nd just appreciation on the
subject, which evinced no ordinary mental elevation, purpose
and dignity.

_11th_. George Bancroft, Esq., of Boston, in a letter of this date,
observes: "I can only repeat, what before I have urged on you, to
collect all the materials that can illustrate the language, character
and origin of the natives, and the early settlement of the French." The
encouragement I receive from my literary and scientific friends, and
which has been continued these many years, is, indeed, of a character
which is calculated to stimulate to new exertions, although the love for
such exertions pre-exists. I do not know that I shall live to make use
of the materials I collect, or that I have the capacity to digest and
employ them; but if not, they may be useful in the hands of
other laborers.

_16th_. Office of Indian Affairs, Michilimackinack. On returning from
Grand River, I observed a continuation of the misrepresentations begun
last winter, respecting the Indian policy and proceedings of the
Department. A ground for these misconceptions, and in some things,
perversions, arose from the _goods' offer_ for the half annuity, made in
1837. This offer being rejected by the Michigan Indians, was renewed to
those of Wisconsin, and accepted by the Menomonies of Green Bay. Traders
and merchants who were expecting the usual payments of cash annuities to
the Indians, were sorely disappointed by finding a single tribe in the
lake country paid in merchandise. The policy itself was a bad one, and
denoted the inexperience and consequent unfitness of Mr. Carey A. Harris
for the post of Commissioner of Indian Affairs at Washington. I
anticipated the storm it would raise on the frontiers, and, when the
project was transmitted to me, did not attempt to influence my Indians
(the Michigan Indians) to accept or reject it, but left it entirely to
their own judgments, after appointing two honest men to show the goods
and state the prices. A less impartial course appears to have been
pursued at Green Bay, where this policy of the "goods offer" of 1837 was
loudly called in question. I had shielded the tribes under my care from
it, and should have had credit for it from all honest and candid men,
but finding no disposition in some quarters to discriminate, I
immediately, on reaching home, sat down and wrote a plain and clear
statement of the affair for the public press, and having thus satisfied
my sense of justice and truth, left others