* * *

So fair yon haven clasped its isles, in such a sunset gleam,
When Hendrick and his sea-worn tars first sounded up the stream.

_Robert C. Sands._

* * *

On such a day in 1883 it was the privilege of the writer to stand
before 150,000 people at Newburgh on the occasion of the Centennial
Celebration of the Disbanding of the Army under Washington, and, in
his poem entitled "The Long Drama," to portray the great mountain
background bounding the southern horizon with autumnal splendor:

October lifts with colors bright
Her mountain canvas to the sky,
The crimson trees aglow with light
Unto our banners wave reply.

Like Horeb's bush the leaves repeat
From lips of flame with glory crowned:--
"Put off thy shoes from off thy feet,
The place they trod is holy ground."

Such was the vision Hendrick Hudson must have had in those far-off
September and October days, and such the picture which visitors still
compass long distances to behold.

"It is a far cry to Loch Awe" says an old Scottish proverb, and it