Narrative of New Netherland | Page 7

capable and my advice
should be asked; in which case I suppose that I should not do amiss nor
be suspected by any one of being a polupragmov or
allotrioepiskopos.<1>
<1> I Peter iv. 15; a meddler or "busy-body in other men's matters."
In my opinion it would be well that the Honorable Directors should
furnish this place with plainer and more precise instructions to the
rulers, that they may distinctly know how to conduct themselves in all
possible public difficulties and events; and also that I should some time
have here all such Acta Synolalia, as have been adopted in the synods
of Holland; both the special ones of our quarter,<1> and those which
are provincial and national, in relation to ecclesiastical difficulties; or at
least such of them as in the judgment of the Honorable Brethren at
Amsterdam would be most likely to be of service to us here. In the
meantime, I hope matters will go well here, if only on our part we do
our best in all sincerity and honest zeal; whereunto I have from the first
entirely devoted myself, and wherein I have also hitherto, by the grace
of God, had no just cause to complain of any one. And if any dubious
matters of importance come before me, and especially if they will
admit of any delay, I shall refer myself to the good and prudent advice
of the Honorable Brethren, to whom I have already wholly commended
myself.
<1> I.e., acts of the synod of North Holland. North Holland was not at
this time a province, but merely a part of the province of Holland, the
chief of the seven United Provinces. The national Acta would probably
be those of the six fundamental synodical conventions of 1568-1586
and the Synod of Dort.
As to the natives of this country, I find them entirely savage and wild,
strangers to all decency, yea, uncivil and stupid as garden poles,
proficient in all wickedness and godlessness; devilish men, who serve
nobody but the Devil, that is, the spirit which in their language they call
Menetto; under which title they comprehend everything that is subtle
and crafty and beyond human skill and power. They have so much
witchcraft, divination, sorcery and wicked arts, that they can hardly be

held in by any bands or locks. They are as thievish and treacherous as
they are tall; and in cruelty they are altogether inhuman, more than
barbarous, far exceeding the Africans.<1>
<1> He had served on the west coast of Africa; see the introduction.
I have written concerning this matter to several persons elsewhere, not
doubting that Brother Crol will have written sufficient to your
Reverence, or to the Honorable Directors; as also of the base treachery
and the murders which the Mohicans, at the upper part of this river, had
planned against Fort Orange, but which failed through the gracious
interposition of our Lord, for our good--who, when it pleases Him,
knows how to pour, unexpectedly, natural impulses into these unnatural
men, in order to prevent them. How these people can best be led to the
true knowledge of God and of the Mediator Christ, is hard to say. I
cannot myself wonder enough who it is that has imposed so much upon
your Reverence and many others in the Fatherland, concerning the
docility of these people and their good nature, the proper principia
religionis and vestigia legis naturae which are said to be among them;
in whom I have as yet been able to discover hardly a single good point,
except that they do not speak so jeeringly and so scoffingly of the
godlike and glorious majesty of their Creator as the Africans dare to do.
But it may be because they have no certain knowledge of Him, or
scarcely any. If we speak to them of God, it appears to them like a
dream; and we are compelled to speak of him, not under the name of
Menetto, whom they know and serve--for that would be
blasphemy--but of one great, yea, most high, Sackiema, by which name
they--living without a king--call him who has the command over
several hundred among them, and who by our people are called
Sackemakers; and as the people listen, some will begin to mutter and
shake their heads as if it were a silly fable; and others, in order to
express regard and friendship for such a proposition, will say Orith
(That is good). Now, by what means are we to lead this people to
salvation, or to make a salutary breach among them? I take the liberty
on this point of enlarging somewhat to your Reverence.
Their language, which is the first thing to be employed with them,
methinks is entirely peculiar. Many of our common people call it an