on the bank of the river Hudson. Here we got our canoe once more afloat,
passed by Troy, and by Albany, everywhere hospitably received, our
Canadian boatmen, having their hats decorated with parti-colored ribands
and feathers, being taken by the Americans for so many wild Indians, and
arrived at New York on the 3d, at eleven o'clock in the evening.

We had landed at the north end of the city, and the next day, being
Sunday, we re-embarked, and were obliged to make a course round the
city, in order to arrive at our lodgings on Long Island. We sang as we
rowed; which, joined to the unusual sight of a birch bark canoe impelled
by nine stout Canadians, dark as Indians, and as gayly adorned,
attracted a crowd upon the wharves to gaze at us as we glided along. We
found on Long Island (in the village of Brooklyn) those young gentlemen
engaged in the service of the new company, who had left Canada in
advance of our party.

The vessel in which we were to sail not being ready, I should have found
myself quite isolated and a stranger in the great city of New York, but
for a letter of introduction to Mr. G----, given me on my setting out,
by Madame his sister. I had formed the acquaintance of this gentleman
during a stay which he had made at Montreal in 1801; but as I was then
very young, he would probably have had some difficulty in recognising me
without his sister's letter. He introduced me to several of his friends,
and I passed in an agreeable manner the five weeks which elapsed between
my arrival in New York and the departure of the ship.

I shall not undertake to describe New York; I will only say, that the
elegance of the buildings, public and private, the cleanliness of the
streets, the shade of the poplars which border them, the public walks,
the markets always abundantly provided with all sorts of commodities,