Beerin, Beam, or Bear Island, as it has been variously called, is a little above Castleton and near the west bank of the stream. It is from various causes one of the best known of the many islands that diversify the river from Coxsackie north to the head of navigation. Itenjoys the distinction of being the birthplace of the first white child born to any of the earl}' settlers upon the Hudson, and was also the fortified place that was so great a bone of contention between the powers of the lower and those of the upper ri\'er. Ir\'ing, in one of his maddest moods, with a refreshing disregard for historical accuracy, told the story of Beam Island, "showing the rise of the great Van Rensselaer dynasty and the first seeds of the Helderberg war." Regardless of the fact that the first Van Rensselaer is not known to have \'isited in person his lordly estate in the New World, the author of Knickerbocker describes his coming and appearance. It was in the time of Walter the Doubter:

Now so it happened that one day as that most dubious of governors and his burgermeesters were smoking and pondering over the affairs of the province, they were roused by the report

512 The Hudson River

of a cannon. Sallying forth, they beheld a strange vessel at anchor in the bay. It was unquestionably of Dutch build, broad-bottomed and high poo]jed, and bore the flag of their High Mightinesses at the mast-head. After a while a boat put off for land, and a stranger stepped on shore, a lofty, lordly kind of man, tall and dry, with a meagre face, furnished with huge moustaches. He was clad in Flemish doublet and hose, and an insufferably tall hat, with a cocktail feather. Such was the patroon Killian Van Renselaer, who had come out from Holland to found a colony or patroonship on a great tract of wild land, granted to him by their High Mightinesses, the Lords States General, in the upper regions of the Hudson.