On the 19th we drove to breakfast at Brigham’s at the Blue Mounds.  I here found in my host my old friend with whom I had set out from Pittsburgh for the western world some thirteen or fourteen years before, and whom I last saw, I believe, fighting with the crows on the Illinois bottoms for the produce of a fine field of corn.  I went on to the mound with him to view the extraordinary growth of the same grain at this place.  The stalks were so high that it really required a tall man to reach up and pull off the ears.

Ten miles beyond Brigham’s we came to Sugar Creek and a tree marked by Mr. Lyon.  From this point we found the trail measured and mile stakes driven by Mr. Lyon’s party, but the Indians have removed several.  From Sugar Creek it is ten miles to the head of the Four Lakes.  We then crossed the Seven Mile Prairie.  To the left as we passed there rose a high point of rocks, on the top of which the Indians had placed image stones.  Night overtook us soon after crossing this prairie.  We took the horse out of the shafts and tied him to the wagon.  My friend Bennet, though au fait on these trips, failed to strike a fire.  We ate something, and made shift to pass the night.

Next morning we drove twelve miles to a house (Hasting’s), where we got breakfast.  We drove through Duck Creek with some ado, the skies threatening rain, and came in to Fort Winnebago by one o’clock, during a pouring rain.  The canoes sent from Galena had not yet arrived.  I spent the next day at the Winnebago agency, Mr. John H. Kinzie’s, where I was received with great kindness.  The canoe with Dr. Houghton and his companions did not arrive till the 23d, and I embarked the same day on my return to St. Mary’s.  It will not be necessary to describe this route.  We were three days in descending the Fox River and its portages to Green Bay.  It required eight days to traverse the shores and bays to Mackinack, and three more to reach St. Mary’s, where I arrived on the 4th of September.

During my absence on this expedition, there were some things in my correspondence that require notice.  Gen. Cass had been transferred to the War Office at Washington.  He writes to me from Detroit (July 22d):  “Very much to my surprise I have found myself called to another sphere of action.  The change I am afraid will be not less unfavorable to my health and comfort than it certainly is adverse to my pecuniary interest.  But I am forced by irresistible circumstances to accept the appointment.  I have no time to detail these now.  When I next have the pleasure of meeting you, I will fully lay them open to you.  You will then see and say that no other choice was before me.”