286 IN THE OLD WEST 



hanging from his slouching beaver over the shoul- 

 ders of his buckskin hunting-shirt. He, as he was 

 wont to say, was " no dam Spaniard, but moun- 

 tainee man, wagh ! " Chabonard, a half-breed, 

 was not lost in the crowd ; — and, the last in 

 height, but the first in every quality which consti- 

 tutes excellence in a mountaineer, whether of in- 

 domitable courage or perfect indifference to death 

 or danger — with an iron frame capable of with- 

 standing hunger, thirst, heat, cold, fatigue, and 

 hardships of every kind — of wonderful presence 

 of mind and endless resources in times of peril — 

 with the instinct of an animal and the moral cour- 

 age of a man, — who was " taller " for his inches 

 than Kit Carson, paragon of mountaineers? * 

 Small in stature, and slenderly limbed, but with 

 muscles of wire, with a fair complexion and quiet 

 intelligent features, to look at Kit none would sup- 

 pose that the mild-looking being before him was an 

 incarnate devil in Indian fight, and had raised 

 more hair from head of Redskins than any two 

 men in the western country ; and yet, thirty win- 

 ters had scarcely planted a line or furrow on his 



* Since the time of which we speak, Kit Carson has dis- 

 tinguished himself in guiding the several U. S. exploring ex- 

 peditions under Fremont across the Rocky Mountains, and 

 to all parts of Oregon and California; and for his services, 

 the President of the United States presented the gallant 

 mountaineer with the commission of lieutenant in a newly- 

 raised regiment of mounted riflemen, of which his old leader 

 Fremont is appointed colonel. (Author's note.) 



