A tour of four great rivers: the Hudson, Mohawk, Susquehanna and Delaware in l769; being the journal of Richard Smith of Burlington, New Jersey; . ot alone valuable because of the con-ditions in which it was written, but also for the dis-crimination and precision with which its author ob-served real things and recorded what was vital andinteresting in them. In many ways it is an excep-tional document. Mr. Smith belonged to a family which was longsettled in Burlington, New Jersey, where he was bornMarch 22nd, 1735, being the sixth of the familywho in succession had borne the name of
A tour of four great rivers: the Hudson, Mohawk, Susquehanna and Delaware in l769; being the journal of Richard Smith of Burlington, New Jersey; . ot alone valuable because of the con-ditions in which it was written, but also for the dis-crimination and precision with which its author ob-served real things and recorded what was vital andinteresting in them. In many ways it is an excep-tional document. Mr. Smith belonged to a family which was longsettled in Burlington, New Jersey, where he was bornMarch 22nd, 1735, being the sixth of the familywho in succession had borne the name of was a brother of Samuel Smith, who wrote ahistory of New Jersey, that is still held in esteem bythose who prosecute historical inquiries. At thefamily home, Green Hill, may be seen to this dayancient cherry trees, which Richard Smith as a boyhelped to plant. Having studied law in Philadel-phia, he was admitted to the bar and afterwardsserved as a member of the New Jersey Assembly, andas State When he made his tour of thesefour rivers, he was thirty-four years old. The jour- 1 The Burlington Smiths, by R. Morris Smith (1878). xiv. RICHARD SMITH nal indicates unusual powers of observation and judg-ment for a man of that age. The immediate purpose of Mr. Smith in his tour,was to make a survey of a grant of land now knownas the Otego patent, comprising 69,000 acres on theupper Susquehanna, in which he, along with manyothers, was interested as a proprietor. He and hisassociates were a few of the many from distant placeswho, in the years immediately following the FortStanwix Treaty of November, 1768, explored andsurveyed the fertile lands bordering on the Susque-hanna immediately south of the Mohawk. Fort Stanwix, the scene of this treaty, of whichno part now remains, occupied the site of the presentCity of Rome, in Oneida County, New York. Ithad been built during the French War, taking itsname from a British general, but it acquired its chiefmilitary distinction in 1777,
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1900, bookdecade1900, booksubjectmiddlea, bookyear1906
