Canandaigua, which lies on the north point of the lake of the same name, which is about twenty miles long, is an extremely beautiful and pleasant town, that has been but lately settled. The Duke de la Rochefoucault says, that during his travels in America, in 1790, there was but a single house on this lake, in which he spent the night, in a garret used as a store-room. Now it is a beautiful commercial town, having one bank, a court-house, and a very superior tavern. The court was sitting, and there was a large collection of people, so that the town exhibited a very lively appearance. At this place the road separates, the left goes through Batavia and several small villages to Buffalo on Lake Erie; the right, to Rochester, and thence to Lake Ontario and the Falls of Niagara: and as this road again approaches the Erie canal, it is said to be the most interesting. On this account we gave it the preference, although the longest route.
We left Canandaigua in the afternoon, and rode through Victor, Mendon, and Pittsford, to Rochester. On this route we observed nothing particularly interesting, excepting several new settlements; the inhabitants of which resided in log-houses, which had a peculiar, but by no means an unpleasant aspect. I was particularly pleased with the neat and decent appearance of the inhabitants.
We arrived at Rochester at half past eight o'clock in the evening, and took lodgings at the Eagle Tavern. We crossed the Genesee river, which divides Rochester into two parts, on a wooden bridge, the first that we had hitherto met in the United States that was built firmly and properly. It rests upon stone piers, and is made of solid beams, with thick and well fastened planks. The next morning we walked through the town, and were pleased with its rapid increase. In 1812, there was not a single house here; nothing but a wilderness; and the land could be purchased at one dollar and twenty-five cents per acre. At present, Rochester is one of the most flourishing towns in the state of New York. It contains four churches, one bank, a court-house, and about four thousand inhabitants. Many of the houses are built of blue limestone, and of brick. The town contains several mills and manufactories; and amongst others, a nail factory, in which the nails are made with a machine, as in Birmingham. They also manufacture rifle-guns, which are very long and heavy. On the right bank of the Genesee river, the houses are not so numerous as on the left, and there are yet many frame, and even some log-houses: in the place where, probably in a short time, handsome wharves will be built, there may yet be seen stumps of trees--a truly interesting sight to those who observe the progress of this country. The basements of the houses are generally built of rough sand-stone; their corners, doors, and windows, of a kind of white marble-like sand-stone, and the rest of brick. The white sand-stone is procured in the neighbourhood, and is cut into slabs at a saw-mill on the Genesee river. I saw three of these blocks sawed; and in one frame I observed no less than five saws. Several hundred yards below the bridge the Genesee river is about two hundred yards wide, and has a fall of ninety-five feet, which at present, however, did not appear to much advantage. Above the falls is a race which conducts the water to several mills, and it again flows into the river below the falls, where it forms three beautiful cascades, which reminded me of the Villa di Mäcen, at Tivoli.