father's medal, and his uncle,
Muckadaywuckwut, with a flag; recommending at the same time the division
of the St. Mary's Chippewas into three bands, agreeably to fixed
geographical boundaries.

Having finished the business of the payments, the disbursing agent
embarks on board of the steamer Michigan, and the island, which has been
thronged for three weeks with Indians, Indian traders, and visitors,
began immediately to empty itself of population. During this assemblage,
to pay the Ottawas and Chippewas their annuity, great care and
exactitude have been observed by the concurrently acting officers of the
army and the Indian department, to carry out strictly the agreements
made with them in the spring, by which the payment of half their annuity
in silver, due for 1837, was postponed till 1838. Yet it was reported in
a few days, and reiterated by the press, that the Indians had been
defrauded out of half their annuities, and that goods, and those of a
bad quality, had been given them for silver. And my name was coupled
with the transaction, although the Indians of all nations who were under
my charge, in the State of Michigan, had, from first to last, been
treated with the kindness and justice of a father. The Government at
Washington came in for no little abuse. Mrs. Jameson wrote from Toronto,
asking "whether it was true that a Miami chief had offered $70,000 to
enable the Indian Department to pay their debt to the Indians
in specie."

_23d_. The Indians Akukojeesh and Akawkoway brought a case of salvage
for my action. They had found a new carriage body, and harness; a box of
7 by 9 glass, and 18 chairs, floating on the lake (Huron), N.E. of the
island. They supposed the articles had been thrown overboard, in a
recent storm, or by a vessel aground on the point of Goose Island,
called Nekuhmenis. The Nekuh is a brant.

_30th_. Chusco dies.

Completed and transmitted the returns and abstracts of the year's
proceedings and expenditures.

_Oct 1st_. I sent the interpreter and farmers of the Department to
perform the funeral rites for Chusco, the Ottawa jossakeed, who died
yesterday at the house erected for him on Round Island. He was about 70
years of age; a small man, of light frame and walked a little bent. He
had an expression of cunning and knowingness, which induced his people,
when young, to think he resembled the muskrat, just rising from the
water, after a dive. This trait was implied by his name. For many y