least, when I shall take out my wife with me, and anticipate much
gratification in presenting her to such a pattern of goodness and true
feminine excellence as Mrs. Cass. Anything you wish to forward I will
attend to with pleasure, and when in Paris will not forget the
interesting subject of your letter, and will inform you what books may
be obtained respecting the early history of the country."

_26th_. Gen. Scott this day arrived at Detroit, with a view to quiet the
disturbances on the lines, and see to the proper disposition of the
troops along the chain of lakes to effect this end. I immediately called
on him, and offered him any of the peculiar facilities, which are at the
command of the Indian department, in sending expresses in the Indian
country, &c.

_27th_. Major H. Whiting, U.S.A., writes from St. Augustine, Florida:
"I have been favored with your letter of a month since, it having, I
dare say, made all due diligence the post office arrangements admit. But
the time shows the sort of intercourse I am doomed to have with my
Detroit friends. I consider that the country ought to feel under
obligations to one who serves her at such a sacrifice. Indeed, she can
make us no adequate return, but to allow me to return--the only _return_
I ask. When, however, that favor will be granted is past my guessing.
You ask when the war will terminate? You could not puzzle any of us more
than by putting such a question. We are more at our wit's end than the
war's end. And yet I do not see that anything has been left undone, that
might have been done. The army has moved steadily toward its objects.
But those objects are like a mirage, they are always nearly the same
distance off. What can we do in such a case?

"The army for the last few weeks has been operating in a country that is
more than half under water. It has often been difficult to find a spot
dry enough for an encampment. If the troops do not all come out
web-footed, it is because water can't make a duck's leg.

"I am on the lookout for specimens. I have one small alligator's bones,
and have laid in for those of a larger one, an old settler, no doubt
going back to Bartram's days. Alligators here have suffered more than
the Indians in this war. I should judge that several hundreds have been
killed from the boats as they pass up and down. They all have a bed
just in the bank of the river, where they sleep in the sun, and the
temptation is too great for any rifle, and th