ed down to eight persons. That is not enough to
stand guard, and I won't go into that country without having
a guard every night. From present news it is probable
that the Crows will be scattered on all the headwaters of
the Yellow Stone, and if that is the case, they would not
want any better fun than to clean up a party of eight (that
does not stand guard) and say that the Sioux did it, as they
said when they went through us on the Big Horn. It will
not be safe to go into that country with less than fifteen
men, and not very safe with that number. I would like it
better if it was fight from the start; we would then kill
every Crow that we saw, and take the chances of their
rubbing us out. As it is, we will have to let them alone
until they will get the best of us by stealing our horses or
killing some of us; then we will be so crippled that we
can't do them any damage.

At the commencement of this letter I said I would not
go unless the party stood guard. I will take that back, for
I am just d----d fool enough to go anywhere that anybody
else is willing to go, only I want it understood that very
likely some of us will lose our hair. I will be on hand Sunday
evening, unless I hear that the trip is postponed.

Fraternally yours,

JAS. STUART.

Since writing the above, I have received a telegram saying,
"twelve of us going certain." Glad to hear it--the
more the better. Will bring two pack horses and one pack
saddle.

I have preserved this letter of James Stuart for the thirty-five years
since it was received. It was written with a lead pencil on both sides
of a sheet of paper, and I insert here a photograph of a half-tone
reproduction of it. It has become somewhat illegible and obscure from
repeated folding and unfolding.

[Illustration: A letter.]

[Illustration: A letter, continued.]

Mr. Stuart was a man of large experience in such enterprises as that in
which we were about to engage, and was familiar with all the tricks of
Indian craft and sagacity; and our subsequent experience in meeting the
Indians on the second day of our journey after leaving Fort Ellis, and
their evident hostile intentions, justified in the fullest degree
Stuart's apprehensions.

About this time Gen. Henry D. Washburn, the surveyor general of Montana,
joined with Mr. Hauser in a telegram to General Hancock, at St. Paul,
requesting him to provide