'Travels Through North America 



New Jersey has very great natural advantages of 

 hills, valleys, rivers, and large bays. The Dela- 

 v^are is on one side, and Hudson's river on the other; 

 besides which it has the Raritan, Passaic, and Amboy 

 rivers; and Newark and New York bays. It pro- 

 duces vast quantities of grain, besides hemp, flax, 

 hay, Indian corn, and other articles. It is divided 

 into eleven counties, and has several small towns, 

 though not one of consideration. The number of 

 its inhabitants is supposed to be 70,000: of which, 

 all males between sixteen and sixty, negroes ex- 

 cepted, are obliged to serve in the militia. There 

 is no foreign trade carried on from this province; 

 for the inhabitants sell their produce to the merchants 

 of Philadelphia and New York, and take in return 

 European goods and other necessaries of life. They 

 have some trifling manufactures of their own, but 

 nothing that deserves mentioning. 



The government consists of a governor, twelve 

 counsellors, and a house of representatives of about 

 twenty-six members, the two former nominated by 

 the king, the latter elected by the people. Each 

 branch has a negative; they meet at Amboy and at 

 Burlington alternately. The governor's salary, with 



He described the soil of that country to be similar in almost every 

 circumstance to this of the Jerseys. He said it appeared to be of 

 a red slaty substance, sterile, and incapable of producing any thing 

 worth the cultivation; but that being broken up and exposed to 

 the air, it became exceedingly mellow^, and v^as fertile in the highest 

 degree. 



[108I 



