went to hear sermon. Who or what the minister was, I did not learn, but his abilities were of a very moderate kind; his forenoon service did not extend to an hour altogether, and that of the afternoon was very little more. In the evening there was what is called a conference; a common thing with various denominations in this country. The minister was not present, but several individuals spoke in familiar language on devotional subjects, some of whom pleased me much better than the preacher had done.

Sabbath was a warm and agreeable day, and I was in hopes that the weather was going to become settled. In the evening however the sky was overcast, a large nebulous circle surrounded the moon, and I recollected the Scotish proverb, a far brugh, a near storm.

Monday verified the saying; it was cloudy and cold in the forenoon, and very wet in the afternoon. After ineffectually attempting to hire a waggon, I found it necessary to await the arrival of the stage. To occupy a vacant hour I entered a flour mill, and was conducted by the miller through every part of it; on taking leave, he thanked me politely for having called.

Next morning at five we left Batavia; and at six in the evening, after a most disagreeable ride of forty miles, reached Buffalo. It rained almost incessantly; and for more than a third of the road, we had to jolt once more over a log causeway.

SECOND JOURNEY-CANANDAIGUA.

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Such was my first journey to the shores of lake Erie. My second was as different as possible; and, by way of contrast, I shall hastily run over it.

I left Schenectady on the second occasion about six in the morning, and reached Utica, 80 miles distant, in the evening. The weather was good, sharp indeed in the morning but very warm in the forenoon, and we could now enjoy the beautiful scenery on the banks of the Mohawk. At Little Falls the river passes through a wild mountainous ravine, now rushing over shelving falls, now whirling and foaming round a projecting point, or detached masses of rock; on both sides the banks are rocky and precipitous, and a few dwarfish trees start from among the crevices;—if it were not for the waggon in which you travel, you could almost suppose yourself in the neighbourhood of the Troshachs.

From Utica we started the following morning between four and five o'clock, and about seven in the evening reached Skeneateles, a distance of 66 miles. The orchards by the side of the road were loaded with fruit, and large quantities lying about which had dropped from the trees. Next morning at half-past five we left Skeneateles, crossed the Cayuga lake by the long wooden bridge, and reached Canandaigua about three; it seemed a very paradise to that Canandaigua, which I had entered with the bugler in the waggon beside me, after the dreary night of wading and jolting.

VOL. II.

I spent Sabbath at Canandaigua, and attended the Presbyterian church three times. The regular minister did not preach on this occasion, but his place was supplied by a stranger whom I heard with much pleasure. His forenoon discourse was from these words, "Be it known unto you, therefore, men and brethren, that through this man is preached unto you the forgiveness of sins." In the afternoon he selected a verse from the Epistle of Jude, "-unto the judgment of the great day;" and in the evening, Cornelius's concluding remark to the Apostle Peter, "Now therefore are we all here present before God, to hear all things that are commanded thee of God." In the morning discourse, he expounded most clearly the doctrine of salvation through the atonement of the Lord Jesus, vindicating his essential divinity, and proclaiming the dreadful and eternal condemnation of unbelievers. In the afternoon he enlarged upon the subjects of death and judgment; and particularly alluded to the distinction, which God in his sovereignty had made, between apostate angels and fallen man. In the evening he enforced the duty of sanctifying the Lord's day, and of meeting as frequently as possible during the week for social worship; he concluded by reminding us of the importance of doing all in our power, by influence and example, in the various relations of life, to extend the knowledge and practice of religion. I was much gratified by these discourses, and by the earnestness and zeal of the

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preacher. There are other two churches in Canandaigua, one of which belongs to the Episcopalian body.

I became acquainted with only one family here; the younger branches of it are all engaged in conducting Sabbath schools. I visited one of them, and was pleased with the appearance of order which it exhibited; one of the scholars was an Irish emigrant, who read well, and had been but a short time before totally ignorant of the alphabet.

On Monday morning I left Canandaigua ; passed through Avon, where I had given up the struggle on the former occasion, and got on to Batavia, from which on the following day we came forward to Buffalo:-thus accomplishing with great ease and comfort in six days, what I had with great difficulty and distress effected on the former occasion in ten.

Buffalo is a busy little town, containing about six hundred inhabitants, occupying a beautiful situation at the lower extremity of lake Erie. It was burnt to ashes by the British troops during last war, as a measure of retaliation for the previous destruction of York and Niagara. What a dreadful scourge is war! A passenger in the stage pointed out to me a log hut, a mile or two from the town, in which he told me he saw about a hundred men, women, and children, take shelter on the night of the conflagration. The inn at which I lodge has a sign-board, swinging between two lofty poles, bearing the American Eagle as its device, which is

completely riddled with balls; it was almost the only article which escaped the flames. This sign-board, and the blackened ruins of a brick house, are almost the only marks which I have traced of the destruction of the town. Like Washington, it has risen from its ashes with probably more than its former vigour. It contains a bank, and a very considerable number of large and substantially built brick houses.

Buffalo stands close by the mouth of a small creek, which affords a harbour for the trading vessels. A small light-house has been recently built, to guide the benighted mariner to its sheltering haven ; and a large steam boat has just begun to navigate the lake, which is appropriately named, after a celebrated Indian chief, Walk-in-the-water. The position of the town is very favourable for commerce. The great western canal will terminate within two miles of it, and it will then become the great thoroughfare between the lower country, and lake Erie, the State of Ohio, and the rest of the western territory. At present, however, the inhabitants are labouring under great difficulties, in consequence of the events of the war. It was expected that Government would have indemnified the citizens, at least to a considerable extent, for the destruction of their property; and in this hope capitalists lent many of them money, to rebuild their houses and recommence business. Congress, however, has recently, to their great disappointment, refused to afford them the smallest relief.