The sums which he had received for the important services rendered both to government officers and private individuals, had been expended on the wants of his family and on his suffering friends and countrymen.  A trifling amount had always sufficed to satisfy his own immediate desires.  The calls upon his purse, at the end of each year had left, therefore, but little which he could call his own.  The snug sum now at his disposal, Kit Carson determined to lay by; and serving as a nucleus, around it, he has since accumulated enough amply to supply those comforts which will tend, in his old age, to make him happy.  Maxwell and Carson decided to return to their homes by the southern route which runs through the country on and adjacent to the Rio Gila.  Maxwell determined to take a steamer down the coast as far as Los Angelos, distant from San Francisco about three hundred and fifty miles, and used his best endeavors to persuade his friend Kit Carson to accompany him.  In this however, he failed.  Already one cruise over a part of the ocean route which Maxwell contemplated making, had been made by Kit Carson in 1846, and which had so sickened him of sea life, that he resolved never to travel on salt water again while it was in his power to obtain a mule to assist him in journeying by land.  Maxwell, by his water conveyance, reached Los Angelos fifteen days in advance of Kit Carson, and employed himself in making the necessary preparations for their trip to New Mexico.  When Kit rejoined his companion, everything was in readiness for them to proceed on their route, and, in a day or so afterwards, they started.  Everything favored them until they reached a village belonging to some Pimo Indians, and located on the Rio Gila.  Here the grass became suddenly very scarce.  They learned from these Indians that the season had been unusually dry, and that, if they attempted to proceed on the regular trail, they would do so at the risk of losing their animals by starvation.  While undecided as to which was the best course to pursue, Kit Carson informed the party that he could guide them over a new route which, though difficult and rough to travel, he felt confident would afford sufficient forage to answer all their purposes.  At once the men agreed to be governed by their experienced friend’s advice, and, having signified to him their willingness to do so, they resumed their march, following up the Rio Gila, until they came to the mouth of the San Pedro, when they struck out up the latter for three days, and then parted with it to risk the chances of reaching, at the end of each day, the small mountain creeks that lay on their contemplated route.  After traveling in as direct a course as the nature of the country would admit, they arrived seasonably at the copper mines of New Mexico.

While pursuing this experimental journey, Kit Carson, who was well acquainted with the general outline of the country, but was not equally conversant with it in reference to the certainty of finding eligible camping-sites, where wood, water and grass presented themselves in abundance, was frequently made the subject of a tantalizing joke by the men of the party.