328 The Slaver and the Missionary 
Captain Cornelius Clas “went about sowing 
heretical tares amidst the true corn of the Gospel; ” 
amongst other damnable doctrines and subtleties, 
this nautical and volunteer theologian persuaded 
the blacks, whom he knew to be desirous of greater 
liberty in such matters, that baptism is the only 
sacrament necessary to salvation, because it takes 
away original sin, as the blood of the Saviour 
actual sin. He furthermore (impudently) dis¬ 
owned the real presence in the consecrated Host; 
he invoked Saint Anthony, although his tribe 
generally denies that praying to saints can be of 
any use to man ; and he declared that priests 
should preach certain doctrines (which, by the 
way, were perniciously heretical). Thus in a single 
hour he so prevailed upon those miserable negroes 
that their hearts became quite as black as their 
faces. An especially offensive practice of the 
Hollanders, in the eyes of the good shepherds, 
was that of asking the feminine sheep for a whiff 
of tobacco—it being a country custom to consider 
the taking a pipe from a woman’s mouth a “ pro¬ 
bable earnest of future favours.” When an 
English ship entered the river, the priests forbade 
by manifesto the sale of slaves to the captain, he 
being a Briton, ergo a heretic, despite the Duke of 
York. The Count of Sonho disobeyed, and was 
excommunicated accordingly : he took his punish¬ 
ment with much patience, although upon occasions 
