Kit, purely from the love of adventure, applied to join them.

Gladly was he received.
Though but a boy of eighteen, his stable character, his vigorous strength, and his training in all the mysteries of frontier life, rendered him an invaluable acquisition.
The perils to which they were exposed may be inferred from the fate which some traders encountered soon after Kit Carson's party had accomplished the journey.

There were twelve traders returning from Santa Fe.

To avoid the Indians they took an extreme southern route.

Day after day they toiled along, encountering no savages.