[Illustration: KIT CARSON.] LIFE OF KIT CARSON, THE GREAT WESTERN HUNTER AND GUIDE: COMPRISING WILD AND ROMANTIC EXPLOITS AS A HUNTER AND TRAPPER IN THE ROCKY MOUNTAINS; THRILLING ADVENTURES AND HAIRBREADTH ESCAPES AMONG THE INDIANS AND MEXICANS; HIS DARING AND INVALUABLE SERVICES AS A GUIDE TO SCOUTING AND OTHER PARTIES, ETC., ETC. WITH AN ACCOUNT OF VARIOUS GOVERNMENT EXPEDITIONS TO THE FAR WEST. BY CHARLES BURDETT. ILLUSTRATED. PHILADELPHIA: PORTER & COATES, NO. 822 CHESTNUT STREET. Copyright, 1869, by JOHN E. POTTER & CO. PREFACE. In offering to the public a revised and complete history of the most remarkable of American frontiersmen, we perform a pleasing task. All the attainable circumstances connected with his life, adventures and death are fully set forth, and we offer this in confidence as a reliable authority for the reader. No one should hesitate to familiarize himself with the exploits of the subject of this volume. They evince a magnanimity and an uprightness of character that is rarely found in one leading so daring and intensely wild a life, and cannot but contribute their share of lustre to the interesting records of the Far West. We regret that his modesty, equally proverbial with his daring, prompted him to withhold many of the exciting incidents of his career from the public. We have compiled a portion of this work from such official reports of his great skill, indomitable energy, and unfaltering courage as have been communicated by his friend and commander, Col. Fremont, who has invariably awarded to him all the best attributes of manhood, when opportunity afforded. Added to these, our hero had been prevailed upon by a few of his friends to communicate some of the records of the most important passages in his extraordinary and eventful life, which are embodied in this volume. His has indeed been a life of peculiarly exciting personal hazards, bold adventures, daring coolness, and moral and physical courage, such as has seldom transpired in the world, and we have been greatly impressed, in its preparation, with the necessity for a thorough work of this kind. All are aware that the young, and even matured, often seek for books of wild adventure, and if those of an unhurtful and truthful character are not found, they are apt to betake themselves to trashy and damaging literature. In this view, this work has a purpose which, we trust, will commend it to every family throughout the land. CONTENTS.