I took this occasion to call their attention to the murder of the Glass family in Ionia, in the month of March last.  They utterly disclaimed it, or any participation of any kind in its perpetration.  They agreed to send delegates west, in accordance with the 8th art. of the treaty of ’36, to explore the country on the sources of the Osage River, for their future permanent residence.  They were well content with their teachers and missionaries of all denominations.  The Chief Nawequageezhig, in particular, spoke with a commanding voice and just appreciation on the subject, which evinced no ordinary mental elevation, purpose and dignity.

11th.  George Bancroft, Esq., of Boston, in a letter of this date, observes:  “I can only repeat, what before I have urged on you, to collect all the materials that can illustrate the language, character and origin of the natives, and the early settlement of the French.”  The encouragement I receive from my literary and scientific friends, and which has been continued these many years, is, indeed, of a character which is calculated to stimulate to new exertions, although the love for such exertions pre-exists.  I do not know that I shall live to make use of the materials I collect, or that I have the capacity to digest and employ them; but if not, they may be useful in the hands of other laborers.

16th.  Office of Indian Affairs, Michilimackinack.  On returning from Grand River, I observed a continuation of the misrepresentations begun last winter, respecting the Indian policy and proceedings of the Department.  A ground for these misconceptions, and in some things, perversions, arose from the goods’ offer for the half annuity, made in 1837.  This offer being rejected by the Michigan Indians, was renewed to those of Wisconsin, and accepted by the Menomonies of Green Bay.  Traders and merchants who were expecting the usual payments of cash annuities to the Indians, were sorely disappointed by finding a single tribe in the lake country paid in merchandise.  The policy itself was a bad one, and denoted the inexperience and consequent unfitness of Mr. Carey A. Harris for the post of Commissioner of Indian Affairs at Washington.  I anticipated the storm it would raise on the frontiers, and, when the project was transmitted to me, did not attempt to influence my Indians (the Michigan Indians) to accept or reject it, but left it entirely to their own judgments, after appointing two honest men to show the goods and state the prices.  A less impartial course appears to have been pursued at Green Bay, where this policy of the “goods offer” of 1837 was loudly called in question.  I had shielded the tribes under my care from it, and should have had credit for it from all honest and candid men, but finding no disposition in some quarters to discriminate, I immediately, on reaching home, sat down and wrote a plain and clear statement of the affair for the public press, and having thus satisfied my sense of justice and truth, left others, who had acted wholly out of my jurisdiction and influence, to vindicate themselves.  J.W.  Edmonds, Esq., and Maj.  John Garland, who had been chief actors in the matter, did so.  But it seemed like talking against a whirlwind.  The whole action of this offer, on the Michigan Indians, was to postpone, by their own consent, the payment of the half annuity in coin one year.