28th: "I spoke of the
project of a road to Mackinack, which you wished me to bear in mind. The
Secretary approved the project, and the Quarter-Master General said it
might be done without a special appropriation. I was authorized to have
the survey made as soon as the season will permit, and an officer has
reported to me for that purpose. He will start from Saginaw some time in
the next month, to make a reconnoisance of the country, and will appear
at the head of the peninsula when perhaps you little expect such
a visitor.

"As soon as the survey shall be completed, the cutting out will be put
under contract. When this road shall be completed, you will feel more
neighborly to us. The express will be able to perform the journey in
half the time, and, of course, the trips can be multiplied."

_June 4th_. Reuben Smith, a Mission scholar of the Algonquin lineage,
determines to leave his temporary employment at the agency, and complete
his education at the eastward.

_5th_. Ossiganac, an Ottawa, who was formerly interpreter at the British
post at Drummond Island, says that Ottawa tradition points back to the
Manitouline Islands, as the place of their origin. They call those
islands Ottawa Islands, and Lake Huron Ottawa Lake. They call Lake
Superior Chippewa Lake. All the Ottawas, he says, of L'Arbre Croche,
Grand River, &c., came from the Ottawa or Manitouline Islands. The
French first found them there.[73]

[Footnote 73: This is pretty well for Indian tradition, but is not so, in
truth, as Charlevoix's Hist. of New France denotes.]

They migrated down Lake Michigan, and lived with the Potawattomies.
After awhile, the Potawattomies growing uneasy of their presence,
accused them of using bad medicine, which was the cause of their people
dying. The Ottawas replied, that if they were jealous of them, they
would retire, and they accordingly withdrew up the peninsula. While in
the course of withdrawing, one of their number was killed by the
Potawattomies.

_6th_. Ossiganac, at an interview at my house this afternoon, says that
the Ottawas of Maumee, Ohio, sent a message to the Ottawas of L'Arbre
Croche, in Governor Hull's time--consequently between 1805 and
1812--saying: "We were originally of one fire, and we wish to come back
again to you, that we may all derive heat again from the same fire."

The Ottawas of L'Arbre Croche replied: "True, but you took a coal to
warm yourselves by. Now, it will be better that you remai