It is said that an old skipper, Jans Peek, ran up this stream, years
before the railroad was built, and did not know that he had left the
Hudson, or rather that the Hudson was "left" until he ran aground in
the shoal water of the bay. The next morning he discovered that it was
a goodly land, and the place bears his name unto this day.
* * *
The Highlands and the Palisades
Mirror their beauty in the tide,
The history of whose forest shades
A nation reads with conscious pride.
_Wallace Bruce._
* * *
=Peekskill=, 40 miles from New York, is a pleasant city on the quiet
bay which deeply indents the eastern bank. The property in this
vicinity was known as Rycks Patent in 1665. In Revolutionary times
Fort Independence stood on the point above, where its ruins are still
seen. The Franciscan Convent Academy of "Our Lady of Angels," guards
the point below. In 1797 Peekskill was the headquarters of old Israel
Putnam, who rivaled "Mad Anthony" in brevity as well as courage. It
will be remembered that Palmer was here captured as a spy.
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