with each other they were strictly honorable; and when by any mischance a rogue crept into their ranks, if detected in any rascality, he was summarily and severely dealt with.  Their duels were serious events; for, oftentimes both men were killed.  In fact, the case could hardly be otherwise.  They were men of unflinching courage, and their weapons were generally rifles, which, from long practice, they held with a certain and deadly aim.  We cannot better close this passage in the life of Kit Carson than to quote the language held in 1846 by the Biographer[8] of the great explorer, JOHN CHARLES FREMONT: 

“He” (Christopher Carson) “is a remarkably peaceable and quiet man, temperate in his habits, and strictly moral in his deportment.  In a letter written from California, in 1847, introducing Carson as the bearer of dispatches to the government, Col.  Fremont says:  ’with me, Carson and truth mean the same thing.  He is always the same—­gallant and disinterested.’  He is kind-hearted, and averse to all quarrelsome and turbulent scenes, and has never been engaged in any mere personal broils or encounters, except on one single occasion, which he sometimes modestly describes to his friends.  The narrative is fully confirmed by an eye-witness, of whose presence at the time he was not aware, and whose account he has probably never seen or heard of.  I shall tell the story as it is gathered from them both.[9]

[Footnote 8:  Charles Wentworth Upham.]

[Footnote 9:  The reader will easily correct the few discrepancies of facts contained in this statement, by the narrative which is from Carson himself, and given with a view to publication.]

“In the year 1835, the Rev. Samuel Parker made an exploring and missionary tour, under the auspices of the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions, beyond the Rocky Mountains, and as far as the settlements on the Columbia River.  In his printed journal he gives an account of the incident to which I am referring; it occurred on the 12th of August, at a point on the borders of Green River, beyond the South Pass, on the occasion of a ‘rendezvous,’ that is, on a spot selected for Indians, trappers, and hunters to bring to market their peltries, and obtain supplies from the agents of the Fur Companies.  There was a large concourse of savage tribes, and all the various denizens of the wilderness.  There were Frenchmen, Spaniards, Dutchmen, Canadians, and Western backwoodsmen.  The Rev. Mr. Parker happened to be there, to witness the strange gathering.  Of course there were some rude characters, and not a little irregularity and disorder.  Conflicts were liable to arise between quarrelsome persons, growing out of the feuds among the tribes, and animosities between the representatives of different nations, all actuated by pride of race or country.