Both as a hunter and a trapper, though he had not yet attained the age of manhood, he was admitted to be the ablest man in the party.  And his native dignity of person and sobriety of manners commanded universal respect.  In this lovely valley both parties lived, as trappers, luxuriously.  They were very successful with their traps.  And deer, elk and antelope were roving about in such thousands, that any number could be easily taken.  These were indeed the sunny, festival days of our adventurers.

The two united parties, trapping all the way, followed down the valley of San Joaquin to the Sacramento.  Here they separated.  The Hudson Bay Company set out for the Columbia river.  Mr. Young and his party remained to trap in the valley of the Sacramento.  At this time an event occurred which again illustrates the fearlessness, sagacity and energy of Kit Carson.

Not very far from their encampment there was the Catholic Mission of San Rafael.  Some Indians belonging to that Mission, after committing sundry atrocities, fled, and took refuge in a distant Indian village.  It was deemed important, in order that the Indians might be held under salutary restraint, that such a crime should not go unpunished.  A force was sent to demand the surrender of the fugitives.  But the Indians assumed a hostile attitude, refused to give up the criminals, and fiercely attacking the Mission party, drove them back with loss.

The Mission applied to the trappers for assistance.  The request was promptly granted.  Such a victory would puff up the Indians, render them insolent, and encourage them to make war upon other parties of the whites.  Eleven volunteers were selected for the expedition, and the young and fragile Kit Carson was entrusted with the command.  In manners he was gentle as a girl, with a voice as soft as that of a woman.  He had no herculean powers of muscle, but he had mind, mental powers which had been developed in a hundred emergencies.  And these stout, hardy veterans of the wilderness seem with one accord to have decided that he was the fitting one to lead them into battle, where they were to encounter perhaps hundreds of savage warriors.

[Illustration]

Cautiously Kit Carson led his little band so as to approach the Indian village unperceived.  At a given signal they raised the war-whoop and impetuously charged into the cluster of wigwams.  As the terrified warriors rushed out of the huts, all unprepared for battle, these unerring marksmen laid them low.  One-third of the warriors were slain.  The rest fled in dismay.  The village was captured with the women and the children.  The victorious Carson then demanded the immediate surrender of the criminals.  The next day they were brought in, strongly bound, and delivered to the Mission.  With his heroic little band Kit Carson returned to the encampment, apparently unconscious that he had performed any unusual feat.