INHABITANTS^ 267 
^red and eighty slaves; but at present the 
number is supposed to amount at least to forty 
thousand. The inhabitants have long been 
distingu ished above those of all the other towns 
in the United States,, except it be the people 
of Charleston, for their politeness, gaiety, and 
hospitality; and, indeed, in these points they 
are more strikingly superior to the inhabitants 
of the other large towns. Their public amuse- 
pients consist in dancing and card assem¬ 
blies, and theatrical exhibitions : for the for¬ 
mer, a spacious suite of rooms has lately been 
erected. The theatre is of wood, and a most 
piiserable edifice it is; but a new one is now 
building on a grand scale, w hich, it is thought* 
Vvill be as much too large for the town as the 
other is too small. 
Being anxious to proceed on our journey 
before the season was too far advanced, and 
also particularly desirous of quitting New 
York on account of the fevers, which, it was 
yumoured, were increasing very fast, we took 
our passage for Albany, in one of the sloops 
trading constantly on the North River, be¬ 
tween New York and that place, and em¬ 
barked on the second day of July, about two 
o’clock in the afternoon. Scarcely a breath 
of air was stirring at the time; but the tide 
carried us up at the rate of about two miles 
and a half an hour 0 The sky remained all day 
