One of the resorts well known to all the fishermen on the Tappan Zee was the Hafenje, or little harbour, a i^leasant bay that indented the shore to the north of the "Yellow Rocks." In later days the old Dutch name became corrupted to "Hobbinger." It can hardly be doubted that the youthful companions wet their lines in its quiet water or beached their boat under the pines and hemlocks that bordered it. What is left of the Hafenje now is a shallow cove between the railroad track and the dam behind which General Watson Webb confined its tributary brook. John C. Fremont

242 The Hudson River

afterward bought that property, and the pond and cove are locally known by his name. From an old sketch written l:)y Paulding and published in 1828 in one of the then fashionable annuals, we get a glimpse of the local oddities, the characters, whose originality appealed so strongly to Irving, and of landmarks that have been obliterated. He describes "the little market town on the river, from whence the boats plied weekly to New York with produce," as a "pestilent little place [in 1793] for running races, pitching quoits, and wrestling for gin-slings," but adds: I must do it credit to say that it is now [1S28] a very orderly town, sober and quiet, save when Parson Mathias, who calls himself a Son of Thunder, is praying in secret so as to be heard across the river. It so happened that of all the days in the year, this was the very day [one Tuesday in November] a rumour had got into the town that I myself, the veritable writer of this true story, had been poisoned by a dish of souchong tea. There was not a stroke of work done in the village that day.