Hardly waiting until they had greeted each other, he offered him a liberal reward if he would ride post haste to Santa Fe and deliver a letter to the Governor, containing an urgent request to send a strong force to escort the train thither.
Carson unhesitatingly accepted the offer and with his usual promptness started almost immediately on his delicate and dangerous business.

The journey was one of several hundred miles through a country swarming with Indians, and all the skill, cunning and vigilance of the great scout would be required to succeed.

But he never faltered in the face of peril.
A veteran mountaineer agreed to keep him company, but, when Bent's Fort was reached he refused to go further, and Carson, as he had often done before in critical situations, went on alone.
The news which he heard at the fort was of a startling nature.

The Utah Indians were hostile and his long journey led him directly through their country.

He could not censure his friend for declining to go further, nor could he blame others whom he asked to accompany him, when they shook their heads.