Hudson River
"I discovered to my left the North River (the Hudson) whose shores unfolded before my eyes to a distance of thirty miles. The banks of this river whose width is immense are very lofty; they are more than 300 feet high. This stream has a really majestic course; it is covered with vessels and small boats; and a better place to see it from than the one where we were could not be imagined."
Beaumont (Pierson 86-87)
"It is impossible to imagine anything more beautiful than the North or Hudson River. The great width of the stream, the admirable richness of the north bank and the steep mountains which border its eastern margins make it one of the most admirable sights in the world. But that still isn' the America I should like to see. We are envying every day the first Europeans who two hundred years ago discovered for the first time the mouth of the Hudson and mounted its current, then when its two banks were covered with numberless forests and only the smoke of the savages was to be seen above the place where now buzz the two hundred thousand inhabitants of New-York."
Tocqueville (Pierson 92)
Itinerary