March 18th.  Mr. Nathaniel H. Carter, editor of the Statesman, announces his recovery from a dangerous illness, and wishes, in his usual spirit of friendship, to express the pleasure it will afford him to aid me in any literary labor I may have in hand.

20th.  The plan of a magazine devoted to Indian subjects, which has been discussed between Mr. Conant, Mr. Dwight, and myself, is now definitely arranged with Messrs. Wilder and Campbell, publishers.

28th.  Professor Silliman renews his friendly correspondence, and tenders me the use of the pages of his journal, as the medium of communicating observations to the public.

April 8th.  I am officially called on, by the authority of General Gaines, as a witness in the case of Lieutenant Walter Bicker, U.S.A., who is summoned to a court martial in Fort Brady.  This is the gentleman whose family is referred to in a previous part of my journal in the autumn of 1822, on the occasion of the gentle Mr. Laird’s missionary visit to St. Mary’s; and his high moral character and correct deportment render it a subject of mystery to me what cause of complaint his brother officers could conjure up against him.

14th.  The superintendence of the press in the printing of my “Travels in the Central Portions of the Mississippi Valley,” has constituted a groundwork to my amusements during the winter.  The work is this day published by Collins and Hannay.  I immediately prepared to return to the lakes.  About five months had passed away, almost imperceptibly.  We had held a most gratifying intercourse with a highly moral and refined portion of society.  The city had been seen in its various phases of amusement and instruction.  A large part of the interest to others and attention excited arose manifestly from the presence of a person of Indian descent, and of refined manners and education, in the person of Mrs. Schoolcraft, with an infant son of more than ordinary beauty of lineament and mental promise.  There was something like a sensation in every circle, and often persons, whose curiosity was superior to their moral capacity of appreciation, looked intensely to see the northern Pocahontas.  Her education had been finished abroad.  She wrote a most exquisite hand, and composed with ability, and grammatical skill and taste.  Her voice was soft, and her expression clear and pure, as her father, who was from one of the highest and proudest circles of Irish society, had been particularly attentive to her orthography and pronunciation and selection of words of the best usage abroad.

20th.  This day we left the mansion of our kind hostess, Mrs. Mann, on lower Broadway, and ascended the Hudson by daylight, in order to view its attractive scenery.

We discussed the etymology of some of the ancient Indian names along the river, which we found to be in the Manhattan or Mohegan dialects of the Algonquin, and which appeared so nearly identical in the grammatical principles and sounds with the Chippewa, as to permit Mrs. S. in many cases to recover the exact meanings.  Thus, Coxackie is founded on an Indian term which means Falling-in bank, or cut bank.