Buffalo is a thriving town in the State of New York. Coaches pass from thence to Albany, which is on the route to the city of New York. When the great canal between Hudson River and New York is completed, Buffalo must become a place of considerable importance.[162] The New York canal is a work not only interesting to a large portion of the United States, but also to Upper Canada. Already ninety miles of the line is completed and in operation, and the continuance of the present exertions must in a short time finish the whole. Should the government of Britain continue to neglect the improvement of the inland navigation of Canada, and persist in excluding the colonies from the advantages of a free trade, and give their grain a nominal preference in the British market, while that market is in reality shut against it, a new interest must arise in the upper province. England may still give Canadian lands gratis, and garrison the frontier posts with an idle soldiery, but she cannot shut the eyes of her subjects against the facilities to be derived {290} from an uninterrupted navigation to the port of New York, which is free to the flags of all nations, and open to the sea at every season of the year. Opposite to Buffalo is Port Erie, on the Canadian side of the river,--pleasant situation, but apparently without any thing like the bustle that animates the southern shore. At Black Rock, the river Niagara is about a mile in breadth, and runs at the rate of eight knots per minute, and its greatest depth is said to be about ten fathoms.[163] The lake, forming an extensive reservoir, greatly equalizes the discharge of water, particularly as this river is without the floods that characterize most other streams. One of the passengers on board the steam-boat, a Captain of the United States army, on his way to Fort Niagara, agreed to travel along with me. We hired a two-horse waggon to carry ourselves and baggage. The actual portage to the falls of Niagara is only seven miles; but as we found that there was no boat in readiness to sail from Black Rock, we resolved to proceed the whole way by land, which is thirty-four miles. The gentleman with whom I travelled was on his return from Green Bay, an inlet of Lake Michigan, where he had gone with some soldiers who were banished to that place. Green Bay is a place of exile, so far removed from the other settlements of the United States, that culprits have it not in their power to escape from thence.