TO THE

HON. JAMES EMOTT,

OF POUGHKEEPSIE,

THE FOLLOWING PAGES ARE RESPECTFULLY INSCRIBED,

IN TESTIMONY OF THE

HIGH APPRECIATION IN WHICH HE IS HELD

BY HIS FRIEND AND SERVANT,

THE AUTHOR.

PREFACE.

THE following letters were originally written for the American Traveller. They were commenced without the remotest expectation of their obtaining a circulation beyond that print. They have, however, been copied into other journals, and it has occurred to the writer, that their publication in a connected form, might prove interesting and useful to the thousands who travel for business or pleasure in the steamboats that daily navigate the Hudson River.

The letters, he is aware, possess no peculiar merit. They are plain, matter-of-fact epistles; embracing, however, a variety of geographical, historical, statistical, and other matter, connected with the noble river, and the flourishing villages on its borders.

As several important villages and towns on the river have been very briefly noticed, or altogether passed by, it is the purpose of the writer to continue his epistles to the Edi