ut into the harbor, called Red Hook, which figured
prominently in the military operations. From this projection to the
furthest point on the Wallabout was a distance of three miles, and the
scenery along the bank presented a varied and attractive appearance to
the resident of New York. The "heights" rose conspicuously in all the
beauty of their natural outline; lower down the shore might be seen a
quaint Dutch mill or two; on the bluffs opposite the Battery, the
mansions of Philip and Robert Livingston were prominent; and not far
from where the archway crosses Montague Street stood the Remsen and,
nearer the ferry, the Colden and Middagh residences. From every point
of view the perspective was rural and inviting.[18]

[Footnote 18: In describing some of the characteristic features of
Long Island, Smyth, the traveler already quoted, mentions what seemed
to him "two very extraordinary places." "The first," he says, "is a
very dangerous and dreadful strait or passage, called _Hell-Gates_,
between the East River and the Sound; where the two tides meeting
cause a horrible whirlpool, the vortex of which is called the Pot, and
drawing in and swallowing up every thing that approaches near it,
dashes them to pieces upon the rocks at the bottom.... Before the late
war, a top-sail vessel was seldom ever known to pass through
Hell-Gates; but since the commencement of it, fleets of transports,
with frigates for their convoy, have frequently ventured and
accomplished it; the Niger, indeed, a very fine frigate of thirty-two
guns, generally struck on some hidden rock, every time she attempted
this passage. But what is still more extraordinary, that daring
veteran, Sir James Wallace, to the astonishment of every person who
ever saw or heard of it, carried his Majesty's ship, the Experiment,
of fifty guns, safe through Hell-Gates, from the east end of the Sound
to New York; when the French fleet under D'Estaing lay off Sandy Hook,
and blocked up the harbor and city of New York, some ships of the line
being also sent by D'Estaing round the east end of Long Island to
cruise in the Sound for the same purpose, so that the Experiment must
inevitably have fallen into their hands, had it not been for this bold
and successful attempt of her gallant commander." The other spot was
Hempstead Plains, which presented the "singular phenomenon," for
America, of having no trees.]

Vastly changed to-day is all this region, which was now to be
disturbed