3d. Pleasant, mild, clear. Winter has now clearly relaxed his hold. Indians who came in to-day from L'Arbre Croche, report that the ice is, however, still firm at Point Wa-gosh-ains (Little Fox Point), on the straits above. This point forms the bight of the straits, some twenty miles off, at their entrance into Lake Michigan. Attended the funeral of William Dolly, a Metif boy, of Indian extraction.
4th. The season is visibly advancing in its warmth and mildness. Began to prepare hot-beds. Set boxes for flowers and tubs for roots.
5th. The mission schooner "Supply" leaves the harbor on her first trip to Detroit, with a fine west wind, carrying our recent guests from St. Mary's. Transplant flowering shrubs. Miss McFarland passes the day with Mrs. Schoolcraft at the agency.
7th. Cloudy but mild. Adjusting fixtures for gooseberry bushes, &c.
8th. Superintending the construction of a small ornamental mound and side wall to the piazza, for shrubbery and flowers. Books are now thrown by for the excitement of horticulture. Some Indians visit the office. It is remarkable what straits and suffering these people undergo every winter for a bare existence. They struggle against cold and hunger, and are very grateful for the least relief. Kitte-mau-giz-ze Sho-wain-e-min, is their common expression to an agent--I am poor, show me pity, (or rather) charity me; for they use their substantives for verbs.
9th. The schooner "White Pigeon," (the name of an Indian chief,) enters the harbor, with a mail from Detroit. "A mail! a mail!" is the cry. Old Saganosh and five Indian families come in. The Indians start up from their wintering places, as if from a cemetery. They seem almost as lean and hungry as their dogs--for an Indian always has dogs--and, if they fare poor, the dogs fare poorer.
Resumed my preparations at the garden hot-beds.
The mail brought me letters from Washington, speaking of political excitements. The project for an Indian academy is bluffed off, by saying it should come through the Delegate. Major Whiting writes that he is authorized to have a road surveyed from Saginaw to Mackinack.
10th. Engaged at my horticultural mound. The weather continues mild.
11th. Transplanting cherry trees.