side of the river, on the twenty-second of September, 1780, Major Andre saw the war-ship Vulture drop down the river to escape a galling fire from Teller's Point. Fresh from his interview with Arnold, the British spy was anxious to return to New York by the only safe way, — the way by which he had come. His uneasiness at the depart- ure of the Vulture from her anchorage may be im- agined. Once on board of her, all danger of detection and capture would have flown, and the details of Arnold's treacherous plan would in all human proba- Digitized by Microsoft® Around Haverstraw Bay 297 bility have been worked out successfully. But there was a guard at Teller's Point, and the Vulture made an admirable target. That was all; yet it certainly cost Andre his life and Arnold his reward — and pos- sibly cost King George a kingdom. Early on the twenty-first, Arnold had, in expecta- tion of his meeting, left the Robinson house, his head- CROTON AND VERPLANCK'S POINTS AND ANTHONY'S NOSE — FROM HILL BACK OF SING SING quarters, and proceeded to Verplanck's Point; from thence he went to the house of Joshua Hett Smith, on the opposite side of the river. When he crossed over to Stony Point [to quote Judge Dyk- man's admirable account], he dispatched an officer in his own barge up the river to Peekskill creek, and thence up Canopus creek to Continental Village, with orders to bring down a row- Digitized by Microsoft® 298 The Hudson River boat from that place, and directed Major Kerse, the quarter- master at Stony Point, to send the boat, the moment it should arrive, to a certain place in Haverstraw creek (now called Mine- secongo creek), which I assume to have been Colonel Hays's dock. . . . After receiving intelligence of the arrival of the boat, Arnold induced two of Smith's tenants ... to row Smith in the boat to the Vulture that night and directed them to muflfie their oars with sheepskin. There was an old lane leading from Smith's house to Colonel Hays's landing, through which they doubtless passed to find the boat. . The landing [of Andre, from the Vulture] was made at a dock used as a shipping place for wood and stone. A portion of this dock still remains. There is an old stone house three hundred feet north of the dock and an abandoned stone quarry north of the house, and the landing place is therefore easily found. There was a road leading up from the dock to the Long Clove road and traces of that old disused way are yet distinctly visible. Upon that way below the Long Clove road there is a small plateau, comparatively level, encircled by firs, where the interview between Arnold and Andr^ probably took place. Andr^, finding the Vulture gone, hid at the house of Smith till near the close of the day, when he and his host started for King's Ferry, on the Stony Point side. From there they crossed to Verplanck's Point, and Andre went on to his doom. The present aspect of Haverstraw is not one to whet expectation for a great historic event. The chief in- dustry is the making of bricks, and the part of the population most in evidence from the river shore is such as busy brick-yards naturally gather; but there are, nevertheless, pleasant country-seats in the neigh- bourhood, and, beyond the range of the brick-yards, dwellers of another sort have their homes. The view Digitized by Microsoft® o Hi o Eh « o X VI w H a ^; <! Digitized by Microsoft® Digitized by Microsoft® Around Haverstraw Bay 301 from the Haverstraw hills — or, one should say, views, for there is a panorama of them — are of unique beauty, "^^e swelling shoulder of Point-no-Point is below, an(|, : still more to the south, the venerable figure of High Taur. Croton and Sing Sing lie opposite, and, northward, the buttressed gates of the Highlands. There is a legend of High Taur that runs something in this wise: Amasis, one of the magi, long ago found his way to America and took to himself a native wife, by whom he had one child. On the summit of High Taur he built an altar, refusing the sun worship of the Indians; but they were enraged, and set upon and would have killed him had not a miracle saved him. An earthquake swallowed his enemies, and incident- ally opened the present channel through which the Hudson flows. Another story follows : A band of German colonists settled here two centuries or more ago, men who knew how to extract metal from the rocks. Their leader, a nobleman, Hugo by name, refused to follow the cus-