(FOUND AMONG THE PAPERS OF THE LATE DIEDRICH KNICKERBOCKER) Now I remember those old women’s words
Who in my youth would tell me winter’s tales;
And speak of spirits and ghosts that glide¹ by night
About the place where treasure had been hid.
—MARLOW’S JEW OF MALTA.
HELL GATE
About six miles from the renowned² city of the Manhattoes, and in that Sound, or arm of the sea, which passes between the main land and Nassau or Long Island, there is a narrow strait, where the current is violently compressed between shouldering promontories³, and horribly irritated and perplexed⁴ by rocks and shoals. Being at the best of times a very violent, hasty current, its takes these impediments in mighty⁵ dudgeon; boiling in whirlpools; brawling⁶ and fretting⁷ in ripples⁹ and breakers; and, in short, indulging in all kinds of wrong-headed paroxysms. At such times, woe¹⁰ to any unlucky vessel¹¹ that ventures within its clutches.
 
This termagant humor is said to prevail only at half tides. At low water it is as pacific as any other stream. As the tide rises, it begins to fret⁸; at half tide it rages and roars as if bellowing¹² for more water; but when the tide is full it relapses again into quiet, and for a time seems almost to sleep as soundly as an alderman after dinner. It may be compared to an inveterate¹³ hard drinker, who is a peaceable fellow enough when he has no liquor at all, or when he has a skin full, but when half seas over plays the very devil.
 
This mighty, blustering¹⁴, bullying¹⁵ little strait was a place of great Difficulty and danger to the Dutch navigators of ancient days; hectoring their tub-built barks in a most unruly style; whirling them about, in a manner to make any but a Dutchman giddy, and not unfrequently stranding¹⁶ them upon rocks and reefs. Whereupon out of sheer spleen they denominated it Hellegat (literally Hell Gut) and solemnly gave it over to the devil. This appellation¹⁷ has since been aptly rendered into English by the name of Hell Gate; and into nonsense by the name of Hurl¹⁸ Gate, according to certain foreign intruders who neither understood Dutch nor English. May St. Nicholas confound them!
 
From this strait to the city of the Manhattoes the borders of the Sound are greatly diversified¹⁹; in one part, on the eastern shore of the island of Manhata and opposite Blackwell’s Island, being very much broken and indented²¹ by rocky nooks, overhung with trees which give them a wild and romantic look.
 
The flux²² and reflux of the tide through this part of the Sound is extremely rapid, and the navigation troublesome, by reason of the whirling eddies²³ and counter currents. I speak this from experience, having been much of a navigator of these small seas in my boyhood, and having more than once run the risk of shipwreck²⁴ and drowning in the course of divers²⁰ holiday voyages, to which in common with the Dutch urchins²⁶ I was rather prone²⁷.
 
In the midst of this perilous²⁸ strait, and hard by a group of rocks called “the ............