u attend.
In the mean time I have received the sum allowed for this service, which
you can draw for whenever you please. There is no doubt but the matter
will go on. After you arrive here, and We have conversed together, I
will restate the project of a more extended expedition, agreeably to
your suggestions, and submit it to the department. I agree with you
fully, that the thing should be enlarged, to embrace the persons and
objects you suggest. It would be an important expedition, and not a
little honorable to you, to have the direction of it, as it will be the
first authorized by the administration."

WINTER SESSION OF THE COUNCIL.--On the 16th of November, I embarked in a
large boat at St. Mary's with a view of reaching Mackinack in season to
take the last vessel returning down the lakes. The weather was hazy,
warm, and calm, and we could not descry objects at any considerable
distance. If we were not in "Sleepy Hollow" while descending the broad
valley and stretched out waters of the St. Mary's, we were, at least, in
such a hazy atmosphere, that our eyes might almost as well have been
shut. It seemed an interlude in the weather, between the boisterous
winds of autumn and the severe cold of December. In this maze I came
down the river safely, and proceeded to Mackinack, where I remained
several days before I found a vessel. These were days of pleasing moral
intercourse at the mission. I do not recollect how many days the voyage
lasted, but it was late in the evening of a day in December, dark and
very muddy when the schooner dropped anchor off the city, and I plodded
my way from the shore to the _Old Stone Mansion House_ in Detroit.

HISTORICAL DISCOURSE.--Mr. Madison, the Ex-president, transmits a very
neat and terse note of acknowledgment for a copy of my address, in the
following words, which are quite a compensation for the time devoted to
its composition:--

"J. Madison, with his respects to Mr. Schoolcraft, thanks him for the
copy of his valuable discourse before 'the Historical Society of
Michigan.' To the seasonable exhortation it gives to others, it adds an
example which may be advantageously followed." (_Oct. 23d_.)

HISTORICAL SOCIETY OF RHODE ISLAND.--I received a copy of a circular
issued by this institution (Nov. 1), asking Congress for aid in the
transcription of foreign historical manuscripts. "We alone, (almost,)"
say the committee, "among nations, have it in our power to trace
clearly, certainly