Night of performance-"Lucky for you, my dear fellow, Fortunately the timid ones make their exits and entrances N this and the six succeeding pages of the Magazine will be found a series of engravings from sketches by Mr. Chapin, an artist of eminence, illustrating many objects of interest in New York harbor. Of the thousands of intelligent travellers who yearly make their first acquaintance with American scenery as they pass what Fanny Kemble calls the "rocky gateway of the Narrows," there is no one having a taste for the beauties of nature who does not hail with rapture the scene here presented to his eyes. The fertile and villacrowned shores of Staten and Long Islands, the massive forts that frown defiance from their casemates and parapets, the white sails and smoking funnels of ships and steamers, and the many-spired city that closes the distance, supply the features of a most enchanting panorama. Our pictures represent, in succession, Fort Lafayette, Ellis's Island, Bedlow's Island, Gravesend Bay, Fort Tompkins, and the town of Richmond, Staten Island, and Fort Columbus and Castle William on Governor's Island. We shall refer to these localities in a rapid survey of the features of the harbor, not following, however, the order of the engravings. Gravesend Bay is beyond Fort Hamilton, which is about nine miles from New York, on the south shore of Long Island. The view given was taken from a point on the road leading from Fort Hamilton and looking across the bay. The house on the left in the foreground, belonged during the Revolution to a tory named Simon Cortelyou, and has been but little altered since that period. Beyond the house is seen the sandy beach where the main body of the British and Hessian troops landed previous to the battle of Long Island, under cover of the guns of the Rose, Phoenix and Greyhound frigates, which were anchored near where the group of fishing boats are shown out in the bay. The distant land on the right is Coney Island. On the morning of Thursday, the 22d of August, 1776, the now quiet bay presented a stirring and busy scene. A fleet of one hundred and thirty-six vessels of every grade, lay anchored in the immediate vicinity, on board of which, and encamped on the shores of Staten Island, were twenty thousand British and Hessian troops, veterans of other wars, fully armed and equipped with every appliance of war, burning to be led against the so-called "rebels" who occupied the city of New York and works on Long Island adjacent. At a given signal the troops were seen pouring over the sides of the ships and transports, and soon a long row of boats, filled with glowing uniforms, were moving in the direction of the bay. The music of the various bands, the glittering of the morning sun on the burnished bayonets, the steady strokes of the man FORT LAFAYETTE, NEW YORK HARBOR. A GLIMPSE AT NEW YORK HARBOR. ELLIS'S ISLAND, NEW YORK HARBOR. of-war's men at the oars, the shout, the jest, and the loud laugh of those who were about to engage in mortal strife, all conspired to make up a scene of intense interest, and one calculated to stir the blood of the most indifferent witness. There were none such, however, for all had taken sides in the struggle, and with shame be it said, many, yea, a large majority of the inhabitants of the vicinity had deserted the cause of their country and joined that of a tyrannical king. Simon Cortelyou, the tory who occupied the house shown in the foreground of the picture, volunteered to guide the troops, and through his instrumentality the battle which followed was won by the British. in the boats under command of Sir Henry ClinFive thousand troops were ton, Earls Cornwallis and Percy, and Generals Grant and Sir William Erskine. The Hessians were under command of Count Donap, who was killed at Redbank the year following. The debarkation was under the direction of Commodore Hotham, and was peaceably effected on the sandy beach seen beyond the house in the picture. We do not propose, however, to follow the troops in their march and in the battle which followed. Following the road for a few hundred yards along the shore, we come out upon a high bluff. Standing here, the observer takes in at a glance an extended panorama of great interest. Commencing on the right, Fort Hamilton, with its formidable armament, its esplanade, docks, etc., is a prominent object. It is situated upon the site of "Denyse's strong house," which stood there during the Revolution. Four thousand British troops, who had been encamped on Staten Island near the quarantine, landed at this point simultaneously with those who landed in Gravesend Bay, and after beating back a corps of riflemen under Colonel Hand, united with the others in their march towards the battle ground. In the distance is seen New York Bay, with its shipping and its islands, while on the left are the thickly-wooded shores of Staten Island, with innumerable villas and country seats seen among and peering above the trees. works here during the Revolution; Forts HamThere were no ilton, Lafayette, Diamond, Richmond and Tompkins have all been erected at various periods since. The three latter are located upon Staten Island, and are shown in one of the engravings. Fort Diamond is simply a parapet behind which are the guns. It extends from the lighthouse to the road leading from Fort Richmond to the octagonal in form and is four stories in height. brow of the hill. Fort Richmond is a heavy work on the edge of the water. It is semithe most formidable defences of the harbor. It is casemated for near two hundred guns of the heaviest calibre. It is of granite, and is one of Fort Tompkins is a square fort with four circular bastions, erected during the last war with England. It is of brown sandstone, of a porous nature, and exhibits the marks of the weather, many of the stones on the most exposed sides being completely honey-combed. It is dismantled and closed to visitors. Fort Lafayette, represented in a small engraving, is a square work, erected on a sand bar on the edge of the channel, heavy armament. about two hundred yards from the Long Island Diamond, but after Lafayette's visit to this counshore. It is of brown stone, also, and mounts a It was originally called Fort try it was named in his honor. Bedlow, a merchant of New Amsterdam, by Bedlow's Island was originally granted to Isaac whose representatives it was sold, and it came into the hands of Captain Archibald Kennedy, the commandant of the naval station under the British government in the harbor. He occupied quently confiscated, and became the property of it as a summer residence, and it was known for a period as Kennedy's Island." It was subsethe State, by whom, in 1800, it was ceded to the United States government, the former reserving the right of serving civil process within its bounds. It is now a military station, and heavy fortifications have been from time to time erected to command the channel. Within the works are barracks for the garrison, and the officers' quarters are seen toward the northern point. Ellis's Oyster, or Gibbet Island lies a short distance north of Bedlow's Island, and is also a military station belonging to the United States governof the Jersey shore. In the good old days of ment. It is a desert spot, and was named Oyster Island from its proximity to the oyster beds our Dutch ancestors, it was much resorted to for the purpose of feasting upon those delectable bivalves, but of late years they are less plentiful along its shores. It was ceded at the same time as Governor's and Bedlow's Islands to the United States, who have erected fortifications thereon to protect the channel. Its appellation of "Gibbet Island" arises from the fact that in former years pirates were hung there in the presence of the shipping in the harbor. The last execution which occurred upon the island was that of the notorious Gibbs, in 1830. Although but a lad at that time, we can well remember the intense excitement of the occasion. Governor's Island is represented as seen approaching from the lower bay. Our readers are probably familiar with its appearance and with the whole works upon it, and it only remains for us to say that it was purchased by the Dutch governor, Van Twiller, from Cakapeteicuo and Pehiwas, two Indian chiefs, who were described as its owners. By them it was called Paggauck, but the Dutch christened it Nutten or Nut Island. The emigrants who came to settle at Manhattan first landed upon this island, but finding no water for their cattle, they were compelled in a day or two to remove to the main. Nutten Island does not appear to have passed out of Governor Van Twiller's hands after its purchase, but was held as the property of the governor for the time being. Its contiguity to the city and to the main channel pointed it out as an important point in the defence of both, although no works were erected upon it. Smith, in his colonial history, published about 1756, says: "About six furlongs southeast of the fort (on Manhattan Island) lies Nutten Island, containing about one hundred or one hundred and twenty acres, reserved by an act of assembly, as a sort of demesne for the governors, upon which it is proposed to erect a strong castle; because an enemy might from thence easily bombard the city, without being annoyed by either our battery or the fort." Like the others, it was ceded in February, 1800, to the United States by the State, with the same reservation in regard to civil process. The fortifications consist of a star fort or redoubt, called Fort Columbus, a circular fort, called "Castle William," and a redoubt on the southeast covering Buttermilk Channel, between the island and the Brooklyn shore. THE JUNGFRAU MOUNTAIN. And now with this sublime hymn chanting through our ears, let us set out upon a day's ride over the Alps. I invite you to accompany me to-night over one of the overland Alps which lie in the very heart of Switzerland. Before we mount for the ride, let me say a word to you about Swiss mountains and glaciers in general. If any one should look at this earth from the moon through a powerful telescope, Switzerland would seem to be an ocean in a tempest, with its billows all perfectly motionless. Her snow-clad mountains would be the waves with white, foamy crests. Their verdant fields would be the green troughs of the sea. In the central country there would be a special upheaving of these wavesthe mountains of ice that make up the Bernese Alps. The principal peaks are the Schreckhorn, or the "Peak of Terror;" the Finster Aarhorn, or "Peak of Darkness," looming up more than 14,000 feet; the Great Eigher, one of the noblest. But the most beautiful is the Jungfrau, which, in German, means "the fair young virgin." There she stands, clad in spotless robes, like a bride adorned for her husband. Her altitude is 13,720 feet-a pretty tall bride. And not more than a dozen persons have ever reached the summit. Beautiful Jungfrau ! let no man attempt to woo and win her; her embrace to him might be the embrace of death. The only citizen of the United States who ever mounted to the summit is Professor Agassiz, of Cambridge, and long before he reached the top he found the cowardly guides giving out. And, failing to urge them forward, he at length seized a hatchet from one of them, and hewed his way upwards alone, until he stood, the first American, upon the summit of the Jungfrau; a splendid illustration of science breasting and contending with dangers until she at length plants her banners upon the summit of ascertained and discovered truth.-A Day in the Alps. There is dew in one flower, and not in another because one opens its cup and takes it in, while the other closes itself, and the drop runs off. God rains his goodness and mercy as wide spread as the dew, and if we lack them, it is because we will not open our hearts to receive them. |