"The Governor of all, himself to all So bountiful, in whose attentive ear The unfledg'd raven and the lion's whelp The steamboat, as usual, touched at Burlington and at Bristol. At the former place I should have been delighted to have stopped, if for only ten minutes, but that time could not be allowed, and so we passed on, and were fortunate in being able to reach Trenton by water, which is not always done. There are several miles which, in low water, have to be gone over in stages. The water was now high enough, and this inconvenience obviated. Trenton is a respectable looking town, about thirty-three miles from Philadelphia, and has the appearance of a place of business. But as I am not going to encumber my letters with any very considerable weight of statistical materials, its population and the items which usually enter into the composition of tables of the sort, will have to be omitted-and especially as I am a stage passenger, and stop only long enough for the driver to deliver his mail, water his horses, and take a dram, in which last act he is not unfrequently very ably seconded by good men and true, who stand ready to bear him company. On this occasion he had one at each elbow, who seemed to have been brought along for this express purpose. It were not possible, however, even to fly through Trenton without seeing and admiring its arched bridge, and recurring to that spirited and bloody fight of the 8th Dec. 1776; and pausing to look at the Assumpsick, now so peaceful and pure, but which on that day was troubled and red with blood! It was a day of victory-and a day which gave renewed strength to the arms, and fresh animation to the spirits of our patriot fathers. It was a day of glory, and Trenton was the chosen spot for its display. Yes, and long after Trenton shall have, like Babylon, and Carthage, and other cities of olden time, been mingled with the earth, and no vestige of it remain, will its name be preserved, and the memory of the patriots and heroes who fought, and bled, and died there, be gratefully cherished. The prospects of the farmer on the greater part of this route, I mean from Trenton to Brunswick, are better than I expected to find them. The drought is oppressive, and nature throughout her domain was, until to-day, thirsty and almost to famishing; but here she was better able to endure the absence of rain than with us, because there is more fertility here, the grounds are better, and better covered with verdure, and are therefore in a situation to imbibe and retain the damps of the atmosphere. But rain began to be actually needed even here. The harvest had attained its accustomed height, but there was a moisture required at the root of the stock to put in motion the needed supply for the perfection of the grain-and at this critical moment the 'clouds gathered, and this great blessing is conferred, but amidst a display of electric fire, such as is rarely witnessed. We had passed through Trenton but a short time before this elementary war commenced, and before we had reached Princeton, the welkin rung with the blast and the thunder, and the ground was well soaked. Princeton! What an ornament to New Jersey. How honourable is the interesting nursery of science and of religion which graces this little town, to the state*-and, may it not be added, to the nation? I could do no more, in passing, than look with grateful recollections to the past, and hopes for the future, upon those edifices in which science holds her seat, and religion has erected her altar. And here, too, has the blood of the patriot been shed. These fields have been honoured with the presence of freemen contending for liberty, and with some of the richest blood of the country; for here Mercer fell! It was here that the sun which had shed his last parting ray upon Washington at Trenton the evening before, rose upon him and his army the next morning, and lighting the ground, in place of the fires that he had left burning at Though not indebted to it for the means, either for its origin or continuance. 3 Trenton, demonstrated to the astonished British general, that the roar of the cannon, which came from the direction of Princeton, was none other than that which Washington had with him the evening before at Trenton! What a movement! In the dead of night, and a winter's night, to transport an army, with its baggage and artillery, across the Delaware, unperceived, and almost in the very presence of the enemy! But Washington was there-and PROVIDENCE WAS HIS GUIDE. It is said that a cannon ball passed through the chapel at Princeton, on the morning of this ever memorable battle, and took off the head of George III. from his portrait. that was hanging there. This might have indicated the issue of the war, and would, to others having more faith in omens. But the enemy heeded it not. On arriving at "the five-mile-house," so called, a watering place and tavern, that distance from Brunswick, and while the drivers were off their seats, a flash of lightning of unusual fier ceness, followed quickly by a rattiing peal of thunder, alarmed our horses, and they started-but a timely coming up of the drivers stopped them, and thus saved us from a ride to Brunswick in less time than we would have chosen, and perhaps, and what is more likely, from broken bones and comfortless situations along the public way. The drivers stopped the horses, but were not competent to stop a very fat couple who tumbled out of the stage next to ours, one after the other, although we joined in recommending them to be composed and resume their seats. That flash of lightning was too ragged and too fierce for them; and the thunder altogether too appalling, seeing there was no defence between them and this cloudy conflict, but the thin partition of the top of a stage. We left them at this "five mile house," where they doubtless felt more secure, under a shingled roof, with a promise on their part, that "if the gust cleared up" they would come on to-night-it was then about sundown-"or to-morrow morning in time for the boat." How anxiously do I wish, my dear ***, that these clouds. may have borne part of their treasures to our district, and the surrounding country-even though the etherial fire shall have gone as nigh scorching you as it has me-provided, however, that you should have escaped as I have. MY DEAR *** Good night. New-York, Sunday, June 4th, 1826." It was not more than fifteen minutes after the seal was put to my letter from Brunswick last night, before I was sound asleep. You know my abhorrence of a feather bed in summer, especially if it shall chance to be one that has not, (together with the room,) been well aired. The weather had been hot, and had been only just made cooler by the rain, which would make one more sensible of the disagreeables to which I have referred, if the room had not been also freshened and sweetened by the cooler air from without-so, being almost dead for want of sleep, and far from well in other respects, I solicited, and obtained, a cot and a mattress, which the landlord was kind enough to have placed in the middle of the drawing room floor. I slept like a top; I am refreshed, and feel all the better for it to-day. The morning broke finely. Loose clouds floated along the sky, showing here and there a blue opening, and the serene of the heaven beyond. Through these, the sun would every now and then look out upon the earth, imparting fresh life to nature, whose exterior had been so recently and so bountifully refreshed, and which had been the more benefitted by the intervention of the night, which gave the earth time to drink up the rain that had fallen upon it. At six o'clock we were off, (I mean Mr. E―y and his family, and myself, not omitting Ben, to whom it is probable I may have occasion to refer in the future.) We had not roceeded far, before the entire company was thrown into consternation-and the companion-ways were full of the pas sengers who had been in the cabin, and who seemed to have been thrown up by some irresistible impulse from below. I felt a momentary tremor myself, but being seated in the stern of the boat, I saw sooner than those who were below, the cause of the alarm. Part of the machinery had given way, and with a loud crash, which, in these boiler-bursting times, was calculated to occasion the alarm. The lever, I saw, continued to work, but with a feebler and less frequent motion. The boiler had not, therefore, burst, but a sudden gushing out of steam from below satisfied some, that if the boiler was sound, the boat was on fire! But these fears also were soon quieted. We suffered only the inconvenience of some hours delay in getting to this wonderful city. The fractured part of the machinery let off a large portion of the steam, and the engineer not being able to repair it, at that time, we had to be content with the speed which now marked our progress, and which did not exceed, I should judge, five miles the hour. We had been just speaking of our fat couple with whom we had separated at the five mile house, and expressing our regrets that they had not got up in time for the boat; when, in an hour after, a boat that left Brunswick after we did, came up, and as she passed, we saw our travellers among the passengers. They bowed as they passed, and were, no doubt, happy to be accounted among the number of those, who, though last, are sometimes first. Their countenances. had cleared off with the morning, and to look at them as they went by, you would have thought they had never known what it was to be frightened in all their lives. We arrived at this city some two hours after the usual time, with no other inconvenience, except the delay, and a most annoying thump from some part of the machinery, that followed every motion of the lever, and which was itself followed by the bursting out from the covered ways, of just that much of steam as was needed to give the boat her customary speed, and which was just enough to make her appear to be on fire within. |