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The first minister of New-York was the Rev. Everadus Bogardus; and, as he was succeeded by another before the Dutch Government ceased in the colony, it is more than probable that he either came over with, or soon followed, the first emigrants.

[He was succeeded by the Rev. John Megapolensis. Samuel Megapolensis has also been represented as one of the ministers of this Church; but in a letter of Gov. Stuyvesant, addressed to Col. Nichols, at the time of the surrender of the Colony to Great Britain, upon which occasion he acted as one of the Governor's deputies, the only title given him, is that of "Doctor of Physic." — See Smith's Hist, page 42. — The ministers following in succession until the year 1693, were the Rev. Messrs. Samuel Dresius, William Van Nieucnhuysen, and Henry Solyns.]

The precise time when a church was formed at Albany, or who was the first minister there, cannot now be ascertained; but it scarcely admits of a question that the inhabitants of that place, almost from the moment of its occupancy, enjoyed the regular ministrations of the Gospel: [In one of the Historical Sketches of the Reformed Dutch Church, published in the Christain's Magazine, the author says. "The Church at New-York seems to have been first organized;" — but, in the manuscript of Dr. Livingston, before referred to, speaking of the Albany settlement, he observes, "It is very certain they had ministers there as early, if not before, any were at New-York."]

and nothing

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can be more evident than that, prior to the surrender of the colony to the government of Great Britain, Churches were established in several other parts of New Netherlands.

[At Flatbush, New Utrecht, Flatlands (then New Amerafort) and Esopus. Between the year 1664 and 1693, a Church was formed in the City of Schenectady; another on Staten Island; three or four in different towns on the Hudson; two or three more on Long Island; and several in New-Jersey. — Chris". Mag.]

These facts show, indisputably, that the original colonists were, in general, men of great moral worth, who did not, upon being transferred to a new and distant country, or when far removed from the notice of pious friends, cast off the fear of God, and abandon themselves to licentious habits of life: but, sensible of the importance of an early, public observance of the worship of God, and cherishing a high regard for the doctrines of the Reformation, as they had been taught them in Holland, at once so constituted themselves in a religious, as well as civil respect, as was best calculated to preserve