His first visit to New York was made in 1808, and was an event to which the metropolis may point with pride, for no native-born son of Manhattan, with the blood of all the Dams and Bilts and Blinkers in his veins, ever became more intimately associated with the city. His celebrated friendship for Joseph Rodman Drake, -- a memory embalmed in the exquisite tribute of verse that he paid at the latter 's death -- commenced in 181 3, when the future author of Marco Bozzaris had been two years away from his Connecticut skies. Their joint production were the papers signed " Croaker and Co.," published in the Evening Post in 18 19. That same year, Halleck wrote the long poem, Fanny, in which occur the lines on Weehawken, which will be found in another chapter. Almost at the ver)' end of his long life, the poet wrote from Fort Lee, on the Hudson, to Lewis Gaylord Clarke:

258 The Hudson River

I hope thou wilt not banish hence These few and fading flowers of mine, But let their theme be their defence -- The love, the joy, the frankincense And fragrance of Langsyne.

Drake's claim to association with the Hudson River rests on his beautiful and imaginative creation, The Culprit Fay, which was composed among the Highlands in the same year that saw the production of the " Croaker" papers and of Fanny. The story goes that while walking with some friends, one of them remarked to the poet that, without the introduction of human characters it would be next to impossible to write a purely imaginative fairy poem. Drake accepted this as a challenge, and in a very short time submitted to his associates the manuscript of the work upon which rests his principal title to fame.