The novelists write many things of how Kit Carson shot the Indians. Kit
Carson was a personal friend of mine, and when I read snatches to him
from books making him a "heap big Indian killer," he always grew furious
and said it was a "damn lie," that he never had killed an Indian, and if
he had, that he could not have made the treaties with them that he had
made, and his scalp would have been the forfeit. At one time Kit Carson
went on an Indian raid with Colonel Willis down into Western Indian
Territory. He volunteered to go with Colonel Willis to protect him and
his soldiers, and at this very time Colonel Henry Inman tells of Kit
Carson being on the plains of the Santa Fe Trail, with a large company
of soldiers under his command, shooting Indians.

This is a mis-statement of Colonel Inman. Kit Carson never had a company
of soldiers, was not a military man, and at no time raided the Indians.
As will be seen in another chapter of this book, he was simply a scout
and protector for the soldiers. Like Dryden, however, "I have given my
opinion against the authority of two great men, but I hope without
offense to their memories." Kit Carson said that the Indian, as a
people, are just as brave as any people. Their warriors were not
expected to go out as soldiers with a commanding officer, but each was
to protect himself. That, in their opinion, was the only way to carry
on war.



CHAPTER X.

Major Carleton Orders Colonel Willis to Go Into Southwestern Indian
Territory and "Clean Out the Indians." Kit Carson Volunteers to Go With