To this point I was accompanied by Mrs. Schoolcraft
and the children, and Lt. Allen and the Miss Johnstons, the day being
calm and delightful, and the views on every hand the most enchanting and
magnificent. While at Detroit during the winter, I had invited Dr.
Douglass Houghton to accompany me to vaccinate the Indians. He was a man
of pleasing manners and deportment, small of stature, and of a compact
make, and apparently well suited to withstand the fatigues incidental to
such a journey. He was a good botanist and geologist--objects of
interest to me at all times; but especially so now, for I should have
considered it inexcusable to conduct an expedition into the Indian
country, without collecting data over and above the public duties, to
understand its natural history. I charged myself, on this occasion, more
particularly with the Indian subject--their manners and customs,
conditions, languages, and history, and the policy best suited to
advance them in the scale of thinking beings, responsible for their
acts, moral and political.
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