in
the vicinity of the Rock and were compelled to retreat to it for safety.
There, without water, and with but a small quantity of provisions, they
were besieged by their blood-thirsty foes for two days, when a party of
traders coming on the Trail relieved them from their perilous situation
and the presence of their enemy. There were several graves on its summit
when I first saw Pawnee Rock; but whether they contained the bones of
savages or those of white men, I do not know.

Carson related to me another terrible fight that took place at the rock,
when he first became a trapper. He was not a participant, but knew the
parties well. About twenty-nine years ago, Kit, Jack Henderson, who
was agent for the Ute Indians, Lucien B. Maxwell, General Carleton and
myself were camped halfway up the rugged sides of Old Baldy, in the
Raton Range. The night was intensely cold, although in midsummer, and
we were huddled around a little fire of pine knots, more than seven
thousand feet above the level of the sea, close to the snow limit.

Kit, or "the General," as every one called him, was in a good humour for
talking, and we naturally took advantage of this to draw him out; for
usually he was the most reticent of men in relating his own exploits.
A casual remark made by Maxwell opened Carson's mouth, and he said he
remembered one of the "worst difficults" a man ever got into.[63] So he
made a fresh corn-shuck cigarette, and related the following; but the
names of the old trappers who were the principals in the fight I have
unfortunately forgotten.

Two men had been trapping in the Powder River country during one winter
with unusually good luck, and they got an early start with their furs,
which they were going to take to Weston, on the Missouri, one of the
principal trading points in those days. They walked the whole distance,
driving their pack-mules before them, and experienced no trouble
until they struck the Arkansas valley at Pawnee Rock. There they were
intercepted by a war-party of about sixty Pawnees. Both of the trappers
were notoriously brave and both dead shots. Before they arrived at the
rock, to which they were finally driven, they killed two of the Indians,
and had not themselves received a scratch. They had plenty of powder, a
pouch full of balls each, and two good rifles. They also had a couple of
jack-rabbits for food in case of a siege, and the perpendicular walls
of the front of the rock made them a natural fortif