of the Tappan Zee and the Palisades to boot in order to be there. Most modern youngsters would be conscious of some slight fatigue after such a pull, but not so dehcate were the Dutchmen of that early day. Rambout Digitized by Microsoft® 212 The Hudson River danced and drank, drank and danced as though he had had no exercise for a week. It was a Saturday- night, and midnight came and passed before he knew it. But when he started for home sohcitous companions warned him against the peril of sabbath-breaking; for upon all matters of religious observance the Nether- landers were exceedingly punctilious. A young man might play what pranks he would with every pretty girl in the county, and make his potations of apple- jack both deep and frequent, but it would outrage the sentiment of the community if he broke the Sabbath. But Rambout was skin-full of recklessness, and dis- regarding every warning, he pulled off, " swearing that he would not land till he had reached Spuyten Duyvil." According to the best authorities he has not landed there yet. Whethei living or dead, none can say, but doomed to a perpetual journey across the river he un- doubtedly is, for many a boat-man on the river has heard the sound of his oars, and more than one damsel, being rowed o' moonlit nights on the river, has clung in terror to her swain, as she fancied she saw in the distance the shadowy form of Rambout Van Dam. There is another haunting shape that occasionally troubles these waters ; it is that of the Storm-ship that makes mysterious journeys, never heeding shoal or head- land, tacking when the wind is fair and running free in the teeth of a gale, with never a concession to any weather that mortals give heed to. Into the moon- light she comes suddenly, from some unknown quarter, Digitized by Microsoft® THE FLYING DUTCHMAN 213 Digitized by Microsoft® Digitized by Microsoft® spectres of the Tappan Zee 215 and as suddenly, while the eye is fixed upon her, van- ishes completely as a bubble that floats for a moment where a wave has broken, and then, in a twinkling, is dissipated. There have been people who have really doubted the existence of the phantom ship and class it with fabulous monsters, Brocken spectres, and the like : but these are not people who have navigated the waters of the Tappan Zee at night. Two hundred years ago the Storm-ship was first seen passing New Amsterdam, going up the stream against a strong ebb tide. She was flying Dutch colours and her sails bellied with a wind that certainly was not apparent to those who gazed at her, wide-eyed and whispering, from the fort. In spite of the trade regulations that forbade the passing of any vessel up the river without a permit, regardless of signals or challenge, the stranger sailed on. Then a gun was fired from the battery, but her hull did not stop the ball, nor did the ball check her course. She passed on, weathered the point of Jeffrey's Hook, crossed the long stretch of the Grievous Hook, and sailed out of sight under some of the headlands of the Tappan Zee. From that day to this no one has seen this un- substantial stranger sail down the river, past Manhat- tan, and out to sea. But many a time the rivermen have encountered her and with a muttered invocation to St. Nicholas have shortened sail, knowing that a storm was soon to come. Digitized by Microsoft® 2l6 The Hudson River For some reason the Tappan Zee seems to have been the favourite cruising-grotmd for this barometric craft since her first adoption of the Hudson; and even to- day, when least expected, her strange, tall poop and swelling sides sometimes are seen as she rounds the tedious shoulder of Point-no-Point, or steals along shore under the shadow of Kingsland's Point. Some HOOK MOUNTAIN FROM NYACK believe that she runs for anchorage into the mouth of the Pocantico, and others that she hides near the pine- shaded banks of the Hafenje, but no one has ever seen her at rest. She is always flying swiftly before a wind that mortals cannot feel. There is the memory of another craft, more sub- stantial than the phantom ship, and naore successful in attaining a port than Rambout's boat, that made the passage of the river between Wolfert's Roost and' Digitized by Microsoft® spectres of the Tappan Zee 217 the Rockland shore in 1776. Its occupant was the dashing soldier and arrant lover, Aaron Burr. When the American forces were near White Plains Burr was seized with a desire to spend an evening with the fascinating widow Provost, — Theodosia Provost, —