ossible, I looked crosser still, for
the roads and the vehicle together were quite too much for my
philosophy.

At length, however, we found ourselves alive on board the boat
which was to convey us down the Raraton River to New York.

We fully intended to have gone to bed, to heal our bones, on
entering the steam-boat, but the sight of a table neatly spread
determined us to go to dinner instead. Sin and shame would it
have been, indeed, to have closed our eyes upon the scene which
soon opened before us. I have never seen the bay of Naples, I
can therefore make no comparison, but my imagination is incapable
of conceiving any thing of the kind more beautiful than the
harbour of New York. Various and lovely are the objects which
meet the eye on every side, but the naming them would only be to
give a list of words, without conveying the faintest idea of the
scene. I doubt if ever the pencil of Turner could do it justice,
bright and glorious as it rose upon us. We seemed to enter the
harbour of New York upon waves of liquid gold, and as we darted
past the green isles which rise from its bosom, like guardian
centinels of the fair city, the setting sun stretched his
horizontal beams farther and farther at each moment, as if to
point out to us some new glory in the landscape.

New York, indeed, appeared to us, even when we saw it by a
soberer light, a lovely and a noble city. To us who had been so
long travelling through half-cleared forests, and sojourning
among an "I'm-as-good-as-you" population, it seemed, perhaps,
more beautiful, more splendid, and more refined than it might
have done, had we arrived there directly from London; but making
every allowance for this, I must still declare that I think New
York one of the finest cities I ever saw, and as much superior to
every other in the Union (Philadelphia not excepted), as London
to Liverpool, or Paris to Rouen. Its advantages of position are,
perhaps, unequalled any where. Situated on an island, which I
think it will one day cover, it rises, like Venice, from the sea,
and like that fairest of cities in the days of her glory,
receives into its lap tribute of all the riches of the earth.

The southern point of Manhatten Island divides the waters of the
harbour into the north and east rivers; on this point stands the
city of New York, extending from river to river, and running
northward to the extent of three or four miles. I think it
covers nearly as much grou