LETTER XII.

SCHENECTADY-UNION COLLEGE-SABBATH-STAGE WAGGON

MOHAWK-NAVIGATION OF THE RAPIDS-SLAVES-TRAVELLING DISASTERS-EAST CANADA CREEK-LITTLE FALLS-DEEP ROADS-FERRY-HERKIMER - UTICA ONEYDA INDIANS

ONONDAGO HOLLOW-SKENEATELES AUBURN BRIDGE ON CAYUGA LAKE-WATERLOO-LOG CAUSEWAY-SENECA LAKE -NIGHT TRAVELLING-CANANDAIGUA GENESSEE RIVER

ONE HORSE WAGGON- ENGLISH EMIGRANT CALEDONIABATAVIA SERMONS-BUFFALO-SECOND JOURNEY OVER THE SAME GROUND SABBATH AT CANANDAIGUA BURNING OF BUFFALO.

Buffalo, October, 1818.

THIS is my second visit to Buffalo; my first was in the month of May. During my former journey the roads were in a wretched condition, in consequence of a continuance of rainy weather having succeeded the breaking up of the ice. I then experienced a reasonable share of traveller's miseries, and as it has been almost the only occasion on which I have met with material discomfort, in the course of my wanderings in this country, I shall venture on a more minute detail of my adventures.

The first stage in my progress was from Albany to Schenectady, sixteen miles, where I remained from Saturday afternoon till Monday morning.

Schenectady was settled by the Dutch about an hundred and twenty years ago; its appearance is consequently somewhat ancient. It contains between five and six thousand inhabitants, but its principal claim to our notice arises from the proximity of Union College. This institution occupied till lately a very inferior rank among the colleges of the United States, but the distinguished talents and judicious administration of President Nott have caused it to emerge from its obscurity, and it now takes precedence in the public opinion of many others of much older standing. The principal obstacle to its farther advancement seems to be the limited number of its Professorships. The effect of this may be gathered from the fact that at present the same individual is Professor of Chemistry and of Belles Lettres, a combination of functions certainly sufficiently heterogeneous. It is said that Union College has received benefactions at different times to the amount of nearly 400,000 dollars, £90,000 sterling; but in place of the endowment of Professorships, the greater part of this large sum has been expended on the college buildings and ground.

The Sabbath which I spent here, left I am sorry to say rather an unfavourable impression on my mind, as to the state of religion. In the morning, although the streets were otherwise quiet, a good many waggons passed through laden with timber and flour. In the forenoon I attended worship at the Dutch church, and in the afternoon at

CHURCHES- -STAGE WAGGON.

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the Presbyterian one. In the former the preacher gave us a discourse from the words, Then will I sprinkle clean water upon you, and ye shall be clean,' which was respectable in composition, and scriptural in doctrine. The congregation in the lower part of the church was tolerably numerous, but in the gallery, where I sat, the auditors were very few in number, and the conduct of some individuals very indecorous. The poor blacks at the remote end were much more sedate and attentive than most of the whites. The sermon which I heard in the Presbyterian church was by no means equal to the other. A considerable number of the students of Union College sat in the gallery, but they and others showed too much of the same levity which I remarked in the gallery of the Dutch church. There is an Episcopal and a Methodist church here, besides the two already mentioned. There are also some Sabbath schools, but I could not learn their number nor any thing respecting their management.

On leaving Schenectady, the first day's ride warned me of what might be expected on the succeeding ones. The weather was broken, the roads rough and deep, the stage waggon crowded with passengers and luggage, and the party but very moderately agreeable.

The stage waggon which is still used in this part of the country, corresponds exactly with the picture and description which Weld has given. The

body is rather long in proportion to its breadth, and contains four seats, each holding three passengers who all sit with their faces towards the horses. From the height of the seats it is open all round, and the roof is supported by slender shafts rising up at the corners and sides; in wet weather a leathern apron is let down at the sides and back, to protect the inmates. The waggon has no door, but the passengers get in by the front, stepping over the seats as they go backward; the driver sits on the front seat with a passenger on either hand. The heavier kinds of boxes and trunks are fastened behind, upon the frame of the carriage, but the smaller articles and the mail bag are huddled under the seats in the inside, to the great annoyance of the passengers, who are frequently forced to sit with their knees up to their mouths, or with their feet insinuated between two trunks, where they are most lovingly compressed whenever the vehicle makes a lurch into a rut. The body of the waggon is suspended upon two stout leathern straps, passing lengthways under it, and secured upon strongly propped horizontal bars before and behind.

Leaving Schenectady we crossed the Mohawk by a roofed wooden bridge, a thousand feet in length, and the road skirted for a considerable distance the northern bank of the river, affording us a view of some of the rapids and the mode of navigating them. The boats which are used here