THE TOWN OF NEW ROCHELLE. 627 



salary to the rate of £50. That seasonable relief of their equitable regard hath 

 rescued rue from several inconveniencies, who had rendered the maintenance of 

 my family difficult and uneasy. I was in a perfect resolution to continue my 

 service, trusting in the Lord, that when my circumstances should come plainly 

 and truly to be known by the Honorable Society, their piety should resolve some- 

 thing for my relief, of which you have been pleased to inform me, as also of one 

 hundred French Common Prayer Books, who came not with your letter, but are 

 come since in very good order. That new token of the pious care of the Honor- 

 able Society for our company, hath renewed our thanks and blessings upon 

 their charity and rebuked the temeranious suspicions suggested by our con- 

 tradiction that our labor and confidence should come to nothing, being 

 abandoned and left to our weakness, but thanks be to God, who hath rebuked 

 the scorns and relieved our simple and sincere endeavors, by the continuation 

 of the Honorable Society's benevolence and charity, as also by the wise 

 and serious concurrence of his Excellency, our Governor, Colonel Hunter, 

 who in this affair, as in all others, hath showed the regard of a grave and pious 

 ruler, who, with a philosophic patience, hears and considers everything, and with 

 sound judgment declares his mind among the contending parties, and with a con- 

 stant equity, countenances by his authority the right and lawful claim of his 

 protection. These favourable junctures of Providence have produced effects 

 answerable, constancy and thankfulness of our people, and a daily increase of 

 consenters to the Church. By my antecedent accounts, the Honourable Society 

 hath been informed of the number of our communicants, which hath been from 

 the beginning of our conformity, four times in the year, between thirty and 

 forty communicants of our town, sometimes above forty, but this last Easter 

 there was fifty communicants ; three families reunited to the flock, which were 

 the most sober and sensible persons of our disturbed inhabitants ; those who re- 

 main yet backward, showing rather the humour of seditious, obstinate disturb- 

 ers, than the spirit of sound, religious Christians ; but I live peaceably and civily 

 with them, knowing that the most forward may, by the grace of God, turn do- 

 cile ; as I have with patience and moderation waited for others, so shall I con- 

 tinue to do for the few remaining back, ready to help them for their own good 

 and the full and perfect gathering of the flock. It remains that I inform the 

 Honourable Society, that as 1 continue to do the service in English every third 

 Sunday, as I did from my first entrance in this place ; that I have done it till 

 now with a Bible of small volume and character, that the Honourable Society 

 be pleased to allow us the benefit of an English Bible, with a small quantity of 

 English common prayers, because our young people, or some of them, have suffi- 

 ciently learned to read English for to join in the public service when read in Eng- 

 lish. Concerning the books I have received from the Society, they are disposed 

 of according to their intention, with an exact memorial of the persons who have 

 received them, and that which remain of those or of my own shall be left and 

 conveyed, I hope, to my successor ; entreating the Honourable Society that he 

 may be a missionary fit for to perform the divine service in French and English 

 as I have done, for the edification of our people, and perpetuating the memory 

 of this conformity to the national Church of England, in which we shall Con- 

 tinue to pray for the life and prosperity of her Majesty and dominions, for the 

 preservation and welfare of the Church, and as bound by our just acknowledg- 



