constituted the sphere in which nature intended Kit Carson should
move and serve his fellow men as no one before or after him has
done.

Added to these extraordinary qualifications, was the crowning
one of all -- modesty. Alas, how often transcendent merit is made
repelling by overweening conceit. Kit Carson would have given his
life before he would have travelled through the eastern cities, with
his long hair dangling about his shoulders, his clothing bristling
with pistols and knives, while he strutted on the mimic stage as
a representative of the untamed civilization of the great west.

Carson was a superior hunter when a boy in Missouri, and the
experience gained among the experienced hunters and trappers, soon
caused him to become noted by those who had fought red men, trapped
beaver and shot grizzly bears before he was born. And yet it could
not have been that alone: it must have been his superior mental
capacity which caused those heroes of a hundred perils to turn
instinctively to him for counsel and guidance in situations of extreme
peril. Among them all was no one with such masterful resources in
that respect as he.

While the trappers were encamped at this place, a messenger visited
them from the Mission of San Rafael, with a request that they would
help chastise a party of Indians, who, after committing some outrages
at the Mission, had fled to an Indian village. When a demand was
made for the surrender of the refugees, the villagers not only
refused to give them up, but attacked the party and drove them
off. Appreciating the importance of upholding their authority, the
priests sent to the trappers for assistance in bringing the guilty