He left behind him an
elaborate manuscript, which he was just about to publish at the time
of his death, entitled "Triumf des Hebreeuwsche Bibels" (triumph of
the Hebrew Bible over secular chronology) in which he styles himself
"Jasper Danckaerts, lover of wisdom, of sacred emblems, history, and
theology, at Middelburg in Zeeland." The antiquary from whose book
this fact is derived says also, "In 1874 I bought at a book-stall in
Middelburg a very neatly written translation of the Psalms, with
musical notes, prepared by Danckaerts mostly during his American
journey, dated at Wieuwerd, and perhaps revised by Anna Maria van
Schurman."[22] This manuscript is now in the library of the Zeeland
Academy of Sciences at Middelburg. I am greatly indebted to Mr. W.O.
Swaving, librarian of that society, who has kindly furnished me with a
copy of the preface to this manuscript, as also of Danckaerts's note
on his Indian Bible.[23]

[Footnote 20: Some writers put the Surinam venture before the voyage
of 1679, and it is noticeable that Danckaerts says he has been in the
West Indies; p. 61, _infra_. But the little "book of saints" which has
just been mentioned says, of a Juffrouw Huyghens, who died in January,
1680, a lady very zealous for the conversion of the Indians, that she
said that "if any of us went out thither, she would wish to be one of
the first." Evidently no such expedition or migration had yet taken
place in 1680; van Sommelsdyk's going out as governor gave the
opportunity, he being a brother of their patronesses.]

[Footnote 21: _Maryland Archives_, XIII. 126, also naturalizing
Sluyter, Bayard, and de la Grange.]

[Footnote 22: F. Nagtglas, _Levensberichten van Zeeuwen_, I. 146; J.
Kok, _Vaderlandsche Woordenboek_, XI. (1708) 41.]

[Footnote 23: See p. 264, note 2, _infra_.]

The manuscript is entitled "De CL Psalmen Davids op Nieus volgens de
Nederduitschen Text in Nederduits Sangh-Rym gebracht door J.D.,
Liefhebber der Poesie tot Wiwert in Vrieslant," _i.e._, "The 150
Psalms of David, translated afresh into Dutch verse in accordance with
the Dutch text, by J.D., lover of poetry, at Wieuwerd in Friesland."
Explaining the deficiencies of the metrical version by Petrus
Dathenus, the writer sets forth his wish to make a better translation
(from French into Dutch), and narrates how the opportunity at last
arrived "when I found myself called upon for the second time to make a
journey to New Netherland in the year 1682