FOUR DAYS AT ALBANY. 127 



nists; a brave little hand full of hope and eager to try 

 their fortune in the New World. Their leader was none 

 other than Killian Van Rensselaer, the wealthy pearl 

 merchant of Amsterdam, and one of the directors of 

 the AYest India Company, who had received a grant 

 from the Prince of Orange for a large tract of land 

 about the Upper Hudson, including the present site of 

 Albany. Here he established his " patroonship," guard- 

 ing the affairs of the colony, and providing his tenants 

 with comfortable houses and ample barns. And more 

 tlian this, their spiritual welfare was promoted through 

 the services of the Reverend Doctor Joanes Mega- 

 polensis. From his personal accounts we read that the 

 good Dominie found his life among the ' wilden ' as full 

 ^f peril and unceasing labor as that of his flock; for he 

 mdertook not only the guidance of his own people, but 

 the enlisihtenment and conversion of the Indians. To 

 this end he threw himself into the task of mastering 

 their languuii^e with true missionary zeal ; a task which 

 in those days meant not only difficulty but danger. 



Under the shelter of the handsome churches that 

 grace the streets of the Albany of to-day, we see a 

 striking contrast in the primitive house where this 

 pioneer clergyman preached; and from the security 

 of long-established peace, we look back upon those 

 sturdy people of Rensselaerwyck who sowed and reaped 

 and went to church under the protection of the Pa- 

 troon's guns. 



But there came a day when English ships sailed up 

 to the harbor at Manhatoes, and demanded the sur- 

 render of the Dutch colonies in the name of the 

 Duke of York and Albany. The terrified people at 

 sight of the guns refused to withstand an attack, and 



