Character of the Native Indian.--The Caravan.--Interesting Incident.--Effects of Cholera.--Commission of Joe Smith.--Snow on the Mountains.--Government Appointment.--Adventure with three Bears.--Journey to Los Angelos.--Mt. St. Bernardino.--The Spring.--Character of Men.--Insubordination Quelled.--Suffering for Water and Relief.--A Talk with Indians. CHAPTER XVI. Recollections of Mountain Life. Position of The Spring.--The Cachè.--Kit Carson's Character and Appearance.--Cool Bravery of a Mountain Trapper.--Untamed Character of Many Hunters.--The Surveyor's Camp in an Indian Territory.--Terrors from Indians.--Joe Walker.--A Mountain Man.--Soda Lake.--Optical Illusion.--Camp on Beaver Lake.--The Piyute Chief.--Conversation with Him.--An Alarm.--A Battle. CHAPTER XVII. Frontier Desperadoes and Savage Ferocity. Original Friendliness of the Indians.--The River Pirates, Culbert and Magilbray.--Capture of Beausoliel.--His Rescue by the Negro Cacasotte.--The Cave in the Rock.--The Robber Mason.--His Assassination.--Fate of the Assassins.--Hostility of the Apaches.--Expedition of Lieutenant Davidson.--Carson's Testimony in his Favor.--Flight of the Apaches. CHAPTER XVIII. The Last Days of Kit Carson. The Hunting Party.--Profits of Sheep Raising.--Governmental Appointment.--Carson's Talk with the Apaches.--His Home in Taos.--His Character.--Death of Christopher Carson. CHAPTER XIX. The Last Hours of Kit Carson. CHRISTOPHER CARSON. CHAPTER I. Early Training. Birth of Christopher Carson.--Perils of the Wilderness.--Necessary Cautions.--Romance of the Forest.--The Far West.--The Encampment.--The Cabin and the Fort.--Kit an Apprentice.--The Alarm.--Destruction of a Trading Band.--The Battle and the Flight.--Sufferings of the Fugitives.--Dreadful Fate of Mr. Schenck.--Features of the Western Wilderness.--The March. Christopher Carson, whose renown as Kit Carson has reached almost every ear in the country, was born in Madison county, Kentucky, on the 24th of December, 1809. Large portions of Kentucky then consisted of an almost pathless wilderness, with magnificent forests, free from underbrush, alive with game, and with luxuriant meadows along the river banks, inviting the settler's cabin and the plough. There were then many Indians traversing those wilds. The fearless emigrants, who ventured to rear their huts in such solitudes, found it necessary ever to be prepared for an attack.