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severe caution against the Senate's ever putting private reasons in the place of public, and interfering with matters which they necessarily know but little about.

16th. Dr. Samuel George Morton, of Philadelphia, makes an appeal to gentlemen interested in the philosophical and historical questions connected with the Indians, to aid him in the collection of crania-to be used in the comprehensive work which he is preparing on the subject.

26th. Hon. J. B. Sutherland expresses the wish to see an Indian lexicography prepared under the auspices of the Indian Department, and urges me to undertake it.

30th. Mozojeed, or the Moose's Tail, an Ojibwa chief of Ottawa Lake, in the region at the source of Chippewa River of the Upper Mississippi, dictates a letter to me. The following is an

extract:

"My Father-I have a few remarks to make. Every morning of the year I wish to come and see you. As soon as I take up my paddle I fall sick. It is now two years since I began to be sick. Sometimes I am better-sometimes worse. I am pained in mind that I am not to see you this summer.

"Since you gave me the shonea nahbekawahgun (silver medal) I think I have walked in your commands. I have done all I could to have the Indians sit still. Those that are far off I could not sway, but those that are near have listened to me."

His influence to keep the Indians at peace, and the reasons which have hindered the influence in part, are thus, partly by symbolic figures, as well expressed as could be done by an educated mind. I have italicised two sentences for their peculiarity of thought.

31st. Mr. Featherstonehaugh expresses a wish to have me point out the best map extant of the eastern borders of the Upper Mississippi, above the point visited by him in his recent reconnoissance, in order "to avoid gross blunders-all I do not expect to avoid !" Why undertake to make a map of a part of the country which he did not see?

31st. Rev. Alvan Coe, of Vernon, O., expresses his interest in the provisions of the late treaty with the Ottawas and Chippewas, which regards their instruction.

June 1st. Mr. W. T. Boutwell, from Leech Lake, depicts the

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present condition of the Odjibwas on the extreme sources of the Mississippi.

"There has been nothing, so far as I have discovered, or been informed, like a disposition to go to war this spring. There is, evidently, a growing desire on the part of not a few, to cultivate their gardens more extensively and better. These are making gardens by the side of me. I have furnished them with seed and lent them hoes, on condition that they do not work on the Sabbath. From fifteen to twenty bushels of potatoes I have given to one and another to plant.

"The Big Cloud has required his two children to attend regularly to instruction; others occasionally. The Elder Brother has procured him a comfortable log house to be built-bought a horse and cow. I have bought a calf of Mr. A. for him.

"I am making the experiment whether I can keep cattle here. They have wintered and passed the spring, and we are now favored with milk, which is a rarity and luxury here.

"Mr. Aitkin is establishing a permanent post at Otter Tail Lake. G. Bonga had gone with a small assortment of goods to build and pass the summer there. The Indians are divided in opinion and feeling with regard to the measure. Those who belong to this lake, or who make gardens in this vicinity, are opposed to the measure. Those who pass the summer in the deer country and make rice towards the height of land, are in its favor. It is on the line dividing us and our enemies-some say, where we do not wish to go. Whether he has consulted the agent on the subject, I know not.

"The past winter has been severe-the depth of snow greater, by far, than has fallen for several years. Feb. 1 the mercury fell to 40° below zero. This is the extreme. Graduated on the scale I have it fell nearly into the ball.”

9th. The Secretary of War writes me a private letter, suggesting the employment of Mr. Ryly, of Schenectady, in carrying out the large deliveries of goods ($150,000) required by the late treaty, and speaking most favorably of him, as a former resident of Michigan, and a patriotic man in days when patriotism meant something. 14th. My brother James writes in his usual frank and aboveboard manner: "If the Indians are to audit accounts against the Indians (agreeably to the Senate's alteration of the treaty), there

will be a pretty humbug made of it; then he that has most whisky will get most money."

July 5th. Dr. Follen and lady, of Cambridge, Mass., accompanied by Miss Martineau, of England, visited me in the morning, having landed in the ship Milwaukee. They had, previously, visited the chief curiosities and sights on the island. Miss Martineau expressed her gratification in having visited the upper lakes and the island. She said she had, from early childhood, felt an interest in them. I remarked, that I supposed she had seen enough of America and the Americans, to have formed a definite opinion, and asked her what she thought of them? She said she had not asked herself that question. She had hardly made up an opinion, and did not know what it might be, on getting back to England. She thought society hardly formed here, that it was rather early to express opinions; but she thought favorably of the elements of such a mixed society, as suited to lead to the most liberal traits. She spoke highly of Cincinnati, and some other places, and expressed an enthusiastic admiration for the natural beauties of Michilimackinack. She said she had been nearly two years in America, and was now going to the seaboard to embark on her return to England.

9th. Instructions were issued at Washington for the execution of the treaty, which had been ratified, with amendments, by the Senate.

10th. The admission of Michigan as one of the States, had left the office of Superintendent of Indian Affairs, for the region, vacant. An Act of Congress, passed near the close of the session, had devolved the duties of this office on the agent at Michilimackinack. Instructions were, this day, issued to carry this act into effect.

12th. The chiefs in general council assembled by special messengers at the Agency at Mackinack, this day assented to the Senate's alterations of the treaty. Its principles were freely and fully discussed.

13th and 14th. Signatures continue to be affixed to the articles of assent.

15th. I notified the various bands of Indians to attend in mass, the payments, which were appointed to commence on the 1st of September.

27th. A friend writes from Detroit: "Lord Selkirk, from Scot

land, is on his route to Lake Superior, and, as he passes through Mackinack, I write to introduce him to you, as a gentleman with whom you would be pleased to have more than a transient association. The name of his father is connected with many north-western events of much interest and notoriety, and a most agreeable recollection of his mother, Lady Selkirk, has recommended him strongly to our kindness. I feel assured you will befriend him, in the way of information, as to the best means of getting on to the Sault St. Marie."

I found the bearer an easy, quiet, young gentleman, with not the least air of pretence or superciliousness, and one of those men to whom attentions ever become a pleasure.

Aug. 2d. Hon. John Norvell, U. S. S., calls my attention to the recent annexation to Michigan of the vast region north of the Straits of Michilimackinack.

"Your personal knowledge," he observes, "of the country on Lake Superior, which, by a late act of Congress has been annexed to, and made a part of the State of Michigan, induces me respectfully to request of you information concerning the nature and extent of the territory thus attached to the State; the qualities of its various soils; the timber and water-powers embraced in it; its minerals and their probable value; the extent of lake-coast added to Michigan; the fisheries and their probable value and duration; the capabilities and conveniences of Lake Superior and the northern Michigan shores, and the cheapness and facility with which a communication may be opened with the lower lakes; together with such other information as it may be in your power to furnish, and as may enable the people of Michigan duly to appreciate the importance of the acquisition." Vide Letters of Albion in reply.

16th. Mr. Daniel B. Woods, of New York, announces the project of the publication of "a religious and missionary souvenir," and solicits my aid in the preparation of an article.

26th. The citizens, merchants, and traders of the town agree not to sell or furnish whisky or ardent spirits to the Indians during the payments and preliminary examinations-a conclusive evidence this that, where the interests of the population combine to stop the traffic in ardent spirits, it requires no Congressional or State laws.

Sept. 26th. John G. Palfrey, Esq., editor of the North Ame

rican Review, wishes me to review Mr. Gallatin's forthcoming paper on the Indian languages, which is about to appear in the second volume of the collections of the American Antiquarian Society.

28th. A busy business summer, replete with incident and excitement on the island, closes this day by the termination of the several classes of payments made under the treaty of March 28th, 1836. Upwards of four thousand Indians have been encamped along the pebbly beaches and coves of the island, and subsisted by the Indian Department for about a month. To these an annuity of $42,000 has been paid per capita. Of these there were 143 chiefs, namely, 25 of the first class, 51 of the second, and 67 of the third class, who received an additional payment of $30,000. In addition to the provisions consumed, two thousand dollars worth of flour, pork, rice, and corn were delivered to the separate villages in bulk prior to their departure, and one hundred and fifty thousand dollars in the best quality of Indian goods and merchandise, cutlery, and other articles of prime necessity, systematically divided amongst the mass. The sum of two hundred and twenty thousand dollars has been paid on accounts exhibited to the agent, and approved by the creditors of the two tribes. One hundred and fifty thousand dollars have also been paid to the half-breed relatives of the two tribes on carefully prepared lists.

These several duties required care and involved responsibilities of no ordinary character. They have been shared by Major H. Whiting, the Paymaster of the Northern Department, by whom the funds were exclusively paid, and John W. Edwards, Esq., of New York, who divided the half-breed fund, to both of whom I am indebted for the diligence with which they addressed themselves to the duty, and the kindness and urbanity of their manners.

So large an assemblage of red and white men probably never assembled here before, and a greater degree of joy and satisfaction was never evinced by the same number. The Indians went away with their canoes literally loaded with all an Indian wants, from silver to a steel trap, and a practical demonstration was given which will shut their mouths forever with regard to the oft-repeated scandal of the stinginess and injustice of the American govern

ment.

Not a man was left, of any caste or shade of nativity, to utter a word to gainsay or cavil with the noble and high public manner

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