August 1st.  Mr. Theodore Dwight, Jr., writes:  “Cannot a syllabic, or semi-syllabic alphabet, be applied to our Indian tongues?”

Rev. Leonard Woods, Jr., of New York, Editor of the New York Theological Review, desires a paper on the subject of the American Indians.  “I have found,” he says, “that while the subject is one of very general interest, there are few who possess the requisite information to do it justice.”

15th.  The cholera, which first appeared in this country in 1833, made its second appearance in Detroit, in the month of July.  It was not, however, of the same virulence as the first attack.  “From present appearances,” writes a friend at that place, “the cholera is vanishing.”  Having matters of eminent concern there, I determined to make a brief visit to the place.  My health was very good, and had never, indeed, been subject to violent fluctuations of the digestive functions, and, after attaining the object, I returned to Mackinack.  I again visited Detroit for a short time, during the latter part of August, and resumed my position at Mackinack in September.  Indian affairs, in the upper lakes, were now hastening to a crisis, which in a year or two, developed themselves in extensive sales of territory by the Indians, who, as game failed, saw themselves in straits.  These events will be mentioned as they take definite shapes of action.

Sept. 2d.  Mr. David Green, Secretary of the Board of Commissioners for American Missions, Missionary Rooms, Boston, depicts a crisis in the mission at Mackinack.  “Your favor by Mr. Ferry,” he remarks, “has come to hand.  As you anticipated, he has requested our Missionary Board to relieve him from the missionary service, and they, though with much reluctance, have granted his request.  He seems fully convinced that he is not likely to be hereafter useful, to any great extent, in connection with the Mackinack mission; and that the claims of his family call him to a different situation.  This movement on his part, though he has before suggested that such a step might be expedient, was quite unexpected by us at this time; and I fear that we shall not find it easy to obtain a suitable man to fill his place.  No such person is now at our disposal.  I have written to the Rev. Dr. Peters, of New York, Secretary of the American Home Missionary Society, stating the circumstances of the place, inquiring if it would not properly fall within that portion of the Lord’s Vineyard, and whether they could not furnish a suitable man to cultivate it.

“That Society, as well as ours, is, I believe, pressed for missionaries on every hand.  The prayers of all the Lord’s people should be, in these exigencies, ‘Send forth laborers into thy harvest.’ Men of devoted piety and zeal, and of high intellectual character, and judgment, and enterprise, are needed in great numbers both in our own land and abroad.  The want of such men is now the most serious impediment which our societies have to contend with.