About this time, his old friend, Maxwell, proposed that they should build a ranch in a beautiful valley some distance north of Taos.

The site was a most charming one, though it was so much exposed to the attack of Indians that until then no one had dared to settle there.
Handsome, roomy and substantial structures were erected, and many of the most enjoyable days of their lives were spent on this famous ranche.

It would be a pleasant farewell to leave them there to end their days in comfort and peace, but it was to be far otherwise with both and especially with Carson.
In 1848-49, Colonel Fremont made a fourth exploring expedition across the continent, he bearing all the expense, as he did in the case of his fifth expedition made in 1853.

The fourth was an appalling failure, marked by an extremity of suffering that is incredible.

The guide employed was wholly ignorant and the command became entangled among the snows of the mountains, where some of them lived not only on mules but on each other.