The colony of New York had also arrived at considerable importance, but, from the varied sources of the original population, the 100,000 inhabitants it contained at the time of the war were less exclusively British in character and feeling than their Puritan brethren of New England. Many of the Dutch and Swedish farmers, as well as of the French emigrants, retained unaltered the language and customs of their fathers, and felt little affection for the metropolitan state, formerly their conqueror, and now their somewhat supercilious ruler. The trade of New York city, aided by the splendid navigation of the Hudson River, was very large in proportion to the then small population of 8000. Great quantities of corn, flour, and other provisions were conveyed from the rich Western country by the inland waters to the noble harbor at their mouth, and thence found their way to the West Indies and even to Europe. The town of Albany, although inferior in population, was important and prosperous as the chief dépôt for the Indian trade, and the place where conferences were usually held between the English and the fast-failing tribes of the once formidable Iroquois. New Jersey partook in some respects of the characteristics of New York, and contained about 60,000 souls. Owing to the protection of the larger neighboring states, this fertile province had suffered but little from Indian hostility, and the rich soil and mild climate aided the undisturbed labors of its husbandmen. The forests abounded with oak, ash, cypress, hickory, and other valuable timber, and the cultivation of flax and hemp was largely carried on: these different productions were disposed of in the markets of New York and Philadelphia, principally for European consumption. The great and prosperous State of Pennsylvania, nearly 5000 square miles in extent, contained 250,000 inhabitants, and carried on a large trade with Europe and the West Indies; through the rich and beautiful capital, an immense surplus of agricultural produce, from its fertile soil, was exported to other less favored countries. Philadelphia was happily situated upon the tongue of land formed by the confluence of the two navigable rivers, Delaware and Schuylkill; the streets were broad and regular, the houses spacious and well built, and the docks and quays commodious. This city still continued largely impressed by the spirit of Quakerism; the stiffness of outline, the trim neatness of the dwellings, the convenient but unpretending public buildings, and the austere manners of the inhabitants, bespoke the stronghold of the formal men of peace. Here it was, not twenty years afterward, in a vulgar and unsightly brick edifice, that a few bold and earnest men pledged their sacred honor, their fortunes, and their lives to an act, perhaps the most important that history records--"THE DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE."