{19} Crossed the Narrows to Staten Island. The fortifications are extensive and commanding. The garrison consists of one man!
25. Left New Utrecht, where a residence of nine days has completely cured my blotched face. The climate is delightful, and I have entertained a very favourable opinion of the people.
The emigrant who was removed sick to Brooklyn, is dead; thus by far the finest young man of our party, has fallen the first victim to the climate: twenty-two years of age, of a mild and cheerful disposition, and of a manly figure, and who had gained our universal esteem. Of a family consisting of six persons, he was the only one who was able to endure the fatigues of clearing away the forests. The feelings of the survivors are deeply wounded, and the tender attachment that pledged his early return to Scotland is blasted.
I returned to New York, and shall make some more remarks on the city. The population, at the census of 1816, was 100,619, of which 6985 were aliens, 9774 free people of colour, and 617 slaves. It is expected that the enumeration of 1820 will disclose a vast increase.
Literature does not stand on such a broad basis here as in Europe. Printing, particularly of newspapers, is carried on to a considerable extent: but the style of many communications and advertisements which appear in them, shews that the public are not far advanced in taste. Particular pieces are elegant. Many English publications are reprinted, frequently with the addition of some introduction, notes, or an appendix. For the additional matter a patent is procured, which I suppose has generally the practical effect of securing an exclusive privilege for the whole work. Some of Lord Byron’s latest productions, the Memoirs of {20} the Fudge Family,[10] and the Brownie of Bodsbeck,[11] are exhibited in the windows of the principal booksellers. When I left Edinburgh the last mentioned book was not published.
The Kaleidoscope of Dr. Brewster is here fabricated in a rude style, and in quantities so great, that it is given as a plaything to children.[12] An artist informed me that a journeyman of his proposes to take a patent for an improvement he had made on it.
The public museum in this city is a recent collection. An Indian mummy from the great saltpetre cave in Kentucky, a bear from Warwick mountains, about sixty miles north of this place, which weighed 700 pounds, and an immensely large turtle, are as yet the most interesting objects.
The town hall is a splendid building. Lightness, and an apparent want of solidity in its parts, deprive it in some measure of the august effect essential to sublime grandeur. The front and columns are made of white marble of a foliated texture. The interior staircase is both large and magnificent. It is circular, and furnished with two elegant flights of steps that wind in contrary directions, so that the one crosses the other alternately. Upon the whole, it displays that elegance which becomes an edifice devoted to the administration of justice.
When I visited the Court of Sessions, the judge on the bench appeared a plain active-looking gentleman, not distinguished by any robes of office. The business on hand was the taking of evidence in the case of a man who had left a vault open during the night. A person passing in the street happened to fall into the chasm, and raised an action of damages, on the ground that he had received bodily hurt. The questions put were numerous {21} and minute, the witnesses, notwithstanding, went on in giving lengthened details, embracing particulars not asked, and foreign to the subject. They seemed in no respect embarrassed by the dignity of the court. The whole of the witnesses were present, and each heard the examinations which preceded his own.
The Washington, a new ship of war, mounting 96 guns, is much visited at present.[13] The seamen are a party of stout healthy looking men, dressed in striped cottons, very suitable to the present hot weather, and cleanly in the extreme. The decoration, cleanliness of the ship, and the order that prevailed aboard, can scarcely be surpassed. Diffident, however, as I am in forming an opinion on any naval affair, I cannot avoid the impression that a vessel of such strength, and with such a crew of freemen, must be an overmatch for any other vessel constructed and manned as European ships of war were wont to be.