THE FOUNDERS OF NEW AMSTERDAM 215 



Dutch, French, and a few English. Minuit's family had 

 taken refuge in Wessel some fifty years before this date, 

 and there is a record in the Walloon Church of that place 1626 

 which shows that he acted for a time as deacon. He was 

 an active, energetic man, firm in temper, friendly in dis- 

 position, just and honourable, and granted religious lib- 

 erty and a fair amount of political freedom. 



De Rasieres, his secretary, was likewise a Huguenot Religious 

 and a man of parts. Minuit sent him to visit Governor Granted 

 Bradford, of Miissachusetts, regarding the relations of the 

 two colonies, and Bradford alludes to him as "a man of 

 fair and genteel behaviour." He proved himself as a 

 diplomat, concealing from the English the fact of the val- 

 uable fur trade, a knowledge of which would surely have 

 brought the English in force against the Dutch possessions. 



Among the other Huguenots who were prominent in 

 the first days of New Amsterdam was Johannes La Mon- First Doctor a 

 tagne, the first doctor to settle on Manhattan. He came LaMontagno 

 from Leyden in 1637, from whence the family of his first 

 wife, Rachel De Forest, had already emigrated to New 

 AmvSterdam. Previous to his coming the Zieckentroosters 

 (comforters of the sick) were the only jirops which the 

 unfortunate sick of the colony had to lean upon. Dr. La 

 Montague was a man of varied gifts, who subsequently 

 occupied several stations of trust under the government. 

 His name appears as a member of the council, and as 

 official schoolmaster, and after a few years of practice he 

 seems to have given up the medical profession and de- 

 voted himself entirely to the civil and military service. 

 It is quite probable that the colonists found the fresh air 

 and outdoor life of the new world too healthy to make 

 the practice of medicine in New York as profitable as it 

 has since become. He must have prospered in his new 

 work, however, for he became the owner of a "bouwery " 

 located at what is now the northern end of Central Park. 

 His daughter, Marie, married Jacob Kip in 1654. His 

 farm comprised two hundred acres, for which he paid 



A Man of 



Affairs 



