h, and printed at Herford in 1672,[4] presumably under his eye,
the spelling is Sluiter. But his signature should be conclusive.

[Footnote 3: _a._ Paul Hackenberg's letter, see p. 291, note 2,
_post_; Willem a Brakel, _Trouwhertige Waerschouwinge_ (Leeuwarden,
1683), p. 63; _Album Acad. Lugd.-Bat._, 1650, "Henricus Schluterus,"
the brother. _b._ Brakel in Murphy's _Anthology_, p. 95. _c._ Letter
from Herford in Schotel, _Anna Maria van Schurman_ (Hertogenbosch,
1853), app., p. 40.]

[Footnote 4: _Verklaringe van de Suiverheid des Geloofs en der Leere
van Jean de Labadie._]

The annotations in this volume are by the general editor of the
series.

J.F.J.

INTRODUCTION

In the year 1864 Mr. Henry C. Murphy, then corresponding secretary of
the Long Island Historical Society, had the good fortune to find in an
old book-store in Amsterdam a manuscript whose bearings upon the
history of the middle group of American colonies made it, when
translated and made accessible as a publication in the Memoirs of the
Long Island Historical Society,[5] an historical document of much
interest and value. The Journal of two members of the Labadist sect
who came over to this country in order to find a location for the
establishment of a community has served to throw a flood of light upon
what otherwise might have been a lost chapter in the history of
Maryland. For so meagre are the sources of ready availability for a
knowledge of the Labadist colony which was effected in Maryland that
without this account the story of the first communal sect in America
might have failed of adequate recording.

[Footnote 5: Volume I. _Journal of a Voyage to New York and a Tour in
Several of the American Colonies in 1679-80, by Jasper Dankers and
Peter Sluyter of Wiewerd in Friesland_ (Brooklyn, 1867).]

But while the Journal of Jasper Danckaerts and Peter Sluyter, the two
envoys--or of Jasper Danckaerts, who did the actual writing--is of
especial interest in relation to an incident in the early settlement
of Maryland, the gauge of its value may be applied as well in other
directions. This extended narrative, often discursive and
circumstantial, contains much that is suggestive upon the beginnings
of the middle group of states, and, indeed, the narrative bears upon
facts of importance in connection with Massachusetts as well.

The original manuscript of the Labadist narrators is now in the
possession of the Long Island Historical Society. I