Nov. 2d/.  Mr. J.G.  Palfrey, acting editor of the N.A.  Review, invites me to become a contributor to the pages of that standard periodical.

8th.  No territory in the Union has required so long, so very long a time for its appreciation, as Michigan, and now, that emigration is freely coming in, it is difficult to estimate the very rapid improvement of places.  An instance of the kind occurs in the details of a letter which I have just received.  “It may not be amiss,” says Mr. A.L.  Ely, “to give you a short description of the growth of Allegan.  The site was bought at government prices, in the spring of 1833, by two gentlemen now living at Bronson, namely, Anthony Cooly and Stephen Vickery.  In November of that year, my father, who was then in Michigan looking for a location, both for him and myself, purchased for me one-third of the property, there being in all about 452 acres of land, for which he paid $1750.  In June, 1834, we sent one family from Rochester, who built two log houses, and grubbed the ground for a mill race.  In October, 1834, Mr. Sidney Ketchum, as agent for some gentlemen in Boston, purchased all the interests in the property, except those held by me, for something under $5,000.

“The winter of ’34 and ’35 was spent in making roads, and getting provisions together, and preparing to commence improvements.  In April, 1835, we commenced the dam and canal for a double saw mill, which were completed that fall.  In May, our plat was laid out in lots.  In June, we commenced selling them.  We have sold up to this date 175 lots.  In June, 1835, the second family came into the place.  In November, the first merchant commenced selling goods.  In December, we commenced the erection of a small building for a church; it was completed in May, 1836, and a few days after, accidentally burnt down.

“There are now (Nov. 1836) in Allegan three stores, two large taverns, a cupola furnace, a chairmaker’s shop, two cabinet shops, two blacksmiths, a shoemaker’s shop, a tailor’s shop, a school house 20 by 40, costing $1200; about 40 frame buildings, and over 500 people.”

10th.  I have for many years been collecting from the Indian lodges a species of oral fictitious legends, which attest in the race no little power of imagination; and certainly exhibit them in a different light from any in which they have been heretofore viewed.  The Rev. Mr. McMurray, of St. Mary’s, transmits me a story of this kind, obtained some two months ago by his wife (who is a descendant, by the mother’s side, of Chippewa parents) from one of the natives.  This tale impressed me as worthy of being preserved.  I have applied to it, from one of its leading traits, the name of “The Enchanted Moccasons.”  “I have written the story,” he remarks, “as near the language in which Charlotte repeated it as possible, leaving you the task to clothe it with such garb as may suit those which you have already collected, or as the substance will merit.”