Nevertheless I was quite ready to take the risk.  I knew what fearful damage could be done by a sudden uprising of fanatical and infuriated Indians, and any danger to me personally was as nothing to the importance of preventing such, a thing, if possible.

Having no standing as an army officer or as a Government agent, it was necessary for me to be supplied with some sort of credentials, in order to secure the assistance I should need on my mission.  When I informed General Miles of this he took one of his visiting-cards from a case and wrote the following on the back of it: 

    To COMMANDING OFFICERS OF UNITED STATES TROOPS: 

    Furnish Colonel William F. Cody with any assistance or escort that
    he may ask for.

    NELSON A. MILES.

I took the next train for Mandan, N.D., which was the station nearest the Standing Rock Agency.  There I hired a livery team and driver for the ride of sixty-five miles to the Agency.  I had considerable difficulty in securing a driver, as the report had gone abroad that all the Indians were on the warpath, and few of the settlers cared to risk their scalps on such a venture.  But I went higher and higher in my offers, till at last a liveryman figured that a hundred dollars was sufficient reward for the risk, and, hitching up his team, told me to come along.

After an intensely cold drive we reached the Agency, where I hurried into the trader’s store to thaw out by his stove.  I had hardly arrived before the trader came in and told me that Major McLaughlin, the Indian agent, wanted to see me.  News travels very fast in the Indian country, especially in war times.  Someone about the Post who had seen me driving in had hurried to headquarters to inform the agent that Buffalo Bill had arrived by way of reenforcements.

As soon as I got my chilled blood into circulation I went to the major’s quarters, and informed him of the purpose of my visit.  We were old friends, and he was very glad to see me, but he was much concerned on learning what I intended to do.

“That is impossible!” he said.  “The Sioux are threatening a great war.  At this very moment we do not know when the Indians here at the Agency may rise.  We can take care of our own situation, for we have four troops of cavalry here, but we cannot permit you to go to Sitting Bull’s camp.  Not only would you be killed before you got halfway there, but your presence in the country would precipitate hostilities for which we are not in the least prepared.  I’m sorry, Cody, but it can’t be done.”

More fully to persuade me of the truth of what he said he took me to the quarters of Colonel Brown, the commander of the troops at the Agency, and asked him to talk to me.  Brown listened to my statement of what I proposed and shook his head.

“I’ve heard of you, Cody, and of your nerve, but this is more than even you can do.  Sitting Bull’s camp is forty miles away, and the country between here and there is swarming with Indians all ready to go on the warpath, and wholly beyond the sway of reason.  I cannot permit you to make this attempt.”