_rule_. They do not _gabble_
at random, as some think. Their modes of utterance are, it is true,
often defective, but they are not without grammatical _laws_, I inquired
into this matter at my first entrance into the Indian country of the
Algonquins, sixteen years ago. I found that verbs had eight classes of
conjugations, and ten including the broad vowels; five declensions of
nouns, and two sets of pronouns, one to be placed before and the other
at the end of the verb and substantive. That all substantives could be
changed into verbs; that there were a stock of adjective and
prepositional participles, and that the mode of forming compounds and
derivatives was varied, but all subject to the most exact rules. They
have a very accurate appreciation of _sound_ and its varied meanings,
and are pushed to use figures to help out or illustrate a meaning; but
the excessive refinements of syntax, for which some contend, are
theories in the minds of unpracticed collaborators.

_18th_. I wrote to Mr. Palfrey, E.N.A.R., declining to review Stone's
"Brant," and apprizing him of the preparation of an article on the
"North-west," by Mr. I. Lanman. "I take this occasion to say that I have
received the proof-sheets of some hundred and fifty pages of Col.
Stone's _Life of Brant_. It is a work somewhat discursive, and involves
some critical points in Indian history and customs. I should not feel
willing to commence a notice of it, without having the whole before me.
The hero of the work hardly exerts influence enough on the revolutionary
contest to justify the attempt of piling on him so much of the materials
of that momentous contest, and I think, moreover, there is a perceptible
attempt made to _whitewash_ a man who lived and died with no slight nor
undeserved opprobrium."

_19th_. Hendrick Apaumut, a Mohegan chief, of Wisconsin, applied for
aid, in money, to facilitate his journey to Washington. What the Indians
lack, in their business affairs, is system and method; foresight to
plan, and stability to carry into effect.

Received a copy of the message of the President, communicating the
thrilling circumstances of the recent massacre on board of the ill-fated
steamer "Caroline," and the gross outrage of national rights committed
by the burning of that boat and the destruction of her crew. Palliatives
for the act will undoubtedly be plead; but the act itself will probably
make a hero, in the estimation of his countrymen, of Mr. McNab,