* * *

  Behind us lies the teeming town
    With lust of gold grown frantic;
  Before us glitters o’er the bay
    The peaceable Atlantic.

  Charles Mackay

* * *

=Jersey City= occupies the ground once known as Paulus Hook, the farm of William Kieft, Director General of the Dutch West India Company.  Its water front, from opposite Bartholdi Statue to Hoboken, is conspicuously marked by Railroad Terminal Piers, Factories, Elevators, etc.  Bergen is the oldest settlement in New Jersey.  It was founded in 1616 by Dutch Colonists to the New Netherlands, and received its name from Bergen in Norway.  Jersey City is practically a part of Greater New York, but state lines make municipal union impossible.

=Hudson River Steamboats.=—­An accurate history of the growth and development of steam navigation on the Hudson, from the building of the “Clermont” by Robert Fulton to the building of the superb steamers of the Hudson River Day Line would form a very interesting book.  The first six years produced six steamers: 

Clermont, built in 1807          160 tons
Car of Neptune, built in 1809    295  "
Hope, built in 1811              280  "
Perseverance, built in 1811      280  "
Paragon, built in 1811           331  "
Richmond, built in 1813          370  "

It makes one smile to read the newspaper notices of those days.  The time was rather long, and the fare rather high—­thirty-six hours to Albany, fare seven dollars.

From the Albany Gazette, September, 1807.

“The North River Steamboat will leave Paulus Hook Ferry on Friday the 4th of September, at 9 in the morning, and arrive at Albany at 9 in the afternoon on Saturday.  Provisions, good berths, and accommodation are provided.  The charge to each passenger is as follows: 

To Newburg        Dols. 3,     Time 14 hours. 
Poughkeepsie     "   4,       "  17  "
Esopus           "   5,       "  20  "
Hudson           "   51/2,      "  30  "
Albany           "   7,       "  36  "

For places apply to Wm. Vandervoort, No. 48 Courtland street, on
the corner of Greenwich street, September 2d, 1807.”

* * *

The wind blew over the land and the waves
With its salt sea-breath, and a spicy balm,
And it seemed to cool my throbbing brain,
And lend my spirit its gusty calm.

  Richard Henry Stoddard.

* * *

    Extract from the New York Evening Post, October 2, 1807.

Mr. Fulton’s new-invented steamboat, which is fitted up in a neat style for passengers, and is intended to run from New York to Albany as a packet, left here this morning with ninety passengers, against a strong head wind.  Notwithstanding which, it is judged that she moved through the waters at the rate of six miles an hour.

    Extract from the Albany Gazette, October 5th, 1807.