We came to the handsome town of Albany in a fast and beautifully-decorated steamer; but we might almost as well have been on board a slow one, as we find we cannot go on till to-morrow to Buffalo. The steamboats and railroads do not communicate as conveniently as they might do for travellers, and I hear this is done expressly to please the hotel-keepers, by forcing travellers to remain a night at Albany. I was much disappointed; and so full were my thoughts of the great cataract, that I might well expect to have a nightmare of Niagara to-night, which would not be a pleasant introduction, or preface of an introduction to “the Falls.”

The Hudson is a beauteous river; but, in the midst of its loveliness, it was very triste to come upon the wreck of the splendid “Empire” steamer, which was lost two nights before we started. I believe she ran foul of a large merchant vessel in the dark, and went down very shortly afterwards. Numbers of lives were lost; many dead bodies had been picked up, and as soon as they can penetrate into her sleeping cabins they expect to find many more. They were slowly attempting to raise the steamer when we passed.

Then was I a second time struck by the American indifference to human life, which I had before observed at New York.