Liberal provisions were made for their education and instruction in agriculture and the arts.  Their outstanding debts to the merchants were provided for, and such aid given them in the initial labor of subsisting themselves, as were required by a gradual change from the life of hunters to that of husbandmen.  About twelve and a half cents per acre was given for the entire area, which includes some secondary lands and portions of muskeegs and waste grounds about the lakes—­which it was, however, thought ought, in justice to the Indians, to be included in the cession.  The whole area could not be certainly told, but was estimated at about sixteen millions of acres.

About the beginning of May a delegation of Saginaws arrived, for the purpose of ceding to the government the reservations in Michigan, made under the treaty of 1819.  This delegation was referred to me, with instructions to form a treaty with them.  The terms of it were agreed on in several interviews, and the treaty was signed on the 20th of May, 1836.

A third delegation of Chippewas, from Michigan, having separate interest in the regions of Swan Creek and Black River, presented themselves, with the view of ceding the reservations made to them by a treaty concluded by Gen. Hull, Nov. 17th, 1807.  They were also referred to me to adjust the terms of a sale of these reservations.  The treaty was signed by their chiefs on the 9th of May, 1836.

As soon as these several treaties were acted on by the Senate, I left the city on my return.  It was one of the last days of May when I left Washington.  A new era had now dawned in the upper lake country, and joy and gladness sat in every face I met.  The Indians rejoiced, because they had accomplished their end and provided for their wants.  The class of merchants and inland traders rejoiced, because they would now be paid the amount of their credits to the Indians.  The class of metifs and half-breeds were glad, because they had been remembered by the chiefs, who set apart a fund for their benefit.  The citizens generally participated in these feelings, because the effect of the treaties would be to elicit new means and sources of prosperity.

I reached Mackinack on the 15th of June, in the steamer “Columbia.”  I found all my family well and ready to welcome me home, but one—­Charlotte, the daughter of Songageezhig, who had been brought up from a child as one of my family.  Her father, a Chippewa, had been killed in an affray at the Sault St. Marie in 1822, leaving a wife and three children.  She had been adopted and carefully instructed in every moral and religious duty.  She could read her Bible well, and was a member of the Church, in good standing at the time of her death.  A rapid consumption developed itself during the winter of my absence, which no medical skill could arrest.  She had attained about her fifteenth year, and died leaving behind her a consecrated memory of pleasing piety and gentle manners.