oming, as they do, as a voluntary tribute from a person
whom I never saw, and who has taken the lead in investigations on this
abtruse topic in America. "I have read," he remarks, "with very great
pleasure, your interesting narrative of the expedition to the sources of
the Mississippi, and particularly your lectures on the Chippewa
language, and the vocabulary which follows it. It is one of the most
philosophical works on the Indian languages I have ever read; it gives a
true view of their structure, without exaggeration or censure, and must
satisfy the mind of every rational man. It is a matter of sincere regret
that you have proceeded in your lectures no farther than the noun, and
your vocabulary no farther than the letter B. It is much to be hoped
that the work will be completed. I should hope that our government could
have no objection to printing it at its expense, as a national work,[75]
indispensably necessary for the instruction of our agents and
interpreters, and even the military officers employed among the Indians."

[Footnote 75: This was begun thirteen years afterwards, when a general
investigation into the subject of the Indians generally, was directed by
Congress, and placed in my hands. _Vide_ Information respecting the
History, Condition, and Prospects of the Indian Tribes of the United
States. Part I. Lippincott, Grambo & Co., 1851.]

"The Chippewa, like the Algonquin of old,[76] is the common language of
business among the Indians, and is as necessary among them as the French
is in the courts of Europe. The object of this letter, sir, is to be
informed whether the remainder of the work is to be published. If
government will not do it, some of our learned societies might. At any
rate, sir, if my services can be of use to you for this object, I shall
be happy to do everything in my power to aid it."

[Footnote 76: The languages are, in fact, identical in structure; the
word Chippewa being a comparatively modern term, which was not used by
the old French writers of the missionary era.]

This testimony, from the first and most learned philologist in America,
gratified and agreeably surprised me. I had studied the Chippewa
language alone in the forest, without the aid of learned men, or books
to aid me. I addressed myself to it with ardor, it is true, and with the
very best oral helps, precisely as I would to investigate any moral or
physical truth. I found that nouns and verbs had a ground form, or root