the top. There are no less than 24 established
routes between different points in the city, on
which they run, with a great number of vehicles
belonging to each route. The total number of
licensed omnibuses, February 1, 1851, was 568;
yielding a revenue to the city of $10,700. Be-
sides these, the Haerlem Railroad cars, which run
as omnibuses from the Park through the city,
starting every 15 minutes, accommodate an im-
mense number of persons. The number of
hackney coaches, licensed in 1851, was 341.

The lines of communication between New
York and the great interior of the country, both
by water and by land, are numerous and exten-
sive. Those on the North River are connected,
by canals and railroads from Albany and Troy,
with Lake Champlain and Canada on the N.,
and with Western New York, the great lakes,
and the Mississippi Yalley on the W. The Erie
Railroad opens a communication from Jersey
City, opposite the city of New York, to Dun-
kirk, on Lake Erie; and will soon be connected,
by a continuous chain of railroads, with the
west, as far as the Mississippi, and ultimately
far beyond. A railroad from the heart of the
city, running along the eastern bank of the
Hudson to Greenbush, opposite Albany, now
establishes a communication, at all seasons,
with the railroads going thence N., E., and W.
The Haerlem Railroad is extended W., to con-
nect with others running through the Connecti-
cut and Housatonic valleys, and reaching the
metropolis of New England, and the British
provinces, on the N. and E. Several lines of
steamboats, through Long Island Sound, connect
with lines of railroad at the E., and form routes
to Boston. With Philadelphia, Baltimore, and
the cities S., to New Orleans, similar lines of
communication are established, connection by
steam being already continuous through this
whole extent. Frequent and regular commu-
nication is maintained, by the various lines of
packet ships and ocean steamers, between the
principal ports of Europe, the West Indies,
Mexico, and California. Some of these vessels
are now almost daily arriving and departing,
with a precision and despatch which, a few years
ago, would have been thought incredible. The
Collins line of steamships to Liverpool have a con-
tract with the government for carrying the mails.

The central position of New York, in reference
to the other parts of the Union, having New
England on the N. E., the Middle and Southern
states on the S. W., and much of the vast inte-
1 rior of the Mississippi Yalley brought into free
communication with it by canals and railroads, in
connection with the navigation of the Hudson,
gives to this city preeminent advantages for being
a great commercial mart for the whole country.
Its first selection by the Dutch, as a place of set-
tlement, was influenced, no doubt, by the circum-
stances of its lying at the mouth of a navigable
river, having a good harbor, and being easy of
defence against the Indians. A communication
with the interior by navigable streams, until within
a few years past, has been thought essential to
the existence of a commercial city. It is true,
indeed, that since the introduction of canals and
railroads, particularly the latter, this consideration
has sunk into one of secondary importance; and
it must be granted that, in this respect, New
York has not now the advantage which she once
had over some of her sister cities. By means of
railroads and canals, Philadelphia, Baltimore,
and Boston will obtain a large amount of the
western trade, which, before these new facilities
arose, would have found its way to New York.
Still the central position of New York, and the
extensive growth to which she has attained, must
continue to secure to her the name and rank
which she already possesses of being the com-
mercial emporium of the nation. When we con-
sider the prospective advances of this country,
the vast resources of its enterprise and wealth
which remain to be developed, and the power
which New York will have to increase her facil-
ities of traffic with our own interior, and with
foreign ports, to any requisite extent, we cannot
doubt that she is destined to become, perhaps,
the most flourishing and extensive mart of com-
merce in the world.

The first settlement made on Manhattan Island,
with a view to permanent occupancy, was by the
Dutch in 1615. In 1629, being resolved to estab-
lish a colony at New Amsterdam, as New York
was then called, they appointed Walter Yan
Twiller governor, who held the office nine years.
In 1635, the governor erected a substantial fort;
and in 1643 a house of worship was built in the
S. E. corner of the fort. In 1644, a city hall, or
stadt house, was erected, which was on the corner
of Pearl Street and Coenties Slip. In 1653, a
wall of earth and stones was built from Hudson
River to East River, designed as a defence
against the Indians, immediately N. of Wall
Street, which from that circumstance received its
name. The first public wharf was built in 1658,
where Whitehall Street now is.

The administration of Governor Stuyvesant,
the last of the Dutch governors, tenninated, after
a continuance of 17 years with the capture of the
colony by the English, in 1664, when the city
was named New York, in honor of James, Duke
of York. The property of the Dutch West
India Trading Company was all confiscated.
The number of inhabitants was then about 3000.

In 1673, the Dutch retook the city from the
English, it having been surrendered by Captain
Manning without firing a gun. It was restored
to the English the next year ; and Manning was
tried for cowardice and treachery, and sentenced
to have his sword broken over his head. The
inhabitants were all then required to take the oath
of allegiance to the English government. As
descriptive of the commercial condition of the
city at that period, Governor Andros, in his re-
port to the government in England, in 1678,
says, “ Our principal places of trade are New
York and Kingston, except Albany for the In-
dians. Our buildings most wood, some lately
stone and brick ; good country houses, and strong
of their severall kindes. A merchant worth
£1000, or £500, is accompted a good substantiall
merchant, and a planter worthe half that in move-
ables accompted rich; all estates may be valued
att about £150,000; there may lately have traded
to ye colony, in a yeare, from 10 to 15 ships or
vessells, of about togeather 100 tunns each, Eng-
lish, New England, and oure own built, of which
five small shipps and a ketch now belonging to
New Yorke, foure of them built there.''

In 1686, James II. abolished the representative
system, and prohibited the use of printing presses.
A meeting of commissioners, denominated a
congress of the several colonies, was this year
assembled at New York. A regulation for light-