, and asks for relief. No annuity or other funds are
payable, at this office, to this tribe. I deemed his plea, however, a
reasonable one, and loaned him personally one hundred dollars.
I detained him with some historical questions. He says he is sixty-four
years of age, that he was born in Stockbridge, on the head of the
Housatonic River, in Massachusetts. From this town they take their
present name. They are, however, the descendants of the ancient
Mohegans, who lived on the sea coast and in the Hudson Valley. They were
instructed by the Rev. Jonathan Edwards, the eminent theologian, who was
afterwards president of Princeton College. Their first migration was
into New Stockbridge, in Oneida County, New York, where the Oneida tribe
assigned them lands. This was about the era of the American Revolution.
They next went, about 1822, to Fox River of Green Bay, where they now
reside. Their oldest chief, at that point, is Metoxon, who is now
sixty-nine.
He says his remote ancestry were from Long Island (Metoacs), and that
Montauk means great sea island. (This does not appear probable
philologically.) He says the opposite coast, across the East River, was
called _Monhautonuk_. He afterwards, the next day, said that Long Island
was called _Paum-nuk-kah-huk._
_March 1st_. To a friend abroad I wrote: "I have written during the
winter an article on Mr. Gallatin's recently published paper on the
Indian languages, entitled _A Synopsis of the Indian Tribes_, which is
published by the American Antiquarian Society. It was with great
reluctance that I took up the subject, and when I did, I have been so
complete a fact hunter all my life, that I found it as difficult to lay
it down. The result is probably an article too long for ninety-nine
readers out of a hundred, and too short for the hundredth man."
_8th_. Mr. Palfrey acknowledges the safe arrival of my article for the
_North American Review_.
The American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions decline $6000
for the abandoned missionary house at Mackinack, offered under the view
of its being converted into a dormitory for receiving Indian visitors at
that point under the provisions of the treaty of 1836.
_17th_. Received a letter of thanks from old Zachariah Chusco, the
converted Jos-sa-keed, for kindness.
_23d_ Received a commission from Gov. Mason, appointing me a regent of
the University of Michigan.
_22d_. The Historical Society of Michigan hold their annua
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