and Philadelphia, to New York, thence following the Hudson to Albany and Troy, whence a branch ran westward to Utica, Syracuse and Oswego, with an extension from Syracuse to Niagara Falls. New York was a kind of receiving point from which fugitives were assisted to Albany and Troy, or, as sometimes happened, to Boston and New Bedford, or, when considerations of safety warranted it, were permitted to pass to Long Island.[388] The lines that are said to have radiated from Albany are mentioned neither by Mr. Douglass nor by Mr. Ray, but we know from other witnesses that some of the fugitives sent to Troy found their way to places of refuge north and east. Mr. Martin I. Townsend, of Troy, writes that fugitives arriving at that city were supplied with money and forwarded either to Suspension Bridge, on the Niagara River, or by way of Vermont and Lake Champlain to Rouses Point.[389] It seems probable that another branch of the secret thoroughfare followed the valley of the Hudson from Troy to the farm of John Brown, near North Elba among the Adirondacks. Mr. Richard H. Dana visited this frontier home of Brown one summer, and was informed by his guide that the country about there belonged to Gerrit Smith; that it was settled for the most part by families of fugitive slaves, who were engaged in farming; and that Brown held the position of a sort of ruler among them. The view was therefore credited that this neighborhood was one of the termini of the Underground Railroad."[390] [383] _Sketches in the History of the Underground Railroad_, 1879, Preface, p. xvi. [384] _Ibid._, p. xiv. [385] _Ibid._, p. 34. [386] Letter of Frederick Douglass, Cedar Hill, Anacostia, D.C., March 27, 1893. [387] Letter of Joseph A. Allen, Medfield, Mass., Aug. 10, 1896. [388] Letter of Florence and Cordelia H. Ray, Woodside, L.I., April 12, 1897. See _Sketch of the Life of Rev. Chas. B. Ray_, written by the Misses Ray. [389] Letters of Martin I. Townsend, Troy, N.Y., Sept. 4 and 15, 1896. [390] C. F. Adams, _Life of Richard Henry Dana_, Vol. I, p. 155; _History of Madison County, New York_, by Mrs. L. M. Hammond, p. 721.