•^^0^ « The Wmdsor, newyork. CONVENIENTLY SITUATED ON FIFTH AVENUE. Near the Grand Central Railway Station, Elevated and Surface Tramways. THeatres, Places of Amusement, Churches and Clubs. yr . sanitary Has been recently fitted throughout fith the Latest Mocerntoi^^^^ Plumbing. Refurnished and Decorated. New ^^pid Running Elevator. The Drinking Water used is Chemically Pure, and ^^^^ Ice is made fr^^ Distilled Water. Cuisine ana Service Unsurpassed. C?ol ^^^^^i^^E^^ to Summer. Comfortable and Homelike in Winter f^^^lf^^'^^^^^fl^^^ ^ill meet all Steamers and convey Passengers and Luggag^^^^^ Hotel at Moderate Charges. Railway Tickets, peeping Car and^ Boom Car accommodations can be secured in ^Je Hotel. Cable and le^^^^^^ Baths. All Languages Spoken. A Model Hotel. nnrHnfr Windsor Stages meet the Boat on arrival at 22d Street Landing. HAWK <£ \NETHERBEE, Proprietors. =^^^^ ami: CLassanP^ loy ■€t\X Longlslaad -^ L Sound ) ;iitlleNec^] Bar a Isl; fork '•< "lu l^j;#J nunca„te*~ Stj„yCr.&jl^Bar \ Marsh ■ -^S rerni cli }^tar Landing Fresh^s^ i'tatuleMiiPi 210.000 ', ' U,-^ _^ lomctres / THE HUDSON BY WALLACE BRUCE ILLUSTRATED BY ALFRED FREDERICKS WITH PIIOTO-ENGRAVINGS OF SCENERY PUBLISHED BY BRYANT UNION, TEMPLE COURT NEW YORK COPYRIGHT, 1894, BY WALLACE BRUCE \ I r STKinV/AY GRAND PIANOS UPRIGHT PIANOS Steinway & Sons' Pianos are preferred for private and public use by the greatest living artists, and endorsed, among hundreds of others, by such as ; NICOLA RUBINSTEIN, FRANZ RUMMEL, CAMILLE SAINT-SAENS. ANTON SEIDL, WILHELM TAUBERT, AMBROISE THOMAS, THEODORE THOMAS, FERD. VON INTEN, RICHARD WAGNER, RUDOLPH WILLMERS, CARL WOLFSOHN, FRANZ ABT, D. F. E. AUBER. CARL BAERMANN. HECTOR BERLIOZ, E. M. BOWMAN, FELICIEN DAVID, ALEX. DREYSCHOCK. ARTHUR FRIEDHEIM. CHARLES GOUNOD, STEPHEN HELLER, ADOLPHE HENSELT, ALFRED JAELL, JOSEPH JOACHIM, RAFAEL JOSEFFY, THEODORE LESCHETIZKY, DR. FRANZ LISZT, A. MARMONTEL, DR WILLIAM MASON, LEOPOLD DB MEYER, S. B. MILLS, IGNATZ MOSCHELES. ADOLPH NUENDORFF, ALBERT NIEMANN, IGNACE J. PADEREWSKL MORIZ ROSENTHAL, ANTON RUBINSTEIN. AND BY MESDAMES ADELE AUS DER OHE, ANNETTE ESSIPOFF, ETELKA GERSTER, MINNIE HAUK, EMMA JUCH, MARIE KREBS, LILLI LEHMAN N, ANNA MEHLIG, PARE PA ROSA, ADELINA PATTl, SOFIA SCALCHI, TERESA TITIENS, ZELIE TREBELLI, &0. Illustrated Catalogue Mailed Free on Application. INNA/AY 8c ON Warerooms, Steinway Hall, 107-111 E. 14th St , New York. EUROPEAN DEPOTS : STEINWAY HALL, 15 Lower Seymour Street, Portman Square, W., LONDON, ENGLAND. STEINWAY'S PIANOFABRIK, St. Pauli, Neue Rosen-Strasse, 20-24. HAMBURG, GERMANY. !• enjamln Det. 5, 1932 CONTENTS, Greeting: ..... The Hudson (Historical Analysis), Desbrosses Street Pier to Twenty-Second Pier, Twenty-Second Street, to Yonkers, Yonkers to West Point, West Point to Newburgh, Newburgh to Poughkeepsie, Poughkeepsie to Rhinecliff, Rhinecliff to Catskill, Catskill to Hudson, Hudson to Albany, Albany to Saratoga Springs, Saratoga to the Adirondacks, Saratoga to Lake George, Lake George to Tahawas, . Albany to Binghamton, . Albany to Niagara Falls, . Condensed Points, . The Geology of the Hudson, Some Pleasant Round Trips, Index, .... Street 9 11 53 56 78 127 137 167 192 220 226 243 254 256 264 286 290 298 307 311 312 GRANDSON OF ICHABOD CRANE on beholding the PANORAMA OF THE HUDSON BY WALLACE BRUCE FIRST PHOTO-PANORAMA OF ANY RIVER EVER PUBLISHED A COMPLETE OBJECT-GUIDE TO THE RIVER EACH BANK ACCURATELY REPRESENTED FROM THE BAR- THOLDl STATUE OF LIBERTY TO THE STATE CAPITOL PLAIN, $i.oo. TINT, $1.25. For Sale at News Stands, or sent Postpaid by Publishers ON Receipt of Price published by BRYANT LITERARY UNION 724 Temple Court. ILLUSTRATIONS. West Point, by Alfred Fredericks, .... The Half Moon, bv Alfred Fredericks, .... Palisades of the Hudson, ...... Break Neck Mountain, ....... Oloffe Van Cortland's Dream, by Alfred Fredericks, Old Time Hudson Voyagers, by Alfred Fredericks, In the Highlands, ....... Morning, by Alfred Fredericks, ..... Palisades AND Fort Washington Point, . . . • Mount Taurus, ........ Sunnyside, with -Vignette of Sleepy Hollow, by Alfred Fredericks, ........ Sleepy Hollow Church, by Alfred Fredericks, Sugar Loaf, ..,....., Anthony's Nose (from the South), . . . • . The Dade Monument AT West Point, .... Northern Gate of the Highlands (from West Point). Washington's Headquarters at Newburgh, Morning View at Blue point, by Alfred Fredericks, Day Line Steamers Passing Under the Poughkeepsie Bridge, Bastion Falls, Catskill Mountains, .... The Man in THE Mountain, by Alfred Fredericks Kaaterskill Falls, . ...... Rip Van Winkle's Return, by Alfred Fredericks, Lower Falls of the Kaaterskill, ..... Lake George, ........ Boat Ride, Ausable Chasm, ...... Indian Head, by Alfred Fredericks, .... An Adirondack Camp Fire, BY Alfred Fredericks, . 81 91 103 108 121 125 131 155 169 190 207 213 215 217 259 283 POPULAR BOOKS BY WALLACE BRUCE. THE HUDSON BY DAYLIGHT New Edition, 1895. Published by Bryant Literary Union. Cloth, $1.00. Paper, 50 cents. THE HUDSON PANORAMA Published by Bryant Literary Union. New Edition, 1895. Plain, $1.00. Tint, $1.25. THE HUDSON : A POEM Illustrated by Alfred Fredericks. Cloth, $1.00. Paper, 50 cents. FROM THE HUDSON TO THE YOSEMITE A collection of Poems. Published b}^ Bryant Literary Union. Cloth, $1.00. Paper, 50 cents. OLD HOMESTEAD POEMS Illustrated. Published by Hari)er & Bros. Cloth, $2.00. IN CLOVER AND HEATHER Published by Blackwood & Sons, Edinburgh, Scotland. Cloth, $1.25. WAYSIDE POEMS Illustrated. Harper & Bros. Cloth, $2.00. Sold at the news Stands of the Steamers "New York " and " Albany." Sent by BRYANT UNION, 724 Temple Court, Postpaid on receipt of price. LIST OF MAPS. Section 1. New York to Croton. Section 2. Croton to Hyde Park. Section 3. Hyde Park to Coxsackie. Section 4. Coxsackie to Lansingburgh. New York City. New York and Environments. Albany. THE HUDSON AT WEST POINT, WITH VIGNETTE OF KOSCIUSKO'S GARDEN. GREETING : The Hudson, more than any other river, has a distiyict personality — an ahsolnte soul-quality. With moods as various as the longings of Miman life she resjjonds to our joys in sympathetic sweetness, and soothes our sor- rows as by a gentle companionshij). If the Mississippi is the King of Rivers the Hudson is, par excellence, the Queen, and continually char7ns iy her "infinite variety." It often seems that there are in reality four separate Hud- sons — the Hudson of Beauty, the Hudson of History, the Hudson of Literature, and the Hudson of Commerce. To blend them all into a loving cable reaching from heart to heart is the purpose of the ^vriter. It has been his privi- lege to ivalk again and again every foot of its course from the ivilderness to the sea, to linger beside her fountains and dream amid her historic shrines, and from many braided threads of memory it has been his hope to set forth ivith affectionate enthusiasm lohat the student or traveler wishes to see and knoiv of her majesty and glory. W. B. Established 1864. THE TRAVELERS Insurance Company of hartford, conn. Original Accident Company of America Largest in the World assets surplus $17,664,000 $2,472,000 Paid Policy-Holders $27,000,000 $2,151,000 in 1S94 James G. Batterson, President. Rodney Dennis, Secretary. John E. Morris, Asst. Secretary. .._ ___._:i^ THE HUDSON, The Hudson River is a noble threshold to a great Continent and New York Bay a fitting portal. The traveler who enters the Narrows for the first time is impressed with wonder, and the charm abides even with those who pass daily to and fro amid its beauties. No other river in the world approaches the Hudson in varied grandeur and sublimity, and no other city has so grand and commodious a harbor as New York. It has been the privilege of the writer of this hand-book to see again and again most of the streams of the old world " renowned in song and story," to behold sunrise on the Bay of Naples and sunset at the Golden Gate of 12 THE HUDSON. San Francisco, but the spell of the Hudson remains unbroken, and the bright bay at its mouth reflects the noontide without a rival. The Hudson has often been styled "The Rhine of America." There is, however, little of similarity and much of contrast. The Rhine from Dusseldorf to Manheim is only twelve hundred to fifteen hundred feet in breadth. The Hudson from New York to Albany averages more than five thousand feet from bank to bank. At Tappan Zee the Hudson is ten times as wide as the Rhine at any point above Cologne. At Bonn the Rhine is barely one-third of a mile, whereas the Hudson at Haverstraw Bay is over four miles in width. The average breadth of the Hudson from New York to Poughkeepsie is almost eight thousand feet. The Mountains of the Rhine also lack the imposing character of the Highlands. The far-famed Drachenfels, the Landskron, and the Stenzleburg are only seven hundred and fifty feet above the river ; the Alteberg eight hundred, the Rosenau nine hun- dred, and the great Oelberg thirteen hundred and sixty-two. A-Ccording to the latest United States Geological Survey the en- tire group of mountains at the northern gate of the Highlands is from fourteen hundred and five to sixteen hundred and twenty- five feet in height, not to speak of the Catskills from three thousand to almost four thousand feet in altitude. It is not the fault of the Rhine with its nine hundred miles of rapid flow that it looks tame compared with the Hudson. Even the Mississippi, draining a valley three thousand miles in extent, looks insignificant at St. Louis or New Orleans contrasted with the Hudson at Tarry town. The Hudson is in fact a vast estu- ary of the sea ; the tide rises two feet at Albany and six inches THE HUDSON. 13 at Troy. A Professor of the Berlin University says : " You lack our castles but tl " Hudson is infinitely grander." Thackeray, in "The Virginians,'' gives the Hudson the verdict of beauty; and George William Curtis, comparing the Hudson with the rivers of the Old World, has gracefully said : " The Danube has in part glimpses of such grandeur, the Elbe has sometimes such delicately penciled effects, but no European river is so lordly in its bearing, none flows in such state to the sea." Baedeker, a high and just authority, in his recent Guide to the United States says : " The Hudson has sometimes been called the American Rhine, but that title perhaps does injustice to both rivers. The Hudson, through a great part of its extent, is three or four times as wide as the Rhine, and its scenery is grander and more inspiring ; while, though it lacks the ruined castles and an- cient towns of the German river, it is by no means devoid of his- torical associations of a more recent character. The vine-clad slopes of the Rhine have, too, no ineffective substitute in the bril- liant autumn coloring of the timbered hillsides of the Hudson." What must have been the sensation of those early voyagers, coasting a new continent, as they halted at the noble Gateway of the river and gazed northward along the green fringed Pali- sades ; or of Hendrich Hudson, who first traversed its waters from Manhattan to the Mohawk, as he looked up from the chubby bow of his "Half Moon" at the massive columnar formation of the Palisades or at the great Mountains of the Highlands ; what dreams of success, apparently within reach, were his, when night came down in those deep forest solitudes under the shadowy base of Old Cro' Nest and Klinkerberg Mountain, where his little craft seemed a lone cradle of civilization ; and then, 14 THE HUDSON. when at last, with immediate purpose foiled, he turned his boat southward, having- discovered, but without knowing it, some- thing infinitely more valuable to future history than his long sought "Northwestern Passage to China," how he must have gazed with blended wonder and awe at the distant Catskills as their sharp lines came out, as we have seen them many a September morning, bold and clear along the horizon, and learned in gentle reveries the poetic meaning of the blue Ontioras or "Mountains of the Sky." How fondly he must have gazed on the picturesque hills above Apokeepsing and listened to the mur- muring music of Winnikee Creek, when the air was clear as crys- tal and the banks seemed to be brought nearer, perfectly re- flected in the glassy surface, while here and there his eye wan- dered over grassy uplands, and rested on hills of maize in shock, looking for all the world like mimic encampments of Indian wigwams ! Then as October came with tints which no European eye had ever seen, and sprinkled the hill-tops with gold and rus- set, he must indeed have felt that he was living an enchanted life, or journeying in a fairy land ! How graphically the poet Willis has put the picture in muisi- cal prose: "Fancy the bold Englishman, as the Dutch called Hendrich Hudson, steering his little yacht the ' Haalve Maan,' for the first time through the Highlands. Imagine his anxiety for the channel forgotten, as he gazed up at the towering rocks, and round the green shores, and onward past point and opening bend, miles away into the heart of the country ; yet with no lessening of the glorious stream before him and no decrease of promise in the bold and luxuriant shores. Picture him lying at anchor below Newburgh with the dark pass of the Wey-Gat THE HUDSON. 15 frowning behind him, the lofty and blue Catskills beyond, and the hillsides around covered with lords of the soil exhibiting only less wonder than friendliness." If Willis forgot the season of the year and left out the colors Talmage has fully supplied them in a recent and glowing vision, to complete the picture as Hudson saw it: "Along our river and up and down the sides of the great hills there was an in- describable mingling of gold, and orange and crimson and saffron, now sobering into drab and maroon, now flaring up into solferino and scarlet. Here and there the trees looked as if their tips had blossomed into fire. In the morning light the forests seemed as if they had been transfigured and in the evening hours they looked as if the sunset had burst and dropped upon the leaves. It seemed as if the sea of divine glory had dashed i«ts surf to the top of the crags and it had come dripping down to the lowest leaf and deepest cavern.'' On such a day in 1883 it was the privilege of the writer to stand before 150,000 people at Newburgh on the occasion of the Centennial Celebration of the Disbanding of the Army under Washington, and, in a poem entitled "The Long Drama," to portray the great mountain background bounding the southern horizon with autumnal splendor : October lifts with colors bright Her mountain canvas to the sky, The crimson trees aglow with light Unto our banners wave reply. Like Horeb's bush the leaves repeat From lips of flame with glory crowned : — " Put off thy shoes from off thy feet, The place they trod is holy ground." 16 THE HUDSON. Such was the vision Hendrich Hudson must have seen in those far-off September and October days, and such the picture which visitors still compass long- distances to behold. " It is a far cry to Loch Awe "' says an old Scottish proverb, and it is a long step from the sleepy rail of the " Half Moon *' to the roomy-decked floating- palaces —the "New York"' and the "Albany." Before beginning our journey let us, therefore, bridge the distance with a few intermediate facts, from 1609 to 1894, relating to the discovery of the river, its early settlement, its oid reaches and other points essential to the fullest enjoy- ment of our trip, which in sailor-parlance we might style "a gang-plank of history " reaching as it does from the old-time yacht to the modern steamer, and spanning almost three hundred years. Its Discovery.— In the year 1524, thirty-two years after the discovery of America, the navigator Verrazzani, a French offi- cer, anchored off the island of Manhattan and proceeded a short distance up the river. The following year, Gomez, a Portu- guese in the employ of Spain, coasted along the continent and entered the Narrows. Several Dutch captains also visited our noble bay about 1598, but it was reserved for Hendrich Hudson, with a mixed crew of eighteen or twenty men in the " Half Moon," to explore the river from Sandy Hook to Albany, and carry back to Europe a description of its beauty. He had already made two voyages for the Muscovy Company — an English cor- poration — in quest of a passage to China, via the North Pole and Nova Zembla. In the autumn of 1608 he was called to Amsterdam, and sailed from Texel, April 5, 1609, in the service of the Dutch East India THE HUDSON. 19 Company. Reaching Cape Cod August 6, and Chesapeake Bay August 28th , he coasted north to Sandy Hook. He entered the Bay of New York September the 3d, passed through the Narrows, and anchored in what is now called Newark Bay ; on the 12th re- sumed his voyage, and, drifting with the tide, remained over night on the 13th about three miles above the northern end of Manhattan Island ; on the 14th sailed through what is now known as Tappan Zee and Haverstraw Bay, entered the Highlands and anchored for the night near the present dock of West Point. On the morning of the 15th beheld Newburgh Bay, reached Catskill on the 16th, Athens on the 17th, Castleton and Albany on the 18th, and then sent out an exploring boat as far as Waterford. He became thoroughly satisfied that this route did not lead to China — a conclusion in harmony with that of Champlain, who, the same summer, had been making his way south, through Lake Champlain and Lake George, in quest of the South Sea. There is something humorous in the idea of these old mariners attempting to sail through a continent 3,000 miles wide, seamed with mountain chains from 2,000 to 15,000 feet in height. Hud- son's return voyage began September 23d. He anchored again in Newburgh Bay the 25th, arrived at Stony Point October 1st, reached Sandy Hook the 4th, and then returned to Europe. First Description of tlie Hudson.— The official record of the voyage was kept by Robert Juet, mate of the Half Moon, and his journal abounds with graphic and pleasing incidents as to the people and their customs. At the Narrows the Indians visited the vessel, "clothed in mantles of feathers and robes of fur, the women clothed in hemp ; red copper tobacco pipes, and other things of copper, they did wear about their -tl THE HUDSON. necks." At Yonkers they came on board in large numbers. Two were detained and dressed in red coats, but they sprang- overboard and swam away. At Catskill they found '^a very loving people, and very old men. They brought to the ship In- dian corn, pumpkins and tobaccos." At Castleton the " Master's mate went on land with an old savage, governor of the country, who carried him to his house and made him good cheere." " I sailed to the shore," he writes, *' in one of their canoes, with an old man, who was chief of a tribe, consisting of forty men and seventeen women. These I saw there in a house well constructed of oak bark, and circular in shape, so that it has the appearance of being built with an arched roof. It contained a large quan- tity of corn and beans of last year's growth, and there lay near the house, for the purpose of drying, enough to load three ships, besides what was growing in the fields. On our coming to the house two mats were spread out to sit upon, and some food was immediately served in well-made wooden bowls." *' Two men were also dispatched at once, with bows and arrows in quest of game, who soon brought in a pair of pigeons, which they had shot. They likewise killed a fat dog, (probably a black bear), and skinned it in great haste, with shells which they had got out of the water." The well-known hospitality of the Hudson River valley has, therefore, "high antiquity" in this record of the garrulous writer. At Hudson the Indians flocked to the vessel, and Hud- son determined to try the chiefs to see "whether they had any treachery in them." " So they took them down into the cabin, and gave them so much wine and aqua vitoe that they were all merry. In the end one of them was drunk, and they could not THE HUDSON. 21 tell how to take it." The old chief, who took the aqua vita?, was so grateful when he awoke the next day, that he showed them all the country, and gave them venison. Passing down through the Highlands the Half Moon was be- calmed near Stony Point and the "people of the Mountain?" came on board and marvelled at the ship and its equipment. One canoe kept hanging under the stern and an Indian pilfered a pillow and two shirts from the cabin windows. The mate shot at him and struck him in the breast and killed him. A. boat was lowered to recover the articles "when one of tbem in the water seized hold of it to overthrow it, but the cook seized a sword and cut off one of his hands and he was drowned." At the head of Manhattan Island the vessel was again attacked. Ar- rows were shot and two more Indians were killed, then the at- tack was renewed and two more were slai n. It might also be stated in passing, thai soon after the arrival of Hendrich Hudson at the mouth of the river one of the Eng- lish soldiers, John Coleman, was k illed by an arrow shot in the throat. "He was buried," according to Ruttenber, "upon the adjacent beach, the first European victim of an Indian weapon on the Mahicanituk. Coleman' 8 point is the monument to this oc- currence." The Half Moon never returned and it will be remembered that Hudson never again saw the shores of the river that he dis- covered. He was to leave his name however as a monument to further bravery and hardihood in Hudson's Bay, where he was set adrift by a mutinous crew in a little boat to perish in the midsummer of 1611. Names of tlie Hudson.— The Iroquois called the river the 22 THE HUDSON. **Cohatatea." The Mahicans and Lenapes the " Mahicanituk," or "the ever-flowing waters." Hudson styled it the '* Man- hattes" from the tribe at its mouth," the French the Rio de MontaigTie. The Dutch named it the "Mauritius," in 1611, in honor of Prince Maurice of Nassau, and afterwards the Great River. It has also been referred to as the "Shatemuck" In verse. It was called "Hudson's River" not by the Dutch, as generally stated, but by the English, as Henry Hud- son was an Englishman, although he sailed from a Dutch port, with a Dutch crew, and a Dutch vessel. It was also called the "North River," to distinguish it from the Delaware, the South River. It is still frequently so styled and the East River almost " boxes the compass " as applied to Long Island Sound. Heigbt of Hills and Mountains.— It is interesting to hear the opinions of different people journeying up and down the Hudson as to the height of Mountains along the river. The Palisades are almost always under-estimated, probably on ac- count of their distance from the steamer. It is only when we consider the size of a house at their base, or the mast of a sloop anchored against the shore, that we can fairly judge of their magnitude. Various Guide Books, put together in a day or a month, by writers who have made a single journey, or by persons who have never consulted an authority, have gone on multiplying blunder upon blunder, but the United States Geological Survey, published during the past year, has at last given reliable infor- mation. According to their maps just issued the Palisades are from 300 to 500 feet in height, the Highlands from 785 to 1625, and the Catskills from 3000 to 3885 feet. THE HUDSON. 25 THE PALISADES. At Fort Lee 300 feet. Opposite Mt. St. Vincent 400 " Opposite Hasting-s 500 " THE HIGHLANDS. Sugar Loaf 785 feet. Dunderberg- 865 Anthony's Nose 900 Storm King 1368 Old Cro' Nest 1405 Bull Hill 1425 South Beacon 1625 THE CATSKILLS. North Mountain 3000 feet. Platterskill 3135 Outlook 3150 Stoppel Point 3426 Round Top 3470 High Peak 3660 Sugar Loaf 3782 Plateau 3855 Sources of tlie Hudson.— The Hudson rises in the Adiron- dacks, and is formed by two short branches: the northern branch (17 miles in length), has its source in Indian Pass, at the base of Mount Mclntyre; the eastern branch (20 miles in length), in a little lake poetically called the " Tear of the Clouds," 4,321 feet above the sea under the summit of Tahawus, the noblest mountain of the Adirondacks, 5,344 feet in height. About thirty 26 THE HUDSON. miles below this junction it takes the waters of Boreas River, and in the southern part of Warren County, nine miles east of Lake George, the tribute of the Schroon. About fifteen miles north of Saratoga it receives the waters of the Sacandaga, then the streams of the Battenkill and the Walloomsac ; and a short dis- tance above Troy its largest tributary, the Mohawk. The tide rises six inches at Troy and two feet at Albany, and from Troy to New York, a distance of one hundred and fifty miles, the river is navigable by large steamboats. The principal streams which flow into th® Hudson between Albany and New York are the Norman's Kill, on west bank, two miles south of Albany ; the Mourdener's Kill, at Castleton, eight miles below Albany, on the east bank ; Coxsackie Creek, on west bank, seventeen miles below Albany ; Kinderhook Creek, six miles north of Hudson ; Catskill Creek, six miles south of Hud- son ; Roeliffe Jansen's Creek, on east bank, seven miles south of Hudson ; the Esopus Creek, which empties at Saugerties ; the Rondout Creek, at Rondout : the Wappingers, at New Ham- burgh ; the Fishkill, at Matteawan, opposite Newburgh ; the Peekskill Creek, and Croton River, The course of the River is nearly north and south, and drains a comparatively narrow val- ley. It is emphatically the " River of the Mountains," as it rises in the Adirondacks and flows seaward east of the Helderbergs, the Catskills, the Shawanguoks, through twenty miles of the Highlands and along the base of the Palisades. More than any other river it preserves the character Of its origin, and the following apostrophe from the writer's poem, " The Hudson," condenses its continuous mountain-and-lake-like quality : THE HUDSON. 27 O Hudson, mountain born and free, Thy youth a deep impression takes. For, mountain-guarded to the sea, Thy course is hut a chain of lakes. Tlie First Settlement of tlie Hndsou. — In 1610 a Dutch ship visited Manhattan to trade with the Indians and w^as soon followed by others on like enterprise. In 1613 Adrian Black came with a few comrades and remained the winter. In 1614 the merchants of North Holland organized a company and ob- tained from the States General a charter to trade in the Ne *v Netherlands, and soon after a colony built a few houses and a fort near the Battery. The entire island was purchased from the In- dians in 1621 for the sum of sixty guilders or about twenty-four dollars. A fort was built at Albany in 1623 and known as Fort Aurania or Fort Orange. From Wassenaer's "Historic van Europa," 1621-1632, as translated in the 3d volume of the Documentary History of New York, a castle — Fort Nas- sau—was built in 1624, on an island on the north side of the River Montague, now called Mauritius. ''But as the natives there were somewhat discontented, and not easily managed, the projectors abandoned it, intending now to plant a colony among the Maikans, (Mahicans), a nation lying twenty-five miles (Amer- ican measure seventy-five miles) on both sides of the river, up- wards." In another document we learn that " The West India Company being chartered, a vessel of 130 lasts, called the New Netherland, (whereof Cornelius Jacobs, of Hoorn, was skipper), with thirty families, mostly Walloons, was equipped in the spring of 1623." In the beginning of May they entered the Hudson, found a 28 THE HUDSON. Frenchman lying in the mouth of the river, who would erect the arms of the King" of France there, but the Hollanders would not permit him, opposing it by commission from the Lord's States General and the Directors of the West India Company, and " in order not to be frustrated therein, they convoyed the French- man out of the rivers." This having been done, they sailed up the Maikans, 140 miles, near which they built and completed a fort, named "Orange," with four bastions, on an island, by them called " Castle Island." This was probably the island be- low Castleton, now known as Baern Island, where the first white child was born on the Hudson. In another volume we read that " a colony was planted in 1625 on the Manhetes Island, where a fort was staked out by Master Kryn Fredericke, an engineer. The counting-house is kept in a stone building thatched with reed ; the other houses are of the bark of trees. There are thirty ordinary houses on the east side of the river, which runs nearly north and south." This is the description of New York City when Charles the First was King of England. Moreover, we should not forget that Communipaw outranks New York in antiquity, and, according to Knickerbocker, whose quiet humor is always read and re-read with pleasure, might justly be considered the Mother Colony. For lo ! the sage Oloffe Van Kort- landt dreamed a dream, and the good St. Nicholas came riding over the tops of the trees, and descended upon the island of Manhattan and sat himself down and smoked, "and the smoke ascended in the sky, and formed a cloud overhead ; and Oloffe bethought him, and he hastened and climbed up to the top of one of the tallest trees, and saw that the smoke spread over a THE HUDSON. 29 great extent of country ; and, as he considered it more atten- tively, he fancied that the great volume assumed a variety of marvelous forms, where, in dim obscurity, he saw shadowed out palaces and domes and lofty spires, all of which lasted but a mo- ment, and then passed away." So New York, like Alba Longa and Rome, and other cities of antiquity, was under the imme- diate care of its tutelar saint. Its destiny was foreshadowed, for OL.OFFE VAN CORTLANDT'S DREAM. now the palaces and domes and lofty spires are real and genuine, and something more than dreams are made of. Tlie Original Manors and Patents.— According to a map of the Province of New York, published in 1779, the Phillips- burg Patent embraced a large part of Westchester County. North of this was the Manor of Cortland, reaching from Tarry- 30 THE HUDSON. town to Anthony's Nose. Above this was the Phillipse Patent, reaching to the mouth of Fishkill Creek, embracing Putnam County. Between Fishkill Creek and the Wappingers Creek was the Rombout Patent. The Shuyler Patent embraced a few square miles in the vicinity of Poug-hkeepsie. Above this was the purchase of Falconer & Company, and east of this tract what was known as the Great Nine Partners. Above the Falconer Purchase was the Henry Beekman Patent, reaching- to Esopus Island, and east of this the Little Nine Partners. Above the Beekman Patent was the Schuyler Patent. Then the Manor of Livingston, reaching from Rhinebeck to Catskill Station, oppo- site Catskill. Above this Rensselaerwick, reaching north to a point opposite Coeymans. The Manor of Rensselaer extended on both sides of the river to a line running nearly east and west, just above Troy. North and west of this Manor was the County of Albany, since divided into Rensselaer, Saratoga, Washington, Schoharie, Greene and Albany. The Rensselaer Manor was the only one that reached across the river. The west bank of the Hudson, below the Rensselaer Manor, is simply indicated on this map of 1779 as Ulster and Orange Counties. New Amsterdam. — For about fifty years after the Dutch Settlement the island of Manhattan was known as New Amster- dam. Washington Irving, in his Knickerbocker History, has surrounded it with a loving halo and thereby given to the early records of New York the most picturesque background of any State in the Union„ Among other playful allusions to the In- dian names he takes the word Manna-hatta of Robert Juet to mean "the island of manna," or in other words a land flowing with milk and honey. He refers humorously to the Yankees as THE HUDSON. 31 " an ingenious people who out-bargain them in the market, out- speculate them on the exchange, out-top them in fortune, and run up mushroom palaces so high that the tallest Dutch family mansion has not wind enough left for its weather-cock." What would the old burgomaster think now of the mounting palaces of trade and the piled up stories of our Commercial Buildings? In fact the highest structure Washington Irving himself ever saw in New York was a nine-story sugar refinery. With elevators running two hundred feet a minute, there seems no limit to these modern mammoths. From the very beginning there was a quiet jealousy between the Dutch Settlement on the Hudson and the English Settlers in Massachusetts. To quote from an old English history, " it was the original purpose of the Pilgrims to locate near Nova. Scotia, but, upon better consideration, they decided to seat themselves more to the southward on the bank of Hudson's River which falls into the sea at New York." To this end '*they contracted with some merchants who were willing to be adventurers with them in their intended settlement and were proprietors of the country, but the contract bore too heavy upon them, and made them the more easy in their disap- pointment. Their agents in England hired the Mayflower, and, after a stormy voyage, ''fell in with Cape Cod on the 9th of November. Here they refreshed themselves about half a day and then tacked about to the southward for Hudson's River." " Encountering a storm they became entangled in dangerous shoals and breakers and were driven back again to the Cape." Thus Plymouth became the first English settlement of New Eng- land. Another historian says that it was their purpose " to set- 32 THE HUDSON. tie on the Connecticut Coast near Fairfield County, lyin^ between the Connecticut and Hudson's River." Prom the very first the Dutch occupation was considered by the English as illeg-al. It was undoubtedly part of the country the coasts of which were first viewed by Sebastian Cabot, who sailed with five English ships from Bristol in May, 1498, and as such was afterwards included in the original province of Vir- ginia. It was also within the limits of the country granted by King James to the Western Company, but, before it could be set- tled, the Dutch occupancy took place, and, in the interest of peace, a license was granted by King James. The Dutch thus made their settlement before the Puritans were planted in New England, and from their first coming, "being seated in Islands and at the mouth of a good River their planta- tions were in a thriving condition, and they begun, in Holland, to promise themselves vast things from their new colony." Sir Samuel Argal in 1617 or 1618, on his way from Virginia to New Scotland, insulted the Dutch and destroyed their planta- tions. "To guard against further molestations they secured a License from King James to build Cottages and to plant for traf- fic as well as subsistence, pretending it was only for the con- veniency of their ships touching there for fresh water and fresh provisions in their voyage to Brazil ; but they little by little ex- tended their limits every way, built Towns, fortified them and became a flourishing colony." "In an island called Manhattan, at the mouth of Hudson's River, they built a City which they called New Amsterdam, and the river was called by them the Great River. The bay to the east of it had the name of Nassau given to it. About one hun- THE HUDSON. 33 red and fifty miles up the River they built a Fort which they called Orange Fort and from thence drove a profitable trade with the Indians who came overland as far as from Quebec to deal with them." The Dutch Colonies were therefore in a very thriving con- dition when they were attacked by the English. The justice of this war has been freely criticised even by English writers, " be- cause troops were sent to attack New Amsterdam before the Colony had any notice of the war." The Encyclopaedia Britannica thus briefly puts the history of those far-off days when New York was a town of about 1500 inhabitants : " The English Government was hostile to any other occupation of the New World than its own. In 1621 James I. claimed sovereignty over New Netherland by right of ' occu- pancy.' In 1632 Charles I. reasserted the English title of 'first discovery, occupation and possession.' In 1654 Cromwell ordered an expedition for its conquest and the New England Colonies had engaged their support. The treaty with Holland arrested their operations and recognized the title of the Dutch. In 1664 Charles the Second resolved upon a conquest of New Netherland. The immediate excuse was the loss to the revenue of the English Colonies by the smuggling practices of their Dutch neighbors. A patent was granted to the Duke of York giving to him all the lands and rivers from the west side of the Connecticut River to the east side of Delaware Bay." "On the 29th of August an English Squadron under the direc- tion of Col. Richard Nicolls, the Duke's Deputy Governor, appeared off the Narrows, and on Sept. 8th New Amsterdam, defenseless against the force, was formally surrendered by Stuy- 34 THE HUDSON. vesant. In 1673 (August 7th) war being declared between England and Holland a Dutch squadron surprised New York, captured the City and restored the Dutch authority, and the names of New Netherland and New Amsterdam. But in July, 1674, a treaty of peace restored New York to English rule. A new patent was issued to the Duke of York, and Major Edmund Andros was appointed Governor." New York.— On the 10th of November, 1674, the Province of New Netherland was surrendered to Governor Major Edmund Andros on behalf of his Britannic Majesty. The letter sent by Governor Andros to the Dutch Governor is interesting in this connection : ' ' Being arrived to this place with orders to re- ceive from you in the behalf of his Majesty of Great Britain, pursuant to the late articles of peace with the States Generals of the United Netherlands, the New Netherlands and Dependen- cies, now under your command, I have herewith, by Capt. Philip Carterett and Ens. Caesar Knafton, sent you the respective orders from the said States Generall, the States of Zealand and Admirality of Amsterdam to that effect, and desire you'll please to appoint some short time for it. Our soldiers having been long aboard, I pray you answer by these gentlemen, and I shall be ready to serve you in what may lay in my power. Being from aboard his Majesty's ship. The Diamond, at anchor near. Your very humble servant. Staten Island this 22d Oct., 1674." After nineteen days' deliberation, which greatly annoyed Governor Andros, New Amsterdam was transferred from Dutch to Eng- lish authority. "In 1683 Thomas Dongan succeeded Andros. A general As- sembly, the first under the English rule, met in October, 1683, OLD-TIME HUDSON VOYAGERS. THE HUDSON. 37 and adopted a Charter of Liberties, which was confirmed by the Duke. In August, 1684, a new covenant was made with the Iroquois, who formally acknowledged the jurisdiction of Great Britain, but not subjection. By the accession of the Duke of York to the English throne the Duchy of New York became a royal province. The Charters of the New England Colonies were revoked, and together with New York and New Jersey they were consolidated into the dominion of New England. Dongan was recalled and Sir Edmund Andros was commissioned Govern- or General. He assumed hia-vice regal authority August 11th, 1688. The Assembly which James had abolished in 1686 was re- established, and in May declared the rights and privileges of the people, reaffirming the principles of the repealed Charter of Liberties of October 30th, 1683." From this time on to the Revolution of 1776 there is one con- tinual struggle between the Royal Governors and the General Assembly. The Governor General had the power of dissolving the Assembly, but the Assembly had the power of granting money. British troops were quartered in New York which in- creased the irritation. The Conquest of Canada left a heavy burden upon Great Britain, a part of which their Parliament attempted to shift to the shoulders of the Colonies. A general Congress of the Colonies, held in New York in 1765, protested against the Stamp Act and other oppressive ordin- ances and they were in part repealed. A Page of Patriotism.— During the long political agita- tion New York, the most English of the colonies in her manners and feelings, was in close harmony with the Whig leaders of England. She firmly adhered to the principle of the sovereignty 38 THE HUDSON. ' of the people which she had inscribed on her ancient ' ' Charter of Liberties." Althong-h largely dependent upon commerce she was the first to recommend a non-importation of English mer- chandise as a measure of retaliation against Britain, and she was the first also to invite a general congress of all the colonies. On the breaking out of hostilities New York immediately joined the patriot cause. The English authority was overthrown and the government passed to a provincial congress. New York Sous of Liberty.— In 1767, in the eighth year of the reign of George III. there was issued a document in straightforward Saxon, and Sir Henry Moore, Governor-in-Chief over the Province of New York, offered fifty pounds to discover the author or authors. The paper read as follows : '' Whereas, a glorious stand for Liberty did appear in the Resentment shown to a Set of Miscreants under the Name of Stamp Masters, in the year 1765, and it is now feared that a set of Gentry called Com- missioners (I do not mean those lately arrived at Boston), whose odious Business is of a similar nature, may soon make their ap- pearance amongst us in order to execute their detestable office : It is therefore hoped that every votary of that celestial Goddess Liberty, will hold themselves in readiness to give them a proper welcome. Rouse, my Countrymen, Rouse ! (Signed) Fro PaMa." In December, 1769, a stirring address '' To the Betrayed In- habitants of the City and County of New York," signed by a Son of Liberty, was also published, asking the people to do their duty in matters pending between them and Britain. " Imitate," the writer said, " the noble examples of the friends of Liberty in England ; who, rather than be enslaved, contend for their rights with king, lords and commons ; and will you suffer your liber- THE HUDSON. 39 ties to be torn from you by your Representatives ? tell it not m Boston ; publish it not in the streets of Charles-town. You have means yet left to preserve a unanimity with the brave Boston- ians and Carolinians ; and to prevent the accomplishment of the designs of tyrants." Another proclamation, offering- a reward of fifty pounds, was published by the " Honorable Cadwalader Golden, Esquire, His Majesty's Lieutenant-Governor and Commander-in-Chief of the Province of New York and the territories depending- thereon in America," with another " God Save the King- " at the end of it. But the people who commenced to write Liberty with a capital letter and the word "king- " in lower case type were not daunted. Captain Alexander McDoug-al was arrested as the supposed au- thor. He was imprisoned eighty-one days. He was subsequently a member of the Provincial Convention, in 1775 was ap- pointed Colonel of the first New York Regiment, and in 1777 rose to the rank of Major-General in the U. S. Army. New York City could well afford a monument to the Sons of Liberty. She has a right to emphasize this period of her history, for her citizens pass- ed the first resolution to import nothing from the mother coun- try, burned ten boxes of stamps sent from England before any other colony or city had made even a show of resistance, and when the Declaration was read, pulled down the leaden statue of George III. from its pedestal in Bowling Green, and moulded it into Republican Bullets. In 1699 the population of New York was about 6,000. In 1800, it reached 60,000 ; and the growth since that date is almost in- credible. It is amusing to hear elderly people speak of the " outskirts of the city " lying north of the . City Hall, and of the 40 THE HUDSON. drives in the country above Canal Street. In the Documentary History of New York, a map of a section of New York appears as it was in 1793, when the Gail, Work House, and Bridewell oc- cupied the site of the City Hall, with two ponds to the north— East Collect Pond and Little Collect Pond,— sixty feet deep and about a quarter of a mile in diameter, the outlet of which crossed Broadway at Canal Street and found its way to the Hudson. (On this pond John Fitch claims to have launched the first boat propelled by steam, some six years before Fulton made trial of his boat on the river Seine in France, and ten years prior to his putting into operation his boat Clermont in New York.) In 1830, the population of New York was 202,000 ; in 1850, 515,000 ; in 1860, 805,000 ; in 1870, 942,000 ; in 1880, 1,250,000 ; in 1892, 1,801,- 739. This is independent of Brooklyn, whose population has in- creased from a city of 2,000, in 1800, to a city of 957,163, in 1892. So that the port of New York, with the cities which encircle it, represents a population of at least three millions of people, not to speak of its outskirts and dependencies, which would make a total population of at least three millions and a half. Brooklyn. — In June, 1636, the first land was bought on Long Island : and in 1667 the Ferry Town, opposite New York was known by the name " Breuckelen," signifying "broken land," but the name was not generally accepted until after the Revolu- tion. Of the 950,000 who reside in Brooklyn it is said that 120,- 000 go daily to New York, as she is in fact a part of the great emporium. Many of her streets, already six miles in length, are stretching out rapidly in every direction. Columbia Heights, Prospect Park, Clinton Ave., St. Mark's Place, Hancock Street and Stuyvesant Heights are among the favored spots for residence. THE HUDSON. 41 Jersey City occupies the ground once known as Paulus Hook, the farm of William Kieft, Director General of the Dutch West India Company. It is now a city of 150,000, and its water front, from opposite Bartholdi Statue to Hoboken, is conspicuously marked by Railroad Terminal piers, Factories, Elevators, etc. Berg-en is the oldest settlement in New Jersey. It was founded in 1616 by Dutch Colonists to the New Netherlands and received its name from Bergen in Norway. New York, Brook- lyn, and Jersey City, practically now one city, are destined to be the greatest city in the world. Hudson River Steamboats.— An accurate history of the growth and development of steam navigation on the Hudson, from the building- of the "Clermont" by Robert Fulton to the building of the superb steamers, the " New York " and "Albany " would form a very interesting book. The first seven years pro- duced seven steamers, to wit : Clermont, built in 1807 North River, built in 1808 166 tons Car of Neptune, built in 1809 295 " Hope, built in 1811 280 " Perseverance, built in 1811 280 " Paragon, built in 1811 331 " Richmond, built in 1813 370 " It makes one smile to read the newspaper notices of those days, and we give some of them for the benefit of the traveler. The time was rather long", and the fare rather high — thirty-six hours to Albany, fare seven dollars. From the Albany Gazette, dated September, 1807. '* The North River Steamboat will leave Paulus Hook Ferry (now Jersey City) on Friday the 4th of September, at 9 in the 42 THE HUDSON. morning, and arrive at Albany at 9 in the afternoon on Saturday. Provisions, g-ood berths, and accommodation are provided. Th'fe charge to each passenger is as follows : To Newburg Dols. 3, Time 14 hours. Poughkeepsie " 4, " 17 " Esopus " 5, " 20 " Hudson " 5i, " 30 " Albany " 7, " 36 " For places apply to Wm. Vandervoort, No. 48 Courtland street, on the corner of Greenwich street, September 2d, 1807." Extract from the New York Evening Post, dated October 2d, 1807. Mr. Fulton's new-invented steamboat, which is fitted up in a neat style for passengers, and is intended to run from New York to Albany as a packet, left here this morning with ninety pas- sengers, against a strong head wind. Notwithstanding which, it is judged that she moved through the waters at the rate of six miles an hour. Extract from the Albany Gazette, dated October 5tk, 1807. Friday, October 2d, 1807, the steamboat (Clermont) left New York at ten o'clock a. m., against a stormy tide, very rough water, and a violent gale from the north. She made a headway beyond the most sanguine expectations, and without being rocked by the waves. Arrived at Albany, October 4th, at 10 o'clock p. ra., being detained by being obliged to come to anchor, owing to a gale and having one of her paddle wheels torn away by running foul of a sloop. The following was recently recopied in the Poughkeepsie Eagle, as an old time reminiscence : THE HUDSON. 43 To Pouglikeepsie from New York in Seventeen Hours. — The first steamboat on the Hudson River passed Poughkeep- sie August 17th, 1807, and in June, 1808, the owners of the boat caused the following advertisement to be published in prominent papers along the river : STEAMBOAT. FOR THE INFORMATION OF THE PUBLIC. The Steamboat will leave New York for Albany every Satur- day afternoon exactly at 6 o'clock, and will pass : West Point, about 4 o'clock Sunday morning. Newburgh, 7 o'clock Sunday morning. Poughkeepsie, 11 o'clock Sunday morning. Esopus, 2 o'clock in the afternoon. Red Hook, 4 o'clock in the afternoon. Catskill, 7 o'clock in the afternoon. Hudson, 8 o'clock in the evening. She will leave Albany for New York every Wednesday morn- ing exactly at 8 o'clock, and pass : Hudson, about 3 in the afternoon. Esopus, 8 in the evening. Poughkeepsie, 12 at night. Newburgh, 4 Thursday morning. West Point, 7 Thursday morning. As the time at which the boat may arrive at the different places above mentioned may vary an hour, more or less, accord- ing to the advantage or disadvantage of wind and tide, those who wish to come on board will see the necessity of being on the spot an hour before the time. Persons wishing to come on board from any other landing than these here specified can 44 THE H-ODSON. calculate the time the boat will pass and be ready on her arrival. Innkeepers or boatmen who bring passengers on board or take them ashore from any part of the river will be allowed one shilling for each person. PRICES OF PASSAGE— FROM NEW YORK. To West Point $2 30 To Newburgh 3 00 To Poughkeepsie 3 50 To Esopus 4 00 To Red Hook 4 50 To Hudson 5 00 To Albany 7 00 FROM ALBANY. To Hudson $2 00 To Red Hook 3 00 To Esopus 3 50 To Poughkeepsie.. 4 00 To Newburgh and West Point 4 50 To New York 7 00 All other passengers are to pay at the rate of one dollar fot every twenty miles, and a half dollar for every meal they may eat. Children from 1 to 5 years of age to pay one-third price and to sleep with the persons under whose care they are. Young persons from 5 to 15 years of age to pay half price, provided they sleep two in a berth, and the whole price for each one who requests to occupy a whole berth. Servants who pay two-thirds price are entitled to a berth ; they pay half price if they do not have a berth. Every person paying full price is allowed sixty pounds of bag- gage ; if less than full price forty pounds. They are to pay at THE HUDSON. 45 the rate of three cents per pound for surplus baggage. Store- keepers who wish to carry light and valuable merchandise can be accommodated on paying three cents a pound." Steamers "New York" and "Albany."— As the cradle of successful steam navigation was rocked on the Hudson, it is fit- ting that the Day Line Steamers, the " New York " and "Albany " should excel all others in beauty, grace and speed. There is no comparison between these river palaces and the steamboats on the Rhine or any river in Europe, as to equipment, comfort and rapidity. To make another reference to the great tourist route of Europe, the distance from Cologne to Coblenz is 60 miles, the same as from New York to Newburgh. It takes the Rhine steamers from seven to eight hours (as will be seen in Baedek- er's Guide to that river) going up the stream, and from four and a half to five hours returning with the current. The " New York "or the "Albany" leaves 22d Street at 9 a. m., reaching Newburgh at 12.25, covering the same distance in three hours and twenty-five minutes, either with or without tide, wind or current. Probably no train on the best equipped railroad in our country reaches its stations with greater regularity than these boats make their various landings. It astonishes a Missis- sippi or Missouri traveler to see the captain standing like a train-conductor, with watch in hand, to let off the gang-plank and pull the bell, at the very moment of the advertised schedule. One of the most humorous incidents of the writer's journeying up and down the Hudson, was the " John-Gilpin-experience" of a western man who got off at West Point a few years ago. It was at that time the first landing of the steamer after leaving New York. 46 THE HUDSON. As he was accustomed to the Mississippi style of waiting at the various towns he thought he would go up and take a look at the " hill." The boat was off and " so was he ; " with wife and children shaking their hands and handkerchiefs in an excited manner from the gang-plank. Some one at the stern of the steamer shouted to him to cross the river and take the train to Poughkeepsie. Every one was on the lookout for him at the Poughkeepsie landing, and, just as the steamer was leaving the dock, he came dashing down Main street from the railroad station, but too late. Then not only wife and children but the entire boat saluted him and the crowded deck blossomed with handkerchiefs. Some one shouted "catch us at Rhinebeck." After leaving Rhinebeck the train appeared, and on passing the steamer, a lone hand- kerchief waved from the rear of the platform. At Hudson an excited but slightly disorganized gentleman appeared to the great delight of his family, and every one else, for the passengers had all taken a lively interest in the chase. "Well," he says, "I declare, the way this boat lands, and gets off again, beats anything I ever see, and I have lived on the Mississippi nigh on to a quarter of a century." The following facts will be of interest to the traveler, con- densed from an admirable description furnished by the courtesy of the Day Line Company. The hull of the " New York," with the exception of the deck- frame, is made of iron throughout. It is 311 feet long, breadth over all 74 feet, with a tonnage of 1,550 gross tons. It is a stand- ard American beam engine, with a cylinder 75 inches in diame- ter and 12 feet stroke of piston, and develops 3,850 horse power. THE HUDSON. 49 Steam steering- gear is used. One of the most admirable fea- tures is her " feathering " wheels, the use of which not only adds materially to her speed but does away with the jar or tremor common to boats having the ordinary paddle-wheels. The ex- terior of the " New York " is painted white and relieved with tints and gold. The interior is fi-nished in hard-wood cabinet work, ash being used forward of the shaft on the main deck, and mahogany aft and in the dining-room. Ash is also used in the grand saloons on the promenade deck. The private parlors on the " New York" are provided with bay windows and are very luxuriantly finished. In the saloons are paintings by Albert Bierstadt, J. F. Cropsey, Walter Satterlee and David Johnson. The dining-room on the "New York" is located on the main deck aft ; a feature that will commend itself to tourists, since, while enjoying- their meals, they will not be deprived from view- ing the noble scenery through which they are passing. The " Albany " is undoubtedly one of the most beautiful steam- ers ever constructed. Her graceful lines and great deck room forward are very noticeable and command marked attention. Her hull is of iron, 325 feet long, breadth of beam over all 75 feet, her tonnage is 1,415 gross tons, and her engine develops 3,200 horse power. The stroke is 12 feet, the diameter of the cylinder is 73 inches and, like the " New York," furnished with " feathering " wheel. On her trial trip she ran from New York to Poughkeepsie, a distance of 75 miles, in 3 hours and seven minutes. Steam steering gear is also used on the "Albany," thus insuring ease and precision in handling her. The wood- work on the main deck and in the upper saloons is all hard wood ; mahogany, ash and maple tastefully carved. Wide, easy stair- 50 THE HUDSON. cases lead to the main saloon and upper decks. Rich Axminster carpets cover the floors, and mahogany tables and furniture of antique design and elegant finish make up the appointments of a handsomely furnished drawing-room. Palmer's ideal conception of " June," a life-size marble bust of a young girl, ornaments the head of. the grand staircase. The walls are adorned with 'oil paintings by Emile Princhart of Paris, F. D. Briscoe of Phila- delphia, and Yzquierdo of Madrid, Spain. The richly furnished private parlors of the " Albany " are a notable feature, giving absolute seclusion and privacy to small parties and families. Another equally desirable feature is the elegant dining-room, also located on the main deck. While the carrying capacity of each steamer is 4,500, a license for 2,500 passengers only is ap- plied for, in order that there may be no disagreeable crowding. Ttie Old Readies.— Early navigators divided the Hudson into fourteen " reaches " or distances from point to point as seen by one sailing up or down the river. In the slow days of uncer- tain sailing vessels these divisions meant more than in our time of "propelling steam," but they are still of practical and historic interest. The Great Chip Rock Reach extends from above Weehawken about eighteen miles to the boundary line of New York and New Jersey — (near Piermont.) The Palisades were known by the old Dutch settlers as the " Great Chip," and so styled in the Bergen Deed of Purchase, viz, the great chip above Weehawken. The Tappan Reach, on the east side of which dwelt the Manhattans, and on the west side the Saulrickans and the Tappans, extends about seven miles to Teller's Point. The third reach to a nar- row point called Haverstroo; then comes the Seylmaker^s Reach, THE HUDSON. 51 then Crescent Reach ; next Rogers Reach, and then Vorsen Reach, which extends to Klinkersberg, or Storm King, the north- ern portal of the Highlands. This is succeeded by Fisher^s Reach where, on the east side once dwelt a race of savages called Pachami. " This reach," in the language of De Laet, "extends to another narrow pass, where, on the west, is a point of land which juts out, covered with sand, opposite a bend in the river, on which another nation of savages — the Waoranecks — have their abode at a place called Esopus. Next, another reach, called Glaverack; then Bacherack; next Playsier Reach, and Vaste Reach, as far as Hinnenhock ; then Hunter^s Reach, as far as Kinderhook : and Fisher's Hook, near Shad Island, over which, on the east side, dwell the Mahicans." If these reaches seem valueless at present, there are Five Divisions of the Hudson — which j^ossess interest for all, as they present an analysis easy to be remembered — divisions marked by something more substantial than sentiment or fancy, expressing five distinct characteristics : — 1. The Palisades, an unbroken wall of rock for fifteen miles — Grandeur. 2. The Tappan Zee, surrounded by the sloping hills of Nyack, Tarrytown, and Sleepy Hollow— Repose. 3. The Highlands, where the Hudson for twenty miles plays "hide and seek" with "hills rock-ribbed and ancient as the sun"— Sublimity. 4. The Hillsides for miles above and below Poughkeepsie-- The Picturesque. 5. The Catskills, on the west, throned in queenly dignity — Beauty. "morning," by ALFRED FREDERICKS. Gray streaks of dawn are faintly seen, The stars of half their light are shorn, The Hudson,with its hanks of green, Lies tranquil in the early morn. Ye trembling shafts of glorious light, Dart from the east with golden gleam. Cleave the dark shield of fleeing night, And slay her with your arrowy beam. l^mV YORK TO ALBAJ^Y, DESBROSSES STREET PIER TO TWENTY-SECOND STREET. The finely equipped steamers "New York" and "Albany," appropriately named from the terminal cities of the "Hudson by Daylight Trip," leave New York every morning- (except Sun- day) in Summer, (May to October) from Desbrosses Street Pier, at 8.40 a. m. and 22nd Street (N. R.) at 9 a. m., reaching Albany about 6 p. ra. The g-eneral divisions, in accordance with steamer landing's, form a simple and complete analysis for description of scenery and historic reference. Desbrosses Street Pier.— On leaving- the lower landing a charming- view is obtained of New York Harbor, the Narrows, Staten Island, the Bartholdi Statue of Liberty, and, in clear Aveather, far away to the South, the Highlands of Navisink, the first land to g-reet the eye of the ocean voyager. As the Steamer swings out into the stream the tourist is at once face to face with a rapidly changing panorama. Steamers arriving, with happy faces on their decks, from southern ports or distant lands ; others with waving handkerchiefs bidding good-bye to friends on crowded docks ; swift-shuttled ferry-boats, with hurrying passengers, supplying their homespun woof to the great warp of foreign or coastwise commerce ; noisy tug-boats, sombre as dray horses, drawing long lines of canal boats, or proud in the convoy ^ ^^'^^'^W:^^K:Mmmw5^.^^'^ 54 THE HUDSON. of some Atlantic orcyhound that has no yet slipped its leash ; dignified "Men of War" at anchor, tlyini^ the flag^s of many nations, happy excursion boats en route to sea-side resorts, scows, picturesque in their very clumsiness and uncouthness — all unite in a living kaleidescope of beauty. Across the river on the Jersey Shore we see extensive docks of great railways, with elevators and stations that seem like " knotted ends " of vast railway lines, lest they might forsooth, untwist and become irrecoverably tangled in approaching the Metropolis. Prominent among these are the Pennsyhania Bail- ivad for the South and West ; the Em Jiailway, the Delaware, Lackaicanna ami Western, and to the North above Hoboken the West Shore, serving also as starting point for the Xcw York, On- tario and Western. Again the eye returns to the crowded Wharves and Warehouses of New York, reaching from Castle Garden beyond 30th Street, with forest-like masts and funnels of ocean steamships, and then to prominent buildings mounting higher and higher year by year along the city horizon, marking the course of Bi-oadway from the Battery. Chief among these we behold the Manhattan Life Insurance Building, with cam- panile out topping the Masonic Temple of Chicago, and literally fulfilling the humor of old Knickerbocker in not leaving enough wind for even a breeze on Trinity spire. The Brooklyn tourist who connects with the Steamer by "Annex'' will more fully note the majesty of these noble build- ings, which make London from the Thames look tame and in- significant in comparison with New York from the East River and the Hudson. In our rapid journey we have scarcely time to specify these "Skyey Structures" in their order from Bowling THE HUDSON. 55 Green, viz : Washington Building, Produce Exchange, the Red- Roofed Tower of the Cotton Exchange, the Equitable Building, Western Union, Mail and Express, Post Office Dome, Tribune Building, Dome of the World Building, Postal Building and the Mutual Reserve, all playing hide and seek with the distant piers of the Brooklyn Bridge. The 22d Street Pier is now at hand, convenient of access to up-town dwellers, as the 23d Street car line crosses the island in- tersecting every " up and down " surface or elevated road in the City, as does also the Grand, Vestry and Desbrosses Street at the lower landing. While the passengers are coming aboard we take pleasure in quoting the following from Baedeker's Guide to the United States: "The Photo-Panorama of the Hudson, published by the Bryant Union, 724 Temple Court, New York, (price $1.00) shows both sides of the River from New York to Al- bany, accurately represented from 800 consecutive photographs." This new and complete object-guide will be of service to the tourist, and can be found at the steamers' news stands, head of grand stairway of the "New York" and the "Albany," or it will be sent by publishers, postpaid, on receipt of price. 56 THE HUDSON. TWENTY-SECOND STREET TO YONKERS. The gang-plank is "drawn*' and the busy wharves and noisy streets are now behind ns, pleasantly exchanged for views of lofty Palisades and tranquil shores. Just before touching at 22d Street Pier we passed on the Jersey Shore a wooded point with sightly building, known as Stevens' Castle, home of the late Commodore Stevens, founder of the Stevens' Institute of Technology. It will be remembered that he patriotically constructed at his own expense during the Civil War, the Stevens' Battery for the defense of the harbor, which was, however, never used. Above this point are the Elysian Fields, north of Hoboken, known in early days as a quiet and pleasant resort but now greatly changed in the character of its visitors. On the left will also be seen the dome and tower of St. Michael's Monastery, then Union Hill, and above this Weehawken with its sad story of the duel between Hamilton and Burr. A monument once marked the spot erected by the St. Andrews Society of New York on the narrow ledge of rock where Hamilton fell early in the morning of July 11th, 1804, but it was almost chipped away by relic hunters, until at last it was entirely removed previous to the completion and opening of the West Shore Railroad in 1883. The quarrel between this great Statesman and his malignant rival was, perhaps, more personal than political. It is said that Hamilton, in accordance with our old-time code of honor, accepted the challenge, but fired into the air, while Burr with fiendish cruelty took deliberate revenge. Burr was never forgiven by the citizens of New York and fronj THE HUDSON. 57 that hour walked its streets shunned and despised. Among the many poetic tributes penned at the time to the memory of Ham- ilton, perhaps the best was by a poet whose name is now scarcely remembered, Mr. Robert C. Sands. A fine picture of Hamilton will be found in the New York Chamber of Commerce where the writer was recently shown the following concise paragraph from Talleyrand : " The three greatest men of my time, in my opinion, were Napoleon Bonaparte, Charles James Fox and Alexander Hamilton and the greatest of the three was Hamilton," The plain marble slab which stood in the face of the monu- ment is still preserved by a member of the King family. It is thirty-six inches long by twenty-six and a half inches wide and bears the following inscription: "As an expression of their af- fectionate regard to his Memory and their deep regret for his loss, the St. Andrew's Society of the State of New York have erected this Monument." Quite a history attaches to this stone (graphically condensed by an old gardener of the King estate): " It stood in the face of the monument for sixteen years, and was read by thousands, but by 1820 the pillar had become an eyesore to the enlightened public sentiment of the age, and an agitation was begun in the public prints for its removal. It was not, however, organized effort, but the order of one man, that at length demolished the pillar. This man was Captain Deas, a peace-loving gentleman, strongly opposed to duelling and brawls, and on seeing a party approaching the grounds often interposed and sometimes suc- ceeded in effecting a reconciliation. He became tired of seeing the pillar in his daily walks, and, in 1820, ordered his men to re- move it and deposit the slab containing the inscription in one of 58 THE HUDSON. the outbuildings of the estate. This was done. But a few- months afterward the slab was stolen, and nothing- more was heard of it until thirteen years later, when Mr. Hu^gh Maxwell, President of the St. Andrew's Society, discovered it in a junk shop in New York. He at once purchased it and presented it to Mr. James G. King, who about this time came into posses- sion of the Deas property, where it has since been carefully preserved." The gardener also said : " the river road beneath us is cut di- rectly through the spot. Originally it was simply a narrow and grassy shelf close up under the cliffs, six feet wide and eleven paces long. A great cedar tree stood at one end, and this sand- bowlder, which we have also preserved, was at the other. It was about twenty feet above the river and was reached by a steep rocky path leading up from the Hudson, and, as there was then no road or path even along the base of the cliffs, it could be reached only by boats." The first duel at Weehawken of which there is any record was in 1799, between Aaron Burr and John B. Church (Hamilton's brother-in-law). The parties met and exchanged shots ; neither was wounded. The seconds then in- duced Church to offer an apology and the affair terminated. The last duel was fought there September 28th, 1845, and ended in a farce, the pistols being loaded with cork— a fitting termina- tion to a relic of barbarism. On the hills above Weehawken stood the mansion of the old King family, made gayly prominent, in recent years by a Sum- mer Garden known as the El Dorado. The iron structure in front of the building carries two elevators and along its top runs a railway to the garden, and the Guttenberg race track. Be- THE HUDSON. 59 yond this will be noticed the square tower of the Union Hill Water Works which supply Hoboken, West Hoboken and Union Hill with water from the Hackensack. Passing the docks of the Manhattan Oil Company and the West Shore Railroad, and wondering- at the prominent white building perched on the hill- side, until some friend tells us it is a lager beer brewery, we turn to the east bank to see the Rosevelt Hospital, a brick struc- ture with high pointed spire. We pass the New York Orphan Asylum at Sixty-fifth street and see the Dakota Flats in the dis- tance at the corner of 72d Street and Central Park. It will be remembered that Central Park reaches from 59th Street to 110th Street, at an average distance of five blocks from the Hudson and about six or seven blocks from the East River. Between this and the Hudson, reaching from 71st to 127th Street, is the beautiful Riverside Park and Drive, following for the most part the top of the bluff. Near the northern end of the Drive, on its most commanding point, was buried August 8th, 1885, General Ulysses S. Grant. An attempt to move his body to Washington was made some time ago in Congress but overwhelmingly defeated, and a massive memorial monument is now being erected worthy of the great soldier to mark the site for all time. The speech made by Congressman Amos Cummings in the House of Repre- sentatives, was a happy condensation of the facts. He fittingly said : "New York was General Grant's chosen home. He tried many other places but finally settled there. A house was given to him here in Washington, but he abandoned it in the most marked manner to buy one for himself in New York. He was a familiar form upon her streets. He presided at her public 60 THE HUDSON. meetings and at all times took an active interest in her local af- fairs. He was perfectly at home there and was charmed with its associations. It was the spot on earth chosen by himself as the most agreeable to him ; he meant to live and die there. It was his home when he died. He closed his career without ever once expressing a wish to leave it, but always to remain in it. Men are usually buried at their homes. Washington was buried there : Lincoln was buried there ; Garibaldi was buried there ; Gambetta was buried there, and Ericsson" was buried, not at the Capital of Sweden, but at his own home. Those who say that New York is backward in giving for any commendable thing either do not know her or they belie her. Wherever in the civilized world there has been disaster by fire or flood, or from earthquake or pestilence, she has been among the foremost in the field of givers and. has remained there whc-n others have departed. It is a shame to speak of her as parsimonious or as failing in any benevolent duty. Those who charge her with being dilatory should remember that haste is not always speed. It took more than a quarter of a century to erect Bunker Hill Monument ; the ladies of Boston completed it. It took nearly half a century to erect a monument to George Washington in the City founded by him, named for him, and by his act made the Capital of the Nation ; the Government completed it. New York has already shown that she will do far better than this.'- The Thirteen Elm Trees, about ten or fifteen minutes' walk from General Grant's Tomb, were planted by Alexander Hamil- ton in his door-yard, a century ago, to commemorate the thir- teen original States. This property was recently purchased by the late Hon. Orlando Potter, of New York, with the following THE HUDSON. 01 touch of patriotic sentiment : ' ' These famous trees are located in the northeast corner of One Hundred and Forty-third street and Convent Avenue ; or, on lots fourteen and fifteen," said the auctioneer to the crowd that gathered at the sale. "In order that the old property with the trees may be kept unbroken, should the purchaser desire, we will sell lots 8 to 21 inclusive in one batch! How much am I offered?" "One hundred thou- sand dollars," quietly responded Mr. Potter. A ripple of excite- ment ran through the crowd, and the bid was quickly run up to $120,000 by speculators. "One hundred and twenty-five thou- sand," said Mr. Potter. Then there were several thousand dol- lar bids, and the auctioneer said : " Do I hear one hundred and thirty ? " Mr. Potter nodded. He nodded again at the " thirty- five " and "forty" and then some one raised him $250. " Five hundred," remarked Mr. Potter, and the bidding was done. "Sold for $140,500 I " cried the auctioneer. Mr. Potter smiled and drew his check for the amount. " I can't say what I will do with the property," said Mr. Potter, afterwards. " You can rest assured, however, that the trees will not be cut down." On the west bank a little below General Grant's tomb is the pleasant village of Sunnyside ; above this, quiet Edgewater, and half a mile to the north of Edgewater, Pleasant Valley, formerly known among river pilots as"Tillie Tudlem." These little vil- lages, affording pleasant rambles among grassy fields and hill- sides, are of easy access by steamer several times a day from Canal or 22nd Street. Manliattanville, north of Claremont Heights, opposite Edge- water, is now being rapidly absorbed in the great City. Passing the Convent of the Sacred Heart and a little Moorish building 62 THE HUDSON. on the point known as the Ottendorf Pavilion, we see the burial yard of Trinity Church, New York, with monuments and headstones almost lost in foliage along its wooded hillsides. Here also lies buried a straightforward patriot and an honest Statesman, General John A. Dix, whose words rang across the land sixty days before the attack on Fort Sumter: "If any man at- tempts to pull down the American flag shoot him on the spot." The John A. Dix Post, of New York, comes hither each Decora- tion Day and garlands with imposing ceremonies his grave and the graves of their comrades. Near Carmansville was the home of Audubon, the Ornitholo- gist, and the residences above the Cemetery are grouped together as Audubon Park. Near at hand is the New York Institute for the Deaf and Dumb, and pleasantly located near the Shore the River House once known as West-End Hotel. Washington Heights rise in a bold bluff above Jeffrey's Hook. After the withdrawal of the American army from Long Island, it became apparent to General Washington and Alexan- der Hamilton that New York would have to be abandoned. A letter from the commander-in-chief to General Greene, written November 8th, suggested his abandoning the Heights, as the Chevaux-de-frise, made by sinking old sloops and scows across the river, had been broken by a British frigate and two transports, thus opening the entire country to the north along the banks of the Hudson, but Greene adhered to the policy of maintaining the Fort which was also the expression of Congress. Future developments showed that Washing-ton was right. The American troops, so far as clothing or equipment was concerned, n THE HUDSON. 65 were in a pitiable condition, and the result of the struggle makes one of the darkest pages of the war. On the 12th of November Washington started from Stony Point for Fort Lee and arrived the 13th, finding to his disappointment that General Greene, instead of having made arrangements for evacuating, was, on the contrary, reinforcing Fort Washington. The entire defense numbered only about 2000 men, mostly militia, with hardly a coat, to quote an English writer, " that was not out at the elbows." "On the night of the 14th thirty flat-bottomed boats stole quietly up the Hudson, passed the American forts undiscovered, and made their way through Spuyten Duyvil Creek into Harlem River. The means were thus provided for crossing that river, and landing before unprotected parts of the American works." According to Irving, " On the 15th General Howe sent a sum- mons to surrender, with a threat of extremities should he have to carry the place by assault." Magaw, in his reply, intimated a doubt that General Howe would execute a threat " so unworthy of himself and the British nation; but give me leave," added he, "to assure his Excellency, that, actuated by the most glo- rious cause that mankind ever fought in, I am determined to defend this post to the very last extremity." " Apprised by the colonel of his peril. General Greene sent over reinforcements, with an exhortation to him to persist in his defense; and dispatched an express to General Washington, who was at Hackensack, where the troops from Peekskill were encamped. It was nightfall when Washington arrived at Fort Lee. Greene and Putnam were over at the besieged fortress. He threw himself into a boat, and had partly crossed the river, 66 THE HUDSOK. when he met those Generals returning. They informed him of the garrison having been reinforced, and assured him that it was in high spirits, and capable of making a good defense. It was with difficulty, however, they could prevail on him to return with them to the Jersey shore, for he was excessively excited." ' ' Early the next morning, Magaw made his dispositions for the expected attack. His forces, with the recent addition, amounted to nearly three thousand men. As the fort could not contain above a third of its defenders, most of them were sta- tioned about the outworks." About noon, a heavy cannonade thundered along the rocky hills, and sharp volleys of musketry, proclaimed that the action was commenced. " Washington, surrounded by several of his officers, had been an anxious spectator of the battle from the opposite side of the Hudson. Much of it was hidden from him by intervening hills and forest ; but the roar of cannonry from the valley of the Har- lem River, the sharp and incessant reports of rifles, and the smoke rising above the tree-tops, told him of the spirit with which the assault was received at various points, and gave him for a time hope that the defense might be successful. The action about the lines to the south lay open to him, and could be dis- tinctly seen through a telescope ; and nothing encouraged him more than the gallant style in which Cadwalader with inferior force maintained his position. When he saw him however, as- sailed in flank, the line broken, and his troops, overpowered by numbers, retreating to the fort, he gave up the game as lost. The worst sight of all, was to behold his men cut down and bayo- neted by the Hessians while begging quarter. It is said so com- THE HUDSON. giy pletely to have overcome him, that he wept with the tenderness ** of a child." '* Seeing the flag go into the fort from Knyphausen's division, and surmising it to be a summons to surrender, he wrote a note to Magaw, telling him if he could hold out until evening and the place could not be maintained, he would endeavor to bring off the garrison in the night. Capt. Gooch, of Boston, a brave and daring man, offered to be the bearer of the note. He ran down to the river, jumped into a small boat, pushed over the river, landed under the bank, ran up to the fort and delivered the mes- sage, came out, ran and jumped over the broken ground, dodg- ing the Hessians, some of whom struck at him with their pieces and others attempted to thrust him with their bayonets ; escap- ing through them, he got to his boat and returned to Port Lee.'' Washington's message arrived too late. "The fort was so crowded by the garrigon and the troops which had retreated in- to it, that it was difficult to move about. The enemy, too, were in possession of the little redoubts around, and could have poured in showers of shells and ricochet balls that would have made dreadful slaughter." It was no longer possible for Magaw to get his troops to man the lines ; he was compelled, therefore, to yield himself and his garrison prisoners of war. The only terms granted them were, that the men should retain their baggage and the officers their swords. Other defenses in the vicinity of Fort Washington were Fort Tryon, a redoubt to the north on the same heights, Fort George to the south overlooking Harlem River and "a water-battery at Jeffrey Hook." All, however, too poorly manned to hold out against the well equipped British force under General Howe. g^ THE HUDSON. Fort Lee. — A beautiful and commanding- site on the west side opposite Fort Washing-ton. The picturesque Landing, Driveway, and Hotel, mark the spot as one of the pleasantest re- sorts on the Jersey Shore of the Hudson. The old fort had a commanding- position, but entirely useless to the Revolutionary Army aftei* the fall of Fort Washington. It was therefore im- mediately abandoned to the British, as was also Fort Constitu- tion, another redoubt near at hand. It will be remembered that the American Army after long continued disaster in and about New York, retreated southward from Fort Lee and Hackensack to the Delaware, where Wash- ington with a strategic stroke brought dismay on his enemies and restored confidence to his friends and the Patriots' Cause. Tlie Palisades, or Great Cliip Rock, as they were known by the old Dutch settlers, present the same bold front to the river that the Giant's Causeway does tQ the ocean. Their height at Fort Lee, where the bold cliffs first assert themselves, is three hundred feet, and they extend about seventeen or eighteen miles to the hills of Rockland County. A stroll along the summit reveals the fact that they are almost as broken and fantastic in form as the great rocks along the Elbe in Saxon- Switzerland. As the basaltic trap-rock is one of the oldest geological forma- tions, we might still appropriately style the Palisades "a chip of the old block." They separate the valley of the Hudson from the valley of the Hackensack. The Hackensack rises in Rock- land Lake opposite Sing Sing, within two or three hundred yards of the Hudson, and the rivers flow thirty miles side by side. Geologists say that originally they were one river, but THE HUDSON. 71 they are now separated from each other by a wall more sub- stantial than even the 2,000 mile structure of the " Heathen Chinee." It is said that this basaltic formation was thrown up ages ago between a rift in the earth's surface, where it cooled in columnar form, and that the rocky mould which held it, being of soft material, finally disintegrated and crumbled away, leaving the cliff with its peculiar perpendicular formation. A recent writer has said : ' ' The Palisades are among the wonders of the world. Only three other places equal them in imiDortance, but each of the four is different from the others, and the Palisades are unique. The Giant's Causeway on the north coast of Ireland, and the cliffs at Kawaddy in India, are thought by many to have been the result of the same upheaval of nature as the Palisades ; but the Hudson rocks seem to have preserved their entirety — to have come up in a body, as it were —while the Giant's Causeway owes its celebrity to the ruined state in which the Titanic forces of nature have left it. The third wonder is at Staff a, in Scotland, where the rocks have been thrown -into such a position as to justify the name of Fin- gal's Cave, which they bear, and which was bestowed on them in the olden times before Scottish history began to be written. It is singular how many of the names which dignify, or designate, favorite spots of the Giant's Causeway have been duplicated in" the Palisades. Among the Hudson rocks are several ' Lady's Chairs,' 'Lover's Leaps,' 'Devil's Toothpicks,' 'Devil's Pulpits,' and, in many spots on the water's edge, especially those most openly exposed to the weather, we see exactly the same conform- ations which excite admiration and wonder in the Irish rocks." 72 THE HUDSON. Under the base of these clififs William. Cullen Bryant one Sab- bath morning" sketched "A Scene on the Banks of the Hudson." *' Cool shades and dews are round my way, And silence of the early day ; Mid the dark rocks that watch his tmd, Glitters the mighty Hudson spread, Unrippled, save by drops that fall From shrubs that fringe his mountain wall : And o'er the clear, still water swells The music of the Sabbath bells. All, save this little nook of land, Circled with trees, on which I stand ; All, save that line of hills which lie Suspended in the mimic sky- Seems a blue void, above, below. Through which the white clouds come and go ; And from the green world's farthest steep I gaze into the airy deep." There are stransfe stories also connected with the Palisades and, as the writer continues, " many remarkable disappearances have occurred in the same vicinity that have never been ex- plained. On a conical-shaped rock near Clinton Point a young- man and a young woman were seen standing some half a century ago. Several of their friends, who were back some thirty feet from the face of the cliff, saw them distinctly, and called out to them not to approach too near the edge. The young couple laughingly sent some answer back, and a moment later vanished as by magic. Their friends rushed to the edge of the cliff but saw no trace of them. They noticed at once that the tide was out, and at the base three or four boatmen were sauntering THE HUDSON. 73 about as though nothing- had happened. A dilig-ent search was instituted, but the young couple were not found on the rocks, and they could not have fallen into the river. Friends and boat- men joined in the search, but from that day to this they have never been heard from, no trace of them has been found, and the mystery of their disappearance is as complete now as it was five minutes after they vanished. A more tragical termination than the story of the old Pilot on a Lake George steamer, who, surrounded one morning by a group of tourist-questioners, pointed to Roger Slide Mountain, and said : "a couple went up there and never came back again." "What do you suppose, Captain," said a fair-haired, anxious listener, "ever became of them?" "Can't tell," said the Captain, "some folks said they went down on the other side." The old Palisade Mountain House, a few miles above Fort Lee, had a commanding location, but was burned in 1884 and never rebuilt. Pleasant villas are, however, springing up along this rocky balcony of the lower Hudson, and probably the entire dis- tance will some day abound in castles and luxuriant homes. It is in fact within the limit of possibility that this may in the future present the finest residential street in the world, with a natural macadamized boulevard midway between the Hudson and the sky. It sometimes grieves one to see the gray rocks torn away for building material, but, as fast as man destroys, nature kindly heals the wound ; or to keep the Palisade figure more complete, she recaptures the scarred and broken battlements, unfolding along the steep escarpment her waving standards of green. It sometimes seems as if one can almost see her selecting the easi- 74 THE HUDSON. est point of attack, marshalling her forces, running her parallels with Boadacea-like skill, and carrying her streaming banners, more real than Macduff's " Burnham-Wood " to crowning ram- part and lofty parapet. The New York side from the Battery to the northern end of Manhattan Island is already "well peopled." Until recently the land about Fort Washington has been held in considerable tracts and the very names of these surburban points suggest al- titude and outlook — Highbridgeville, Fordham Heights, Morris Heights, University Heights, Kingsbridge Heights, Mount Hope, &c. The growth of the City all the way to Jerome and Van Cortlandt's Park during the last few years has been marvelous. It has literally stepped across the Harlem River to find room in the picturesque county of Westchester. Spuyten Duyvil Creek. — Above Washington Heights, on the east bank, the Spuyten Duyvil meets the Hudson. This stream is the northern boundary of New York Island, and a short distance from the Hudson bears the name of Harlem River. Its course is south-east and joins the East River at Randall's Island, just above Hell Gate. It is a curious fact that this mod- est stream should be bounded by such suggestive appellations as Hell Gate and Spuyten Duyvil. This is the first point of special legendary interest to one journeying up the Hudson and it takes its name according to the veracious Knickerbocker, from the following incident : It seems that the famous Antony Van Corlear was despatched one evening with an important message up the Hudson. When he arrived at this creek the wind was high, the elements were in an uproar, and no boatman at hand. " For a short time," it is said, " he vapored like an impatient THE HUDSON. 75 ghost upon the brink, and then, bethinking himself of the urgency of his errand, took a hearty embrace of his stone bottle, swore most valorously that he would swim across en spijt en Duy- vil (in spite of the Devil) and daringly plunged into the stream. Luckless Antony ! Scarce had he buffeted half way over when he was observed to struggle violently, as if battling with the spirit of the waters. Instinctively he put his trumpet to his mouth, and giving a vehement blast — sank forever to the bot- tom." The mouth of the Spuyten Duyvil still retains its old- time reputation as a good fishing ground. The high point of land near at hand was known among the Manhattans as Nip- nich-sen. The main branch of the Hudson River Railroad, with its sta- tion at Forty-second street and Fourth avenue, crosses the Har- lem River at Mott Haven, and, following its northern bank, meets the Hudson at this point, where the 30th street branch, fol- lowing the river, joins the main line. Passing Riverdale, with its beautiful residences and the Convent of Mount St. Vincent, one of the prominent landmarks of the Hudson, located on grounds bought of Edwin Forrest, the tragedian, whose Font Hill Castle appears in the foreground, we see Yonkers, on the East Bank, seventeen miles from New York, (population about 35,000), at the mouth of the Nepperhan Creek, or Saw Mill River. West of the creek is a large rock, called Meech-keek-assin, or as given in some of the Indian dia- lects, A-mac-ka-sin, the great stone to which the Indians paid reverence as an evidence of the permanency and immutability of their deity. Steamers, railway and street cars meet at Central Wharf, and the water front reveals business activity. Here are 76 THE HUDSON. many important manufacturing industries : carpet, silk, and hat factories ; mowers and reapers, gutta percha, rubber and pencil companies. Yonkers is also quite a centre for Aquatic Clubs : the Yonkers Boat Club, The Corinthian and Yonkers Yacht Clubs and the Yonkers Canoe Club. It is said that Yonkers derived its name from Yonk-herr — the young heir, or young sir, of the Phillipse manor. Until after the middle of the seventeenth century the Phillipse family had their principal residence at Castle Phillipse, Sleepy Hollow, but having purchased "property to the southward" from Adrian Van der Donck and obtained from the English King a patent creating the manor of Phillipsburgh, they moved from their old castle to the new " Manor Hall," which at this time was probably the finest mansion on the Hudson. This property was confis- cated by act of Legislature in 1779, as Frederick Phillipse, third lord of the manor, was thought to lean toward royalty, and sold by the "Commissioners of Forfeiture" in 1785. It was after- wards purchased by John Jacob Astor, then passed to the Gov- ernment, was bought by the village of Yonkers in 1868, and be- came the City Hall in 1872. The older portion of the house was built in 1682, the present front in 1745. The woodwork is very interesting, also the ceilings, the large hall and the wide fire- place. In the room still pointed out as Washington's, the fire- place retains the old tiles, "illustrating familiar passages in Bible history," fifty on each side, looking as clear as if they were made but yesterday. Mary Phillipse, belle of the neighborhood, and known in tra- dition as Washington's first love, was born in this "Manor House " July 3d, 1730. Washington first met her at the house THE HUDSON. •?7 of Beverly Robinson in New York, (Mrs. Robinson being- her eldest sister), after his return from the unfortunate Braddock Campaign. It has been said by several writers that he proposed and was rejected, but it is doubtful whether he ever was serious in his attentions. At least there is no evidence that he ever "told his love," and she finally married Col. Roger Morris, one of Washington's associates on Braddock's staff. The best part of residential Yonkers lies to the northward, beautifully em- bowered in trees as seen from the Hudson. A line of electric street cars runs north almost two miles along- Warburton Ave- nue. The street known as Broadway, is a continuation of Broad- way, New York. Many of the River towns still keep this name, probably prophetic as a part of the great Broadway which will extend some day from the Battery to Peekskill. Almost opposite Yonkers a ravine or sort of step-ladder cleft, now known as Alpine Gorge, reaches up the precipitous sides of the Palisades. The landing here was formerly called Clostcr's, from which a road zigzags to the top of the cliff and thence to Closter Village. Here Lord Grey disembarked in October, 1778, and crossed to Hackensack Valley, "surprising and mas- sacring Col. Bayler's patriots, despite their surrender and calls for mercy". 78 THE HUDSON. YONKERS TO WEST POINT. Passing" Glenwood, now a suburban station of Yonkers, con- spicuous from the Colgate mansion near the river bank, built by a descendant of the Eng-lish Collates who were familiar friends of William Pitt, and leaders of the Liberal Club in Kent. Eng- land, and •• Greystone." the country residence of the late Samuel J. Tilden, Governor of New York, and Presidential Candidate in 1876. we come to Hastings, where a party of Hessians during the Revolution- ary struggle were surprised and cut to pieces by troops under Col. Sheldon. It was here also that Lord Cornwallis embarked for Fort Lee after the capture of Fort Washington, and here in later days Garibaldi, the liberator of Italy, frequently came to spend the Sabbath and visit friends when he was living at Staten Island. Although there is apparently little to interest in the village, there are many beautiful residences in the immediate neighborhood, and the Old Post road for two miles to the north- ward furnishes a beautiful walk or drive-way. well shaded by old locust trees. The tract of country from Spuyten Duyvil to Hastings was called by the Indians Kekesick and reached east as far as the Broncks River. Passing Dr. Huyler's conspicuous Clock-tower we see Dobbs Ferry, named after an old Swedish ferryman. The village has not only a delightful location but it is beautiful in itself. A summer hotel, the "Glen Tower." overlooks the river below the railway station, and the entire shore is filled with countrv homes and familv-seats. Dobbs Ferrv in 1781 was THE HUDSON 79 WaBhington's Headquarters and the old house, still standing, is famous as the spot where General Washington and the Count de Rochambeau planned the campaign against Yorktown ; where the evacuation of New York was arranged by General Clinton and Sir Guy Carleton the British commander, and where the first salute to the flag of the United States was fired by a British man-of-war. On flag day, June 14th, 1894, the base -stone of a memorial shaft was here laid with imposing ceremony by the New York State Society of the Sons of the American Revolution, which erected the monument. There were one thousand Grand Army veterans in line, and addresses by Hon. Chauncey M. Depew, Vice-President Stevenson, John C. Calhoun, General Stewart L. Woodford and D. O. Bradley. The Society and its guests, including members of the Cabinet, officers of the Army and Navy, and i^rominent men of various States, accompanied by full Marine Band of the Navy Yard, with a detachment of Naval Reserves, participated in the event. Voyagers up the river that day saw the '• Miantonomoh " and the '• Lancaster," under the command of Rear- Admiral Gherardi, anchored mid-stream to take part in the exercises. During the Revolution this historic house was leased by a Dutch farmer holding under Frederick Phillipse as landlord. After the war it was purchased by Peter Livingston and known since as the Livingston House. Arnold and Andre were to have met here but the meeting finally took place at Haverstraw. The Indian name of Dobbs Ferry was Wecquaskeck, and it is said by Ruttenber that the outlines of the old Indian village can still be traced by numerous shell-beds. It was located at the mouth of Wicker's Creek which was called by the Indians Wysquaqua. go THE HUDSON. After passing " Nuits" the Cottinet residence, Italian in style, built of Caen stone, " Nevis," home of the late Col. James Ham- ilton, son of Alexander Hamilton, the George L. Schuyler mansion, the late Cyrus W. Field's, and many pleasant places about Abbotsford, we come to Irvington (on the east bank 24 miles from New York, popu- lation 2,299,) once known as Dearman's Station, but changed in compliment to the great writer and lover of the Hudson, who after a long sojourn in foreign lands, returned to live by the tran- quil waters of Tappan Zee. In a letter to his brother he refers to Sleepy Hollow as the favorite resort of his boyhood, and says : " The Hudson is in a manner my first and last love, and after all my wanderings and seeming infidelities, I return to it with a heartfelt preference over all the rivers of the world." As at Stratford -on- Avon every flower is redolent of Shakespeare, and at Melrose every stone speaks of Walter Scott, so here on every breeze floats the spirit of V/ashington Irving. A short walk of half a mile north from the station brings us to his much-loved *' Sunnyside." Irving aptly describes it in one of his stories as " made up of gable-ends, and full of angles and corners as an old cocked hat. It is said, in fact, to have been modeled after the hat of Peter the Headstrong, as the Escurial of Spain was fashioned after the gridiron of the blessed St. Lawrence." Wol- fert's Roost, as it was once styled, (Roost signifying Rest,) took its name from Wolfert Acker, a former owner. It consisted originally of ten acres when purchased by Irving in 1835, but eight acres were afterwards added. With great humor Irving put above the porch entrance "George Harvey, Boum'r," Boumeister being an old Dutch word for architect. A storm- SUNNYSIDE, WITH VIGNETTE OF SLEEPY HOLLOW. THE HUDSON. 83 worn weather-cock, "which once battled with the wind on the top of the Stadt House of New Amsterdam in- the time of Peter Stuyvesant, erects his crest on the g-able, and a gilded horse in full gallop, once the weathercock of the great Van der Heyden palace of Albany, glitters in the sunshine, veering with every breeze, on the peaked turret over the portal." About fifty years ago a cutting of Walter Scott's favorite ivy at Melrose Abbey was transported across the Atlantic, and trained over the porch of "Sunnyside," by the hand of Mrs. Renwick, daughter of Rev. Andrew Jeffrey of Lochmaben, known in girlhood as the " Bonnie Jessie " of Annandale, or the " Blue-eyed Lassie " of Robert Burns : — a graceful tribute, from the shrine of Waverley to the nest of Knickerbocker : A token of friendship immortal With. Washington Irving returns : — Scott's ivy entwined o'er his portal By the Blue-eyed Lassie of Burns. Scott's cordial greeting at Abbotsford, and his persistence in getting Murray to reconsider the publication of the "Sketch Book," which he had previously declined, were never forgotten by Irving. It was during a critical period of his literary career, and the kindness of the Great Magician, in directing early at- tention to his genius, is still cherished by every reader of the " Sketch Book " from Manhattan to San Francisco. The hearty grasp of the Minstrel at the gateway of Abbotsford was in real- ity a warm handshake to a wider brotherhood beyond the sea. It was here, at Sunnyside, that Daniel Webster came, when Secretary of State in 1842, and surprised Irving with his ap- pointment as Minister to Spain, remarking to a friend on the 84 THE HUDSON. journey, "Washing-ton Irving- to-day will be the most surprised man in America." Irving- had already shown diplomatic ability in London in promoting the settlement of the "North Western Boundary," and his appointment was received with universal favor. Then as now Sunnyside was already a Mecca for travel- ers, and, among many well-known to fame, was a young man, afterwards Napoleon the Third. Referring to this visit, Irving wrote in 1853 : " Napoleon and Eugenie, Emperor and Empress ! The one I have had as a guest at my cottage, the other I have held as a pet child upon my knee in Granada. The last I saw of Eugenie Monti jo, she was one of the reigning belles of Madrid ; now, she is upon the throne, launched from a returnless shore, upon a dangerous sea, infamous for its tremendous shipwrecks. Am I to live to see the catastrophe of her career, and the end of this suddenly conjured up empire, which seems to be of such stuff as dreams are made of ? I confess my personal acquaint- ance with the individuals in this historical romance gives me uncommon interest in it ; but I consider it stamped with danger and instability, and as liable to extravagant vicissitudes as one of Dumas' novels." A wonderful prophecy completely fulfilled in the short space of seventeen years. The aggregate sale of Irving's works when he received his portfolio to Spain was already more than half a million copies, with an equal popularity achieved in Britain. No writer was ever more truly loved on both sides of the Atlantic, and his name is cherished to-day in England as fondly as it is in our own country. It has been the good fortune of the writer to spend many a delightful day in the very centre of Merrie England, in the quiet town of Stratford-on-Avon, and feel the gentle corapan- THE HUDSON. 85 ionship of Irving'. Of all writers who have brought to Stratford their heart homage Irving- stands the acknowledged chief. The sitting-room in the "Red Horse Hotel," where he was dis- turbed in his midnight reverie, is still called Irving's room, and the walls are hung with portraits taken at different periods of his life. Mine host said that visitors from every land were as much interested in this room as in Shakespeare's birth-place. The remark may have been intensified to flatter an American visitor, but there are few names dearer to the Anglo-Saxon race than that on the plain headstone in the burial-yard of Sleepy Hollow. Sunny side is scarcely visible to the Day Line tourist. A little gleam of white here and there amid the trees, close to the river bank, near a small boat-house, merely indicates its location; and the traveler by train has only a hurried glimpse, as it is within one hundred feet of the New York Central Railroad. Tappan Zee, at this point, is a little more than two miles wide and over the beautiful expanse Irving has thrown a wondrous charm. There is, in fact, " magic in the web " of all his works. A few modern critics, lacking appreciation alike for humor and genius, may regard his essays as a thing of the past, but as long as the Mahicanituk, the ever-flowing Hudson, pours its waters to the sea, as long as Rip Van Winkle sleeps in the blue Catskills, or the "Headless Horseman" rides at midnight along the old Post Road en route for Teller's Point, so long will the writings of Washington Irving be remembered and cherished. We somehow feel the reality of every legend he has given us. The spring bubbling up near his cottage was brought over, as he gravely tells us, in a churn from Holland by one of the old time settlers, and we are half inclined to believe it ; and no one ever 86 THE HUDSON. thinks of doubting- that the "Flying Dutchman," Mynheer Van Dam, has been rowing- for two hundred years and never made a port. It is in fact still said by the old inhabitants, that often in the soft twilig-ht of summer evenings, when the sea is like glass and the opposite hills throw their shadows across it, that the low vigorous pull of oars is heard but no boat is seen. According- to Irving- " Sunnyside " was once the property of old Baltus Van Tassel, and here lived the fair Katrina, beloved by all the youths of the neighborhood, but more especially by Ichabod Crane, the country school-master, and a reckless youth by the name of Van Brunt. Irving tells us that he thought out the story one morning on London Bridge, and went home and completed it in thirty-six hours. The character of Ichabod Crane was taken from a young man whom he met at Kinderhook when writing his Knickerbocker history. It will be remem- bered that Ichabod Crane went to a quilting-bee at the home of Mynheer Van Tassel, and, after the repast, was regaled with various ghost stories peculiar to the locality. When the ' ' party " was over he lingered for a time with the fair Katrina, but sallied out soon after with an air quite desolate and chop-fallen. The night grew darker and darker. He had never before felt so lonesome and miserable. As he passed the fatal tree where Ar- nold was captured, there started up before him the identical "Headless Horseman" to whom he had been introduced by the story of Brom Bones. Nay, not entirely headless ; for the head which " should have rested upon his shoulders was carried before him on the pommel of the saddle. His terror rose to desperation. He rode for death and life. The strange horseman sped beside him at an equal pace. He fell into a walk. The strange horse- THE HUDSON. 87 man did the same. He endeavored to sing a psalm-tune, but his tongue clove to the roof of his mouth. If he could but reach the bridge Ichabod thought he would be safe. Away then he flew in rapid flight. He reached the bridge, he thundered over the resounding planks. Then he saw the goblin rising in his stir- rups, and in the very act of launching his head at him. It en- countered his cranium with a tremendous crash. He was tum- bled headlong into the dirt, and the black steed and the spectral rider passed by like a whirlwind. The next day tracks of horses deeply dented in the road were traced to the bridge, beyond which, on the bank of a broad part of the brook, where the water ran deep and black, was found the hat of the unfortunate Icha- bod, and close beside it a shattered pumpkin.'' All honor to him who fills this working-day world with romance and beauty I Piermont (population 1,219), lies directly opposite Irvington, just above the Palisades, which here recede from the shore and lose their wall-like character. The long pier which gives the name to the village, projecting almost one mile into the bay, is a terminus of the Erie Railway, connecting with the main line about eighteen miles distant. The old Rockland Cemetery situated near Sparkhill, overlooking the Hudson, has been recently purchased by New York capitalists, looking to the com- ing burial necessities of greater New York. Two hundred acres have already been secured and other grounds will be added. It is said that this will be the largest cemetery in the world. Four broad plateaus rise by gentle slope to an altitude of several hun- dred feet, from which eminence can be seen five States : — New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Massachusetts and Connecti- cut. In the receiving vault lies the body of General John C. ob THE HUDSON. Fremont, and it is expected that a handsome monument will be erected to his memory. The old village of Tappan is about two miles from Piermont, where Major Andre was executed October 2d, 1780. The removal of his body from Tappan to Westminster was by a special British ship, and a singular incident was con- nected with it. The roots of a cypress tree were found entwined about his skull and a scion from the tree was carried to England and planted in the garden adjoining Windsor Palace. It is a still more curious fact that the tree beneath which Andre was captured was struck by lightning on the day of Benedict Ar- nold's death in London. Further reference will be made to Andre in our description of Tarrytown, and of Haverstraw, where Arnold and Andre met at the house of Joshua Hett Smith. Tarrytown (26 miles from New York, population 3,562, North Tarrytown 3,179). Between Irvington and Tarrytown there are many imposing mansions. Most conspicuous of all is the old Paulding House, built by a descendant of John Paulding. Jay Gould died possessed of the property and it is now owned by his heirs. John D. Archibald's house is also notably fine. The Tappan Zee at Tarrytown is nearly three miles wide. It was here on the old Post Road, now called Broadway, a little north of the village, that Andre was captured and Arnold's treachery exposed. A monument erected on the spot by the people of Westchester County, October 7, 1853, bears the following inscription : ON THIS SPOT, THE 23d DAY OF SEPTEMBER, 1780, THE SPY, MAJOR JOHN ANDRE, Adjutant-General of the British Army, was captured by John Paulding, David Williams, and Isaac Van Wart. ALL natives of THIS COUNTY. History has told the rest. THE HUDSON. 89 The following quaint ballad-verses on the young hero give a realistic touch to one of the most providential occurrences in our history: He with a scouting party _ Went down to Tarrytown, Where he met a British officer, A man of high renown, Who says unto these gentlemen, " You're of the British cheer, I trust that you can tell me If there's any danger near ? " Then up stept this young hero, John Paulding was his name, " Sir, tell us where you're going And also whence you came ?" "I bear the British flag, sir ; I've a pass to go this way, I'm on an expedition, And have no time to stay." Young Paulding, however, thought that he had plenty of time to linger until he examined his boots, wherein he found the papers, and, when offered ten guineas by Andre, if he would al- low him to pursue his journey, replied : " If it were ten thousand guineas you could not stir one step." The Centennial Anniversary of the event was commemorated in 1880 by placing, through the generosity of John Anderson, on the original obelisk of 1853, a large statue representing John Paulding as a minute-man. Tarrytown was the very heart of the Debatable Ground of the Revolution and many striking incidents mark its early his- tory. In 1777 Vaughan's troops landed here on their way to 90 THE HUDSON. attack Fort Montg-omery, and here a party of Americans, under Major Hunt, surprised a number of British refugees while play- ing cards at the Van Tassel tavern. The major completely " turned the cards " upon them by rushing in with brandished stick, which he brought down with emphasis upon the table, re- marking with genuine American brevity, " Gentlemen, clubs are trumps." Here, too, according to Irving, arose the two great orders of chivalry, the " Cow Boys " and " Skinners." The former fought, or rather marauded under the American, the latter under the British banner ; the former were known as "Highlanders," the latter as the "Lower Party." In the zeal of service both were apt to make blunders, and confound the property of friend and foe. "Neither of them, in the heat and hurry of a foray, had time to ascertain the politics of a horse or cow which they were driving off into captivity, nor when they wrung the neck of a rooster did they trouble their heads whether he crowed for Congress or King George." It was also a genial, reposeful country for the faithful his- torian, Diedrich Knickerbocker ; and here he picked up many of those legends which were given by him to the world. One of these was the legend connected with the old Dutch Church of Sleepy Hollow. "A drowsy, dreamy influence seems to hang over the land, and to pervade the very atmosphere. Some say the place was bewitched by a high German doctor during the early days of the settlement ; others that an old Indian chief, the wizard of his tribe, held his pow-wows there before Hendrich Hudson's discovery of the river. The dominant spirit, however, that haunts this enchanted region, is the apparition of a figure on horse-backj without a head, said to be the ghost of a Hessian THE HUDSON. 91 trooper, and was known at all the country firesides as the 'Headless horseman ' of Sleepy Hollow." Sleepy Hollow.— The Old Dutch Church, the oldest on the Hudson, is about one-half mile north from Tarrytown. It was built by " Frederick Filipse and his wife Katrina Van Cortland in 1690." The material is partly of stone and partly of brick brought from Holland. It stands as an appropriate senti- SLEEPY HOLLOW CHURCH. nel near the entrance to the burial-yard where Irving sleeps. After entering the gate our way leads past the graves of the Ackers, the Van Tassels, and the Van Warts, with inscriptions and plump Dutch cherubs on every side that often de- lighted the heart of Diedrich Knickerbocker. How many wor- shippers since that November day in 1859, have come hither 92 THE HUDSON. with reverent footsteps to read on the plain slab this simple in- scription : "Washington Irving-, born April 3, 1783. Died No- vember 28, 1859." And what a beautiful tribute from Longfellow " In the churchyard at Tarry town ! " " Here lies the gentle humorist, who died In the bright Indian Summer of his fame. A simple stone, with hut a date and name, Marks his secluded resting place beside The river that he loved and glorified. Here in the Autumn of his days he came, But the dry leaves of life were all aflame With tints that brightened and were multiplied. How sweet a life was his, how sweet a death ; Living to wing with mirth the weary hours. Or with romantic tales the heart to cheer ; Dying to leave a memory like the breath Of Summers full of sunshine and of showers, A grief and gladness in the atmosphere." Sleepy Hollow Church, like Sunnyside, is hidden away from the steamer tourist by summer foliage. Just before reaching Kings- land Point light-house, a view, looking northeast up the little bay to the right, will sometimes give the outline of the building. Beyond this a tall granite shaft, erected by the Delavan family, is generally quite distinctly seen, and this is near the grave of Irving. The light-house, built in 1883, marks the southern point of the Kingsland estate, and just below this the Pocantico or Sleepy Hollow Creek joins the Hudson : Pocantico's hushed waters glide Through Sleepy Hollow's haunted ground, And whisper to the listening tide The name carved o'er one lowly mound. THE HUDSON. 93 To one loving our early history and legends there is no spot more central or delightful than Tarrytowh. Irving humorously says that Tarry town took its name from husbands tarrying too late at the village tavern, but its real derivation is Tarwen- Dorp, or Wheat-town. The name of the old Indian village at this point was Alipconck (the place of elms). It has often oc- curred to the writer that, more than any olher river, the Hudson has a distinct personality, and also that the four main divisions of human life are particularly marked in the Adirondacks, the Catskills, the Highlands and Tappan Bay : The Adirondacks, childhood's glee ; The Catskills, youth with dreums o'ercast i The Highlands, manhood hold and free ; The Tappan Zee, age come at last. This was the spot that Irving loved ; we linger by his grave at Sleepy Hollow with devotion ; we sit upon his porch at Sunny- side with reverence : Thrice blest and happy Tappan Zee, Whose hanks along thy waters wide Have legend, truth, and poetry Sweetly expressed in Sunnyside I Nyack, on the west side, (27 miles from New York, terminus of the Northern Railroad of New Jersey, connected with Tarry- town by ferry ; population 4,111, South Nyack 1,496,) lies in a semi-circle of hills which sweep back from Piermont, meeting the river again at the northern end of Tappan Zee. Tappan is derived from an Indian tribe of that name, which, being translated, is said to signify cold water. The bay is ten miles in length, with an average breadth of about two miles and a half. 94 THE HUDSON. Nyack grows steadily in favor as a place for Summer resi- dents. The hotels, boarding-houses and suburban homes would increase the census as given to nearly ten thousand people. The West Shore Bailroad is two and a half jniles from the Hudson, with station at West Nyack. The NoHliern Bailroad of New Jersey, leased by the New York, Lalce Erk and WesUm, (Cham- bers Street and 23d Street, New York) passes west of the Bergen Hills and the Palisades. The Ramapo Mountains, north of Nyack, were formerly known by ancient mariners as the Hook, or Point-no-Point. They come down to the river in little headlands, the points of which disappear as the steamer nears them. The peak to the south is 730 feet high. They were sometimes called by Dutch captains Verditege Hook. Perhaps it took so long to pass these illusive headlands, reaching as they do eight miles along the western bank, that it naturally seemed a very tedious point to the old skippers. Midway in this Ramapo Range, "set in a dimple of the hills," is — Rockland Lake, source of the Hackensack River, one hun- dred and fifty feet above the sea. The " slide way," by which the ice is sent down to the boats to be loaded, can be seen from the steamer, and the blocks in motion, as seen by the traveler, resemble little white pigs running down an inclined plane. As we look at the great ice-houses to-day, which, like uncouth barns, stand here and there along the Hudson, it does not seem possible that only a few years ago ice was decidedly unpopular, and wheeled about New York in a hand-cart. Think of one hand-cart supplying New York with ice ! It was considered un- healthy, and called forth many learned discussions. Returning to the east bank, we see above Tarrytown many THE HUDSON. 95 delightful residences, notably among these "Rockwood," the home of William Rockefeller, President of the Standard Oil Company. The estate of General James Watson Webb is also near at hand, one of whose sons, Vice-President of the Xew York Central Mailroad, has recently carried a new and pleasant railway into the very heart of the Adirondacks. Passing Scarborough Landing, with the Hook Mountain and Ball Mountains on the left, we see Siu^ Sin^, on the east bank (32 miles from New York ; popu- lation 9,352). The low white buildings, near the river bank, are the State's Prison. They are constructed of marble, but are not considered palatial by the 1,700 prisoners that occupy the cells. It was quarried near by, and the prisons were built by convicts imported from Auburn in 1826. Saddlery, furniture, shoes, etc., are manufactured within its walls. There was an Indian chief- tancy here known as the Sint-sinks. In a deed to Philiji Phil- lipse in 1685 a stream is referred to as " Kitchewan called by the Indians Sink-Sink." The Indian Village was known as Ossinsing, from '"ossin" a stone and "sing" a place, probably so called from the rocky and stony character of the river banks. The heights above Tappan Zee at this point are crowned by fine residences, and the village is one of the pleasantest on the river. The drives among the hills are delightful and present a wide and charming outlook. Here also are several flourishing mili- tary boarding schools and a seminary for girls. The old silver and copper mines once worked here never yielded satisfactory returns for invested capital. Few towns are better equipped as to water and fire department service, and the people are well ac- commodated in having thirty trains and one steamboat daily to 96 THE HUDSON. and from New York. Various industries give active life and prosperity to the town. Just above Sing Sing Croton River, known by the Indians as Kitchawonk, joins the Hudson in a bay crossed by the Hew York Central Bailroad Croton draw-bridge. East of this point is a water shed having an area of 350 square miles, which supplies New York with water. The Croton Reservoir is easily reached by a pleasant carriage drive from Sing Sing, and it is a singular fact that the pitcher and ice-cooler of New York, or in other words, Croton Dam and Rockland Lake, should be almost opposite. About fifty years ago the Croton first made its appearance in New York, brought in by an aqueduct of solid masonry which follows the course of the Hudson near the old Post Road, or at an aver- age distance of about a mile from the east bank. Here and there its course can be traced by " white stone ventilating towers" from Sing Sing to High Bridge, which conveys the acqueduct across the Harlem River. Its capacity is 100,000,000 gallons per day, which however began to be inadequate for the City and a new aqueduct was therefore begun in 1884 and completed in 1890, capable of carrying three times that amount, at a cost of $25,000,000. The water-shed is well supplied with streams and lakes. Lake MahopaC;, one of its fountains, is one of the most beautiful sheets of water near the metropolis, and easily accessi- ble by a pleasant drive from Peekskill, or by the Harlem Bail- road from New York. The old Indian name was Ma-cook-pake, signifying a large inland lake, or perhaps an island near the shore. The same derivation, we imagine, is also seen in Copake Lake, Columbia County. On an island of Mahopac the last great " convention " of the southern tribes of the Hudson was held. SIIJJ ■^^i^^i ) X \ o . ^>.^ THE HUDSON. 97 The lake is about 800 feet above tide, and it is pleasant to know- that the bright waters of Mahopac and the clear streams of Put- nam and Westchester are conveyed to New York even as the poetic waters of Lock Katrine to the City of Glasgow. Just above Croton Bay and the Neio York Central Eailroad Draw-bridge will be seen the old Van Cortlandt Manor, where Frederick Phillipse and Katrina Van Cortlandt were married, as seen by the inscription on the old Dutch Church of Sleepy Hollow. Teller's Point (sometimes known as Croton or UnderhiU's Point), separates Tappan Zee from Haverstraw Bay. It was called by the Indians " Senasqua." Tradition says that ancient warriors still haunt the surrounding glens and w^oods, and the sachems of Teller's Point are household words in the neighbor- hood. It is also said that there was once a great Indian battle here, and perhaps the ghosts of the old warriors are attracted by the Underbill grapery and the 10,000 gallons of wine bottled every season. The river now opens into a beautiful bay, four miles in width,— a bed large enough to tuck up fifteen River Rhines side by side. This reach sometimes seems in the bright sunlight like a molten bay of silver, and the tourist finds relief in adjust- ing his smoked glasses to temper the dazzling light. Haverstraw.— (37 miles from New York, population about 5,000). Haverstraw Bay is sometimes said to be five miles wide. Its widest point however, from Croton Landing to Haverstraw is, according to recent United States Geological Survey, exactly four miles. The principal industry of Haverstraw is brick-mak- ing, and its brick-yards reaching north to Grassy Point, are 98 THE HUDSON. generally prosperous if not picturesque. The place was called Haverstraw by the Dutch, perhaps as a place of rye straw, to distinguish it from Tarrytown, a place of wheat. The Indian name has been lost ; but, if its original derivation is uncertain, it at least calls up the rhyme of old-time river captains, which Captain Anderson of the Mary Powell told the writer he used to hear frequently when a boy : " West Point and Middletown, Konnosook and Doodletown, Kakiak and Mamapaw, Stony Point and Haverstraw." Quaint as these names now sound, they all are found on old maps of the Hudson. High Torn is the name of the northern point of the Ramapo on the west bank, south of Haverstraw. According to the Coast Survey, it is 820 feet above tide-water, and the view from the summit is grand and extensive. The origin of the name is not clear, but it has lately occurred to the writer, from a recent reading of Scott's " Peveril of the Peak," that it might have been named from the Torn, a mountain in Derbyshire, either from its appearance, or by some patriotic settler from the cen- tral water-shed of England. Others say it is the Devonshire word Tor changed to Torn, evidently derived from the same source. "West Sbore Railroad. — The tourist will see at this point, on the left bank of the river, the tunnel whereby the " West Shore " finds egress from the mountains. The traveler over this railway, on emerging from the quiet valley west of the Pali- sades, comes upon a sudden vision of beauty unrivaled in any THE HUDSON. 99 land. The broad river seems like a great inland lake ; and the height of the tunnel above the silver bay gives to the panoramic landscape a wondrous charm. About a mile from the river, southwest of Grassy Point, on the farther side of the winding Minnissickuongo Creek, which finally after long meandering makes up its mind to glide into Stony Point Bay, will be seen Treason Hill marked by the Joshua Hett Smith stone house where Arnold and Andre met. The story of this meeting will be referred to at greater length in connection with its most dramatic incident at the old Beverly House in the Highlands. The Hudson here is about two miles in width and narrows rap- idly to Stony Point, where it is scarcely more than half a mile wide. This was, therefore, an important pass during the Revolution. The crossing near at hand was known as King's Ferry, at and before the days of '76, and was quite an avenue of travel between the Southern, Middle and Eastern States. The fort crowning a commanding headland, was captured from the Americans by the British, June 1, 1779, but it was surprised and recaptured by Anthony Wayne, July 15 of the same year. A cenifennial was observed at the place July 15, 1879, when the battle was "re- fought " and the West Point Cadets showed how they would have done it if they had been on hand a century ago. Thacke- ray, in his "Virginians," gives perhaps the most graphic ac- count of this midnight battle. The present light-house occupies the site of the old fort, and was built in part of stone taken from its walls. Upon its capture by the British, Washington, whose headquarters were at New Windsor, meditated a bold stroke and summoned Anthony Wayne, more generally known as 100 THE HUDSON. "Mad Anthony," from liis reckless daring, to undertake its re- capture with a force of one thousand picked men. The lines were fermed in two columns about 8 p. m. at "Spring-steel's farm." Each soldier and officer put a piece of white paper in his hat to distinguish him from the foe. No guns were to be loaded under penalty of death. General Wayne forded the marsh, at the head of the column covered at the time with two feet of water. The other column led by Butler and ^lurfree crossed an apology for a bridge. During the advance both columns were discovered by the British sentinels and the rocky defense literally blazed with musketry. In stern silence, however, without faltering or firing a single shot, the American columns moved forward, entered the abatis, until the advance guard under Anthony Wayne were within the enemy's works. A bullet at this mo- ment struck Wayne in the forehead grazing his skull. Quickly recovering from the shock he rose to his knees, shouted "For- ward my brave fellows : " then turning to two of his followers, he asked them to help him into the fort that he might die, if it were to be so, " in possession of the spot." Both columns were now at hand and inspired by the brave General, came pouring in, crying " The Fort's our own." The British troops completely overwhelmed, were fain to surrender and called for mercy. Wayne's characteristic message to Washington antedates mod- ern telegraphic brevity :— "Stony Point, 2 o'clock a. m. The American flag waves here: Mad Anthony." There were twenty killed and sixty wounded on each side. Some five hundred of the enemy were captured and about sixty escaped. "Money rewards and medals were given to Wayne and the leaders in the assault. The ordnance and stores captured were appraised at THE HUDSON. 101 over $180,000 and paid by Congress in cash, which was dis- triVjuted among- the troops engaged, and there was universal rejoicing " throughout the land. Verplanck's Point, on the east bank (now full of brick-making establishments with kilns and drying houses), was the site of Fort Lafayette. It was here that Baron Steuben drilled the soldiers of the American army. Back from Green Cove above Verplanck's Point is "Knickerbocker Lake." This is the nearest spot to New York where ice is cut on the Hudson, provided Rockland Lake is not taken into consid- eration, Tompkin^s Cove. — North of Stony Point we see great quar- ries of limestone, the principal industry of the village of Tomp- kin's Cove. Gravel is also shipped from this place for Central Park roads and driveways in New York City. The tourist, look- ing north from the forward deck of the steamer, sees no opening in the mountains, and it is amusing to hear the various conjec- tures of the passengers ; as usual, the " unexpected" happens, and we sweep at once into the grand scenery of the Highlands. The straight forward course, which seems the more natural, would land the steamer against the Hudson River Railroad, cross- ing the Peekskill River. It is said that an old skipper, Jans Peek, ran up this stream, years before the railroad was built, and did not know that he had left the Hudson, or rather that the Hudson was "on the left "until he ran aground in the shoal water of the bay. The next morning he discovered that it was a goodly land, and the place bears his name unto this day. Peekskill, (forty miles from New York, population 9676), is a pleasant village on the quiet bay which deeply indents the east- ern bank. The property in this vicinity was known as Rycks 102 THE HUDSON. Patent in 1665. In Revolutionary times Fort Independence stood on the point above, where its ruins are still seen. The Francis- can Convent Academy of "Our Lady of Angels," guards the point below. In 1797 Peekskill was the headquarters of old Israel Putnam, who rivaled " Mad Anthony " in brevity as well as courage. It will be remembered that Palmer was here cap- tured as a spy. A British officer wrote a letter asking his re- prieve, to which Putnam replied, " Nathan Palmer was taken as a spy, tried as a spy and will be hanged as a spy. P. S. — He is hanged." This was the birthplace of Paulding, one of Andre's captors, and he died here in 1818. He is buried in the old rural cemetery about two miles and a half from the village, and a monument has been erected to his memory. Near at hand is the "Wayside Inn," where Andre once " tarried," and the marks of his military boots, still shown, are probably about as genuine as the stain of Rizzio's blood in Old Holyrood, Edinburgh. Gal- low's Hill and its immediate neighborhood are full of historic associations. Near Peekskill is the old Van Cortlandt house, the residence of Washington for a short time during the Revolution. East of the village was the summer home of the great pulpit orator, Henry Ward Beecher, and Peekskill is also known far and wide as the birthplace and many-storied shrine of that sunny-prismed genius, orator and wit, Chauncey M. Depew, President of the New York Central Railroad. Suburban trains give hourly commu- nication with New York, and the well known Steamer " Chryste- nah " makes daily pilgrimages to the metropolis. Peekskill was known by the Indians as Sackhoes, in the territory of the Kitch- awongs which extended from Croton River to Anthony's Nose. THE HUDSON. 105 Turning- Caldwell's Landing" or Jones' Point, formerly known as Kidd's Point, almost at right angles, the steamer enters the southern gate of the Highlands. At the water edge will be seen some upright planks or caissons marking the spot where Kidd's ship was supposed to have been scuttled. As his history seems to be intimately associated with the Hudson, we will give it in brief : Tlie Story of Captain Kidd. — " My name was Captain Kidd as I sailed," are famous lines of an old ballad which was once familiar to our grandfathers. The hapless hero of the same was born about the middle of the seventeenth century, and it is thought, near Greenock, Scotland. He resided at one time in New York, near the corner of William and Cedar Streets, and was there married. In April, 1696, he sailed from England in command of the " Adventure Galley," with full armament and eighty men. He captured a French ship, and, on arrival at New York, put up articles for volunteers; remained in New York thjree or four months, increasing his crew to one hundred and fifty-five men, and sailed thence to Madras, thence to Bona- vista and St. Jago, Madagascar, then to Calicut, then to Mada- gascar again, then sailed and took the '"Quedah Merchant." Kidd kept forty shares of the spoils, and divided the rest with his crew. He then burned the "Adventure Galley," went on board the " Quedah Merchant," and steered for the West Indies. Here he left the " Merchant," with part of his crew, under one Bolton, as commander. Then manned a sloop, and taking part of his spoils, went to Boston via Long Island Sound, and is said to have set goods on shore at different places. In the mean time, in August, 1698, the East Indian Company informed the 106 TUK HUPi^OX. Lords Justice that Kidd had ooiuuiittod several acts of piracy, particidarly in seiziuii- a Moor's ship caUed the "' Quedah Mer- chant." When Kidd hmded at Boston he was therefore arrested by the Earl of Beilamont. and sent to Eno^land for trial, 10iH>, where he was found jruilty and executed. Now it is supposed that the crew of the "Quedah Mereliaut." which Kidd left at Hispaniola. sailed for their homes, as the crew was mostly g-athered from the Iliirhlands and alnive. It is said that they passed New York in the nic'ht, en nmtc to the manor of Liviuir- ston : but encounterinir a o;ale in the Hiii-hUinds. and thinkiui]: they were pursued, ran her near the shore, now known as Kidd's Point, and here scuttled her, the crew tleeini: to the wo.xls with such treasure as they could carry. Whether this circumstance was true or not, it was at least a current story in the neiirhbor- hood. and an enterprisiui: individual, about fifty years ai:o, C(iJ ** discovered" in the river, and perpe- trated the tirst "CarditT Giant Hoax." A New York Stock Company was org-anized to prosecute the work. It was said that the ship coulO be seen in clear days, with her masts still stand- inof, many fathoms beh^w the surface. One thinir is certain — the Company did not see it or the tixasunr either, in whose hands were de^K>sited about $o0.lXXl On the west shore r,ise the rock-beaten crag-s of — The Dunderberg, the ihead of the Dutch mariners. This hill, according- to Ja-ving, was peopled with a multitude of imps, too great for man to number, who woT*e sug-ar-loaf hats and short doublets, and liad a picturesque A\ay of "tumbling head over heels in the rack and mist." They were especially malignant toward all captains who failed to do them reverence, and THK HUDSON. 107 brou^'ht down fri<,'htful h(jhuIIs on Huch craft as failed to drof; the pcakw of their main.sail.s to tlie j^'ofiliii who preHided over thiH Hhadowy nspuhlh;. It was the dread of the tjarly navij^ator.s— in f;ict, tli<; Olyinj)iis of I)iil(;h iiiytholo^jy. Verditoge Hook, the Diindiu-berj^-, and i\\(: (JvavHlaw^h, were names of terror to even the bravest Hkii)[)ut its actual altitudroj)er hours, and the camp is easily reached by fert'y fr'ojn I'eekskill. A ferry also runs from Peekskill to Dunderberg, af- fording a hillside outing and a delightful view. It is exixicted that a spiral railroad, fourte(m miles in hjngth, undertaken by a Hicently organized (;or[)oration, })ut abandoned for th(i present, will mak<; the; s[)ot a grciat Hudson Jliver resort. The plan also embraces a palatial hotel on the summit and pleasure groiinds upon tlu; Point at its l^ase. Passing Manito Mountain on our right tin; st(;am(jr approa(di(;s Anthony's Nose, a prominent feature of the Hudson. Strangely enough tin; altitude of th(5 mountains at the southern 108 THE HUDSON. portal of the Hig-lilands has been greatly overrated. The for- merly accepted height of Anthony's Nose has been reduced by the Geological Survey from 1,228 feet to 900. It has, however, an illustrious christening, and according to various historians ANTHONY'S NOSE, (FROM THE SOUTH). several godfathers. One says it was named after St. Anthony the Great, the first institutor of monastic life, born A. D. 251, at Coma, in Heraclea, a town in Upper Egypt. Irving's humor- ous account is, however, quite as probable that it was derived from the nose of Anthony Van Corlear, the illustrious trumpeter THE HUDSON. 109 of Peter Stuyvesant. ''Now thus it happened that bright and early in the morning the good Anthony, having washed hLs burly visage, was leaning over the quarter-railing of the galley, contemplating it in the glassy waves below. .Just at this moment the illustrious sun, breaking in all hLs splendor from behind a high bluff of the Highlands, did dart one of his most potent beams full u]K)n the refulgent nose of the sounder of brass, the reflection of which shot straightway down hissing hot into the water, and killed a mighty sturgeon that was si)orting beside the vesseL When this astonishing miracle was made known to the Governor, and he tasted of the imknown fish, he marveled exceedingly : and, as a monument thereof, he gave the name of Anthon\''s Nose to a stout promontory in the neighborhood, and it has continued to be called Anthony's Xose ever since." It was called by the Indians " Kittatenny," a Delaware term, signi- fying " endless hills." The stream flowing into the river south of Anthony's Nose is known as the Brocken Kill, broken into beautiful cascades from mountain source to mouth. lona Island, with its graperj- and pleasant picnic grounds, is near the west bank, opposite Anthony's Xose : and a short dis- tance from the island, on the main land, was the village or cross-roads of Doodletown. This reach of the river was form- erly known as The Horse Race, from the rapid flow of the tide when at its height. The hills on the west bank now recede from the river, forming a picturesque amphitheatre, bounded on the west by Bear Mountain. An old road directly in the rear of lona Island, better known to Anthony Wayne than to the modem tourist, passes through Doodletown, over Dunderberg, just west of Tompkin's Cove, to Haverstraw. Here amid these 110 THE HUDSON. pleasant foothills Morse laid the scene of a historical romance, which he however happily abandoned for a wider invention. The world can get along without the novel, but it would be a trifle slow without the telegraph. On the west bank, directly opposite the railroad tunnel which puts a merry "ring" into the tip of Anthony's Nose, is what is now known as Highland Lake, called by the Indians Sinnipink, and by the immediate descendants of our Revolutionary fathers "Hessian Lake" or " Bloody Pond," from the fact that an American company had a severe struggle herewith the British, and after the capture of Fort Montgomery their bodies were thrown into the lake. The capture of Fort Clinton and Fort Montgomery was two years before Mad Anthony's successful assault on Stony Point. Early in the history of the Revolution, the British Government thought that it would be possible to cut off the eastern from the middle and southern colonies by capturing and garrisoning com- manding points along the Hudson and Lake Champlain. It was therefore decided in London, in the spring of 1777, to have Sir Henry Clinton approach from the south and Burgoyne from the north. Re-enforcements, however, arrived late from England and it was September before Clinton transported his troops, about 4,000 in number, in warships and flat-boats up the river. Gov- ernor George Clinton was in charge of Fort Montgomery, and his brother James of Fort Clinton, while General Putnam, with about 2,000 men, had his headquarters at Peekskill. In addition to these forts, a chain was stretched across the Hudson from Anthony's Nose to a point near the present railroad bridge, to obstruct the British fleet. General Putnam, however, became convinced that Sir Henry Clinton proposed to attack Fort In- THE HUDSON. Ill dependence. Most of the troops were according-ly withdrawn from Forts Montg-omery and Clinton, when Sir Henry Clinton, taking advantag-e of a morning fog, crossed with 2,000 men at King's Ferry. Guided by a sympathizer of the British cause, who knew the district, he crossed the Dunderberg Mountain by the road just indicated. One division of i)00 moving on Fort Montgomery, and another of 1,100 on Fort Clinton. Governor Clinton in the meantime ordered 400 soldiers to Fort Mont- gomery, and his reconoitering party, met by the Hessians, fell back upon the fort, fighting as it retreated. Governor Clinton sent to General Putnam for re-enforcements, but it is said that the messenger deserted, so that Putnam literally sat waiting in camp, unconscious of the enemy's movements, A simultaneous attack was made at 5 o'clock in the afternoon on both forts. Lossing says : " The garrisons were composed mostly of un- trained militia. They behaved nobly, and kept up the defense vigorously, against a greatly superior force of disciplined and veteran soldiers, until twilight, when they were overpowered, and sought safety in a scattered retreat to the neighboring mountains. Many escaped, but a considerable number were slain or made prisoners. The Governor fled across the river in a boat, and at midnight was with General Putnam at Continental Village, concerting measures for stopping the invasion. James, forcing his way to the rear, across the highway bridge, received a bayonet wound in the thigh, but safely reached his home at New Windsor. A sloop of ten guns, the frigate Montgomery— twenty-four guns — and two row-galleys, stationed near the boom and chain for their protection, slij)ped their cables and attempted to escape, but there was no wind to fill their sails, and they 112 THE HUDSON. were burned by the Americans to prevent their falling into the hands of the enemy. The frig-ate Congress, twenty-eight guns, which had already gone up the river, shared the same fate on the flats near Fort Constitution, which was abandoned. By the light of the burning vessels the fugitive garrisons made their way over the rugged mountains, and a large portion of them joined General Clinton at New Windsor the next day. They had left many of their brave companions behind, who, to the number of 250, had been slain or taken prisoners. The British, too, had parted with many men and brave officers. Among the latter was Lieut. Col. Campbell. Early in the morning of the 7th of October, the river obstructions between Fort Montgomery and Anthony's Nose, which cost the Americans $250,000, were de- stroyed, and a light flying squadron, commanded by Sir James Wallace, and bearing a large number of land troops under General Vaughan, sailed up the river on a marauding expe- dition, with instructions from Sir Henry to scatter desolation in their paths. It was hoped that such an expedition would draw troops from the Northern army for the protection of the country below, and thereby assist Burgoyne." Sir Henry Clinton, who had been advised by General Burgoyne that he must be relieved by October 12th, sent a messenger an- nouncing his victory. Another of the many special providences of the American Revolution now occurs. The messenger blun- dered into the American camp, where some soldiers sat in Brit- ish uniform, and found out too late that he was among enemies instead of friends. As Irving relates the incident in his Life of Washington :— " On the 9th (October) two persons coming from Fort Montgomery were arrested by the guard, and brought for THE HUDSON. 113 examination. One was much agitated, and was observed to put something hastily into his mouth and swallow it. An emetic was administered, and brought up a silver bullet. Before he could be prevented he swallowed it again. On his refusing a second emetic, the Governor threatened to have him hanged and his body opened. This threat was effectual and the bullet was again ' brought to light ' in the preceding manner. It was oval in form, and hollow, with a screw in the centre, and contained a note from Sir Henry Clinton to Burgoyne, written on a slip of thin paper, and dated October 8th, from Fort Montgomery; "Nous y void (here we are), and nothing between us and Gates. I sincerely hope this little success of ours will facilitate your operations.' " Burgoyne never received it, and on October 13th, after the battles of Bennington and Saratoga, surrendered to General Gates. Sir Henry Clinton abandoned the forts on hear- ing of his defeat, and returned to New York " a sadder and wiser man." Beverley House. — Passing Cohn's Hook, pronounced Conno- sook, where Hendrich Hudson anchored on his way up the river September 14, 1609, we see before us on the right bank a point coming down to the shore marked by a boat house. This is Beverley Dock, and directly up the river bank about an eighth of a mile stood the old Beverley House, where Benedict Arnold had his headquarters when in command of West Point. The old house, a good specimen of colonial times, was unfortunately burned in 1892, and with it went the most picturesque landmark of the most dramatic incident of the Revolution. It will be re- membered that Arnold returned to the Beverley House after his midnight interview with Andre at Haverstraw, and immediately Ill 'VWK urnsoN. iilH>n tlio I'jiptiiro of Aiulro ilio follow ip.>v il;iy, that Colonol Jami- son sont a lottor to ArnoUi, aih isin^- him of tho fart. It. was tho n\i>rniiii:- of SoptiMnboi- 4th. iJoiuM-al Washington was on l\is way to W'ost roinl. oomin^:- arfoss tiio oountrv fi'tun Tonnoi't lout. On ai-rivini:', howt'voi'. at tho I'ivor, jnst abovo Ilio prosont sta- tion of iJarrisons, ho boi-amo intorostoil in oxaminin^- sinniMio- fiMisos, anil siMit Aloxaiulor llamilt«>n fofwartl to tlio liovofloy Honso. sayini;' that ho wonKl oomo lator. roqnostini;" tho fan\ily to priH'ood with ihoir bi-oakfast and ni>t to await his afri\al. •Moxandor I lamilton anil (.uMioral Lafayotto sat uayly ohattinii" with Mrs. Arnold anil hor husband whon tlu> lottor from Jamison was roooivod. Arnold ulanood at tlu^ oontonts, ri.)so and oxonsod himsolf from tho tabU\ bookonin^' to his w ifo to follow him, hado hor i^ood-byo. told hor ho was a ruinod man and a traitor, kissod his littlo boy in tho oradlo, rodo to HovorK\v Hook, and tu'dorovl his mon to pull olT and i^o down iho rivor. 'Tho " N'ulturo," an iMiultsh man-<>f-war. was noar Tollor's Point, and roooivod a ti-aitor. whoso misorablo troaohory bi-andod him with otornal infamy in both ooniinonts. It is said that ho livod \o\\g onoui^h to bo hissod \n tho llouso of Commons, as ho i>noo tOi>k his soat in tho Liallory, and ho tliod friondloss, and dospisod. It is alsi> said, whon Palloyrand arrivod in llavroon foin U\m\ Paris, in tho darkost hour of tho l-'ronoh Uovolution. pm-snod by tho bloodhounds of tho roii^n of torror, and was about \o sccuvo a passa^^o to tho Pnitod Statos, ho asked tho landlord of tho hotol whothorany Amorioans woro staying;- at his honso. as ho was s:oini:- across tho wator, and would liko a lottor ton porson of intluonoo in iho ISow \Vorld, " Thoro is a gontlomuu up-stairs from Britain or Amoricu," was tho response. TUK Jfr;i>sON. 115 1\<; \)<)\i\\,<:<] Uio way, arjfj 'rallcyrund UHCcndod the HtalrH. Tn a dirfily li},'hU;rJ room Hat tfxj man of whom tho j^rfjat mini.Ht^jr of I'fanco was to ank a favor. fl<; ;uJ van^;f;fj, and pourod frnlh in ('A<:f/iini yr<:n(:\i ariH hff)k';n I'in;/! i:-,fi, " I ;i,rn ;j, warifJ(;r<-.r, arifJ an f;xiN'.. I arn forc'id to lly to the Now World without a friond or iiom*;. V'ou aro an Am«;rif;{in. Give mo, thf;n, f hoHOf;f;h you, a lottor of your.-;, .ho thji,f, I may \)f; ai>l'; lo <;arri my fjread." Tho Htranj.fo ^f'lntWiman roso. Witii a look thiat Talloyrand novor forj.7)t, }io r«!tn;atf;d t/)ward tho door of tho n';xt oliambor. Ifo Hpoko aH h<; roirf;atod, and hi.n voico wa.s full of HufTf;rin;.'' : "f atn t,h«; ordy man of tiio Now World who can rai.no hin hand to <',<><\ and Hay, 'f havo not a friond, not ono, in Amf;rir'al'" "Who aro you V " ]k; rtriod — "yr>ur namo ? " ''My nam*; iH P,';n»;di(;t Arnold !" Andro'H fato on tho othor hand was wifJoly lann-ntorj, f fr; waH univorsally Ixdovod hy his f;r)m radon and po.s-.<-,-,.-,od a rich fund of humor which ofton iiuhblod ovor in vorno. It in a Htranj^o co- incidonoo that his host pootio attempt on ono of Anthony "Wayno'H oxfjIoitH noar Kort Loo cIoHod with a (.;raj>hif;ally prr>- j;hoti(; vorno : " And now I've cloHod my epic Htraln, I tremble as I nhow It, Lo«t thiH Harnc Warrlor-Drov<;r Wayne Should over catch the poet." Hy a Hin!_'ular coincidonoo ho did: Genoral Wayno was in (Mjmrnand of tho Tarrytown and Tappan country whore Andre waH captured and executed. It \h also 8aid that thewe lines wore publibhed by one of the Tory papers in New York the very day of Andre's capture, C;ne of the old-time character:-; on the 116 THE HUDSON. Hudson, known as Uncle Richard, has recently thrown new light on the capture of Andre by claiming", with a touch of genu- ine humor, that it was entirely due to the " effects " of cider which had been freely "dispensed" that day by a certain Mr. Horton, a farmer in the neighborhood. It is impossible even in these later years, not to speak of twenty-five or fifty years ago, to travel along the shores of Haverstraw Bay o)' among the passes of the Highlands, without hearing some old-time stories about Arnold and Andre, and it would be strange indeed if a little romance had not here and there become blended with the real facts. Uncle Richard's ac- count is undoubtedly the best since the days of Knickerbocker. "Benedict Arnold, you know, had command of West Point, and he knew that the place was essential to the success of the Con- tinental cause. He plotted, as everybody knows, to turn it over to the enemy, and in the correspondence which he carried on with General Clinton, young Andre, Clinton's aid, did all the writing. Things were coming to a focus, when a meeting took place between Arnold and Clinton's representative, Andre, at the house of Joshua Hett Smith, near Haverstraw. Andre came on the British ship Vulture, which he left at Croton Point, in Haverstraw Bay. Well,^' so runs Uncle Richard's story, " it took a long time to get matters settled ; they ' confabbed ' till after daybreak. Then Arnold started back to the post which he had plotted to surrender. But daylight was no time for Andre to return to the Vulture, so he hung round waiting for night. " During that day, some men who were working for James Horton, a farmer on the ridge overlooking the river, who THE HUDSON. 117 g'ave his men good rations of cider, drank a little too much of the hard stuff. They felt good, and thought it would be a fine joke to load and fire off an old disabled cannon which lay a mile or so away on the bank. They hauled it to the point now called Cockroft Point, propped it up, and then the spirit of fun — and hard cider— prompted them to train the old piece on the British ship Vulture, lying at anchor in the Bay. The Vulture's peo- ple must have overestimated the source of the fire, for the ship dropped down the river, and Andre had to abandon the idea of returning by that means. He crossed the river at King's Ferry, and while on his way overland was captured at Tarrytown. "Of course, the three brave men who refused to be bribed deserve all the glory they ever had ; if it were not for them, who knows but the revolutionary war would have had a different ending. But they never would have had a chance to capture Andre if it had not been for James Horton's men warming up on hard cider. Hard cider broke the plans of Arnold, it hung Andre, and it saved West Point." A boy misguided Grouchy en route to Waterloo. On what small hinges turn the destinies of nations ! All the way from Anthony's Nose to Beverley Dock, where we have been lingering over the story of Andre, we have been liter- ally turning a kaleidoscope of blended history and beauty, with scarcely time to note the delightful homes of John S. Gilbert, on the left bank, just above Fort Montgomery ; of William and Arthur Pell ; of J. Pierpont Morgan, Alfred Pell, Charles Tra- cy, Captain Roe, " Benny Havens " and John Bigelow ; or on the east bank, the residences of the late Hamilton Fish (seen just above Beverley Dock) ; Col. Arden, H. W. Beecher, Edward 118 THE HUDSON. Pierpont, J. M. Toucey, W. Living'ston and Samuel Sloane, some of them not visible from the deck of the Day Boats, but seen by the pedestrian on either side of the river. The bold tower on the right, reminding one of a new edition of the spire of the Tribune Building-, is the home of William H. Osborn, just north of Sugar Loaf Mountain ; the mountain being so named as it re- sembles, to one coming up the river, the old-fashioned conical- shaped sugar-loaf, which was formerly suspended by a string over the centre of the hospitable Dutch tables, and swung around to be occasionally nibbled at, which in good old Knickerbocker days, was thought to be the best and only orthodox way of sweetening tea. Buttermilk Falls, so christened by Washington Irving, is a pretty little cascade on the west bank. Like sparkling wit, it is often dry, and the tourist is exceptionally fortunate who sees it in full-dress costume after a heavy shower, when it rushes over the rocks in floods of snow-white foam. Highland Falls is the name of a small village a short distance west of the river, on the bluff, but not seen from the deck of the steamer. The large hotel north of the falls is known as " Cranston*s,'' and has a com- manding and pleasant site. It is, however, one mile and a half from the Parade Ground— the principal attraction of West Point ; and the visitor who has only a few days at his command, will perhaps gather more information by locating at West Point proper, whose well constructed dock the steamer is now ap- proaching. West Point, taken all in all, is the most beautiful tourist spot on the Hudson. Excursionists by the Day Boats from New York, returning by afternoon steamer, have three hours to visit THE HUDSON. 119 the various places of history and beauty. To make an easy mathematical formula or picturesque " rule of three " statement, what Quebec is to the St. Lawrence, West Point is to the Hud- son. If the Citadel of Quebec is more imposing-, the view of the Hudson at this place is grander than that of the St. Lawrence, and the ruins of Fort Putnam are almost as venerable as the Heights of Abraham. The sensation of the visitor is, moreover, somewhat the same in both places as to the environment of law and authority. To get the daily character and quality of West Point one should spend at least twenty-four hours within its borders, and a good hotel, the only one on the Government grounds, will be found central and convenient to everything of interest. The parade and drills at sunset hour can only be seen in this way. Carriages and omnibuses meet all trains and boats, with a fixed tariff of twenty-five cents for each passen- ger ; twenty-five cents for each trunk or box ; two dollars per hour for carriage, or after the first hour one dollar and a half. If the day is not too warm and the passenger is without baggage, it is a pleasant walk of a quarter of a mile to the Parade Ground, or of about half a mile to the hotel. The first building to the right, to one ascending from the land- ing, is the Riding- Hall, completed in 1885. Here the cadet learns cavalry exercises, " enjoying " many a fall which would often be a serious matter were it not that the building is floored with tan-bark. To the rear of this are stables, accommodating one hundred and twenty-five horses. The path or roadway leads one onward and upward to Grant Hall or Mess Hall where, be- tween meal hours, can be seen portraits of noted generals of the Civil War. Beyond this is the Hospital, the Academic Build- 120 THE HUDSON. ing- and the Admiinst ration BniUlinof, headquarters for the Post. Here also will be seen the library, erowned with a dome, the Cliapel, Oyninasiinu, Ueeitatiou Koonis, ete. Near tlie Flag-staff a tine ooUeotion of old eannon, old eUains. old shell, and the famous "swamp ano-ol " o-mi, used at Charleston in '(U. will be found. Fort Knox was just above the landing-. Near the river banlv ean also be seen Dade's Monument, Koseiusko's Garden, and Koseiusko's Monument. Old Fort Clinton was loeated on the plain, near the nioniunent ; and far above, like a sentinel left at his ]H>st, Fort I'utnam looks down upon the ehanges of a hundred years. But of all plaees around West Foint, Koseiusko's Garden seems the most suggest- ive, eonneeted as it is with a hero not only of his own eoimtry, but with a n\an ready to battle for free institutions, taking up the sublime words of the old Koman orator, " Where Lilndy is there is my eountry.'' A beautiful spring will be found near the Garden, and the indenture of a eannon-ball is still pointed out in the roeks, whieh must have disturbed the patriot's meditations. The Chapel was com]deted in 18;^0) ; the Library in ^"^41 ; Ca- det IMess in 1852 ; Cadet Hospital in 1881 ; monument to General Thayer in 1883: Gymnasium in 1891: the Battle MonumeiLt,, which cost about $50,000, surmounted by a liguro of victory, in 1894, " Dedicated to the memory of officers and enlisted men of the regular army wlio IvW during the Civil War." Tlie TJnited States Military Academy. — Soon after the close of the War of the Revolution, Washington suggested West Point as the site of a military academy, and, in 1703, in his an- nual message, recommended it to Congress, which in 17!>4 orga- nized a corps of artillerists to be here stationed with thirty-two THE HUDSON. 123 cadets, enlarging the number in 1798 to fifty-six. In 1808 it was increased to one hundred and fifty-six, and in 1812 to two hun- dred and sixty. Each Congressman has the appointment of one cadet, supplemented by ten appointed by the President of the United States. These cadets are members of the regular army, subject to its regulations for eight years, viz : during four years of study and four years after graduating. The candidates are examined in June, each year, and must be physically sound as well as mentally qualified. The course is very thorough, es- pecially in higher mathematics. The Cadets go into camp in July and August, and this is the pleasantest time to visit the Point. Among memorials of historical interest to be seen by the visi- tor are captured Battle Flags, in the Chapel Building, which were surrendered by Lord Cornwallis at Yorktown ; also, tro- phies of the Mexican war, and tablets containing names of prominent American officers of the Revolution, one being sig- nificantly left blank, silently proclaiming the eternal infamy of Arnold. The opposite wall presents the names of generals of the Mexican War. Fort Clinton will especially interest the visitor, as it is one of the old Revolutionary forts, " enlarged for the instruction of the cadets in practicing military engineering." As Wakefield's new guide to the Post tells us :— " It contains a large number of guns, captured in the Civil war, including * Whistling Dick,' taken at Vicksburg, a large iron gun taken at Charleston, which burst and killed forty men ; two brass guns from Cedar Creek, marked 'Jeff Davis,' and 'Johnson :* also part of chain which was used to block the passage ot vessels up the Tennessee river." 124 THE HUDSON. West Point during- the revolution was the Gibraltar of the Hudson and her forts were regarded almost imiDregnable. Fort Putnam should be rebuilt as an enduring monument to the bravery of American soldiers. Flirtation Walk, in spite of its name, is interesting even to the most prosaic individual, winding as it does along the cliff, from Battle Monument past Battery Knox to Kosciusko's Garden, from which point a flight of stone steps leads up to the Parade Ground, near the Library. The best way to study West Point, however, is not in the volu- minous or even condensed pages of a guide book, but to visit it and see its real life, to wander amid these old associations, and ask, when necessary, intelligent questions, which are everywhere courteously answered. The view north from the veranda of the West Point Hotel, if seen in a summer evening, is one long to be remembered. It has often seemed to the writer of this hand-book that the mountains here are like the leaves of an open volume, with the river lying between them for a book-mark— as indica- ted in the Highland section of his poem " The Hudson: '' On either side these mountain glens Lie open lilte a massive hook, "Whose words were graved with iron pens, And lead into the eternal rock: Which evermore shall here retain The annals time cannot erase, And \7hile these granite leaves remain This crystal ribbon marks the place. THE HUDSON. 127 WEST POINT TO NEWBURGH. The steamer sails too near the west bank to (^ivo. a view of the maf^nificent i)lateau with Parade Ground and Government Buildinf^s, hut on rounding- the Point a picture of marvelous beauty breaks at once upon the vision. On the left the massive indented ridge of Old Gro' Nest and Storm King, and on tVie right Mount Taurus, or Bull Hill, and Break Neck, while still further beyond toward the east sweeps the Fishkill ranofe, senti- neled by South Beacon, 1,62.5 feet in height, from whose summit midnight gleams aroused the countryside for leagues and scores of miles in those seven long years when men toiled and prayed for freedom. Glose at hand on the right will be seen Gonstitu- tion Island, formerly the home of Miss Susan Warner, who died in 1885, author of "Queechy " and the " Wide, Wide World." Here the ruins of the old fort are seen. The place was once called Martalaer's Rock Island. A chain was stretched across the river at this point to intercept the passage of boats up the Hudson, but proved ineffectual, like the one at Anthony's Nose, as the impetus of the boats snapped them both like cords. Some years ago, when the first delegation of Apache Indians was brought to Washington to sign a treaty of peace, the In- dians were taken for an " outing " up the Hudson, by General O. O. Howard and Dr. Herman Bendell, Superintendent of Indian Affairs for Arizona. It is said that they noted with cold indif- ference the palaces aloni^ the river front: "the artistic ter- races, ttie well-kept, sloping- lawns, the clipped hedges and the ivy-grown walls made no impression on them, but when the 128 THE HUDSON. magnificent picture of the Hudson above West Point revealed itself, painted by the rays of the sinking- sun, these wild men stood erect, raised their hands high above their heads and ut- tered a monosyllabic expression of delight, which was more ex- pressive than volumes of words." Sir Robert Temple also rises into rapture over the northern Gate of the Highlands. "One of the fairest spectacles to be seen on the earth's surface. Not on any other river or strait— not on Ganges or Indus, on the Dardanelles or the Bosphorus, on the Danube or the Rhine, on the Neva or the Nile— have I ever observed so fairy-like a scene as this on the Hudson. The only water-view to rival it is that of the Sea of Marmora, opposite Constantinople." Most people who visit our river, naturally desire a brilliant sun- lit day for their journey, and with reason, but there are effects, in fog and rain and driving mist, only surpassed amid the Kyles of Bute, in Scotland. The traveler is fortunate, who sees the Hudson in many phases, and under various atmospheric con- ditions. A midnight view is peculiarly impressive when the mountain spirits of Rodman Drake answer to the call of his "Culprit Fay." " 'Tis the middle watch of a summer night, The earth is dark, "but the heavens are bright, The moon looks down on Old Cro' Nest- She mellows the shade on his shaggy breast, And seems his huge grey form to throw In a silver cone on the wave below." It is said that the "Culprit Fay" was written by Drake in three days, and grew out of a discussion which took place in a THE HUDSON. 129 stroll through this part of the Highlands between Irving, Hal- leck, Cooper and himself, as to the filling of a new country with old-time legends. Drake died in 1820. Halleck's lines to his memory are among the sweetest in our language. It is said that Halleck, on hearing Drake read his poem, " The American Flag," sprang to his feet, and in a semi-poetic transport, con- cluded the lines with burning words, which Drake afterwards appended : " Forever float that standard sheet, Where breathes the foe but falls before us, With freedom's soil beneath our feet, And Freedom's banner streaming o'er us." Just opposite Old Cro' Nest is the village of Cold Spring, on the east bank, which receives its name naturally from a cold spring in the vicinity ; and it is interesting to remember that the famous Parrott guns were made at this place, and many im- plements of warfare during our civil strife. The foundry was started by Gouverneur Kemble in 1828, and brought into wide renown by the inventive genius of Major Parrott. A short dis- tance north of the village is Undercliflf, (built by John C. Hamilton, son of Alexander Hamilton, but more particularly associated with the memory of the poet. Col. Geo. P. Morris), lies, in fact, under the cliff and shadow of Mount Taurus, and has a fine outlook upon the river and surrounding mountains. Standing on the piazza, we see directly in front of us Old Cro' Nest, and it was here that the poet wrote : " Where Hudson's wave o'er silvery sands Winds through the hills afar. Old Cro' Nest like a monarch stands Crowned with a single star.'''' 130 THE HUDSON. Few writers were better known in their own day than the poet of Undercliff, who wrote " My Mother's Bible," and " Woodman, Spare that Tree." On one occasion, when Mr. Russell was sing- ing it at Boulogne, an old gentleman in the audience, moved by the simple and touching beauty of the lines, " Forgive the foolish tear, But let the old oak stand," rose and said : "I beg your pardon, but was the tree really spared? " *' It was," answered Mr. Russell, and the old gentle- man resumed his seat, amid the plaudits of the whole assembly. Truly " Its glory and renown Are spread o'er land and sea." The first European name given to Storm King was Klinkers- berg, (so called by Hendrich Hudson, from its glistening and broken rock). It was styled by the Dutch "Butter Hill," from its shape, and, with Sugar Loaf on the eastern side below the Point, helped to set out the tea-table for the Dunderberg gob- lins. It was christened by Willis, " Storm King," and may well be regarded the El Capitan of the Highlands. Breakneck is op- posite, on the east side, where St. Anthony's Face was blasted away. In this mountain solitude there was a shade of reason in giving that solemn countenance of stone the name of St. An- thony, as a good representative of monastic life ; and, by a qui^t sarcasm, the full-length nose below was probably suggested. The mountain opposite Cro' Nest is " Bull Hill," or more clas- sically, " Mt. Taurus." It is said that there was formerly a wild bull in these mountains, which had failed to win the respect and confidence of the inhabitants, so the mountaineers organized a WASHINGTON'S HEADQUARTERS, NEWBURGH. THE HUDSON. 133 hunt and drove him over the hill, whose name stands a monu- ment to his exit. The point at the foot of " Mount Taurus " is known as "Little Stony Point?" The Highlands now trend off to the northeast, and we see North Beacon, or Grand Sachem Mountain, and Old Beacon about half a mile to the north. The mountains were relit with beacon-fires in 1883, in honor of the centennials of Fishkill and Newburgh, and were plainly seen sixty miles distant. This section was known by the Indians as " Wequehache,'' or, "the Hill Country," and the entire range was called by the In- dians "the endless hills," a name not inappropriate to this mountain bulwark. As pictured in our " Long Drama," given at the Newburgh Centennial of the disbanding of the American Army, That ridge along our eastern coast, From Carolina to the Sound, Opposed its front to England's host, And heroes at each pass were found. A vast primeval palisade, With bastions bold and wooded crest, A bulwark strong by nature made To guard the valley of the west. Along its heights the beacons gleamed, It formed the nation's battle-line. Firm as the rocks and cliffs where dreamed The soldier-seers of Palestine. It was also believed by the Indians that, in ancient days, * ' be- fore the Hudson poured its waters from the lakes, the Highlands formed one vast prison, within whose rocky bosom the omnipo- tent Manitou confined the rebellious spirits who repined at his 134 THE HUDSON. control. Here, bound in adamantine chains, or jammed in rifted pines, or crushed by ponderous rocks, they groaned for many an age. At length the conquering Hudson, in its career toward the ocean, burst open their prison-house, rolling its tide triumph- antly through the stupendous ruins." Pollopel's Island, east of the steamer's route, was once re- garded as a haunted spot, but its only witches are said to be snakes too lively to be enchanted. In old times, the "new hands " on the sloops were unceremoniously dipped at this place, so as to be proof-christened against the goblins of the High- lands. Here also another useless " impediment " was put across the Hudson in 1779, a chevaux-de-frise with iron-pointed spikes thirty feet long, hidden under water, strongly secured by cribs of stone. This, however, was not broken and would probably have done effective work if some traitor to the cause had not guided the British captains through an unprotected passage. Cornwall-oii-tlie-Hudson.— This locality N. P. Willis selected as the most picturesque point on the Hudson. The village lies in a lovely valley, which Mr. Beach has styled in his able description, as "an offshoot of the Ramapo, up which the storm-winds of the ocean drive, laden with the i)urest and freshest air." Idlewild, with its pleasant glen and sunny slope, has a beautiful location in the very centre of this charming land- scape, and is one of the points to be visited. The home of the late Rev. E. P. Roe is also near at hand> whose face was a familiar one a few years ago on the Hudson River Day Boats. Edward W. Bok's frequently quoted and appreciative article in one of the Chicago papers, presents this beautiful section in the briefest compass. THE HUDSON, 135 "It is now nearly forty-five years ago since Nathaniel P. Wil- lis first made known his ' Idlewild ' retreat, and more than twenty-five years have passed since he left it to be taken to Mount Auburn, near Boston. The ' Idlewild ' of to-day is still green to the memory of the poet. Since Willis' death the place has passed in turn into various hands, until now it belongs to a wealthy New York lawyer, who has spent thousands of dollars on the house and grounds. The old house still stands, and here and there in the grounds remains a suggestion of the time of Willis. The famous pine-drive leading to the mansion, along which the greatest literary lights of the Knickerbocker period passed dur- ing its palmy days, still remains intact, the dense growth of the trees only making the road the more picturesque. The brook, at which Willis often sat, still runs on through the grounds as of yore. In the house, everything is remodeled and remodernized. The room from whose windows Willis was wont to look over the Hudson, and where he did most of his charming writing, is now a bedchamber, modern in its every appointment, and suggesting its age only by the high ceiling and curious mantel. Only a few city blocks from ' Idlewild ' is the house where lived E. P. Roe, the author of so many popular novels, as numerous, almost, in number as the several hundreds of thousands of circulation which they secured. The Roe house is unoccupied, and has been since the death of the novelist. For a time, the widow and some members of the family resided there, but Mrs. Roe now lives in New York, and the Cornwall place is for sale. There are twenty-three acres to it in all, and, save what was oc- cupied by the house, every inch of ground was utilized by the novelist in his hobby for fine fruits and rare flowers. Now noth- 136 THE HUDSON. ing remains of the beauty once so characteristic of the place. For four years the grounds have missed the care of their creator. Where once were the novelist's celebrated strawberry beds, are now only grass and weeds. Everything is grown over, only a few trees remaining as evidence that the grounds were ever known for their cultivated products. A large board sign an- nounces the fact that the entire place is for sale." Cornwall has been for many years a favorite resort of the Hudson Valley and her roofs shelter in the summer season prob- ably six thousand people. The road completed in 1876, from Cornwall to West Point, is too steep for bicycling, but a pedes- trian stroll or a ride in a well-springed carriage gives one a pleasant acquaintance with the wooded Highlands. It passes over the plateau of Cro' Nest and winds down the Cornwall slope of Storm King. The tourist who sees Cro' Nest and Storm King only from the river, has but little idea of their extent. Cro' Nest plateau is about one thousand feet above the Parade Ground of West Point, and overlooks it as a rocky balcony. These mountains, with their wonderful lake system, are, in fact, the "Central Park" of the Hudson. Within a radius of ten miles are clustered over forty lakes, and we very much doubt if one person in a thousand ever heard of them. A convenient map giving the physical geography of this section would be of great service to the mountain visitor. The Cornwall pier, built by the Neiv YorTc, Ontario and Western Bailroad in 1892 for coal and freight purposes, will be seen on our left near the Cornwall dock. This railroad leaves the West Shore at this point and forms a pleasant tourist route to the beautiful inland villages and resorts of the State. THE HUDSON. 137 NEWBURGH TO POUGHKEEPSIE. Newburgh, (60 miles from New York, population 24,536). Approaching the city of Newburgh, we see a building of rough stone, one story high, with steep roof — known as Washington's Headquarters. For several years prior to, and during the Revo- lution, this was the home of Jonathan Hasbrouck, known far and wide for business integrity and loyalty to liberty. This house was built b}' him, apparently, in decades ; the oldest part, the north-east corner, in 1750; the south-east corner, in 1760, and the remaining half in 1770. It fronted west on the King's high- way, now known as Liberty street, with a garden and family burial plot to the east, lying between the house and the river. It was restored as nearly as possible to its original character on its purchase by the State in 1849, and it is now the treasure- house of many memories, and of valuable historic relics. A descriptive catalogue, prepared for the trustees, under act of May 11, 1874, by a patient and careful historian, Dr. E. M. Rut- tenber, will be of service to the visitor and can be obtained on the grounds. The following facts, condensed from his admirable historical sketch, are of practical interest : '* Washington's Headquarters, or the Hasbrouck house, is situated in the south-east part of the city, constructed of rough stone, one story high, fifty-six feet front by forty-six feet in depth, and located on what was originally Lot No. 2, of the German Patent, with title vested in Heman Schoneman, a native of the Palatinate of Germany, who sold, in 1721, to James 138 THE HUDSON. Alexander, who subsequently sold to Alexander Golden and Burg-er Meynders, by whom it was conveyed to Jonathan Hasbrouck, the grandson of Abraham Hasbrouck, one of the Huguenot founders of New Paltz. He was a man of marked character ; of fine physique, being six feet and four inches in height ; was colonel of the militia of the district, and in frequent service in guarding the passes of the Highlands. His occupa- tion was that of a farmer, a miller, and a merchant. He died in 1780. The first town meeting for the Precinct of Newburgh was held here on the first Tuesday in April, 1763, when its owner was elected supervisor. Public meetings continued to be held here for several years. During the early part of the Revolution, the Committee of Safety, of the Precinct, assembled here ; here military companies were organized, and here the regiment which Col. Hasbrouck commanded assembled, to move hence to the defence of the Highland forts. Prom this brief outline, it will be seen that the building is singularly associated with the history of the Old as well as of the New World : with the former through the original grantee of the land, recalling the wars which devastated the Palatinate and sent its inhabitants, fugitive and penniless, to other parts of Europe and to America ; through his successor with the Huguenots of France, and, through the public meetings which assembled here, and especially through its occupation by Wash- ington, with the struggle for American Indepandence. In the spring of 1782 Washington made this building his Headquarters, and remained here until August 18th, 1783, on the morning of which day he took his departure from Newburgh. At this place he passed through the most trying period of the THE HUDSON. 139 Revolution : the year of inactivity on the part of Congress, of distress throughout tl[^ country, and of complaint and discon- tent in the army, the latter at one time bordering on revolt among the officers and soldiers. It was at this place, on the 22d day of May, 1782, that Col. Nicola, on behalf of himself and others, proposed that Wash- ington should become King, for the "national advantage," a proposal that was received by Washington with " surprise and astonishment," "viewed with abhorrence," and "reprehended with severity." The temptation which was thus repelled by Washington, had its origin with that portion of the officers of the army, who, while giving their aid heartily to secure an inde- pendent government, nevertheless believed that that govern- ment should be a monarchy. The rejection of the proposition by Washington was not the only significant result. The rank ahd file of the army rose up against it, and around their camp- fires chanted their purpose in Billings' song, "No King but God I " From that hour a Republic became the only possible form of government for the enfranchised Colonies. The inattention of Congress to the payment of the army, dur- ing the succeeding winter, gave rise to an equally important episode in the history of the war. On the 10th of March, 1783, the first of the famous " Newburgh Letters" was issued, in which, by implication at least, the army was advised to revolt. The letter was followed by an anonymous manuscript notice for a public meeting of officers on -the succeeding Tuesday. Wash- ington was equal to the emergency. He expressed his disap- probation of the whole proceeding, and with great wisdom, re- quested the field officers, with one commissioned officer from 140 THE HUDSON. each company, to meet on the Saturday preceding the time ap- pointed by the anonymous notice. He«attended this meeting- and delivered before it one of the most touching and effective addresses on record. When he closed his remarks, the officers unanimously resolved "to reject with disdain" the infamous proposition contained in the anonymous address. The meeting of officers referred to was held at the New Build- ing, or " Temple " as it was called, in New Windsor, but Wash- ington's address was written at his Headquarters. The " New- burgh Letters," to which it was a reply, were written by Major John Armstrong, Aid-de-Camp to General Gates. The anony- mously called meeting was not held. The motives of its projec- tors we will not discuss ; but its probable effect, had it been suc- cessful, must be considered in connection with Washington's en- comium of the result of the meeting which he had addressed : "Had this day been wanting, the world had never known the height to which human greatness is capable of attaining." Notice of the cessation of hostilities was proclaimed to the army April 19th, 1783. It was received with great rejoicings by the troops at Newburgh, and under Washington's order, was the occasion of an appropriate celebration. In the evening, signal Beacon lights proclaimed the joyous news to the surrounding country. Thirteen cannon came pealing up from Fort Putnam, which were followed by afeu-de-jok rolling along the lines. The mountain sides resounded and echoed like tremendous peals of thunder, and the flashing from thousands of fire-arms, in the darkness of the evening, was like unto vivid flashes of lightning from the clouds. From this time furloughs were freely granted to soldiers who wished to return to their homes, and when the THE HUDSON. 141 army was finally disbanded those absent were discharged from service without being- required to return. That portion of the army, which remained at Newburgh on guard duty, after the removal of the main body to West Point in June, were partici- pants here in the closing scenes of the disbandment, when, on the morning of November 3rd, 1783, the proclamation of Con- gress and the farewell orders of Washington were read, and the last word of command given.'' From Hon. John J. Monell's "Handbook of Washington's Headquarters " we also quote a general description of the house and its appearance when occu- pied by the Commander-in-Chief. "Washington's family con- sisted of himself, his wife, and his Aid-de-Camp, Major Tench Tighlman. The large room, which is entered from the piazza on the east, known as ' the room with seven doors and one win- dow,' was used as the dining and sitting-room. The northeast room was Washington's bedroom and the one adjoining it on the left was occupied by him as a private office. The family room was that in the south-east ; the kitchen was the southwest room ; the parlor the northwest room. Between the latter and the former was the hall and staircase and the store-room, so called for hav- ing been used by Col. Hasbrouck and subsequently by his widow as a store. The parlor was mainly reserved for Mrs. Washing- ton and her guests. A Mrs. Hamilton, whose name frequently appears in Washington's account book, was his housekeeper, and in the early part of the war made a reputation for her zeal in his service, which Thacher makes note of and Washington acknowl- edges in his reference to an exchange of salt. There was little room for the accommodation of guests, but it is presumed that the chambers were reserved for that purpose. Washington's 142 THE HUDSON. guests, however, were mainly connected with the army and had quarters elsewhere. Even Lafayette had rooms at DeGrove's Hotel when a visitor at Headquarters. ''The building is now substantially in the condition it was during- Washington's occupation of it. The same massjve tim- bers span the ceiling ; the old fire-place with its wide-open chimney is ready for the huge back-logs of yore ; the seven doors are in their places ; the rays of the moi ning sun still stream through the one window ; no alteration in form has been made in the old piazza — the adornments on the walls, if such the ancient hostess had, have alone been changed for souvenirs of the heroes of the nation's independence. In presence of these sur- roundings, it requires but little effort of the imagination to restore the 'departed guests. Forgetting not that this was Washing- ton's private residence, rather than a place for the transaction of public business, we may, in the old sitting-room respread the long oaken table, listen to the blessing invoked on the morning meal, hear the cracking of joints, and the mingled hum of conversation. The meal dispensed, Mrs. Washington retires to appear at her flower beds or in her parlor to receive her morning calls. Colfax, the captain of the Life-Guard, enters to receive the orders of the day— perhaps a horse and guard for Washington to visit New Windsor, or a barge for Fishkill or West Point, is required ; or it may be Washington remains at home and at his writing desk coiaducts his corres- pondence, or dictates orders for army movements. The pld arm-chair, sitting in the corner yonder, is still ready for its former occupant. ^' The dinner hour of five o'clock approaches ; the guests of the THE HUDSON. 143 day have already arrived. Steuben, the iron drill-master and German soldier of fortune, converses with Mrs. Washington. He has reduced the simple marksmen of Bunker Hill to the discipline of the armies of Europe and tested their efficiency in the din of battle. He has leisure now, and scarcely knows how to find employment for his active, mind. He is telling- his host- ess, in broken German-English, of the whale (it proved to be an eel) he had cauoht in the river. Hear his hostess laugh ! And that is the voice of Lafayette, relating perhaps his adventures in escaping from France, or his mishap in attempting to attend Mrs. Knox's last party. Wayne, of Stony Point ; Gates, of Saratoga; Clinton, the Irish-blooded Governor of New York, and their compatriots — we may place them all at times beside our rater Patrice in this old room, and hear amid the mingled hum his voice declare: "Happy, thrice happy, shall they be pronounced hereafter, who have contributed anything, who have jjerformed the meanest office in erecting this stupendous fabric of Freedom and Empire on the broad basis of independency ; who have assisted in protecting the rights of human nature, and in establishing an asylum for the poor and oppressed of all nations and religions." ''In France; some fifty years after the Revolution, Marbois reproduced, as an entertainment for Lafayette, then an old man, this old sitting-room and its table scene. From his elegant saloon he conducted his guests, among whom were several Americans, to the room which he had prepared. There was a large open fire-place, and plain oaken floors ; the ceiling was supported with large beams and whitewashed ; there were the seven small-sized doors and one window with heavy sash 144 THE HUDSON. and small panes of glass. The furniture was plain and unlike any then in use. Down the centre of the room was an oaken table covered with dishes of meat and vegetables, decanters and bottles of wine, and silver mug-s and small wine glasses. The whole had something the appearance of a Dutch kitchen. While the guests were looking around in surprise at this strange pro- cedure, the host, addressing himself to them said, ' Do you know where we now are ? ' Lafayette looked around, and, as if awakening from a dream, he exclaimed, ' Ah I the seven doors and one window, and the silver camp goblets such as the Mar- shals of France used in my youth. We are at Washington's Headquarters on the Hudson fifty years ago.' "' The Hasbrouck family returned to their old home, made his- toric for all time, after the disbandment of the army and re- mained until it became the property of the State. On July 4th, 1850, the place was formally dedicated by Major General Win- field Scott, Dedicatory Address delivered by John J. Monell, an Ode by Mary E. Monell, and an oration by Hon. John W. Ed- munds. The Centennial of the Disbanding of the Army was observed here October 18th, 1883. After the noonday procession of 10,000 men in line, three miles in length, with Governors and representative people from almost every State, 150,000 people, **ten acres" square, gathered in the historic grounds, Senator Bayard, of Delaware, was chairman of the day, Hon. William M. Evarts was the orator, and modestly speaking in the third person, Wallace Bruce, author of this hand-book, was the poet. No one there gathered can ever forget that afternoon of glorious sunlight or the noble pageant. The great mountains, which had so frequently been the bulwark of liberty and a place of THE HUDSON. 145 refuge for our fathers, were all aglow with beauty, as if, like Horeb's bush, they too would open their lips in praise and thanksgiving. One of the closing sentences of Senator Evarto' address is unsurpassed in modern or ancient eloquence : '^ These rolling years have shown growth, forever growth, and strength, increasing strength, and wealth and numbers ever expanding, while intelligence, freedom, art, culture and religion have per- vaded and ennobled all this material greatness. Wide, how- ever, as is our land and vast our population to-day, these are not the limits to the name, the fame, the power of the life and character of Washington. If it could be imagined that this nation, rent by disastrous feuds, broken in its unity, should ever present the miserable spectacle of the undefiled garments of his fame parted among his countrymen, while for the seamless vesture of his virtue they cast lots— if this unutterable shame, if this immeasurable crime, should overtake this land and this people, be sure that no spot in the wide world is inhospitable to his glory, and no people in it but rejoices in the influence of his power and his virtue." In his lofty sentences the old heroes seemed to pass again in review before us, and the daily life of that heroic band, when Congress sat inactive and careless of its needs until the camp rose in mutiny, happily checked, how- ever, by Washington in a single sentence. It will be remem- bered that he began to read his manuscript without glasses, but was compelled to stop, and, as he adjusted them to his eyes, he said, "You see, gentlemen, that I have not only grown gray, but blind, in your service." It is needless to say that the "anony- mously called " meeting was not held. 146 THE HUDSON. He quelled the half -paid mutineers, And bound them closer to the cause ; His presence turned their wrath to tears, Their muttered threats to loud applause. The great Republic had its birth That hour beneath the army's wing, Whose leader taught by native worth ' The man is grander than the king. i Near at hand, and also i)lainly seen from the ri\'H3r, is the new Tower of Victory, fifty-three feet high, costin<^ $67,000. It con- tains a life-size statue of Washing-ton, in the act of sheathinj,'- his suin-d, with l)ron/:e figures representing the Ilifie, the Artillery, the Line Officer and Dragoon service of our country, with a bronze tablet on the east wall bearing the inscription : "This monument was erected under the authority of the Congress of the United States, and of the State of New York, in commemo- ration of the disbandment, under in-oclamation of the Continen- tal Congress, of October 18, 178.3, of the armies, by whose patriotic and military virtue, our national independence and sovereignty were established." The Belvidere, reached by a spiral staircase, is capable of holding one hundred persons, and the view therefrom takes in a wide extent of panoramic beauty. Newburgh has not only reason to be proud of her historical land- marks and her beautiful situation, but also of her commercial prosperity. In olden times, it was a great centre for all the western and southwestern district, farmers and lumbermen coming from long distances in the interior. Soon after the Revolution she was made a village, when there were only two others in the State. Before the days of the Erie canal, this THE HUDSONo 147 was the the shortest route to Lake Erie, and was made by stage, via Ithaca. With increasing facilities of railway communica- tion, she has also easily held her own against all commercial rivals. The West Shore Railroad, the Erie Bailway, the New York Central and the New York and New England across the river, and several Hudson river steamers, make her peculiarly central for Hudson river traffic. The city is also favored with beautiful driveways, amid charming country seats. The New Paltz road passes the site where General Wayne had his head- quarters, also, the " Balm of Gilead tree," which gave the name of Balmville to the suburban locality. Another road affords a glimpse of the " Vale of Avoca,'' named after the well-known glen in Ireland, of which Tom Moore has sweetly sung. Here, some say, a treacherous attempt was made on the life of Wash- ington, but it is not generally credited by critical historians. As the steamer leaves the dock, and we look back upon the fac- tories and commercial houses along the water front, crowned by noble streets of residence, with adjoining plateau, sweeping back in a vast semi-circle as a beautiful framework to the wide bay, we do not wonder that Hendrich Hudson established a prophetic record by writing " a very pleasant place to build a town." Fishkill-on-the-Hudson, (population 3,617). Directly op- posite Newburgh, one mile north of Denning's Point, (formerly the eastern dock of the Newburgh ferry), rises on a pleasant slope, the newer Fishkill of this region. A little more than a mile from the Landing, is the manufacturing village of Matteawan, closely connected by an electric railroad, and both towns, thus blended and joined, number about 11,000 people. Old Fishkill, or Fishkill Village, is about four miles inland, charmingly loca- 148 THE HUDSON. ted, under the slope of the Fishkill range. This was once the largest village in Dutchess county, and was chosen for its secure position above the Highlands, as the place to which " should be removed the treasury and archives of the State, also, as the spot for holding the subsequent sessions of the Provincial Conven- tions," after they were driven from New York. A historical sketch of the town, by T. Van Wyck Brinkerhoff, presents many things of interest. " Its history, anterior to 1682, belongs to the red men of the valley, and, more than any other spot, this was the home of their priests. Here they ])erformed their in- cantations and administered at their altars." According to Broadhead, "It would seem that the neighboring Indians es- teemed the peltries from Fishkill as charmed by the incanta- tions of the aboriginal enchanters who lived along its banks, and the beautiful scenery in which those ancient priests of the High- lands dwelt, is thus invested with new poetic associations." Dunlap speaks of them as " occupying the Highlands, called by them Kittatenny mountains. Their principal settlement, desig- nated Wiccapee, was situated in the vicinity of Anthony's Nose. Here too, lived the Wappingers, a war-like and brave tribe, ex- tending themselves along the Matteawan, along the Wappin- gers Kill and tributaries, along the Hudson, and to the north- ward, across the river into Ulster county. These and other tribes to the south, west and north, were parts of and tributaries to the great Iroquois confederation — the marvel for all time to come of a system of government so wise and politic, and for men so eloquent and daring. The Wappingers took part in the Dutch and Indian Wars of 16-43, and 1663, led on by their war- chiefs, Wapperonk and Aepjen. A few Indian names are still THE HUDSON. J 49 remaining, and a few traces of their history still left standing. The name Matteawan is Indian, signifying ' Good Beaver Grounds,' and the name Wappinger still speaks of those who once owned the soil along the Hudson. Their name for the stream was Mawanassigh, or Mawenawasigh. Wiccapee and Shenondoah are also Indian names of places in Fishkill Hook, and East Fishkill, and Apoquague, still surviving as the name of a country post-office, was the Indian style of what is now called Silver Lake, signifying 'round pond.' In Fishkill Hook until quite recently, there were traces of their burial grounds, and many apple and j^ear trees are still left standing, set there by the hands of the red man before the country had been occu- pied by Europeans." To return to Brinkerhoff, "The first purchase of land in the county of Dutchess, was made in the town of Fishkill. On the 8th day of February, 1682, a license was given by Thomas Don- gan, Commander-in-chief of the Province of New York, to Fran- cis Rombout and Gulian Ver Planck, to purchase a tract of land from the Indians. Under this license, they bought, on the 8th day of August, 1083, of the Wappinger Indians, all their right, title and interest to a certain large tract of land, afterward known as the Rombout precinct. Gulian Ver Planck died before the English patent was issued by Governor Dongan ; Stephanus Van Cortland was then joined in it with Rombout, and Jacobus Kipp substituted as the representative of the children of Gulian Ver Planck. On the 17th day of October, 1685, letters patent, under the broad seal of the Province of New York, were granted by King James the Second, and the parties to whom these let- ters patent were granted, became from that time the undisputed 150 THE HUDSON. proprietors of the soil. There were 76,000 acres of these lands lying in Fishkill, and other towns taken from the patent, and 9,000 acres lying in the limits of the town of Poughkeepsie. Be- sides paying the natives, as a further consideration for the privi- lege of their license, they were to pay the Commander-in-chief, Thomas Dongan, six bushels of good and merchantable winter wheat every year." .In the Hook of Patents, at Albany, Vol. 5, page 72, will be found the deed, of special interest to the his- torian and antiquarian. '•After the evacuation of New York, in the fall of 1776, and the immediate loss of the seaboard, with Long Island and part of New Jersey, Fishkill was at once crowded with refugees, as they were then called, who sought, by banishing themselves from their homes on Long Island and New York, to esca])e im- prisonment and find safety here. The interior army rout^ to Boston passed through this place. Army stores, workshops, ammunition, etc., were established and deposited hero." The Marquis De Chastellux, in his travels in North America, says? "This town, in which there are not more than fifty houses in the space of two miles, has been long the principal depot of the American Army. It is there they have placed their magazines, their hospitals, their workshops, etc., but all of these form a town in themselves, composed of handsome large barracks, built in the woods at the foot of the mountains : for the American Army, like the Romans in many respects, have hardly any other winter quarters than wooden towns, or barricaded camps, which may be compared to the 'hiemalia' of the Romans." These barracks were situated on the level plateau between the resi- dence of Mr. Cotheal and the mountains. Portions of these THE HUDSON. 151 grounds were no doubt then covered with timber. Guarding the ai^proach from the south, stockades and fortifications were erected on commanding positions, and regularly manned by detachments from the camp. "Upon one of these hills, rising out of this mountain pass-way, very distinct lines of earthworks are yet apparent. Near the residence of Mr. Sidney E. Van Wyck, by the large black- wal- nut trees, and east of the road near the base of the mountain, was the soldiers' burial ground. Many a poor patriot soldier's bones lie mouldering there ; and if we did but know how many, we would be startled at the number, for this almost unknown and unnoticed burial ground holds not a few, but hundreds of those who gave their lives for the cause of American Independ- ence. Some fifteen years ago, an old lady who had lived near the village until after she had grown to womanhood, told the writer that after the battle of White Plains she went with her father through the streets of Fishkill, and in places between the Dutch and Episcopal Churches, the dead were piled up like cord- wood. Those who died from wounds in battle or from sickness in hospital were buried there. ' Many of these were State militia- men, and it seems no more than just that the State should make an appropriation to erect a suitable monument over this spot. Rather than thus remain for another century, if a rough granite boulder were rolled down from the mountain side and inscribed : " To the unknown and unnumbered dead of the American Revo- lution," that rough unhewn stone would tell to the stranger and the passer-by, more to the praise and fame of our native town, than any of us shall be able to add to it by works of our own; for it is doubtful whether any spot in the State has as many of 152 THE HUDSON. the buried dead of the Revohition as this quiet burial yard in our old town ! " Here also on June 2d, 1883, was observed '' The Fishkill Centennial " with addresses by Hon. Theodoric R. West- brook, J. Hervey Cook, and Hon. James G. Graham ; and few of our Centennials have been celebrated amid objects of greater Revolutionary interest. Near at hand, to quote from the official report of the proceedings, is " Denning's Point where Washing- ton frequently, while waiting, tied his horses under those mag- nificent 'Washington oaks,' as he passed backward and forward from New Windsor and Newburgh to Fishkill. Near by is the Verplanck House, Baron Steuben's old headquarters. On Spy Hill and Continental Hill troops were quartered. At Mattea- wan Sackett lived, and there is the Teller House built by Madame Brett, where officers frequently resorted, and there Yates dwelt when he presided over the Legislative body while it held its sessions in Fishkill, that had much to do with forming our first State Constitution. Baron Steuben was for a while in the old Scofield house at Glenham. In Fishkill are those re- nowned old churches where Legislative sittings were held, which were also used as hospitals for the sick, and one of which is otherwise known as being the place where Enoch Crosby, the spy, was imprisoned, and from which he escaped. Near at hand the Wharton House, (Van Wyck House) forever associated with him, and made famous by Cooper's ' Spy.' In the Brincker- hoff House above, Lafayette was dangerously ill with a fever, and there at Swartwoutville Washington was often a visitor. Whenever Washington was at Fishkill he made Col. Brincker- hoff's his headquarters. He occupied the bedroom back of the parlor, which remains the same ' excepting a door that opens THE HUDSON. 153 into the hall, which has been cut throut^h.' It is an old- fashioned house built of stone, with the date 1738 on one of its gables." With the story of Fishkill we close the largest page relating to our Revolutionary heroes, and leave behind us the Old Beacon Mountains which forever sentinel and proclaim their glory. Low Point, or Carthage, is a small village on the east bank, about four miles north of Fishkill. It was called by the early inhabitants Low Point, as New Hamburgh, two miles north, was called High Point. Opposite Carthage is Roseton, once known as Middlehope, and above this we see the residence of Bancroft Davis and the Armstrong Mansion. We now behold on the west bank a large flat rock, covered with cedars, recently marked by a light-house, the — Duyvers Dans Kammer.— Here Hendrich Hudson, in his voyage up the river, witnessed an Indian pow-wow — the first re- corded fire-works in a country whitih has since delighted in rock- ets and pyrotechnic displays. Here, too, in later years, tradi- tion relates the sad fate of a wedding party. It seems that a Mr. Hans Hansen and a Miss Kathrina Van Voorman, with a few friends, were returning from Albany, and disregarding the old Indian prophecy, were all slain : — " For none that visit the Indian's den Return a^ain to the haunts of men. The knife is their doom I O sad is their lot I Beware, beware of the blood-stained spot 1 " Some years ago this spot was also searched for the buried treasures of Captain Kidd, and we know of one river pilot who still dreams semi-yearly of thei-e finding countless chests of gold. IM TUK HIPSOX. ■r\\\> tnllos alxno. on the oa.^t siuo. \vt^ puss Now Uaniburiih, at the mouth of WiH^p^^^.^'^"^ l^vok. Tho luuuo Wa^piugvr had it« ariiriu fivui Walnm. oast, and Aoki, land. This triln?, a sulv-tril>o of the Mahioaus, hoUi the oust l>tuik of tho rlvor, fixnxi Manhattan to KivUtYo Janson s Civok. whioh omptios into tho Hudson near LiyiuiT^ton, a fow miles stnith of Catskill Station on the lluds^m Riwr Uailnvul. Passiujr Hau\pton l\nnt we see MarlUnvuiih, the head-vvntiv of a lar^v fruit industry, deliirht fully Uvated in tho sholtoiwl v^***^ ^*f *^^*^ MauuekilU On the east Uvnk will In? uotiiXHl sOYoral fine ivsidon^vs : S. W. Johnstni's *' Uplands/' J. F. i>heafs " Fliirh CUtT." Or. J. Lenox liiu\k's 'H\Hlai-s," and Irvinvr iri*inneirs ** Netherwvxid." Miltoi\ is now at hand on the wost l^auk, with its <.\«y landiuirand llcsT iS^»ir HailnkHi station. This pleast^nt villaiTv^ was one of the Un-tnl s^x^ts of .1. G. Hol- land, and tho home of Mary VlalUx'k Fvxne. nntil a m^xlern "Hiawatha " Ux»k our Huds^^n '* Minnehaha ■* to far aw;»y west- ern mountains, but millions of ivadei-s aiv still made happy alike by her ^xni and jx^neiL lAxnist Gi\>ve, re&idemv of the late I>v>f. S. F. l^. Morse, in- ventor of the telegraph, is seen on the west Ivuik; also the ' LiX»kout," omv known as Mine Hill, now a jvart of Poujrhkeoiisie *. emetery, with eharminjr drive-way to the w^xxknl ixnnt. where the victor ean smpletion of this drive is lar^rely due to the eutoi^ priso of the late Mr. lkx>rkout takes in the river for ten miles to the south, and roaehes on the north to the Catskills. In a reeont n»mble with Mr. (. orlies over I>x»kout IVint. he told the writer that it was 'I' J II'; jicDSON'. 155 of-i^Mtiully 1,li<; \)\ir\)<)r.<: of M;i,U,h<;w Va.s.sar to or-<;r;i a rnonurfiont ofi I 'ollop«-,rs lsl;i,nr| l.o \\(;i\i\r\(:\i ll'idso/j. Alf. f 'oflios Huj;}.;r;Hl(;d UiiH point, as iho rriOHt cornrnarnlinj.; Hito. Mr. VaHHar viKitod it, anf) (;on<;lu(lo(J U) pIa(;o tho rnoriurnorit [joro. Ho piihliK?ir;fl an ;u-ticJ<; in t}i<; I'oii^hk'iopsio pui>crs U> this <;fTo<;t, and, rnr;f;tinLf Mf. OjflioH onr; wcok aflxir-wa/'dy, wild, "Not ouc jiorson in th<; cJty of roijM-hk(!(!f)Hio lias r<;f«;rrf;d U> rriy nionijni«;nt. I havo MORNINf) VFKW AT HIJIK POINT. df!(;idf;d to ])uild a CJollo^j-o for Wr)fnrdered with hundreds of foi*est trees of every variety. The windows comn\and a grand view of many miles of river and forest, from the Catskills to the High- lands. Fifty yeai-s ago, on the 15th of June, 1830, the Pough- koe])sie CoUeg'iate School received its charter a-^ one of the legally authorized institutions of the State of New York. It was established on C\>lleg'e hill, 18ot>, but by changre of locality— more convenient in every particular from College hill to Kiverview — it lx?came Kiverview Academy. On June ir)th, 1880. in connec- tion with the closing- exercises of the year the 50th anniversiiry of the school was celebrated. Boys are thoroughly titted for college, the scientific school, and business. Candidates from Kiverview have recently passed unconditionally at Harvard, Yale. Princeton, Williams, Bowdoin, Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Sheffield Scientific School, and Worcester Free In- stitute. Many young- men who have not g:one to coUetre, but who now hold good business positions in various parts of the country, will gladly bear testimony to the thoroughness and helpfulness of their work at Riverview. 'J'llK IJITDSON. ]<).■{ Am()rii4" many siK^cM.'Hsful j)ul)li(; institutions of J 'ou;^hk(3opsio are the VasHar Honpital, the Vassar Old Men's Home, the Old Ladies' Home, the Public Library and the Vassar Institute of Arts and Sciences. The V)est known of its clubs are the Amrita, the Dutchess and the Bicycle. The Opera House is one of the plcasantcst in the country and received a hij^h comment from Joseph JelTerson for its perfect acoustic quality. A new Armory also claims the attention of the visitor. Several factories are here located, the best known beinj^ the Adriance, Piatt & Co. iiuckeye Mower and Reai)er establishment. This firm com- menced the manufacture and sale of the Buckeye Mower, at I*oii;,»-hkoepsie, with sal(3srooms in New York in 1857 and 1858. Their <;ontinually increasing'- })nsiness shows the g-reat excellence of their work and they hav«i attained such skill in manufacturing tliat their reputation is world-wide. It would be safe to say that three-fourths of the meadows in the Kiver Valley are ci-opiKid by tli(MSON. of the roadways of England. Returning- one ean take a road to the left leading- by and up to CoUegre Hill, 305 feet in height, commanding- a wide and extensive prospect. The city lies below ns, fully embowered as in a wooded park. To the east the vision extends to the mountain boundaries of Dutchess County, and to the north we have a view of the Catskills marshalled as we have seen them a thousand times in sunset beauty along- the horizon. This projv erty, for a long- time owned by Senator Morg-an and his heirs, has been recently purchased by William Smith of Poughkeepsie, and given to the city as a public park. Thei'e is ample oppor- tunity here to make this a thing- of wondrous beauty and a joy forever, for there are few views on the Hudson, and none from any hill of its heig'ht, that surpass it in extent and beauty. The City Reservoir lies to the north, about one hundred feet down the slope of Colleg-e Hill. The South Drive, also a part of the Post Road, passes the gateway of the beautiful Rural Cemetery, Locust Grove and many delig-htful homes. The drive to and throug-h the grounds of Irving- Grinnell are especially pleasant. The village of Wap- ping-ers Falls may be visited on the return journey, also New Hackensack, reaching Poughkeepsie by the Vassar College road, or past the entrance to the well-known Poughkeepsie Driving Park. Another interesting- drive from Poughkeepsie is to Lake ^Slohonk and Minnewaska, well-known resorts across the Hudson, "in the heai-t of the Shawangunk ( pronounced Shongum) Mountains, also reached by railway or stages via New Platz. The graceful little steamer, christened "Queen City,'' also suggests a pleasant way for a party to spend the day THE JJUJJSON. 105 visitirij^'^ points u[) oi- down tlio rivor, picnicing' hero and tbcro along tho nhoro. There are also many extended drives to the interior of the county recommended to the traveler who makes l*oughkeepsie for a time his central point ; chief among these, Chestnut Ridge, formerly the home of the historian Benson J. Lossing-, lying amid the hill country of eastern Dutchess. Its m(3an altitude is about 1100 feet above tide water, a fragment of the Blue Ridge branch of the Appalachian chain of mountains, cleft by the Hudson at West Point, stretchinj? away to the Berkshire Hills. It is ali?o easy of access by tho Harlem liail- 7'oad from New York to Dover Plains with three miles of car- riage drive from that point. The outlook from the ridge is magnilicent ; a sweep of eighty miles from the Highlands to the Helderbergs, with the entire range of the Shawangunk and the Catskills. Mr. Lossing- once said that his family of nine I)crsons had required during sixteen years residence on Chest- nut Ridge, only ten dollars' worth of medical attendance. Pre- vious to 1868 he had resided in Poughkeepsie, and throughout his life his form was a familiar one in her streets. The Dover Stone Churcli, just west of Dover Plains vil- lage, is also wiiW worth a visit. Here a small stream has worn out a remarkable cavern in the rocks forming a gothic arch for entrance. It lies in a wooded gorge within easy walk from the village. Many years ago the writer of this hand-book paid it an afternoon visit, and the picture has remained imi)ressed with wonderful vividness. The archway opens into a solid rock, and aetream of water issues from the threshold. On entering the visitor is confronted by an old-fashioned New England pulpit reaching half way to tho ceiling. The walls are almost per- ]G6 THE HUDSON. fectly arched, and garnished here and there with green moss and white lichen. A rift in the rocks extends the whole length of the chapel, over which trees hang their green foliage, which, ever rustling and trembling, form a trellis-work with the blue sky, while the spray rising from behind the rock- worn altar seems like the sprinkling of holy incense. After all these years I still hear the voice of those dashing waters and dream again, as I did that day, of the brook of Cherith where ravens fed the prophet of old. It is said by Lossing, in his booklet on the Dover Stone Church, that Sacassas, the mighty sachem of the Pequoids and emperor over many tribes between the Thames and the Hudson River, was compelled after a disastrous battle which annihilated his warriors, to fly for safety, and, driven from point to point, he at last found refuge in this cave, where undiscovered he sub- sisted for a few days on berries, until at last he made his way through the territory of his enemies, the Mahicans, to the land of the Mohawks. THE HUDSON. 1G7 FROIVI POUGHKEEPSIE TO RHINECLIFF. Leaving- the Poughkeepsie dock the steamer approaches the Poughkeepsie Bridge which, from Blue Point and miles be- low, has seemed to the traveler like a delicate bit of lace- work athwart the landscape, or like an old fashioned "valance" which used to hang from Dutch bedsteads in the Hudson river farm houses. This great cantilever structure, the pet scheme of the late President Eastman, was begun in 1873 but abandoned for several years. The work was resumed in 1886 just in time to save the charter, and was finished by the Union Bridge Com- pany in less than three years. The bridge is 12,608 feet in length (or about two miles and a half), the track being 212 feet above the water with 165 feet clear above the tide in the centre span. The breadth of the river at this point is 3,094 feet. The bridge cost over three million dollars and is now controlled by a company which manages it in the interest of the Philadelphia and Heading Hailroad. It not only affords a delightful passen- ger route between Philadelphia and Boston, but also brings the coal centres of Pennsylvania to the very threshold of New England. Two railroads from the east centre here, and what was once considered an idle dream, although bringing personal loss to many stockholders, has been of material prosperity to Poughkeepsie. It hardly seems twenty years ago since the writer copied in one of his early Guide Books the following from President Eastman's enthusiastic prospectus ; "The Hudson River is one of the great natural boundaries dividing the United States into two grand divisions or sections. 168 THE HUDSON. The New England States, east of the Hudson, including- New York City, contain one-seventh of the whole population of the United States, and control more than one-haJf the manufacturimj of the nation. These States are the most active and wealthy, and their business interests and capital are nearly equal to those of all the rest of the Union. The great crossing places on the Hudson, over which now pass all the mighty streams of trade and travel between this great section of country and the wider and more rapidly growing West, are but two : one at Albany and Troy, the other at New York." The route to Hartford, crossing the Harhm and the Hoiisa- tonic Bailwads, is picturesque and delightful. As the steamer passes under the bridge the traveler will see on the left High- land Station ( TFt'^f Shoi-e BaU wad) and abo\e this the old land- ing of New Paltz. A well traveled road winds from the ferry and the station, up a narrow defile by the side of a dashing stream, broken here and there in waterfalls, on to Highland Village, New Paltz and Lake Mohonk. Chestnut Grove, crown- ing a bluff near the western terminus of the bridge, was for many years a favorite picnic ground, and near at hand is the Highland Station of the Philadelphia and Bmding Bailroad. Above Poughkeepsie are many pleasant residences; promi- nent among them F. J. Allen's, proprietor of the Astor House, New York, the late John F. Winslow's, Mrs. Thomas Newbold's, J. Roosevelt's and Archie Rogers'. The large red buildings above the Poughkeepsie Water Works are the Hudson River State Hospital. Passing Crum Elbow point on the left and the Sisters of the White Cross Orphan Asylum, we see THE HUDSON. 171 Hyde Park, ( 80 miles from New York, ) on the east bank, named some say, in honor of Lady Ann Hyde ; according to others, after Sir Edward Hyde, one of the early British Gover- nors of the colony. The village lies on a bluff one mile from the river. The first prominent place above Hyde Park, Greek in style, is the residence of Walter Langdon ; above this a villa oi the Italian order, known as Drayton Hall. Then "Gros Bois," owned now by Robert T. Lord, formerly " Placentia," the home of James K. Paulding. What a commentary on literary fame and ambition! Even the name of his house changed! Has it come to this that Paulding is only to be remembered as a friend of Washington Irving ? or as a mere associate in writing some of his early essays ? And that too, when a few years ago he was regarded the most popular story-teller of his day, the author of " The Dutchman's Fireside," and thirty or forty other novels whose very names have now passed from the memory of his friends and neighbors. Immediately opposite " Placentia," at West Park on the west bank, is the cottage of John Burroughs, our sweetest essayist, the nineteenth century's " White of Selborne." Judge Barnard of Poughkeepsie once said to the author of this hand-book, " The best writer America has produced after Hawthorne is John Bur- roughs ; I wish I could see him." It so happened that there had been an important " bank " suit a day or two previous in Pough- keepsie which was tried before the Judge in which Mr. Bur- roughs had appeared as a witness. The Judge was reminded of this fact when he remarked with a few emphatic words, the ab- sence of which seems to materially weaken the sentence: " Was that Burroughs ? Well, well, I wish I had known it." 172 THE HUDSON. Mount Hymettus, overlooking- West Park, and so named by "the author and naturalist," as it has been to him a successful hunting-ground for bees and wild honey, has its front door- yard, as one might say, sloping down to the river well stocked with vines and fruit trees, and it will be long remembered for sweeter stores of honey encombed and presented in living type. Washington Irving says of the early poets of Britain that "a spray could not tremble in the breeze, or " a leaf rustle to the ground, that was not seen by these delicate observers and wrought up into some beautiful morality." So John Burroughs has studied the Hudson in all its moods, knowing well that it is not to be wooed and won in a single day. How clearly this is seen in his article on "Our River," published in Scribner's Magazine (August, 1880). "Rivers areas various in their forms as forest trees. The Mississippi is like an oak with enormous branches. What a branch is the Red River, the Arkansas, the Ohio, the Missouri ! The Hudson is like the pine or })oi)liir — mainly trunk. From New York to Albany there is only an inconsiderable limb or two, and but few gnarlsand excrescences. Cut off the Rondout, the Esopus, the Catskill and two or thi'ee similar tributaries on the east side, and only some twigs remain. There are some crooked i)laces, it is true, but, on the whole, the Hudson presents a fine, symmetrical shaft that would be hard to match in any river in the world. Among our own water-courses it stands preeminent. The Columbia— called by Major Winthrop the Achilles of rivers — is a more haughty and im])etuous stream ; the Mississippi is, of course, vastly larger and longer ; the St. Law- rence would carry the Hudson as a trophy in his belt and hardly THE HUDSON. 178 know the cliflcrenco ; yet our river is doubtless the most heauti- ful of them all. It pleases like a mountain lake. It has all the sweetness and placidity that g-o with such bodies of water, on the one hand, and all their bold and rugged scenery on the other. In summer, a passage up or down its course in one of the day steamers is as near an idyl of travel as can be had, perhaps, anywhere in the world. Then its permanent and uniform vol- ume, its fullness and equipoise at all seasons, and its gently- flowing currents give it further the character of a lake, or of the sea itself. Of the Hudson it may be said that it is a very large river for its size, — that is for the quantity of water it discharges into the sea. Its water-shed is comparatively small— less, I think, than that of the Connecticut. It is a huge trough with a very slight incline, through which the current moves very slowly, and which would fill from the sea were its supplies from the mountains cut off. Its fall from Albany to the bay is only about five feet. Any object upon it, drifting with the current, progresses southward no more than eight miles in twenty-four hours. The ebb-tide will carry it about twelve miles and the flood set it back from seven to nine. A drop of water at Albany, therefore, will be nearly three weeks in reaching New York, though it will get pretty well pickled some days earlier. Some rivers by their volume and impetuosity penetrate the sea, but here the sea is the aggressor, and sometimes meets the mount- ain water nearly half way. This fact was illustrated a couple of years ago, when the basin of the Hudson was visited by one of the most severe droughts ever known in this part of the State. In the early winter after the river was frozen over above Pough- keepsie, it was discovered that immense numbers of fish were 174 THE HUDSON. retreating- up stream before the slow encroachment of salt water. There was a general exodus of the finny tribes from the whole lower part of the river ; it was like the spring- and fall migration of the birds, or the fleeing of the population of a dis- trict before some approaching danger : vast swarms of cat-fish, white and yellow perch and striped bass were en route for the fresh water farther north. When the people along shore made the discovery, they turned out as they do in the rural districts when the pigeons appear, and, with small gill-nets let down through holes in the ice, captured them in fabulous numbers. On the heels of the retreating perch and cat-fish came the deni- zens of the salt water, and codfish were taken ninety miles above New York. When the February thaw came and brought up the volume of fresh water again, the sea brine was beaten back, and the fish, what were left of them, resumed their old feeding- grounds. It is this character of the Hudson, this encroachment of the sea upon it, that led Professor Newberry to speak of it as a drowned river. We have heard of drowned lands, but here is a river overflowed and submerged in the same manner. It is quite certain, however, that this has not always been the char- ' acter of the Hudson. Its great trough bears evidence of having been worn to its present dimensions by much swifter and stronger currents than those that course through it now. Hence, Professor Newberry has recently advanced the bold and striking theory that in pre-glacial times this part of the conti- nent was several hundred feet higher than at present, and that the Hudson was then a very large and rapid stream, that drew its main supplies from the basin of the Great Lakes through an THE HUDSON. 175 ancient river-bed that followed, pretty nearly, the line of the present Mohawk ; in other words, that the waters of the St. Lawrence once found an outlet through this channel debouching into the ocean from a broad, littoral plain, at a point eighty miles south-east of New York, where the sea now rolls 500 feet deep. According to the soundings of the coast survey, this an- cient bed of the Hudson is distinctly marked upon the ocean floor to the point indicated. To the gradual subsidence of this part of the continent, in connection with the great changes wrought by the huge glacier that crept down from the north during what is called the ice period, is owing the character and aspects of the Hudson as we see and know them. The Mohawk Valley was filled up by the drift, the Great Lakes scooped out, and an opening for their pent-up waters found through what is now the St. Lawrence. The trough of the Hudson was also partially filled and has remained so to the present day. There is, perhaps, no point in the river where the mud and clay are not from two to three times as deep as the water. That ancient and grander Hudson lies back of us several hundred thousand years — perhaps more, for a million years are but as one tick of the time-piece of the Lord ; yet even it was a juvenile compared with some of the rocks and mountains which the Hudson of to-day mirrors. The Highlands date from the earliest geological race — the primary ; the river — the old river — from the latest, the tertiary ; and what that difference means in terrestrial years hath not entered into the mind of man to conceive. Yet how the venerable mountains open their ranks for the stripling to pass through. Of course, the river did not force its way through this barrier, but has doubtless found an opening there of which it has availed 176 THE HUDSON. itself, and which it has enlarged. In thinking of these things, one only has to allow time enough, and the most stupendous changes in the topography of the country are as easy and nat- ural as the going out or the coming in of spring or summer. According to the authority above referred to, that part of our coast that flanks the mouth of the Hudson is still sinking at the rate of a few inches per century, so that in the twinkling of a hundred thousand years or so, the sea will completely submerge the city of New York, the top of Trinity Church steeple alone standing above the flood. We who live so far inland, and sigh for the salt water, need only to have a little patience, and we shall wake up some fine morning and find the surf beating upon our door-steps." The Frothingham residence and Frothingham dock are south of the Burroughs cottage. General Butterfield's house imme- diately to the north. The old Astor place (once known as Wal- dorf) is also near at hand. In our Guide Book analysis of the Hudson published many years ago and still retained, we refer to the hills above and below Poughkeepsie as " The Picturesque." Any one walking or driving from Highland village to West Park will feel that this is a proper distinction. The Palisades are distinguished for " grandeur " which might be defined as " hori- zontal sublimity. " The Highlands for ' ' sublimity " which might be termed "perpendicular grandeur ;" the Catskills for " beauty," with their rounded form and ever changing hues, but the river scenery about Poughkeepsie abides in our memories as a series of bright and charming " pictures." North of General Butter- field's residence is Pelham, consisting of 1,200 acres belonging to Robert L. Pell, one of the largest fruit shippers in the world. THE HUDSON. 177 Passing Esopus Island, which seems like a great stranded and petrified whale, along whose sides often cluster Lilliputian-like canoeists, we see Brown's Dock on the west bank at the mouth of Black Creek, rising within eight miles of Newburgh on the eastern slope of the Plattekill Mountains. Flowing through Black Pond, known by the Dutch settlers as the "Grote Binne- water," it cascades its way along the southern slope of the Shaupeneak Mountains to Esopus Village, a cross-road hamlet, and thence carries to the Hudson its waters dark-stained by companionship with trees of hemlock and cedar growth. The Pell property extends on the west bank to Pell's Dock, almost opposite the Staatsburgh ice-houses. Mrs. Livingston's resi- dence will now be seen on the east bank, and just above this the homo of the late William B. Dinsmore on Dinsmore Point. Passing Vanderberg Cove, cut off from the river by the tracks of the New Ym-k Central Bailroad, we see the residence of Jacob Ruppert, and above this the Frinck mansion known as " Winder- cliffe," formerly the i)roperty of E. R. Jones, and next beyond the house of Robert Suckly. Passing Ellerslie Dock we see " EUers lie," the palatial summer home of Ex- Vice-President Levi P. Morton, an estate of six hundred acres, formerly owned by the Hon. William Kelly. Along the western bank extend the Esopus meadows, a low flat, covered by water, the southern end of which is marked by the Esopus light-house. To the west rises Hussey's mountain, about one thousand feet in height, from un- d^r whose eastern slope two little ponds, known as Binnewaters, send another stream to join Black Creek before it flows into the Hudson. Port Ewen on the west bank, with ice-houses and brick-yards, will be seen by steamer passengers below the mouth of Rondout Creek. The steamer is now nearing — 178 THE HUDSON. Rliineclifir, 90 miles from New York. The village of Rhine- beck, two miles east of the landing- (population 1,6J:9), is not seen from the river. It was named, as some contend, by combining two words — Beekman and Rhine. Others say that the word beck means clilf , and the town was so named from the resem- blance of the cliffs to those of the Rhine. There are many de- lightful drives in and about Rhinebeck, "EUerslie" being only about eight minutes by carriage from the landing. Tim Philadelphia & Beading Bhimheck Branch meets the Hudson at Rhinecliff, and makes a pleasant and convenient tourist or business route between the Hudson and the Connecticut. It passes through a delightful country and thriving rural villages. Some of the views along the Roeliffe Jansen's Kill are unrivaled in quiet beauty. The railroad passes through Rhinebeck, Red Hook, Spring Lake, EUerslie, Jackson Corners, Mount Ross, Gallatinville, Ancram, Copake, Boston Corners, and Mount Riga to State Line Junction, and gives a person a good idea of the counties of Dutchess and Columbia. At Boston Corners connection is made with the New York d- Harlem Bailroad. From State Line Junction it passes through Ore Hill, Lake- ville, with its beautiful lake (an evening view of which is still hung in our memory gallery of sunset sketches), Salisbury, Cha- pinville, and Twin Lakes to Canaan, where the line crosses the Housatonic Bailroad. This route, therefore, is the easiest and pleasantest for Housatonic visitors en route to the Catskills. From Canaan the road rises by easy grade to the summit, at an elevation of 1,400 feet, passing through the village of Norfolk, with its picturesque New England church crowning the village hill. 'J'lll«: JIITDSON. 17<) From tlui siiiiiinlt w(! puss thi'oii;;!! l,li(^ pi-osjH'i'ous villuj^cs of West Wiiistcd and Wiiisted ; tlii-ou^h Uw. pictiu-rs(j[U(3 valleys of New Hartford, Pine Meadow, (.'olliiisville, and Canton to Siins- Idiry, a (-ultured villa^'-e in (rharniin','' rural setting-. From Simsbiiry a iniii of half an hour takes the toin-ist through lloskins, TarilTville, Seotland, Bloomfield, and Cottage Grove to Hartford, the ])rosi)erous and enterprisiu'j;' capital of Connecticut. At Hartford connections are made with the New York, "New Ha- ven & Harlford Railroad, with New York c6 New Emjhmd and Hartford & Connecticut Valley liailways ; at Simsbury, with New Haven & Nmihamptoni Ttailroad ; and atWinstcd, with Naugatuck Railroad. Few I'outcs ])resent more varied or beautiful scenery. The City of Kingston (population 21,495). Rondout and the old city of Kin<^ston gradually grew to<»'ether until the bans were performed in 1878, and a "bow-knot" tied at the top of the hill in the shape of a City Hall, making- them one corporation. The name Rondout had its derivation from a redoubt that was built on the banks of the creek. The creek took the name of Redoubt Kill, afterward Rundou})t, and at last Rondout. Kingston was once called Esopus. (The Indian name for the spot where the city now stands was At-kar-karton, the great plot or meadow on which they raised corn or beans.) Kingston was settled in 1614, and thrice destroyed by the In- dians before the Revolution. In 1777 the State Legislature met here and formed a constitution. In the fall of the same year', after the capture of Fort Montgomery and Fort Clinton by the British, Vaughan landed at Rondout, marched to Kingston, and burned the town. While Kingston was burning, the in- habitants fled to Hurley, where a small force of Americans hung 180 THE HUDSON. a messeng'er who was caught carrying dispatches from Clinton to Burgoyne. Rondout is the termination of the Delaware and Hudson Ca- nal (whence canal boats of coal find their way from the Pennsyl- vania mountains to tide-water), also of the Ulster and Delaware Bailroad, by which people find their way from tide-water to the Catskill Mountains, w^hich have greeted the eye of the tourist for many miles down the Hudson. Originally all of the country-side in this vicinity was known as Esopus, supposed to be derived, according to Ruttenber, from the Indian word " seepus," a river. A " sopus Indian " w^as a Lowlander, and the name is intimately connected with a long reach of territory from Esopus village, near West Park, to the mouth of the Esopus at Saugerties. In 1C75 the mouth of the Rondout Creek was chosen by the New Netherland Company as one of the three fortified trading ports on the Hudson ; a stock- ade was built under the guidance of General Stuyvesant in 1661 inclosing the site of old Kingston : a charter was granted in 1658 under the name of Wiltwyck, but changed in 1679 to Kingston. Few cities are so well off for old-time houses that span the century, and there is no congregation probably in the United States that has worshipped so many consecutive years in the same spot as the Dutch Reformed people of Kingston. Five buildings have succeeded the log church of 240 years ago. Dr. Van Slyke, in a recent welcome, said : " This church, which opens her doors to you, claims a distinction which does not belong even to the Collegiate Dutch Churches of Manhattan Island, and, by a peculiar history, stands identified more closely with Holland than any other of the early churches of this country. THK HUDSON. 181 When every other ehureh of our communion had for a lon