n 1765.
This boat was slightly over one hundred feet in length and about twenty
feet broad, with side paddle-wheels and a sheet-iron boiler brought from
England. There was general ridicule of the idea of moving boats by steam
against a current, and the craft was called "Fulton's Folly." The crowd
which gathered on the wharf in New York, August 1, 1807, indulged in
jests which were not hushed until the craft moved slowly but smoothly up
stream. Heading against the current, she made the voyage to Albany in
thirty-two hours. She met with some mishaps, but after a time made
regular trips between that city and New York, at the rate of five miles
an hour.

OCEAN STEAMERS.

This incident marked an epoch in the history of the West, where the
first steamboat was built in 1811. Within a few years, they were plying
on all the important rivers, greatly assisting emigration and the
development of the country. The first steamer to cross the Atlantic was
the _Savannah_ in 1819. The screw propeller was introduced by the great
Swedish inventor, John Ericsson, in 1836. Really successful ocean
navigation began in 1838, when the _Sirius_ and _Great Western_ made the
voyage from England to the United States.

[Illustration: ROBERT FULTON.]

OPPRESSIVE COURSE OF ENGLAND.

The devastating war raging between England and France was destructive to
American commerce and interests. The star of the wonderful Napoleon
Bonaparte was rapidly in the ascendant, and his marvelous military
genius seemed to threaten the "equilibrium of the world." England had no
love for the United States and played havoc with our shipping. Her
privateers infested our coasts, like swarms of locusts. Because of her
immense naval superiority, she pestered us almost beyond bearing. She
stopped our vessels off-shore, followed them into rivers and harbors,
overhauled the crews, and in many cases took sailors away under the plea
that they were English deserters. Her claim was that "once a British
subject, always a British subject;" no sworn allegiance to any other
government could release the claim of England upon him.

Our vessels were prohibited from carrying imports from the West Indies
to France, but evaded the law by bringing imports to this country and
then reshipping them to France. England peremptorily ordered the
practice to stop and declared that all vessels thus engaged should be
lawful prizes to her ships. This action caused general indignation in
this co