Bonaparte hated Tacitus.  He was an aristocrat, he said, and lied in his history.  He had blackened the character of Nero merely because he was a republican.  “That may be, sire,” said ——­, “but it is not the generally received opinion, and authorities sustain him.”  “Read Suetonius,” said he.  “Truly,” said M. Gallatin, “it is there stated that the people strewed flowers on Nero’s grave for years.”

ALGIC RESEARCHES.—­The oral legends of the Indians collected by me being adhered to, he said, “Take care that, in publishing your Indian legends, you do not subject yourself to the imputations made against Macpherson.”

On leaving the hall, whither he came to see me out, he said:  “I am seventy-eight, and (assuming a gayer vein) in a good state of preservation.”  He was then a little bent, but preserved in conversation the vivacity of his prime.  He had, I think, been a man of about five feet ten or eleven inches.  His accent and tone of voice are decidedly French.  His eye, which is black and penetrating, kindled up readily.  He wore a black silk cap to hide baldness.

15th.  A singular coincidence of the names and ages of Indian chiefs, is shown in the following notice from a Russian source:—­

“We have just received from Nova Archangesk, an account of the death of the chief of one of the most powerful tribes of North America, Black Hawk, who was suddenly carried off on the banks of the River Moivna, in the seventy-first year of his age.  The loss of this chief, who kept up friendly relations with the authorities of the Russian colony, and was always hostile to the English, is felt in a lively manner by the Russian government, who rested great hopes on the influence exercised by Black Hawk, not only over his own tribe, but also over all the neighboring nations.  The Czar has ordered the new governor-general of the Russian colony in America to endeavor by all means to secure the friendship of the three sons of Black Hawk, the eldest of whom, now forty-eight years of age, has succeeded his father in the government of the tribe.”—­Le Commerce.

22d.  I left New York on the 12th, in the cars, with Mrs. Schoolcraft and the children, for Washington, stopping at the Princeton depot, and taking a carriage for Princeton.  I determined to leave my son at the Round Hill School, in charge of Mr. Hart, and the next day went to Philadelphia, where I accepted the invitation of Gen. Robert Patterson to spend a few days at his tasteful mansion in Locust street.  I visited the Academy of Natural Sciences, and examined Dr. Samuel George Morton’s extensive collection of Indian crania.  While here, I placed my daughter in the private school of the Misses Guild, South Fourth Street.  I attended one of the “Wistar parties” of the season, on the 15th, at Mr. Lea’s, the distinguished bookseller and conchologist, and reached the city of Washington on the 21st, taking lodgings at my excellent friends, the Miss Polks.