The Hudson
by Wallace Bruce · English · Gutenberg #17823 · 486,704 chars · public domain (US)
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Title: The Hudson
Author: Wallace Bruce
Release date: February 22, 2006 [eBook #17823]
Language: English
Other information and formats: www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/17823
Credits: Produced by Curtis Weyant, Lesley Halamek and the Online
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*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE HUDSON ***
Produced by Curtis Weyant, Lesley Halamek and the Online
Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This
file was produced from images generously made available
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[Transcriber's Note: Each page of this book contained, as a footer, a
stanza of poetry, or a prose quotation, which, although pertinent to
the text, were not part of it.
I have retained these, moving them to a suitable location between
paragraphs, and enclosing them in short markers: * * * ....* * *. Any
poetry not enclosed within short * * * markers is an integral part of
the text.
The list of typos and corrections is at the end of the book.]
* * * * *
THE HUDSON
Three Centuries of
History, Romance and Invention
BY WALLACE BRUCE
Centennial Edition
Published by
BRYANT UNION COMPANY
NEW YORK
COPYRIGHT 1907 BY WALLACE BRUCE
CONTENTS.
CENTENNIAL GREETING.
PAGE
HISTORY, ROMANCE AND INVENTION 9-39
An Open Book 10
The Hudson and the Rhine 11
The Half Moon 12
Its Discovery 15
First Description 16
Names of the Hudson 18
Hills and Mountains 19
Sources of the Hudson 19
First Settlement 20
The West India Company 21
Original Manors and Patents 23
The Dutch and the English 24
New Amsterdam 25
New York 26
Sons of Liberty 28
Greater New York 30
Hudson River Steamboats 31
Day Line Steamers 34
The Old Reaches 38
Five Divisions of the Hudson 39
NEW YORK TO ALBANY.
DESBROSSES STREET PIER TO FORTY-SECOND STREET 41-43
Historic River Front 41
A Great Panorama 41
Statue of Liberty--Stevens Castle 42
FORTY-SECOND TO ONE HUNDRED AND TWENTY-NINTH 43-48
Weehawken, Hamilton and Burr 43
Riverside Drive and Park 45
Columbia University 46
General Grant's Tomb 46
ONE HUNDRED AND TWENTY-NINTH ST. TO YONKERS 49-50
Washington Heights 49
The Palisades 52
Island of Manhattan 56
Spuyten Duyvel Creek 57
Yonkers 58
YONKERS TO WEST POINT 59-96
Hastings and Dobbs Ferry 60
Tappan Zee and Piermont 61
Irvington and "Sunnyside" 62
Washington Irving 63
The Headless Horseman 66
Tarrytown and Tappan 67
Sleepy Hollow 70
Nyack 72
Ossining 73
Croton River and Reservoir 74
Haverstraw 75
Stony Point 77
Peekskill 79
Story of Captain Kidd 80
The Highlands 81
Dunderberg 82
Anthony's Nose 83
Fort Clinton and Fort Montgomery 84
Beverley House 87
Arnold's Flight 88
Buttermilk Falls 91
West Point Military Academy 92
Plateau Buildings and Memorials 93-94
Fort Putnam 95
WEST POINT TO NEWBURGH 97-103
Northern Gate of Highlands 98
"Undercliff" 99
Storm King 100
Cornwall and "Idlewild" 102
NEWBURGH TO POUGHKEEPSIE 104-128
Washington's Headquarters 104
Refusing the Crown 105
Suffering of Soldiers 106
Cessation of Hostilities 107
Marquis de Lafayette 109
Centennial Celebration 110
Fishkill 113
Duyvel's Dans Kammer 118
"Locust Grove" 119
The Storm Ship 120
Poughkeepsie 121
POUGHKEEPSIE TO KINGSTON 129-146
Hyde Park 130
Mount Hymettus 130
Rhinecliff 135
City of Kingston 136
The Senate House 138
The Southern Catskills 142
KINGSTON TO CATSKILL 147-168
Montgomery Place 147
Story of Steam Navigation 149
Robert Fulton 151
The "Clermont" 152
Tivoli 154
Saugerties 156
The Livingston Country 157
The "Shad Industry" 158
Germantown 160
Man in the Mountain 161
New York City Water Supply 162
The Clover Reach 163
Catskill 164
Otis Elevating Railway 165
CATSKILL TO HUDSON 169-172
Hudson 169
Columbia Springs 170
Claverack and Hillsdale 171
HUDSON TO ALBANY 173-185
Athens 173
The Ice Industry 173
Anthony Van Corlear 176
The Mahican Tribe 177
The Mahicans, Delawares and Iroquois 178
The Old Van Rensselaer House 180
Albany 181
THE UPPER HUDSON.
ALBANY TO SARATOGA 186-191
Saratoga 187
Historic Saratoga 189
Mount McGregor 190
SARATOGA TO THE ADIRONDACKS 191-201
Saratoga to Lake George 192
LAKE GEORGE TO THE ADIRONDACKS 197-201
Ticonderoga 198
Bluff Point 199
Plattsburgh and the Saranacs 201
SOURCE OF THE HUDSON 202-210
The Tahawas Club 202
The Upper Ausable 203
Haystack and Camp Colden 204
The Deserted Village 205
Indian Pass 206
Tahawas 210
GEOLOGY, TIDES AND CONDENSED POINTS 211-224
Geological Formation 211-215
The Hudson Tide 215
Condensed Points--New York to Albany 216-224
[Illustration: ROBERT FULTON'S "CLERMONT" 1807]
1907--1909
_CENTENNIAL GREETING_
_Hendrick Hudson and Robert Fulton are closely associated in the
history of our river, and more particularly at this time, as the dates
of their achievements unite the centennial of the first successful
steamer in 1807, with the tri-centennial of the discovery of the river
in 1609. In fact, these three centuries of navigation, with rapidly
increasing development in later years, might be graphically
condensed--_
"_Half Moon_," _1609_; "_Clermont_," _1807_;
"_Hendrick Hudson_," _1906_.
_Singularly enough the discovery of Hendrick Hudson, and the invention
of Robert Fulton are also similar in having many adverse claimants who
forget the difference between attempt and accomplishment._
_Everyone knows that Verrazano entered the Narrows and harbor of
our river in 1524, and sailed far enough to see the outline of the
Palisades; that Gomez visited its mouth in 1525; Cabot still earlier
in 1498; and various Norsemen, named and nameless, for several
centuries before them, coasted along the shore and indenture of the
"River of the Manhattoes," but failed to acquire or transmit any
knowledge of the river's real course or character, and it was left for
Hendrick Hudson to be its first voyager and thereby to have and to
hold against all comers the glory of discovery._
* * *
A century vast of Hudson-fame
Which Irving's fancy seals;
Whose ripples murmur Morse's name
And flash to Fulton's wheels.
_Wallace Bruce._
* * *
_So Robert Fulton had several predecessors in the idea of applying
steam to navigation--John Fitch in 1785, William Symington in 1788 and
many others who likewise_ coasted along the shore and indenture of a
great idea, _marked by continual failure and final abandonment. It was
reserved for Fulton to complete and stamp upon his labor the seal of
service and success, and to stand, therefore, its accepted inventor._
_In addition to the invention of Fulton who has contributed so much
to the business and brotherhood of mankind, the telegraph of Morse
occupies a prominent page of our Hudson history, and it is said that
Morse left unfinished a novel, the incidents of which were associated
with the Highlands, in order to work out his idea which gave the
Hudson a grander chapter._
_Fulton's and Morse's inventions are also happily associated in this,
that the steamboat was necessary before the Atlantic cable, born of
Morse's invention, could be laid, and, singularly enough, the laying
of the cable, largely promoted by Hudson River genius and capital,
by Field, Cooper, Morse and others on August 5, 1857, marks the very
middle of the centennial which we are now observing._
* * *
A cycle grand with wonders fraught
That triumph over time and space;
In woven steel its dreams are wrought,
The nations whisper face to face.
_Wallace Bruce._
* * *
[Illustration: _Hendrick Hudson's "Half Moon_."]
THE HUDSON
Among all the rivers of the world the Hudson is acknowledged queen,
decked with romance, jewelled with poetry, clad with history, and
crowned with beauty. More than this, the Hudson 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
her beauties. No other river 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 handbook
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 San Francisco, but the spell of the Hudson
remains unbroken, and the bright bay at her mouth reflects the
noontide without a rival. To pass a day in her company, rich with
the story and glory of three hundred years, is worth a trip across a
continent, and it is no wonder that the European traveler says again
and again: "to see the Hudson alone, is worth a voyage across the
Atlantic."
* * *
A very good land to fall in with and a pleasant land to see!
_Hendrick Hudson_
* * *
How like a great volume of history romance and poetry seem her bright
illumined pages with the broad river lying as a crystal book-mark
between her open leaves! And how real this idea becomes to the Day
Line tourist, with the record of Washington and Hamilton for its
opening sentence, as he leaves the Up-Town landing, and catches
messages from Fort Washington and Fort Lee. What Indian legends
cluster about the brow of Indian Head blending with the love story of
Mary Phillipse at the Manor House of Yonkers. How Irving's vision of
Katrina and Sleepy Hollow become woven with the courage of Paulding
and the capture of Andre at Tarrytown. How the Southern Portal of the
Highlands stands sentineled by Stony Point, a humble crag converted by
the courage of Anthony Wayne into a mountain peak of Liberty.
How North and South Beacon again summon the Hudson yeomen from harvest
fields to the defense of country, while Fort Putnam, still eloquent in
her ruins, looks down upon the best drilled boys in the world at West
Point. Further on Newburgh, Poughkeepsie and Kingston shake fraternal
hands in the abiding trinity of Washington, Hamilton and Clinton,
while northward rise the Ontioras where Rip Van Winkle slept, and woke
to wonder at the happenings of twenty years.
What stories of silent valleys told by murmuring streams from the
Berkshire Hills and far away fields where Stark and Ethan Allen
triumphed. What tales of Cooper, where the Mohawk entwines her fingers
with those of the Susquehanna, and poems of Longfellow, Bryant and
Holmes, of Dwight, of Halleck and of Drake; ay, and of Yankee
Doodle too, written at the Old Van Rensselaer House almost within a
pebble-throw of the steamer as it approaches Albany. What a wonderful
book of history and beauty, all to be read in one day's journey!
* * *
Roll on! Roll on!
Thou river of the North! Tell thou to all
The isles, tell thou to all the Continents
The grandeur of my land.
_William Wallace._
* * *
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 hundred, and the great
Oelberg thirteen hundred and sixty-two. According to the latest United
States Geological Survey the entire group of mountains at the northern
gate of the Highlands is from fourteen hundred 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 Tarrytown. The Hudson is in fact a vast estuary of the sea; the
tide rises two feet at Albany and six inches at Troy. A professor of
the Berlin University says: "You lack our castles but the 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."
* * *
I have been up and down the Hudson by water. The entire river is
pretty, but the glory of the Hudson is at West Point.
_Anthony Trollope._
* * *
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 ancient towns of the German
river, it is by no means devoid of historical associations of a more
recent character. The vine-clad slopes of the Rhine have, too, no
ineffective substitute in the brilliant autumn coloring of the
timbered hillsides of the Hudson."
* * *
A stately stream around which as around
The German Rhine hover mystic shapes
_Richard Burton_
* * *
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 Palisades; or of Hendrick
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, when at last, with
immediate purpose foiled, he turned his boat southward, having
discovered, but without knowing it, something 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 murmuring
music of Winnikee Creek, when the air was clear as crystal and the
banks seemed to be brought nearer, perfectly reflected in the glassy
surface, while here and there his eye wandered 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 russet, 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 musical prose:
"Fancy the bold Englishman, as the Dutch called Hendrick 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
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 landscape
glow which the voyager saw, Talmage completed the picture in a rainbow
paragraph of color: "Along our river and up and down the sides of the
great hills there was an indescribable 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 its surf to
the top of the crags and it had come dripping down to the lowest leaf
and deepest cavern."
* * *
So fair yon haven clasped its isles, in such a sunset gleam,
When Hendrick and his sea-worn tars first sounded up the stream.
_Robert C. Sands._
* * *
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
his 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."
Such was the vision Hendrick Hudson must have had 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 "Hendrick Hudson," the "New York"
and the "Albany." Before beginning our journey let us, therefore,
bridge the distance with a few intermediate facts, from 1609, relating
to the discovery of the river, its early settlement, its old reaches
and other points essential to the fullest enjoyment of our trip, which
in sailor-parlance might be styled "a gang-plank of history," reaching
as it does from the old-time yacht to the modern steamer, and spanning
three hundred years.
* * *
The prow of the "Half-Moon" has left a broadening wake whose
ripples have written an indelible history, not only along the
Hudson's shores, but have left their imprint on kingdoms over the
sea.
_William Wait._
* * *
=Its Discovery.=--In the year 1524, thirty-two years after the
discovery of America, the navigator Verrazano, a French officer,
anchored off the island of Manhattan and proceeded a short distance up
the river. The following year, Gomez, a Portuguese in the employ of
Spain, coasted along the continent and entered the Narrows. Several
sea-rovers also visited our noble bay about 1598, but it was reserved
for Hendrick 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 previously
made two fruitless voyages for the Muscovy Company--an English
corporation--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 Company.
Reaching Greenland he coasted southward, arriving at Cape Cod August
6th, Chesapeake Bay August 28th, and then sailed 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
resumed 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 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.
* * *
O mighty river of the North! Thy lips meet ocean here, and in deep
joy he lifts his great white brow, and gives his stormy voice a
milder tone.
_William Wallace_
* * *
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. Hudson'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 returned to Europe.
=First Description of the 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 necks." At Yonkers they came on board in great 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 Indian corn, pumpkins and tobaccos." Near
Schodack 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 quantity 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."
* * *
Down whose waterways the wings of poetry and romance like magic
sails bear the awakened souls of men.
_Richard Burton._
* * *
The well-known hospitality of the Hudson River valley has, therefore,
"high antiquity" in this record of the garrulous writer. At Albany the
Indians flocked to the vessel, and Hudson 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 vitae_ that
they were all merry. In the end one of them was drunk, and they could
not tell how to take it." The old chief, who took the _aqua vitae_,
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 becalmed near
Stony Point and the "people of the Mountains" 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 him in the breast and killed him. A boat
was lowered to recover the articles "when one of them 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. Arrows were shot and two more
Indians were killed, then the attack was renewed and two more were
slain.
It might also be stated that soon after the arrival of Hendrick Hudson
at the mouth of the river one of the English soldiers, John Coleman,
was killed 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's point is the monument
to this occurrence."
The "Half Moon" never returned and it will be remembered that Hudson
never again saw the river that he discovered. He was to leave his name
however as a monument to further adventure and hardihood in Hudson's
Bay, where he was cruelly set adrift by a mutinous crew in a little
boat to perish in the midsummer of 1611.
* * *
The sea just peering the headlands through
Where the sky is lost in deeper blue.
_Charles Fenno Hoffman._
* * *
=Names of the Hudson.=--The Iroquois called the river the "Cohatatea."
The Mahicans and Lenapes the "Mahicanituk," or "the ever-flowing
waters." Verrazano in 1524 styled it Rio de Montaigne. Gomez in 1525
Rio San Antonio. Hudson styled it the "Manhattes" from the tribe at
its mouth. 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 Hudson 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.
=Height 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 account 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 near the shore, that we can
fairly judge of their magnitude. Various guides, 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
furnishes reliable information. According to their maps the Palisades
are from 300 to 500 feet in height, the Highlands from 785 to 1625,
and the Catskills from 3000 to 3885 feet.
* * *
Beneath the cliffs the river steals
In darksome eddies to the shore,
But midway every sail reveals
Reflected on its crystal floor.
_Henry T. Tuckerman._
* * *
THE PALISADES.
At Fort Lee 300 feet.
Opposite Mt. St. Vincent 400 "
Opposite Hastings 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.
Plaaterkill 3135 "
Outlook 3150 "
Stoppel Point 3426 "
Round Top 3470 "
High Peak 3660 "
Sugar Loaf 3782 "
Plateau 3855 "
=Sources of the Hudson.=--The Hudson rises in the Adirondacks, 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 McIntyre;
the eastern branch, 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 miles below the 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 distance 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.
* * *
Of grottoes in the far dim woods,
Of pools moss-rimmed and deep,
From whose embrace the little rills
In daring venture creep.
_E.A. Lente._
* * *
The principal streams which flow into the 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 Hudson; 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
Hamburgh; 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 valley.
It is emphatically the "River of the Mountains," as it rises in the
Adirondacks, flows seaward east of the Helderbergs, the Catskills, the
Shawangunks, 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:
O Hudson, mountain-born and free,
Thy youth a deep impression takes,
For, mountain-guarded to the sea,
Thy course is but a chain of lakes.
=The First Settlement of the Hudson.=--In 1610 a Dutch ship visited
Manhattan to trade with the Indians and was soon followed by others
on like enterprise. In 1613 Adrian Block came with a few comrades and
remained the winter. In 1614 the merchants of North Holland organized
a company and obtained from the States General a charter to trade in
the New Netherlands, and soon after a colony built a few houses and
a fort near the Battery. The entire island was purchased from the
Indians in 1624 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 "Historie van Europa," 1621-1632, as
translated in the 3d volume of the Documentary History of New York, a
castle--Fort Nassau--was built in 1624, on an island on the north side
of the River Montagne, 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 (American measure
seventy-five miles) on both sides of the river, upwards." 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."
* * *
Where Manhattan reigned of old
Long before the age of gold
In the fair encircled isle
Formed for beauty's warmest smile.
_William Crow_
* * *
In the beginning of May they entered the Hudson, found a "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 Frenchman 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 below 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.
* * *
Behold the natural advantages of our State; the situation
of our principal seaport; the facility that the
Sound affords for an intercourse with the East, and the
noble Hudson which bears upon its bosom the wealth
of the remotest part of the State.
_Robert R. Livingston._
* * *
[Illustration: OLOFFE VAN KORTLANDT'S DREAM.]
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 Kortlandt 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 great extent of country; and, as he considered it more
attentively, 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 moment, and then
passed away." So New York, like Alba Longa and Rome, and other cities
of antiquity, was under the immediate care of its tutelar saint. Its
destiny was foreshadowed, for now the palaces and domes and lofty
spires are real and genuine, and something more than dreams are made
of.
* * *
Below the cliffs Manhattan's spires
Glint back the sunset's latest beam;
The bay is flecked with twinkling fires;
Or is it but "Van Kortlandt's dream?"
_Wallace Bruce_
* * *
=The Original Manors and Patents.=--According to a map of the Province
of New York, published in 1779, the Phillipsburg Patent embraced a
large part of Westchester County. North of this was the Manor of
Cortland, reaching from Tarrytown 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 Schuyler Patent embraced a few
square miles in the vicinity of Poughkeepsie. 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,
opposite 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 Amsterdam. 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.
* * *
The city bright below, and far away
Sparkling in golden light his own romantic Bay.
_Fitz-Greene Halleck._
* * *
Among other playful allusions to the Indian 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 "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, stately apartments, and the piled up stories of commercial
buildings? In fact the highest structure Washington Irving 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.
=The Dutch and the English.=--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 disappointment. 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 England. Another historian says
that it was their purpose "to settle on the Connecticut Coast near
Fairfield County, lying between the Connecticut and Hudson's River."
* * *
Before his sight
Flowed the fair river free and bright,
The rising mist and Isles of Bay,
Before him in their glory lay.
_Robert C. Sands._
* * *
From the very first the Dutch occupation was considered by the English
as illegal. 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 Virginia. It was also within the limits of
the country granted by King James to the Western Company, but, before
it could be settled, 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 plantations 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 plantations. "To
guard against further molestations they secured a License from
King James to build Cottages and to plant for traffic as well as
subsistence, pretending it was only for the conveniency of their ships
touching there for fresh water and fresh provisions in their voyage
to Brazil; but they little by little extended 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 hundred 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 condition when
they were attacked by the English. The justice of this war has been
freely criticised even by English writers, "because troops were sent
to attack New Amsterdam before the Colony had any notice of the war."
* * *
On his view
Ocean, and earth, and heaven burst before him,
Clouds slumbering at his feet and the clear blue
Of summer's sky in beauty bending o'er him.
_Fitz-Greene Halleck._
* * *
The "Encyclopædia 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 'occupancy.' 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 direction 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 Stuyvesant. 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 receive 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
Dependencies, now under your command, I have herewith, by Capt. Philip
Carterett and Ens. Cæsar Knafton, sent you the respective orders from
the said States General, 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
English authority.
* * *
All white with sails thy keel-thronged waters flee
Through one rich lapse of plenty to the sea.
_Knickerbocker Magazine._
* * *
"In 1683 Thomas Dongan succeeded Andros. A general Assembly, the first
under the English rule, met in October, 1683, 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 Governor General. He assumed his vice regal authority
August 11, 1688. The Assembly which James had abolished in 1686 was
reestablished, and in May declared the rights and privileges of
the people, reaffirming the principles of the repealed Charter of
Liberties of October 30, 1683."
* * *
"Queen of all lovely rivers, lustrous queen
Of flowing waters in our sweet new lands,
Rippling through sunlight to the ocean sands."
_Anonymous._
* * *
From this time on to the Revolution of 1776 there is one continual
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 increased 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 ordinances and
they were in part repealed.
=A Page of Patriotism.=--During the long political agitation 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 of the people which she had inscribed
on her ancient "Charter of Liberties." Although largely dependent upon
commerce she was the first to recommend a non-importation of English
merchandise 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.
* * *
The union of lakes--the union of lands--
The union of States none can sever--
The union of hearts--the union of hands--
And the Flag of our Union forever.
_George P. Morris._
* * *
=New York Sons 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 Commissioners (I do not mean those lately arrived at Boston),
whose odious Business is of a similar nature, may soon make their
appearance 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) _Pro Patria_."
In December, 1769, a stirring address "To the Betrayed Inhabitants 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 liberties to be torn from you by your
Representatives? tell it not in Boston; publish it not in the streets
of Charles-town. You have means yet left to preserve a unanimity
with the brave Bostonians 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 Colden, 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 McDougal was arrested as
the supposed author. He was imprisoned eighty-one days. He was
subsequently a member of the Provincial Convention, in 1775 was
appointed 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 passed the first
resolution to import nothing from the mother country, 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.
* * *
And not a verdant glade or mountain hoary,
But treasures up within the glorious story.
_Charles Fenno Hoffman._
* * *
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 incredible.
It is amusing to hear elderly people speak of the "outskirts of the
city" lying close to the City Hall, and of the 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 occupied 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.
=Greater New York.=--In 1830, the population of Manhattan 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; and is now rapidly approaching three
million. Brooklyn, which in 1800 had a population of only 2,000, now
contributes, as the "Borough of Brooklyn," almost two million. So that
Greater New York is the centre of about six million of people within a
radius of fifteen miles including her New Jersey suburbs with almost
five millions under one municipality.
=Brooklyn.=--In June, 1636, was bought the first land 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 Revolution. Columbia Heights, Prospect Park,
Clinton Avenue, St. Mark's Place and Stuyvesant Heights are among the
favored spots for residence.
* * *
Behind us lies the teeming town
With lust of gold grown frantic;
Before us glitters o'er the bay
The peaceable Atlantic.
_Charles Mackay_
* * *
=Jersey City= occupies the ground once known as Paulus Hook, the farm
of William Kieft, Director General of the Dutch West India Company.
Its water front, from opposite Bartholdi Statue to Hoboken, is
conspicuously marked by Railroad Terminal Piers, Factories, Elevators,
etc. Bergen 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. Jersey City is practically a part of Greater
New York, but state lines make municipal union impossible.
=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
of the Hudson River Day Line would form a very interesting book. The
first six years produced six steamers:
Clermont, built in 1807 160 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. The
time was rather long, and the fare rather high--thirty-six hours to
Albany, fare seven dollars.
_From the Albany Gazette, September, 1807._
"The North River Steamboat will leave Paulus Hook Ferry on Friday
the 4th of September, at 9 in the morning, and arrive at Albany
at 9 in the afternoon on Saturday. Provisions, good berths, and
accommodation are provided. The charge to each passenger is as
follows:
To Newburg Dols. 3, Time 14 hours.
Poughkeepsie " 4, " 17 "
Esopus " 5, " 20 "
Hudson " 5½, " 30 "
Albany " 7, " 36 "
For places apply to Wm. Vandervoort, No. 48 Courtland street, on
the corner of Greenwich street, September 2d, 1807."
* * *
The wind blew over the land and the waves
With its salt sea-breath, and a spicy balm,
And it seemed to cool my throbbing brain,
And lend my spirit its gusty calm.
_Richard Henry Stoddard._
* * *
_Extract from the New York Evening Post, October 2, 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 passengers,
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, October 5th, 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.m., 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.
* * *
But see! the broadening river deeper flows,
Its tribute floods intent to reach the sea.
_Park Benjamin._
* * *
The following was recently recopied in the _Poughkeepsie Eagle_, as an
old time reminiscence:
=To Poughkeepsie from New York in Seventeen Hours.=
--The first steamboat on the Hudson River passed Poughkeepsie
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 Saturday
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 morning 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, according 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 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 for
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 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 baggage;
if less than full price forty pounds. They are to pay at the rate
of three cents per pound for surplus baggage. Storekeepers who
wish to carry light and valuable merchandise can be accommodated
on paying three cents a pound.
* * *
By palace, village, cot, a sweet surprise
At every turn the vision looks upon;
Till to our wondering and uplifted eyes
The Highland rocks and hills in solemn grandeur rise.
_Henry T. Tuckerman._
* * *
=Day Line Steamers.=--As the cradle of successful steam navigation was
rocked on the Hudson, it is fitting that the Day Line Steamers 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 Baedeker's Guide to that river) going up the stream,
and from four and a half to five hours returning with the current. The
Hudson by Daylight steamers en route to Albany make the run from New
York to Newburgh in three hours; to Poughkeepsie in four hours, making
stops at Yonkers, West Point and Newburgh. Probably no train on the
best equipped railroad in our country reaches its stations with
greater regularity than these steamers make their various landing.
It astonishes a Mississippi 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.
* * *
Southward the river gleams--a snowy sail
Now gliding o'er the mirror--now a track
Tossing with foam displaying on its course
The graceful steamer with its flag of smoke.
_Alfred B. Street._
* * *
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.
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 handkerchief 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."
* * *
While drinking in the scene, my mind goes back upon
the tide of years, and lo, a vision! On its upward
path the "Half-Moon" glides.
_Alfred B. Street._
* * *
=The "Hendrick Hudson."= In these centennial days of discovery
and invention, a description of the steamers will be of interest,
furnished by the Hudson River Day Line. The "Hendrick Hudson" was
built at Newburgh by the Marvel Company, under contract with the W.
& A. Fletcher Company of New York, who built her engines, and under
designs from Frank E. Kirby. Her principal dimensions are: length, 400
feet; breadth over all, 82 feet; depth of hold, 14 feet 5 inches, and
a draft of 7 feet 6 inches. Her propelling machinery is what is
known as the 3-cylinder compound direct acting engine, and her power
(6,500-horse) is applied through side wheels with feathering buckets,
and steam is supplied from eight boilers.
Steel has been used in her construction to such an extent that her
hull, her bulk-heads (7 in all), her engine and boiler enclosures, her
kitchen and ventilators, her stanchions, girders, and deck beams, and
in fact the whole essential frame work of the boat is like a great
steel building. Where wood is used it is hard wood, and in finish
probably has no equal in marine work.
Her scheme of decoration, ventilation and sanitation is as artistic
and scientific as modern methods can produce, and at the same time
her general lay out for practical and comfortable operation is the
evolution of the long number of years in which the Day Line has been
conducting the passenger business.
A detailed account of this steamer would be a long story, but some of
the salient features are as follows: She carries the largest passenger
license ever issued, namely: for 5,000 people; on her trial trip she
made the fastest record through the water of any inland passenger ship
in this country, namely: 23.1 miles per hour. Her shafts are under the
main deck. Her mural paintings represent prominent features of the
Hudson, which may not be well seen from the steamer. Her equipment far
exceeds the requirements of the Government Inspection Laws.
* * *
We hear the murmur of the sea,--
A monotone of sadness,
But not a whisper of the crowd,
Or echo of its madness.
_Charles Mackay._
* * *
=The "New York."= The hull of the "New York" was built at Wilmington,
Del., by the Harlan & Hollingsworth Co., in 1887, and is, with the
exception of the deck-frame, made of iron throughout. During the
winter of 1897 she was lengthened 30 feet, and now measures 341 feet
in length, breadth over all 74 feet, with a tonnage of 1975 gross
tons. The engine was built by the W. & A. Fletcher Co. of New York.
It is a standard American beam engine, with a cylinder 75 inches in
diameter and 12 feet stroke of piston, and develops 3,850 horse power.
Steam steering gear is used. One of the most admirable features of
this queen of river steamers 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
exterior of the "New York" is, as usual, of pine, painted white and
relieved with tints and gold. The interior is finished 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. One feature of these saloons especially
worthy of note, is the number and size of the windows, which are so
numerous as to almost form one continuous window. Seated in one of
these elegant saloons as in a floating palace of glass, the tourist
who prefers to remain inside enjoys equally with those outside the
unrivalled scenery through which the steamer is passing. The private
parlors on the "New York" are provided with bay windows and are
very luxuriantly furnished. 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 viewing the noble scenery
through which the steamer is passing. While the carrying capacity of
the "New York" is 4,500 passengers, license for 2,500 only is applied
for, thus guaranteeing ample room for all and the absence from
crowding which is so essential to comfort.
* * *
Thy fate and mine are not repose,
And ere another evening close
Thou to thy tides shall turn again
And I to seek the crowd of men.
_William Cullen Byrant._
* * *
=The "Albany"= was built by the Harlan & Hollingsworth Co., of
Wilmington, Del., in 1880. During the winter of 1892, she was
lengthened thirty feet and furnished with modern feathering wheels
in place of the old style radial ones. Her hull is of iron, 325 feet
long, breadth of beam over all 75 feet, and her tonnage is 1,415 gross
tons. Her engine was built by the W. & A. Fletcher Co., of New York,
and develops 3,200 horse power. The stroke is 12 feet, and the
diameter of the cylinder is 73 inches. On her trial trip she ran from
New York to Poughkeepsie, a distance of 75 miles, in three hours and
seven minutes. Steam steering gear is 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 staircases 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.
* * *
Lose not a memory of the glorious scenes,
Mountains and palisades, and leaning rocks.
_William Wallace._
* * *
=The Old Reaches.=--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 uncertain 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 narrow point called _Haverstroo_; then comes the
_Seylmaker's_ Reach, then _Crescent_ Reach; next _Hoge's_ Reach, and
then _Vorsen_ Reach, which extends to Klinkersberg, or Storm King,
the northern 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 _Claverack_; then _Backerack;_
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 possess 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.
* * *
On the deck
Stands the bold Hudson, gazing at the sights
Opening successive--point and rock and hill,
Majestic mountain-top, and nestling vale.
_Alfred B. Street._
* * *
=SUGGESTIONS.=
From the Hurricane Deck of the Hudson River Day Line Steamers can
be seen, on leaving or approaching the Metropolis, one of the most
interesting panoramas in the world--the river life of Manhattan,
the massive structures of Broadway, the great Transatlantic docks,
Recreation Piers, and an ever-changing kaleidoscope of interest. The
view is especially grand on the down trip between the hours of five
and six in the afternoon, as the western sun brings the city in strong
relief against the sky. If tourists wish to fully enjoy this beautiful
view they should remain on the Hurricane Deck until the boat is well
into her Desbrosses Street slip.
=The Brooklyn Annex.=--The Brooklyn tourist is especially happy in
this delightful preface and addenda to the Hudson River trip. The
effect of morning and evening light in bringing out or in subduing the
sky-line of Manhattan is nowhere seen to greater advantage. In the
morning the buildings from the East River side stand out bold and
clear, when lo! almost instantaneously, on turning the Battery, they
are lessened and subdued. On the return trip in the evening, the
effect is reversed--a study worth the while of the traveler as he
passes to and fro on the commodious "Annex" between Desbrosses
Street Pier and Brooklyn. Surely no other city in the world rises so
beautiful from harbor line or water front as "Greater New York," with
lofty outlines of the boroughs of Manhattan and Brooklyn reminding one
of Scott's tribute to Edinburgh:
"Piled deep and massy, close and high,
Mine own romantic town!"
* * *
Down at the end of the long, dark street,
Years, years ago,
I sat with my sweetheart on the pier,
Watching the river flow.
_Richard Henry Stoddard._
* * *
[Illustration: STATUE OF LIBERTY]
=NEW YORK TO ALBANY.=
=Desbrosses Street Pier to Forty-Second Street.=
Our historic journey fittingly begins at Desbrosses Street, for here,
near the old River-front, extending from Desbrosses along Greenwich,
stood the Revolutionary line of breastworks reaching south to the
Grenadier Battery at Franklin Street. Below this were "Jersey,"
"McDougall" and "Oyster" batteries and intervening earthworks to Port
George, on the Battery, which stood on the site of old Fort Amsterdam,
carrying us back to Knickerbocker memories of Peter Stuyvesant and
Wowter Van Twiller. The view from the after-deck, before the steamer
leaves the pier, gives scope for the imagination to re-picture the
far-away primitive and heroic days of early New York.
=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 weather, far away to the
South, the Highlands of Nevisink, the first land to greet 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 of
some Atlantic greyhound that has not yet slipped its leash; dignified
"Men of War" at anchor, flying the flags 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.
* * *
Rise, stately symbol! Holding forth
Thy light and hope to all who sit
In chains and darkness! Belt the earth
With watch-fires from thy torch uplit!
_John Greenleaf Whittier._
* * *
Across the river on the Jersey Shore are seen 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 _Pennsylvania Railroad_ for the South and West; the
_Erie Railway_, the _Delaware, Lackawanna and Western_, and to the
North above Hoboken the _West Shore_, serving also as starting point
for the _New York, Ontario 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 Broadway
from the Battery, literally fulfilling the humor of Knickerbocker
in not leaving space for a breath of air for the top of old Trinity
Church spire.
=Stevens' Castle.=--About midway between Desbrosses Street and 42d
Street Pier will be seen 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. Above this
are the Elysian Fields, near the river bank, known in early days as a
quiet 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, and above this Union Hill.
=The Trap Rock Ridge=, which begins to show itself above the Elysian
Fields, increases gradually in height to the brow of the Palisades.
West of Bergen Heights and Union Hill flows the Hackensack River
parallel to the Hudson, and at this point only about two miles
distant.
* * *
How still with all her towers and domes
The city sleeps on yonder shore,--
How many thousand happy homes
Yon starless sky is bending o'er.
_Park Benjamin._
* * *
=Forty-Second Street to One Hundred and Twenty-Ninth.=
=The 42d Street Pier= is now at hand, convenient of access to
travelers, as the 42d Street car line crosses Manhattan intersecting
every "up and down" surface, subway or elevated road in the City,
as does also the Grand, Vestry and Desbrosses Street at the lower
landing. While 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 Publishing
Co., New York City (price 50 cents), shows both sides of the river
from New York to Albany, accurately represented from 800 consecutive
photographs. This new and complete object-guide will be of service
to the tourist, and can be had at the steamers' news stands, head of
grand stairway, or it will be sent by publishers, postpaid, on receipt
of price."
=Weehawken= with its sad story of the duel between Hamilton and Burr
is soon seen upon the west bank. A monument once marked the spot,
erected by the St. Andrews Society of New York City on the ledge of
rock where Hamilton fell early in the morning of the eleventh of July,
1804. The quarrel between this great statesman and his malignant rival
was, perhaps, more personal than political. It is said that Hamilton,
in accordance with the 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 from that hour walked its streets shunned and despised. Among
the many poetic tributes penned at the time to the memory of Hamilton,
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."
* * *
Where round yon capes the banks ascend
Long shall the pilgrim's footsteps bend,
There, mirthful heart shall pause to sigh,
There tears shall dim the patriot's eye.
_Robert C. Sands._
* * *
The plain marble slab which stood in the face of the monument 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 affectionate 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 succeeded in effecting a reconciliation. He became tired of
seeing the pillar in his daily walks, and, in 1820, ordered his men to
remove it and deposit the slab containing the inscription in one
of 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. Hugh 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 possession of the Deas property, where it has since
been carefully preserved."
This mansion of Captain Deas afterward known as the "King House on the
Cliff" was a stately residence where Washington Irving used to come
and dream of his fair Manhattan across the river. It was also the
head-quarters of Lafayette, after the battle of Brandywine.
* * *
I was an admirer of General Hamilton, and I sicken
when I think of our political broils, slanders and enmities.
_Washington Irving._
* * *
The gardener also said: "the river road beneath us is cut directly
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 sandbowlder, 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 induced Church
to offer an apology and the affair terminated. The last duel was
fought there September 28, 1845, and ended in a farce, the pistols
being loaded with cork--a fitting termination to a relic of barbarism.
=Riverside Drive and Park.= Riverside Drive, on the east bank starting
at 72d Street, is pronounced the finest residential avenue in the
world. Distinguished among many noble residences is the home of
Charles M. Schwab at 73d Street, which cost two million dollars; built
on the New York Orphan Asylum plot for which he paid $860,000.
=The Soldiers and Sailors Monument=, 89th Street, a memorial to the
citizens of New York, who took part in the Civil War, a beautiful work
of art, circular in form, with Corinthian columns, erected by the city
at a cost of a quarter of million of dollars was dedicated May 30,
1902. The corner-stone was laid in 1900 by President Roosevelt, at
that time Governor. The location was well selected, and it presents
one of the most attractive features of the river front.
* * *
We celebrate our hundredth year
With thankful hearts and words of praise,
And learn a lasting lesson here
Of trust and hope for coming days.
_Wallace Bruce._
* * *
=Columbia University=, on Morningside Heights, has a fine outlook,
crowning a noble site worthy of the old college, whose sons have been
to the fore since the days of the Revolution in promoting the glory
of the state and the nation. President Low has happily styled
"Morningside," which extends from 116th to 120th Streets, "The
Acropolis of the new world." The Library Building which he erected to
his father's memory, is of Greek architecture and cost $1,500,000. It
contains 300,000 volumes and is open night and day to the public. It
also marks the battle ground and American victory of Harlem Heights in
1776.
=The Cathedral of St. John the Divine= (Protestant Episcopal), now in
process of erection, occupies three blocks from 110th Street to 113th
between Morningside Park and Amsterdam Avenue. The corner stone was
laid in 1892 to be completed about 1940 at a cost of $6,000,000. The
crypt quarried out of the solid rock has been completed and services
are held in it every Sunday. Near at hand will be seen the beautiful
dome of St. Luke's Hospital.
=Grant's Tomb=, Riverside Drive and 123d Street, has the most
commanding site of the Hudson River front of New York. The bluff rises
130 feet and still retains the name of Claremont. The apex of
the memorial is 280 feet above the river. Ninety thousand people
contributed to the "Grant Monument Association fund" which, with
interest, aggregated $600,000. The corner stone was laid by President
Harrison in 1892 and dedicated April 27, 1897, on the seventy-fifth
anniversary of Grant's birth, with a great military, naval and civil
parade. The occasion was marked by an address of President McKinley
and an oration of Gen. Horace Porter, president of the Grant Monument
Association.
An attempt to remove Grant's body to Washington was made in Congress
but overwhelmingly defeated. The speech by Congressman Amos Cummings
in the House of Representatives, 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 meetings and at all
times took an active interest in her local affairs. 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 when 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."
* * *
His glory as the centuries wide,
His honor bright as sunlit seas,
His lullaby the Hudson tide,
His requiem the whispering breeze.
_Wallace Bruce._
* * *
=The Thirteen Elm Trees=, about ten or fifteen minutes' walk from
General Grant's Tomb, were planted by Alexander Hamilton in his
door-yard, a century ago, to commemorate the thirteen original States.
This property was purchased by the late Hon. Orlando Potter, of New
York, with the following 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 thousand dollars,"
quietly responded Mr. Potter. A ripple of excitement ran through the
crowd, and the bid was quickly run up to $120,000 by speculators. "One
hundred and twenty-five thousand," said Mr. Potter. Then there were
several thousand dollar 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!" 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. "You can rest assured, however, that the trees will not be
cut down."
* * *
Rest in peace by stately rivers martyred soldiers of the free,
Rest brave captain, at our threshold, where the Hudson meets the sea.
_Wallace Bruce._
* * *
=Edgewater=, opposite Grant's Tomb on the west bank, lies between
Undercliff on the north and Shadyside on the south. The latter place
was made historic by Anthony Wayne's capture of supplies for the
American army in the summer of 1780 which formed the basis of a
satirical poem by Major Andre, entitled ="The Cow Chase."=
The steamer is now approaching 129th street, and we turn again with
pride to the beautiful tomb of General Grant which fittingly marks one
point of a great triangle of fame--the heroic struggle of the American
soldiers in 1776, the home of Alexander Hamilton, and the burial place
of the greatest soldier of the Civil War.
* * *
Woodman, spare that tree!
Touch not a single bough!
In youth it sheltered me,
And I will protect it now.
_George P. Morris._
* * *
=One Hundred and Twenty-Ninth Street to Yonkers.=
This upper landing of the Hudson River Day Line has a beautiful
location and is a great convenience to the dwellers of northern
Manhattan. On leaving the pier the steel-arched structure of
Riverside Drive is seen on the right. The valley here spanned, in the
neighborhood of 127th Street, was once known as "Marritje Davids'
Fly," and the local name for this part of New York above Claremont
Heights is still known as "Manhattanville." The Convent of the Sacred
Heart is visible among the trees, and
=Trinity Cemetery's Monuments= soon gleam along the wooded bank. Among
her distinguished dead is the grave of General John A. Dix whose words
rang across the land sixty days before the attack on Fort Sumter:
"If any man attempts to pull down the American flag shoot him on the
spot." The John A. Dix Post of New York comes hither each Decoration
Day and garlands with imposing ceremonies his grave and the graves of
their comrades.
Near Carmansville was the home of Audubon, the ornithologist, 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 Hamilton that New York would have
to be abandoned. General Greene and Congress believed in maintaining
the fort, but future developments showed that Washington was right.
The American troops, so far as clothing or equipment was concerned,
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."
* * *
Faith's pioneers and Freedom's martyrs sleep
Beneath their shade: and under their old boughs
The wise and brave of generations past
Walked every Sabbath to the house of God.
_Henry T. Tuckerman._
* * *
According to Irving, "On the 15th General Howe sent a summons 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 glorious 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, 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."
* * *
Hark! Freedom's arms ring far and wide;
Again these forts with beacons gleam;
Loud cannon roar on every side--
I start, I wake; I did but dream.
_Wallace Bruce._
* * *
"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 stationed 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 Harlem 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 distinctly 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,
assailed 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 bayoneted by
the Hessians while begging quarter. It is said so completely 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 message, came out, ran and jumped over the broken
ground, dodging the Hessians, some of whom struck at him with their
pieces and others attempted to thrust him with their bayonets;
escaping through them, he got to his boat and returned to Fort Lee."
* * *
Up and down the valley of the Hudson the contending
armies surged like the ebbing and flowing of the tides.
_William Wait._
* * *
Washington's message arrived too late. "The fort was so crowded by
the garrison and the troops which had retreated into 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.
=Fort Lee=, directly across the river, had a commanding position, but
was entirely useless to the Revolutionary army after the fall of Fort
Washington. It was therefore immediately abandoned to the British, as
was also Fort Constitution, 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 Washington with a strategic stroke
brought dismay on his enemies and restored confidence to his friends
and the Patriots' Cause.
=The Palisades, or Great Chip Rock=, as they were known by the old
Dutch settlers, present the same bold front to the river that the
Giant's Causeway does to 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.
* * *
The Palisades in sterner pride
Tower as the gloom steals o'er the tide,
For the great stream a bulwark meet
That laves its rock-encumbered feet.
_Robert C. Sands._
* * *
As the basaltic trap-rock is one of the oldest geological formations,
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 Rockland Lake opposite Sing Sing,
within two or three hundred yards of the Hudson, and the rivers flow
thirty miles side by side. Some geologists think that originally they
were one river, but they are now separated from each other by a wall
more substantial than even the 2,000 mile structure of the "Heathen
Chinee."
It might also be interesting to note Prof. Newberry's idea that in
pre-glacial times this part of the continent was several hundred feet
higher than at present, and that the Hudson was a very rapid stream
and much larger than now, draining as it did the Great Lakes: that the
St. Lawrence found its way through the Hudson Channel following pretty
nearly the line of the present Mohawk, and the great river emptied
into the Atlantic some 80 miles south of Staten Island. This idea is
confirmed by the soundings of the coast survey which discover the
ancient page of the Hudson as here indicated on the floor of the sea
far out where the ocean is 500 feet in depth. A speculation of what a
voyager a few million years ago would have then seen might, however,
as Hamlet observes, be "to consider somewhat too curiously" for
ordinary up-to-date tourists. But even, granting all this to be true,
the Palisades were already old, thrown up long ages before, between
a rift in the earth's surface, where it cooled in columnar form.
The rocky mould which held it, being of softer 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 importance, 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 Staffa, in Scotland, where the rocks have been thrown
into such a position as to justify the name of Fingal'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
conformations which excite admiration and wonder in the Irish rocks."
* * *
Where the mighty cliffs look upward in their glory and their glow
I see a wondrous river in its beauty southward flow.
_Thomas C. Harbaugh._
* * *
Under the base of these cliffs William Cullen Bryant one Sabbath
morning wrote his beautiful lines:
"Cool shades and dews are round my way,
And silence of the early day;
Mid the dark rocks that watch his bed,
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."
* * *
A mellow sunset was settling upon the hills and
waters and a thousand flashes played over the distant
city as its spires and prominent objects caught its glow.
_N. P. Willis._
* * *
There are many strange stories connected with the Palisades, and
one narrator says: "remarkable disappearances have occurred in the
vicinity that have never been explained. 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 about as though nothing had
happened (forgetting even, as Bryant did, that a vertical line from
the top of the cliff on account of the crumbling debris of ages makes
it impossible for even the strongest arm to hurl a stone from the
summit to the margin of the river). A diligent search was instituted.
Friends and boatmen 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 here and there springing up along this rocky
balcony of the lower Hudson, and probably the entire summit 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.
* * *
What love yon cliffs and steeps could tell
If vocal made by Fancy's spell!
_Robert C. Sands._
* * *
It 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 easiest point of attack, marshalling her forces, running
her parallels with Boadicea-like skill, and carrying her streaming
banners, more real than Macbeth's "Birnam-Wood" to crowning rampart
and lofty parapet.
The New York side from the Battery to Inwood, 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 suburban points suggest altitude 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 over the Harlem to
find room in the picturesque county of Westchester.
=The Island of Manhattan.=--As we approach the northern limit of
Manhattan we feel that in the preservation of the beautiful name
"Manhattan," distinctive of New York's chief borough, Irving's dream
has been happily realized. The meaning of this Indian word has been
the subject of much discussion. It is, however, simply the name of a
tribe. As the old historian De Laet says, "On the east side, on the
main land dwell the Manhattoes," and again from the "Documentary
History of New York." "It is so called from the people which inhabited
the main land on the east side of the river."
* * *
Pleasant it is to lie amid the grass,
Under these shady locusts half the day,
Watching the ships reflected in the Bay,
Topmast and shroud, as in a wizard's glass.
_Thomas Bailey Aldrich._
* * *
[Illustration: INDIAN HEAD, PALISADES]
The word Manhattan signifies also it is said: "The People of the
Islands," and it was evidently used by the Indians as a generic term
designating the inhabitants of the island itself, and also of Long
Island and the Neversink. This is in accordance with the testimony of
Van der Donck. With Irving we all recognize the music and poetry
of the name and are proud that our river of beauty is so happily
heralded.
=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 east of the Hudson
bears the name of Harlem River. Its course is southeast and joins the
East River at Randall's Island, just above Hell Gate. It is a curious
fact that this modest 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 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 Duyvil_ (in spite of the Devil), and daringly plunged into
the stream. 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 bottom."
* * *
O legends full of life and health,
That live when records fail and die,
Ye are the Hudson's richest wealth,
The frondage of her history!
_Wallace Bruce._
* * *
The main branch of the Hudson River Railroad, with its station at
Forty-second Street and Fourth Avenue, crosses the Harlem River at
Mott Haven, and, following its northern bank, meets the Hudson at this
point, where the 30th Street branch, following the river, joins the
main line. The steamer now passes 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, and
we come to
=Yonkers=, on the east bank, seventeen miles from New York, at the
mouth of the Nepperhan. West of the creek is a large rock, called
A-mac-lea-sin, the great stone to which the Indians paid reverence as
an evidence of the permanency and immutability of their deity. The
Mahican Village at the mouth of the creek was called Nappechemak.
European settlements were made as early as 1639, as shown by deeds of
purchase. Here are many important manufacturing industries: carpet,
silk, and hat factories; mowers and reapers, gutta percha, rubber and
pencil companies. Its "Recreation Pavilion" on the pier was a noble
thing for the city to build--costing $50,000. The structure is of
steel and capable of accommodating 5,000 people.
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 confiscated 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 afterwards
purchased by John Jacob Astor, then passed to the Government, was
bought by the village of Yonkers in 1868, and became 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.
* * *
Once more I walk in the dark old street
Wearily to and fro:--
But I sit no more on the desolate pier
Watching the river flow.
_Richard Henry Stoddard._
* * *
Mary Phillipse, belle of the neighborhood, and known in tradition as
Washington's first love, was born in the "Manor House" July 3, 1730.
Washington first met her on a visit to New York in 1756, after his
return from Braddock's campaign, as guest of Beverly Robinson, who had
married her elder sister.
It has been claimed by some 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 embowered in trees as seen from the Hudson. A
line of electric street cars run north along Warburton Avenue. The
street known as Broadway, is a continuation of Broadway, New York.
Many of the river towns still keep this name, probably prophetic as a
part of the great Broadway which may 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 Closter'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 massacring Col. Bayler's patriots, despite
their surrender and calls for mercy."
Indian Head (510 feet) about two miles north of Alpine Gorge, is the
highest point of the Palisades.
* * *
Eve o'er our path is stealing fast;
Yon quivering splendors are the last;
His latest glories fringe the height
Behind us with their golden light.
_Robert C. Sands._
* * *
=Yonkers to West Point=
Passing Glenwood, now a suburban station of Yonkers, conspicuous from
the Colgate mansion near the river bank, built by a descendant of
the English Colgates who were familiar friends of William Pitt, and
leaders of the Liberal Club in Kent, England, and "Greystone," once
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 Revolutionary
struggle were surprised and cut to pieces by troops under Colonel
Sheldon. It was here also that Lord Cornwallis embarked for Fort Lee
after the capture of Fort Washington, and here in 1850 Garibaldi,
the liberator of Italy, whose centennial was observed July 4, 1907,
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
northward furnishes a beautiful walk or driveway, 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 Bronx
River.
=Dobbs Ferry= is now at hand, named after an old Swedish ferryman. The
village has not only a delightful location but it is also beautiful in
itself. In 1781 it was Washington'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. A deep glen,
known as Paramus, opposite Dobbs Ferry, leads to Tappan and New
Jersey. Cornwallis landed here in 1776. It is now known as Snedden's
Landing.
* * *
A lovely country for a summer encampment, breezy
hills commanding wide prospects, shady valleys watered
by bright pastoral streams, the Bronx, the Spraine and
the Neperan.
_Washington Irving._
* * *
At Dobbs Ferry, June 14, 1894, the base-stone of a memorial shaft was
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 distinguished
orators and visitors. The Society and its guests, including members
of the cabinet, officers of the army and navy, and prominent 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 providentially for the American cause, the
meeting 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.
=Tappan Zee.=--The steamer is now entering Irving's rich domain, and
Tappan Zee lapping the threshold of "Sunnyside," seems almost a part
of his very dooryard. The river, which has averaged about a mile in
breadth, begins to gradually widen at Hastings, and almost seems like
a gentle, reposeful lake.
=Piermont=, whose "mile-long-pier," built many years ago by the Erie
Railroad, hardly mars the landscape so great is the majesty of the
river, is seen on the west bank with Tower Hill rising above it from
which four states are seen. The view includes Long Island, the Sound
and the Orange Mountains on the south, with the Catskills to the north
and Berkshires to the northeast. Louis Gaylord Clark, a friend of
Irving, and an early literary associate had a cottage on Piermont
Hills.
* * *
We have a charming position for our French encampment
along the Hudson among rocks and under magnificent tulip trees.
_Count Dumas._
* * *
Turning to the eastern shore, we see "Nuits," the Cottinet residence,
Italian in style, built of Caen stone, "Nevis," home of the late Col.
James Hamilton, son of Alexander Hamilton, the George L. Schuyler
mansion, the late Cyrus W. Field's, and many pleasant places about
Abbotsford, and come to
=Irvington=, on the east bank, 24 miles from New York, once known as
Dearman's, 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 tranquil 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 Washington 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." Wolfert'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-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 gable, and a gilded horse in full gallop, once the
weather-cock of the great Van der Heyden palace of Albany, glitters in
the sunshine, veering with every breeze, on the peaked turret over the
portal."
* * *
Irving chose his residence in the valley, not amid
the mountains; by the fields and meadows of the broad
Tappan Zee, rather than the Highlands; in a congenial
region suited to his temperament.
_Dr. Bethune._
* * *
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 attention 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 reality a warm handshake to a wider brotherhood
beyond the sea.
* * *
In purple tints woven together
The Hudson shakes hands with the Tweed,
Commingling with Abbotsford's heather
The clover of Sunnyside's mead.
_Wallace Bruce._
* * *
=Washington Irving.=--While he was building "Sunnyside," a letter came
from Daniel Webster, then Secretary of State, appointing him minister
to Spain. It was unexpected and unsolicited, and Webster remarked that
day to a friend: "Washington 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 travelers, and, among many well-known to fame,
was a young man, afterwards Napoleon the Third. Referring to his
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
Montijo, 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 acquaintance 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.
* * *
How many such men as Washington Irving are there
in America. God don't send many such spirits into this
world.
_Lord Byron._
* * *
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 companionship 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
disturbed 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. Sunnyside is scarcely
visible to the Day Line tourist. A little gleam of color 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 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 twilight 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.
[Illustration: NORTHERN POINT OF PALISADES]
* * *
Here was no castle in the air, but a realized day-dream.
Irving was there, as genial, humorous and imaginative
as if he had never wandered from the primal
haunts of his childhood and his fame.
_Henry T. Tuckerman._
* * *
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 a sketch of a young man whom he met at Kinderhook
when writing his Knickerbocker history. It will be remembered 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 Arnold 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 horseman 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
stirrups, and in the very act of launching his head at him. It
encountered his cranium with a tremendous crash. He was tumbled
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 Ichabod, and close beside it a
shattered pumpkin." All honor to him who fills this working-day world
with humor, romance and beauty!
* * *
I beg you will have the kindness to let me know when
Mr. Irving takes pen in hand again; for assuredly I
shall expect a very great treat which I may chance never
to hear of but through your kindness.
_Walter Scott._
* * *
I want to visit Washington Irving, I want to see your
stupendous scenery, I want to go to the grave of
Washington.
_Lord Byron._
* * *
=Lyndehurst=, Helen M. Gould's residence. A short distance north of
"Sunnyside" is the home of Helen M. Gould, whose modest and liberal
use of wealth in noble charities has endeared her to every American
heart. The place was first known as the Paulding Manor House, where
William Paulding, early mayor of New York, and nephew of one of the
captors of Andre had his country home. It is a beautiful specimen of
old time English architecture, with a suggestion, as some writers have
noted, of Newstead Abbey. This part of the Hudson is particularly rich
in beautiful residences, rising tier upon tier from the river to the
horizon. Albert Bierstadt, the artist, had here a beautiful home,
unfortunately burned many years ago.
=The Old Post Road= from New York to Albany is in many particulars the
richest and greatest highway of our country.
=Tappan.=--Almost opposite Irvington about two miles southwest of
Piermont, is old Tappantown, where Major Andre was executed October
2, 1780. The removal of his body from Tappan to Westminster was by a
special British ship, and a singular incident was connected 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 Arnold's death in London. Further reference will be
made to Andre in our description of Tarrytown, and also of Haverstraw,
where Arnold and Andre met at the house of Joshua Hett Smith.
=Tarrytown=, 26 miles from New York. 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
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 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 allow 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.
* * *
That overruling Providence which has so often and so
remarkably interposed in our favor, never manifested
itself more conspicuously than in the timely discovery
of Arnold's treachery.
_George Washington._
* * *
Tarrytown was the very heart of the debatable ground of the Revolution
and many striking incidents mark its early history. In 1777 Vaughan's
troops landed here on their way to attack Fort Montgomery, and here a
party of Americans, under Major Hunt, surprised a number of British
refugees while playing 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, remarking
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 historian,
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
Hendrick Hudson's discovery of the river. The dominant spirit,
however, that haunts this enchanted region, is the apparition of
a figure on horse-back, without a head, said to be the ghost of a
Hessian trooper, and was known at all the country firesides as the
'Headless horseman' of Sleepy Hollow."
* * *
O waters of Pocantico!
Wild rivulet of wood and glen!
May thy glad laughter, sweet and low,
Long, long outlive the sighs of men.
_S. H. Thayer._
* * *
[Illustration: SLEEPY HOLLOW CHURCH.]
=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 sentinel 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 delighted the heart of Diedrich Knickerbocker. How many
worshippers since that November day in 1859, have come hither with
reverent footsteps to read on the plain slab this simple inscription:
"Washington Irving, born April 3, 1783. Died November 28, 1859," and
recall Longfellow's beautiful lines:
"Here lies the gentle humorist, who died
In the bright Indian Summer of his fame.
A simple stone, with but 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."
* * *
If ever I should wish for a retreat whither I might
steal from the world and its distractions, and dream
quietly away the remnant of a troubled life, I know of
none more promising than this little valley.
_Washington Irving._
* * *
Sleepy Hollow Church, like Sunnyside, is hidden away from the steamer
tourist by summer foliage. Just before reaching Kingston 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. A light-house,
built in 1883, marks the point where 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.
To one loving our early history and legends there is no spot more
central or delightful than Tarrytown. Irving humorously says that
Tarrytown 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 occurred to the writer that, more than any
other 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 dreams o'ercast;
The Highlands, manhood bold 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 Sunnyside with
reverence:
Thrice blest and happy Tappan Zee,
Whose banks along thy glistening tide
Have legend, truth, and poetry
Sweetly expressed in Sunnyside!
* * *
Whose golden fancy wove a spell
As lasting as the scene is fair
And made the mountain stream and dell
His own dream-life forever share.
_Henry T. Tuckerman._
* * *
=Nyack=, on the west side, 27 miles from New York. The village,
including Upper Nyack, West Nyack and South Nyack, has many fine
suburban homes and 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.
Nyack grows steadily in favor as a place for summer residents. The
hotels, boarding-houses and suburban homes would increase the census
as given to nearly ten thousand people. The _West Shore Railroad_ is
two and a half miles from the Hudson, with (a) station at West Nyack. The
_Northern Railroad of New Jersey_, leased by the _New York, Lake Erie
and Western_ (Chambers 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, known as Hook Mountain, is 730 feet high.) Ball Mountain above
this, and nearer the river, 650 feet. They were sometimes called by
Dutch captains Verditege Hook.
* * *
The sails hung idly all night long,
I dreamed a dream of you and me;
'Twas sweeter than the sweetest song,--
The dream I dreamed on Tappan Zee.
_Wallace Bruce._
* * *
[Illustration: STONY POINT]
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 hundred and fifty
feet above the Hudson. 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
unhealthy, and called forth many learned discussions.
Returning to the east bank, we see above Tarrytown many superb
residences, notably "Rockwood," the home of William Rockefeller, of
the Standard Oil Company. The estate of General James Watson Webb is
also near at hand. Passing Scarborough Landing, with the Hook Mountain
and Ball Mountains on the left, we see
=Ossining=, formerly known as Sing Sing, on east bank. The low
buildings, near the river bank, are the State's Prison. They are
constructed of marble, but are not considered palatial by the
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 chieftancy here known as the Sintsinks. In a deed to Philip
Phillipse in 1685 a stream is referred to as "Kitchewan called by the
Indians Sink-Sink." The Indian Village was known as Ossining, from
"ossin" a stone and "ing" a place, probably so called from the rocky
and stony character of the river banks.
* * *
How many, at this hour, along thy course,
Slumber to thine eternal murmurings
That mingle with the utterance of their dreams.
_William Cullen Bryant._
* * *
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 military boarding
schools and a seminary for girls. The old silver and copper mines once
worked here never yielded satisfactory returns for invested capital.
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 _New York Central Railroad_ 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 average 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 aqueduct 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 accessible
by a pleasant drive from Peekskill, or by the _Harlem Railroad_ 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
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. 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 Putnam
and Westchester are conveyed to New York even as the poetic waters of
Loch Katrine to the city of Glasgow. The Catskill water supply, the
ground of which was broken in 1907, is referred to in our description
of Cold Spring and the Catskills.
* * *
Round the aqueducts of story
As the mists of Lethe throng
Croton's waves in all their glory
Troop in melody along.
_George P. Morris._
* * *
Just above Croton Bay and the _New York Central Railroad_ 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 Underhill'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 woods, and the sachems of Teller's Point are
household words in the neighborhood. 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 Underhill grapery and the 10,000 gallons
of wine bottled every season.
It was here the British warship "The Vulture," came with Andre and put
him ashore at the foot of Mount Tor below Haverstraw.
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 adjusting his smoked glasses to temper
the dazzling light.
* * *
Beneath these gold and azure skies
The river winds through leafy glades,
Save where, like battlements, arise
The gray and tufted Palisades.
_Henry T. Tuckerman._
* * *
=Haverstraw=, 37 miles from New York. Haverstraw Bay is sometimes said
to be five miles wide. Its widest point, however, from Croton Landing
to Haverstraw, is, according to United States Geological Survey,
a little over four miles. The principal industry of Haverstraw is
brick-making, and its brick yards reaching north to Grassy Point, are
of materal profit, 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 re-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 central water-shed of England. Others say it is the
Devonshire word Tor changed to Torn, evidently derived from the same
source.
* * *
Emerging from these confused piles, the river as if
rejoicing at its release from its struggle, expanded into
a wide bay, which was ornamented by a few fertile and
low points that jutted humbly into its broad basin.
_James Fenimore Cooper._
* * *
=West Shore 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 Palisades, comes upon a sudden
vision of beauty unrivaled in any 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
Beverley House in the Highlands. The Hudson here is about two miles
in width and narrows rapidly as we pass Grassy Point on the west bank
with its meadows and brick yards to
=Stony Point=, where it is scarcely more than half a mile to
Verplank's Point on the eastern bank. 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 by the British, June
1, 1779, but it was surprised and recaptured by Anthony Wayne, July
15 of the same year. A centennial was observed at the place July 15,
1879, when the battle was "refought" and the West Point Cadets showed
how they would have done it if they had been on hand a century ago.
Thackeray, in his "Virginians," gives perhaps the most graphic account
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 "Mad Anthony," from his reckless daring, to
undertake its recapture with a force of one thousand picked men. The
lines were formed in two columns about 8 p.m. at "Springsteel'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, at the head of the column, forded the marsh
covered at the time with two feet of water. The other column led by
Butler and Murfree 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, the American columns moved forward, entered the
abatis, until the advance guard under Anthony Wayne was within the
enemy's works. A bullet at this moment struck Wayne in the forehead
grazing his skull. Quickly recovering from the shock, he rose to his
knees, shouted: "Forward, 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 modern 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 ordinance and stores captured were
appraised at over $180,000 and there was universal rejoicing"
throughout the land. "Stony Point State Park" was dedicated by
appropriate ceremony July 16, 1902. At the close of Governor Odell's
address the flag was raised by William Wayne, a lineal descendant of
the hero, and the cruiser "Olympia" of Manila fame boomed forth her
tribute. Verplank's Point, on the east bank (now full of brick-making
establishments), 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."
* * *
The star spangled banner, the flag of the brave,
And the cross of old England in amity wave,
But if ever the nations do battle again
God send us such soldiers as Anthony Wayne.
_Minna Irving._
* * *
The echoes that so boldly rung
When cannon flashed from steep to steep,
And freedom's airy challenge flung,
In each romantic valley sleep.
_Henry T. Tuckerman._
* * *
=Tompkin's Cove.=--North of Stony Point we see great quarries of
limestone, the principal industry of the village of Tompkin's Cove.
Gravel is also shipped from this place for Central Park roads and
driveways in New York City. The tourist, looking north from the
forward deck of the steamer, sees no opening in the mountains, and
it is amusing to hear the various conjectures of the passengers; as
usual, the "unexpected" happens. The steamer turns to the left and
sweeps 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_, crossing 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 "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.
* * *
The Highlands and the Palisades
Mirror their beauty in the tide,
The history of whose forest shades
A nation reads with conscious pride.
_Wallace Bruce._
* * *
=Peekskill=, 40 miles from New York, is a pleasant city on the quiet
bay which deeply indents the eastern bank. The property in this
vicinity was known as Rycks Patent in 1665. In Revolutionary times
Fort Independence stood on the point above, where its ruins are still
seen. The Franciscan 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 captured as a spy. A British
officer wrote a letter asking his reprieve, 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," also the Hillside Cemetery, where on
June 19, 1898, the 123d anniversary of the battle of Bunker Hill, a
monument was unveiled to General Pomeroy by the Society of the Sons of
Revolution, New York. The church which Washington attended is in good
preservation.
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.
Peekskill was known by the Indians as Sackhoes in the territory of the
Kitchawongo, which extended from Croton River to Anthony's Nose.
[Illustration: SOUTHERN GATE OF HIGHLANDS]
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:
=The 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 three
or four months, increasing his crew to one hundred and fifty-five
men, and sailed thence to Madras, thence to Bonavista and St. Jago,
Madagascar, then to Calicut, then to Madagascar 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 meantime, in August, 1698, the East
Indian Company informed the Lords Justice that Kidd had committed
several acts of piracy, particularly in seizing a Moor's ship called
the "Quedah Merchant." When Kidd landed at Boston he was therefore
arrested by the Earl of Bellamont, and sent to England for trial,
1699, where he was found guilty and executed. Now it is supposed that
the crew of the "Quedah Merchant," which Kidd left at Hispaniola,
sailed for their homes, as the crew was mostly gathered from the
Highlands and above. It is said that they passed New York in the
night, _en route_ to the manor of Livingston; but encountering a gale
in the Highlands, and thinking they were pursued, ran her near the
shore, now known as Kidd's Point, and here scuttled her, the crew
fleeing to the woods with such treasure as they could carry. Whether
this circumstance was true or not, it was at least a current story in
the neighborhood, and an enterprising individual, about fifty years
ago, _caused an old cannon_ to be "discovered" in the river, and
perpetrated the first "Cardiff Giant Hoax." A New York Stock Company
was organized to prosecute the work. It was said that the ship could
be seen in clear days, with her masts still standing, many fathoms
below the surface. One thing is certain--the company did not see it or
the _treasurer_ either, in whose hands were deposited about $30,000.
* * *
Beauty and majesty on either hand
Have shared thy waters with their common realm.
_Knickerbocker Magazine._
* * *
Their summits are the first to meet
The morning's golden ray,
And last to catch the crimson fires
That warm the dying day.
_Minna Irving._
* * *
On the west shore rise the rock-beaten crags of--
=The Dunderberg=, the dread of the Dutch mariners. This hill,
according to Irving, was peopled with a multitude of imps, too great
for man to number, who wore sugar-loaf hats and short doublets, and
had a picturesque way of "tumbling head over heels in the rack and
mist." They were especially malignant toward all captains who failed
to do them reverence, and brought down frightful squalls on such craft
as failed to drop the peaks of their mainsails to the goblin who
presided over this shadowy republic. It was the dread of the early
navigators--in fact, the Olympus of Dutch mythology. Verditege Hook,
the Dunderberg, and the Overslaugh, were names of terror to even the
bravest skipper. The old burghers of New York never thought of making
their week's voyage to Albany without arranging their wills, and it
created as much commotion in New Amsterdam as a modern expedition to
the north pole. Dunderberg, in most of the Hudson Guides and Maps, is
put down as 1,098 feet, but its actual altitude by the latest United
States Geological Survey is 865 feet.
The State National Guard Encampment crowns a bluff, formerly known as
Roa Hook, on the east bank, north of Peekskill Bay, a happy location
in the midst of history and beauty. Every regiment in the State
rallies here in turn during the summer months for instruction in the
military art, living in tents and enjoying life in true army style.
Visitors are cordially greeted at proper hours, and the camp is easily
reached by ferry from Peekskill. A ferry also runs from Peekskill to
Dunderberg, affording a hillside outing and a delightful view. It is
expected that a spiral railroad, fourteen miles in length, undertaken
by a recently organized corporation, but abandoned for the present,
will make the spot a great Hudson River resort. The plan also embraces
a palatial hotel on the summit and pleasure grounds upon the point at
its base. Passing Manito Mountain on our right the steamer approaches
=Anthony's Nose=, a prominent feature of the Hudson.
* * *
The waters were hemmed in by abrupt and dark
mountains, but the channel was still broad and smooth
enough for all the steamboats in the Republic to ride
in safety.
_Harriet Martineau._
* * *
[Illustration: ANTHONY'S NOSE.]
Strangely enough the altitude of the mountains at the southern portal
of the Highlands has been greatly overrated. The formerly 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 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 humorous account is, however, quite as probable that
it was _derived_ from the nose of Antony Van Corlear, the illustrious
trumpeter of Peter Stuyvesant. "Now thus it happened that bright and
early in the morning the good Antony, having washed his 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 his splendor from behind a high bluff of the
Highlands, did dart one of his most potent beams full upon 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 sporting beside the vessel. When this astonishing
miracle was made known to the Governor, and he tasted of the unknown
fish, he marveled exceedingly; and, as a monument thereof, he gave the
name of Anthony's Nose to a stout promontory in the neighborhood,
and it has continued to be called Anthony's Nose ever since." It
was called by the Indians "Kittatenny," a Delaware term, signifying
"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.
* * *
The beautiful and in some places highly singular
banks of the Hudson rendered a voyage both amusing
and interesting, while the primitive manners of the inhabitants
diverted the gay and idle and pleased
the thoughtful and speculative.
_Mrs. Grant of Laggan._
* * *
=Iona Island=, formerly a pleasure resort and picnic ground. An
old-time joke of the Hudson was frequently perpetrated on strangers
while passing the island. Some one would innocently observe, "I own
a island on the Hudson." When any one obligingly asked, "Where?" the
reply would be with pointed finger, "Why there." But the United States
Government _owns_ it now against all comers, and its quiet lanes and
picnic abandon have been exchanged for busy machine shops and military
discipline. It is near the west bank, opposite Anthony's Nose. A
short distance from the island, on the main land, was the village or
cross-roads of Doodletown. This reach of the river was formerly 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 Iona Island, better known to Anthony
Wayne than to the modern tourist, passes through Doodletown, over
Dunderberg, just west of Tompkin's Cove, to Haverstraw. Here amid
these 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 were
mercilessly slaughtered here by the Hessians, and, after the surrender
of Fort Montgomery, their bodies were thrown into the lake.
* * *
Behold again the wildwood shade,
The mountain steep, the checkered glade,
And hoary rocks and bubbling rills,
And pointed waves and distant hills.
_Robert C. Sands._
* * *
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 commanding 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. Reinforcements, 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. Governor 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 Independence. Most of the troops were accordingly
withdrawn from Forts Montgomery and Clinton, when Sir Henry Clinton,
taking advantage 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 900 moving on Fort Montgomery, and another
of 1,100 on Fort Clinton. Governor Clinton in the meantime ordered 400
soldiers to Fort Montgomery, and his reconnoitering party, met by the
Hessians, fell back upon the fort, fighting as it retreated. Governor
Clinton sent to General Putnam for reinforcements, 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 untrained 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, slipped their
cables and attempted to escape, but there was no wind to fill their
sails, and they were burned by the Americans to prevent their falling
into the hands of the enemy. The frigate "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 Lieutenant-Colonel 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 destroyed, 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 expedition, 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."
* * *
I love thy tempests when the broad-winged blast
Rouses thy billows with his battle call,
When gathering clouds, in phalanx black and vast
Like armed shadows gird thy rocky wall.
_Knickerbocker Magazine._
* * *
Sir Henry Clinton, who had been advised by General Burgoyne that he
must be relieved by October 12th, sent a messenger announcing his
victory. Another of the many special providences of the American
Revolution now occurs. The messenger blundered into the American camp,
where some soldiers sat in British 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 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.' 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 voici_ (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
hearing of his defeat, and returned to New York 'a sadder and wiser
man.'"
* * *
Columbia! Columbia! to glory arise,
The queen of the earth and the child of the skies.
_Timothy Dwight._
* * *
Far up the Hudson's silver flood
I hear the Highlands call
With whispering of leafy boughs
And voice of waterfall.
_Minna Irving._
* * *
=Beverley House.=--Passing Cohn's Hook, pronounced Connosook, where
Hendrick 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 remembered that Arnold returned to the Beverley House after his
midnight interview with Andre at Haverstraw, and immediately upon the
capture of Andre the following day, that Colonel Jamison sent a letter
to Arnold, advising him of the fact. It was the morning of September
4th. General Washington was on his way to West Point, coming across
the country from Connecticut. On arriving, however, at the river,
just above the present station of Garrison, he became interested in
examining some defenses, and sent Alexander Hamilton forward to the
Beverley House, saying that he would come later, requesting the
family to proceed with their breakfast and not to await his arrival.
Alexander Hamilton and General Lafayette sat gayly chatting with Mrs.
Arnold and her husband when the letter from Jamison was received.
Arnold glanced at the contents, rose and excused himself from the
table, beckoning to his wife to follow him, bade her good-bye, told
her he was a ruined man and a traitor, kissed his little boy in the
cradle, rode to Beverley Dock, and ordered his men to pull off and
go down the river. The "Vulture," an English man-of-war, was near
Teller's Point, and received a traitor, whose miserable treachery
branded him with eternal infamy on both continents. It is said that
he lived long enough to be hissed in the House of Commons, as he once
took his seat in the gallery, and he died friendless and despised. It
is also said, when Talleyrand arrived in Havre on foot from Paris, in
the darkest hour of the French Revolution, pursued by the bloodhounds
of the reign of terror, and was about to secure a passage to the
United States, he asked the landlord of the hotel whether any
Americans were staying at his house, as he was going across the water,
and would like a letter to a person of influence in the New World.
"There is a gentleman up-stairs from Britain or America," was the
response. He pointed the way, and Talleyrand ascended the stairs. In a
dimly lighted room sat a man of whom the great minister of France was
to ask a favor. He advanced, and poured forth in elegant French and
broken English, "I am a wanderer, and an exile. I am forced to fly to
the New World without a friend or home. You are an American. Give me,
then, I beseech you, a letter of yours, so that I may be able to earn
my bread." The strange gentleman rose. With a look that Talleyrand
never forgot, he retreated toward the door of the next chamber. He
spoke as he retreated, and his voice was full of suffering: "I am the
only man of the New World who can raise his hand to God and say,
'I have not a friend, not one, in America!'" "Who are you?" he
cried--"your name?" "My name is Benedict Arnold!"
* * *
Wayne, Putnam, Knox and Heath are there,
Steuben, proud Prussia's honored son;
Brave Lafayette from France the fair,
And chief of all our Washington.
_Wallace Bruce._
* * *
Andre's fate on the other hand was widely lamented. He was universally
beloved by his comrades and possessed a rich fund of humor which often
bubbled over in verse. It is a strange coincidence that his best
poetic attempt on one of Anthony Wayne's exploits near Fort Lee,
entitled "The Cow Chase," closed with a graphically prophetic verse:
"And now I've closed my epic strain,
I tremble as I show it,
Lest this same Warrior-Drover Wayne
Should ever catch the poet."
By a singular coincidence he did: General Wayne was in command of the
Tarrytown and Tappan country where Andre was captured and executed. It
is also said that these lines were published by one of the Tory papers
in New York the very day of Andre's capture. One of the old-time
characters on the Hudson, known as Uncle Richard, has recently thrown
new light on the capture of Andre by claiming, with a touch of genuine
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.
* * *
In view of all he lost,--his youth, his love,
And possibilities that wait the brave,
Inward and outward bound dim visions move
Like passing sails upon the Hudson's wave.
_Charlotte Fiske Bates._
* * *
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 or 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 account 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 Continental 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 gave 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"
people 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!
* * *
A slanting ray lingered on the woody crests of the precipices that
overhung the river, giving greater depth to the dark-gray and
purple of the rocky sides.
_Washington Irving._
* * *
All the way from Anthony's Nose to Beverley Dock, where we have been
lingering over the story of Andre, we have been literally turning a
kaleidoscope of blended history and beauty, with scarcely time to note
the delightful homes on the west bank, just above Fort Montgomery.
Among them J. Pierpont Morgan's and the Pells', John Bigelow's and
"Benny Havens'," or on the east bank of Hamilton Fish, just above
Beverley Dock, Samuel Sloan and the late William H. Osborn, just north
of Sugar Loaf Mountain; the mountain being so named as it resembles,
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 building above the rocky channel is Lady Cliff, the Academy
of Our Lady of Angels, under the Franciscan Sisters at Peekskill,
opened September, 1900. It was originally built for a hotel, and
widely known as Cranston's Hotel and Landing. As the steamer is now
approaching the west bank we see above us the Cullum Memorial Hall,
completed in 1899, a bequest of the late George W. Cullum of the class
of 1833. The still newer structure to the south is the officers'
messroom, crowning the crest above the landing.
* * *
Then, as you nearer draw, each wooded height
Puts off the azure hues by distance given!
And slowly breaks upon the enamored sight,
Ravine, crag, field and wood in colors true and bright.
_Theodore S. Fay._
* * *
=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 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 Hudson. 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 best be seen in this way.
=The United 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 1793, in his annual message, recommended it
to Congress, which in 1794 organized a corps of artillerists to be
here stationed with thirty-two 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 hundred and sixty.
Up to 1812 only 71 cadets had been graduated. The roll of graduates
now numbers about 5,000.
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, especially in higher mathematics. The cadets go into camp in
July and August, and this is the pleasantest time to visit the point.
* * *
Enchanted place, hemmed in by mountain walls,
By bristling guns and Hudson's restful shore.
_Kenneth Bruce._
* * *
The plans furnished by the architects of the new building will
entirely change the appearance of the river front. The proposed
massive structure crowning the cliff will "out-castle" the most
massive fortifications of the walled cities of Europe. $7,500,000 has
been appropriated to the work by Congress and the next generation will
behold a new West Point.
In the rebuilding of the Post the Cadet Chapel, the Riding Hall, the
Administration Building and some of the Officers' Quarters will be
removed. Most of the old important buildings, however, will not be
disturbed, and the Chapel will be placed as it were "intact" on
another site. The plan leaves untouched the Cadet Barracks, the Cadet
Mess, the Memorial Hall, the Library and the Officers' Mess. The
tower of the new Post Headquarters will rise high and massive several
stories above the other structures and present in enduring symbol the
republic standing four square and firm throughout the ages.
In the "West Point Souvenir," prepared by W. H. Tripp, which every
visitor will prize, are many suggestions and descriptions of value.
From many visits and many sources we condense the following brevities:
=The Cadet Barracks= was built in 1845-51 of native granite. In 1882
the western wing was extended adding two divisions.
=The Academy Building= is immediately opposite the Headquarters, of
Massachusetts granite, erected in 1891-95, and cost about $500,000.
It contains recitation and lecture rooms of all departments of
instruction.
=The Ordnance Museum= contains an interesting and extensive exhibit
of ancient and modern firearms, also many valuable trophies from the
Revolutionary, Mexican, Civil and Spanish wars.
* * *
Among the fair and lovely Highlands of the Hudson, shut in by deep
green heights and ruined forts, hemmed in all round with memories
of Washington, there could be no more appropriate ground for the
military school of America.
_Charles Dickens._
* * *
=The Cadet Chapel=, immediately north of the Administration Building,
was erected in 1834. The chapel contains many valuable trophies of
the Revolutionary and Mexican wars, including three Hessian and two
British flags that were once the property of Washington. The walls
have many memorial tablets and a famous "blank" of Arnold. Here also
are several cannon surrendered at Saratoga, October 17, 1777.
=The Administration Building= was completed in 1871.
=The Library= adjoins the Cadet Chapel on the east, built of native
granite in 1841, costing about $15,000. In 1900 the building was
entirely reconstructed of fire-proof material by appropriation of
$80,000. The exterior walls of the original building entered into the
remodeled structure. The Library, founded in 1812, has about 50,000
volumes.
=The Gymnasium= adjoins the Barracks on the west, erected of native
granite, costing $90,000.
=Memorial Hall=, plainly seen from the Hudson, completed in 1899, is
of Ionic architecture. The building cost $268,000, a legacy bequeathed
by Gen. George W. Cullum, built of Milford granite for army trophies
of busts, paintings and memorials. The bronze statute of Gen. John
Sedgwick in the northwest angle of the plain was dedicated in 1868.
The fine cenotaph of Italian marble was erected in 1885. It stands
immediately in front of Memorial Hall.
=Kosciusko's Monument= was erected in 1828. It stands in the northeast
angle of Fort Clinton.
=The Chain-Battery= walk runs from Kosciusko's Garden northward to
Light House Point, near which was the battery that defended the chain
across the river in the Revolution. The scene is of great beauty and
has been known for many years by the name of "Flirtation Walk."
* * *
Where Kosciusko dreamed and proud scenes bring
To mind the stormy days when Liberty
Was cradled at West Point--the Highlands' key.
_Kenneth Bruce._
* * *
[Illustration: BATTLE MONUMENT, WEST POINT]
=The Battle Monument=, on Trophy Point, is the most beautiful on the
reservation--a column of victory in memory of 2,230 officers and
soldiers of the regular army of the United States who were killed or
died of wounds received in the war of the Rebellion. It is a monolith
of polished granite surmounted by a figure of Fame. The shaft is 46
feet in length, 5 feet in diameter, and said to be the largest piece
of polished stone in the world. The cost of the work was $66,000. The
site was dedicated June 15, 1864. The monument was dedicated in 1897.
The address was by Justice Brewer.
=Trophy Point=, on the north side of the plain, overlooking the river
and commanding a majestic view of the Hudson and the city of Newburgh,
has been likened by European travelers to a view on Lake Geneva.
Here are the "swivel clevies" and 16 links of the old chain that was
stretched across the river at this point. The whole chain, 1,700
feet long, weighing 186 tons, was forged at the Sterling Iron Works,
transported to New Windsor and there attached to log booms and floated
down the river to this point.
=Old Fort Putnam= was erected in 1778 by the 5th Massachusetts
Regiment under the direction of Col. Rufus Putnam. It was originally
constructed of logs and trees with stone walls on two sides to defend
Fort Clinton on the plain below. It was garrisoned by 450 men, and had
14 guns mounted. In 1787 it was dismantled, and the guns sold as
old iron. Its brick arch casements overgrown with moss, vines, and
shrubbery are crumbling away, but are well worth a visit. It is 495
feet above the Hudson. A winding picturesque carriage road leads up
from the plain, and the pedestrian can reach the summit in 20 minutes.
On clear days the Catskill Mountains are visible.
=Fort Clinton=, in the northeast angle of the plain, was built in
1778 under the direction of the Polish soldier, Kosciusko. Sea Coast
Battery is located on the north waterfront, Siege Battery on the slope
of the hill below the Battle Monument. Targets for the guns on both
batteries are on the hillside about a mile distant. Battery Knox,
which overlooks the river, was rebuilt in 1874 on the site of an old
revolutionary redoubt.
* * *
Bright are the moments link'd with thee,
Boast of a glory-hallowed land!
Hope of the valiant and the free,
Home of our youthful soldier band!
_Anonymous._
* * *
While Fort Putnam was being built Washington was advised that Dubois's
regiment was unfit to be ordered on duty, there being "not one blanket
in the regiment. Very few have either a shoe or a shirt, and most of
them have neither stockings, breeches, or overalls. Several companies
of inlisted artificers are in the same situation, and unable to work
in the field."
What privations were here endured to establish our priceless liberty!
It makes better Americans of us all to turn and re-turn the pages of
the real Hudson, the most picturesque volume of the world's history.
West Point during the Revolution was the Gibraltar of the Hudson
and her forts were regarded almost impregnable. Fort Putnam will be
rebuilt as an enduring monument to the bravery of American soldiers.
The best way to study West Point, however, is not in voluminous
histories or in the condensed pages of a guide book, but to visit it
and see its real life, to wander amid its old associations, and
ask, when necessary, intelligent questions, which are everywhere
courteously answered. The view north seen in a summer evening, is one
long to be remembered. In such an hour the writer's idea of the Hudson
as an open book with granite pages and crystal book-mark is most
completely realized as indicated in the Highland section of his poem,
"The Hudson":
On either side these mountain glens
Lie open like a massive book,
Whose words were graved with iron pens,
And lead into the eternal rock:
Which evermore shall here retain
The annals time cannot erase,
And while these granite leaves remain
This crystal ribbon marks the place.
* * *
Under Spring's delicate marshalling every hill of the Highlands
took its own place, and the soft swells of ground stood back the
one from the other in more and more tender coloring.
_Susan Warner._
* * *
[Illustration: LOOKING NORTH FROM WEST POINT BATTERY]
=West Point to Newburgh.=
The steamer passes too near the west bank to give a view of the
magnificent plateau with parade ground and Government buildings, but
on rounding the point a picture of marvelous beauty breaks at once
upon the vision. On the left the massive indented ridge of Old Cro'
Nest and Storm King, and on the right Mount Taurus, or Bull Hill, and
Break Neck, while still further beyond toward the east sweeps the
Fishkill range, sentineled by South Beacon, 1,625 feet in height, from
whose summit midnight gleams aroused the countryside for leagues and
scores of miles during those seven long years when men toiled
and prayed for freedom. Close at hand on the right will be seen
Constitution 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 Indians 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 indifference the palaces along the
river front: "the artistic terraces, the well-kept, sloping lawns, the
clipped hedges and the ivy-grown walls made no impression on them, but
when the 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 uttered a
monosyllabic expression of delight, which was more expressive than
volumes of words."
* * *
The queenly Hudson circling at thy feet
Lingers to sing a song of joy and love,
Pouring her heart in rippling wavelets sweet,
Which sun-kissed glance up to thy throne above.
_Kenneth Bruce._
* * *
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 sunlit
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 conditions. 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 gray form to throw
In a silver cone on the wave below."
It is said that the "Culprit Fay" was written
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