there are cuftom-houfes; Burlington, on the River Delaware; Bridgetown, on the bay of that name; and Great Egg Harbour, on the sea coast; but none of them has any thing of what may be called trade. It often happens that in a whole year there does not fail from them one foreign veffel. This may be seen from the total exports of New Jersey, in which are included those of Amboy, whereof I have given the amount. The whole of these exports amounted, in 1791, to twenty-fix thousand nine hundred dollars; in 1792, to twenty-three thoufand four hundred and five dollars; in 1793, to fifty-four thousand one hundred and feventy-eight dollars (the three fmall ports exported nothing); in 1795, to one hundred and thirty thoufand eight hundred and fourteen dollars; and, in 1796, to fifty-nine thoufand two hundred and twenty-feven dollars. PATERSON FALL. The fall of the River Paffaik, about twenty miles from New York, is one of the most noted in North America. It fhould be vifited by all thofe who admire natural curiofities. The courfe of that river through rocks, which it has rent in precipitating itself from a height of sixty-fix feet, prefents a grand fpectacle. From the appearance of the foil there feems formerly to have been two courfes, but which by fome convulfion in nature have have fallen into one. At the fall it is from twenty to twenty-five feet wide. On the day I vifited it the fun fhone bright; the weather was hot, the wind pretty high; all which circumstances combined to give great beauty to this magnificent fcene. There is an agreeable view from the upper part of the fall over a tolerably well cultivated plain. The little town of Paterfon is built at the foot of the fall. It contains a variety of machinery,. but all in a state of decay. In 1791 a company was formed for their eftablishment, but its funds were foon confumed, indeed before they were completed. A lottery was granted by the State of Jerfey to affift it, but was not attended with fuccefs. They talk of new efforts. Certainly no fituation can be better adapted for all kinds of machinery. This town was called Paterfon, after WILLIAM PATERSON, formerly governor of New York, and who is at this day one of the judges of the fupreme court of the United States. He is one of the most refpectable and enlightened men in the country. He was appointed by the legislature of New Jersey to revive and publish their code of laws. The law which conferred upon him the commiffion, gave him even a power to alter the criminal laws, and to him is owing the reform in the penal code which I have mentioned. The The ftones that form the bafon into which the river falls are mostly fandy. hard granite very common in in a compact bed of bafaltes. There is a kind of all the plain, lying The flints that are found in the bottom of the fall, being the fractures of the rocks above, are of the fame nature. The river below the fall runs through a flat and marshy country, and in confequence its course is very flow and undulating. I waited upon Mr. Paterfon at New York, where I remained a confiderable time. In the following book I fhall give the observations which I collected respecting that great state, the second of the Union for riches, for the fpirit with which it is cultivated, and for the extent of its com merce. VOL. IV. STAY STAY AT NEW YORK, IN AUGUST, 1797. DESCRIPTION OF THE STATE OF SUCCINCT HISTORY OF THE COLONY OF NEW YORK. HE ftate of New York belonged originally THE to the Dutch. It is true, that before that fome plans were formed to colonife this country, but they were very vague. Elizabeth, Queen of England, had, in 1584 granted to Sir WALTER RALEIGH, a patent to occupy, under the fovereignty of the crown of England, all the country of North America, not in the poffeffion of any other Chriftian Prince. James the Firft, difregardless of that patent, divided this immenfe poffeffion, then known under the name of Virginia, and which extended from Carolina to Nova Scotia, between two companies. To the former, called The Company of London Adventurers, he granted the right to eftablish colonies, from the thirty-fourth to the forty first degree of latitude; and to the other, The Plymouth Company, a fimilar privilege, from the forty-first to the forty-fifth degree. But the lands thus granted, and even their coafts, were then in a great measure unknown. HENRY HUDSON, in a veffel belonging to the Dutch India Company, first discovered Long Island, and afcended the great northern river, to which he gave his name. The Dutch, ignorant of the grants made of these countries to the two companies, and paying no regard to it, declared. themselves the fovereigns; in 1614 they sent there a colony, which built the towns of Fort Orange and New Amsterdam, calling the country itself New Holland. James the First having fent fome forces to lay waste the new fettlements, the Dutch proprietors preferred to a hopeless refiftance the more fafe and prudent measure of acknowledging the English fovereignty, thus preferving their poffeffions, on payment of a tribute to England. The troubles of that kingdom, during the lat ter part of the reign of Charles the First, enabled the Hollanders to shake off the English yoke, which indeed they had repeatedly before attempted. They fucceeded alfo in deftroying a Swedish colony, fettled upon the Delaware. But O 2 afterwards |