us and all of you in the service of
the divine word.

Your obedient

JOHAN. MEGAPOLENSIS.

Amsterdam in New Netherland the 18th of March, 1655.

Addressed to the Reverend, Pious and very Learned Deputies ad res
Ecclesiasticas Indicas, in the Classis of Amsterdam.

Revs. J. Megapolensis and S. Drisius to the Classis of Amsterdam (August
5, 1657).

Reverend, Pious and Learned Gentlemen, Fathers and Brethren in Christ
Jesus:

The letters of your Reverences, of the 13th of June 1656, and of the
15th of October of the same year have been received. We were rejoiced to
learn of the fatherly affection and care which you show for the welfare
of this growing congregation. We also learned thereby of the trouble you
have taken with the Messrs. Directors, to prevent the evils threatened
to our congregation by the creeping in of erroneous spirits; and of your
Reverences' desire, to be informed of the condition of the churches in
this country.

We answered you in the autumn of the year 1656, and explained all things
in detail. To this we have as yet received no reply, and are therefore
in doubt, whether our letters reached you. This present letter must
therefore serve the same end.

The Lutherans here pretended, last year, that they had obtained the
consent of the Messrs. Directors, to call a Lutheran pastor from
Holland.(1) They therefore requested the Hon. Director and the Council,
that they should have permission, meanwhile, to hold their conventicles
to prepare the way for their expected and coming pastor. Although
they began to urge this rather saucily, we, nevertheless, animated and
encourage by your letters, hoped for the best, yet feared the worst,
which has indeed come to pass. For although we could not have believed
that such permission had been given by the Directors, there nevertheless
arrived here, with the ship Meulen(2) in July last, a Lutheran preacher
Joannes Ernestus Goetwater,(3) to the great joy of the Lutherans, but
to the special displeasure and uneasiness of the congregation in
this place; yea, even the whole country, including the English, were
displeased.

(1) There were Lutherans at Manhattan at the time of Father
Jogue's visit (1643), and they are called a congregation in
1649. In 1653 they petitioned to have a minister of their
own and freedom of public worship. Stuyvesant and the
ministers were disposed to maintain the monopoly of the
Reformed (Calvinistic)