Letters to a Friend 



Five miles west of Yosemite, 

 July n, [1869.] 



I need not try to tell you how sorely I am 

 pained by this bitter disappointment. Your 

 Mariposa note of June 22 did not reach Black's 

 until July 3d, and I did not receive it until 

 the 6th. 



I met a shepherd a few miles from here yes 

 terday who told me that a letter from Yosemite 

 for me was at Harding's Mills. I have not yet 

 received it. No dependence can be placed upon 

 the motions of letters in the mountains, and 

 I feared this result on my not receiving any 

 thing definite concerning your time of leaving 

 Stockton before I left the plains. I wish now 

 that I had not been entangled with sheep at 

 all but that I had remained among post-offices 

 and joined your party at Snellings. 



Thus far all of my deepest, purest enjoyments 

 have been taken in solitude, and the fate seems 

 hard that has hindered me from sharing Yo 

 semite with you. 



We are camped this evening among a bundle 

 r 62 1 



