The town and stream receive their curious name from the following story, according to Irving. In 1664, when the Dutch were being threatened by the British, Anthony van Corlear, Dutch trumpeter to Gov. Stuyvesant, was despatched to sound the alarm. It was a stormy night and the creek was impassable. Anthony "swore most valourously that he would swim across it 'in spite of the devil' (en spuyt den duyvil) but unfortunately sank forever to the bottom." The "duyvil" had got him. "His ghost still haunts the neighborhood, and his trumpet has often been heard of a stormy night."
Across the Hudson, along which our route now lies for nearly 150 M., can be seen the Palisades, an extraordinary ridge of basaltic rock rising picturesquely to a height of between 300 and 500 ft. and extending along the west bank of the Hudson about 12 M. from a point north of Ft. Lee, N.J., to Palisades, N.Y.
The peculiar hexagonal jointing of the rock, which has given rise to the name Palisades, is an unusual geological formation; the only other important places where it is found are at Fingal's Cave in Scotland and the Giant's Causeway in Ireland. The beauty of the Palisades was threatened by quarrying and blasting operations until N.Y. and N.J. agreed to the establishment of the Palisades Interstate Park which comprises 36,000 acres (1,000 acres in New Jersey and 35,000 in New York State).
"The spacious and stately characteristics of the Hudson from the Palisades to the Catskills are as epical as the loveliness of the Rhine is lyrical. The Hudson implies a continent beyond. No European river is so lordly in its bearing, none flows in such state to the sea. Of all the rivers that I know, the Hudson, with this grandeur, has the most exquisite episodes."—George William Curtis.
The Half Moon at Yonkers
In September, 1609, Henry Hudson started up the Hudson in the "Half Moon," which attracted frequent visits from the natives along the route.
To the right, just north of Spuyten Duyvil, is a high promontory, upon which stands a lofty monument to Henry Hudson, who had his first skirmish here with the Indians after entering N.Y. Bay in Sept. 1609. With an excellent harbour at its mouth, and navigable waters leading 150 M. into a fertile interior, the Hudson River began to attract explorers and settlers soon after the discovery of America. Verrazano, the Florentine navigator, sent out by the French king, Francis I, ventured a short distance up the Hudson in 1524, almost 100 years before the Pilgrim Fathers, and in 1609 Henry Hudson sailing in the "Half Moon" nearly up to the site of Albany demonstrated the extent and importance of the river that bears his name.
New York Slave-Market—About 1730