Mr. Crook’s manner is always prompt and cordial.  He concentrates, in his reminiscences, the history of the fur trade in America for the last forty years.  I have always thought it a subject of regret, that such a man should not have kept a journal.  There was much, it is true, that could not be put down, and he was always so exclusively an active business man that mere literary memoranda never attracted his attention; they were not adverse to his tastes.  He has nearly, I should judge, recovered from the severe hardships and privations which attended his perilous journey across the Rocky Mountains, on the abandonment of Astoria, on the Pacific, in 1812.

29th.  Texas and Florida continue to be the rallying points of Indian warfare.  The frontier of Texas is harassed by wandering parties of Indians.  A Mr. Morgan, who resided near the falls of Brazos, had been killed, and three women carried off by a band of fifteen savages.  A company of rangers was sent in pursuit.

The Florida War still lingers, without decisive results.  The New Orleans Bee says that General Taylor has been very active, the past season, in trying to bring it to a close.  A writer from Tampa Bay, of the 25th instant, who appears to have good knowledge of matters, states three causes, particularly as opposing a successful prosecution and consummation of it, namely:—­

“1st.  An ignorance of the topography of Florida—­the position of the numerous swamps and hummocks, the usual hiding-places of the Indians.

“2d.  A want of proper interpreters.

“3d.  A countervailing influence from some unknown quarter.”

He supports his view as follows:  “It is a well known fact that, previous to the year 1836, the portion of Florida south of the Military Road from Tampa to Garey’s Ferry was unexplored and unknown, and since that time the only information has been derived from the hasty reconnoissances of officers, made in the progress of the several divisions of the army through the country.  Since the organization of the Corps of Topographical Engineers, several have been sent to this country, and are now actively engaged in making surveys and plotting maps.  Could the information they are expected to give have been known even before the commencement of the last campaign, it would have aided materially in the subjugation of the enemy.  A correct knowledge of this country is needed more especially because such another theatre of war probably has not a place on the earth; a theatre so peculiarly favorable to the Indians and disadvantageous to the white man.  Swamps may be delineated as well perhaps as any other natural object; but such swamps as are found in Florida, are not to be imitated in painting or described by words.  As an instance, I may mention the Halpataokee or Alligator Water, which is made up of small islands, surrounded by water of various depths, through which for two miles the road of the army passed during the winter of 1838.”