new life, and it was not long before it grew to be an important part
of New York instead of a suburb. For many who had transferred their
business also went to live there, not returning to the city even after
the fever had passed away.

[Illustration: Landing of Lafayette at Castle Garden.]

In the year after the fever (it was by this time 1824) General Lafayette
came again to America and was warmly received. Landing first at
Staten Island, he was, on the following day, escorted by a naval
procession and conducted to Castle Garden. A multitude came to voice
their welcome and follow him to the City Hall, where he was greeted by
the Mayor and all of the officials. During his stay he held daily
receptions in the City Hall, and afterward visited the public
institutions and buildings. On leaving for a tour of the country he was
accompanied all the way to Kingsbridge by a detachment of troops. For
thirteen months he travelled through the country, and when he returned
to New York in the autumn of the next year, the citizens gave a banquet
in his honor, at Castle Garden, which surpassed anything of the kind
that had ever been seen.

Then General Lafayette sailed away to France again. In the month after
he had gone, with all the city cheering him and making such a din that
you would have thought that there never could be a greater, in the very
next month the city was again all decorated, and more shouts rent the
air, for a grand undertaking had just been completed, which you shall
now hear of.

Ever since the days of the Revolution there had been talk of digging a
canal from the Great Lakes to the Atlantic Ocean; for you must know that