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Show OLD SANTA FE TRAIL 113 fancied immortality.’’ The name of this rock, according to Philip St. George Cooke, ‘‘came from a siege there, once upon a time, of a small party of Pawnees by the Comanche hordes; the rocky mound was impregnable; but, alas for valor! they were parched with thirst, and the shining river glided in their sight through green meadows! They drank their horses’ blood, and vowed to Wah-Condah that their fates should be one. Death before slavery! Finally in a desperate effort to cut their way to liberty, they all met heroic death ; ushering their spirits with defiant shouts to the very thresh- old of the happy hunting grounds! The Comanches, after their melancholy success, were full of admiration and erected on the summit a small pyramid which we see to this day.’’ Major Inman, in his Santa Fé Trail, in a story of Kit Carson, endeavors to connect that noted frontiersman with the christening of the rock. The story may be true, but it did not happen as Inman relates it: ‘It is singular,’’ says Chittenden, ‘‘that so noted a character as Kit Carson should be so entirely unknown in the annals of the fur trade as he actually was. His name occurs only once in the correspondence or newspaper literature prior to 1843, so far as it has fallen under our observation.’’ *1 ne Chittenden, H. M., History of the Fur Trade, p. 539. This reference 18 an interesting one and positively fixes the year in which he commenced his wild west career. I+ was in 1826 when he joined a Santa Fé caravan under Charles Bent. The Missouri Intelligencer of October 12, 1826, had the fol- lowing notice relating to the event: ‘‘Notice: To whom it may concern: That Christopher Carson, a boy about sixteen years old, small of his age, but thick set, light hair, ran away from the subscriber, living in Franklin, Howard Co., Mo., to whom he had been bound to learn the saddler’s trade, on or about the first day of September last. He is supposed to have made his way toward the upper part of the state. All persons are notified not to harbor, support or subsist said boy under penalty of the law. One cent reward will be given to any person who will bring back the said boy. (signed) David Workman, Franklin, Oct. 6, 1826.’ ae Kit Carson’s career —in the newspaper — began after his association s with Fremont. Jim Bridger, in the last days of his life, when living at WestPort, Mo., who knew Carson from the time the latter first came to the moun- tains, in telling of his companions and friends, and their characteristics, was very frank in saying that Carson was not a ‘‘trapper or mountaineer’’ in the Proper acceptation of the term. Carson first became famous through the Officia] reports of General Fremont and the friendship of Senator Benton. His exploits with General Kearny, in 1846, along with Lieutenant Beale, in Caliorma, gave him much newspaper and ‘‘story-book’’ notoriety. im Bridger was the most conspicuous figure among the old mountaineers. © was a trail-maker and the knowledge greatest of the in every pathfinder Indian of nature sense them ever of the word. all, and The possessing vouchsafed a white greatest the man, most fur-hunter intimate Bridger will |