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skies. Many interesting incidents mark this period. At one time Dominic Scholte was preaching from a farmer's cart, when the dragoons came and ordered the people to disperse. Refusing to obey, the soldiers cut the cart into splinters, the brave preacher and his wife going down with the wreck. Often they sang psalms in self-defense, and there is at least one instance on record when they sang so fervently of the love of God that their persecutors were conscience smitten and departed, leaving the worshippers in peace.
All this time the conviction grew that they were called upon to establish freedom of worship in a strange land. Borneo was considered, but the government was not favorable. Texas, whose independence had just been established under General Sam Houston, held out such liberal inducements that the cautious Netherlanders took fright and looked elsewhere. Missouri was rejected because of slavery within its borders. At about the same time another company of dissenters under Dominic Van Raalte settled in Michigan, founding the city of Holland in that state. The Pella colonists nearly all came from the well-to-do agricultural classes, who owned and tilled their own farms. The first meeting of the colonists was held at Leerdam, July, 1846, and at a meeting held at Utrecht in the following December, a formal organization was effected with Mr. Scholte as president, Rev. A. J. Betten, vice-president, and Isaac Overkamp, secretary. G. H. Overkamp, G. F. Lecocq, John Rietveld and A. Wigny were appointed a commission to receive and consider applications. They were instructed to receive as members of the colony only sober, industrious and moral persons. Infidels and atheists were barred, also Roman Catholics.
Late in April, 1847, they set sail for America. There were four ships in all, three sailing from Rotterdam and one from Amsterdam. The ships, three-masters, were the Nagasaki, the Catherina Jackson, the Maastrom and the Pieter Floris. Few good wishes accompanied them. Those who gathered in the various villages to see the pilgrims depart regarded them as enthusiasts who would come to grief either on the ocean or in a strange land. Many family bonds were irretrievably broken. Religious belief is in some aspects relentless. I may cite the case of my own father, who was one of the colonists, and whose sacrifices I know best. Among his people he alone joined the dissenters. His father was dead and he was enabled to receive a portion of the family estate. The prospect of a large inheritance was in vain held out to him by a rich uncle. He gave up all- brothers, sisters, mother, for Christ's promises were to him real and literal, a hundred fold for this world and in the world to come everlasting life. His mother clung to him while the boat lay waiting and would not be shaken off. One heart was broken there, and in after years in America, one head was often bowed in thought of her, and of those last words of despair heard from a mother's lips. But though he never saw any of his people again, and heard but little of them, never a word of regret passed his lips, for in his heart was the determination of a man who believed he was right, strangely linked with the humility of one who sought to do the works of righteousness, as in the sight of God daily.
The incident is no part of this history. This man was only a follower. It is recorded here as characteristic of the spirit in which these pilgrims came to Pella, and incidentally as a son's acknowledgment of an indebtedness that can never be paid in the coin or service of this world.