I/O Staten Island Association of Arts and Sciences 



lections donated by Mr. Crooke to Columbia College. He told 

 us of the pitcher plants that he used to find in the swamp near 

 his home. At the time of our visit the grounds about the house 

 were very attractive to the eye of a naturalist, for he had let 

 many little thickets grow up, as of much interest to him and as 

 a shelter to the birds. He told us that quail used to nest in the 

 orchard and that he got into much trouble trying to protect the 

 birds in former days. One time, when he ordered a gunner out 

 of his place, the desperate man was going to shoot him, and he 

 stood looking into the barrels of his gun for a minute or more, 

 expecting the man to pull the trigger. 



Many smugglers used to frequent the lonely beach, and Mr. 

 Crooke once saw and went on board of a brig lying in Great Kill 

 that had a piece of canvas nailed over her name. When he vis- 

 ited the vessel, there were only a man and a dog on board. The 

 brig disappeared the following night. 



When Joseph Brown lived on the point, for it was once called 

 " Brown's Point" or the " Beach of Sand," a man knocked at his 

 door one night and said he had business with him. He asked if 

 what he told Brown would be kept a secret. Brown said that it 

 would, but the stranger insisted upon swearing him on the family 

 Bible. The visitor then said that a number of boxes of arms 

 were to be brought to the point, and he asked Brown where they 

 had best be hidden. Brown suggested that they be put under 

 a dilapidated old building, and the stranger departed. After 

 some days a schooner appeared off the beach, and in the night 

 the boxes were brought ashore and deposited as agreed. They 

 stayed ■ there some time, and were again moved in the night. 

 They were probably used in some of the disturbances in Cuba. 

 Brown received a pair of ivory-handled revolvers for not men- 

 tioning the fact that the boxes were stored on the point. 



The place where Brown lived was afterward used as a club- 

 house, and because of some disagreement between the clubmen 

 and the natives the house was set on fire, and now only the hole 

 in the ground, where the foundation was, remains. 



