For a short time he vapoured like an impatient ghost upon the brink, and then bethinking himself of the urgency of his errand (to arouse the people to arms), he took a hearty embrace of his stone bottle, swore most valorously that he would swim across in spite of the devil {en spijt den (hiyvel), and daringly plunged into the stream. Luckless Anthony ! Scarcely had he buffeted half way over, when he was observed to struggle violently, as if battling with the Spirit of the waters. Instinctively he put his trumpet to his mouth, and giving a vehement blast, sank for ever to the bottom ! The clangour of his trumpet, like that of the ivory horn of the renowned Paladin Orlando, when expiring in the glorious field of Roncesvalles, rang far and wide through the country, alarming the neighbours round, who hnrried in amazement to the spot. Here an old Dutch burgher, famed for his veracity, and who had been a witness of the fact, related to them the melancholy affair ; with the fearful addition (to which I am slow in giving belief), that he saw the Duyvel, in the shape of a huge moss-bonker (a species of inferior fish) seize the sturdy Anthony by the leg, and drag him beneath the waves. Oertain it is, the place, with the adjoining promontory, which projects into the Hudson, has been called Spyt den Buy r el ever since.'}

During the war for independence, stirring events occurred in the vicinity of the Spyt den Duyvel Creek. Batteries were erected on promontories on each side of it, at its junction with the Hudson ; and in Westchester County, in its immediate neighbourhood, many skirmishes