There was in 1 7S0 a blockhouse near the ferry, and for a time it was garrisoned by a British picket, whose duty it was to protect the loyalists of the neighbourhood. A numl3er of cattle and horses belonging to Americans had strayed on to Bergen's Neck, and offered a tempting bait for Tory marauders from Paulus Hook. From his headquarters near the Ramapo Hills, Washington dispatched Wayne -- "Mad Anthony," as his contemporaries sometimes called him -- to attack the blockhouse and drive away the British garrison, and also to secure the cattle for their owners. Light- Horse Harr}' Lee was dispatched on the latter mission, while Wayne made the attack upon the blockhouse with three Pennsylvania companies and four light ])ieces of cannon. But the attack was unavailing, the post proving too strong for the artillery of the besiegers, and the Americans were repulsed with a loss of sixty men. General Wayne succeeded in destroying some boats and capturing a number of cattle, with which he returned to the American lines.

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On the Jersey Shore 85

This affair might have been forgotten as one of the minor incidents of the war, without anv particular significance or relation to other events, had not one of the accomplished }'oung officers in his Majestv's service conceived the idea of making it the subject of a ballad. The officer was the ill-fated Major Andre, whose name is for ever associated with the attem]3t of Arnold to betray West Point into the hands of the enemy. In his ballad, which he called the Coiv Chase, Andre gave free rein to his satirical humour. As the poem contains seventy-one stanzas, the reader will excuse its full insertion in this place. But here is a sample of it : All in a cloud of dust were seen The sheep, the horse, the goat, The gentle heifer, ass obscene.