and renders the ferry disagreeable, except at high and low water. We arrived just before high water, and found the passage tolerably pleasant.

I have already observed, that Kings County was principally settled by the Dutch. This is partially true of Queen's County also. The general character of the Dutch settlers in the States of New-York, and New-Jersey, I propose to give elsewhere. I know of nothing, by which their descendants on Long-Island are distinguished from their brethren.

The other inhabitants of these two Counties are a mixed people; derived from many sources, and exhibiting a great variety of character. In Religion they are Episcopalians, Presbyterians, Quakers, Baptists, Methodists, and Nihilists. They are generally industrious, frugal, and thrifty. Their advantages for marketing are not exceeded. You will not wonder, therefore, that they are wealthy. The breeding of horses has for a long time been here a favourite business; and horse racing, (of which Hempstead plain is the great theatre,) a favourite amusement. Wherever this kind of sport prevails, no man, acquainted at all with human affairs, will expect any great prevalence of morals or religion. There are few spots of the same extent, settled at so early a period, where these great concerns of man are less regarded. Young men, even of wealthy families, are usually taught scarcely any thing more than to read, write, and keep accounts. The state of society is therefore, humble, and involves very little of knowledge or sentiment. Intelligence is in truth disregarded by the body of the inhabitants, except as it aids them to the acquisition of property. The young men of ambition and enterprise, when they set out in life, generally quit their native soil, and seek a residence in a superiour state of society, or at least where they find more extensive means of business.

In various parts of these two Counties the Sabbath is considered by many of the inhabitants as scarcely sustaining a sacred character. It is devoted extensively to visiting, to amusement, and, during the seasons of mowing and harvest, not unfrequently to labour. In some places there are, for long periods, no minisVOL. III.

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ters in others the people are the prey of ignorant teachers, recommended by nothing but ardour and vociferation.

The Clergymen, who are actually settled in the ministry, in these Counties, are, so far as I am informed, of the same respectable character, possessed by those in other parts of this country: but the people are so generally split up into sects, that their congregations are in most instances small.

The Quakers, the number of whom is considerable, differ little from their brethren elsewhere; except that they are more uninformed, and more listless, than in several other places.

The Insular situation of these three Counties has a very perceptible influence upon the inhabitants, as a body. Their own internal concerns must always exist upon a small scale. Their views, affections, and pursuits, must of course be always limited. Few objects can be presented to them, and few events can occur, of sufficient magnitude to expand thought, or of sufficient importance to awaken energy. Almost all their concerns are absolutely confined to the house, or to the neighbourhood: and the neighbourhood rarely extends beyond the confines of a small hamlet. Habitually bounded by these confines, the mind is neither very much inclined, nor very able, to look beyond them. Its views, in most cases, will, after a little time, be of choice occupied within these small circles: its affections will all centre here: and its pursuits will break through, only to reach the market. The tenour of life, therefore, will be uniform: undisturbed on the one hand, and tame on the other. What the mind might have been cannot be known, because it has never been stimulated to any attempts for the expansion of its views, or the exertion of its powers. What it is may, from one instance, be easily conjectured in a thousand.

The inhabitants of this island are destitute of other advantages, which contribute not a little to diffuse information, and awaken energy. There is very little travelling here, beside their own. The attention excited, the curiosity awakened, and the animation produced, by the frequent arrival of strangers, are here in a great measure unknown. At the same time, comparatively few

persons of talents, and information, reside here. There is nothing, sufficiently inviting in the circumstances of the island itself, to allure persons of this character hither from the continent; and the allurements of the continent are such, as commonly to entice men of this description, who are natives of the island, to remove from it for the sake of obtaining them. A considerable number of such men, born here, are accordingly found in New-York and elsewhere. The advantages, derived from the conversation, and example, of persons, distinguished for superiority of character, are therefore enjoyed in a very imperfect degree; and that luminous spirit, and those improvements in the state of society, which they every where shed upon the circle around them, are very imperfectly realized. Such, it would seem, must through an indefinite period be the situation of Long-Island.

We continued in New-York until Monday, the 28th, and then commenced our journey to New-Haven; where we arrived the following day. I am, Sir, yours, &c.

FIRST JOURNEY

то

LAKE GEORGE.

LETTER I.

Journey through Goshen, &c. to the head of Lake George-Voyage across the Lake -Excursion to Ticonderoga-Return to the head of the Lake-Manner of hunting Deer Huntsman-Overtake a Buck swimming on the Lake-Fort William Henry-Bloody Pond.

Dear Sir,

On Saturday, September 18th, 1802, I set out on a journey to Lake George, accompanied by Mr. S, a member of the Senior Class in Yale College. We left New-Haven at 11 o'clock; and arrived at Litchfield in the evening. Here we were detained by the heat, and moisture of the weather, till Tuesday morning. We then rode to Goshen; where we continued till three in the afternoon. The Rev. Mr. H, pastor of Goshen, joined us here, on a journey to Middlebury in Vermont. The weather still continued intensely hot; and the sky threatened us with rain.

From a hill in the North part of Goshen, at a small distance west of our road, we regaled ourselves with an interesting prospect of the Kaatskill Mountains. After our return to the road, which is a turnpike lately completed, we speedily reached the Western summit of the Green Mountains in this quarter. Here the road descends into a valley, several miles in length, formed by a separation of the mountains, and furnishing an easy, gradual descent to the plains below. Through the chasm between the spurs, which to the eye are the extreme boundaries of the val