f brown oxide of iron, from the
top of the rude tomb, and we all broke branches of the cedars growing
there. We gazed into the tomb, through an aperture over the door, where
bricks had been removed, and thought, at last, that we could distinguish
the coffin.

_Human Feet figured on Rock at St. Louis_.--The Honorable Thomas H.
Benton, in a letter of 29th April, expresses the opinion that these are
antiquities, and not "prints," and that they are of the age of the
mounds on the American bottom.

_Mineralogy_.--J.D. Doty, Esq., transmits (May 6th) from the vicinity of
Martinsburg, New York, specimens of the geological structure of that
neighborhood.

_Austin's Colony_.--"What you have said to me heretofore, concerning
Mr. Austin's settlement in Texas, has rather turned my attention in that
direction. Have you any means of communicating with your friend? What
are your views of that country?"

CHAPTER IX.

Appointed an agent of Indian affairs for the United States at Saint
Mary's--Reasons for the acceptance of the office--Journey to
Detroit--Illness at that point--Arrival of a steamer with a battalion of
infantry to establish a new military post at the foot of Lake
Superior--Incidents of the voyage to that point--Reach our destination,
and reception by the residents and Indians--A European and man of honor
fled to the wilderness.

1822. At length Congress passed an act, which left Mr. Calhoun free to
carry out his intentions respecting me, by the creation of a separate
Indian agency for Florida. This enabled him to transfer one of the
western agencies, namely, at Vincennes, Indiana, where the Indian
business had ceased, to the foot of the basin of Lake Superior, at the
ancient French village of _Sault de Ste. Marie_, Michigan. Had not this
act passed, it would have been necessary to transfer this agency to
Florida, for which Mr. Gad Humphreys was the recognized appointee. Mr.
Monroe immediately sent in my nomination for this old agency to the
Senate, by whom it was favorably acted on the 8th of May. The gentleman
(Mr. J.B. Thomas, Senator from Illinois) whose boat I had been
instrumental in saving in my descent of the Ohio in the spring of 1818,
I believe, moved its confirmation. It was from him, at any rate, that I
the same day obtained the information of the Senate's action.

I had now attained a fixed position; not such as I desired in the
outset, and had striven for, but one that offered an interesting class