To the West Indies wee send Flower, Bread, Pease Pork and sometimes Horses: the return from thence for the most part is Rumm, which pays the king a considerable Excise, and some Molasses which serves the people to make drink and pays noe custom. There are about nine or ten three Mast Vessels of about eighty or a Hundred tons burthen, two or three ketches and Barks of about forty Tun ; and about twenty Sloops of about twenty or five and twenty Tun belonging to the Government -- All of which Trade for England Holland and the West Indies, except five or six sloops that use the river Trade to Albany and that way.

In 1694 there belonged to the city of New Amsterdam sixty ships, twenty-five sloops, and forty boats. But neither then nor at any time in its history did the number of sail owned on the island begin to indicate the extent of its river trade, or the size of the fleet at its wharves. Through two centuries the river traffic under sail increased, with few setbacks. Of course the War for Independence interfered for a while with trade and travel, but they were resumed as soon as the country was once more at peace. Almost the last to disappear when steam superseded sail propulsion were the boats that carried the least perishable kinds of farm produce. But now, except for an occasional Haverstraw brick schooner, or a pleasure boat from Nyack or Piermont, there is hardly a sail to be seen on a summer day from Paulus Hook to Croton.