our sight. The pleasing variety of the high banks of the river, richly wooded with trees almost dipping into the water; and numbers of vessels moving in all directions; complete the beauty of the animated picture.

We have now fixed our abode in that city, in ready-furnished lodgings, for a few weeks, and have dispatched the faithful Sancho to fetch his wife from Charlestown, in a vessel that was bound to that port; hoping to be able to settle him in the island of Nantucket, as a cooper, an employment he has been used to when a slave. I know your feeling heart will partake my pleasure, in seeing him a free man, and enjoying an independent right to whatever he may acquire by his industry.

Adieu, my Catharine. Tell Louisa I shall have a box full of curiosities for her, when I return. Your's, &c.

ARTHUR MIDDLETON.

LETTER

LETTER XXV.

Mr. H. Franklin to Edwin Middleton.

Boston.

MY DEAR EDWIN,

THE pleasure you express on reading the events of our journey, encourages me to proceed in my correspondence, and to neglect no opportunity of writing, when I have a collection of matter to supply you with amusement.

The reception we have met with at New York has rendered our abode there very agreeable. We find the inhabitants polite, gay, and hospitable, but not so dissipated as those of Charlestown. Entertainments are frequent amongst them; and, as strangers, we were always invited. The furniture and apartments of the genteelest houses, as well as the style of the table, are in the English fashion.

The city is large, and finely situated on a small island of the same name, encircled by the North and East Rivers, and a creek that connects them together. Part of the town was burnt during the American war, which gave an opportunity of rebuilding it in a superior manner to the old streets, which are narrow, inconvenient, and dirty.

Our

Our apartments are in the Broadway, which is very wide, near a mile long, and formed by exceedingly handsome brick houses. This noble street is terminated by a square, with the governor's residence in the front of it. Between this edifice and the river, where the fort formerly stood, is a fine public walk, that overlooks Long and Staten Islands, the river, and the shipping. Arthur and I often walk here, as we are almost sure of finding some of our acquaintance amongst the company, of a fine evening.

There are no grand public buildings, though the churches and meeting houses amount to twenty; for here, as in other parts of America, every man follows that mode of worship that he thinks most acceptable to his Creator, without diminishing his civil rights there being no national establishment, endowed with peculiar privileges, as in the ancient nations of Europe.

There are three market places; but, except a more plentiful supply of fish, they are inferior, in every respect, to those of Philadelphia.

The inhabitants are very benevolent, as appears from the number of well-regulated charitable establishments; particularly the hospital and dispensary. The prison is a modern building, adapted to the security and health of its unfortunate inmates. The same humane code of laws, with some small differences, is adopted here, as at Philadelphia. No

crime is punished with death, but robbing a church and malicious murder.

The slaves are treated with great mildness; but still they are slaves, and their masters have not sufficient generosity to give them their liberty. A great deal of trade is carried on by the merchants of this city. It has a most flourishing port, and communicates by the river and canals with distant parts of the country; particularly with Massachusets, and that part of Vermont which lies in the same tract. Till within a few years it was the seat of the legislature of the state, but it is now removed to Albany. The colony of New York was originally founded by the Dutch. Henry Hudson, in a vessel belonging to that nation, first discovered Long Island, and gave his name to the Great Northern River.

The English asserted a previous possession, and there was a long contest between them and the Dutch; but in the reign of Charles the Second, the former drove out their antagonists, and changed the name of the province from New Holland to that of New York, in compliment to the king's brother, then Duke of York, and afterwards James the Second.

At the solicitation of two or three of our friends, we formed an excursion to Long Island, which is a very narrow strip of land, extending to the east, lengthwise, one hundred and forty miles; though it does not exceed ten in breadth, at a medium. The

The country on the western side, bordering on the channel that separates the islands from the continent, is romantically varied with charming prospects of the distant hills on Staten Island, and the New Jersey shore, rising beyond the water, which is enlivened with vessels of different sizes and forms. The inhabitants of this island are mostly descended from the Dutch, and are many of them farmers. We tried the hospitality of several, when hunger or fatigue made us wish for rest and refreshment; but we did not find the art of softening them to complacency they received us coldly, and seemed glad when we proposed to depart. Towards the northern side of the island we saw orchards of delicious fruit: the flavour of the Newtown pippins excelled any I ever tasted. As we rode through the woods, we observed immense numbers of grouse and deer enjoying the shelter of the thickets; and both are so common at table, that they are not considered as dainties. We visited several towns with Dutch names; at one, called Utrecht, there was a fair, where we saw a negro, who came from Virginia. He was born of negro parents, (of course both black,) and he continued of the same colour till he was forty, when he became gradually of a paler hue, till his skin was changed to the complexion of an European with red hair. He has, however, still some brown spots remaining, though they are daily growing smaller and smaller. His hair is as much altered