LETTER VI - To the Same

Summary

Although stages, as the public coaches are, by corruption, called in this country, run on most of the roads travelled in my recent journey, I decided to make the excursion, at a little cost, in a private conveyance. A neat, light, and rather elegant pleasure-waggon on horizontal springs, with a driver and a pair of fleet, well-formed horses, were procured for five dollars a day. A coach might have been had for the same sum. This price, however, was the highest, and included every charge. There was ample room for Fritz and myself, with what baggage we needed, and a vacant seat by the side of the coachman. Capacious leather tops protected us from the weather, and good aprons could, if necessary, cover our feet. In short, the vehicle, which is exceedingly common here, is not unlike what is called a double, or travelling, phaëton, in England. You are to remember, there is no travelling post in America. Relays of horses can certainly be had, between the principal towns, at a reasonably short notice; but the great facility, rapidity, ease, and cheapness of communication by steam-boats, will probably for a long time prevent posting from coming into fashion.

We left Manhattan island, on which New York stands, by a long wooden bridge that connects it with the adjacent county of West-Chester.