We then sailed along the western shores of Long Island, to the straits called the Narrows, a thousand yards wide, and formed by the shores of Long Island and Staten Island. They are defended by Fort Tompkins on Staten Island, and Fort La Fayette on Long Island. We visited the latter; it is built on rocks in the sea, two hundred and fifty yards distant from the shores, so that it forms an island. It is a square building, and erected after a plan of General Swift. From the outside it has the appearance of a Montalambert tower. The outside of the walls is of red sandstone, but their interior of gneiss; it was garrisoned by one company of artillery. During peace a shed was built over the platform, and a garrison stationed here during the present hot summer.
Fort Tompkins stands on a height opposite to Fort La Fayette, and on the shore of Staten Island is a battery which defends the Narrows by a raking fire.
On Long Island is another hill near the village of New Utrecht which commands Fort La Fayette, and in the vicinity there is a bay, where the English and Hessian army landed in the year 1776, when coming from Staten Island to take possession of Long Island. In order to defend this spot sufficiently they are about to build a very strong fort designed by General Bernard, resembling Fort Francis, near Coblenz, (on the Rhine.) The casemates, calculated for dwellings as well as for defence, are to be built under the ramparts, whose front face will be three hundred and seventy-five feet long: they are to be covered with earth, and a common rampart erected on top of them. In front of this is a covered way in the ditch, lower than the ramparts, with six guns, three on each side, for the defence of the ditch, &c. They were just beginning to build this fort, which is to be called Fort Hamilton, and the engineer-officers thought that it would not be finished in less than four years. The government has experienced the disadvantage of those buildings which were built by contract, and this well-arranged work will therefore be built under the immediate direction of government. General Bernard is a Frenchman; he was engineer at Antwerp, and obtained the attention and favour of the Emperor Napoleon by his great knowledge and modesty, who appointed him his aid. In 1815, he entered the service of the United States, at the recommendation of General La Fayette, and was appointed in the engineer corps under the title of assistant engineer, with the salary of a brigadier-general, but without wearing the uniform of the engineer corps, nor having any rank in the army.
He is a great acquisition to the corps, and I was somewhat astonished at the cool and indifferent manner in which they spoke of this distinguished engineer. The cause, however, of this coolness, undoubtedly is to be found in a silly misconception of patriotism; for the general is a foreigner, and frequent experience has shown that a foreigner in military service seldom enjoys satisfaction. Two new fortifications are to be built outside of the Narrows on rocks, in order still better to defend the entrance to New York, by firing crosswise at vessels, and are intended to serve as advanced posts to Forts La Fayette and Tompkins.
A gun-maker, by name of Ellis, received a patent for making repeating-guns; I visited him in company with Mr. Tromp. A repeating musket will fire frequently after being once loaded; it consists of a long tube, in which touch-holes are bored at certain distances, according to the number of shots it is intended to discharge. The musket is charged in the usual way, a piece of sole-leather is put upon the load, on this another charge, and again a piece of leather, &c. until the required number is introduced, according to the size of the tube. For each of these loads, whose height is known by a mark on the rod, there are touch-holes made on the right side of the tube, each of them closed by a valve. A box is attached to the lock, which primes itself, and moves downwards from the highest touch-hole to the lowest, until the shots are gradually discharged, one after the other, and in the same manner the valves of each touch-hole must be opened. This instrument was very interesting to me. Mr. Ellis has also made an experiment of his plan for the use of American troops, but it seems to me that such a tube would be much too long and too heavy, and the loading would consume too much time, not to speak of the difficulty of drilling a man to use this curious weapon. This idea struck me, and my opinion was confirmed as soon as I tried Mr. Ellis’s gun. The experiments I made with it, proved to me that particular care would be necessary in using it without danger. A musket of this nature, containing five charges, fired the two first separately, and the last three at once!
We also went with Mr. Tromp to several private wharves on the East river; the largest of these belongs to Mr. Bayard, my banker. On one of the wharves there was a frigate on the stocks, of sixty-four guns, intended for the Greeks; they worked very industriously, and hoped that she would depart for her destination next year. She was built of Carolina live oak like the government vessels. The advantage of this wood is said to be, that in addition to its durability, when balls strike it, they simply make a hole, without many splinters, which latter generally disable more men than the shot themselves. At another wharf lay a frigate of sixty-eight guns, with an elliptic stern; she was built for the republic of Colombia, and is nearly ready for sea; she is built like a ship of the line. Her gun-deck was so high that I could stand upright in it.[I.17] On the upper deck the guns were disposed of in an irregular row, which gave this frigate still more the appearance of a ship of the line. The three masts raked somewhat like those of a schooner, which was said to be more fashionable than useful. When we came on board they were just finishing the officers cabins; they were built of mahogany and maple, roomy, and the state-rooms long, so that the officers are very comfortably situated. The cabins as well as the mess-rooms were below deck, therefore not in the way during an action. In the battery were only the rooms of the captain. There were also two other men of war on the stocks, of smaller dimensions, which are also said to be intended for Colombia. The guns of all these ships were manufactured at Mr. Campbell’s foundry, near West Point.
The house of the American Bible Society, to which I was accompanied by Mr. Eddy, was built by voluntary contributions of its members, and has been three years finished. It is four stories high, built of red sandstone and brick, and cost twenty-two thousand dollars. In the basement story is the office and place of deposit for bound bibles, which lie on shelves, ready to be sent away. The English bibles are sold at one dollar and forty cents, and the Spanish, of which a great number are printed and intended for South America, for one dollar and fifty cents. They also sell a great many new testaments separately.
In the office I saw a great collection of old and new bibles; among them I observed Walton’s Polyglot, of which I had already seen a copy in the library of Harvard College, near Boston; an old bible, printed in Switzerland, in the old German text; also a new very elegant folio bible, printed at Zurich; one in Irish, with the most singular type; a bible half in the Sclavonic and half in the Russian language; in showing the latter they told me that bible societies were prohibited in Russia; also two bibles in Chinese, one printed at Calcutta, and the other at Macao. The printing-office and the bookbindery of the society are in the second, third, and fourth stories of the building, and are in charge of a bookbinder and printer under certain contracts. In the garret they dry the fresh printed sheets. The English and Spanish bibles are stereotyped; they have now in operation twelve or thirteen presses; these presses are made of iron and very simple, but without a drawing a description of them would be unintelligible. To every press there is a workman, and a boy whose business it is to ink the form. At the bookbindery several women and girls are engaged to fold the sheets. These persons work in the third story, and in order to separate them entirely from the males, there is a separate stair for them to ascend. The large hall where the members of the bible society meet, is decorated with two portraits, one of Governor Jay, and the other of Dr. Boudinot, first president of the society.
The high school was also built by subscription; in this building three hundred boys are educated, not gratuitously, as in Boston, but by a quarterly payment, according to the class the boy is in. In the first class every child has to pay three dollars, in the second, five, in the third, seven dollars; the mode of instruction is the Lancasterian. In the lower classes are small children, some only four years old; they learn spelling, reading, writing, and the elements of arithmetic. The boys are generally commanded by the sound of a whistle, like sailors; they rise, seat themselves, take their slates, and put them away, form classes in order to change the different courses of instruction, all of which is done at the whistle of the instructors. In the middle class education is more extended; the children are instructed in grammar, English, Latin, history, geography, physics, and make likewise considerable progress in mathematics. In the highest class the boys are instructed in the higher mathematics, and are prepared to enter college. As I entered the school they were just receiving instruction in geography. The teacher asked, where is Weimar? The answer was, on the Rhine. The instructor then informed the children of the meritorious share my forefathers had in the Reformation, and praised the encouragement given in modern times to literature in Weimar. He spoke altogether with great enthusiasm of German literature, and concluded by wishing that the time might soon come, when instruction in the German language should be given at this school. As I left the room the scholars spontaneously applauded me, and I confess I was affected by it. In this higher class the orders are also given with a whistle, combined however with a small telegraph, which stands on the desk of the principal. This school, which is only seven years old, is already in possession of a very handsome mineralogical cabinet, and a small philosophical apparatus.
The institution for juvenile offenders is situated out of town; it is for children condemned by the court to imprisonment, and are thus confined in a separate prison to improve their principles by education. When they are improved, and have some education, they are then bound out to a farmer in the country, but if they are of an untameable disposition, and need stronger control, they are then disposed of as sailors. The girls are bound out as servants in the country. In order to have a good location for this institution, the society bought, of the United States government, a building, heretofore used as an arsenal, but become useless to the government on account of its distance from the water. It has existed but one year, and has at present forty-four juvenile delinquents. The sexes are separated, and each child occupies a distinct chamber. During the day they are mostly employed in learning, and in domestic occupations. As the building was not sufficiently large to receive all the offenders, a new one was built in the rear of the first, which the boys were employed in erecting. One of the boys who had escaped twice, walked about with an iron chain and heavy iron ball secured to his leg. A young man of respectable family, sixteen years old, who was imprisoned for his great propensity to stealing, was employed as a sub-instructor, account-keeper, and sub-overseer of the institution. Hopes are still entertained that he may be reclaimed.