[Illustration:  WASHINGTON’S HEADQUARTERS, NEWBURGH]

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    Washington!  Brave without temerity; laborious without
    ambition; generous without prodigality; noble
    without pride; virtuous without severity.

    Marquis de Chastellux.

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=Fishkill-on-the-Hudson.=—­Directly opposite Newburgh, one mile north of Denning’s Point (formerly the eastern dock of the Newburgh ferry), rises on a pleasant slope, the newer Fishkill of this region.  A little more than a mile from the landing, is the manufacturing village of Matteawan, connected by an electric railroad.  Old Fishkill, or Fishkill Village, is about four miles inland, charmingly located, under the slope of the Fishkill range.  This was once the largest village in Dutchess county, and was chosen for its secure position above the Highlands, as the place to which “should be removed the treasury and archives of the State, also, as the spot for holding the subsequent sessions of the Provincial Conventions,” after they were driven from New York.  A historical sketch of the town, by T. Van Wyck Brinkerhoff, presents many things of interest.  “Its history, anterior to 1682, belongs to the red men of the valley, and, more than any other spot, this was the home of their priests.  Here they performed their incantations and administered at their altars.”  According to Broadhead, “It would seem that the neighboring Indians esteemed the peltries from Fishkill as charmed by the incantations of the aboriginal enchanters who lived along its banks, and the beautiful scenery in which those ancient priests of the Highlands dwelt, is thus invested with new poetic associations.”  Dunlap speaks of them as “occupying the Highlands, called by them Kittatenny Mountains.  Their principal settlement, designated Wiccapee, was situated in the vicinity of Anthony’s Nose.  Here too, lived the Wappingers, a war-like and brave tribe, extending themselves along the Matteawan, along the Wappingers Kill and tributaries, along the Hudson, and to the northward, across the river into Ulster County.  These and other tribes to the south, west and north, were parts of and tributaries to the great Iroquois confederation—­the marvel for all time to come of a system of government so wise and politic, and for men so eloquent and daring.  The Wappingers took part in the Dutch and Indian wars of 1643 and 1663, led on by their war chiefs, Wapperonk and Aepjen.  A few Indian names are still remaining, and a few traces of their history still left standing.  The name Matteawan is Indian, signifying ’Good Beaver Grounds,’ and the name Wappinger still speaks of those who once owned the soil along the Hudson.  Their name for the stream was Mawanassigh, or Mawenawasigh.  Wiccapee and Shenondoah are also Indian names of places in Fishkill Hook, and East Fishkill, and Apoquague, still surviving as the name of a country postoffice, was the Indian style of what is now called Silver Lake, signifying ‘round pond.’  In Fishkill Hook until quite recently, there were traces of their burial grounds, and many apple and pear trees are still left standing, set there by the hands of the red man before the country had been occupied by Europeans.”