ntion of Congress, if expressed by law, can be fully carried
into effect.

Life has more than one point of resemblance to a panorama. When one
object is past, another is brought to view. The same correspondent adds:
"Mr. Calhoun has come to the determination to authorize you to explore
the River St. Peter's this season. I think you may safely make the
necessary arrangements, as I feel confident the instructions will reach
you soon after the opening of the navigation."

In consequence of this intimation, I have been casting about to find
some authors who treat of the region of country which embraces the St.
Peter's, but with little success. Hennipin's "Discovery of a large
Country in the Northern America, extending above Four Thousand Miles," I
have read with care. But care indeed it requires to separate truth from
error, both in his descriptions and opinions. He thinks "Japan a part of
the American Continent;" and describes the Wisconsin as "navigable for
large vessels above one hundred leagues." Yet, notwithstanding this
gross hyberbole, he describes the portage between the Fox and Wisconsin
at "half a league," which is within the actual distance. It may be
admitted that he was within the Sioux country, and went up the
Mississippi as high as the St. Francis.

La Hontan, whose travels were published in London only a few years after
the translation of Hennipin's, is entitled, it is believed, to no credit
whatever, for all he relates of personal discoveries on the Mississippi.
His fiction of observations on "River La Long," is quite preposterous. I
once thought he had been as far as Prairie du Chien; but think it more
probable he never went beyond Green Bay.

Carver, who went from Boston to the Mississippi in the latter part of
the 18th century, is not an author to glean much from. I, however,
re-perused his volume carefully, and extracted notes. Some of the
stories inserted in his work have thrown an air of discredit over it,
and caused the whole work to be regarded in rather an apocryphal light.
I think there is internal evidence enough in his narrative to prove that
he visited the chief portions of country described. But he probably
neglected to keep diurnal notes. When in London, starvation stared him
in the face. Those in office to whom he represented his plans probably
listened to him awhile, and afterwards lost sight of, or neglected him.
He naturally fell into the hands of the booksellers, who deemed him a
goo