Amsterdam, 1660

On March 29, 1660 Dominees (Reverends) Hermannus Blom and Henricus Selijns boarded De Vergulde Bever (The Gilded Beaver) in Amsterdam with the Testaments in nine volumes. The volumes contained the formula for baptism to which the directors of the Amsterdam Chamber expected the predikanten (preachers) of Nieuw Nederland (New Netherland) to adhere and a letter in which the directors informed Stuyvesant that Blom was to be sent to the Esopus and Selijns to Lange Eylandt (Long Island) to advance the gospel. Letters such as these underscore the fact that the directors of the Geoctroyeerde West-Indische Compagnie (Chartered West India Company or WIC) hoped to harvest both commercial and spiritual fruit in North America. Yet, there is no evidence to suggest that the dominees in and around Nieuw Amsterdam (New Amsterdam)—Johannes Polhemus (Lange Eylandt: 1654–1676), Henricus Selijns [Breuckelen (Brooklyn): 1660–1664; New York: 1682–1701], Samuel Megapolensis (New York: 1664–1668), Agidius Luyck (New York: 1671–1672), and Wilhelmus van Nieuwenhuysen (New York: 1671–1681)—carried on any significant missionary work among Indians in the latter part of the seventeenth century. This was due, in part, to the shortage of ministers and the deterioration of Indian–Dutch relations on the lower Muhheakantuck (Hudson River).

Nieuw Amstel, 1660

Less than two weeks after Dominees Blom and Selijns departed Amsterdam, the Council in Nieuw Amsterdam heard testimony from colonists living on the Zuid Rivier (South River—known as the Delaware by the English). They told the Council members that brandy was being openly sold to Indians throughout the region.