the minister at the Hague, to present the matter to the States General, and to have the plantation stayed.* Carlton made inquiries, and answered, under date of 5th Feb. 1627, as follows:-"I could find no more in the matter, but that about four or five years since, two particular companies of Amsterdam merchants began to trade into those parts betwixt forty and forty-five degrees, to which, after their manner, they gave their own name of New Netherland, a South and a North Sea, a Texel, a Vlieland, and the like, where they have ever since continued to send ships of thirty and forty lasts at the most, to fetch furs, which is all their trade; for the providing of which they have certain factors there, continually resident, trading with savages, but I cannot learn of any colony either already planted there by these people, or so much as intended." This must be taken as a part of Argall's own testimony-that is, furnished by him. It corroborates the facts before stated, from other sources, in relation to the date of the first Companies' trading to New Netherland, and negatives the alleged conquest of Argall.

In conclusion, we have the evidence of Captain John Mason, who was one of Argall's associates, and who gives a history of the Dutch encroachments in a letter addressed to Sir John Coke. That letter is also important, as it was undoubtedly the source from which Plantagenet derived the facts from which he fabricated the story in question. It is too long to be given here entire, but an extract will explain the points under consideration. It is dated April 2, 1632, and states: "In the year of Our Lord God, 1621, or thereabouts, certain Hollanders were upon the coast of New England, trading with the Indians, between Cape Cod and the Bay de la Warre. * The said Hollanders as interlopers fell into the middle, betwixt the said plantations (Virginia and New England), and at their return published a map in the Low Countries of the said seacoast, under the title of New Netherlands, giving the name of the Prince of Orange to the country and river of Manahata, and giving other Dutch names to other places as far as Cape Cod. And Sir Samuel Argall, Knt., with many English planters, were preparing to go and sit down in his lot of land upon the said Manahata river, at the same time when the Dutch intruded, which caused a demur in their proceeding, until King James, upon complaint of my Lord Arundel, with Sir Ferdinando Gorges, Knt., and the said Sir Samuel Argall (formerly Governor of Virginia), and Captain John Mason, of the said Dutch intruders, Anno 1621, had, by his Majesty's order, a letter to the Lord of Dorchester, their Ambassador at the Hague, questioned the States of the Low Countries for that matter, which the Lords the States by answer of their ambassador, Sir Noel Carron, did disclaim, disavowing any such act." Sir Samuel Argall's lot was a grant by the Plymouth Company, within whose bounds Manhattan was situated. Taking Argall's attack upon Nova Scotia and his subsequent interest in Manhattan under this grant, together with the disclaimer of the Dutch government, it is easy to perceive the materials out of which the statement of his subjugation of the Dutch was manufactured; while we have irrefragable proof in the acts of Argall and his associates, and of the British government in not claiming the right which the conquest by Argall would have conferred, at the time when its assertion was important, and the evidence of it was within themselves, of the entire falsehood of the story.

note.

See the Despatch of the Lords Privy Council in O'Callaghan, I. 96.

+ Lond. Doc. I. 9. The original letter of Carlton is in the possession of the writer of thi Lond. Doc. I. 20. O'Callaghan, I. 415.

II.

A SHORT SKETCH

OF THE

MOHAWK INDIANS IN NEW NETHERLAND,

THEIR LAND, STATURE, DRESS, MANNERS, AND MAGISTRATES,

INTRODUCTORY NOTE.

The REVEREND JOHANNES MEGAPOLENSIS, JUNIOR, the author of the following tract, was a son of the Reverend Johannes Megapolensis, Minister of the Church at Coedyck, in Holland, and was born in 1603. He married his cousin Machteld Willemsen, by whom he had four children, Hillegond, Dirck, Jan, and Samuel. Having studied divinity, he became the minister of the Congregation of Schoorl and Berg, under the Classis of Alkmaar, in North Holland, where he remained until the spring of the year 1642.

At that period, there was only one minister, the Reverend Everardus Bogardus, settled in New Netherland, and his services were limited to Manhattan and its neighborhood. The want of a clergyman at Beverwyck (now Albany), in the Colonie of Rensselaerswyck, having been felt for some time, Kiliaen Van Rensselaer, the patroon of that Colonie, made an agreement with Domine Megapolensis, on the 6th of March 1642, to send him thither "for the edifying improvement of the inhabitants and Indians." The Patroon bound himself to convey the Domine and his family to New Netherland free of expense, and give him an outfit of three hundred guilders, provide him with a proper residence after his arrival, and assure him, for his first three years' service, an annual salary of one thousand guilders, besides thirty schepels of wheat and two firkins of butter, with the promise of an addition of two hundred guilders a year for the succeeding three years, "should the Patroon be satisfied with his service." On the other hand, Megapolensis agreed to "befriend and serve the Patroon in all things wherein he can do so without interfering with, or impeding his duties." As the Classis of Amsterdam was the ecclesiastical superior of all the Dutch Colonial Clergy, it was necessary to obtain its assent to this arrangement, and the Domine accordingly appeared before a committee of that body on the 18th of March,

and explained his views in wishing to settle himself in New Netherland. On the 22d of March the Classis attested a formal call for Megapolensis to preach the gospel and govern the church at Rensselaerwyck, "in conformity with the government, confession, and catechism of the Netherland Churches, and the Synodal acts of Dordrecht." This call, after some delay, having been approved by the Amsterdam Chamber of the West India Company, on the 6th of June, Domine Megapolensis set sail with his family from Holland, and, after a prosperous voyage, arrived at Beverwyck on the 11th of August, 1642.

A parsonage house was immediately allotted to the Domine, and preparations made for the building of a church, which was finished the next year, and was, besides that at Manhattan, the only one in New Netherland. The influence of Megapolensis soon produced salutary effects at Rensselaerwyck. The colonists revered and esteemed their faithful monitor, who executed the duties of his holy office very acceptably; and the counsels of the Domine were always received with respect by the Commissary and officers of the Colonie and of the Province.

Nor were the pious services of Megapolensis confined to his own countrymen. A part of his duty was to "edify and improve" the savages in the neighborhood. He therefore applied himself diligently to the task of learning what he termed the "heavy language" of the Mohawks, so as to be able to speak and preach to them fluently. The Red men around Fort Orange or Beverwyck were soon attracted to hear the preaching of the gospel; and Megapolensis, the first Protestant Dutch Clergyman on the northern frontier of New Netherland, thus gave, in 1643, the example of missionary zeal, which, three years afterwards, in 1646, was imitated, near Boston, by John Eliot, the "Morning Star" of a similar enterprize in New England.

An incident occurred about this time, which should not be omitted in any notice of Domine Megapolensis. Father Isaac Jogues, a noble-hearted and self-denying Jesuit missionary, while on his way from Quebec to the Chippeways, was taken prisoner by the Mohawks, and suffered horrible cruelties from the savages. During the winter of 1642-3, however, some of his persecutors began to listen to his teachings, and his situation was so far improved that he was allowed to make occasional visits, with parties of the Mohawks, to the neighboring Dutch at Fort Orange, who did all they could to effect his