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The tract conveyed embraced four necks of land eastwardly from the first creek that empties into Bohemia River, and extended at the north or northeast to near the old St. Augustine or Manor Church. It contained 3,750 acres. Those engaging with Sluyter and Danckaerts in the transaction were all professed converts to the Labadist faith.

[Footnote 386: It was believed by the local ministers that Danckaerts and Sluyter while in New York engaged actively in proselytizing. Thus, Rev. Henricus Selyns, Domine Niewenhuisen's successor, says in a letter to Rev. Willem

The works of the Labadists disclose a high form of faith and aspiration, but vitiated by many visionary and impracticable features, in Maryland by the mercenary instincts of their leader, Sluyter. Nor was the general state of religion in Maryland at the time of their experiment such as to foster a profoundly pietistical community.

It seems almost certain that it was Sluyter of whom William Penn speaks, in his account of his visit to Wieuwerd in 1677, when he had conferences with the Labadists marked on his part by appreciation of the affinity between them and the Friends. This corresponds with what we know of "Dr. Vorstman."

Vorsman, Moll, Danckers, De la Grange, Bayert, and some others ... do live peaceably and religiously together upon a plantation on Bohemia River, and the said persons being in some Respect strangers may at one time or other stand in need of your particular protection and favour," His Majesty directs that such protection and favor be accorded; also that in 1693 and 1695 governors Copley and Nicholson give "Peter Sluyter alias Vorsman" license to marry persons, as he "hath made it appear to me that he is an Orthodox Protestant Minister, ordained according to the Maxims of the Reformed Churches in Holland."

At its most flourishing period the colony did not number as many as a hundred persons, and in the year 1698 a division of the tract occurred. Sluyter, who was the active head of the colony, reserved for himself one of the necks of land and became wealthy. He died in 1722.

Some editions of the Declaration issued at Herford bear on the title-page, along with the names of Labadie, Yvon, and Dulignon as pastors, those of Hendrik and Peter Sluyter as preachers. Paul Hackenberg found him one of the chief disputants at the time of his visit.

It was upon Bohemia Manor that the Labadists located their colony. Danckaerts and Sluyter, under the guidance of Ephraim Herrman, made their way to Delaware and Maryland. Upon meeting them the elder Herrman was at first so favorably impressed that he consented to deed to them a considerable tract, in pursuance of his ambition to colonize and develop his estates.

Moll and de La Grange immediately released their interest in the land to Danckaerts and Sluyter, Bayard did so in 1688, and Danckaerts in 1693, from Holland, conveyed to Sluyter all his rights. Augustine Herrman at his death conveyed the rest of Bohemia Manor to his son Ephraim as an entailed estate.

[Footnote 289: The Album Studiosorum Academiae Lugduno-Batavae (Hague, 1875) contains the entry of "Petrus Sluyter Vesaliensis" (i.e., of Wesel) as entering the University of Leyden in 1666 as a student of theology, at the age of twenty-one. Also, Sluyter in 1670 told Paul Hackenberg at Herford that he had studied three years in the Palatinate (without finding one truly pious pastor or teacher). Domine Selyns, in a letter to Rev. Willem