Whereupon out of
sheer spleen they denominated it Hellegat (literally Hell Gut) and
solemnly gave it over to the devil. This appellation has since been
aptly rendered into English by the name of Hell Gate; and into nonsense
by the name of Hurl 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 diversified; in one part, on the eastern shore of the
island of Manhata and opposite Blackwell's Island, being very much
broken and indented by rocky nooks, overhung with trees which give them
a wild and romantic look.
The flux and reflux of the tide through this part of the Sound is
extremely rapid, and the navigation troublesome, by reason of the
whirling eddies 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 shipwreck and drowning in the
course of divers holiday voyages, to which in common with the Dutch
urchins I was rather prone.
In the midst of this perilous strait, and hard by a group of rocks
called "the Hen and Chickens," there lay in my boyish days the wreck of
a vessel which had been entangled in the whirlpools and stranded during
a storm. There was some wild story about this being the wreck of a
pirate, and of some bloody murder, connected with it, which I cannot
now recollect.
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