Palfrey, Esq., editor of the _North American
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 government.

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 pub