Since that time, we have no authentic accounts of her; though it is
said she still haunts the highlands and cruises about Point-no-point.
People who live along the river, insist that they sometimes see her in
summer moonlight; and that in a deep still midnight, they have heard
the chant of her crew, as if heaving the lead; but sights and sounds
are so deceptive along the mountainous shores, and about the wide bays
and long reaches of this great river, that I confess I have very
strong doubts upon the subject.
It is certain, nevertheless, that strange things have been seen in
these highlands in storms, which are considered as connected with the
old story of the ship. The captains of the river craft talk of a
little bulbous-bottomed Dutch goblin, in trunk hose and sugar-loafed
hat, with a speaking trumpet in his hand, which they say keeps about
the Dunderberg.[16] They declare they have heard him, in stormy
weather, in the midst of the turmoil, giving orders in Low Dutch for
the piping up of a fresh gust of wind, or the rattling off of another
thunder-clap. That sometimes he has been seen surrounded by a crew of
little imps in broad breeches and short doublets; tumbling
head-over-heels in the rack and mist, and playing a thousand gambols
in the air; or buzzing like a swarm of flies about Antony's Nose; and
that, at such times, the hurry-scurry of the storm was always
greatest.
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