last
forty years. I have always thought it a subject of regret, that such a
man should not have kept a journal. There was much, it is true, that
could not be put down, and he was always so exclusively an active
business man that mere literary memoranda never attracted his attention;
they were not adverse to his tastes. He has nearly, I should judge,
recovered from the severe hardships and privations which attended his
perilous journey across the Rocky Mountains, on the abandonment of
Astoria, on the Pacific, in 1812.

_29th_. Texas and Florida continue to be the rallying points of Indian
warfare. The frontier of Texas is harassed by wandering parties of
Indians. A Mr. Morgan, who resided near the falls of Brazos, had been
killed, and three women carried off by a band of fifteen savages. A
company of rangers was sent in pursuit.

The Florida War still lingers, without decisive results. The _New
Orleans Bee_ says that General Taylor has been very active, the past
season, in trying to bring it to a close. A writer from Tampa Bay, of
the 25th instant, who appears to have good knowledge of matters, states
three causes, particularly as opposing a successful prosecution and
consummation of it, namely:--

"1st. An ignorance of the topography of Florida--the position of the
numerous swamps and hummocks, the usual hiding-places of the Indians.

"2d. A want of proper interpreters.

"3d. A countervailing influence from some unknown quarter."

He supports his view as follows: "It is a well known fact that, previous
to the year 1836, the portion of Florida south of the Military Road from
Tampa to Garey's Ferry was unexplored and unknown, and since that time
the only information has been derived from the hasty reconnoissances of
officers, made in the progress of the several divisions of the army
through the country. Since the organization of the Corps of
Topographical Engineers, several have been sent to this country, and are
now actively engaged in making surveys and plotting maps. Could the
information they are expected to give have been known even before the
commencement of the last campaign, it would have aided materially in the
subjugation of the enemy. A correct knowledge of this country is needed
more especially because such another theatre of war probably has not a
place on the earth; a theatre so peculiarly favorable to the Indians and
disadvantageous to the white man. Swamps may be delineated as well
perhaps as any o