第10章 Negotiations with the Trustees of Georgia(5)

Spangenberg had a stormy voyage to England, and on reaching London, rented a room in "Mr.Barlow's Coffee House, in Wattling's street, near St.Anthelius Church." He found the outlook rather discouraging, and a long letter written on the 10th of January, gives a vivid picture of the English mind regarding the "Herrnhuters".Spangenberg had called on several merchants to see if he could arrange a loan for the Moravians, for Zinzendorf's means were already strained to the utmost by what he was doing for the Church, and he did not see how it was possible to provide the money in any other way.But the merchants declined to make the loan, saying: "We can not take the land (in Georgia) as surety, for it is not yet settled, and no man would give us a doit for it;the personal security (of the emigrants) is also not sufficient, for they might all die on the sea or in Georgia, -- there is danger of it, for the land is warmer than Europeans can bear, and many who have moved thither have died; if they settle on the land and then die the land reverts to the Trustees, so we would lose all;and the six per cent interest offered is not enough, for the money applied to business would yield twenty per cent.

Others objected to having the Moravians go at all, especially Court Preacher Ziegenhagen, who belonged to the Halle party, and who, Spangenberg found, had much influence on account of his good judgment and spotless character.They claimed: (1) That the Moravians were not oppressed in Saxony, and had no good reason for wishing to leave;(2) that to say they wished to be near the heathen was only an excuse, for Georgia had nothing to do with the West Indies where they had a mission;(3) the Moravians could not bear the expense, and neither the Trustees nor the Society for the Propagation of Christian Knowledge would help them;(4) they could neither speak nor understand English, and would therefore be unable to support themselves in an English colony; (5) their going would create confusion, for Herr Bolzius, the pastor of the Salzburgers at Ebenezer, had written to beg that they should not be allowed to come;(6) if they went it would involve England in trouble with Saxony, and the Georgia Colony was not meant to take other rulers' subjects away from them, only to furnish an asylum for exiles, and poor Englishmen;(7) the Moravians could not remain subject to Zinzendorf, for they must all become naturalized Englishmen; (8) the suggestion that Zinzendorf's land could be cultivated by the heathen was absurd, for slavery was not permitted in Georgia and the Moravians could not afford to hire them; (9) ten or fifteen men, as were said to be on the way, would never be able to make headway in settling the forest, a task which had been almost too much for the large company of Salzburgers.

Some of these statements dealt with facts, about which the critics might have acquired better information, had they so desired, others were prophecies of which only the years to come could prove or disprove the truth, others again touched difficulties which were even then confronting Count Zinzendorf's agent;but in the light of contemporary writings and later developments, it is possible to glance at each point and see in how far the Halle party were justified in their argument.(1) The treatment in Saxony, while not as yet a persecution which threatened them with torture and death, had many unpleasant features, and the constant agitation against them might at any time crystalize into harsh measures, for those members of the Herrnhut community who had left friends and relatives in the homelands of Bohemia and Moravia were already forbidden to invite them to follow, or even to receive them if they came unasked seeking religious freedom.

(2) There was no idea of associating the missions in Georgia and the West Indies, for the heathen whom they wished to reach by this new settlement were the Creek and Cherokee Indians with whom Governor Oglethorpe had already established pleasant relations, bringing several of their chiefs to England, and sending them home filled with admiration for all they had seen, much impressed by the kindness shown them, and willing to meet any efforts that might be made to teach them.