As is the case in many of the images from the Walters commission, Miller has changed the wooded setting of the original sketch (CR# 87A) to that of an open plain, but left the other compositional elements intact. In this watercolor, as with others showing Stewart receiving information from Indians, Miller has not switched Stewart and Antoine for generic trappers. Rather he has shown Stewart with his characteristic light buckskin suit, black-feathered hat, and white horse.
His accompanying note opens with six lines from Scottish sentimental poet Thomas Campbell’s Gertrude of Wyoming (1809, Part 1, Stanza 27) describing an Indian character’s skill in navigating without instruments or maps. Miller goes on to describe the same in his own words, adding that Indians possessed an “amazing facility” in discerning details such as the number of a party who passed, how many horses and wagons they had, and even whether they were white or Indian. Although he calls such powers “wonderful,” he does concede that they are not supernatural, but based on patience, experience, and close attention.
The artist; William T. Walters, Baltimore, MD