was atten- tive to a young woman named Teed whose brother was a loyalist. Upon one of his frequent visits to the home of his lady-love, he was set upon by a number of Tories and forced to seek refuge in a barn, from which he fired upon his assailants, wounding some of them. Young Teed was one of the party and con- ducted a parley with the beleaguered lover, who finally agreed to surrender himself. He was handed over to the British officer near by and taken a prisoner to the Sugar House, on Liberty Street, New York. From that dreadful prison he managed to escape, and through the aid of a negress, who disguised him in the green coat of a Hessian soldier, he finally reached the Ameri- can lines. A few days later, while wearing the same conspicuous garment, he assisted in, capturing Major Andre at Tarry town. After the foregoing cursory glance at Peekskill 's his- toric past, which we reluctantly leave, we must make an equally rapid survey of more recent days. Of the many eminent men that the inhabitants of the town have delighted to honour, there are several that we may not be forgiven for omitting. One of these is Henry Ward Beecher, whose summer home was a short distance east of the village. Senator Chauncey Digitized by Microsoft® At the Gate of the Highlands 319 M. Depew was born in this place, and has enHvened a thousand dinner-tables with his more or less apocry- phal recollections of it. Then there is the long roster of those who went out to battle for the Republic on Southern battle-fields in the dark days of the Civil War. To name any, when we have not room for all, would be to make a distinction that their patriotism neither suggests nor warrants. In 1882, the Governor of New York, Alonzo B. Cor- nell, sent a committee of officers of the National Guard to select a site for a military camp of instruction. The choice finally rested upon the plateau to the north of Annsville creek, which comprised ninety-seven acres belonging to the estate of John McCoy. This was purchased, with an additional tract for a rifle-range. Here, at an elevation of a hundred feet above the river, all arrangements were made for the convenience of a permanent camp. A reservoir was formed by damming a brook, and the water distributed in pipes through the grounds, while facilities for cooking on a large scale have also been perfected. Here, summer after summer, the various regiments of the National Guard have succeeded each other in encampments that have come to be a feature of the service. The point known as Roa Hook was the site of Fort Independence. A hotel occupied the spot in the forties and some of the steamboats made it a stopping place ; but the working of valuable gravel pits gradually un- dermined the blufE on which it stood. Digitized by Microsoft® 320 The Hudson River Peekskill looks out upon the Dunderberg and Bear Mountain. Verplanck's Point stretches to the south, and northward is the deep, narrow channel of the Highlands. Irving compared Peekskill Bay with Lake Como; it would be difficult in any part of the world to find a spot the natural features of which conspire to form a scene of more exquisite loveliness. From the lighthouse at Stony Point to that on lona Island the grand sweep of the opposite shore appeals to the imagi- nation, producing a sense of delight. The trains that creep about the base of the Dunderberg are pigmy affairs ; the swift cvtrrent that flows through the Horse Race and into Seylmaker's Reach catches broken reflections of the towering masses above them, and all the contriv- ances of man — his wharves, his boats, and his villages — cannot impair the invincible majesty of nature. Some years ago there was a coffer-dam and pumping station at the foot of the Dunderberg, and the story that is connected with them is one of several of a simi- lar character that the river can boast. Some one of the skippers of the numerous river craft came to an anchor near the foot of the mountain, but found, when he wished to resume his course, that his anchor's flukes were caught in something heavy that could not be detached from the bottom withoiit great effort. However, yielding to the persuasion of the windlass, the obstacle, whatever it was, after a while began to come slowly to the surface, with many an uneasy tug. The skipper's curiosity was great, and richly was it Digitized by Microsoft® At the Gate of the Highlands 321 rewarded, for, with one supreme effort, the crew raised to the surface and into the vessel —