1 8 The Wilderness Hunter 



the end of his days stanchly loyal to the flag of the 

 Union. 



By the time that Crockett fell, and Houston be 

 came the darling leader of the Texans, the typical 

 hunter and Indian fighter had ceased to be a back 

 woodsman; he had become a plainsman, or moun 

 tain-man; for the frontier, east of which he never 

 willingly went, had been pushed beyond the Mis 

 sissippi. Restless, reckless, and hardy, he spent years 

 of his life in lonely wanderings through the Rockies 

 as a trapper; he guarded the slowly moving cara 

 vans, which for purposes of trade journeyed over 

 the dangerous Santa Fe trail; he guided the large 

 parties of frontier settlers who, driving before them 

 their cattle, with all their household goods in their 

 white-topped wagons, spent perilous months and 

 seasons on their weary way to Oregon or Califor 

 nia. Joining in bands, the stalwart, skin-clad rifle 

 men waged ferocious war on the Indians, scarcely 

 more savage than themselves, or made long raids 

 for plunder and horses against the outlying Mexican 

 settlements. The best, the bravest, the most modest 

 of them all was the renowned Kit Carson. He was 

 not only a mighty hunter, a daring fighter, a finder 

 of trails, and maker of roads through the unknown, 

 untrodden wilderness, but also a real leader of men. 

 Again and again he crossed and recrossed the con 

 tinent, from the Mississippi to the Pacific ; he guided 

 many of the earliest military and exploring expe- 



