ghosts. 19 Digitized by Microsoft® 20 The Hudson River It is the city of the Knickerbockers, where the apo- cryphal burghers that Irving created were supposed to have puffed lazily upon their long pipes till the smoke obscured Communipaw, on the opposite shore. It is the city that hid behind palisades for fear of Indian neighbours; that fretted and prospered under Dutch and English governors ; that in place of stock exchanges and produce exchanges raised live stock and farm produce: the little city that entertained the first re- presentative Congress in the Colonies and inaugurated the first President of the new Republic. Fort Amsterdam, at first a very rude affair of logs, but no doubt a sufficient defence against the simple weapons of the savages, was remodelled and rebuilt almost as many times as the little city had new govern- ors. For this reason the earlier descriptions and pict- A BIT OF OLD NEW YORK Digitized by Microsoft® Two Cities on One Site 21 ures of this miniature outpost in the wilderness did not agree. What was at first designated a fort was, in fact, nothing more than a stockade or pahsade, enclos- ing not only the official buildings but private dwellings of the settlers. For many years the church in which the early Dutch domines exhorted their flocks fostered its spiritual courage behind that temporal bulwark, and no doubt the many-breeked worshippers slept more comfortably in the knowledge that the hewn tim- ber of their fence was strong, and the matchlocks of the guard ready for all comers. The names by which the fort was known, judging by the old records, changed almost as frequently as its size or dimensions. From Amsterdam it was altered by the English to James, and then by the Dutch again to William Hendrick, finally returning to James. At BEFORE THE DAY OF SKYSCRAPERS Digitized by Microsoft® 22 The Hudson River the time of the War for American Independence it had become Fort George. A detailed description of the fort was given by Gov- ernor Dongan (English) about 1685. He says: At New York there is a fortification of four Bastions built formerly against the Indians of dry stone & earth with Sods as a Breastwork well and pleasantly situated for the defence of the Harbor on a point made by Hudsons River on the one side and by the sound on the other. It has Thirty nine Guns, two Mortar- pieces, thirty B arils of Powder five hundred Ball some Bomb Shells and Grenados, small arms for three hundred men, one flanker, the face of the North Bastion & three points of Bastions & a Courtin has been done & are rebuilt by mee with Lime and Mortar and all the rest of the Fort Pinnd and Rough Cast with Lime since my coming here. And the most of the Guns I found dismounted and some of them continue to bee soe which I hope to have mounted soe soon as the mills can sawe. I am forced to renew all the batterys with three inch plank & have spoke for new planks for the purpose. The Ground that the fort stands upon & that be- longs to it contains in quantity about two acres or thereabouts, about which I have instead of Palisados put a fence of Pales which is more lasting. To this he adds a word about the human wall, upon which more reliance was to be placed than in rotten planks and dismantled guns. In this country there is a Woman yet alive from whose Loyns there are upward of three hundred and sixty persons now living. The men that are here have generally strong and lusty bodies. In the face of such a statement as the foregoing the historian is dumb, willing in future to look without question at any extravagance in census enumeration. Digitized by Microsoft® Two Cities on One Site 23 Old Captain John Buckhout, of Sleepy Hollow, who with his wife Sarah could count two hundred and forty children and grandchildren, — a statement graven large upon his tombstone, — has long been thought to hold the record as an ancestor, but his claim vanishes, his merits are insignificant, beside the "Woman yet alive" of Governor Dongan's report. The Albany fort was described by Dongan as being made of pine trees fifteen feet high, and fitted with batteries, etc., yet all very rotten, and he strongly recommends the substitution of masonry for timber at this important post. From Dutch to English, then back again from Eng- lish to Dutch, and finally once more into English hands, the embryo metropolis passed : but one looks in vain for records of carnage or of heroism. The transfers were made apparently without undue excitement on either side.