I have now been thirty years availing myself of
every possible opportunity of procuring Indian vocabularies to the same
set of words: my opportunities were probably better than will ever occur
again to any person having the same desire. I had collected about fifty,
and had digested most of them in collateral columns, and meant to have
printed them the last year of my stay in Washington. But not having yet
digested Captain Lewis's collection, nor having leisure then to do it,
I put it off till I should return home. The whole, as well digest as
originals, were packed in a trunk of stationery, and sent round by water
with about thirty other packages of my effects, from Washington, and
while ascending James river, this package, on account of its weight and
presumed precious contents, was singled out and stolen. The thief, being
disappointed on opening it, threw into the river all its contents, of
which he thought he could make no use. Among these were the whole of the
vocabularies. Some leaves floated ashore, and were found in the mud;
but these were very few, and so defaced by the mud and water, that no
general use can ever be made of them. On the receipt of your letter I
turned to them, and was very happy to find, that the only morsel of
an original vocabulary among them, was Captain Lewis's of the Pani
language, of which you say you have not one word. I therefore enclose it
to you as it is, and a little fragment of some other, which I see is in
his hand-writing, but no indication remains on it of what language it
is.
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