l68 HISTORY OF THE COUNTY OF WESTCHESTER. 



Upon the south-west side of Verplanck's Point, was situated King's 

 Ferry, the ancient pass to Rockland. The old sign-post placed at the 

 head of the lane, leading to this ferry, bore the following direction: — 



" DlSHE HIS DI ROODE TOE DE KSHING'S FaRRY." 



Upon the 30th of August, 1779, fifteen sail of the enemy lay at an- 

 chor near the King's Ferry.* 



On the evening of September 2 2d, 1780, Major John Andre, the 

 British spy, crossed the King's Ferry in company with Smith and the 

 negro boy. William Van Wert, the ferry-master on this occasion, after- 

 wards testified at Andre's trial, "that Mr. Smith crossed King's ferry 

 from Stoney Point to Verplanck's Point, on the evening of a day in the 

 week before last, in company with another man, and a negro boy was 

 with him ; — each of them had a horse. The day of the month I do not 

 recollect. I have not seen the person since to know him. He had a 

 black, blue or brown, great -coat on, a round hat, and a pair of boots. 

 I did not hear any conversation pass between Mr. Smith and the person 

 in the boat, neither did I hear Mr. Smith say which way he was going. 

 Mr. Smith seemed to hurry us a good deal. Cornelius Lambert, Henry 

 Lambert and Lambert Lambert, were boat-men along with me." 



Four or five miles below Verplanck's Point can be distinctly seen 

 Smith's house, where the interview took place between Andre and 

 Arnold, and where the latter gave the spy the fatal papers that proved 

 his ruin. 



It was at King's Ferry, about the middle of September, 1781, that the 

 junction of the French and American armies took place. The French 

 army crossed the Hudson River from Stoney Point to Verplanck's Point, 

 where the American forces were paraded under arms to receive them. 



In describing the scenery of this beautiful spot, Mr. N. P. Willis re- 

 marks: "It is not easy to pass and repass the now peaceful and beauti- 

 ful waters of this part of the Hudson, without calling to mind the scenes 

 and actors in the great drama of the Revolution, which they not long 

 ago bore on their bosom. The busy mind fancies the armed gun-boats 

 slowly pulling along the shore, and the light pinnace of the Vulture fly- 

 ing to and fro on its errands of conspiracy, and not the least vivid pic- 

 ture to the imagination is the boat containing the accomplished, the gal- 

 lant Andre and his guard, on his way to death. It is probable that he 

 first admitted to his own mind the possibility of a fatal result while pass- 

 ing this very spot. A late biographer of Arnold, gives the particulars of 

 a conversation between Andr£ and Major Tallmadge, the officer who 



a Heath's Mem. 216. 



