And opposite this point May 8, 1 783, a British sloop-of-war fired seventeen guns in honour of the American Commander-in-chief, the first salute by Great Britain to the United States of America.

In the Land of Irving 229

111 1861, Lossing wrote:

The Livingston mansion, owned l)y Stephen Archer, a Quaker, is preserved in its original form. Under its roof in past times many distinguished men have been sheltered; Washington had his headcjuarters there toward the close of the Revolution and there in November, 1783, Washington, George Clinton, . and Sir Guy Carleton . . . met to confer, etc., etc.

Both of the statements quoted above are misleading. The hotise referred to is not the Livingston family seat, but was acc(uired l^y Mr. Van Brugh Li\-ingston about 1823. If any part of it was standing during the War for Independence, it was the small rear ]:)ortion. One authorit}' states that the interview between Washington and Carleton took place on board of a British vessel in the river, but this seems strikingly im|3rol;)al3le. On the water, near Dobbs Ferry, in 1781, there was a sharp engagement between some British and American guard-boats. Almost immediately following this skirmish two gunboats ascended the river from New York, with the evident intention of cutting out the vessels congregated near the ferry, but they were discovered and driven away by shot from the shore l:)atteries. Dobbs Ferry was in the heart of that debatable region known as the neutral ground, the inhabitants of which were so harried and impo\^erished that, according to a record left by a traveller of that time, they seemed almost without hope or ambition ; silent, apathetic, regarding every man as a possible foe.