THE  BATTERY

WHEN Hendrick Hudson came sailing into
the mouth of the river that thenceforward
was to be known by his name, on that September
day in the year 1609, almost the whole of what now
is called " the Battery " was under water at high
tide. And it is a fact—notwithstanding the thun¬
dering of guns which has gone on thereabouts,
and the blustering name that the locality has
worn for more than two centuries—that not a sin¬
gle one of New York's enemies ever would have
been a whit the worse had the tides continued
until this very moment to cover the Battery
twice a day! Actually, the entire record of this
theoretically offensive institution — whereof the
essential and menacing purpose, of course, was
that somebody or something should be battered
by it—has been an aggregation of gentle civilities
which would have done credit to a rather excep¬
tionally mild-mannered lamb.

Most appropriately, this affable offspring of
Bellona came into existence as the friendly prop
to a still more weak-kneed fort. For reasons best
known to themselves, the Dutch clapped down
what they intended should be the main defence
of this island upon a spot where a fort—save as a
place of refuge against the assaults of savages—