My work was published about the 25th of November. As soon as
it was announced, I took copies of it, and proceeded to Washington,
where I was favorably received. I lost no time in calling on Mr. Monroe,
and the Secretaries of War and of the Treasury. Mr. Monroe took up his
commonplace-book, and made memorandums of my statements respecting the
mines. Mr. Calhoun received me cordially, and said that the
jurisdiction of the mines was not in his department. But he had
received a memoir from General Cass, Governor of Michigan, proposing to
explore the sources of the Mississippi, through the Lakes, and
suggesting that a naturalist, conversant with mineralogy, should
accompany him, to inquire into the supposed value of the Lake Superior
copper mines. He tendered me the place, and stated the compensation. The
latter was small, but the situation appeared to me to be one which was
not to be overlooked. I accepted it. It seemed to be the bottom step in
a ladder which I ought to climb. Small events, it has been said, lead a
man, and decide his course in life; and whether this step was important
in mine, may be better judged of, perhaps, when these notes shall have
been read.
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