I tremble as I show it. Lest this same warrio-drover, Wayne,

Should ever catch the poet.

It has been remarked as a curious coincidence, that on the day when the last canto of the above poem was published in Rivington's Gazette, Major Andre was arrested; and that General Wayne, so ridiculed in it, and who is so peculiarly alluded to in the last stanza, was the commander of the military force from which was detailed the guard that accompanied

• A patriotic preacher of the Gospel, at Elizabetlitown, New Jersey, wlio was afterwards murdered, t William Alexander, Lord Stuling. % The Marquis do Lafayette. § New Jersey city.

THE HUDSON.

the gifted young officer to the scaffold. On the autograph copy from which I copied the poem, and which Andre dated " Elizabethtown [New Jersey], August 1, 1780," were the following lines: --

" When this epic strain was sung, The poet by the neck was hung ; Anil to his cost he finds too kxtc, The ' dung-born tribe ' decides his fate."

The next village below Bull's Ferry is Weehawk,^'' a place of great

ULi-LLlNC, GKOLM)-- ■V1E}•HA^^K

resort in summer by pleasure seekers from the metropolis. It is made

* Tills is an Indian word, and is thus spelt in its purity. The Dutch spelt It Wlehachan, and it is now commonly wi-itten Weehawken ; I Jiave adopted the ortliography that expresses the pure Indian pronunciation.

THE HUDSON. 449

famous by its connection with the duelling ground where General Alexander Hamilton, one of the founders of the Eepublic, was mortally wounded in single combat, by Aaron Burr, then Vice-President of the United States. They were bitter political foes. Without just provocation, in the summer preceding an important election, Burr, anxious to have Hamilton out of his way, challenged him to fight.