144 HISTORY OF BROOKLYN.

preached in said town since August 30, 1660, instead of the Rev. J. Polhemus,” and that the book_keeper credit that amount to Selyns.1 On the 12th of the same month the people of Flatlands had been permitted to build a church; making, with that of Bushwick, the fourth Dutch church within the county. During this year, also, complaint was made to the Consistory of the exposure of the graveyard to hogs and other animals; in consequence of which, the Consistory contracted for a clapboard fence, five feet high, to enclose the entire ground, for the sum of seventy guilders.2

The unfortunate burning of the town of Esopus, and the massacre of its inhabitants, by the Indians, June 7, 1663, was the occasion of the following proclamation from Governor Stuyvesant to the church at Breuckelen :

“As a sorrowful accident and wilful massacre has been committed by the Esopus Indians, who have with deliberate design, under the insidious cover of friendship, determined to destroy Esopus, which they effected on the 7th instant, killing and wounding a number of the inhabitants, and taking many prisoners, burning the town and desolating the place: Whereupon the congregation is directed and desired, by his Excellency the Governor-General, to observe and keep the ensuing Wednesday as a day of fasting, humiliation, and prayer to the Almighty, hoping that He may avert further calamities from the New Netherlands, and extend His fatherly protection and care to the country. And it is further ordered, that the first Wednesday in every month be observed in like manner. By order of the Director-General and Council, etc. Dated at Fort Orange, June 26, 1663.3

Early in the year 1664, Dominie Selyns addressed a petition to the Director and Council, complaining that, in consequence of the great depreciation which had taken place in seawant and beaverskins, he found his salary much reduced and insufficient to meet

1 N. Y. Col. MSS., x. 216.

2 Brooklyn Church Records.

3 The cloud of war speedily passed over, however; for Wednesday, the 4th of July, 1663, was observed as a day of thanksgiving on account of a treaty of peace which bad been made with those same Esopus Indians, and the release of the prisoners who had been taken by them; and likewise for the defeat of the English, who had been thwarted in an attempt to take possession of Long Island, by the opportune arrival of the Dutch fleet.