第57章 Disintegration(14)

Oglethorpe had already bought their trumpets and French horns at a good price, but they needed to sell their rice and household furniture to provide sufficient funds for their journey.This was happily arranged on the 2nd of February, when George Whitefield, who had reached Savannah for the second time a few days before, came to see them, promised to buy all they cared to sell, and offered them free passage to Pennsylvania.

This offer they gratefully accepted, receiving 37 Pounds for their household goods, and on April 13th, 1740, they sailed with Whitefield on his sloop the `Savannah', Captain Thomas Gladman.

Their land and improvements were left in the hands of an Agent, and the town house was rented to some of Whitefield's followers for a hospital.

With the Moravians went the two boys, Benjamin Somers and James ----, who had been given into their hands by the Savannah magistrates in 1735, and a young woman, Johanna Hummel, of Purisburg.The two lads gave them much trouble in Pennsylvania, and Benjamin was finally bound out in 1748, while James ran away.Johanna married John Boehner, and sailed with him to the West Indies in 1742, but died at sea before reaching there.

Boehler and his company expected to find Spangenberg and Bishop Nitschmann in Pennsylvania, and were much disappointed to learn that both were absent.

They scarcely knew what to do, but Boehler held them together, and when Whitefield decided to buy a large tract of land and build thereon a Negro school, and a town for his English friends of philanthropic mind, and when the Moravians were offered the task of erecting the first house there, Boehler and his companions gladly accepted the work.Bethlehem followed in due time, and all were among those who organized that congregation.

David Zeisberger, Sr., died there in 1744, his wife in 1746.

Anton Seifert was appointed Elder, or Pastor of the Bethlehem Congregation, married, and took an active part in the Church and School work there and at Nazareth, the latter tract having been purchased from Whitefield in 1741.April 8th, 1745, he sailed for Europe, laboring in England, Ireland and Holland, and dying at Zeist in 1785.

John Martin Mack became one of the leaders of the Moravian Church in its Mission work among the Indians in New York, Connecticut and Ohio until 1760, when he was sent to the negro slaves on St.Thomas, preaching also on St.Croix and St.Jan, and the English West Indies.

He was ordained to the ministry November 13th, 1742, and was consecrated bishop October 18th, 1770, during a visit to Pennsylvania, this being the first Episcopal consecration in the American Province of the Moravian Church.He was married four times, his last wife passing away two years before his departure.He died June 9th, 1784, and was buried in the presence of a great concourse of people, --negro converts, planters, government officers and the Governor-General.

David Zeisberger, Jr., lived a life so abundant in labors, so picturesque in experiences that a brief outline utterly fails to give any conception of it."The apostle of the Western Indians traversed Massachusetts and Connecticut, New York, Pennsylvania and Ohio, entered Michigan and Canada, preaching to many nations in many tongues.

He brought the Gospel to the Mohicans and Wampanoags, to the Nanticokes and Shawanese, to the Chippewas, Ottowas and Wyandots, to the Unamis, Unalachtgos and Monseys of the Delaware race, to the Onondagas, Cayugas and Senecas of the Six Nations.

Speaking the Delaware language fluently, as well as the Mohawk and Onondaga dialects of the Iroquois; familiar with the Cayuga and other tongues; an adopted sachem of the Six Nations;naturalized among the Monseys by a formal act of the tribe;swaying for a number of years the Grand Council of the Delawares;at one time Keeper of the Archives of the Iroquois Confederacy;versed in the customs of the aborigines; adapting himself to their mode of thought, and, by long habit, a native in many of his ways; --no Protestant missionary and few men of any other calling, ever exercised more real influence and was more sincerely honored among the Indians; and no one, except the Catholic evangelists, with whom the form of baptism was the end of their work, exceeded him in the frequency and hardships of his journeys through the wilderness, the numbers whom he received into the Church of Christ, and brought to a consistent practice of Christianity, and conversion of characters most depraved, ferocious and desperate.""Nor must we look upon Zeisberger as a missionary only;he was one of the most notable pioneers of civilization our country has ever known.* * * Thirteen villages sprang up at his bidding, where native agents prepared the way for the husbandman and the mechanic of the coming race.""He was not only bold in God, fearless and full of courage, but also lowly of heart, meek of spirit, never thinking highly of himself.

Selfishness was unknown to him.His heart poured out a stream of love to his fellowmen.In a word, his character was upright, honest, loving and noble, as free from faults as can be expected of any man this side of the grave."

"Life and Times of David Zeisberger", by Rt.Rev.Edmund de Schweinitz.

He died at Goshen, Ohio, Nov.17th, 1808, having labored among the Indians for sixty years.

Like Spangenberg, Peter Boehler's story belongs to the whole Moravian Church, rather than to the Georgia colony.His time was divided between England and America, in both of which spheres he labored most successfully.Jan.10th, 1748, he was consecrated bishop at Marienborn, Germany.After Zinzendorf's death he helped frame the new Church constitution, and in 1769 was elected to the governing board of the entire Unitas Fratrum.He died in London, April 20th, 1774, having been there for a year on a visitation to the English congregations of the Moravian Church.