which
appear to have been built by a civilized population, has been frequently
agitated this side of the Alleghanies, and it was thought by the
executive committee that justice would be done to the subject in your
hands. They have, accordingly, requested that you would consent to give
them a paper on the subject. They presumed that you were in possession
of much interesting and valuable matter that has never yet come to the
eyes of the world."

_26th_. I have been often written to, by persons at a distance wishing
for information on the Indian tribes, or their languages, or
antiquities, and uniformly responded favorably to such applications,
sending a little where it was not practicable to do more. It has ever
appeared to me, that the giving of information was just one of those
points which rendered me not a whit more ignorant myself, and might add
something to the knowledge, as it certainly would to the gratifications
of others. The only good objection is, that time and attention is
required for every such effort. But cannot this be easily redeemed from
waste hours, when the object is to add to the moral gratifications
of others?

A letter was addressed to me, this day, from a Mr. H. Newcomb,
Alleghany, near Pittsburg, which certainly seems a little onerous in the
tax it imposes on my time; as the writer announces his intention of
publishing two or three volumes, on the subject of the Indians, and
presents a formidable array of subjects respecting which he is to treat.
In only one respect it strikes me as singular, namely, that any writer
west of the Alleghanies should set down to write a work on such a
subject, without personal observation. In older areas, where the Indian
has disappeared, books must alone be relied on; but in the West, there
should be something fresh, something distinctive and personal, to give
vitality to such a work. The writer observes, "I have not yet been able
to obtain materials for the first two volumes satisfactory to myself."

_August 1st_. Mr. Theodore Dwight, Jr., writes: "Cannot a syllabic, or
semi-syllabic alphabet, be applied to our Indian tongues?"

Rev. Leonard Woods, Jr., of New York, Editor of the New York Theological
Review, desires a paper on the subject of the American Indians. "I have
found," he says, "that while the subject is one of very general
interest, there are few who possess the requisite information to do
it justice."

_15th_. The cholera, which first appeared in