Mr. Carson’s Indian wife had long been dead.  Four months after this, in February, he married a Mexican lady, named Senora Josepha Jarimilla.  This lady was highly esteemed by all who knew her for her many virtues, and was also endowed with much personal beauty.  She subsequently became the mother of three children, for whom Mr. Carson has ever manifested the strongest attachment.

Two months after his marriage he engaged as a hunter to accompany an expedition of Messrs. Bent and Vrain’s wagons to the United States.  When about half-way across the plains, they struck the great Santa Fe trail.  Here Carson and his companions came upon an encampment of Captain Cook, with four companies of U.S.  Dragoons.  They were escorting a train of Mexican wagons, as far as the boundary line between the United States and New Mexico.  The region was infested with robber bands and it was deemed important that the richly freighted caravan should not encounter harm within the limits of the United States.

The Mexicans, were apprehensive that, as soon as they should separate from their American protectors, they should be attacked upon entering Texas, by a large body of Texan Rangers, who, it was reported, were waiting for them.  They therefore offered Kit Carson, with whose energetic character they were well acquainted, three hundred dollars, if he would carry a letter to Armijo the governor of New Mexico, who resided at Santa Fe.  This letter contained an application to the governor to send them an escort.  To convey the letter required a journey of between three and four hundred miles through a wilderness, filled with hostile Indian bands.

Carson accepted the offer, and engaging another man, Owens, to accompany him, rode back to Fort Bent.  Here he learned that the Indians, through whose territory he must pass, were all up in arms against the whites, and that the journey would be full of peril.  Owens refused to go farther.  Carson was not a man to turn from duty because of danger.  He found no one at the fort who could be induced to share the peril with him.  He therefore set out alone.  In addition to the powerful horse which he rode, Colonel Bent furnished him with a magnificent and fleet steed, which he led as a reserve corps.

Very rapidly Carson pressed on his way, watching for Indian trails and carefully avoiding all their wandering bands.  From every eminence he narrowly examined the wide and generally treeless expanse spread out before him, in search of any sign of the foe.  One afternoon he saw, far away in the distance, an Indian encampment of many lodges, directly on his trail.  He immediately sought an out of the way place, where he might effectually secrete himself until night.  When darkness came on, he, by a circuitous route, passed the camp of the savages and pressed rapidly on his way.  In a few days he reached Taos, much exhausted by his impetuous ride.