Twice on the way up the river the _Clermont_ stopped for fuel, one of the deck hands awakening the echoes with the big tin horn on each occasion to let the wood-yard men know that she was about to land. Then, just twenty-four hours after leaving New York, she cast anchor before the home of Livingston. The distance she had covered was 110 miles. She remained here until the next day, and it is noted in the histories that during the evening Livingston and a party of friends boarded the _Clermont_, where, in a congratulatory speech, he announced the engagement of his niece, Miss Harriet Livingston, to Robert Fulton. Leaving the next morning at 9 o'clock, the _Clermont_ reached Albany at five in the afternoon. In her run to that city the _Clermont_ had averaged just under five miles an hour, regardless of wind and tide. While neither freight nor paying passengers had been carried on the trip up, the boat was now advertised as a packet. Thereupon a number of men came on board for a passage to New York, and when one of these tendered the money for the trip, tears came into Fulton's eyes. For more than twenty years he had hoped against hope, and now he saw the fruition of his work. "Although the prospect of personal emolument has been some inducement to me," he wrote to an intimate friend, "yet I feel infinitely more pleasure in reflecting on the immense advantages my country will derive from the invention." On her return to New York the _Clermont_ began her career as an Albany packet, with regular dates for leaving each end of the route. She was advertised in the _Evening Post_, of New York, on September 2, 1807, as follows:-- "The North River steamboat will leave Paulus Hook Ferry on Friday the fourth of September, at six in the morning, and arrive at Albany on Saturday at six in the afternoon. "Provisions, good berths, and accommodations are provided. "The charge to each passenger is as follows:-- Time To Newburgh $3 14 hours To Poughkeepsie 4 17 " To Esopus 4½ 20 " To Hudson 5 30 " To Albany 7 36 " "For places, apply to Wm. Vandervoort, No. 48 Cortlandt Street, on the corner of Greenwich Street. "Way passengers to Tarry Town, etc., will apply to the captain on board. "The steamboat will leave Albany on Monday the seventh of September at six in the morning, and arrive at New York on Tuesday at six in the evening."