INTBODUCTOET  NOTE.
polensis. Drisius arrived at New Amsterdam in the summer of 1652, where he remained for twenty years, a useful and acceptable minister.
Megapolensis was a very earnest supporter of his own church, and as vehement an opposer of other denominations. In Q.654 he toot a leading part in organizing a Dutch church at Midwout, or Flat-bush, to which Domine Johannes Theodorus Polhemus was called as minister. Polhemus also preached at Breuckelen and Amersfoort, or Flatlands, alternately, on Sunday afternoons, until 1660, when Domine Henricus Selyns arrived from Holland, and took the Breuckelen charge. The Lutherans, who wished to establish a church of their own, met, however, with little favor from Megapolensis and his colleague, through whose influence several measures of restraint, savoring too much of bigotry, were adopted and enforced by the colonial authorities of New Netherland. Unauthorized M conventicles " as they were called, were forbidden, and for a time a species of religious intolerance disgraced the province. Before many years, however, Tjetter counsels prevailed, and Lutherans, Quakers, and other sects not of the established church, enjoyed greater freedom.
In 1655, Domine Megapolensis accompanied Director Stuyvesant in his expedition against the Swedes on the South or Delaware River, where he preached a thanksgiving sermon to the troops, on the surrender of Fort Casimir. The Domine thought the terms granted the Swedes too easy, among other reasons, because a Lutheran minister was allowed to remain in the exercise of his sacred functions, there, though the Dutch had none of their own to take his place.
Megapolensis never lost his interest in the Mohawk savages, among whom he had spent his early years in the province. His letters to the Classis of Amsterdam contain several interesting details concerning them, from whom he obtained the missal and other memorials of his murdered friend, the missionary Father Jogues. In 1658, another Canadian Jesuit, Simon Le Moyne, who, in the summer of 1654, had discovered the Salt Springs at Onondaga, visited New Amsterdam, and became quite intimate with Megapolensis. He related to him his discovery at Onondaga, which the Domine communicated to the Classis in Holland, adding, however, a Somewhat un-courteous expression of his doubt of the fact. Le Moyne seems to have been very anxious to effect the conversion of his Dutch clerical friend to the Eomish doctrine, and wrote three polemical essays, which, he sent to Megapolensis, after his return to the North.   The