Sept. 7th.  Mr. McMurray (who is an Episcopal Missionary at St. Mary’s) announces the death of one of the principal and most aged chiefs of the Odjibwas, in that quarter of the country—­Kagcosh.  “He bade adieu to this world of trouble last evening at sunset.  I visited him about two weeks since, and conversed with him on religious subjects, to which he gave the utmost attention, and on that occasion requested me to baptize him.  I told him that I was willing to do so whenever I could, without leaving a doubt in my mind as to his preparedness for the rite.  I, however, promised, if his mind did not change, to administer it soon.  He sent for me the day before he died, and requested me again, without delay, to baptize him, which I did, and have every reason to believe that he understood and felt the necessity of it.”

This venerable chief must have been about ninety years of age.  His head was white.  He was about six feet two inches in height, lithe of form, and long featured, with a grave countenance, and cranial developments of decided intellectuality.  He was of the Crane totem, the reigning family of that place, and the last survivor of seven brothers, of whom Shingabowossin, who died in the fall of 1828, was noted as the most distinguished, and as a good speaker.  He was entitled to $500, under the treaty of 28th March, as one of the first class chiefs of his nation.

Nov. 2d.  Rev. Mr. Nash presented me letters as a missionary to the Chippewas.  He had prepared a new set of characters by which to write that language, and presented me a copy of it.  Every one is not a Cadmus, and the want of success which has, therefore, attended the efforts at new systems of signs to express sounds, should teach men that it is easier, and there are more practical advantages attending the use of an old and well-known system, like that of the English alphabet, than a new and unknown system, however ingenious and exact.  The misfortune is that all attempts of this sort, like new systems of notation with the Roman alphabet, are designed rather to show that their authors are inventive and exact, than to benefit the Indian race.  For if an Indian be taught by these systems to read, yet he can read nothing but books prepared for him by this system; and the whole body of English literature, history, and poetry, is a dead letter to him.  Above all, he cannot read the English version of the Bible.

23d.  A friend asked me to furnish him an aboriginal name for a new town.  I gave him the choice of several.  He selected Algonac.  In this word the particle ac, is taken from ace, land or earth; and its prefixed dissyllable Algon, from the word Algonquin.  This system, by which a part of a word is made to stand for, and carry the meaning of a whole word, is common to Indian compound substantives.  Thus Wa-we-a-tun-ong, the Algonquin name for Detroit, is made up from the term wa-we, a roundabout course, atun a channel, and ong, locality.  Our geographical terminology might be greatly mended by this system.  At least repetition, by some such attention to-our geographical names, to the liability of misdirecting letters, might be, to a great extent, avoided.