“You are perfectly correct in describing Carson as a gentleman.  He was one of nature’s noblemen—­a true man in all that constitutes manhood—­pure—­honorable—­truthful—­sincere—­of noble impulses, a true knight-errant ever ready to defend the weak against the strong, without reward other than his own conscience.

“Carson had great contempt for noisy braggarts and shams of every sort.

“His disease rapidly progressed and he calmly contemplated his approaching death.  Several times he repeated the remark, ‘If it was not for this,’ pointing to his chest; ‘I might live to be a hundred years old.’

“I explained to him the probable mode of termination of his disease:  ’that he might die from suffocation or more probably the aneurism would burst and cause death by hemorrhage.’  He expressed a decided preference for the latter mode.  His attacks of dyspnoea were horrible, threatening immediate dissolution.  I was compelled to give chloroform to relieve him, at considerable risk of hastening a fatal result; but he begged me not to let him suffer such tortures, and if I killed him by chloroform while attempting relief, it would be much better than death by suffocation.

“Once, he remarked:  ‘What am I to do, I can’t get along without a doctor?’

“I replied, ‘I’ll take care of you.’

“He, smiling, said, ‘You must think I am not going to live long.’

“The night preceding death he spent more comfortably than he had for days before.  He was obliged to sit up nearly all the time.  He coughed up a slight amount of blood during the night, and a very little in the forenoon.

“In the afternoon, while I was lying down on his bed and he was listening to Mr. Sherrick, he suddenly called out ‘Doctor, Compadre, Adios!’

“I sprang to him and seeing a gush of blood pouring from his mouth, remarked, ‘this is the last of the general;’ I supported his forehead on my hand, while death speedily closed the scene.

“The aneurism had ruptured into the trachea.  Death took place at 4.25 P.M., May 23rd 1868.

“Mr. Carson was a small man not over five feet six inches tall, with gray eyes, light-brown hair tinged with gray; his head was large; forehead high and broad; his nose somewhat retrousse.  He had a good broad chest and a compact form.  He had been a remarkably quick active man and what he lacked in strength, he made up in agility.  It is related of him, that while he was in command of his regiment and on a campaign against the Navajo Indians, he would leave camp very early each morning, taking his Ute Indian scouts, and let his lieutenant-colonel take charge of the regiment; before the command would have time to come up with the fugitive enemy, Carson and his Utes had finished the fighting.

“I am under the impression that the Navajo nation, numbering 8,000 or 10,000 people were so severely pressed by Kit Carson, that they surrendered to him, and were put on a government reservation, where they remained under military control, for several years.  Within the last three years they have been permitted to return to the country formerly occupied by them; but I am not positive of the above.