ts in the Hell Gate to defend the approach by way of
Long Island Sound, and they built batteries on the Island of Manhattan
itself. One fort built at this time was on a little island close by the
Battery, and was called Fort Clinton. This afterward became Castle
Garden.

But though the British had sent soldiers and ships to fight the forces
in America, they made no effort to capture the city of New York.

The war went on for two years; there were battles, many of them, on the
land and on the sea. Very often the British had the best of it, and then
again the Americans would have the best of it. But in the end, although
the British fought hard, the Americans fought harder, and in the first
month of the year 1815 the war ended with a great battle in New Orleans,
which the Americans won.

CHAPTER XXXVII

THE STORY of the ERIE CANAL

Everything was going along smoothly when all at once the yellow fever
broke out on the west side, far downtown. It raged with even more
violence than had the small-pox. Citizens fled, and the stricken
district was fenced off so that no one might enter it. It was like a
place of the dead, silent and deserted. Many people went far out of town
to Greenwich Village, and many business houses opened offices in this
little settlement; with the result that Greenwich Village started on a
new life, and it was not long before it grew to be an important part
of New York instead of a suburb. For many who had transferred their
business also went to live there, not returning to the city even after
the fever had passed away.

[Illustration: Landing of Lafayette at Castle Garden.]

In the year after the fever (it was by this time 1824) General Lafayette
came again to America and was warmly received. Landing first at
Staten Island, he was, on the following day, escorted by a naval
procession and conducted to Castle Garden. A multitude came to voice
their welcome and follow him to the City Hall, where he was greeted by
the Mayor and all of the officials. During his stay he held daily
receptions in the City Hall, and afterward visited the public
institutions and buildings. On leaving for a tour of the country he was
accompanied all the way to Kingsbridge by a detachment of troops. For
thirteen months he travelled through the country, and when he returned
to New York in the autumn of the next year, the citizens gave a banquet
in his honor, at Castle Garden, which surpassed anything of the kind
that ha