56 TRAVELS THROUGH NORTH AMERICA ? 
between Boston and New York contain more 
than live hundred- 
We now come to New York, which enjoys 
the double advantages of an excellent harbour 
and a large navigable river, which opens a com-* 
munication with the interior parts of the coun¬ 
try ; and here we find a flourishing city, con¬ 
taining forty thousand * inhabitants, and in¬ 
creasing beyond every calculation. The North 
or Hudson River, at the mouth of which New 
York stands, is navigable from thence for one 
hundred and thirty miles in large vessels, and 
in sloops of eighty tons burthen as far as Al¬ 
bany; smaller ones go still higher. About 
nine miles above. Albany, the Mohawk River 
falls into the Hudson, by means of which. 
Wood Creek, Lake Oneida, and Oswego River, 
a communication is opened with Lake Ontario. 
In this route there are several portages, but it 
is a route which is much frequented, and num¬ 
bers of boats are kept employed upon it, in 
carrying goods whenever the season is not too 
dry. In long droughts the waters fall so much, 
that oftentimes there is not sufficient to float 
an empty boat. All these obstructions how¬ 
ever may, and will one day or other, be reme¬ 
died by the hand of art. Oswego river, before 
it falls into Lake Ontario, communicates with 
* Six inhabitants may be reckoned for every house in the 
United States. 
