Carson was nineteen when he set off with Ewing Young's expedition to the Rocky Mountains. In addition to furs and the company of free-spirited, rugged mountain men, he sought action and adventure. He found what he was looking for in killing and scalping Native Americans. Carson probably killed and took the scalp of his first Native American when he was nineteen years old, during Ewing Young's expedition. Carson was known to most 19th century Americans as an "Injun killer", chiefly through newspaper accounts and dime novels. Many of these works gave Carson's deeds and life a romantic cast. Excitement and thrills were heightened through exaggeration.