JOURNEY THROUGH JERSEY 23 



which is really the port and capital of East Jersey, lying 

 ten miles farther down at the mouth of the Rariton, a 

 safe and commodious bay where notwithstanding few 

 ships put in. Recently when a peace was looked for, 

 a company of English merchants offered to employ a 

 considerable capital, sufficient for the purpose, in re- 

 establishing the trade of Amboy ; by reason of untimely 

 animosities the project was abandoned, and Amboy * 

 will have, as before, only an insignificant traffic with 

 foreign ports. New York on the one side and Phila- 

 delphia on the other long since drew to themselves the 

 trade of Jersey, and without great exertions and the 

 capital assistance of rich merchants, this established 

 course of trade is not to be altered. The produce of 

 Jersey is the same as that of both the adjoining prov- 

 inces, and the Jerseymen find a better market and 

 longer credit in those two cities than in their own. 

 Thus, free to choose the best markets, it will not likely 

 happen that the people will deny themselves. In 

 Brunswick the royal barracks still stand, for which 

 there are no soldiers, and an English church remains 

 for which there is no congregation. The Quaker meet- 

 ing-house and the market-house, as well as many other 

 buildings, are in ruins. This section of Jersey, and 

 especially Princeton, Woodbridge, Newark, Bergen, 

 Elizabethtown, &c. suffered the most during the war, 

 from the troops of both parties. 



From Brunswick we proceeded down the Rariton 

 through an incomparable landscape. A still stream, 



* Latterly the State of Jersey has declared this a free port 

 and flatters itself that in this way the trade of Amboy will be 

 the more easily revived, since the neighboring states have 

 placed heavy taxes on shipping. 



