to render his name immortal. It will be readily understood 
that I allude to the application of steam to impel boats. A 
work which cost many years of anxious care and study, be¬ 
fore it could be brought into successful operation. From 
the time Chancellor Livingston was convinced of the feasi¬ 
bility of his plan, until he went to France, he was actively 
engaged in experiments on the subject. In the year 1796, 
he applied to the legislature of this state for some exclusive 
privileges in case he should succeed; which that body 
granted rather to satisfy a meritorious applicant, than ex¬ 
pecting his success. From that time the subject of steam 
boats excited very general ridicule and the Chancellor was 
looked upon as a visionary projector. Not despairing ulti¬ 
mately of success, he continued his labor during his resi* 
dence in Paris, and there, after an expense of thousands^ 
produced that wonderful machine, which without wind, with¬ 
out tide, (and frequently in opposition to both) is impelled 
with a certain and a rapid motion through the waves. 
Returning to his country Chancellor Livingston, commen¬ 
ced the building of a steamboat for the purpose of navigating 
the Hudson river* The incredulity of his fellow citizens 
was not yet overcome. They thought it the idle chimara of 
an old man’s brain. And if the first steam boat had receiv¬ 
ed the name by which it was most frequently honored, this 
day The Chimcera would have sailed the Hudson ; and the 
Roman poet’s description of Gyas* boat of that name, would 
have been verified in modern times. 
Ingentemque Gyas ingenti mole Chimxram, JEn. V. 118. 
Urbis opus. (Csecis) flarnmisque armata Chimsera, 
EfFugit ante alios, primisque elabitur undis 151. 
Turbam inter fremitumque. 
f The reader must excuse the insertion of (i flarnmisque armata Chi* 
masra,” from the 288th verse of the 6th book of the JEneid, as with 
te caecis,” it serves to complete a line and to makeup an exact descrip¬ 
tion of a steam boat.] 
For want of a better, the following imitation is offered:— 
The huge Chimcera skilful Gyas steers , 
In height, length, breadth, so vast, that she appears 
