anks of our friends and
relatives. Mr. Shearman, of N.Y., communicates the death of my niece,
Margaret Catharine (S.) at Vernon, New York. She was a young lady of
pleasing manners, and many fine personal and mental traits. She
conversed on her fate with perfect composure, and selected hymns to be
sung at her funeral.

I accomplished my passage to Detroit I think on the 21st of May, being
twenty-four days from St. Mary's, without counting the trip in that
season one of unusual length, and without any serious mishaps, which is,
perhaps, remarkable, as all our lake vessels are ill found, and I
attribute more of success to good luck, or rather Providence, than to
any amount of seamanlike precaution. It is, indeed, remarkable that a
hundred vessels are not every year lost on the upper lakes where one now
is, by being ill supplied or equipped, or through foolhardy intrepidity.

_28th_.--A friend sent me the manuscript of his poem of "Sanillac" to
read, and to furnish some notes. The subject of the Indian is,
certainly, susceptible of being handled by the Muses, in a manner to
interest and amuse; and I regard every attempt of the kind as
meritorious, although it may be the lot of but few to succeed. The
writer on the frontier, who fills up a kind of elegant leisure by
composition, not only pleases himself, which is a thing nobody can
deprive him of, but dodges the coarser amusements of bowling, whist, and
other resorts for time-killing. He forgets his remote position for the
time, and hides from himself the feeling of that loneliness which is
best conquered by literary employment.

_30th_. Mr. Reynolds again writes, pressing the matter of the
contemplated expedition, and the prospect it opens for discovery, and
its advantage every way. He couples his offer with most liberal and
exalted sentiments, and with the opinions of distinguished men, whose
approval is praise. But notwithstanding all, there is something about
the getting up and organization of the expedition, which I do not
altogether like; and there is considerable doubt whether Congress will
not cripple it, by voting meagre supplies and outfits, if they do not
knock it in the head.

The expedition itself is a measure of the highest national moment, as it
is connected with scientific discovery, and reflects the greatest credit
on the projectors. The experiments of Dr. Maskelyn denote a greater
specific gravity in the central portions of the globe, than in its
crust