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Show PERTH~AMBOY. PASAIC-FALLS. nity of feeing fome good portraits of Vandyke, and feveral other fmall Dutch paintings. On Monday the 7th, I proceeded to Perth~An:boy, twelve miles, the capital of the Eafr- Jerfeys, whtch IS pleafant1y fituated upon a neck of land, included between .th~ Raritan and Amboy rivers and a large open bay. Thts IS generally the place of the governor's refidence; and alternately, here and at Burlington, the capital of the Weil Jerfeys, are held the airemblies, and other public meetings; it contains about a hundred houfes, and has very fine bartacks for 300 men. In the afternoon I travelled fixteen miles farther to Elizabethtown, leaving Woodbridge, a [mall village where there is a printing-office, a little on my right hand. Elizabeth-town, is built upon a fmall creek or river that falls into Newark-bay, and contains between two and three hundred houfes. It has a court- houfe, a church, and a meeting-houfe; and barracks alfo like thofe abovementioned. The next morning I rode out, in order to vifit Pafaic Falls, diflant about twenty-three miles, and had a very agreeable tour. After riding about fix miles, I came to a town called Newark, built in an irregular fcattered manner, after the failiion of fome of our villages in England, near two miles in length. It has a church ereCted in the Gothic tafle with a fpire, the firfl: I had feen in America; and fame other inconfiderable public buildings. Immediately on my leaving this place, I came upon the b:mks of Second, or Pafaic river, along which I travelled about eighteen mi.les to the Falls, through a rich country, covered with fine fields and gentlemen's feats. The Falls are very extraordinary, difFerent from any thing I had hitherto met with in America. The river is about forty yards broad, and runs with a very fwift current, till coming to a deep chafm or cleft which cro!fe~ the channel, it falls above feventy N E W ] E R S E Y. feventy feet perpendicular in one intire iheet. One end of the cleft is clofed up, and the water rulhes out at the other with incredible rapidity, in an acute angle to its former direCtion; and is received into. a large bafon. From hence it takes a winding courfe through the rocks, and fpreads again into a very conflderable channel. The cleft is from four to twelve feet broad. The .fpray formed two beautiful (viz. the primary and fecondary) ram bows, and helped to make as fine a fcene as imagination could conceive. This extraordinary phenomenon is fuppofed to have been produced by an earthquake. The fate of two Indians is .delivered down by tradition, who, venturing too near the Falls 111 a canoe, were carried down the precipice, and da!hed to pieces. About thirty yards above the great Fall, is another, a mofl: beautiful one, gliding over fame ledges of rocks each two or three feet perpendicular, which heightens the fcene very much. From hence I returned, and in my way croffed over the river to colonel John Schuyler's copper mines, where there is a very rich vein of ore, and a fire-engine ereCted upon common principles. After this I went down two miles farther to the park and gardens of this gentleman's brother, colonel Peter Schuyler. In the gardens is a very large colleCtion of citrons, oranges, limes, lemons, balfams of Peru, aloes, pomegranates, and other tro~ ical plants ; and in the park I faw feveral American and Enghili deer, and three or four elks or moofe-deer. I arrived at Elizabeth town in the evening, not a little entertained with my expedition, but exceedingly fatigued with the violent heat of the weather, and the many mofquitoes that had infefted me. Before I take leave of the Jerfeys, it is necetfary I ihould give fame account of this province. New Jerfey is fituated between the 39th and 42d degrees of north latitude, and about I feventy- 57 |
