after Carson; for, observing the squad of mounted Mexicans,
they retreated to the top of a rocky prominence, from which point they
could watch every movement of the whites. Carson was raging at the
apathy, not to say cowardice, of the men who had sent for him to join
them, but he kept his counsel to himself; for he was anxious to save
the captured women and children. He talked to the men very earnestly,
however, exhorting them not to flinch in the duty they had come so
far to perform, and for which he had come at their call. This had
the desired effect; for he induced them to make a charge, which was
gallantly performed, and in such a brave manner that the Indians fled,
scarcely making an effort to defend themselves. Five of their number
were killed at the furious onset of the Mexicans, but unfortunately, as
he anticipated, only the murdered corpses of the women and children were
the result of the victory.

President Polk appointed Carson to a second lieutenancy,[48] and his
first official duty was conducting fifty soldiers under his command
through the country of the Comanches, who were then at war with the
whites. A fight occurred at a place known as Point of Rocks,[49] where
on arriving, Carson found a company of volunteers for the Mexican War,
and camped near them. About dawn the next morning, all the animals of
the volunteers were captured by a band of Indians, while the herders
were conducting them to the river-bottom to graze. The herders had no
weapons, and luckily, in the confusion attending the bold theft, ran
into Carson's camp; and as he, with his men, were ready with their
rifles, they recaptured the oxen, but the horses were successfully
driven off by their captors.

Several of the savages were mortally wounded by Carson's prompt charge,
as signs after t