REPORT OF THE SECRETARY 37 



A later act of Congress extends the time within which the report may 

 be made to January 2, 1939. Since this appointment was made, the 

 activities of the Commission have absorbed a great deal of his time, 

 involving as they do the promotion of research in foreign deposi- 

 tories of manuscripts, particularly those of Spain, the translation of 

 Spanish works, and especially a study and determination, as far as 

 that is possible, of the route taken by the great explorer and his suc- 

 cessor, Moscoso, through territories now covered by 10 States of the 

 Union. This involves the use of library materials and direct study in 

 the field. At the request of the other members of the Commission, 

 Dr. Swanton acted in the capacity of temporary chairman in arrang- 

 ing the first meeting, March 5 to 7, in the Smithsonian Building. At 

 this meeting Dr. Swanton accepted the permanent chairmanship of 

 the Commission, with the understanding, however, that he was to 

 serve only until the factual report is made. A second meeting was 

 held at Tampa, Fla., on May 4 to 6. After this was over, he accom- 

 panied Col. J. R. Fordyce, vice-chairman of the Commission, in an 

 investigation of parts of the route of De Soto between Florida and 

 Mississippi, and May 30 to June 18 he made a second expedition to 

 examine that section between South Carolina and the Mississippi 

 River. 



During the year an interesting and ethnologically important letter 

 bearing on the Indians of Florida was brought to Dr. Swanton's 

 attention by Dr. Lucy L. Wenhold, of Salem College, Winston-Salem, 

 N. C. A negative photostat of this document is also in the possession 

 of the Florida State Historical Society, which has kindly loaned the 

 use of it in making a positive copy, and this is being prepared for 

 publication in the Smithsonian Miscellaneous Collections with anno- 

 tations by Dr. Swanton and Dr. Wenhold. 



On July 3, 1935, Dr. Truman Michelson, ethnologist, started on an 

 expedition to the region of James and Hudson Bays, made possible by 

 a subvention from the American Council of Learned Societies. The 

 object was to make a linguistic map of this area. He spent some 

 weeks at Moose Factory, about 10 days at the Great Whale River, a 

 little over 2 weeks at Fort George, and a day at Rupert's House, and 

 returned to Washington September 20. Besides getting data from 

 the Indians and Eskimos of these places, he was able to get in contact 

 with one Indian from the East Main River, one Cree from Wenusk, 

 on the west side of Hudson Bay, one Cree from the Albany River, 

 who had also been at Attawapiskat, and one Ojibwa from the Albany 

 River. Data from some of the more remote localities were obtained 

 by indirect means. His observations indicate that the folklore and 

 mythology of these northern tribes are far closer to those of the 

 Central Algonquian tribes than is usually thought. 



