to procure equally fatisfactory details in refpect of the imports, exports, and tonnage of this great port as I obtained in feveral others; for having requested from Mr. WOLCOTT, fecretary of the treasury, a letter to the collector of the customs, by which means alone I could get the information, he faid that in the present political fituation of the United States with France, fuch compliance to a Frenchman was impoffible: and although I faw in this the perfonal difpofition of the fecretary of the treafury, and that this statef man did not wish to difclofe what he confidered political fecrets to one whom he looked upon in fome degree as an enemy, I was obliged to fubmit to his harsh anfwer. The value of the exports from the State of New York in 1788, was one million nine hundred and twenty-five thou fand dollars.

Potashes are more exported from New York than from any other port of the United States. That commodity is here, as in all the other states, fubjected to infpection, and it is the only article that is always fold for ready money. All the other articles of produce fubject to be infpected in the other ftates are fo in this. The examination of flour, although more ftrict than in the fouthern states, is lefs fo than at Philadelphia.

THE

THE CITY OF NEW YORK.

New York is, next to Philadelphia, the largest and beft town in the United States. These two cities rival each other almoft in every refpect. Philadelphia has hitherto had the advantage, but from the fine fituation of New York there is reason to expect that fooner or later it will gain the fuperiority.

It is calculated that this city contains at prefent upwards of fifty thousand inhabitants. There have been no less than four hundred and fifty new houses built here in this prefent year. It is increafed and beautified with unheard of quick nefs; a circumftance owing, no doubt, in a great mea fure, to the immenfe benefit its trade has derived for these two or three years from the prefent ftate of Europe. But if peace diminish, as it certainly will, their exceffive profits, the extenfion of the cultivated lands and fettlements in this vaft territory, the produce of which will find, directly or indirectly, a vent by Hudfon's River, will infure a folid foundation, independently of all fo reign circumftances, for the incrcafing profperity of the trade of New York. To all these advantages New York adds that of lying more to the eastward, and nearer to the fea than any port in America, except Boston; and it is never choaked

up with ice, although that part of the bay, which is formed by the mouth of the river and the fea, is fometimes frozen fo hard as to make an eafy communication on the ice between the city and the islands called Governor's and Staten Islands.

New York is built at the extremity of the ifland of Manhattan, now generally known by the name of New York Ifland. This ifland, which is fifteen miles long, and three broad at the wideft part, is formed by Hudfon's River and Eaft River, improperly fo called, it being nothing elfe than an arm of the fea, which feparates Long Ifland from New York Ifland and the continent. The first houfes of New York, then New Amfterdam, were built in 1614 by the Dutch. The English made themselves masters of it in 1684, and retained it till 1783. It was the laft town on the continent which they quitted.

In 1775, when it was evacuated by the American troops, the best part of the town, and that fituated next the fort, was, as the Americans fay, burnt by the English, and, according to the English, by the Americans.

This quarter of the city has been rebuilt fince the peace, and is now one of the handsomeft parts in it. The town had formerly been built without any regular plan, whence every where almoft, except what has been rebuilt in confe

quence

quence of the fire, the streets are fmall and crooked; the foot-paths, where there are any, narrow, and interrupted by the ftairs from the houses, which makes the walking on them extremely inconvenient. Some good brick houfes are fituated in these narrow streets; but in general the houses are mean, fmall, and low, built of wood, and á great many of them yet bear the marks of Dutch taste. The new part of the city built adjoining to Hudson's River, and parallel with its course, is infinitely more handfome; the streets there being generally straight, broad, interfecting cach other at right angles, and the houses much better built. There is not in any city in the world a finer street than Broadway; it is near a mile in length, and is meant to be still farther extended: it is more than a hundred feet wide from one end to the other. Most part of the houses are of brick, and a number of them extremely handfome. From its elevated fituation, its pofition on the river, and the elegance of the buildings, it is naturally the place of refidence of the most opulent inhabitants. Broadway is terminated, at one end, by a handfome fquare, in the front of which is the governor's houfe, built in a very good ftile of architecture, upon the fpot where the fort ftood before the revolution. The demo-. lition of this fort has alfo left between the go

vernor's house and the river a large space, which has been formed into a public walk, upon the banks of Hudfon's River, and from thence round to Eaft River, commands a view as far as the narrows at the entrance of the roadftead. Thus, in this promenade, the eye embraces at once all the outlets of this great port, and fees all its shipping come in and go out. This walk, which is called the Battery, might undoubtedly be kept in better order, and be made more agreeable to the ufe it is intended for, by planting fome trees, &c, but as it is, its fituation makes it incomparably the most delightful public walk any where to be found.

The fortifications erected upon Governor's Ifland, to defend the entrance of the harbour, are partly of brick and partly of earth; they are in a refpectable ftate of defence. The works were begun three years ago, upon a very good plan, by M. VINCENT, a French engineer, and eighty thousand dollars granted by congrefs have been already expended upon them; but it will take a great deal more to complete them; and this muft be expended regularly, and without delay, which is feldom the cafe with works of this kind in the United States. It appears, however, evident to me, that to fortify the heights of Long Island, would be alone an effectual defence of the harbour

of