The party cautiously followed upon the trail which led to the Indian encampment until within one day’s journey of it.  Here they came to a halt.  Kit Carson, with five men, was sent in advance to reconnoitre.  Upon approaching the Indians, the reconnoitering party discovered them busily engaged driving in their animals to saddle and pack, and making such other preparations necessary to the effecting of a hurried decampment.  Kit and his companions hastened back and reported the results of their observations.  A council was immediately held which decided to send out forty-three picked men to give battle; and, for the commander of this party, Kit Carson was unanimously elected.  The fifty-five men left behind under Mr. Fontenelle had the onerous duty of guarding the animals and equipage.  It was a part of the programme, also, that the latter force should move on slowly and act as a reserve in case of need.

Kit Carson and his command were in fine spirits and lost no time in overhauling the village.  In the first charge they killed ten of the bravest warriors.  The savages quickly recovered from this blow and commenced retreating in good order.  For three consecutive hours they heroically received a series of these furious and deadly assaults without offering much resistance.  At the end of this time the firing of the mountaineers began to slacken, as their ammunition was running low.  These experienced and brave, though rascally Indians, soon surmised the cause of this sudden change of affairs.  Rallying their forces, they turned upon their assailants in right good earnest and a desperate hand-to-hand engagement ensued.  The white men now had an opportunity to use their small arms, which told with such terrible effect upon their foes that they were soon driven back again.  They, however, rallied once more and charged so manfully that the trappers were forced to retreat.  In this latter engagement a horse belonging to a mountaineer by the name of Cotton, fell, throwing his rider and holding him on the ground by his weight.  This happened as he was passing a point of rocks.  Six of the warriors, seeing the accident, instantly hurried forward to take Cotton’s scalp.  But Kit Carson’s eagle eye was watching every part of the battle-field and discovered, in time to be of service, the danger to which his friend was exposed.  Although some distance off, Kit sprang from his saddle, and, with the leap of an antelope and the rallying cry for his men, was on the ground, ready to make a certain shot.  His aim and the crack of his rifle almost belonged to the same instant of time.  It was none the less sure.  The foremost warrior, a powerful savage, whose fingers evidently itched for the scalp of the mountaineer, fell, shot through the heart.  By this time others had followed the bold example of their leader, when the five remaining warriors, seeing the imminent danger which threatened them, turned to run back into their band.  But two of them however reached a place of safety.  The remainder, caught in their fleet career by the unerring and death-dealing bullets of the mountaineers, measured their lengths upon the battle-ground, stricken with wounds which demanded and received from them their last wild war-whoop.