In Newark we stopped at Richard Leycraft’s. This was for some time the only home for Methodist itinerants in Newark. There was a very small class here, only three years old, and a little edifice was erected in Halsey-street. This is a mother of a numerous and thriving family. What a contrast between 1809 and the present, when we have ten churches in Newark, some of them the most beautiful in the country, among which are Central and Broad-street Churches. I little thought then that we should ever have a Newark Conference, and that I should be a member of it. The Methodists in Newark are among the most liberal and enterprising in America. Newark is a place of uncommon beauty, with splendid parks and lofty elms, and Broad-street is one of the finest in America. CHAPTER XXII. FIRST VISIT TO NEW YORK CITY—NEW YORK AND NEW ENGLAND CONFERENCES. On Monday, May 7, 1809, we left Newark for New York. Crossing the beautiful Passaic river, and then the Hackensack, we passed a singular elevation called Snake Hill, and then through Bergen, an old Dutch town almost as old as New York. From Bergen Hill we had a magnificent view of the beautiful bay of New York and of the city. For the first time I beheld the noble Hudson. At Powles Hook we crossed the river. There was no Jersey City then. The spot where that city now is appeared to be a kind of island of sand. There were scarcely any houses. Jersey City was not incorporated till 1820; now it has thirty thousand inhabitants, and we have four beautiful Methodist churches there. Our place of entertainment in New York was John Mills’s, near the corner of Fulton-street and Broadway. He was an excellent man, an elder in the “Brick” Presbyterian church, (Dr. Spring’s.) His wife was a charming woman, and belonged to the John-street Methodist church. They were wealthy, and left much property to their descendants. They both possessed catholic spirits, and theirs was a home for all Christian ministers. In the evening I went for the first time to the old church in John-street, built by Philip Embury, called “Wesley Chapel,” the first in the world named after Mr. Wesley. What thoughts crowded my mind as I entered this cradle of Methodism! What rich and hallowed associations cluster around this original home of Methodism on this continent! I heard a sermon from James i, 27, on pure religion. The next evening, in the Bowery Church, I heard Samuel Cochrane preach from Rom. v, 1, on justification by faith. He had a powerful voice and was not afraid to use it. On Tuesday morning at four o’clock we were alarmed with the cry of “Fire, fire, fire!” It was no false alarm; about thirty houses were burned. It was truly affecting to see parents and children and the aged and helpless turned out into the street, not knowing where to go. It was the first large fire I had ever witnessed.