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pine tree to present it to Baron Von Riedesel, Land-marshal 
of the Grand Duchy of Saxe-Wei mar. I inquired after the house 
in which the mother of the latter had lived/and in which Gene¬ 
ral Fraser died. This house stands no longer on the original 
spot, as the canal passed through its site; in other respects it is 
said to be arranged now, as it was then. The place in the bar-room, 
where General Frazer died, and a small room behind this, in which 
Madam Von Riedesel lived with her children, were shown me. 
At the small town of Waterford we passed along the left shore 
of the Hudson on a long wooden bridge, to avoid a bad bridge 
over the Mohawk. We proceeded on our route in the night on 
a very good road, and passed through Lansingburg and Troy. The 
latter is very handsomely built, and many stores are very well 
lighted up in the evening. Here we returned to the right shore 
of the Hudson, and reached Albany at 10 o’clock at night. 
On the 13th of September I went with Mr. Tromp in a stage¬ 
coach to New Lebanon, twenty-eight miles from Albany to see 
the settlement of Shakers. We passed through Greenbush, (where 
the team-boat put us on the left side of the Hudson,) Schodack, 
Union, Stephentown, and Canaan. The country about New Le¬ 
banon is extremely handsome; the tops of the mountains are co¬ 
vered with trees, and the lower parts well cultivated. The val¬ 
ley is wide, with very neat houses, and resembles a garden. 
Fruit is particularly cultivated. On a slight eminence at the foot 
of a mountain, the Shaker village is very beautifully situated, and 
is about one mile long. The houses stand in groups at a distance 
from each other, in general large, built of wood, and painted 
yellow; the church alone, or rather the meeting-house, is wide, 
with an arched roof of slate. 
The Shakers are a religious sect, originally from England. It 
was founded by Ann Lee, the daughter of a Manchester black¬ 
smith, and wife of the blacksmith Stanley, of the same city. Her 
chief doctrines are, community of goods, a perfect continence 
with regard to the sexes and adoration of the Deity by dancing. 
Ann Lee pretended to higher inspiration, performed miracles, 
announced the speedy reappearance of Christ on earth, spoke of 
the millennium, and of similar glories. She commenced in Eng¬ 
land, by making proselytes among the lowest classes, who fol¬ 
lowed her when she preached in public, held noisy prayer, or 
rather, dancing meetings, and thus disturbed the public peace. 
This worthy prophetess was therefore, with her friends, at different 
times imprisoned; the impatient and unbelieving public even be¬ 
gan once to stone her. The good soul, whose convulsions were said 
by the wicked world to be the effect of ardent spirits, wandered 
therefore, in 1774, with her family, and several of her friends, to 
New York, where she settled. But her husband was wearied 
