more elegant construction. It appears strange to see
the manners and customs of the people, and the face
of the country: yet my mind is mercifully preserved
in great quietude, and every place looks and feels
like a temporary home. Dined at a public house in
Schenectady, where we had the pleasure of General
Schuyler's company. After dinner, we went on
board a batteau, accompanied by seven others, load-
ed with our baggage and stores, and embarked on
the Mohawk river, in the presence of more than
one hundred spectators. Two of our boats were
manned with six men each, the other six boats with
three men each. We proceeded about four miles,
and stopped at a house, where the mother and three
children were entirely insane. The three children
never learned to speak, being idiots — the mother
went distracted, and was confined in chains. The
several circumstances attending this distressed fami-
ly, deeply affected my mind, and caused me secretly
to acknowledge, that I was not thankful enough for
the manifold favours and blessings, mercifully dis-
pensed to me.

The bed of the Mohawk river I suppose to be
about two hundred yards across, and averaging three
feet deep; some places shoal and rapid, where the
poor boatmen had very hard work to make headway
against the current. The river winds across a val-
ley about half a mile wide; alternately washing the
southern and northern hills. The bottoms in the
bends, and on the banks of the river, are rich black
sand, exceeding fertile, and tolerably improved, pro-
ducing wheat, Indian corn, peas, flax, &c in abun-
dance. We had an agreeable prospect of a range of
fine plantations, interspersed with an abundance of