Kit succeeded in guiding the party safely to the Copper Mines, from whence their route was plain. From the Copper Mines the party traveled through to the Rio del Norte. This river is 1,800 miles in length and forms the boundary line between Texas and Mexico. It takes its rise in the Rocky Mountains and empties into the Gulf of Mexico. It is navigable for small steamers, sloops and schooners, for a distance of about four hundred and fifty miles from its mouth. About nine hundred miles from its mouth, there is a spot where the river is only about three or four feet deep. Here the Apache and Camanche Indians always cross when on their depredatory tramps into Mexico. Leaving the Rio Grande or del Norte, the party pursued their homeward route through the settlements of the Rio Abajo and Santa Fe and finally reached Taos on the twenty-third day of December, 1853. Soon after the party entered the Territory of New Mexico, Kit Carson accidentally met the Mormon delegate to Congress. That person informed Kit Carson that the appointment of an Indian Agent had been conferred upon him. On learning this piece of intelligence, Kit was much elated. He felt that the office was perfectly suited to his tastes, and he was honestly impressed with the belief that he was capable of performing the duties of this office, and of accomplishing much good. His happiness and pride were heightened by thinking that, finally, his services had met the approbation of his government, the substantial proof of which, was the offering to him of an important trust without solicitation on his part. Immediately on arriving at Taos, he wrote an answer to the authorities at Washington, in which he expressed his willingness to serve the government, and the pleasure he felt in accepting the office; at the same time he sent the necessary bond required of persons who hold this appointment. Hardly had Kit Carson been ushered into his new duties before the Jiccarilla Apaches, who formed one of the tribes of his agency, began to show new signs of dissatisfaction by committing various kinds of outrages on the property and lives of the citizens of the northern part of New Mexico. To arrest them in their career and make them amenable for the crimes they had already committed, Lieutenant Bell, of the 2d Regiment of United States dragoons, was sent in quest of them. He found them on the Red River, and at once commenced operations against them. At first, these red men were equally ready to break a lance in combat with their foes; but, after the soldiers had made two charges and penetrated through and through their ranks, they were, although in superior numbers, glad to give up the mastership of the field, and run away. In this fight, the Apaches lost, by his being killed, one of their great chiefs, besides many warriors. On the side of the soldiers, two men were killed and several seriously wounded.