d, adventurous gentleman of the sea, Captain Kidd, according
to popular legend, was a frequent visitor to this coast.

In later times, beginning in 1801, the Cape became one of the earliest
of the summer resorts. The famous Commodore Decatur was among the first
distinguished men to be attracted by the simple seaside charm of the
place, long before it was destroyed by wealth and crowds. Year by year
he used to measure and record at one spot the encroachment of the sea
upon the beach. Where today the sea washes and the steel pier extends,
once lay cornfields. For a hundred years it was a favorite resting place
for statesmen and politicians of national eminence. They traveled there
by stage, sailing sloop, or their own wagons. People from Baltimore
and the South more particularly sought the place because it was easily
accessible from the head of Chesapeake Bay by an old railroad, long
since abandoned, to Newcastle on the Delaware, whence sail-or steamboats
went to Cape May. This avoided the tedious stage ride over the sandy
Jersey roads. Presidents, cabinet officers, senators, and congressmen
sought the invigorating air of the Cape and the attractions of the old
village, its seafaring life, the sailing, fishing, and bathing on the
best beach of the coast. Congress Hall, their favorite hotel, became
famous, and during a large part of the nineteenth century presidential
nominations and policies are said to have been planned within its walls.

Chapter X. Scotch Covenanters And Others In East Jersey

East Jersey was totally different in its topography from West Jersey.
The northern half of the State is a region of mountains and lakes. As
part of the original continent it had been under the ice sheet of
the glacial age and was very unlike the level sands, swamps, and pine
barrens of West Jersey which had arisen as a shoal and island from the
sea. The only place in East Jersey where settlement was at all easy was
along the open meadows which were reached by water near the mouth of the
Hudson, round Newark Bay, and along the Hackensack River.

The Dutch, by the discoveries of Henry Hudson in 1609, claimed the whole
region between the Hudson and the Delaware. They settled part of East
Jersey opposite their headquarters at New York and called it Pavonia.
But their cruel massacre of some Indians who sought refuge among them at
Pavonia destroyed the prospects of the settlement. The Indians revenged
themselves by massacring the