^80 



A VOYAGE TO 



would be a load of itself. I am told that within a few 

 years past, an English carriage, or wagon maker, has 

 established himself in the city, and has already made 

 a fortune by constructing carts and wagons, on a more 

 modern plan; that his price, at first, for a common two 

 horse wagon, was five hundred dollars, but since they 

 have become in more general use, it has fallen one 

 half; but it will be a considerable time, before the pre- 

 sent clumsy, and inconvenient machines, will be su- 

 perseded. It will happen here, as in every thing 

 else, that the progress of improvement will be slow. 



On our landing, we found very few persons on the 

 wharf, attracted, as might have been expected, by cu- 

 riosity. The fact is, we had taken them by surprise; 

 and, as I afterwards learned, it was a source of some 

 chagrin, that they had not had an opportunity of mak- 

 ing some display on the occasion. It was natural to 

 expect, that personages to whom the people attached 

 so much importance, should make their appearance ! 

 with something more of parade. But I hope this dis- 

 appointment was more than compensated, by giving 

 them a practical example of the simplicity, and hu- 

 mility of true republicanism, which places little or no 

 importance in that outward shew or ceremony, which 

 is more properly a cloak for emptiness and conceit, 

 than any part of native worth and dignity. 



Our friend was taken by the hand by a young 

 oflRcer, in a neat uniform, and his manner gave me a 

 very favorable idea of the relation in this place be- 

 tween the citizen and the soldier. These two young 

 men were probably educated together, and were play- 

 mates in the same town; they had only embraced dif- 

 ferent occupations, one entering the counting house, 



