On learning this piece of intelligence, Kit was much elated.  He felt that the office was perfectly suited to his tastes, and he was honestly impressed with the belief that he was capable of performing the duties of this office, and of accomplishing much good.  His happiness and pride were heightened by thinking that, finally, his services had met the approbation of his government, the substantial proof of which, was the offering to him of an important trust without solicitation on his part.  Immediately on arriving at Taos, he wrote an answer to the authorities at Washington, in which he expressed his willingness to serve the government, and the pleasure he felt in accepting the office; at the same time he sent the necessary bond required of persons who hold this appointment.

Hardly had Kit Carson been ushered into his new duties before the Jiccarilla Apaches, who formed one of the tribes of his agency, began to show new signs of dissatisfaction by committing various kinds of outrages on the property and lives of the citizens of the northern part of New Mexico.  To arrest them in their career and make them amenable for the crimes they had already committed, Lieutenant Bell, of the 2d Regiment of United States dragoons, was sent in quest of them.  He found them on the Red River, and at once commenced operations against them.  At first, these red men were equally ready to break a lance in combat with their foes; but, after the soldiers had made two charges and penetrated through and through their ranks, they were, although in superior numbers, glad to give up the mastership of the field, and run away.  In this fight, the Apaches lost, by his being killed, one of their great chiefs, besides many warriors.  On the side of the soldiers, two men were killed and several seriously wounded.

A short time after the news of this skirmish had reached Taos, Kit Carson found it necessary, in order to attend to some official business, to proceed to Santa Fe; but, just as he was on the point of setting out, he was informed that a large party of these Jiccarilla Apaches had recently arrived at a place in the mountains only about twenty miles from Taos, and were there encamped.  With the view of pacifying them if it was possible, Kit Carson immediately posted thither; and, with no small degree of peril attending his movements—­for he went unattended, and among Indians who were at the time very bitter against the whites—­he confronted their “head men” in their den.  He needed no introduction, for, during many years, he had been well known to them.  Therefore he proceeded, at once, to business.  After passing through the usual Indian salutations, he commenced by haranguing them, in a style that most pleases their fancy, thereby fixing their attention on what he was saying.  Among other things, he forewarned them that the course they were pursuing, if persisted in, would prove the cause of their being exterminated, as their “Great Father,” the President, had at his disposal thousands