29th.  A friend at Detroit writes under this date:  “I had expected that before now, instructions would have reached here requiring you to repair to the St. Peter’s.  But as the season advances, and they do not arrive, I begin to fear that one of those mutations, to which of all governments upon this mundane sphere ours is the most exposed, has changed the intended disposition.”

May 1st.  Winter still holds its grasp upon the ice in the lower part of the river and straits.

The Claytonia Virginica observed in flower in favorable spots.

The bay opposite the fort on the north-west shore cleared of ice on the 2d, being the first day that the river has exhibited the appearance of being completely clear, a strong north-west wind blowing.  It is just four months and ten days from the period of its final closing on the 22d of December.

The yellow sparrow, or boblinkin, appeared this day in the woods.

4th.  The surface of the earth is undergoing a rapid transformation, although we are, at the same time, led to observe, that “winter lingering chills the lap of May.”  Sudden changes of temperature are experienced, which are governed very much by the course and changes of the wind.  Nature appears suddenly to have been awakened from her torpid state.

All eyes are now directed to the east, not because the sun rises there, but it is the course from which, in our position, we expect intelligence by vessels.  We expect a deliverance from our winter’s incarceration.

6th.  Lake Superior appears to be entirely open.  A gentleman attached to the Boundary Survey at Fort William writes to me, under this date, that the bay at that place is free from ice, so as to permit them to resume their operations.  They had been waiting for this occurrence for two weeks previously.

8th.  It is a year since I received from the President (Mr. Monroe) a commission as agent for these tribes; and it is now more probable than it then was that my residence here may assume a character of permanency.  I do not, however, cease to hope that Providence has a more eligible situation in reserve for me.

9th.  “Little things,” says Dr. Johnson, “are not valued, when they are done by those who cannot do greater.”  Thomas Jefferson uniformly spelled knowledge without a w, which might not be mentioned, had he not written the Notes on Virginia, and the Declaration of Independence.

10th.  A trader proceeded with a boat into Lake Superior, which gives assurance that this great inland sea is open for navigation.  White fish appeared in the rapids, which it is said they never do while there is running ice.

11th.  Stearn sums up the points requisite for remembrance by posterity, in these four things—­“Plant a tree, write a book, build a house, and get a child.”  Watts has a deeper tone of morality when he says—­