62 HISTORY OF BROOKLYN.

respective families, during the Revolutionary war, and were described as “good staunch whigs and very clever folks.”1 At the time of the battle of Long Island a fort was erected here, named Defiance, and mounting four 18-pounders, en barbette.

The Nicholas Van Dyke mill, which was erected after the date of Ratzer’s map, on the same pond, was located on the ground now bounded by the present Van Brunt and Richards, Van Dyck and Partition streets; the dwelling-house being on the northeast comer of Van Dyck and Van Brunt streets. This mill was called the “Ginger Mill,” by which name it is yet distinctly remembered by some of our oldest citizens.

Boompties Hoek, or “tree-point,” sometimes corrupted to Bombay Hook,2 was the name applied to the southerly projection of Red Hook, and which, in common with all the natural features of this vicinity, has shared the oblivion consequent upon recent city improvements. “The Hook” originally extended from about the junction of the present Otsego and Cuba streets (where its memory is still preserved by “Bomptje’s Hook Wharf”) around to “Meuwee Point”,3 as it was called, at about the junction of the present Henry, Bay, and Grinnell streets.

Tradition asserts that Red Hook and Governor’s Island were once connected, and that people and cattle waded across Buttermilk Channel.4 The legend probably originated in statements made by witnesses in a trial which took place in 1741, between Israel Horsfield, plaintiff, and Hans Bergen, defendant, as to the boundaries of their respective farms.5 The theory, sustained by some in support of this tradition, that the docks erected along the New York shore effected a change by diverting the currents of the East River towards Buttermilk Channel, is hardly tenable. Old traditions, how

1 Onderdonk, Rev., Incidents Kings County, 117. In 1744 a battery of eight guns had been erected on this point. See Valentine’s Manual of Common Council.

2 Benson’s Memoir, P. 16.

3 Deed of Matthias Van Dyke to Nich. Van Dyke, Feb. 7. 1742, King’s County Conv., lib. V. 120. “Meuwee” (from the Dutch meeuw, and German mewe) signifies “a gull;” and the Point probably derived its name from its being a common resort of sea-fowl.

4 Furman’s Notes mentions it as "an established fact," and is followed by subsequent historians of Long Island. Buttermilk Channel is so called, undoubtedly, from the abundant white foam on the water, in a part of the channel where the tide of the East River, passing through the channel, meets that of the North River.

5 See Appendix, No. 5.