```"Great God! we thank thee for this home--
````This bounteous birth-land of the free;
```Still may her flowers untrampled spring,
```And yet, till Time shall fold his wing,
[[[Perth Amboy.--Its original Settlement and Prospects.--Governor William Franklin.]]]
{ 217}In succeeding pages I shall endeavor to impart to my readers some of the pleasures and profits of this Southern journey, extended, after leaving my horse and wagon at Camden, in South Carolina, to nearly fourteen hundred miles further.
I left New York at three o'clock in the afternoon in the steam-boat _Transport_ of the Camden and Amboy Rail-road Company. We passed out at the Narrows at four o'clock between Forts Hamilton and La Fayette, and, traversing Raritan Bay, on the southeast side of Staten Island, reached South Amboy at twilight, where I remained until morning. This little village is situated upon the bay, at the mouth of the Raritan, and is the terminus of the rail-way from Philadelphia. On the north side of the Raritan is Perth Amboy, * a pleasant place, a port of entry, and a locality of considerable historic interest. It is about twenty-five miles from New York, and ten from New Brunswick; the latter lies at the head of steam-boat navigation on the Raritan. Upon this point the first proprietors of New Jersey intended to build a city. "If the Lord permit," they said, in their published account of the beauty and fertility of that region, "we intend, with all convenient speed, to erect and build our principal town, which, by reason of situation, must, in all probability, be the most considerable for merchandise, trade, and fishing in those parts. It is designed to be placed upon a neck or point of land called Ambo Point, lying on Raritan River, and pointing to Sandy Hook Bay, and near adjacent to the place where ships in that great harbor commonly ride at anchor." It was called "a sweet, wholesome, and delightful place and William Penn said, on taking a view of the land, "I have never seen such before in my life." The town was laid out into one hundred and fifty lots, many buildings were erected, and for a time it was the commercial rival of New York. A city charter was obtained in 1718. William Eier was the first mayor, and James Alexander--the father of Lord Stirling, of the Continental army--was the first recorder. Barracks for soldiers were built there in 1758--9, and were first occupied by the English troops on their return from Havana in 1761.