and canals, which carry off the superabundant water from the land, and are crossed by means of light wooden bridges. At times, the fields are so entirely covered with water, that nothing but the tops of the grain are visible above its surface, and the husbandmen are compelled to go about in boats, to gather in the sheaves. Connected with these peculiarities of the country, was a little fact which I here observed. I had before seen a small boat on the Kil, rowed by two women, and steered by a third, who sat at the helm; a spectacle sufficiently singular to an American, in whose country the female sex are so carefully guarded from manual labor, involving hardship or exposure to the elements. Near the spot where we lay, was a small open boat, also made fast among the willows, in which I saw a woman and two men unconcernedly eating their food, although the weather was rainy and cold. Upon making inquiry, I found that this boat was their home, and that they had no fixed place of residence, but belonged to a class of laborers, by no means rare in Holland, who lead a wandering life upon the canals and rivers, obtaining occasional employment as they can, upon the farms, the dykes, or elsewhere, and thus gaining a hard and painful subsistence, utterly deprived of most of those means of happiness, without which persons of more refinement would think life scarcely desirable.
With the change of tide, we left our moorings, and entered upon the New Maes, the channel of the river which runs north of Ysselmonde, and on which Rotterdam is situated. Opposite the point of entering into the New Maes, and upon its right bank, is the town of Vlaardingen or Flaarding, a neat and flourishing place, chiefly inhabited by fishermen. Its trade was so great, in 1753, that of two hundred and eighty-five vessels equipped in all the ports of Holland for the herring fishery, one hundred and twelve belonged to Vlaardingen alone; but since then, its prosperity has somewhat declined. Farther up, on the same bank of the Maes, but a little back from the river, on the canal of Schie, is Schiedam, so famous for its distilleries of gin, as to have given its name to the better qualities of that commodity. It has ceased, however, to be considered so decidedly preferable to any other, as formerly; and in the American market, I believe, the gin distilled at Weesp is now esteemed as being equal, if not superior, to that of Schiedam. This place also possesses other branches of industry, and particularly a commerce in grain, ship-yards, and cordage manufactories. At Schiedam, as repeatedly before on the passage up, we were boarded by the officers of the customs, to see that we had complied with the proper forms, on leaving Hellevöetsluys. At length, passing off against the small town of Delftshaven, we arrived in sight of the city of Rotterdam.
ADVERSITY.
