18th of August, we set out in the stage-coach for Rochester, distant sixty-nine miles. The villages which we passed on our route were, Cayuga, nine miles, Seneca Falls, three miles, Waterloo, five miles, Geneva, six miles, Canandaigua, sixteen miles, Mendon, fifteen miles, Pittsford, seven miles, from which latter it was yet eight miles to Rochester.
It was just daylight as we arrived in the vicinity of Cayuga, on the lake of the same name, which is about twenty miles long, and from one to three wide. This lake empties into the Seneca river, which afterwards unites with the Mohawk. We crossed the lake not far from its mouth, on a wooden bridge, one mile in length, eighteen yards wide, and built in a very rough and careless manner: the planks are loose and the chevaux-de-frise is in a bad condition. On the opposite side of the lake is a large toll-house. At a short distance from this we arrived at Seneca Falls, so called in consequence of the little falls of the Seneca river, which are close by, and are chiefly formed by a mill-dam. At the tavern we met an Indian and his wife, of the Oneida tribe, who were going on a visit to the Senecas. We conversed with the man, who had been at school, and understood English. He told us that he had been raised by a Quaker missionary, and that he was a farmer, and concluded by asking for a little money, which he probably spent with his ugly wife at the next grog-shop.
All the villages through which we passed are quite new, and in many places we passed through primitive forests, which, in some places, they are just beginning to clear. At Waterloo the first house was erected in 1816, and at present it has two churches and about three thousand inhabitants. Several of the houses are built of brick, and contain well furnished stores. At the tavern we saw a large, beautiful young eagle, which had been caught in his nest and tamed. The country beyond Waterloo was boggy, and the road in some places made of large logs, so that we were very disagreeably jolted. Geneva is situated at the north point of Seneca Lake, which is between fifty and sixty miles long and about five wide. The town derives its name from its similarity of situation to Geneva in Switzerland. It is also quite new, and contains about four thousand inhabitants. It has two churches and several large stone and brick houses, of which the Franklin Hotel, situated on the bank of the lake, is the most spacious and beautiful. I went into a bookstore to ascertain what kind of books were most sold in this part of the country, and was told that the ancient classics and religious books found the most ready sale; sometimes also novels, law and medical works. The college is said to have several hundred students. In front of the town along the lake, there are beautiful country seats and gardens. On the other side of the town the woods are but a short distance from the houses, and are as yet not much cleared. We saw, however, several tracts of timber on fire; the trees are burnt in order to clear the land.
Canandaigua, which lies on the north point of the lake of the same name, which is about twenty miles long, is an extremely beautiful and pleasant town, that has been but lately settled. The Duke de la Rochefoucault says, that during his travels in America, in 1790, there was but a single house on this lake, in which he spent the night, in a garret used as a store-room. Now it is a beautiful commercial town, having one bank, a court-house, and a very superior tavern. The court was sitting, and there was a large collection of people, so that the town exhibited a very lively appearance. At this place the road separates, the left goes through Batavia and several small villages to Buffalo on Lake Erie; the right, to Rochester, and thence to Lake Ontario and the Falls of Niagara: and as this road again approaches the Erie canal, it is said to be the most interesting. On this account we gave it the preference, although the longest route.
We left Canandaigua in the afternoon, and rode through Victor, Mendon, and Pittsford, to Rochester. On this route we observed nothing particularly interesting, excepting several new settlements; the inhabitants of which resided in log-houses, which had a peculiar, but by no means an unpleasant aspect. I was particularly pleased with the neat and decent appearance of the inhabitants.
We arrived at Rochester at half past eight o’clock in the evening, and took lodgings at the Eagle Tavern. We crossed the Genesee river, which divides Rochester into two parts, on a wooden bridge, the first that we had hitherto met in the United States that was built firmly and properly. It rests upon stone piers, and is made of solid beams, with thick and well fastened planks. The next morning we walked through the town, and were pleased with its rapid increase. In 1812, there was not a single house here; nothing but a wilderness; and the land could be purchased at one dollar and twenty-five cents per acre. At present, Rochester is one of the most flourishing towns in the state of New York. It contains four churches, one bank, a court-house, and about four thousand inhabitants. Many of the houses are built of blue limestone, and of brick. The town contains several mills and manufactories; and amongst others, a nail factory, in which the nails are made with a machine, as in Birmingham. They also manufacture rifle-guns, which are very long and heavy. On the right bank of the Genesee river, the houses are not so numerous as on the left, and there are yet many frame, and even some log-houses: in the place where, probably in a short time, handsome wharves will be built, there may yet be seen stumps of trees – a truly interesting sight to those who observe the progress of this country. The basements of the houses are generally built of rough sand-stone; their corners, doors, and windows, of a kind of white marble-like sand-stone, and the rest of brick. The white sand-stone is procured in the neighbourhood, and is cut into slabs at a saw-mill on the Genesee river. I saw three of these blocks sawed; and in one frame I observed no less than five saws. Several hundred yards below the bridge the Genesee river is about two hundred yards wide, and has a fall of ninety-five feet, which at present, however, did not appear to much advantage. Above the falls is a race which conducts the water to several mills, and it again flows into the river below the falls, where it forms three beautiful cascades, which reminded me of the Villa di Mäcen, at Tivoli.
At Rochester the Erie canal is carried over the Genesee river by a stone aqueduct bridge, and resembles that of the Bridgewater canal at Manchester, in England. This aqueduct, which is about one thousand yards above the falls, rests upon a base of slate rock, and is seven hundred and eighty feet long. A work which has been lately published, called the “Northern Tour,” gives the following description of it: “The aqueduct consists of eleven broad arches, built in the form of circular segments, the tops of which are raised eleven feet above the level of the arches, and fifteen feet above that of the water in the river. The two exterior arches have an extent of forty feet each, and beneath them are the streams which turn the mills; the other nine each fifty feet wide, &c.” Upon one of its sides is a tow-path secured by iron railings. The whole is a solid work, and does much credit to its architect, Benjamin Wright.
We left Rochester at nine o’clock, on board the canal packet-boat Ohio, Captain Storch. The canal, between Lockport and Rochester, runs a distance of sixty-three miles, through a tolerably level country, and north of the Rochester ridge. This ridge consists of a series of rocks, which form the chain of the mountains which commences north of Lake Erie, stretches eastward to the Niagara river, confines it, and forms its falls, then continues its course, and forms the different falls which are north of Lake Ontario, and is at length lost in the neighbourhood of the Hudson. It has only been within the last year that this part of the canal has been passable; its course is through dense sombre forests, in which are but few settlements, such as Spencer’s Basin, Bates, and Brickport. The bridges are better and higher than those we have mentioned in the preceding pages. Amongst our passengers, was a Mr. Bosch, a Dutch clergyman from Curaçao, and the Rev. Messrs. Sluiter and Wykoff, from New York. These gentlemen, being of Dutch descent, the conversation was generally carried on in their native tongue. Captain Storch also, who is a native of Amsterdam, and a Jew by birth, who has travelled extensively, made the time pass very pleasantly, by his lively disposition, and his agreeable conversation. Both before and after dinner, as well as at tea, the two clergymen from New York, asked a blessing; and before we retired to bed, one of them read several chapters in the Bible, and then made a long prayer.
We reached Lockport on the 20th of August, about 7 o’clock in the morning. At this place the canal is carried over the ridge by five large locks, through which the water is raised to the height of seventy-six feet. The locks are ten in number, being arranged in two parallel rows, so that while the boats ascend in one row, they may descend at the same time in the other. Through this arrangement the navigation is greatly facilitated,
