That your Petitioner has bestowed a great deal of Time and Thought towards perfecting a Machine for propelling a Vessel through the Water by means of Steam. That he lias at length brought his Invention to that degree of perfection. That as he conceives little or no further Improvement can be made on it -- That to the best of his Knowledge & Belief his Scheme is altogether new or at least does not interfere with the Inventions of either of the Gentlemen who have applied to your honourable Body for an exclusive Right of navigating by means of Steam.

That your Petitioner has made an exact Draught of the different Parts of his machines, which w^ith an Explanation Thereof he is ready to exhibit, provided that after the Exhibition Thereof, no one be suffered to lay claim to any Invention therein described unless he shall have before exhibited a draught or model Thereof to your honorable body -- and your petitioner therefore prays That in case his machine should appear to be a new and useful Invention, That the Honble the Legislature would be pleased to grant to him an exclusive privilege and Right of using the same for the purposes of navigation throughout the State of New- York for such term of Years as shall seem meet And your Petitioner

shall ever pray

presented -- 9 January 1789 John Stevens Jun'

PAPERS

RELATING TO

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DESCEIPTION OF THE COUNTRY BETWEEN ALBANT & NIAGARA IN 1792.

[1 Mass. Hist. Coll. I.]