o collect; in doing so I should be sorry to
have to resort to the authority given me by law for the recovery
of the same. It should be the first object of every good citizen
to pay his taxes, for it is in that way government is supported.
Why are taxes assessed unless they are collected? Depend upon
it, I shall proceed to collect agreeably to law, so govern
yourselves accordingly.

JOHN SPENCER,
Sh'ff and Collector, D.C.
Nov 20, 1828."

"N.B. On Thursday, the 27th inst. A. St. Clair and Geo. H.
Dunn, Esqrs. depart for Indianopolis; I wish as many as can pay
to do so, to enable me to forward as much as possible, to save
the twenty-one per cent, that will be charged against me after
the 8th of December next.

JS."

The first autumn I passed in America, I was surprised to find a
great and very oppressive return of heat, accompanied with a
heavy mistiness in the air, long after the summer heats were
over; when this state of the atmosphere comes on, they say, "we
have got to the Indian summer." On desiring to have this phrase
explained, I was told that the phenomenon described as the
_Indian Summer_ was occasioned by the Indians setting fire to the
woods, which spread heat and smoke to a great distance; but I
afterwards met with the following explanation, which appears to
me much more reasonable. "The Indian summer is so called
because, at the particular period of the year in which it
obtains, the Indians break up their village communities, and go
to the interior to prepare for their winter hunting. This
season seems to mark a dividing line, between the heat of summer,
and the cold of winter, and is, from its mildness, suited to
these migrations. The cause of this heat is the slow combustion
of the leaves and other vegetable matter of the boundless and
interminable forests. Those who at this season of the year have
penetrated these forests, know all about it. To the feet the
heat is quite sensible, whilst the ascending vapour warms every
thing it embraces, and spreading out into the wide atmosphere,
fills the circuit of the heavens with its peculiar heat and
smokiness."

This unnatural heat sufficiently accounts for the sickliness of
the American autumn. The effect of it is extremely distressing
to the nerves, even when the general health continues good; to
me, it was infinitely more disagreeable than the glowing heat of
the dog-days.

A short time before we arrived in America, the