preach for them before his
departure; for although there is a considerable congregation in this
vicinity, and they are abundantly able to support a minister, they
have none; for it is not easy to obtain one, and there is no
probability of their doing so as long as the country belongs to the
English, though they intend to build a church next spring. For the
present they have nobody except a _voorleser_,[172] who performs his
service for them on Sundays, in the school house, where they assemble.
They have, however, agreed with the minister of the city to administer
there the Lord's Supper three times a year, for which he receives
thirty bushels or fifteen bags of wheat. This service he performs on
week-days, because he cannot be absent from the city on Sundays, where
he is the only minister. This Gmoenepaeu is an arm of the main land on
the west side of the North River, beginning at Constable's Hook,
directly opposite Staten Island, from which it is separated by the Kil
van Kol.[173] On the east is the North River; on the north the
mainland Pavoni or Haverstroo, or indeed Hackingsack; and on the west,
the North Kil, which separates it from New Jersey and Elizabethtown.
It is almost an hour broad, but has large salt meadows or marshes on
the kill. It has many bays and inlets, and lies very commodiously for
the inhabitants, because it is everywhere accessible by water from the
city. The village of Bergen lies about in the middle of the tract, and
has been reasonably strong in time of the war with the Indians.[174]
It has very fine farms which yield well.

[Footnote 171: Say three cents.]

[Footnote 172: Parish clerk, precentor, and (usually) schoolmaster.
The church records of Bergen go back to 1664, and the first church
edifice was built in the next year, 1680.]

[Footnote 173: Now Constable's Point. Pavonia was the domain of
Michael Pauw. Haverstraw lay well to the northward, Hackensack to the
northwestward, of the Bergen peninsula.]

[Footnote 174: "The Town is compact and hath been fortified against
the Indians." Captain Nicolls, in George Scot, _The Model of the
Government of East New Jersey_, p. 142.]

As we were about to cross, an Indian came up, who also desired to be
carried over. He asked the skipper whether he might go over with him,
who replied he had too much freight. "Well," said he, "I will pay you
for that. How much freight do the people give you?" The skipper
answered six stivers in seewan. "Well then