DOMINES AND SCHOOL-TEACHERS 97

condition of the church at Manhattan he observes
that at the first communion fifty were present.
The number of Walloons and French-speaking
settlers was so small that the domine did not think
it worth while to hold a special service for them*
but once in four months he contented himself with
administering the communion and preaching a
sermon in French. This discourse he found it
necessary to commit to writing, as he could not
trust himself to speak extemporaneously in that
language. There is something beautiful and pa-
thetic in the picture of this little group of half
a hundred settlers in the wilderness, gathered in
the upper room of the grist-mill, surrounded by
the sacks of grain, and drinking from the avond-
maalsbeker, or communion cup, while the rafters
echoed to the solemn sounds of the liturgy which
had been familiar in their old homes across the sea.
There is the true ring of a devout and simple
piety in all the utterances of the settlers on the
subject of their church. The pioneers were ready
to spend and be spent in its service and they gave
freely out of their scanty resources for its support.
In the matter of education their enthusiasm, as
we have seen, was far less glowing, and the rea-
sons for this coolness are a subject for curious