In his death the country has lost the most noted of that intrepid race of mountaineers, trappers, and guides that have ever been the pioneers of civilization in its advancement westward. As an Indian fighter he was matchless. His rifle, when fired at a redskin, never failed him, and the number that fell beneath his aim, who can tell! (The identical rifle which Carson used in all his scouts, during the last thirty-five years of his life, he bequeathed, just previous to his death, to Montezuma Lodge, A. F. and A. M., Santa Fe, of which he was a member.) The country will always regard him as a perfect representative of the American frontiersman, and accord to him the most daring valor, consistent kindliness, perseverant energy and truthfulness which that whole great territory, that we must still regard as lying between the civilizations, is capable of furnishing. * * * * * FOOTNOTES: [A] Peters. [B] Annals of San Francisco. By Frank Soulé, John H Gihon, and James Nisbet. New York, D. Appleton & Co., 1855. [C] Cutts. Conquest of California and New Mexico. [D] Peters. * * * * * Transcriber's Notes: Simple typographical errors were corrected. Punctuation and spelling were made consistent when a predominant preference was found in this book; otherwise they were not changed. Ambiguous and missing quotation marks remedied on pages 79, 177-178, and 334. Page 301: "it is not wonderful" probably should be "is it not wonderful". End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Life of Kit Carson, by Charles Burdett