If the reader will please to turn to the annexed certificates, No. 1, 2, 3, he will be convinced that on Monday, the 3d day of December last, my boat was propelled with near half her burthen on board, against the current of Potomac river, at the rate of three miles in an hour, notwithstanding the bad order the machinery was then in ; and by the certificates No. 4 and 5, on the Eleventh of the same month, by what little repairs I could give it, in a country where conveniences w^ere not to be had, her progress against the same stream was encreased to four miles in an hour, with more than half her burthen on board. What addition may not be expected, if I am enabled, by the generosity of the different Assembhes to perfect my plan 1

Tn the month of September, 1784, I exhibited the model of a

NAVIGATION. 1015

boat before his Excellency General Washinf^ton, at Bath, in Berkeley County, calculated for stemming the currents of rapid rivers only, constructed on principles very different from my present one. Satisfied vi^ith the experiment of her making way against a rapid stream, by the force of the same stream, the General was pleased to give me a most ample certificate of her eflficiency. And though the great utility of such a boat will appear, if ever a fair trial should be given it j and at the time of that exhibition it was fully my intention to complete this boat, yet, in the course of that fall and winter, I made such progress in the improvement of some steam engines^ which I had long conceived would become of the greatest consequence in navigation, that I postponed it till experiments should determine whether the steam engines could be reduced to such Simplicity and Cheapness, as to make them of public benefit, not being certain of this, though perfectly convinced of the power, was my only reason for not mentioning this scheme also to the General, at that exhibition ; and I flattered myself this invention, if it answered my expectation, (the truth whereof experiments have now established) would render my labours more extensively useful, by being equally applicable to small boats or vessels of the largest size, to sliallow and rapid rivers or the deepest and roughest seas, (indeed, in large vessels, compared with the value- of freight, the Expence of the machinery proportionably decreases) I applied myself with unremitted attention to perfect my Steam Engines, and made such progress in that fall and the ensuing spring, that my experiments assured me the perfection of such a machine was within my reach.