No prouder sentinel of glory than the old Beacon Mountain whose watch-fire guarded the valley and spoke its rallying message to the Catskills and Berkshires and the very foothills of the Green Mountains.
The sun touched mountains in some places were of a bright orange and the shadows between them deep neutral tint or blue. And the river apparently had stopped running to reflect.
=Low Point=, or Carthage, is a small village on the east bank, about four miles north of Fishkill. It was called by the early inhabitants Low Point, as New Hamburgh, two miles north, was called High Point. Opposite Carthage is Roseton, once known as Middlehope, and above this we see the residence of Bancroft Davis and the Armstrong Mansion. We now behold on the west bank a large flat rock, covered with cedars, recently marked by a lighthouse, the--
=Duyvel's Dans Kammer.=--Here Hendrick Hudson, in his voyage up the river, witnessed an Indian pow-wow--the first recorded fireworks in a country which has since delighted in rockets and pyrotechnic displays. Here, too, in later years, tradition relates the sad fate of a wedding party. It seems that a Mr. Hans Hansen and a Miss Kathrina Van Voorman, with a few friends, were returning from Albany, and disregarding the old Indian prophecy, were all slain:--
"For none that visit the Indian's den Return again to the haunts of men. The knife is their doom! O sad is their lot! Beware, beware of the blood-stained spot!"
Some years ago this spot was also searched for the buried treasures of Captain Kidd, and we know of one river pilot who still dreams semi-yearly of there finding countless chests of gold.
Two miles above, on the east side, we pass New Hamburgh, at the mouth of =Wappingers Creek=. The name Wappinger had its origin from Wabun, east, and Acki, land. This tribe, a sub-tribe of the Mahicans, held the east bank of the river, from Manhattan to Roeliffe Jansen's Creek, which empties into the Hudson near Livingston, a few miles south of Catskill Station on the _Hudson River Railroad_. Passing Hampton Point we see Marlborough, the head-centre of a large fruit industry, delightfully located in the sheltered pass of the Maunekill. On the east bank will be noticed several fine residences: "Uplands," "High Cliff," "Cedars," and "Netherwood." Milton is now at hand on the west bank, with its cosy landing and _West Shore Railroad_ station. This pleasant village was one of the loved spots of J. G. Holland, and the home of Mary Hallock Foote, until a modern "Hiawatha" took our Hudson "Minnehaha" to far away western mountains.