In January, 1847, he married Miss Mary Howard, of Beaufort District, South Carolina, a lady of majestic stature, high toned moral sentiment, dignified polished manners, gifted conversational powers and literary tastes.  This marriage has proved a peculiarly fortunate and happy one, as they both highly appreciate and respect each other, and she warmly sympathizes in his literary plans.  She also relieves him of all domestic care by her judicious management of his household affairs.  Most of her time, however, is spent with him in his study, where she revises and copies his writings for the press.  She is the descendant of a family who emigrated to South Carolina from England, in the reign of George the Second, from whom they received a large grant of land, situated near the Broad River.  Upon this original grant the family have from generation to generation continued to reside.  It is now a flourishing cotton and rice growing plantation, and is at present owned by her brother, Gen. John Howard.  Her sister married a grandnephew of Gen. William Moultrie, who was so distinguished in the revolutionary war, and her brother a granddaughter of Judge Thomas Heyward, who was a ripe scholar and one of the signers of the Declaration of Independence.  Although one of her brothers was in the battle of San Jacinto, she is herself the first permanent emigrant of her family from South Carolina to the North, having accompanied her husband to Washington, D.C., where he has ever since been engaged in conducting the national work on the history of the Indians.  To this work, of which the second part is now in the press, every power of his extensive observation and ripe experience is devoted, and with results which justify the highest anticipations which have been formed of it.  Meantime it is understood that the present memoirs is the first volume of a revised series of his complete works, including his travels, reviews, papers on natural history, Indian tales, and miscellanies.

To this rapid sketch of a man rising to distinction without the adventitious aids of hereditary patrimony, wealth, or early friends, it requires little to be added to show the value of self-dependence.  Such examples must encourage all whose ambitions are sustained by assiduity, temperance, self-reliance, and a consistent perseverance in well weighed ends.

PERSONAL MEMOIRS.

CHAPTER I.

Brief reminiscences of scenes from 1809 to 1817—­Events preliminary to a knowledge of western life—­Embarkation on the source of the Alleghany River—­Descent to Pittsburgh—­Valley of the Monongahela; its coal and iron—­Descent of the Ohio in an ark—­Scenes and incidents by the way—­ Cincinnati—­Some personal incidents which happened there.