n a private letter to
Dr. Hosack, says:--

"Mr. Schoolcraft's narrative is admirable, both for the facts it
develops and for the simplicity and clearness of the details; he has
accomplished great things by such means, and offers a good model for a
traveler in a new country. I lent his book to our veteran philosophical
geographer, Major Rennel, who was highly pleased with it; copies of it
would sell well in England."

Dr. Silliman apprises me that Professor Douglass expects my geological
report as part of his work.

Having now finished my geological report, I determined to take it to
Washington. On reaching New York, I took lodgings at the Franklin House,
then a private boarding-house, where my friends, Mr. Carter and Colonel
Haines, had rooms. While here, I was introduced one day to a man who
subsequently attracted a good deal of notice as a literary impostor.
This was a person named Hunter. He said that he derived this name from
his origin in the Indian country. He had a soft, compliant, half
quizzical look, and appeared to know nothing precisely, but dealt in
vague accounts and innuendoes. Having gone to London, the booksellers
thought him, it appears, a good subject for a book, and some hack was
employed to prepare it. It had a very slender basis in any observations
which this man was capable of furnishing; but abounded in misstatements
and vituperation of the policy of this government respecting the
Indians. This fellow is handled in the Oct. No. of the _North American
Review_, for 1825, in a manner which gives very little encouragement to
literary adventurers and cheats. The very man, John Dunn, of Missouri,
after whom he affected to have been named, denies that he ever heard
of him.

I had, thus far, seen but little of the Atlantic, except what could be
observed in a trip from New Orleans to New York, and knew very little of
its coasts by personal examination. I had never seen more of the
Chesapeake than could be shown from the head of that noble bay, and
wished to explore the Valley of the Potomac. For this purpose, I took
passage in a coasting vessel at New York, and had a voyage of a novel
and agreeable kind, which supplied me with the desired information. At
Old Point Comfort, I remained at the hotel while the vessel tarried. In
ascending the Potomac one night, while anchored, a negro song was wafted
in the stillness of the atmosphere. I could distinctly hear the
following words:--

Gentlemen, he c