the little brook that enters the river here, and afterwards applied it to quite an extensive territory, no antiquary has discovered. y Dobbs had a shanty on Willow Point and eked out his modest living by ferrying chance passengers over the river in his periauger, or dugout. His name was easier to pronounce than Weeckquaesguck, and being, moreover, associated with a ferry, it was perpetuated as a place name, while that of the bark kettle fell into disuse. But Dobbs is a thorn-in-the-side to the residents near his ferry, who have made several very serious 226 Digitized by Microsoft® In the Land of Irving 227 efforts to have the Legislature authorise the use of a more teuphonious name. Several public meetings have been held at different times to agitate the question and not a few have been the alternatives suggested. Mr. Van Brugh Livingston, who owned much land thereabouts and was a prominent citizen, tried to have his own name applied to the village ; not a few persons were in favour of adopting that of Paulding, one of the captors of Andre, and some one suggested Van Wart. The last proposition was met by a gravely advanced argument in favour of dropping the Van from the last name and simply calling the place " Wart- on-the-Hudson. " For a short time, Greenburgh was accepted as a compromise, and Dobbs Ferry became Greenburgh to the post-office authorities, but as a quiet after-thought the old name was finally restored, y There are at this place numerous shell-heaps, and other indications that at one time the Indian popula- tion was a large one, but there is no record of any par- ticular event connected with its history till the dark days of 1776, when its situation in relation to the Palisades brought it for a time into prominence. From no nearer point above Spuyten Duyvil could a landing- place upon the opposite side of the river be secured, owing to the precipitous cliffs. For this reason we find that the dispatches of both the British and American commanders bear frequent references to Dobbs Ferry. After the battle of White Plains the British force encamped here for eight days. From here, Lord Corn- Digitized by Microsoft® 228 The Hudson River wallis crossed the river into New Jersey. Here are the remains of several redoubts and a fort, though there was no land engagement at Dobbs Ferry. v^ When Arnold arranged his first interview, relative to the betrayal of West Point, with Andre, he was to meet him at Dobbs Ferry, but as the name seems to have applied equally to the eastern and western land- ings, it is uncertain which side of the river was indi- cated. We know that the plan miscarried, and the treacherous American general was so closely pursued by a British gunboat that he narrowly escaped cap- ture. After the condemnation of Andr^, General Greene met Sir Henry Clinton at Dobbs Ferry to dis- cuss the possibility of ameliorating his sentence. Here, in 1777, General Lincoln's division of the Continental army camped for a short time. In front of an interesting old house at Dobbs Ferry, in 1894, a monument was erected by the New York State Society of the Sons of the American Revolution. The inscription upon it reads : Washington's Headquarters. (/^ Here, July 6, 1781, the French allies, under Rochambeau, joined the American army. Here, August 14, 1781, Washington planned the Yorktown campaign, which brought to a triumphant end the War for American independence. Here, May 6, 1783, Washington and Sir Guy Carleton ar- ranged for the evacuation of American soil by the British. And opposite this point May 8, 1 783 , a British sloop-of-war fired seventeen guns in honour of the American Commander-in-chief, the first salute by Great Britain to the United States of America. Digitized by Microsoft® In the Land of Irving 229 In 1 86 1, Lossing wrote: The Livingston mansion, owned by Stephen Archer, a Quaker, is preserved in its original form. Under its roof in past times many distinguished men have been sheltered; Washington had his headquarters there toward the close of the Revolution and there in November, 1783, Washington, George Clinton, . . . and Sir Guy Carleton . . . met to confer, etc., etc. Both of the statements quoted above are mislead- ing. The house referred to is not the Livingston family- seat, but was acquired by Mr. Van Brugh Livingston about 1823. If any part of it was standing during the War for Independence, it was the small rear por- tion. One authority states that the interview between Washington and Carleton took place on board of a British vessel in the river, but this seems strikingly improbable. On the water, near Dobbs Ferry, in 1781, there