zn North America. 493 
grandeur perhaps exceeding any one of the other three, has 
performed her trip from Albany to New York in the short 
time of 12 hours, which is at the rate of 13 miles to the hour ; 
both wind and tide, of course, were in her favour. * 
Steam-boats were unknown on this Continent before the 
time of Robert Fulton; indeed, it is a common opinion of the 
Americans, who are conspicuously tenacious of the rights of 
their citizens, that he not only introduced them here, but also 
was the first to apply steam for maritime purposes. ‘This, 
however, is pretty certain, that the ardour and speculation of 
steam navigation arose in a great measure from his genius 
and enterprise ; and, if he were not the inventor (the question 
is now pretty well settled in favour of Mr. Henry Bell, 
Scotchman), his name will ever be associated with the honour 
of this great discovery. 
As I do not intend to trouble you often with double 
postage, I shall reserve for another letter what I had con- 
templated should be in this. In my next I shall give you 
a sketch of the western or Jersey side of the river, which, I 
flatter myself, will contain some interesting particulars. 
I have the honour to be yours, mat faithfully, 
Hudson River, May, 1823. T. W. 
Lerrer II. 
My dear B.—The clock of St. John’s could be faintly 
heard: we were just escaping from the smoke and noise of 
the city, and cutting the waters of this majestic river, as it was 
striking the hour of six in the evening. The clouds were 
seen In Y tumult, rapidly rolling from the west into dark masses, 
which hung, an awful confusion, above us ; thunder was heard 
at a distance; and the lightning’s flash flew fierce and fre- 
quent through the atmosphere: every body on board was 
convinced the evening foreboded a stormy night, and some 
of our passengers, who had collected themselves into groups 
upon deck, appeared evidently alarmed. The stories of 
wrecks, and of lives that perished near this place, were once 
more brought back to the memory. On our weather quarter 
I perceived an old woman, with grave and solemn cast, in the 
act of repeating some disastrous tale. I approached nearer, 
co) 
and found her engaging her hearers, whose minds no doubt 
were now well prepared for the reception of sad and mourn- 
ful story, with an account of a sloop, which, during a late 
* This distance, although the above is certainly very fast sailing, and, I 
right add, unprecedented i in this country, has been lately done in ten hours 
by : ‘a steam-boat called “ The North America.” 
KK 3 
