To his Excellency Edward Lord Viscount Cornbury iier Maje« Capt Gen!i and Gov in Cheiffe of y« Province of New Yorke, and of New Jersey, and of all the tracts and territories of land depending thereon in America, and tlce Admiral ofye same etc. and to y« Honourable CounciliV of y^ said Province of New York. "

The humble Petition of Johanuis Lydius Minister att Albany. Humbly sheweth :

How that your petitioner in obedience to your Excellency's directions hath to the out most of his endeavours made itt his practice to instruct Indians of y« Five Nations in the Christian faith, for which service your Excellency and Councill hath been pleased to allow your humble petitioner a sallary at sixty pounds per annum.

Your humble petitioner doth therefore most humbly pray youi' Excellency and Councill will be pleased to grant him a warrant on ye Collector or Receiver Generall for one years sallary in y^ service as a fore said, wiiich is expired the first of November 1703, and jouy humble petitioner as in duty bound shall ever pray &c.

JoHAKNEs Lydius. Albany the 30 of December 1703.

»,» In Council Min: IX. 48. June 13, 1702, is an entry in which Mr. Lydius is styled "Minister of the Dutch Reformed Church at Schonecfady." The statement that he came to this country in 1703, which some persons have made, is therefore incorrect. His son, John Henry Lydius, who was a prominent Indian Trader in the Colony of N. York, died in Kensington, near London, in 1791, aged 98, having retired to England in 1776. There is a Biographical notice of him in the Gent. Mag: voi 61. p. 383. which we refer to here only for the purpose of putting the Historical Student on his guard against some parts of it, which contain rather more poetry than trutn.