Narratives of New Netherland, 1609-1664 — John Shaqi
Narratives of New Netherland, 1609-1664
History
Narratives of New Netherland, 1609-1664
New York (State) -- History -- Colonial period, ca. 1600-1775 -- Sources
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.
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