New York 



Indians. It is made of the clam shell; a shell, con- 

 sisting within of two colours, purple and white; and 

 in form not unlike a thick oyster shell. The process 

 of manufacturing it is very simple. It is first clipped 

 to a proper size, which is that of a small oblong 

 parallelopiped, then drilled, and afterward ground 

 to a round smooth surface, and polished. The 

 purple wampum is much more valuable than the 

 white, a very small part of the shell being of that 

 colour. 



At the point I embarked for New York; and, after 

 a pleasant passage over the bay, which is three 

 leagues wide; and various delightful prospects of 

 rivers, islands, fields, hills, woods, the Narrows, New 

 York City, vessels sailing to and fro, and innumerable 

 porpoises playing upon the surface of the water, in 

 an evening so serene that the hemisphere was not 

 ruffled by a single cloud, arrived there about the 

 setting of the sun. 



This city is situated upon the point of a small 

 island, lying open to the bay on one side, and on the 

 others included between the North and East rivers; 

 and commands a fine prospect of water, the Jerseys, 

 Long Island, Staten Island, and several others, 

 which lie scattered in the bay. It contains between 

 two and three thousand houses, and i6 or 17,000 

 inhabitants, is tolerably well built, and has several 

 good houses. The streets are paved, and very clean, 

 but in general narrow; there are two or three, in- 



[III] 



