ht contrary to the Acts of the Synod of Dort, secured as their
minister in 1662 a student by the name of Abelius Zetskoorn, whom the
authorities soon transported to a charge on the Delaware, without the
violence, however, shown in the case of Gutwasser.

In 1664 the island was captured by the English and the Lutherans
succeeded in obtaining a charter with permission to call a minister and
conduct services in accordance with the teachings of the Augsburg
Confession. But prior to 1664 or even 1648 there were individual
Lutherans here, "their charter of salvation one Lord, one faith, one
birth." In spite of persecution, even to imprisonment, they sang "The
Lord's song in a strange land," and in simplicity of faith sowed the
seed from which future harvests were to spring.

[illustration: "When New York Was Young"]

The little trading station at the mouth of the North River now numbered
about 1,500 people. The church of "The Augustane Confession" was still
without a pastor. For a generation they had striven under great
difficulties to maintain their Lutheran faith. They were plain, simple
people, but they had refused to be cajoled or driven to a denial of
their convictions. Over against Stuyvesant, the most dominant
personality of the new world, they waited patiently for the time when
they might have their own pastor and might worship God according to the
dictates of their own consciences.

At last, in 1669, they obtained a minister in the person of Magister
Jacobus Fabritius who served the congregation in New York and also one
in Albany. The new pastor sorely tried the patience of a longsuffering
people. In church he manifested a dictatorial and irascible temper. At
home he was constantly quarreling with his wife. These eccentricities
interfered somewhat with his usefulness as a pastor. With increasing
difficulty he administered his office until 1671 when he accepted a call
to congregations on the Delaware. Here he seems to have repented of his
ways, for he left an honorable record as a devoted pastor, and the
historian is glad to forget the infelicities of his career on the North
River.

His successor was Bernhardus Arensius, who came with a letter of
recommendation from the Consistory of Amsterdam. He is described as "a
gentle personage and of a very agreeable behavior."

Those were troublous times in which he conducted his ministry. The war
between the Dutch and the English caused a repeated change of
government,