quifetly as if in a mill-pond. Nothing saved her from utter' wreck but the fortunate circum- stance of -having a horse-shoe nailed against the miast — a wise precaution against evil spirits, s\nce adopted by all the Dutch captains that navigate this haunted river. There is another stoty told of this- foul- weather urchin by Skipper Daniel Ouselsticker of Fishkill, who was never known to tell a lie. He declared that, in a severe squall, he saw him Digitized by Microsoft® Digitized by Microsoft® Digitized by Microsoft® At the Gate of the Highlands 325 seated astride of his bowsprit, riding the sloop ashore, full butt against Antony's Nose, and that he was exorcised by Dominie Van Gieson, of Esopus, who happened to be on board, and who sang the hymn of St. Nicholas; whereupon the goblin threw himself up in the air like a ball and went off in a whirlwind, carrjring away with him the nightcap of the Dominie's wife; which was discovered the next Sunday morning hanging on the weathercock of Esopus church steeple, at least forty miles off! Several events of this kind having taken place, the regular skip- pers of the river, for a long time, did not venture to pass the Dunderberg without lowering their peaks, out of homage to the Heer of the mountain ; and it was observed that all such as paid this tribute of respect were suffered to pass unmolested. Digitized by Microsoft® Chapter XX The Spirit of '76 THE military and naval operations along the Hudson and its shores during the War for Independence cannot be exhaustively dis- cussed in a work that of necessity covers so wide a field as the present volume. At the most, we may only hope to indicate, by the selection of several in- cidents, the character of the in^^asion and the spirit of those who opposed it. Toryism, it may be said in passing, was not entirely confined to the cities, yet it had its strongholds there, and the general temper of the country people seems to have inclined towards the Continental cause. Before the battle of Long Island, in August, 1776, the New York Convention sent delegates to stir up the yeomanry along the river. As the enemy's ships were at anchor near Tarrytown, powder and ball were sent to that place. Colonel Hammond, of local celebrity, was actively engaged in organising the militia for defence; Colonel Pierre Van Cortlandt, of the Croton manor of that name, was an active and efficient guard- ian of the east shore of the Tappan Zee ; while Colonel 326 Digitized by Microsoft® The Spirit of '76 327 Hay kept guard with his regiment over the western shore, from Nyack to the Highlands, the centre of his operations being at Haverstraw. The yeomen on both sides of the river patrolled the shores even as they guarded the highwa^^s, and tradi- tion asserts that wives and daughters stood beside the men as they shouldered the fiint-lock guns and handled powder-horns and bullet-pouches. Whenever the foe might appear, rustic marksmen were ready to re-enact Lexington and Concord. The British war-ships, shifting ground occasionally with the tide, or to avoid the galling attentions of the sharp-shooters, that annoyed them like so many wasps, were not holding their ground in the Tappan Zee and Haverstraw Bay from any holiday motive. Their boats were out constantly making soundings, locating shoals, determining the course of the channel, and pre- paring charts for the service of the flotilla. The Tories alongshore were suspected of furnishing both provis- ions and information. A tender beat up from Haverstraw Bay nearly to Fort Montgomery in the Highlands, when General Clinton greeted the unwelcome visitor with a ball from a 32-pounder, that had the effect of sending her about in short order. But soundings and observations had been com- pleted, and the chart of the river was sufficiently ac- curate to enable the war-ships to move up without other peril than that encountered from the American Digitized by Microsoft® 0 28 The Hudson River guns. They therefore advanced to within six miles of Fort Montgomery. George CHnton anticipated an effort to sHp by him at night, and gain the defence- less reaches of the river above the Highlands, where the enemy might not only ravage the country, but destroy the little fleet that was then being built at Poughkeepsie. He therefore placed a guard at a point nearly midway between the vessels and the fort, with material at hand for a mammoth signal fire, and simi- lar piles of combustibles were placed at intervals all through the Highlands, except at the fort. In case of activity on the part of the fleet, its every movement would be illuminated. / As a further safeguard, fire-rafts were brought down from