JOHANNES MEGPOLENSIS. SAMUEL DRISSIUS.

Amsterdam, in New Netherland, the 5th of August, 1657.

Revs. Megapolensis and Drisius to the Classis of Amsterdam (October 25, 1657).

Brethren in Christ:

Since our last letter, which we hope you are receiving about this time, we have sent in a petition in relation to the Lutheran minister, Joannes Ernestus Gutwasser. Having marked this on its margin, we have sent it to the Rev. Brethren of the Classis. We hope that the Classis will take care that, if possible, no other be sent over, as it is easier to send out an enemy than afterward to thrust him out. We have the promise that the magistrates here will compel him to leave with the ship De Wage. It is said that there has been collected for him at Fort Orange a hundred beaver skins, which are valued here at eight hundred guilders, and which is the surest pay in this country. What has been collected here, we cannot tell. Our magistrates have forbidden him to preach, as he has received no authority from the Directors at Amsterdam for that purpose. Yet we hear that the Hon. Directors at Amsterdam gave him permission to come over. We have stated in a previous letter the injurious tendency of this with reference to the prosperity of our church.

Lately we have been troubled by others. Some time since, a shoemaker,(1) leaving his wife and children, came here and preached in conventicles. He was fined, and not being able to pay, was sent away. Again a little while ago there arrived here a ship with Quakers, as they are called. They went away to New England, or more particularly, to Rhode Island, a place of errorists and enthusiasts. It is called by the English themselves the latrina(2) of New England. They left several behind them here, who labored to create excitement and tumult among the people—particularly two women, the one about twenty, and the other about twenty-eight.(3) These were quite outrageous. After being examined and placed in prison, they were sent away. Subsequently a young man at Hempstead, an English town under the government, aged about twenty-three or twenty-four years,(4) was arrested, and brought thence, seven leagues. He had pursued a similar course and brought several under his influence. The magistrate, in order to repress the evil in the beginning, after he had kept him in confinement for several days, adjudged that he should either pay one hundred guilders or work at the wheelbarrow two years with the negroes. This he obstinately refused to do, though whipped on his back. After two or three days he was whipped in private on his bare back, with threats that the whipping would be repeated again after two or three days, if he should refuse to labor. Upon this a letter was brought by an unknown messenger from a person unknown to the Director-General. The import of this, (written in English), was, Think, my Lord-Director, whether it be not best to send him to Rhode Island, as his labor is hardly worth the cost.

(1) William Wickenden, of Rhode Island.
(2) Sink.
(3) Dorothy Waugh, afterward whipped at Boston, and Mary
Wetherhead.
(4) Robert Hodgson, who had come on the same ship with the
preceding. A contemporary Quaker writer attributes his
release to the intercession of Stuyvesant's sister, Mrs.
Anna Bayard. Persecution of Quakers and other sectaries in
New Netherland was continued by Stuyvesant, and finally
culminated in the case of John Bowne, of Flushing, a Quaker,
who has left us an interesting account of his suffering,
printed in the American Historical Record I. 4-8.
Banished from the province and transported to Holland, Bowne
laid his case before the directors of the West India
Company, who reproved Stuyvesant by a letter in which they
said (April 16, 1663): "The consciences of men ought to
remain free and unshackled,... This maxim of moderation
has always been the guide of the magistrates in this city;
and the consequence has been that people have flocked from
every land to this asylum. Tread thus in their steps, and
we doubt not you will be blessed."

Since the arrival of De Wage from the South River [the Director?] has again written to Joannes Ernestus Gutwasser to go away. On this he presented a petition, a copy of which herewith transmitted, as also a copy signed by several of the Lutheran denomination. We observe that it is signed by the least respectable of that body, and that the most influential among them were unwilling to trouble themselves with it. Some assert that he has brought with him authority from the West India Company to act as minister. Whether dismission and return will take place without trouble remains to be seen.

We are at this time in great want of English ministers. It is more than two years since Mr. Doughty, of Flushing which is a town here, went to Virginia, where he is now a preacher. He left because he was not well supported. On October 13, Mr. Moore, of Middelburg, which is another town here, died of a pestilential disease, which prevailed in several of our English towns and in New England. He left a widow with seven or eight children. A year before, being dissatisfied with the meagre and irregular payments from his hearers, he went to Barbadoes, to seek another place. Mr. Richard Denton, who is sound in faith, of a friendly disposition, and beloved by all, cannot be induced by us to remain, although we have earnestly tried to do this in various ways. He first went to Virginia to seek a situation, complaining of lack of salary, and that he was getting in debt, but he has returned thence. He is now fully resolved to go to old England, because his wife, who is sickly, will not go without him, and there is need of their going there, on account of a legacy of four hundred pounds sterling, lately left by a deceased friend, and which they cannot obtain except by their personal presence. At Gravesend there never has been a minister. Other settlements, yet in their infancy, as Aernem,(1) have no minister. It is therefore to be feared that errorists and fanatics may find opportunity to gain strength. We therefore request you, Rev. Brethren, to solicit the Hon. Directors of the West India Company, to send over one or two English preachers, and that directions may be given to the magistracy that the money paid by the English be paid to the magistrate, and not to the preacher, which gives rise to dissatisfaction, and that at the proper time any existing deficiency may be supplied by the Hon. Directors. Otherwise we do not see how the towns will be able to obtain ministers, or if they obtain them, how they will be able to retain them. Complaints continually reach us about the payment of ministers. Nevertheless in New England there are few places without a preacher, although there are many towns, stretching for more than one hundred leagues along the coast. Hoping that by God's blessing and your care something may be effected in this matter, we remain,

(1) Arnhem was a village begun on Smith's Island in Newton
Creek.