s to
preaching one; and when the sap is in the wood his hands itch and he
wants to fight whomsoever he meets. The commandant at Fort Casimir, Jean
Paulus Jacqet, brother-in-law of Domine Casparus Carpentier,(1) told
us that during last spring this preacher was tippling with a smith,
and while yet over their brandy they came to fisticuffs, and beat each
other's heads black and blue; yea, that the smith tore all the clothing
from the preacher's body, so that this godly minister escaped in
primitive nakedness, and although so poorly clothed, yet sought quarrels
with others. Sed hoc parergicos.

(1) Carpentier was a Reformed minister whom the Dutch had
established at Fort Casimir. Jacquet was vice-director on
the South River, 1655-1657.

(2) But this incidentally.

On Long Island there are seven villages belonging to this province, of
which three, Breuckelen, Amersfoort and Midwout,(1) are inhabited by
Dutch people, who formerly used to come here(2) to communion and other
services to their great inconvenience. Some had to travel for three
hours to reach this place. Therefore, when Domine Polheymus arrived here
from Brazil, they called him as preacher, which the Director-General and
Council confirmed.

(1) Brooklyn, Flatlands and Flatbush.

(2) To New Amsterdam.

The four other villages on Long Island, viz., Gravensand, Middleburgh,
Vlissingen, and Heemstede(1) are inhabited by Englishmen. The people of
Gravensand are considered Mennonites. The majority of them reject
the baptism of infants, the observance of the Sabbath, the office of
preacher, and any teachers of God's word. They say that thereby all
sorts of contentions have come into the world. Whenever they meet, one
or the other reads something to them. At Vlissingen, they formerly had
a Presbyterian minister(2) who was in agreement with our own church. But
at present, many of them have become imbued with divers opinions and
it is with them quot homines tot sententiae.(3) They began to absent
themselves from the sermon and would not pay the preacher the salary
promised to him. He was therefore obliged to leave the place and go to
the English Virginias. They have now been without a preacher for several
years. Last year a troublesome fellow, a cobbler from Rhode Island in
New England,(4) came there saying, he had a commission from Christ. He
began to preach at Vlissingen and then went with the people into the
river and baptized them