task easier.  Neau could say in 1714 that “if the slaves and domestics in New York were not instructed it was not his fault."[37] The Governor, the Council, Mayor, the Recorder and the Chief Justice informed the Society that Neau had performed his work “to the great advancement of religion in general and the particular benefit of the free Indians, Negro slaves, and other Heathens in those parts, with indefatigable zeal and application."[38]

Neau died in 1722.  His work was carried on by Mr. Huddlestone, Rev. Mr. Whitmore, Rev. Mr. Colgan, Rev. R. Charlton, and Rev. S. Auchmutty.  From 1732 to 1740 Mr. Charlton baptized 219 slaves and frequently thereafter the number admitted yearly was from 40 to 60.[39] The great care exercised in preparing slaves for the church was rewarded by the spiritual knowledge which in some cases was such as might have put to shame many persons who had had greater advantages.  Rev. Mr. Auchmutty, who served from 1747 to 1764, reported that there was among the Negroes an ever-increasing desire for instruction and “not one single Black” that had been “admitted by him to the Holy Communion” had “turned out bad or been in any shape a disgrace to our holy Profession."[40]

The interest in the enlightenment of Negroes too extended also to other parts of the colony.  In 1737 Rev. Mr. Stoupe wrote of baptizing four black children at New Rochelle.[41] Mr. Charlton had taken upon himself at New Windsor the task of instructing these unfortunates before he entered upon the work in New York City.  At Staten Island too he found it both practical and convenient “to throw into one the classes of his white and black catechumens."[42] Rev. Charles Taylor, a schoolmaster at that place, kept a night school “for the instruction of Negroes, and of such as” could not “be spared from their work in the day time."[43] Rev. J. Sayre, of Newburgh, followed the same plan of coeducation of the races in each of the four churches under his charge.[44] Rev. T. Barclay, an earnest worker among the slaves in Albany, reported in 1714 “a great forwardness” among them to embrace Christianity “and a readiness to receive instruction."[45] He found much opposition among certain masters, chief among whom were Major M. Schuyler and his brother-in-law Petrus Vandroffen.  Sixty years later came the report from Schenectady that there were still to be found several Negro slaves of whom 11 were sober, serious communicants.[46]

These missionaries met with more opposition than encouragement in New England.  The Puritan had no serious objection to seeing the Negroes saved, but when the conversion meant the incorporation of the undesirable class into the state, then so closely connected with the church, many New Englanders became silent.  This opposition, however, was not effective everywhere.  From Bristol, Rev. J. Usher wrote in 1730 that several Negroes desired baptism and were able “to render a very good account of the hope that was in them,” but he