CHAPTER I.
Early Training.
Birth of Christopher Carson .-- Perils of the Wilderness .-- Necessary Cautions .-- Romance of the Forest .-- The Far West .-- The Encampment .-- The Cabin and the Fort .-- Kit an Apprentice .-- The Alarm .-- Destruction of a Trading Band .-- The Battle and the Flight .-- Sufferings of the Fugitives .-- Dreadful Fate of Mr.
Schenck .-- Features of the Western Wilderness .-- The March.
Christopher Carson, whose renown as Kit Carson has reached almost every ear in the country, was born in Madison county, Kentucky, on the 24th of December, 1809.

Large portions of Kentucky then consisted of an almost pathless wilderness, with magnificent forests, free from underbrush, alive with game, and with luxuriant meadows along the river banks, inviting the settler's cabin and the plough.
There were then many Indians traversing those wilds.

The fearless emigrants, who ventured to rear their huts in such solitudes, found it necessary ever to be prepared for an attack.
But very little reliance could be placed even in the friendly protestations of the vagabond savages, ever prowling about, and almost as devoid of intelligence or conscience, as the wolves which at midnight were heard howling around the settler's door.

The family of Mr.Carson occupied a log cabin, which was bullet-proof, with portholes through which their rifles could command every approach.

Women and children were alike taught the use of the rifle, that in case of an attack by any blood-thirsty gang, the whole family might resolve itself into a military garrison.