It covered a portion of the ground occupied by the Battery of to-day. It was called Fort

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THE BOWLING GREEN AND FOET GEORGE IN 1783.*

George, in honour of the then reigning sovereign of England. Within its walls were the governor's house and most of the government offices.

In the vicinity of the fort many stirring scenes were enacted when the old war for independence was kindling. Hostile demonstrations of the opponents of the famous Stamp Act of 1766 were made there. In front

.* This little picture shows the appearance of the Bowling Green and its vicinity, soon after the close of the war for independence. Widiiu the enclosure is seen the pedestal on which stood the statue of the king. Near it, the Kenuedj- House, mentioned in the text, and beyond it, Fort George, the Bay of New York, Governor's Island, and the Narrows, on the left, and Staton Island bounding most of the horizon, in the distance.

430 THE HUDSON.

of the fort, Lieutenant-Governor Golden' s fine coach, his effigy, and the wooden railing around the Bowling Green, were made materials for a great bonfire by the mob.

At the beginning of the war for independence, Fort George and its dependencies had three batteries, -- one of four guns, near the Bowling Green ; another (the Grand Battery) of twenty guns, where the flag-staff on the Battery now stands ; and a third of two heavy guns at the foot of White Hall Street, called the White Hall Battery. Here the boldness of the Sons of Liberty was displayed at the opening of the revolution, by the removal of guns from the battery in the face of a cannonade from a British ship of war in the harbour. From here was witnessed, by a vast and jubilant crowd, the final departure of the British army, after the peace of 1783, and the unfurling of the banner of the Republic from the flag-staff of Fort George, over which the British ensign had floated more than six years.