interspersed, were covered to the water's edge with foliage and verdure,
and here and there studded with handsome villas. The city appeared to be
literally surrounded by a thick grove of masts, from which floated the
flags of many nations--the scene, thus gradually unfolding itself to the
eyes of one who had been for so long a time immured within a vessel, was
really fascinating.

While at New York, I staid at the "Pearl-street Boarding-house," and
experienced from Messrs. Haskell and Perry, the proprietors, the most
polite attention. Most Europeans are astonished at the rapidity with which
the Americans despatch their meals; but I, having admitted the
proposition, that there was "nothing new under the sun," had long
previously ceased to be _astonished_ at any thing. On the first day of my
dining at the table d'hôte, one of those gentlemen told me, when we sat
down to dinner, that most of the persons at table were men of business,
who were in the habit of eating much quicker than he knew I was accustomed
to, and requested that that might not in the slightest interfere with my
habits, but that I should entirely suit my own comfort and convenience.
After that preface, I think I should have been most unreasonable to fall
into a passion with the New Yorkers, because they _bolted_ instead of
masticating.

New York is altogether a trading place, and different from any thing of
the same magnitude in Europe: scarcely a single street is exclusively
filled with private residences;--in a mercantile point of view, it is the
Liverpool of the United States.

The negros and mulattos constitute a considerable portion of the
population. It is impossible to imagine the extreme ugliness of some of
the sooty gentry; a decent ourang-outang might, without presumption, vie