CHAPTER  XZVL
 

Religiona^Sntoh Befonned,
 

Hiatory of the Bnteli Beformed Churoh—Pint Hemhen Worshipped in

Iioft in Hill—GuBtDuu Pienilii^ in Thiee Placei of

Wonhip-^int Trial of Steamboat

To tell the history of the entrance into New Tork and tbe growth
of each of tho present religious deoomlnationa would require more space
than can be given to It In this book. What follows, therefore, is a skeleton
hiatory, prior to the opening of the nineteenth century and beginning with
tho firat religious donomlnationa, the Dutch Reformed Church, with eventa
set down OS they were found in vsrloua records-

Wben Peter Mlnult, the first Director Oeneral appointed by the West
India Company to assume charge of tbe new Dutch colony, and his council
and secretary sailed from Amaterdam In the Sea Mew on December 19,
1625, they had with thom two lay readers, or Conaolers of the Sick,
Sebastien Janson Crel snd Jan Huygheu, tbo latter a brother-iu-law of
tbe Director General. After the arrival of the expedition at Manhattan
Island on May 4, 1G2G, and the acquisition of the land upon which they
were to settle, the organization of the government of the province began,
and, while It had been undertaken with no higher aim than commercial
speculation, the moral and spiritual necessities of its people were not
entirely overlooked. Services consisting of the reading of the Bible and
an occasional aormon were conducted every Sabbath morning by the
two Conaolora of tbe Sick already mentioned. In tho loft of what waa
then censidored a notable building as well as a useful one—a mill for
the grinding of corn, operated by horse power, located In what Is now
South William street, near Pearl. Oo April T, lGa8, the Rev, Jonaa
MIchaelluB arrived at Manhattan to assume the position Of spiritual director
and schoolmaster at the request of tho directors of tho West India Com¬
pany, In a letter sent four months after his arrival to the Rev. Adrlanua
Smoutiua, at Amaterdam, he says: *'Our coming here waa agreeable to all,
and i hope, by the grace of tho Lord, that my services will not be unfruitful.
Tbe people, for tbe moat part, are all free, aomewhat rough and loose,
but I find In moat all of them both love and reapect toward mo. , . , We
have first established the form of a church (gemeento), and, as Brother
Sebastien Crol very seldom comes down from Fort Orange, because the
directorship of that fort and tbe trade there la committed to him. It haa
been thought best to chooee two eldera for my aaalatance and for the proper
consideration of all such ecclesiastical matters as might occur." The
eldera appointed were Director Mlnult and hla brother-in-law, Huygheu,
and partly to their caro and consideration were confided the flfty communl-

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