The men that brought the news of the massacre were so excited that they could not tell how many people had been killed or how many wagons were in the train.  They said that the train had just broke camp and started on their way when they heard the report of guns at the head of the train, and in a moment more the Indians came pouring down upon them, shooting everyone they met with their bows and arrows.  “And,” continued they, “when we saw them shooting and yelling, we broke and run before they got to us, and we did not stop until we got here.”  They said all this in a frightened, breathless way, that showed how excited they were.

Col.  Bent sent the men and boy into the dining room to get something to eat, and Uncle Kit followed them, to try to get some more definite information regarding the massacre.  After awhile Uncle Kit came back, and Col.  Bent asked him what he thought of the news the men had brought.  Carson answered that the men in the dining room did not know anything, and that he thought they were a party of emigrants who were disappointed and angry at their luck, and they had tried to vent their spite on some Indians they had met by firing on them, and had got the worst of the fight.

“You know, Colonel, that the Comanches have not troubled any white people in a number of years without they were aggravated to do so.”

Col.  Bent said, “Well, Kit, are you going down there to investigate the matter?”

Carson answered, “Yes, and won’t you send three men along to bury the dead?”

Col.  Bent said, “Certainly, Kit, and anything else you want.  When do you want to start?”

Carson said, “We will start now.”

Carson, Bridger, myself and three other men left the fort for the scene of the massacre, which we reached at the break of day the next morning, and the sight that met our eyes was a horrible one.  We found twenty-three dead bodies close together, apparently where the attack had commenced, and down near the river, in the brush, we found five more, and also four living men who were not hurt, but frightened nearly to death.

After Carson had talked with these men a while and they had recovered a little sense, they told how the dreadful thing occurred.

They had just pulled out from camp that morning when they met the Indians.  There were several men on horseback riding on ahead of the wagons.  When they met the Indians, they commenced to shout “How-How,” and the horsemen began to fire on the Indians without the Indians doing a thing to provoke them, and then the Indians had turned on them and killed every white person they could find, but that they had not been seen by the Indians, as they ran down the river and hid in the brush.

We searched thoroughly the brush all around for quite a distance, but we could find no more living or dead.

We could not find out by these men how many there were in the train any more than we could of the men that came with the news to the fort.