of that place, and the last survivor of seven brothers, of whom
Shingabowossin, who died in the fall of 1828, was noted as the most
distinguished, and as a good speaker. He was entitled to $500, under the
treaty of 28th March, as one of the first class chiefs of his nation.

_Nov. 2d_. Rev. Mr. Nash presented me letters as a missionary to the
Chippewas. He had prepared a new set of characters by which to write
that language, and presented me a copy of it. Every one is not a Cadmus,
and the want of success which has, therefore, attended the efforts at
new systems of signs to express sounds, should teach men that it is
easier, and there are more practical advantages attending the use of an
old and well-known system, like that of the English alphabet, than a new
and unknown system, however ingenious and exact. The misfortune is that
all attempts of this sort, like new systems of notation with the Roman
alphabet, are designed rather to show that their authors are inventive
and exact, than to benefit the Indian race. For if an Indian be taught
by these systems to read, yet he can read nothing but books prepared
for him by this system; and the whole body of English literature,
history, and poetry, is a dead letter to him. Above all, he cannot read
the English version of the Bible.

_23d_. A friend asked me to furnish him an aboriginal name for a new
town. I gave him the choice of several. He selected Algonac. In this
word the particle _ac_, is taken from _ace_, land or earth; and its
prefixed dissyllable _Algon_, from the word Algonquin. This system, by
which a part of a word is made to stand for, and carry the meaning of a
whole word, is common to Indian compound substantives. Thus
_Wa-we-a-tun-ong_, the Algonquin name for Detroit, is made up from the
term _wa-we_, a roundabout course, _atun_ a channel, and _ong_,
locality. Our geographical terminology might be greatly mended by this
system. At least repetition, by some such attention to-our geographical
names, to the liability of misdirecting letters, might be, to a great
extent, avoided.

_24th_. Mr. Bishop Rese, of the Catholic Church, called to make some
inquiry respecting a provision in the late treaty, designed to benefit
his church. I had traveled on the lake with the Bishop. He is a short,
club nosed, smiling man, of a quizzical physiognomy. He asked me what I
supposed was the cause of the press for the treaty appropriations for
educations, by Protestant missions.