BV2560 .H3 1901 | Hamilton, J. Taylor . History of the missions of the Moravian c during Ihe ei^leenih and nineleenlh cent A HISTORY -;llll«Tm» <'i im. iiir.i..i> of the Mora vian Church published by the author in the year 1900, the account of the missionary labors which constitute a chief raison d' ctre for its separate denominational existence is herewith issued in separate form in the belief that thus the needs of a wider public desirous of some insig^ht into the details of Mora- vian missionary activity may be met. A brief sketch of the history of the church has been prefixed, and supplementary chapters setting forth the essentials of Moravian missionary aims and methods and characteristics of administration have been appended. By formal resolution the Directors of the Society for Propa- gating the Gospel, on January 8. 1901. took cognizance of the purpose of the author, and desired the inrnrpor.Ttinn of the fol- lowing minute in his preface : "Whereas, the Rev. J. Taylor llainiii"ii, v ic<- 1 ivM(irnt of this society, and a member of the Executive Board of the Mora- vian Church, North, is publishing a History of the Missions of the Moravian Church, therefore be it resolved, that the Board of Directors of The Sooitty for Propagating the ( "mspel among the Heathen welcomes this publication with deepest satisfac- tion, and desires herewith to express its cordial endorsement of the same." The Board likewise placed at his disposal the illus- trations which embellish the volume. For the maps thanks are »" , CHAPTER II.— The Missions on the North \inr-, ,11 Continent prior to 1760. . ^ijt^ *yjjL.J-^^l*4^^\r. ?y -.^^ . ^3 7 ^"T* iv CHAPTER MI.— Missionary Undertakings durinjj the latter Pan of the Zinzcndorfian Era, *^«. . ' . . • ^J/ . /'/'•'. I2 CHAPTER IV.— The Establishment of the Mission in .Labrador. 1764-1776. i^SLJp.ti^'iV^'' -^^ , 43 CHAPTER v.— The Indian Mission from the I'ontiar War to the Removal to Canada. . 4X CHAPTER VI.— The Missions to the Heathen in the Period preccd- i"' and immediately after their Jubilee. (? t< .'"j I ' '.' . % ' . 5;-* ! iAPTER VII.— The Renewal of the Mission in Cape Colony. 1792. 70 / ^^ CHAPTER VIII —The Indian Mission at the close of the Eighteenth and during the opening Years of the Nineteenth Century. ..'^^ . ._ . *j.. ;< CHAl'TER IX.— The Foreign Missions, from their jubilee to the Synod of 1818. CHAPTER X. The Indian Mission, from J»2o i.. i. ,,. ^ CHAPTER XI. -The Foreign Missions, from 1818 to 1836.- CHAPTER XII. -The Missions, from 1836 to 1857. .11. CHAPTER XIII.- The Three New Mission Fields entered between "* the Years 1848 and 1857— the Moskito Coast. Australia and Centra. Asia. , . I'V ' CHAPTER XIV.— The Foreign Missions, from 1857 to 1869. . 136 ' CHAPTER XV. — The Foreign Missions, from 1869 to 1879. 154 CHAPTER XVI —The Foreign Missions, from 1879 to 1889. . 173 CHAPTER XVII.- The Founding of the Mission in Alaska. . iSr CHAPTER XVIII. — The Foundint: of the Mission in (icrnian East Africa. .... . 194 - CHAPTER Xl.X. — A Brief Suney (^t mr iicui tiunng the closing Years of the Nineteenth Century. ..... 200 CHAPTER XX.— The Aim and Methtxls of Moravian Missions. . 209 CHAPTER XXI.— The Administrative I*oliiy of Moravian Missions. 215 CHAPTER X.XII.- The Financial Managcmer.t of Moran.in Missions. . . 2ic INDEX. . .22^ ILLUSTRATIONS. Herrnhut, ..... A Greenlander in his Kayak. Eskimo Women of Labrador (Christians), Zeisberger Preaching to the Indians, Moravian Mission-quarters in Paramaribo, Fairfield, Jamaica, Mission House at Shiioh, Mission House and Church in St. Thomas, Blackfellows of Australia, Ebenezer, Australia, . Kyelang, ..... Karata, .... Goedverwacht, .... Young Eskimos of Alaska (Christians), Travel in German East Africa, . Home for Lepers, Jerusalem, fac Frontispiece, ng page i i 43 51 •• 69 " 103 " III " 117 " 133 " 149 " 153 " 177 '• 183 " 193 197 207 MAPS. Map of the World, showing the Stations of the Moravian Misssions (Section I). ...... . Map of the World, showing the Stations of the Moravian Missions (Section H), . West India Islands and Central America, showing the Stations of the Moravian Missions, ..... 129 209 INTRODUCTORY. THK MORAVIAN CHURCH. A HISTORICAL SKETCH. .-Mthoujjli the true name of the church whose missionary activities are set forth in the following pages is The Unitas Fratruni or The Unity of the Brethren, it is generally known as T!io Moravian Church, because it was thus designated in the act of Parliament in 1749. whereby it won public recognition as a venerable Protestant and Episcopalian body. In this document and in the negotiations preliminary to the favorable action of the British legislature, the term Moravian was appar- entlv employed from the fact that during the fifteenth and six- teenth centuries Moravia constituted one of its chief seats, and because religious refugees from that country were mainly instrumental in its resuscitation in Saxony in the eighteenth century, after it had been well-nigh crushed during the Coun- ter-reformation. With justice it might however be designated 1 he Church of the Bohemian-Moravian Brethren, for it origi- nated in Bohemia rather than in Moravia. These twin lands were won to Christianity about the middle of the ninth century, chiefly through the labors of Cyril and Methodius, illustrious missionaries of the Greek Church, who translated the Bible into the vernacular and introduced a national ritual. In the strife between West and East, thanks especially to the increasing importance and continual ad- vance of the "Holy Roman Empire." Bohemia and Moravia gradually fell under the ecclesiastical jurisdiction of Rome. Nevertheless intermittent protests against Roman Catholic usages and spiritual tyranny characterized the church in these lands from earliest times up to the latter part of the fourteenth centurv. The opposition culminated in the Bohemian Reforma- tion of which John Hus. born in 136(7 and martyred at Con- stance in 141 5. was the distinguished leader. At length tlic Bohemians were driven to armed revolt. .After the awful hor- rors of the Hussite wars, which closed with the battle of Lipan in 1434. a number of the more spiritual mintled of the remnant of the Hussite party experienced a deep revulsion of feeling, and X INTRODUCTORY. determined to live in literal accordance with the requirements of the Sermon on the Mount. For this purpose they withdrew in 1457 to the estate of Lititz, about one hundred miles east of Prague, near the Silesian border. Four principles were adopted by them as the basis of their union : first, the Bible is the only source of Christian doctrine ; second, public worship is to be administered in accordance with the teaching of the Scriptures, and on the model of the Apostolic Church ; third, the Lord's Supper is to be received in faith, to be doctrinally defined in the language of the Bible, and every human explana- tion of that language is to be avoided; and fourth, godly Chris- tian life is essential as an evidence of saving faith, and is of greater importance than the dogmatic formulation of creed in all details and in a manner which binds consciences. Lititz soon became the rallying-point for awakened persons throughout Bohemia and Moravia in such numbers that the new church rapidly increased. Its first ministers were priests ordained in the Calixtine, or National Church, from which the Brethren had seceded. In 1467, however, they introduced a ministry of their own and secured the episcopacy from Bishop Stephen of the Austrian Waldenses. Both the Roman Catholics and the National Church perse- cuted the Brethren with fire and sword. The first persecution broke out in 1461 ; the second in 1468; the third in 1508. By edict of King LHadislaus they and their organization were to be stamped out of existence. But here and there friendly nobles, in accordance with their feudal rights and by the terms of the Bohemian constitution, were able to extend protection, and the bishops and ministers of the Brethren braved torture and death to encourage their people to fidelity. Public wor- ship was maintained and synods were convened at night in the solitude of forests around fires and under the starry canopy of heaven, sentries keeping watch at the avenues of approach. The death of the king and of their chief persecutors brought a providential respite in 15 16. Now, on the eve of the Reformation in the sixteenth cen- tury, the Bohemian-Moravian Brethren constituted an evan- gelical church numbering at least two hundred thousand mem- bers, counting over four hundred parishes, using a hymn-book and a catechism of its own, proclaiming its doctrines in a con- fession of faith, employing two printing-presses, and scattering INTRODUCTORY. X" liohcmian Bibles broadcast through the land. In the course of time, a friendly correspondence was opened with the Re- formers both in Germany and in Switzerland. The fourth persecution, which broke out in 1547, an indirect ronscciuencc of t!ie Snialcald War. led to the spread of tlie Brethren's Church to Poland, whither refugees fled and where it grew so rapidly that, in 1557, its Polish parishes were organ- ized into a distinct ecclesiastical province. Hence the Unitas Fratrum now embraced three such federated divisions, the Bohemian, the Moravian and the Polish, and increased more than ever in numbers and in influence, founding colleges and theological seminaries, translating the Bible from the original into r.ohemian. and sending forth many other important works. Religious liberty having been proclaimed in Bohemia and Moravia in 1609, it at last became a legally acknowledged and important church of these lands. In the early part of the Thirty Years' War. however, when the Bohemian Protestants had been defeated in the battle of the White Mountain, in 1620, the Emperor Ferdinand II inaugurated his Counter-reformation, with the avowed purpose of crushing evangelical religion in Bohemia and Moravia. This end was accomplished in 1627 by a resort to fiendishly inge- nious and brutally cruel measures, Jesuits and Spanish dragoons being his chief instruments. Thousands perished. Thousands were imprisoned. Thousands went into exile, as when the Huguenots fled from France. Bohemia and Moravia were in great measure depopulated, and have never since recovered their intellectual and economic standing. At the close of the war, moreover, according to the terms of the Peace of West- phalia, 1624 was taken as the normal year for religious and ecclesiastical affairs, and thus the evangelicals were left with- out redress in the lands of the House of Austria. Only a hid- den seed of the Church of the Brethren remained in Bohemia and Moravia; the majority of its members, as well as the Luth- erans and Reformed, had been driven into exile. The Polish Province of the Unitas Fratrum now acquired special importance. Here a new center of activity was estab- lished at Lissa. .\ number of parishes were also founded in Hungary; yet the Brethren hoped and prayed for a return to their native land. In 1656 Lissa was sacked and burned in a war which broke out between Poland and Sweden. The eccle- XU INTRODUCTORY. siastical center of the church having thus been destroyed, its parishes were gradually absorbed by other Protestant bodies. Its hidden seed in Bohemia and Moravia, however, remained, and its illustrious bishop, Amos Comenius, in prophetical anti- cipation of its resuscitation republished its history, confession, and discipline, commended its future members to the care of the Church of England, and took steps to perpetuate its epis- I copate. Hence, for a period of fifty years, clergymen who at the same time served parishes of the Reformed Church were consecrated bishops of the Unitas Fratrum, that the succession might not die out. In 1707 George Jaeschke, an aged patriarch of Moravia, descended from the Brethren, and one of those who had secretly maintained evangelical worship and cherished evangelical literature, the while he implanted in his children scriptural faith, spoke on his death-bed with great assurance of the speedy renewal of their church. Fifteen years later two of his grand- sons, Augustine and Jacob Neisser, with their families, followed Christian David, "the servant of the Lord," to Saxony, where, on June 17, 1722, they began to build the town of Herrnhut, on the estate of Count Zinzendorf. who had oflfered them an asylum. Herrnhut soon became the rallying-place for the descendants of the Brethren, several hundred of whom emigrated from Bohemia and Moravia. They introduced their characteristic discipline, handed down by Comenius, and to them, in 1735, their venerable episcopate was transmitted from its surviving representatives, Daniel Ernst Jablonski and Christian Sitkovius. The development which now began was, ^owever, different in some respects from that of former times. Count Zinzen- dorf, who gradually came to devote his entire patrimony, his time and his talents to the spread of the Kingdom of Christ through the agency of the Brethren, himself became the lead- ing bishop of the resuscitated church, and he strove to build it u]) in such a way as not to interfere with the rights and privi- leges of the State Church, in the communion of which he had been born and to which he was sincerely attached. In carrying «)nt this principle he did not allow the revived Unitas Fratrum to expand, as other churches expand, but established on the Continent of Europe, in Great Britain, and in America, exclu- sively Moravian settlements, from which the follies and temp- INTRODUCTORY. XIII talions of the world were shut out, and in which was fostered the highest form of spiritual life. At the same time, however, its members did not remain idle, but undertook extensive mis- sions in heathen lands, established many schools for young people not of their communion, and began the so-called Dias- pora or Inner Mission among nominal members of the State Ciiurches of Europe. This Mission has in view their conver- sion and edification without drawing them away from their own communion, and at present numbers many times more members than are within the immediate fellowship of the Moravian Church on the Continent. It was already before the episcopate had been transmitted lo the resuscitated church, and when Herrnhut numbered only six hundred souls that connections with many who longed for the promotion of vital piety in Christendom were established, and the first two missionaries to heathen lands were sent forth — the latter in 1732. At this time there were but three other FVotestanl missions, namely, the Lutheran mission in Green- land, the Lutheran mission in the East Indies, and the missions oi the Anglican "Society for Propagating the Gospel in Foreign Parts," among the North American Indians and elsewhere. The exclusive system still continues in Germany in a modi- fied form ; in England, also, there are a few Moravian settle- ments: but in America this polity has been given up. The last vestige of it disappeared in 1856. In the following year, at a general synod held at Herrnhut, the constitution of the Unitas Fratrum was remodeled, the new development being completed at the general synod of 1899. The Moravian Church now con- sists of four provinces, the German, the British, and the Ameri- can, North and South, which are united as one body in regard to doctrine, ritual, discipline, the work of foreign missions, and the Bohemian- Moravian mission — a new enterprise begun in the ancient seats of the Brethren in 1870. Otherwise, however, each province is free to develop as God may show it the way. Since this change of polity the -American Provinces have increased rapidly, the number of their churches and members being now about fivefold what it was in 1850. They now carry on the work of church-extension in the same way as the other religious denominations of our country, and still pay particular attention to the Christian education of young people entrusted to their care in tlicir >;(-lino!s nt T\-thlehem. Xazarctli .nnd T.ififz. XIV INTRODUCTORY. in Pennsylvania, and at Salem, in North Carolina, as well as in the Moravian College, at Bethlehem, in Pennsylvania. Each province of the Moravian Church has a synod as its legislative body, constituted of ministers and lay representa- tives of the congregations and convening at stated intervals, and an executive board elected by and responsible to it. The synod of the American Province, North, holds its sessions every five years, and' its executive, known as the Provincial Elders' Conference, appoints the ministers to the various con- gregations, is charged with the oversight of the general affairs of the province and acts as the special agent of the Mission Board in relation to the missions in Alaska and amongst the Indians. The executive boards of the four provinces conjointly form the Directing Board of the Unity, Every ten years the general synod convenes, constituted of elected delegates of the several provinces and certain ex-ofUcio members, the missions also having their representatives. The general synod takes cognizance of the life, doctrine and activity of the entire Mora- vian Church. By it the Mission Board is elected, and to it the Mission Board is responsible. Thus the Moravian Church forms one organic ecclesiastical body throughout the world, with regulations sufficiently elastic, however, to take into account national characteristics and conditions. It enjoys a complete and varied ritual, including formulas for Baptism and the Lord's Supper, for marriages and funerals, for confirmation and ordination, services for the Lord's Day and for festivals of the Christian Year, together with other forms, but also allows of free prayer in public worship. It per- petuates the three orders of the ministry, bishops, presbyters, and deacons ; admits new converts by the rite of confirmation ; receives members of other evangelical churches by certificate ; encourages lay work and the meetings of small circles for mutual edification ; and exercises a strict discipline, in accord- ance with the injunctions of Scripture and the example of the Bohemian and Moravian fathers. The doctrinal position of the Moravian Church is that of a union church, adhering firmly to the cardinal points of evan- gelical faith as held in common by Protestant Christendom. But no denominational creed has been drawn up, defining in minute detail what members shall subscribe to in connection with every disputed point. Dogmatizing is foreign to the INTRODUCTORY. XV Moravian spirit, which is Johannean rather than Pauline or Petrine. At the same time there is no sympathy with intellec- tual and spiritual indolence. Individuals are encouraged to seek to grasp the mysteries of revelation for themselves; to grow in knowledge as well as in grace ; to solve the great prob- lems of religious belief, constructing their own practical system of scriptural theology. And on each one the duty of being a co-worker in promoting the advance of Christ's Kingdom is earnestly impressed. On January i, 1900, the united membership of the four prov- inces of the Moravian Church was 38,280. The Diaspora socie- ties on the Continent of Europe embraced about 70,000 in their connection. The membership of the congregations gathered from among the heathen was 96,380. Hence the total num- ber of those in fellowship with the Moravian Church approxi- mated 204,600. At ;ti c C :<^ ^ MORAVIAN MISSION'S , ^^ CHAPTER l.^^^2l^^-:zJ^fttrA THE FIRST DECADE. ;^^p";*t*-<^ *''*^<^-i-<-a-M^.^!^7'<2r Of the various affiliations effected by Count Zinzen^orf^^^-^i^ that with the Danish court was destined to be of first and most '^~~~~--. immediate significance. That the man who in youth estab- ' hshed his ''Order of the Mustard Seed" had been observant of movements for the evangeHzation of the world is apparent from the fact that when David and John Xitschmann were sent in 1727 to Prince Charles, the brother of Frederick the Fourth, at Copenhagen, they had instructions to inquire whether the Brethren could be of service in connection with the under- taking of the Lutheran missionary, Hans Egede, in Greenlan*!. Since 1708 this large-hearted servant of Christ had devoted himself to an effort in behalf of descendants of the ancient •|- ^'orsc settlers on the east coast of that dreary land, whom he hoped to fintl and lead to a knowledge of the truth. When at last he was able to make his way thither, in 1721, disappoint- ment was inevitable, for no such people could be discovered. But his attention had been turned to the Eskimos, and to them he heroically ministered for their bodily diseases, though as yet he could not find the key to unlock their hearts. The Danish king seconded his project with an attempt to found a colony of soldiers and traders, but the results had been inade- quate. Nor was this the only manifestation of the sympathv of the Danish court with the promotion of vital religion. Its well-known attitude in religious affairs had long awakened in Zinzendorf a desire to enter the service of this pronouncedlv Christian government, and at that to become a court preacher, if it could be brought about without a surrender of conscien- tious convictions. Ever since the death of his grandmother, in 1726. this had been a cherished purpose. He as yet by no means proposed to confine his energies to the interests of the 2 A HISTORY OF Moravians, considering himself Ein freier Knccht dcs Harm — a free volunteer in the service of Christ. In October, 1730, Frederick the Fourth died. The acces- sion of Christian the Sixth, whose coronation was appointed for the following May, seemed to oflfer a favorable opportunity to the Count, ready as he was to surrender his Saxon ofifice. On April 25th he therefore set out, wjth David Nitschmann, the future bishop, and two other Moravians as his companions. The visit in Copenhagen was a protracted one. Having pre- viously been on a footing of intimacy with several members of the court, he was received with distinguished kindness. In- token of sympathy with his zeal in the service of God, the king decorated him with the Order of the Danebrog, in June. But his wish for some office was not gratified. Yet this failure, like several failures of Zinzendorf's plans during these years in connection with affairs beyond the hori- zon of the Moravians, became pregnant in results for Herrnhut. Two widely separated Macedonian cries met with a response in consequence. On the one hand the Count learnt to his sorrow that the royal policy with regard to Greenland had been reversed and the soldiers and artisans recalled. He also met two Eskimos from whom he heard that Egede's efforts ^/'w^e on the verge of failure, and that he sorely needed help. On the other hand, Anthony, the negro body servant of Count Laurwig, described most pathetically the dark moral and intel- lectual and religious condition of the slaves in the Danish West Indies. These things led him to plan forthwith for missions in Greenland and Lapland, and in Africa and America. He requested and received permission to take Anthony with him to Herrnhut. Herrnhut had been providentially prepared for this visit. Already in 1644 or 1645 Comenius in his Judicum duplex dc regula fidci had set forth the truth that the evangelization of the heathen is an imperative obligation for a living church, and had planned the translation of the Scriptures into the Turkish as preparatory to the propagation of the faith in Moslem lands. And the spiritual sons of Comenius had already been vouch- safed a recognition of the duty of evangelization as binding upon them. On the^oth of February, 1728, a memorable day of prayer 4iad been observed in Herrnhut. Zinzendorf and his ^^b'rethrcn had conferred together in addresses interspersed with r MORAVIAN MISSIONS. 3 hymns and prayers, how tliey might venture upon some worthy undertaking for God. Distant lands liad been named to be won for Him — Turlcey and Africa, Greenland and Lapland. "But it is impossible to find a way thither," some had said. Zinzendorf had replied, "The Lord can and will give grace and strength for this." His reply and child-like faith had so in- spired all, that on the following day twenty-six unmarried brethren had come together, with a view to prepare to answer the call of the Lord when it came to them. The missionary purpose was already there, and needed only the external occa- ' sion to change it to the missionary deed. This occasion was now to be furnished. "On the 23d of July," says Spangcnbcrg, "the day after the Count returned to Herrnhut, he reported, in the meeting then held, what he had heard in Copenhagen with regard to the wretched state of the negroes. By the grace of God, his words produced such an effect upon Leonard Dobcr, that he there and then resolved to offer himself as a missionary to these poor enslaved races. The same resolution was formed at the same time by another of the Brethren, Tobias Leopold ; but though they were intimate friends, they said notfTing to each other on the subject till they had spread the matter before the Lord. After an almost sleepless night, Leonard Dober opened the Bible, on the morning of July 24, to seek for some direc- tion from above, and his eye fell upon Dcut. 32:47. *It is not a vain thing for you ; because it is your life ; and through this thing ye shall prolong your days in the land, whither ye go over Jonlan to possess it.' The words greatly strength- ened him. He then communicated his thougtiis to Leopold, by whom they were warmly reciprocated. They then knelt to- gether before God. and told Him the desire of their hearts. On the 23th of July Leopold wrote to the Count, and informed him that he and Dober felt impelled to go and preach to the negroes. That evening their letter was read in the singing- meeting, without any mention of names. On the 29th the negro Anthony arrived from Copenhagen, and a short time afterwards gave his own account, in one of the meetings of the Brethren, of the deplorable condition of the black popula- tion in the West Indies. But he stated it as his belief that it would be impossible for a missionary* to reach these poor creaturci In niiy other w '\ tlim \^\- becoming a slave himself, 4 A HISTORY OF for their toils were so incessant and exhausting that there was no opportunity of instructing them, except when they were at work." This prospect did not deter Dober or Leopold, but rather confirmed them in their resolution. The matter being then referred to the church council, it was decided by lot that Dober should go to the West Indies, but that Leopold should remain a while longer in Herrnhut. Even before Anthony had made his personal appeal, the example of the two friends afifected their companions so powerfully that two others, Mat- thew Stach and Frederick Bohnisch, offered to go to Green- land. But in the case of each and all Zinzendorf deemed it wise to delay their actual departure, that their fitness might be thoroughly tested. It was therefore not until August 21, 1732, that Dober, now twenty-six years of age, set out for Copenhagen on foot, with David Nitschmann, the carpenter, nine years his senior, a;s his companion. They had each one ducat, and had also three thaler in common — their sole re- sources for a journey of several thousand miles. Wherever they came, as they proceeded via Wernigerode and Hansberg, ridicule or dissuasion formed their welcome, with the sole ex- ception of the cordial encouragement received from Countess Stollberg-Wernigerode. Nevertheless they remained firm, and at Copenhagen Counts Reuss and Blum were won by this deter- mined front, and becoming their advocates at the court, ren- dered various services in furtherance of their project. Thus at last, on October 8, 1732, they set sail, Nitschmann having secured work as ship's carpenter, and reached St. Thomas on December 13. The island had been in the possession of Denmark for sixty- six years. When Erik Smidt, of the good ship Dc Endracht, took possession of it in the name of his Majesty Frederick the Third, he found about a dozen EngHsh and Dutch families on its soil. As early as 1680 there were fifty tobacco plantations, and slaves were already employed. The poor Caribs were dwind- ling away into extinction, leaving a few carvings on rocks at Rif Bay and scanty celts to tell the meager story of their owner- ship of the Virgin Islands. Christian the Fifth, in accordance with the sentiment of his times, directly encouraged the impor- tation of African slave labor by establishing forts on the Gold Coast and ordering ships thither to secure negroes for St. MORAVIAN" MISSIONS. 5 Thomas. By 1732, thanks to the trade in tobacco, St. Thomas had become a flourishing port. Its houses of brick, one story in height, paved with tiles and whitewashed in the interior, were arranged along one long street, conforming to the shape of the bay, and along two shorter streets, near the handsome factory of the Danish Company, and were occupied chiefly by the families of numerous Huguenot refugees. A fort served to assert the majesty of the Danish flag. The well-tilled, though small, estates in the interior produced indigo, sugar-cane, manioc, millet, sweet potatoes, and all kinds of fruit and herbs, in addition to tobacco. Long before the arrival of Dober and Nitschmann provision had been made for the religious welfare of the colonists. In- deed Jorgen Iwersen, who became the first governor in 1672, was a martinet in every relationship of life. Under his regime every inhabitant was obliged to attend service every Sunday in Christiansfort at drum-beat, under penalty of twenty pounds of tobacco. He who worked or allowed his men to work on the Lora s'day was liable to a fine of fifty pounds of tobacco. But for the spiritual care and enlightenment of the blacks nothing was done. The type of religion dominant amongst tlie whites was distinguished by narrow intolerance and a comfortable belief in one's own predestined inheritance of heaven together with a large measure of indifference as to the predestination of any other man. In fact the poor slaves had hitherto sup- posed that to rejoice in a Saviour was a perquisite of their masters, while obeahism and fetishism were sufficiently good for them. Great was their delight when on the third Sunday in Advent, 1732, the Moravian missionaries commenced their labors with the message, "The poor have the gospel preached to them." Dober and Xitschmaiin were at first the guests of a planter who received them into his house on the strength of a letter of recommendation. Anna and Abraham, the sister and brother of Anthony, made easy their approach to the slaves. For four months Nitschmann supported his companion and himself by working at his craft. But it had not been intended that he should remain permanently. In April, 1733. he therefore re- turned to Europe. Dober for a time found himself in great straits. As a potter he could gain no employment. Governor Gardelin then kindly offered him the position of steward .oi, his 6 A HISTORY OF household, and so saved him from the worst distress. But this occupation left too little leisure for his more important work. Hence next year he cut loose from this assured means of liveli- hood, and earned a precarious living as a watchman in town and on the cotton-plantations, content, nevertheless, since now he could devote far more attenttion to the negroes. To be thus identified with the blacks at this time made heavy demands upon moral courage. It involved social ostracism as a matter of course, possibly even something worse. For the little island of St. John, only four miles away and under the same jurisdiction, was the scene of terrible events. Colon- ized only in 1716, its slave population so outnumbered the whites that the most stringent regulations had been framed to keep the former in subjection born of abject fear. Amongst the provisions of this awful code were the following: "The leader of runaway slaves shall be pinched three times with a red-hot iron, and then hung. Each other runaway slave shall lose one leg, or if the owner pardon him, shall lose one ear and receive one hundred and fifty stripes. Any slave being aware of the intention of others to run away and not giving informa- tion, shall be burned in the forehead and receive one hundred stripes. Slaves who steal to the value of four rix-dollars shall be pinched and hung; less than four rix-dollars, shall be branded and receive one hundred and fifty stripes. A slave who lifts his hand to strike a white person, or threaten him with violence, shall be pinched and hung, should the white person demand it ; if not, shall lose his right hand. A slave meeting a white person, shall step aside and wait until he passes ; if not, he may be flogged. No estate slave shall be in town after drum-beat; otherwise he shall be put in the fort and flogged." On the 13th of November, 1733, a sanguinary insurrection broke out. Except on one estate, where an old Englishman, assisted by fugitive planters who had gathered around him, fought off the insurgents, only one white man survived, a surgeon who was spared on condition of at- tending to wounded slaves. It required the aid of French sol- diers from Martinique before the military force in St. Thomas could quell the rebelHon. Even then, when the last three hundred insurgents had been surrounded, they preferred suicide to surrender. The general sentiment of the colonists was therefore scarcely favorable to the undertaking of Dober. MORAVIAN MISSIONS. ,/ 7 The more rejoiced was he when in June, 1734, Tobias Leopold and seventeen others arrived^ some of whom were to continue the work which he had commenced, and others to \oloni2^ and evangelize St^Xrof^^^at the solicitation of Cham- berlain von Pless. He himself was under orders to return to Europe, to assume the office of chief elder, rendered vacant by the death of Martin Linner. With him sailed an orphan, Car- mel Oly, the first fruits of his work, whose freedom had been bought, and who was baptized next year at Ebersdorf, receiving the name Joshua. St. Croix had been acquired from France only the year hc.- fore. Its soil was more fertile than that of St. Thomas ; but it had been practically abandoned in 1720, owing to successive droughts. Dense jungles and undergrowth had encroached upon the former plantations. Denmark contemplated sending thither slave labor, and in anticipation welcomed missionary colonists. But they had arrived in no proper condition to face the strain of life in the tropics. Their voyage had been unduly prolonged and had been attended with severe hardship. They had sailed from Stettin on November 12, 1733, and had been seven months on the way, having been driven by storms into the harbor of Tremmesand. in Xorway, and compelled to winter there. The cabin assigned to them, though eighteen in num- ber^ad been but ten feet square, so overcrowded was the ves- sel. Water almost failed during the latter part of the voyage. Several succumbed to yellow fever before they passed from St. Thomas to St.. Croix. By the end of the following January eig^ht of the eighteen, including Leopold, had died. In Feb- ruary eleven persons set out from Herrnhut to reenforce them, and Dr. Grottausen, of Copenhagen, also volunteered. But the mortality continued — the physician being the first to fall, and it^^ then four others of the new comers within two months. During - the years 1735 ^"^^ ^73^ most of the survivors returned home in a miserable plight, three of them suffering shipwreck en route. The last survivor in December, 1736, passed over to St. Tjiomas to join Frederick Martin, who had been in charge of the nnSsion there since March. He and his assistant, Bonike, had met with great success amongst Dober's catechumens. Their hearers sometimes numbered two hundred. They themselves not yet being ordained, could not administer baptism to their converts. Augustus Gottlieb Spangenberg, 8 A HISTORY OF for some time past active as an evangelist amongst the Ger- Jmans of J^^oas^yania, had therefore been sent thither in Sep- tember, and on the 30th of the month had baptized Andrew, Paul and Nathaniel, who became the nucleus of the first mission con- > gregation in the West Indies. The opposition of white planters continued to be exceedingly bitter, the more so because the lives of many of them were a reproach to the gospel. And the opposition deepened when in August, 17^7, with the assistance of a friendly planter an estate was purchased for the mission, known as Posaunenberg — later New Herrnhut. In fact they might have succeeded in their design to crush the work, had it not been for the providential arrival of Count Zinzendprf, in • accordance with a plan of visitation formed quite independently of knowledge of trouble other than that caused by fevers, scarcity of provisions and hindrances of a general nature. On the one hand he wished to obtain personal insight into the work of the mission; on the other hand he desired to silence the calumnies of certain persons, who said that he did not scruple to send his brethren to pestilential climates but was afraid to go thither himself. On approaching the island in the latter part of January, 1739, the thought of the terrible death-rate amongst the missionaries hitherto led him to say to one of his f companions, George Weber, a Moravian by birth, "Suppose that the brethren are nolonger here; what shall we do in that case?" Weber's instant reply was, "In that case we are here." The calm steadfastness of the man, so characteristic of the Moravian witness-spirit, evoked this comment from the aston- ished Count, "Gens acterna, dicsc Maehrcn" ("An indestructible race, these Moravians"). He found the missionaries sufifering unjust imprisonment in most wretched quarters. The case had been this. The Re- formed clergyman, Borm, according to his own statement, had taken upon himself to examine some of the converted negroes. Thev were not willing to answer his captious questions. He therefore instigated the Common Council to petition the Gov- ernor to prohibit the Brethren from baptizing their converts, and to compel a certain missionary, whose marriage had been performed by Martin, to have the ceremony repeated by a cler- gyman of the State Church. The Governor had too much confidence in the Brethren to be drawn into the scheme. Then their foes raise^dNjp.jhe false charge of a robber^', from which MORAVIAN MISSION'S. 9 the Brethren were required to clear themselves by oath. This they had not been willing to do, all taking of oaths being con- trary to their conscientious convictions. Zinzendorf's indigna- tion was excessive, on learning these facts. He at once waited upon the Governor with a demand for their immediate release. It was granted next day, with an apology for what had hap- pened. The visiting brethren were astonished at the extent of the work and its success. About eighty huridred blacks were, under thejnf^pence of the gospel. Daily, in the evening, the converts assembled for worship, and Zinzendorf himself frequently ad- dressed them. After his farewell address at Posaunenberg they forgot prudence in their religious enthusiasm, and some of them sought to accompany him to town, contrary to regulations. This offered an excuse to their enemies, to set upon them and then attack the mission station. The missionaries were with Zinzendorf, and so escaped personal harm by their absence. But much damage was done to the property. Notwithstanding the Governor's expression of his disapproval of the riotous outrage, when a protest was lodged the missionaries later ex- perienced personal ill-treatment, so that it was necessary to retreat to the woods in order to hold services, and to station sentries against a sudden attack. But on Zinzendorf's return to Europe his personal representations, together with petitions from influential friends, secured from the Danish crown con- cessions practically guaranteeing liberty of worship. ^ Not long after a sad catastrophe threw a shadow over the . _»a.**^T2A^ work. Theodore Feder and Christian Gottlieb 1.^131^^ aftt'rV*2^^j'^\^ having been ordained for service here, set sail from Tcxel on Jh'*'^^^ November 17, 1739. On January 17 their vessel struck on a reef near Tortola. The sailors took to their boat, and left thc^ missionaries to their fate. Feder, hoping to swim ashore, let himself down from the ship and perished before the eyes of his companion, whose calm farewell sounded forth in imperishable faith. "Depart, my brother, in peace." For hours he clung to ■4»- the wreck, sustaining his confidence with hymns. At last he (#Uf| was rescued by people from the shore, anfl was hospitably cared for. A month later he joined F'rederick Martin, and during the same year with George Weber and his wife moved to St. Croix, to recommence the mission on that island. Their lO A HISTORY OF first converts were baptized in 1744, though land for the first mission station was not acquired until 1755 — Friedensthal. The^ear J741 was signalized by the extension of the work to^^Cjohn) when a pious overseer, Jens Rasmus, requested the Brethren m St. Thomas to preach statedly to the negroes in his charge. Baptisms took place in 1745, but a resident missionary was not stationed there until 1754, when John Brucker removed to Bethania, an estate purchased in 1749. But GreenlandMiad not been forgotten. On April 10, 1733, the good ship Caritas left, Copen- hagen with three missionaries on board — Matthew and Chris- tian Stach, cousins, and Christian David, They knew so little of its cHmatic and other conditions that they had spoken of felling trees for the erection of their house ; but no hindrance could deter men of their stamp, whether realized or unim- agined. Fair weather was succeeded by a violent storm as they neared Greenland, and the drift-ice swept around threat- eningly ; but comfort was found in the Daily Word at debarka- tion, "The peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus." Egede's reception of them, thanks to a cordial letter of recommenda- tion from Chamberlain von Pless, was warmly affectionate. About a mile away from his colony they selected a site for their home, and built a hut of stones and sod, after the fashion of the natives. What a land they had come to ! Does it properly belong to America or to Europe ? Only a narrow strait separates it from the western continent ; but its geological formation and its fauna are rather European. Perhaps it is no true land, but only a vast congeries of islands cemented together by eternal ice and snow. Drake called it "The Land of Desolation." Here and there grow a few small bushes, but no real forests. Huge snow-capped clifts, black where the earth crops through, enormous glaciers and deep-cut fjords, with a few ptarmigan to give life, are its scenes of beauty. Glacier after glacier launches icebergs with the thunder of heavy artillery. The in- terior is a "Sahara of snow and ice." Here and there a patch of brown earth, perhaps ; the elevation gradually rising to mountainous table-land, but all ice and snow, desolation reign- ing in unrivaled and unchallenged security. Animal life, like that of man, keeps close to the coast, and at that mostly to MORAVIAN MISSIONS. I I the west coast. Such a thing as a climate the land can be said to possess only by courtesy. For long months darkness is the guest of cold. But then the aurora, shining and quivering and flashing — the heathen native thought this was caused by the spirits of his dead playing a game of ball up yonder with a walrus-skull — and the doubly brilliant stars take pity on the unfortunates whom the sun has forsaken. In the brief summer, indeed, willow bushes and stunted birches burst out into green along the coast, and grass and berries and poppies and moss for a time break the monotony of white ; but it is a silent solitude, save for the sea-fowl. Land animals do not flourish. The icy earth becomes a tomb for seeds cast into it by the stranger who experiments. It is frpni-tke ^ea that the Green- lander gets liis chief supplies of food. But the seals, and wal- rus, and the dolphins, the porpoises, and herrings, anvl per- chance a giant whale, the prize of his harpoon, afford him the heat-giving sustenance which his northern latitude requires. The jjreenlander — "'Innuit," man, emphatically man. he callis himself; Europeans with less narrowed standard of comparison have dubbed him "Eskimo," eater of raw flesh — in person is short, inclined to be stout, somewhat flat-nosed. His small black eyes sparkle merrily, for he is fond of a joke. He is an excellent mimic, cjuickly scrapes acquaintance with a stranger, finds out his weak points and lets them be seen. A slight moustache may adorn his face, but whiskers and beard will be scanty. The skin, if it appears at all through the layer of dirt, normal in the case of the uncivilized heathen, is brownish, yet not so dark that a rosy cheek will not show. He arranges his dress to suit the climate, his clothing being of furs, with trowsers tucked into skin-boots, and his shirt having a hood that can be drawn over the head. As a heathen his half-under- ground house is in a state of utter filth, he himself having no aversion to dirt or to noisome smells. Inclined to be indolent, overeating is one of his great weaknesses, provided his hunt has been a success. Extremely superstitious, and peopling earth and air and water with evil spirits, he is at the mercy of shrewd witch-doctors, the atigckoks. Of morality he has not an overplus. Perhaps two thousand such natives lived in the immediate vicinity of Xew Herrnhut. as the spot was named where the missionaries built; but thev at first confined their intercourse 12 A HISTORY OF with the newcomers to attempts at begging or steaUng. For the missionaries the bjirrier of language was long in the way— -a most difficult agglutinative type of speech. Nor could Egede render much assistance, for his knowledge of German was as limited as was theirs of Scandinavian. Moreover, unfortunate misunderstandings between him and Christian David arose from doctrinal discussions, so that the Moravians after a while became completely isolated. Then disasters began to follow in quick succession. Their boat drifted out to sea. Success in fishing and hunting was meager. If better housed now in a wooden dwelling, the materials for which had been brought from Denmark, the scanty fare which they could secure had to be won by laborious spinning of flax for the Danish traders, and before long that means of livelihood also failed. Then came the dreadful small-pox, introduced by a native who had visited Denmark. Two or three thousand Eskimos of the west coast were swept away by it, and though the kind attentions of the missionaries broke down the wall of prejudice in a measure, no heart was touched by the gospel. Later, scurvy partially disabled the missionaries themselves, who at this juncture owed much to Egede's kindness. Yet they labored on as best they could, endeavoring to teach the Ten Commandments and the Lord's Prayer to those who would listen — often only to be VJJ!j>*- laughed at for their pains. f^i ..J Their numbers were recruited, jri 1734, by the arrival of Fred- ^ )^^l ^'^^^ Bohnisch and John iBeck- ,^ But the failure of supplies from Europe, and the scarcity of wild fowl, with the unwilling- ness of the people to come to their assistance, again reduced teem to sore extremities. Shell-fish and raw sea-weed became their diet for da3'-s, _and had it not been for the piety of a heathen, Ippegau, on a visit from his home, forty leagues away, the mission might have come to a tragic end. Nevertheless, at a conference held in March, 1735, though their lives were at the time threatened by hostile savages, they determined that John Beck and Matthew Stach should remain in Greenland for the rest of their days, in spite of the fruitless- ness of the mission, and that Christian Stach should advocate the cause of the mission when temporarily absent in Europe. Christian David had been sent only to help to establish the work, not to remain permanently. Next Egede, whose de- voted wife had died, returned to Denmark, but there for some \\S^ MORAVIAN MISSIONS. 13 years trained men for the Danish mission in Greenland. In that year also the Moravian mission family was augmented by^^ ^ ><-^t1ie arrival of Stach's mother, and his two sisters, Rosina and i •. Anna, who subsequently married John Beck and Frederick /* "Bohnisch.* Not until May 7, 1736, did any Greenlander even make inquiry concerning divine truth; and the first convert, Mangek, was a stranger whom the persecutions of his country- men rendered unstable. y^ On June 2, 1738, Kajarnak,^. man on a visit from the south, was structc" w'l'th the story of the agony in Gethsemane and on the Cross, and eagerly drank in the words of salvation preached to him by John Beck in response to his questionings, called forth by the missionary's reading from a translation of the New Testament at which he was engaged. In a voice that trembled with emotion he asked, "How is that? Tell me that again ; for I, too, would fain be saved." His baptism, with the name Samuel, and that of his wife Anna, his son Matthew and his daughter Aima, followed on Easter Sunday, 1739. But then Satan raged. Kajarnak's brother-in-law was murdered and his own life endangered. He had to leave New Herrnhut for the south. Yet he remained true to Christ for the brief remainder of his life, and testified of Him to his countrymen. Carried off by consumption in 1741, his last message to the missionaries was full of comfort, "I was the first of my country- men who found the Lord, and I shall be the first of them to go to Him." The harvest had commenced. Soon Arbalik, baptized Simon, took Kajarnak's place. A visit paid by Bishop Andrew Gras- mann to New Herrnhut in the spring of 1740, and a visit of Matthew Stach to Europe, whence he returned in 1741, both proved influential in causing the missionaries to change the * Descendants of Anna St.ich have continued in mission service in unbroken line. After the death of Frederick Bohnisch she was married to John Zacharias. and with him labored in Greenland from 1765 to 1784. Their daughter, Anna Benigna, in turn married John Godfrey Gorke, and served in the same country from 1792 to 1825. Their daughter, Henrietta, went to Labrador in 1819 as the wife of John Lundberg, and served many years, dying at Herrnhut in 1S81. Their son, John Eugene Lundberg, was one of the first missionaries on the Moskito Coast, where he labored for thirty-three years. His daughter, soon after his death in 1881, went to the Moskito Coast as the wife of Augustus Hermann Conrad Berckenhagen, dying there in i860, whilst her brother, Paul Eugene Lundberg, entered mission service in Labrador in 1884, where he is still active. zeal. v^ \pn M ^^yn^ tian v( 14 A HISTORY OF type of their preaching, and make it less legal, more Christo- centric, and with more pronounced insistence upon the possi- bility of joyful assurance of personal salvation. In spite of the active hostility of the medicine men, the number of converts now rapidly increased. The chapel was found to be too small for the congregation of about 200, that was wont to assemble in 1745. John Beck, on furlough in Europe, at a Synod held at Zeist, pleaded for better accommodations. The missionary ship, Irene, was commissioned to convey to Greenland a frame church in sections, and Qhrisdan David was sent to assisMn its erection. What feelings this apostolic man must have had, when on October 28 John Beck consecrated this building in the presence of three hundred interested Greenlanders ! For ordinary Christians the West Indies and Greenland would have afforded sufficient scope for pent-up missionary zeal. Not so with the inspired men and women of Herrnhut. rw^'^ -J^/Dn March 7, 1735, George Piesch, George Berwig and Chris- 'on Larisch left for SuririarrL'; Spangenberg had arranged 'with the Dutch Surinam Company the terms upon which the Brethren, with whom he had been fully identified for about two years, might make a settlement in that country. Their primary purpose was a preliminary tour of exploration with a view to a later settlement. Whilst thus engaged Larisch died. The others fulfilled their commission ; and this led to the starting of the mission which was placed on a permanent basis in 1745. Coincident with the preparation for the mission in Green- land, the attention of Zinzendorf and the Brethren had been drawn to the religious destitution of the Lapps. But their missionaries, after setting out, learnt that a Danish mission had been begun amongst these people in Norway. Conse- quently Andrew Grasmann, Daniel Schneider and John Nitsch- mann, junior, were instructed to go to the Lapps in Sweden. Spending the winter of 1734 in Stockholm, they proceeded to Tornea in the spring of the following year, and thence made their way inland. Contrary to expectation, they found the people under at least nominal supervision of the State Church, and therefore withdrew. The call to the next undertaking came in 1736, a year of di.«- tress for Zinzendorfj but it was nevertheless undertaken. It came from two Reformed pastors in Amsterdam, Van Alphen and De Bruyn. They had been much moved by the distressing MOR.WIA.V MISSION'S. I 5 account given by Ziegenbalg and Plijtschau, the founders of . the mission in Tranquebar, respecting tlie condition of theTloK \ I j ^ tentots at the ^ge of Good^T^SP.^ where they had touched on their voyage to IncTia? Tliough the Dutch East India Com- pany had sent an expedition in 1652 under Van Kiebeek to seize the Cape as a base of supplies for their fleet en route to the Orient, and though refugee Huguenots had flocked thither after the revocation of the Edict of Nantes, the natives had been made to lead a sad life. Hottentots and Bushme.1i* both ' undersized non-negroid races, the former naturally indolent, living in low dome-shaped kraals, shiftless and untidy, yet re- moved from the very lowest of savages, being herdsmen rather than mere hunters, with a kinship to the Malays, if high cheek- bones, obli(|ue eyes, thin beards and dull yellow complexion be sure signs, or to the old Egyptians, if their speech, rich in consonants and admitting pronominal suffixes, afford a cor- rect index of affinity ; the latter more energetic, but having not yet reached the pastoral stage, living by the chase — such as they were they had been treated by Dutch and Huguenots as merely superior animals. They were called schcpscls — things, not persons, creations of Satan, perhaps. To hunt them down, like so many jackals, was deemed no crime. To enslave them was akin to conferring a favor. But the slaves were not taught the religion of their masters. As soon as the call reached Hcrrnhut.^ ^George Sclimi(ltj_who although only twenty-seven years of age was of vigorous and forceful faith and had spent six years in an Austrian prison for conscience sake, volunteered promptly, and was ready to start for Holland within a week, to acquire Dutch prior to sailing. Zinzendorf joined him a few days later, and prepared the way in Holland. Through the intervention of Isaak Lelong, and the Burgomaster of .Amsterdam, Van den Bcmpen, and Admiral Schryvcr and Rath van Rumswinkel, the "Council of Seventeen." grantc ^^^^ /^ Before long a school for Indian children was established on' 0''^^^^\^ the island of Irene, about five miles above the town. »*t** In connection with the colony in Georgia a mission amongst' the slaves in South Carolina was also projected, and met with /^' . the approval of the Archbishop of Canterbury. PeterJBohler, ' a young man of twenty-six, an ex-student_of Jena, received the appointment to begin this enterprise. His ordination, on De- cember 15, 1737, was Zinzendorf's first exercise of episcopal functions. On his way to America in the early part of I73lue Mountains the company of seven men, two women and two boys reached Nazareth, as Whitefield had named his tract, on May 30, and 'h^Td tlfeTr first rehgious service there under a noble oak. Two days later the conunissioncrs sent by Whitefield marked off the spot v.here the house was to be built, on a gentle hill commanding a noble view of rolling for- ests to the distant valley of the Delaware eastward. Having put up a log-house for themselves, the Moravians began to build Whitefield's school. But in November they were placed in a position of jeopardy. When Bohler went to Philadelphia to report to his employer in November, the latter led the con- versation into a discussion of controverted points of dpctrju^, /ffedes'tmafToframongst the rest. UnaBte to make Bohler yield uTc Moravians' position of free grace, and stirred up as he already was by the prejudices of the Irish Presbyterian§ who were the Moravians' nearest neighbors, he gave way to an unworthy fit of temper, and ordered Bohler and his x)eople tcu leave his land forthwith. But this was out of the question, as winter was at hand. The friendly interposition of Justice Na- thaniel Irish, of Saucon, the agent of William Allen from whom Whitefield had made his purchase, secured a temporary stay of the sentence. Providentially, too. .\ndrew Eschenbach, who had been sent by Zinzendorf to labor amongst the Germans of Pennsylvania and had arrived in October, had brought word that he would soon be followed by Bishop Nitschmann and a company of Brethren. "TThis party now came in the nick of time, the latter part of December, 1740. Besides the bishop it consisted of his uncle, okf^atlier Nitschmann," of Zauchtenthal. and his datightcr, Anna, the former leader of the single women of Herrnhut, Mrs. Molther, whose husband was at present active in London, and Christian Frolich. ajipointed a missionary to the Indians. Hav- ing entered into negotiations with various other persons, the bishop finally purchased five hundred acres at the junction of the Lehigh and the Monocacy from William .Mien, through Justice Irish. Before this purchase had been actually consum- mated the Moravians on Whitefield's tract, taking it for granted V that the land on the Lehigh would be bought, began to fell tim- 22 A HISTORY OF ber where Bethlehem now stands. In the early spring of 1741 ^■^ a log-house was completed, and in it lived the founders of Beth- lehemr ' When the tract on the Lehigh was purchased, the Blue Moun- tains and the Susquehanna practically formed the northern and western boundaries of the Proprietaries' domains actually oc- cupied by settlers. Trackless and unbroken primeval forests for the most part dominated the territory beyond, save where here and there around Indian villages corn waved in the summer and orchards rejoiced in their russet glow in autumn. Even ^^outh of the Blue Mountains the original masters of the woods and streams were reluctant to abandon what the settlers gained by the cunning of the "Walking Purchase." Here Spangenberg had spent three years after his stay in Georgia. His observations had included the following declara- tions : "Thus there is now a two-fold work for the Brethren who shall go thither in pursuance of the Lord's will : the gospel may be preached to many thousands who know nothing of it, or who have an indescribable hunger for it ; and the awakened who are desirous for fellowship must be gathered into congre- gations. And this is not the work for one man, but for many. Moreover there are the Indians, who do not willingly dwell near the Europeans; for them it may be that the hour of grace has sounded. And in the whole country there are few schools, and there is almost no one who makes the youth his concern. One may indeed see signs of a waking up here and there in the land ; and it is often not otherwise than if a wind from the Lord was passing through the entire land and bringing all into movement and the spirit of inquiry. But since the affair is so extensive every one considers himself lacking in ability to take it in hand. Perhaps the hand of the Lord is in this." This report led to tlie mission amongst the Indians. _^3jt,ftVIn December,__^i74J, Zinzendorf himself came to America >^ith the"'nol)le ambition of furthering the interests of the Kingdom of God, irrespective of denominational Hues. In ,the latter half of the next year he made three visits to the Indian country. The first of these, July 24 to August 7, was to the region beyond the Blue Mountains. The most im- ortant event in connection with this journey was an interview with the deputies of the Six Nations at the house of Conrad ^iVeiss^r, the interpreter for the government, at Heidelberg. f^& *K^aejia£ founded Ephraim on the Corentyne. Daehne's sole companion was one Christopher, a baptized MORAVIAN MISSIONS. 4 1 negro from Pilgerhut, who deserted him. For two years he lived a life of utter solitude, danger and hardship. "One evening he had lain down in the dark to rest in his hammock, when a large serpent fell upon him from a lath of the roof, twined itself twice and then three times round his neck, drawing itself all the time closer together. He thought his end had come, and wrote on the table with chalk, 'A serpent has killed me,' that his brethren might not think the Indians had murdered him. Suddenly the promise of our Saviour to His disciples occurred to his mind, 'They shall take up serpents, and it shall not hurt them.' Relying upon this, he sought with all his might to free himself from the serpent's embrace, and was so vehement in his efforts that he tore off a part of the skin of his face. He did not know whither he had flung the reptile in the darkness, but was soon peacefully asleep in his hammock. "Often in the evenings he heard the roar of a jaguar, which crept stealthily around his hut. He kindled a fire to frighten away the unwelcome visitor, but even when the flames died out he remained fearless. Then again, one day, while gathering wood for fuel, he was stung by the black ants, and was rendered insensible. These ants are an inch in length, and as poisonous as the serpents. "Another time fifty blood-thirsty Indians with iron hatchets and wooden swords surrounded his hut, bent on executing their long cherished design of murdering the white man. Daehne, however, went out to them, and told them of his God, who had sent him to them, and of God's love to them. The result was that the Indians gave him some of their provisions and promised to come again soon, in order to hear more from him. While yet living alone, he fell ill and lay in his hut, stricken \vith a severe fever, but was saved by the timely arrival of Schumann. Even in his sickness he did not feel lonely. 'In all my need and bodily weakness my dear Saviour helped me through, and sweet- ened everything that was bitter,' he wrote to his brethren. "After two years Daehne had the pleasure of seeing Indians settle down at Ephraim, and in this way a small Christian con- gregation sprang up around his hut. Of the two years which had elapsed he said: 'I have hitherto lived alone with my dear Saviour, and done what I could, with a contented and happy heart. The Saviour comforted me so powerfully by His pres- ence in this lonely place that I spent very happy times.' " 42 A HISTORY OF Finally he was relieved by the arrival of three Brethren, and was transferred to Sharon on the Saramacca. But now a period of retrogression ensued. In 1758 Schu- mann lost his .wife, and cTrcumstahces connected with the mis- sion rendered it necessary for him to visit Europe. On his re- turn to Pilgerhut in 1760, he found the state of affairs com- pletely changed. The missionary who was to have taken his place had been unable to find a ship in which to proceed to Suri- nam. The converts had been left without the enjoyment of the sacraments and the discipline had been sadly relaxed. Epi- demics had carried off as many as forty persons in one year. Raids of hostile Bush Negroes had entailed heavy losses. In consequence a large portion of the congregation had scattered. The rest were quite dispirited. Finally, in addition to all this, Schumann himself fell a victim to the prevalent disease, October 6, 1760. Only forty years of age, he had personally baptized about four hundred Indians. Well did he deserve the designa- tion of "apostle of the Arawacks." With his sudden death the mission was thrown into a deplorable state. MORAVIAN MISSIONS. 43 CHAPTER IV. THE ESTABLISHMENT OF THE MISSION IN LABRADOR, I764-I776. Undeterred by the disastrous ending of Erhardt's endeavor, ^^fo^*'^ the Brethren did not abandon Labrador. In 1764 Jens__^|vep, ^t=***^ a Dane who had served at Lichtenfels in Greenland lofffTnough to acquire the Eskimo, through the favor of Sir Hugh PalHser, Governor of Newfoundland, secured passage via St. Johns, and by his employment of their familiar dress and speech dis- armed the hostile suspicions of the natives of Labrador, so as to prepare the way for a permanent mission. In the following year, accompanied by Drachart, he made a more extensive reconnaissance, penetrating a considerable distance into the interior. But at this juncture afifairs of state called a halt. As a special agency for the prosecution of missions in Labra- dor the church looked to the Society for the Furtherance of the Gospel, established in London by Spangenberg in 1741, though now in a somewhat dormant state. On March 10, 1766, a re- vision of its statutes took place, the officers being James Hut- ton, Chairman, Thomas Knight, Treasurer, and William Oxley, Secretarv. The revived society then undertook the publica- tion of a translation of Cranz's History of Greenland, that in- terest might be awakened and prejudices removed. In the autumn of 1767 turmoil in Labrador itself hastened the founding of the mission. Sundry Eskimos made a raid on the few settlements along the southern coast. During their attempt to steal boats in the vicinity of a fort in Charles Bay several natives were killed and three women and six children taken prisoners. Some of these prisoners were detained in Newfoundland; but Palliser brought to England one of the women and two boys, one of them a bright lad named Karpik, twelve years old. Brief as had been the intercourse of Haven and Drachart with the people of the coast, it was remarked that the woman recited a prayer which Drachart had taught. Kar- 44 A HISTORY OF pik was therefore entrusted to the care of the Society for the Furtherance of the Gospel, and was placed in Fulneck School. He made a creditable progress in primary branches and mani- fested a receptive religious mind. But next year he died from small-pox, having been prepared for his end by baptism at his own request. Mikak, his mother, had meantime become an object of curious and compassionate interest to a number of persons of rank, and joined her solicitations to those of the Brethren for the requisite legal sanction of a missionary and trading enterprise. At last, on May 3, 1769, an order of Privy Council with royal approval sanctioned the undertaking, and granted to the Society for the Furtherance of the Gospel one hundred thousand acres on the coast of Labrador as might be selected. It was the desire of the church to establish four sta- tions and to acquire a tract of equal dimensions at each place in order to insure unhampered operations. Sanction of government having been obtained, in this same year it was determined to purchase a ship for Labrador service, at a cost of one thousand pounds, to be divided into one hun- dred shares of ten pounds each. Twenty-three Brethren, the majority being members of the Society for the Furtherance of the Gospel, took shares. These Brethren were to be the proprie- tors of the ship, and were to elect a committee to act for them. Profit from this ship over and above five per cent, clear to the proprietors should be paid into the Society for the Furtherance of the Gospel. All business connected with the ship was to be in the hands of the "Ship Committee." The Society for the Furtherance of the Gospel was to pay the "Ship Committee" for the passage of missionaries and the freight of their goods. All trading was to be done by a member of the Church in the em- ploy of the "Ship Committee." It was to be quite independent of the mission proper. In March, 1770, a small brig, the Jersey Packet, was purchased. On May 2 a lovefeast in Fetter Lane Chapel constituted the farewell of the church to the pioneers of the gospel in Labrador. With the members of the missionary society were present the missionaries proper, Drachart, Haven and Stephen Jensen; John Thorton, from Fulneck, apointed trader with the natives ; John Glew, from Haverfordwest, mate of the vessel ; Theobald Freeh, Daniel Peters and Wynstrauch, from Zeist, carpenters and sailors ; and Alexander Campbell and Robert Gilroy of MORAVIAN MISSIONS. 45 London, landsmen, and the wives of three of the party. Six additional sailors and the captain, Francis Mugford, not mem- bers of the church, completed the number of those about to sail. On Saturday morning. May 5, anchor was weighed and the ship dropped down the Thames for the adventurous voy- age to the chartless coast of Labrador. Her instructions in- cluded provision for morning and evening prayers in the cabin and services for all on board on the Lord's Day. The voyage was tedious and in its latter part hazardous. Storms drove the brig to seek shelter in bays whose rocks and shallows were unknown and at whose entrance bergs and floes offered a threatening barricade. At length on August 10 a landing was effected. The natives were disposed to welcome the strangers. Mikak's return resplendent in the glory of European finery made a profound impression. The spot was about one hundred and eighty miles north of Ehrardt's Hope- dale of 1752. Friendly intercourse was soon established, and the new settlement was called Nain. That the authorities at home might keep in touch with Labra- dor and that a comprehensive policy for the prosecution of the mission in the immediate future might be wisely adopted, in 1773 Layritz was commissioned by the Unity's Elders' Confer- ence to pay an official visit. Proceeding by way of Newfound- land, his reception by the natives confirmed the reports of their friendliness and impressibility. He spent the short summer at the mission, and on his return to Barby the estabUshment of two additional stations, to the north and to the south, was sanc- tioned. The tour of exploration northwards, in 1774, cost the lives of two missionaries. During the return voyage, after they had already experienced many thrilling escapes and had endured many hardships, their vessel ran on a reef in the night and began to go to pieces. At dawn they took to the boat. This too was dashed on the rocks. Brasen and Lehmann were drowned. Haven and Lister and the sailors barely saved themselves by swnmming to spray-swept ledge, whence they escaped only on the fourth day after patching up their boat. With a favoring wind they were at last towed to Xain by a native in his kayak. When the foaming sea gave up the poor bodies of Brasen and Lehmann, they were laid to rest side by side at Nain. In the summer of 1775 Haven and Jensen as a fruit of this exploration occupied Okak, about one hundred and fifty miles 46 A HISTORY OF north of Nain, purchasing land from the Eskimos. Here the coast is grandly rugged, abounding in precipitous fjords. Okak itself — "The Tongue" — is situated on a hilly island, which for nearly half the year is practically part of the mainland, for the broad straits are bridged by thick ice. Though the landscape is barren of verdure, noble mountain ranges stretch away to the north. Not far of? rises the bold island of Cape Mugford, its seaward face "a perpendicular precipice of about two thou- sand feet, with white base and a middle strata of black blocks surmounted by castellated cliffs." Both at Nain and at Okak the progress of the work though requiring patience encouraged the missionaries. The natives' habit of scattering on the approach of winter gave the usages of ancient heathenism opportunity to reassert themselves at a distance from the stations. But when the notorious angekck Kingminguse received baptism at Nain on February 17, 1776, choosing for himself the name of Peter, hope began to burn brightly. Amongst the early converts was also Mikak. Re- moving to the south soon after her baptism, she seemed to re- lapse into heathenism, her husband, Tuglavina, being an ange- kok, a shrewd leader of his people in violence, and a man of un- common physical frame and hardihood. On one occasion "when Tuglavina, at the head of a party of Eskimos, returned the first time from Chateau Bay, having furnished himself with a sloop of two masts, European arms, and many other ac- coutrements, he stepped unexpectedly into the Mission-house and into Brother Haven's room, dressed in an old officer's uni- form, with a bob-wig and a huge laced hat, a sword at his side, and altogether in the habit of a European officer, uttering sev- eral threats and boasting of his valiant deeds in the south, Brother Haven, looking sternly at him, exclaimed, 'What, are you Tuglavina? Depart this minute. I have nothing to say to you in this dress. Put on your old Eskimo furs and then return. Behave like a sober Eskimo, and I'll answer your speech.' Tuglavina instantly left the room, as if thunder- struck ; and without reflecting on the degrading appearance he must make before his own countrymen in putting ofT his boasted ornaments, returned to the missionaries, dressed in the plain Eskimo fashion. They then very seriously reproved him for the wicked practices and the murders of which he had been guilty, and for inveigling so many of the baptized to follow him to MORAVIAN MISSIONS. 47 the south, where he had seduced them into all manner of heathenish abominations. During this address Tuglavina grew pale, trembled exceedingly, confessed himself an abominable sinner ; but said that he must sin, for the devil forced him to it and he could not help himself. This gave the missionary a desirable opportunity of preaching to him Jesus as an Almighty Saviour. Such opportunities became more frequent in the fol- lowing years ; and he often shed tears when confessing his wicked deeds, which contrary to the general practice of the Eskimos, he never denied. In the sequel he became more at- tentive to the gospel," eventually submitted to its power, and died in the faith. By the year 1781 at Okak alone there were thirty-eight bap- tized Eskimos and ten catechumens. 48 A HISTORY OF CHAPTER V. THE INDIAN MISSION FROM THE PONTIAC WAR TO THE REMOVAL TO CANADA. Representatives of various high contracting powers might solemnly meet and negotiate terms of peace in Europe, but their signatures to the stipulations at Paris did not necessarily quiet the perturbations of the western world. Pontiac had been dreaming of the utter extinction or expulsion of the English, and his designs should be checked by no treaty to which his allies, the French, were committed. In May, 1763, the rising of the red-men, which was to have swept from Detroit to the ocean, began with the siege of that frontier fortress by the wily Ottawa in person. Though the staunchness of Gladwyn foiled him, Sandusky, Fort St. Joseph, Fort Miami, Michilimackinac, Presqu' Isle, and Fort Venango fell into the hands of the sav- ages, and Fort Pitt was beleagured. Many of the settlements of Western Pennsylvania were ravaged. Bouquet's expedition, sent to cover the western border of the colony, encountered desperate foes, and only after well-nigh repeating Braddock's experience reached Fort Pitt with relief. Now the exasperated frontiersmen of the Susquehanna resorted to bloody retaliation, directing their fury against the friendly and civilized tribesmen near the settlements, and the massacre of the Conestoga In- dians stained the annals of Pennsylvania. Prior to this the colonial authorities had entertained fears for the Moravian In- dians at Xain and Wechquetank. Dreading a counterpart of the Conestoga massacre at their villages, Governor Penn had therefore already ordered the Moravian Indians to be removed to Philadelphia for safety, together with their missionaries, Zeisberger, Grube, Schmick and Roth. Excitement ran high in the city. Members of the Society of Friends setting aside their peace principles in the conflict of duties, took arms to de- MORAVIAN MISSIONS. 49 fend their charges against whom the frontiersmen swore ven- geance. For a time the Hves of the missionaries and of their converts appeared to be in serious danger. But actual strife was providentially averted, though the arrangements for their sustenance at Province Island, the summer-quarantine of the port, were distressingly inadequate, and the evidences of inse- curity and of possible inability to protect them led to an attempt to remove them to Xew York. Thither they proceeded under escort. But when Perth Amboy was reached they were stopped by a peremptory inhibition of further advance, and had to re- trace their weary steps. Returned to Philadelphia, the bar- racks were assigned as their quarters. Now came a rumor that men from Lancaster and Reading were marching on the capital, bent on having the lives of the Moravian Indians. Philadelphia surged with excitement, a large part of the people sympathizing with the Paxton party. Again blows were averted by the de- termined position of the Governor and his associates, backed by the sober treaty-respecting majority. But terrible distress was experienced by the Indians and their teachers in their cramped quarters and from the unnatural mode of life. Con- finement enfeebled them. Dysentery and small-pox broke out. From January. 1764, to March, 1765. fifty-six victims of bar- rack life were laid in the Potter's Field. At the end of the Pontiac War there was no good reason why the Moravian Indians should not be released from their virtual imprisonment in Philadelphia. But whither should they go? Public opinion in its exasperated state would not discriminate in favor of these Christianized Delawares. The government felt obliged to insist on their removal beyond the territory long ago ceded to the colony. Xain and Wechquetank must be per- manently abandoned. The Indians themselves desired to secure new homes in the wilderness at such a remove from the whites as might promise immunity from future encroachments. At this juncture Papunhank who had been baptized by Zeisbergcr in 1263, proposed that, government permitting, the entire band of converts should proceed with him to his sheltered little valley where the Wvalusing leaps dashing and foaming to join the mighty Susquehanna. The proposal won the consent of all concerned. Early in April, 1765, eighty-three persons, includ- ing a few from the once flourishing Pachgatgoch, a mission that never really recovered from the effects 01 the war. thoiit:h i»s 5 50 A HISTORY OF existence was protracted till 1770, set out from Bethlehem for their new home. David Zeisberger and John Jacob Schmick accompanied them. The toilsome and perilous march across the mountains and through the unbroken and often swampy wil- derness occupied five weary weeks. For food dependence had to be placed largely upon the finding of game, and sometimes the supply almost failed. Roads had to be made and streams bridged. A woman and a boy succumbed to the hardships of the exodus. Permission to occupy the site of the old village was obtained from the Iroquois of Cayuga who claimed the val- ley of the Susquehanna to this point, Zeisberger's adoption into their nation being a powerful plea. At a slight remove from the former site a permanent town was platted, and named Friedenshiitten (Tents of Peace), outpost of the Prince of Peace amongst the warring tribes of savages and a refuge for the "brown hearts" who had roved so long against their own de- sire. In September, 1776, Zeisberger was compelled to proceed with Senseman to Onondaga, in order to avert a threatened dis- avowal of the grant of the Cayugas on the part of the Iroquois council. He was eminently successful. The council distinctly recognized and approved of the purposes of the missionaries. He himself was invited to become a respected resident at the Indian capital, as in former days. But the church found it- self unable to reenter upon missions amongst the powerful con- federation of the Six Nations, and Zeisberger's activity was to be henceforth confined to the Delawares. Meanwhile John Roth, a Brandenburger in his fortieth year, had been sent to assist Schmick at Friedenshiitten. Their labors as those of Zeisberger previously, were richly blessed. The settlement itself was an admirable object lesson of the thrift and industry which accompanied the civilizing power of the gospel, and at the same time seeds of truth were scattered in many a direction by the impressions made upon frequent visi- tors from many tribes, for the place lay on the main trail from the Iroquois towns to the Indians of the south. In 1769 Roth and his wife removed to Schechschiquanink, a Delaware town twenty-four miles to the north and on the opposite bank of the river. From this filial Friedenshiitten received accessions, and here Roth won a number of converts. John George Jung- mann, once a hearer of Eschenbach at Oley, and his wife, a MORAVIAN MISSION'S. $1 daughter of Biittner of Shekomeko, filled the vacancy at Wyalu- sing. Zeisberger had been assigned pioneer work. With Anthony, the Mohican, and Papunhank he had set out for the forests of the present Venango County. Goschgoschiink, a Muncie town, founded only two years before, was their objective. Its repu- tation was extremely unsavory even amongst the heathen, past whose scanty lodges they had to thread their way. Some of its braves had figured in the massacre on the Mahoni in 1755. His first address at this spot was a thrilling experience. In the long council-hall of bark the ruddy glow of the central fires lit up dusky faces that gleamed with hate. But the power of the truth, and the eloquence of the veteran missionary, more than the equal of the average Delaware orator in his own sonorous tongue, commanded attention, and secured immunity. On his return next year trophies were won for the gospel. Yet the place proved a veritable stronghold of Satan. Though the medicine man who had been loudest in his opposition, Wango- men, suffered his lodge to be converted into a church when an attempt was made to found a mission, the wily fellow was far from having experienced a change of heart, and in time resumed open hostility. Gradually the people divided into a Christian and a heathen party. Life became so unbearable for the con- verts, that in 1769 a new site was selected for their village three miles above, at Lawmakhannek, on the eastern bank of the river Allegheny. Xow an invitation came through Glikkikan, a sachem re- nowned for sagacity and eloquence, hitherto a champion of heathenism, but recently impressed by what he had heard on a visit to Goschgoschiink. In the name of the supreme chief of the Wolf clan of the Delawares, Packanke, he promised the missionary and his converts land at Kaskaskunk, at the junc- tion of the Shenango and the Mahoni, for their exclusive and undisturbed possession. The invitation v.as accepted. In April. 1770. the journey was made in fifteen canoes by way of the Allegheny, the Ohio and the Beaver, and Friedensstadt was founded on the last named river. Xow the triumph of the gos- pel was signalized by the accession of certain of the former heathen party from Goschgoschunk whose wickedness had be- come a reproach even to their own people, and by the conver- sion of Glikkikan himself. \*eteran warrior though he was, this 52 A HISTORY OF rebutter of the Jesuits in former days, who had baffled Post and whose native abihty had been counted upon as a main stay of the heathen, sobbed hke a child, when the love of Christ touched his proud heart. Unflinchingly he not only bore the passionate reproaches of his chief, Packanke, but even interposed to avert from the white teachers the wrath of the old Wolf. Next spring Zeisberger with several Indians, Glikkikan included, by invitation visited the Delawares of the Tuscarawas River in Ohio and preached before their council in the home of Neta- watwes (King Newcomer), the recognized head of the nation. By June, 1771, Friedenshiitten numbered one hundred mem- bers. But troubles were at hand. Though the Iroquois had solemnly ratified the grant of land on the Wyalusing, at the treaty of Fort Stanwix, in November, 1768, they had sold it to Pennsylvania. John Penn had recognized the validity of the verbal grant to the mission and its Indians, and instructed his surveyors to run no lines within five miles of Friendenshiitten. But an artful Delaware, Job Chilloway, to whom the govern- ment was under obligation for sundry services in the Pontiac War, represented to the authorities that he had been empowered by the Moravian Indians to ask for a survey of Wyalusing, to secure their rights. Hence the tenure of the land threatened to involve disputes. At this juncture an invitation from the Grand Council of the Delawares in the Tuscarawas Valley, that their Christian brothers should come and occupy lands in Ohio, ac- companied as it was with the assurance that these should never be "sold under their feet to the white people," was grate- fully accepted. Zeisberger recommended the removal thither of all the converts from Pennsylvania. To this the western sta- tion also assented. Netawatwes proposed as a site "The Big Spring" beside the Tuscarawas. John Heckewelder, whose acquaintance with the Delawares dated from his residence with Post-Bear the present Bolivar in Stark County, Ohio, in 1762, was appointed to cooperate with Zeisberger and his colleagues. This reenforcement left the veteran free to lead an advance party to the Tuscarawas in the spring of 1772, to prepare for the arrival of the main body. The luxuriance of the forests and the rich fertiUty of the bottom- lands as well as the copious gush of water from the "Big Spring" deHghted the first comers. Late in the summer Zeisber- ger returned to Friedensstadt and welcomed the people from MORAVIAN MISSIONS. 53 the Susciuclianna, two hundred and four souls who arrived in two companies under the leadership of Bishop Ettwein and Roth respectively. Then leaving Roth in charge of Frieden.s- stadt, they made their way to their new home to which they gave the fitting name of Sclwnbnom ("Beautiful Spring"). Next year the converts on the Beaver also took the western trail. A second station was commenced about ten ftiilcs down the val- ley, designed oriq^inally for the remnant of the Mohican con- .^^ ,«c**.te*- gregations. fcftfri=-i:,-xe^eived the name of Gnadenhiitten,' to /^^'^>-*-/*. perpetuate the memory of the spot on the Mahoni, rendered sacred by the martyrdom of missionaries. Four years from the removal to the west a third station was begun in the present Coshocton County, and named Lichtcnan (Meadow of Light); but was abandoned three years later owing to its being in the track of incessant war-parties. In its place Salem was com- menced, five miles below Gnadenhiitten. Xow the mission seemed to have been at last placed on a permanent basis. Netawatwes came out on the side of Chris- tianity. Numerous bands of Indians from all parts visited the Christian settlements. Its influence spreading far and wide, the mission promised to achieve a mighty change amongst the "People of the wandering eye and the roving foot." The church at Schonbrunn, although able to accommodate five hundred per- sons, often proved too small. The six missionaries whose de- voted lives were as powerfully eloquent a testimony as their words, found abundant opportunity to ofTer the gift of grace. Civilization advanced. Several hundred acres were under cul- tivation. Large herds of cattle were maintained. Non-com- batant principles were an inseparble part of the religion of the converts. It seemed as though the true solution of the Indian problem was to enjoy an opportunity of being demonstrated to the world. But, alas ! cruel war again obstructed the chariot of the Prince of Peace. To its sad misfortune both Americans and British viewed the mission askance ; the latter because to their influence was ascribed the only restraint, which prevented large masses of Delawares from enlisting under the standard of King George, the former from unfounded prejudice and suspicion that the mission stations harbored red-skins in British pay, and formed the rendezvous of raiders. Despite all apprehensions, however, the missionaries faithfully kept their posts, and the internal con- 54 A HISTORY OF dition of the congregations was a source of satisfaction. Amidst war's alarms the dusky converts, some of whom had formerly- achieved a name as warriors, zealously pursued the arts of peace, and meadow and orchard and field responded to their industry. On August 10, 1781, there appeared at Salem one hundred and fifty men — Indians and whites — under British officers and bearing the British flag. Soon their number was increased to three hundred. After many councils had been held by the members of this war-party, whose mutual disagreements alone saved the missionaries and their converts from a cruel death, all were made unresisting prisoners on September 4. The mis- sion-houses were plundered. On the nth the sad exodus of the entire population of the Christian Indian villages com- menced. Five thousand bushels of almost ripe but unharvested corn were left behind, as well as garden produce and poultry and all property save what could be transported by the prisoners on pack-horses or in canoes. Valuable manuscripts were also involved in the general loss. At the Sandusky their captors deserted them on October i, in the midst of an utter wilderness, with no other provisions than the cattle they had driven before them. Soon there came a summons to the missionaries to proceed to Detroit for trial as American spies. Though no armed guard compelled obedience, they responded, relying on their innocence. The trial took place on November 9, Major de Peyster, the commandant presiding. British fairness insured the verdict — a complete acquittal. But the disaster to the mis- sion could not be compensated for by courteous words, even though formal permission was given to the missionaries to re- turn and without hindrance renew their spiritual calling. This was a dreadful winter for the refugees on the Sandusky. Starvation was not far ofT. A pint of corn a day was the al- lowance for each member of the missionary family, and in the extreme cold the suffering was very great. The heathen around them gloried in the distress of teachers and converts, and even threatened to take the lives of the missionaries, when an attempt was made to erect a chapel. At length in despair a party of about one hundred and fifty Christian Indians ob- tained permission from their savage neighbors to return to the Tuscarawas Valley and secure whatever of their corn of the previous year might still remain unspoiled. MORAVIAN MISSIONS. 55 This band soon experienced the terrible consequences of American distrust. These Christian red-men who had consist- ently refused to take up arms in self-defense, were unjustly charged by American frontiersmen with various outrages and massacres that had enraged and terrified the border-settlements during this winter, and in particular with the horrible murder of the family of William Wallace. About ninety men under the command of Colonel David Williamson had set out from the settlements on the Monongahela, determined to wreak ven- geance for this dastardly crime. The Moravian Indians, after completing their delayed har- vest, had intended to begin their return journey to Sandusky on March 7, having succeeded beyond expectations in gather- ing their belated aftermath. It was on the evening before this appointed day that the Americans arrived in the immediate vi- cinity. They were hospitably entertained without a suspicion of mistrust on the part of the Christian red-men, who seem to have been wholly ignorant of even the fact of the massacres which had occasioned the expedition. Indeed the Salem Indians came to Gnadenhutten to voluntarily place themselves under the protection of Colonel Williamson, whom they regarded as their deilverer from troubles originating in Detroit. In cold blood, on the morning of the 8th, ninety Christian and six heathen Indians, who were visitors — none of them striking a blow in self-defense — fell in what were aptly named the "slaughter-houses," meeting their faith with noble resignation. Five of them had been serving acceptably as assistant mission- aries. The pious exhortations of Abraham, the Mohican, pre- pared his companions for martyrdom. Only two lads escaped to tell the tidings. Providentially, however, the full completion of the atrocious designs of the militia was frustrated. The Schonbrunn Indians received warning in time and fled to the Sandusky. On their arrival they found that Zeisberger and his com- panions had again been summoned to Detroit by Major De Peyster, on false accusation of an Indian chief whose warlike schemes they had formerly thwarted. The new charge was that of aiding the Americans by corresponding with Pittsburgh. As a matter of course, they were cleared. The sympathetic com- mandant, however, counseled a removal from debatable terri- torv. His advice was followed. The remnant of the scattered 56 A HISTORY OF converts by way of Lake St. Clair sought a home in the Chip- peway country in Michigan, and founded New Gnadenhiitten in what is now IMacomb County, where tliey remained four years. Meanwhile soon after the conclusion of peace, the Brethren at Bethlehem petitioned Congress for compensation for the de- struction of the missions in Ohio, and in May, 1785, Congress passed an act reserving the sites of these settlements to- gether with as much land as Mr. Hutchins, the Geographer of the United States, might see fit, for the benefit of the Chris- tian Indians and their children forever. Several years, how- ever, passed by before the survey could be completed. This was owing in part to the death of Mr, Hutchins, but chiefly to the distracted state of the Indian country and the hostility which the tribes manifested towards the United States. Their longing for the old homes by the Tuscarawas, and the setting apart of the reservation by Congress in response to the petition of Ettwein and others after peace had been re- stored, led a party of one hundred and seventeen to set out from the Chippeway land. But they halted at the Cuyahoga, for it seemed madness to proceed while American sentiment remained intensely hostile to the Indian race. Here Pilgerruh was founded. In 1787 New Salem on the Petquotting — the Huron River of Ohio, emptying into Lake Erie — took the place of this temporary refuge, and bloomed into speedy prosperity. Moreover the year 1787 was marked by the resuscitation at Bethlehem of the old missionary society of 1745, under the title of "The Society for Propagating the Gospel among the Hea- then." Its first meeting was held September 21, Ettwein being President, Hans Christian Alexander von Schweinitz, Treasurer, and Jacob Van Vleck Secretary, with a total membership of ninety-three. In his address at a general meeting of the society, held on November i, Bishop Ettwein defined its object in sub- stance as follows : "Every member of the Brethren's Unity is bound to take part in furthering the missionary work of the church; but those who join this association pledge themselves in a particular manner to do all within their power to further Christ's kingdom among the heathen nations, and confess be- fore the world that they love the whole human race and take a deep interest in the eternal salvation of such as still sit in the darkness of heathenism." A charter was obtained from the As- sembly of Pennsylvania and signed by the Governor on February MORAVIAN MISSIONS. 57 27, 178S. Ettwein communicated to General Washington that organization had been effected, and enclosed a copy of the rules and a manuscript of his own on the manners, customs and languages of the Indians. The reply, under date of May 2. 1788, was in keeping with his Christian and courteous character. It reads as follows : "Dear Sir: — I have received your obliging letter of March 28, inclosing a copy of some remarks on the customs, languages, etc., of the Indians, and a printed pamphlet containing the stated rules of a Society for Propagating the Gospel among the Heathen ; for which tokens of polite attention and kind remem- brance I must beg you to accept my best thanks. "So far as I am able of judging, the principles upon which the Society is founded, and the rules laid down for its government, appear to be well calculated to promote so laudable and arduous an undertaking; and you will permit me to add that if an event so long and so ardently desired as that of converting the Indians to Christianity can be effected, the Society at Bethlehem bids fair to be a very considerable part in it. "With sentiments of esteem, I am your most obedient, humble servant, Geo. Washington." But in spite of this distinguished evidence of appreciation, the turbulence of the Northwest Territory in 1790 rendered the maintenance of New Salem exceedingly improbable. Next year threats of a repetition of the massacre came from Indians who were banded against the United States, with the overt intention of thus compelling the Christians to don the war-paint against the whites. This at length constrained Zeisberger and his associates to remove with some of their con- verts to Canadian territory. Accordingly in April, 1792, he proceeded with Senseman and Edwards and the whole congre- gation to the French River — later called the Thames — and about eighty miles from its mouth and on the right bank founded the Christian Indian village of Fairfield amidst the Muncies and Chippeways. Thus at last and at so great sacrifice permanence was secured. 58 A HISTORY OF ^\ 4- CHAPTER VI. ¥ ' ■iT THE MISSIONS TO THE HEATHEN IN THE PERIOD PRECEDING AND IMMEDIATELY AFTER THEIR JUBILEE. Amid all changes in methods of administration at home and in spite of perplexities in the financial situation, the church ever regarded the missions amongst the heathen as its chief calling. Diligence and persistence characterized their prosecution. Hence at the synod of 1789 about 14,000 members were re- ported in the West Indies and about 18,000 in connection with the other mission fields. In Greenland the fifties had been an era of steady progress, though cares were not lacking. The winter of 1752 to 1753 was terribly cold. Storms raged, famine threatened, and an epidemic carried oft sixty of the four hundred members, amongst them several of the most skillful hunters and fisher- men. Nevertheless, when a few years later tidings reached Greenland of the destruction of Gnadenhiitten on the Mahoni^ the Eskimos testified to their sympathy by offerings of skins and blubber for those who had been rendered homeless. About ninety miles south from New Herrnhut Matthew Stach in 1758 founded a second station, Lichtenfels, on an island in a fjord three miles from the open sea. In a few years two hundred converted Eskimos formed a village around him, whilst the numbers at New Herrnhut rose to five hundred and forty. It was a time of powerful awakening. The people trembled with emotion. Some hurried away in haste as soon as a service was over, in a vain endeavor to shake off their im- pressions and ran as though pursued; but found no peace till self-surrender had been made. In 1763 Frederick Bohnisch died, the first of the missionaries in Greenland to be called home. Matthew Stach, who had pre- pared a brief Eskimo grammar and lexicon, retired in 1771, and spent his last days at Bethabara in North Carolina. John MORAVIAN MISSIONS. 59 Beck, in 1770. had the satisfaction of welcoming two of his sons at New Herrnhut, and cried out, "Now I may depart in peace, for my prayer has been heard, and I see my sons here at my post." They had come out with Martin Godfrey Stern- berg, who had been officially commissioned to visit Greenland, in order to amend regulations that were the outgrowth of the extravagancies of the forties at home. In consequence of this visit Christopher Michael Konigseer, hitherto warden at Gna- denberg, was sent to superintend operations. In 1774 the plan of establishing a third station, Lichtenau, on the island of Onartok, about four hundred miles south of New tierrnhut, was carried out by John Sorensen. It was he who at Marienborn, in 1746, when Zinzendorf asked him, "Will you set out to-morrow for Greenland?" replied "Yes, if I can get from the shoemaker a pair of boots he is making for me." Having set out on that morrow, he had been in service in Greenland ever since. Lichtenau blossomed out with speedy success. By the winter of 1775 to 1776 nearly two hundred persons had established homes adjacent to the mission house, and in a few years the baptized numbered one hundred and five. Kunigseer's trained mind and linguistic abilities were now pressed into service for the translation of the New Testament, Beck lending him the aid of his long familiarity with the Es- kimo tongue. An Eskimo Hymn-book and a Summary of Christian Doctrine were also undertaken and were printed at Barby in 1785. Portions of the New Testament and of the Idea Fidci Fratrutti, and a grammar and dictionary in manuscript were also fruits of Konigseer's industry. In 1776 certain regulations were introduced by the Danish trading company, which proved detrimental to the mission under existing methods. In order to possibly increase the volume of trade in peltries, the Greenlanders were required to scatter along the coast, and were not permitted to dwell in settlements of any size. This dispersion of the people inevitably detracted from the steady and continuous influence of Chris- tian usages and institutions. Nor did the expedient of appoint- ing assistants, to minister to groups of natives at a distance from each station, compensate. Then followed another fatal epidemic. From April to August, 1782, one hundred and twenty-five perished in New Herrnhut alone, amongst whom were a number of valued native assist- 60 A HISTORY OF ants. Konigseer himself was absent at this time in Germany. After his return he was spared but three years more, dying in 1786, in the sixty-fourth year of his age. He was succeeded in the superintendence by Jasper Brodersen, well qualified to take up the philologian's mantle. Historical portions of the Old Testament and part of the Prophecies of Isaiah and hymns in the Greenland language were the fruit of his leisure. But in 1792 he was compelled by a shattered constitution to return to a temperate climate. With him came Sorensen, after forty- eight years in the Arctic. In Labrador, where Samuel Liebisch took general charge in 1775, although Okak was established in 1776 and Hopedale in 1782, progress was slow. The year 1782 was rendered mem- orable by a remarkable providential deUverance. Liebisch and William Turner set out from Nain for Okak on March 11 in a dog sleigh. Their route lay across the frozen sea. Though the distance was one hundred and fifty miles, and for a con- siderable part of the way they had to pass over very deep water, preferable on account of the smoothness of the ice, under the favorable atmospheric conditions of their start no special anxiety was entertained. But in the afternoon there were in- dications of a coming storm. The heaving of the restless ocean could be felt under its icy covering. By evening the wind had become a gale that whirled the snow with blinding violence. The undulations of the vast sheet of ice, several yards thick, began to impede progress. Soon the ice com- menced to burst with the sound of heavy ordnance. Only with the greatest difficulty, and in the very nick of time, did the trav- elers make the shore. Scarcely had they effected a landing, when the ice for miles along the coast broke up with the vio- lence of the storm amid terrific noise. The Eskimo com- panions of the missionaries built a snow house on the beach. Thankful for this refuge in the piercing cold, they had but set- tled down to rest, when Liebisch, who could not sleep owing to a painfully sore throat and the howling of the storm outside, perceived that salt water was trickling through the roof. Hastil)' digging a passage through the side of the house, they were hardly at a safe distance, when a mighty wave carried away their abandoned resting place. A hole cut into a snow- bank was their sole resource till morning. Their scanty supply of provisions had to be carefuly eked out for several days in a MORAVIAN MISSIOXS. 6 1 new snow-liut. On the 13th the storm abated, but the sea was absolutely clear of ice, and it was impossible to proceed or to return. Not until twelve oclock on the night of the 17th did they at last succeed in once more making their starting-place, Nain, grateful for the marvellous protection of God. At Hopedale the outlook was at first exceedingly discourag- ing. An eagerness to be taught had been displayed by the na- tives ; "but in their words and demeanor the evil influence of intercourse with dissolute European traders living farther south was painfully evident. The majority seemed to care more for the advantage of the ship's annual visit and the accommodation of the trade than for the blessing of Christian training and in- struction. The traders put forth every effort to keep the Eski- mos away from missionaries, and with only too great success. Articles of food and luxury, and especially intoxicating liquors, were offered as an almost irresistible bribe, and once entangled in the snares of these men, the poor Eskimos were made use of with diabolical skill and malice to tempt their countrymen to their destruction. The evil influence spread to all three sta- tions, and considerable numbers from each made their way to the south. A spirit of indifference and levity became gener- ally diffused, and much opposition and defiance were shown to their teachers. While boldly demanding in a season of scarcity to be supported by the mission, they took all the produce of the chase to the southlanders, so that the ship returned with scarcely any cargo, and serious apprehension arose as to the pecuniary means for continuing the mission. Exhortations and remonstrances of the missionaries had little or no effect ; an admirable letter from the pen of the venerable Bishop Span- genberg, which touched the hearts of many, only sufficed to check them a while in their evil course. The missionaries were by no means inclined to lay this decline wholly to the charge of the natives ; they deplored their own ignorance and inexperi- ence, and blamed themselves for many mistakes made in the treatment of individuals, for too hastily admitting to member- ship people who had strong religious convictions and cherished many good desires and resolutions in regard to conversion, but who were realh- not solidly awakened. 'We are working in a kind of twilight,' they wrote. 'Many a time were we made anxious by the duplicity and relapses into sin of the baptized, and our Saviour knows best what distress and perplexity were 62 A HISTORY OF thereby occasioned to us, little as we were able, with all our care and watchfulness, to prevent what we so greatly de- plored.' " Drachart and Haven were both spared the experi- ence of the worst of this time of trial. The former died at Nain in 1778. The latter retired to Europe in 1784, Liebisch having preceded him by one year, appointed a member of the govern- ing board of the church. For a brief period Christian Lister and then Christian Lewis Rose served as superintendent. In the Danish West Indies, on- the other hand, a rapid in- crease in the number of converts was now a marked feature. In the year 1771 Nisky became an independent station, and Friedensberg at the western end of St. Croix was similarly equipped. Yet the great naval war between the European powers interrupted connections with home, and all intercourse with English lands was prohibited in 1760. Scarcity of pro- visions followed, being enhanced by protracted drought. In 1765 losses were suffered by the burning of a mission house on St. Croix and the destruction of the church on St. John by a storm. The night of August 31, 1772, became memorable for years through the ravages of a hurricane which caused much damage on all three islands, but especially on St. Croix. Frien- densberg mission house suffered severely, and the entire station of Friedensthal was obliterated, the missionaries and their fam- ilies barely saving their lives by taking refuge in cellars. Gen- eral scarcity, famine, sickness and wide-spread mortality en- sued. But the blessings of adversity became manifest in the turning of hearts to the things which can not be shaken. When the PYiedensthal church was rebuilt its auditories numbered a thousand, and baptisms added to the number of believers month by month. The presentation of land on St. John by Commandant Von Malleville of St. Thomas made possible the founding of Emmaus, as a companion station to Bethany in 1782. During the fifty years of the mission in the Danish West Indies, 8,835 adults and 2,974 children had been baptized. One hundred and twenty-seven members of missionary families had entered into rest, including children. In 1784 valuable service was rendered the mission by an official visit on the part of John Loretz. He promoted the de- velopment of systematic division of spiritual labor and the establishment of a local conference of supervision. Martin. Mack had died on June 9. having barely overlived the arrival MORAVIAN MISSIONS. 6^ of his successor, Scliaukirch from America. Native assistants were now more widely utilized, especially for the instruction of candidates and for the administration of discipline. Prominent amongst these Cornelius, a freed-man, gifted with unusual na- tive ability, and deeply devout, lived to the advanced age of eighty-four, and served the mission most acceptably for forty- seven years. "He spoke Danish, Dutch, EngUsh and German, enjoyed universal respect among all ranks, and was so diligent and successful in his trade as a mason that he had been able to purchase the freedom of himself and his family. His unwearied faithfulness in visiting day and night the negroes on the scat- tered plantations led great numbers of the poor slaves to grate- fully regard him as their spiritual father, while his clear and persuasive preaching attracted men of rank and education, who heard him with pleasure and profit." The translation of portions of Scripture and of the Harmony of the Four EvangeHsts and of the Summary of Christian Doc- trine into Negro-English and the printing of a Negro-English Hymn-book also materially facilitated the work and provided for its permanence. In the English islands the feature of periodicity prevailed, eras of advance and retrogression alternating. In Antigua, Isles died at his post in 1764, having barely ac- complished the organization of the native church. The small congregation was reduced to sore straights by the time his suc- cessor, Peter Brown, arrived from Pennsylvania, in 1769, to become the second founder of this mission. A native of the Palatinate, he had served chiefly as a teacher in America, but ever betrayed his German birth in his speech. It was not, therefore, in virtue of the graces of rhetoric that his ministry became distinguished for signal fruitfuTness?" Devoted fidelity and unconquerable love were his best gifts. Msiting the de- spised blacks in their huts and taking advantage of the mid-day rest in the fields, by his loving sympathy he showed himself a brother or a father. Benjamin Brookshaw from Fulneck, in England, who joined him in 1771. proved a most acceptable coadjutor, when former assistants had to leave on account of the failure of their health. But he was granted less than two years of activity ; and when Brown's wife also died, soon after, the outlook was very trying. Then Fulneck furnished another colleague. John Meder. a Livonian bv birth. Native assistants 64 A HISTORY OF were judiciously emplo3-ed. Ground for a second station was purchased in 1774 at Bailyhill, near the town of Falmouth (ex- changed in 1782 for Gracehiil, as more convenient). Samuel Watson, a man of eminent gifts, became Brown's colleague in 1776. "In 1791 Brown had to retire from the scene of his twenty years' faithful, humble, but apostolic service, thoroughly worn out in it ; and in the following year Watson died, in his forty-ninth year, and was followed to the grave by two thousand persons of all classes and colors. The number in charge of the Brethren had grown between the years 1769 and 1792 from 14 to 7,400; of these the majority were baptized." One of the crosses inevitably to be endured so long as slavery lasted, was the removal of converts to islands devoid of gospel privileges. The more ready, therefore, were the Brethren to respond, when John Gardiner, a prominent solicitor and planter in the neighboring island of St. Kitts, requested missionaries for the instruction of his slaves. In 1777 Gottwald and Birkby were sent. Mr. Gardiner's kind offices secured for them the countenance and assistance of the governor. Preaching was commenced at Basseterre and at Palmetto Point, the estate of their earliest benefactor, and when Gottwald's failing health compelled retirement in 1787, the congregation numbered about one hundred persons. Schneller and Reichel, who were next associated, carried the work forward with even greater rapidity. The former alone statedly visited about fifty planta- tions, and by the close of the century the Moravian negroes numbered more than two thousand. Moravians and Metho- dists, in hearty fellowship, had effected a change in the character of the slave population. The year 1765 witnessed an attempt in Barbadoes, the pio- neers being John Wood and Andrew Rittmansberger ; but the death of the latter within a month after landing utterly dis- heartened the former. Brookshaw's effort in 1767 was more propitious. All alone he manfully supported himself by handi- craft in apostolic fashion, and staunchly held his ground for some months till joined by Bennet. Bennet died in 1772, and only one missionary was left, Brookshaw having been trans- ferred to Antigua. Then sore trial was occasioned by a terrific hurricane on October 10, 1780, known for a hundred years as "the great storm." Scarcely a house was left standing. The mission property was utterly destroyed. Several thousand per- MORAVIAN MISSIONS. 65 sons perished. Semi-famine followed. Masterless slaves took to the woods. Outlaws threatened life and possessions. When John Montgomery, the father of the poet, arrived in 1784, he found only fourteen communicants. Though his able minis- trations for a time infused new hope, they were cut oflf by death in 1791, after a brief intermission of labor caused by his attempt to inaugurate a mission in Tobago. The incentive to this undertaking, in 1787, had come from a planter named Hamilton, who had known the Brethren in Lon- don and Barbados. "Count Dillon, the French governor at this time, had learnt to value the missionary labors of the Brethren when holding a similar position in St. Kitts, and at once gave full approval of the effort, welcoming Montgomery with much kindness. In the upper circle of society, too, a favorable view was taken of the projected mission. Meetings were held, and the negroes joyously welcomed the gospel- message. Montgomery returned to Barbados with a report which was very hopeful for good results for a missionary effort in Tobago. But men were so scarce, and the requirements of the rapidly growing mission elsewhere so multiplied that it was not till 1790 that the first missionary could be sent in the per- son of Montgomery. His work was begun with great vigor, but was sadly hindered by a formidable outbreak of soldiers and people on receipt of the tidings of the French Revolution, by a disastrous hurricane a month or two later, and the failing health of his wife, which ended in her happy departure before the year closed. In March of the following year Montgomery had to return to Barbados, with his health completely shattered, and there in the month of July his brief missionary career was terminated by his death. For eight years no attempt was made to renew the mission, not entirely on account of the great drain on all the available resources of the church in other fields of labor, but partly on account of the uncertain political circum- stances of the land." In Jamaica, the gift of the Carmel estate proved a Greek present. It represented a policy, to say the least, as erroneous as the former attempt to colonize in St. Croix. This was still the era of experiment in missions, and the privilege of being taught by the blunders of others was denied the Brethren. Yet the era of decline which followed the return of Caries to Ireland was made good by the advance during Frederick Schlegel's all 6 66 A HISTORY OF too brief service of six years, terminated by his death in 1770. Next came a period of prolonged fruitlessness. Discouraging relapses into paganism occurred. The superstition of the Afri- cans appeared to be well-nigh ineradicable. Not that men of zeal and ability were lacking. Samuel Church, Nathaniel Brown, Joseph Jackson and Thomas Ellis were gifted and labored indefatigably. But the system which identified them with the management of an estate worked by slave-labor was a dead weight about their necks. Besides the malarial influ- ences of Carmel compelled too frequent changes in personnel. In seventy years it demanded twenty-four missionary graves, and twenty additional deaths elsewhere completed the fatal lists. The wonder is, that men like Christian Lister, after a transfer from the totally different climate of Labrador, could hold out for nearly fourteen years in the face of every distress. By the year 1804 the baptisms in Jamaica numbered only 938. At the time of Schumann's death, the brimming marsh-land of Surinam was occupied by the Brethren at four points — Pil- gerhut on the Berbice, Ephraim on the Corentyne, Sharon on the Saramacca and Paramaribo, the capital. The last, slow in as- suming its proportions, was to arrive at highest importance, while the Indian mission dvv'indled away. The Bush Negroes, runaway slaves who had taken refuge in remote swampy forests and whose liberty was conceded by gov- ernment in 1764 after the failure of a resort to force, regarded the Indian tribes with fixed animosity. When the blacks of Copename in 1761 made a raid against the villages on the Sara- macca, the people from Sharon scattered in flight. Next year the Negroes of Berbice rose in arms, and in 1763 caused the flight of the missionaries and their converts from Pilgerhut. Schumann's translations and other linguistic works perished in the ashes of the station. The same fate overtook Ephraim. The Indian mission threatened to wholly disappear in the flames of the servile rebellion. With the restoration of peace in 1764 Sharon was however reoccupied, and Hope arose in place of Ephraim. But Sharon was again abandoned in 1779, owing to repeated alarms from the turbulence of the Bush-Negroes, oft-recurring fevers, and the failure of the cassava plantations, the chief source of food. Nor did the pious wishes enshrined in the name of the companion station long enjoy fruition, although in 1783 its membership numbered 186. The nomadic tendency MORAVIAN MISSIONS. 6/ of the Indians, with their proneness to intoxication, in addition to pestilence and war, perpetually interposed obstacles, though signal instances of the power of grace were not lacking. Meantime the mission amongst the black population became more important. Coincident with the establishment of peace, the colonial authorities asked that missionaries be sent to the camps of the Bush-Negroes. Rudolph Stoll and Thomas Jones, under the guidance of the aged Daehne, penetrated into the in- terior, where the atmosphere is that of "a hothouse and vapor- bath combined." Early in 1766 they reached Senthea Creek, after a most toilsome and dangerous journey by boat. Here a chief named Abini, vaguely feeling that they were sent by a divine power, rendered what poor aid he could. Their home was a wretched hut. Food was scanty. The deadly cHmate established its claims. In a few weeks Jones succumbed to fever. Daehne returned to his Indians, but Stoll faithfully kept his soli- tary post. Two years later Abini, his protector, fell in war with a neighboring tribe. His son, Arabi, endeavored to maintain the friendly relations; but deep-seated hostility gleamed forth, incited by his grandmother, a bigoted adherent of the old sup- erstitions. In the face of undisguised hate, Stoll opened a school with a handful of children, one of whom, Grego, in adult life became a very serviceable assistant of the missionaries. In 1769 Christopher Kersten and his wife came from Paramaribo to second Stoll's eftorts. Arabi was baptized on January 6, 1771, and shot the alligator worshiped by his people. Slowly a con- gregation was gathered, and in 1773 a settlement was formed at Bambey, some miles nearer the city, with again a removal in 1786. kersten was called away to become superintendent of the entire field, and when Stoll brought his bride to the lonely village in the bush, she died from fever in a few months. He himself soon followed her to the grave, having spent eleven years of heroic effort in the tangled pestilential forests. His memory is yet cherished by the blacks who lovingly revere "Brother Rudolph." Missionary after missionary endeavored to occupy the post; but health invariably gave way. No European could long endure life in the tropical swamps. Arabi remained faithful; but at the close of the century New Bam- bey could not count fifty converts. in Paramaribo it was otherwise. Christian Cupido, the first convert, was won in 1776. Within one month of his baptism 68 A HISTORY OF seven other baptisms followed. A church was built two years later. Though some planters were bitterly hostile, the governor and other people of influence countenanced the undertaking. In 1785 the government offered the mission a piece of land conveniently situated for visits to several important estates and Sommelsdyk was estabhshed. When Kersten was suc- ceeded by Samuel Wagner, in 1789, the Paramaribo congrega- tion numbered about 250 souls. If the day of great things had not yet dawned, foundations had been successfully laid, and the indications of a hopeful future were here. Moreover a pledge for the stability of the mission was given in 1793 by the forma- tion of the Zendinggciiooischap der Brocdcrgemeciitc in the congre- gation at Zeist in Holland, which was to make the support of the Brethren's missions in Dutch colonies its special object. Less happy were the fortunes of the mission in the East Indies. Halle regarded with disfavor the presence of mission- aries from Herrnhut in close proximity to its own heralds. Using their influence at Copenhagen, the Hallensian authori- ties insisted that the Brethren must occupy the Nicobar Islands, as originally designed. Correspondence between the governing board of the church and the Danish government, with visits to the Danish capital, occupied several years. At length, in 1768, Denmark estabhshed a mihtary and trading post on the island of Nancawery, and six Brethren were sent thither. Two died soon" after their arrival. Next year more colonists fol- lowed. But in a few years the entire colonial project came to nothing from the terrible mortality. Yet the four Brethren manfully remained, without any regular means of correspond- ence with Tranquebar, unable to have satisfactory intercourse with the natives owing to the barrier of the language, often in great straits on account of the unproductiveness of the soil, and frequently in ill health. Nevertheless nothing else than per- manent occupation of the post was contemplated. Breaches in the ranks were filled from Tranquebar. But although the first convert, Kutti, was baptized on January 6, 1774, on the whole the station remained a fruitless one, and the drain on men and means was excessive. Tranquebar also proved a place most costly in precious lives. The relations with the Hallensian missionaries improved, but the rewards of missionary en- deavor were scanty. With the success of Schwarz in the Eng- lish colonies an invitation came to the Brethren from the Dan- MORAVIAN MISSIONS. 69 ish Company to initiate missionary labors at Serampore in Ben- gal. The call was welcomed, and John Grasmann was sent thither in 1777. Seven years later, at the suggestion of a Mr. Livius in England, James La Trobe, a cousin of Benjamin, was dispatched to Patna. The various discouraging features of the mission now de- termined the Unity's Elders' Conference to undertake a thorough investigation of its condition and prospects. Bishop John Frederick Reichel was charged with this important duty. With him voyaged Christian Lewis Schumann and others who were to remain in the event of the continuance of the undertak- ing. For five months, June to October, 1786, Reichel thoroughly looked into the state of affairs and had frequent con- ferences with the missionaries, the two Brethren from Bengal being present. It was decided to abandon all the outposts. This took effect for Patna at once, for the Nicobar Islands and Serampore later, 1788-1791. At Tranquebar changes were made, in the hope of a more successful prosecution of the work. La Trobe returned with Reichel, and their stay at Capetown in January and February, 1787, led up to the renewal of the mis- sion in Cape Colony, abandoned fifty years ago. Finally in .1795, after long hesitation, the Unity's Elders' Conference deter- mined upon complete withdrawal from the East Indie?. Forty out of the seventy who were sent thither by the church had found their graves at the scene of their unsuccessful endeavors. 70 A HISTORY OF 6/ CHy-VPTER VII. THE RENEWAL OF THE MISSION IN CAPE COLONY, 1/92. Schmidt's attempt to evangelize the Hottentots never alto- gether passed out of the scope of the church's plans. In 1748 a member of the Herrnhaag congregation named John Martin Schwalber, who had formerly served for five years as an official of the Dutch East India Company at the Cape, volunteered to go in his place, at his own costs, and was permitted. He ap- parently reached Baviaanskloof in safety, and died there during an epidemic prior to 1756. The little congregation held together for some time, but after the death of Africo and Willem, about 1756, the rest scattered, and the wilderness returned where once fields and gardens bloomed. When on June 16, 1789, in connection with his report con- cerning the East Indian mission Bishop Reichel communicated to the synod the results of his observations in Cape Colony, and held out hopes of the timeliness of an attempt to renew the mis- sion there, keen interest v^-as aroused. Circumstances were propitious. Governor Van der Grafif was understood to be favorably disposed. The purposes and character of the church were better known. The prejudices of former days had been dissipated. Ranzau and Rothe, the Provincial Helpers in Hol- land, together with Reichel were therefore instructed to open negotiations with the Directors of the Dutch East India Com- pany to secure permission for the resumption of missionary operations. A successful issue was delayed only by the revolu- tionary movements in Holland. In the summer of 1792 Henry Marsveld of Gouda in Holland, Daniel Schwinn of Erbach in the Odenwald and John Christian Kiihnel of Herrnhut were dispatched to Africa. Trained me- chanics, and aged respectively 47, 42 and 30 years — unmarried — they were men admirably adapted for pioneer work, qualified to win the Hottentots for civilization as well as for Christian MORAVIAN MISSIONS. /I life. Ordained at Hemihut, they left the Texel in the Little Doz'c — "Z'Dityfjc" — on July ii and reached Cape Town on November 21. Cheered by the manifestation of considerable sympathy, though their undertaking was scouted in other quar- ters, on December 20 they left for the interior in a twelve-ox wagon in company with "Baas" ^Martin Teunessen, the "inspec- tor" of the district around Baviaanskloof. Here the govern- ment had donated as the site for the new mission the spot hal- lowed by the memories of Schmidt's in-gatherings. The place itself was first visited on Christmas Eve, the three new-comers being meanwhile the guests of the "inspector," who had re- ceived instructions to protect them and their work and to ren- der them all reasonable assistance. Remains of Schmidt's house, traces of his garden, and especially a large pear-tree be- neath whose shade services were now temporarily held, served as reminders that the former attempt had not been given up for lack of fruitfulness. The tenacious hold of the faith which Schmidt had engrafted was also disclosed by the joy of one of his converts, Magdalene, an old woman of eighty, who now came forward with Anna-Hke rejoicings at the answer to her prayers, and produced her Dutch Bible carefully wrapped in a sheep-skin, whilst she gave proofs that its passages were not wholly unfamiliar to her. In accordance with the instructions of his superiors, Teunes- sen rendered welcome aid. When certain of the natives be- came suspicious that the kindness of the missionaries was to be explained on the ground of ulterior designs, possibly a scheme to kidnap them for slavery in Holland, he dispelled these fears, saying: "Government has sent these men to in- struct you, and if you are willing to learn, to teach you what is good, and baptize you. Then you will be Christians as well as the farmers, and they dare not hurt you. The Governor loves you, and has therefore sent teachers to you. charging me to bring them to you. If they were not good men he would not have recommended them to me ; nor would I have brought them to you." In March a school was commenced with twenty- five adults and children. Practical instruction in the herding of cattle, agriculture and gardening supplemented lessons from the books. But storm-clouds gathered. The policy introduced by Hol- land in its dealings with the colony had been wholly unworthy 72 A HISTORY OF of an enlightened Protestant state possessed of commercial experience. Partly by contracts and partly by force, the Hot- tentot natives had been gradually deprived of their lands and pushed into the interior. Many had been enslaved. The Boers had been narrowed down in agricultural operations by gov- ernmental restriction of the crops which they were permitted to grow, by heavy taxation and the discouragement of manu- factures. All this was engendering an ugly spirit amongst them. On the one hand they ached for independence, and abor- tive insurrections broke out ; and on the other hand the natives were made to feel that the natural kindliness of the Dutch heart was departing. A group of colonists professed tenets which included a determination to hold as slaves all Hottentots or Bushmen who could be captured, and to compel all natives born on an estate to work without pay until twenty-one years of age. Scanty scruples meanwhile existed against defrauding or de- bauching them. These Boers beheld with alarm the improve- ment which was noticeable in the people whom the Moravian missionaries had taken in charge. Resisting the soHcitations of drink, these Hottentots began to insist on the rights of intel- ligent manhood. They were enjoying school privileges, whilst the colonists had none. Their labor would become too costly. Even Teunessen for a time yielded to the pressure of prejudiced opposition. "The I\loravians must withdraw to the Bush-coun- try"— such was the demand. Some possibly cast a longing eye on the improvements at Baviaanskloof. Nor could the colo- nial government render the protection which it might have fur- nished under ordinary circumstances, for it was beginning to cope with open rebellion, the echo of the excitement caused in Holland by the revolution in France. The story of the bell, narrated graphically in Schneider's ac- count of the founding of the mission, furnishes an illustration of the shameless opposition now experienced. In April, 1793, clever Kuhnel fashioned a rude makeshift, a home-made article that could be designated a bell only by a stretch of courtesy. It served, indeed, to proclaim the hour of worship by giving out a sound never heard before. It also served to stimulate the benefactions of friends in Cape Town, by moving them to pity; so that in October an actual bell was presented, which had previously done service on a farm. Great rejoicing greeted its advent at Baviaanskloof. So shapely a thing with so fine a MORAVIAN MISSIONS. 73 tone was a complete novelty to the Hottentot population. Their joy and the satisfaction of the missionaries culminated when a few days later it was elevated on a suitable campanile of timber, where it could take pleasure in waking the echoes of the neighboring hills. But alas ! the harmless proclaimer of the hours of reUgious devotion soon became the intolerable dis- turber of the peace ! The clergyman of Stellenbosch lodged a complaint with the government on the ground that this imper- tinent bell annoyed him and was an offense to his conscience. Its tones broke in upon his peace. Yet he lived two days' jour- ney distant! His weighty representations moved government to require Teunessen to place an injunction upon the pes- tiferous bell. So the instrument which had been judged wholly harmless when it was employed to give notice of the hours of labor and of refreshment and rest, as was customary on many of the farms, dare no longer sound; for its invitation to wor- ship—that was quite another thing. The justification of this in- junction moreover sheds a curious light upon the prevalent con- ception of Christian comity. The Lutheran Church in Cape Town was not perm.itted to enjoy the use of a bell; still less therefore might the mission in Baviaanskloof. So the poor bell hung its silenced head in shame for its own uselessness, until an official named Brand visited the settlement in December. To him the missionaries made earnest representations and pic- tured the necessity of a bell for the proper conduct of their work. He perceived the reasonableness of the plea and promised help. Nay, he even ventured to do more than this. Temporarily the ringing might be sanctioned. On his return to the capital he laid the matter in ail form before the governor and before a commissioner of the Dutch East India Company, who happened to be there. At last in the latter part of December a document officially signed and sealed reached Teunessen, removing the injunction from the bell. Yet this was not the end of the affair. Next month when Marsveld visited the city, he was amazed to receive a new inhibition, and at that from the lips of the official whose friendly representations had achieved so much. Again the injunction was justified by the alleged annoyance given by the penetrating tones of this wonderful bell, so disturbing to the folk of Stellenbosch, two days' journey away! True, it was added that quite too many complaints had been heard in refer- ence to the work of the Brethren. All the representations of 74 A HISTORY OF the missionary were to no purpos^. The poor bell remained silent until March 19, 1798, when English rule brought about a rescript in favor of the patient servant of the native congrega- tion. No wonder the thankful Hottentots went to the sea- shore, a day and a half distant by wagon, and brought thence three loads of shell-fish, that lime might be burnt, to build a belfry of stone, whence the victorious bell might henceforth peal forth freely. Meanwhile opposition manifested itself in ways not so harm- less. When on September 30, 1794, Schwinn in a personal in- terview with the governor sought permission for the erection of a church, the rude reply was, "Not so much as a pig-sty shall be built. Everything must remain as it is." Teunessen actu- ally forbade the building of a stall for goats ! Commissioners came from Cape Town and ordered the Hottentots to remove their herds from the neighborhood. Only a few cattle might be retained for use as beef. Henceforth every native must first obtain written permission from a Boer, prior to his settling at Baviaanskloof. Then a paper was circulated amongst the Nationalists, with three thousand signatures. Its main points were the expulsion of the missionaries, the practical enslave- ment of the Hottentots, and the complete enslavement of the Bushmen. Next it was reported that a certain semi-bandit named Pisani with a lawless company was on his way to destroy the mission. These fellov.-s the Nationalists themselves, how- ever, arrested and threw into the citadel at Cape Town. At last the climax was reached in August, 1795, when the British fleet, sent to support the authority of the Prince of Orange, took possession of Cape Colony in his name. Marsveld waited upon the British authorities, Generals Clarke and Craig, and received assurance of protection. Let him and his Brethren continue to prosecute their benevolent work. In February, 1796, the destruction of the mission at one blow was plotted by its enemies. But due notice of the danger having been given by Teunessen, the malicious scheme came to naught. The village about the mission now grew apace. A church was built. Five hundred inhabitants centered around it. A vineyard of two thousand vines was under cultivation. The herding of sheep had been introduced. A grist mill had been built. A cutlery had been founded; for Kiihnel had been a journeyman in the establishment at Herrnhut originated by the MORAVIAN MISSIONS. 75 Neissers. And as years passed the prejudices of the more thoughtful of the Boers gave way. They discovered that Baviaanskloof contributed to their wants, and that a reliable, conscientious and intelligent Moravian convert, even if paid reasonable wages, was a more profitable employe than a drunken, pilfering, ignorant savage, though practically an un- paid slave. In 1797 John Philip Kohrhammer of Gnadau was appointed superintendent of the mission, and with his wife arrived next spring. The gradual increase in the number of inhabitants, more than 1,200 according to a census taken in January, 1799, required the erection of a larger church. The missionaries planned according to their faith, and on January 9, 1800, a building accommodating fifteen hundred persons was conse- crated— an object of interest to settlers far and wide and of astonishment to the savages. Aged Magdalena survived to see this pledge of greater things ; for she fell asleep just one week prior to the dedication, "having probably attained the age of nearly one hundred years." New missionaries were now sent, and Christian Louis Rose, formerly of Labrador, in turn became superintendent. In ex- ternals the converts were prospering from the produce of their fields and orchards and gardens and the increase of their herds. The disposition of the neighboring proprietors, and especially of Teunessen, had become friendly. The change of the name of the station from Baviaanskloof to Gcnadcndal (Vale of Grace), being made as it was at the suggestion of the Dutch governor Jansen on the restoration of the colony to Holland after the Peace of Amiens, testified that the value of missionary effort had won recognition. ^6 A HISTORY OF .>^^' CHAPTER VIII. THE INDIAN MISSION AT THE CLOSE OF THE EIGHTEENTH AND DURING THE OPENING YEARS OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY. Fairfield in Ontario soon became a prosperous home for the wanderers, and the missionaries won an excellent reputation amongst the settlers. To them Michael Jung preached fort- nightly at a place seven miles distant, and other colonists forty miles away also desired the services of the Brethren. By the year 1798 quite a tract was under cultivation, wheat as well as Indian corn being grown. The industry of the converts, it was admitted, lowered the cost of some of the necessaries of life at Detroit. The great Northwestern Fur Company each year as a rule purchased about 2,000 bushels of corn and a large num- ber of cattle at Fairfield. The annual output of maple sugar was estimated at 5,000 pounds. The Christian Indians supplied canoes for all the neighboring settlements. Their manufacture of baskets and mats, etc., was in great demand, and found a ready sale. Yet the resumption of communications with Beth- lehem, and the news of the reservation by Congress of the lands along the Tuscarawas created a feeling of special satisfaction. The hearts of many were at home across the border. In spite of the prosperity that blessed them on the Thames, there were those who were ready to accompany the venerable missionary, Zeisberger, when he announced that the time had come for a re-occupation of their former fields in Ohio. This announce- ment could not be made until 1797, for until that year the un- settled state of the Northwest had prevented the surveying of the land. This having been effected by General Putnam, the Surveyor General of the United States, in conjunction with John Heckewelder and William Henry, as representatives of the church, in the latter part of May, 1798, John Heckewelder MORAVIAN MISSIONS. yj and William Edwards left Fairfield with live Indian brethren to make the needful preparations for the reception of the return- ing colony. In August Zeisberger and his wife, with Benjamin Mortimer, who had recently entered the service of the mission, once more sought the scenes along the Tuscarawas, and brought with them seven Indian families, thirty-three souls, to form the nucleus of the resuscitated mission. The new village was established about half an hour's walk from the site of Schonbrunn, on the opposite bank of the river, and farther down the stream. It received the name of Goshen. By the end of the year 1799 it numbered fifty Indian inhabitants, forty-six of whom had been baptized. It was evident that not all the land granted on the Tusca- rawas could be occupied by the Christian Indians in person. Hence the Society for Propagating the Gospel as their trustee, in 1796 invited members of the church to remove to Ohio and occupy lands on the Gnadenhutten and Salem tracts, whose ren- tal was to be used exclusively for the benefit of the converts. In the year 1782, when the converts on the Tuscarawas had been taken captive to the Sandusky, some of their number had escaped westwards to the White River, a tributary of the Wabash. Here a portion of the Delaware and Nanticoke tribes now had their home. In 1799 William Henry Gelelemend (Kil- buck) sent a message from Goshen to this portion of his people through a chief named Hakinkpomagu, who paid a visit to the Tuscarawas in May, announcing the return of himself and his Christian companions to their old homes, and inviting the Dela- wares of the White River to come frequently to Goshen and receive the gospel. This established a connection between them and the missionaries, and in April, 1800, a messenger ar- rived from the council of the Delawares at Woapikamikunk^ as their town was called, with an invitation to send teachers thither. In response John Peter Kluge, formerly a missionary in Surinam, and Abraham Luckenbach, a teacher at Nazareth Hall, received the call, and proceeding from Bethlehem in Octo- ber, arrived at Goshen on November 18. The project met the entire approval of Zeisberger. During their four months' stay in order to familiarize themselves with the language under his direction, two Indian Brethren, Charles Henry and Jacob Pem- aholend, went in advance to announce their coming to Chief Packanghill. Land was promised at Woapikamikunk, the assur- 78 A HISTORY OF ance was given that no rum-seller or drunken person should be allowed to annoy them, and that they should labor unhindered. Accordingly on February 24, 1801, the missionaries, accom- panied by Joshua, a native helper, as interpreter and nine other persons, left for the Wabash in canoes, via the Muskingum, the Ohio and the Miami. On their arrival many privations were at first endured owing to scantiness of provisions, and fevers prostrated them. The house of the missionaries was on an ele- vated spot between nine populous Indian towns. In March, 1802, two Indian women were baptized as the first converts, and the moving thither of Christian Indians from the former settle- ments caused a little village of ten houses to spring up around the church. Other baptisms followed, so that by the close of the year the congregation counted twenty-three souls. But this bright outlook darkened after the death of the chief who had been their friend and protector, and after the deposition of his similarly disposed successor, the missionaries had to encounter all the opposition and all the machinations pf rum-sellers and other foes of the gospel, who with the medicine- men stirred up the latent hostiUty of the heathen. During the year 1805 they became aware that their lives were in actual danger. A certain Shawnese stranger who had ingratiated him- self amongst the tribe, claimed that he could detect the arts of those who practiced witchcraft and poisoning ; hidden mysteries were open to him. A council was called before which those whom he accused should be compelled by torture to make con- fession, recalcitrants to receive the blows of war-hatchets and then be burnt. The first to be accused before the hellish assem- bly was old chief Tettepachsit. He had nothing to acknowledge. So the inquisitors fastened him by cords to two posts and began to roast him at a slow fire. Agony forced from his blistering lips a He of despair — that he kept poison in the house of Joshua, the missionaries' interpreter. On March 13, 1806, seven painted Indians dragged Joshua from the mission by main force. The converts had fled ; some were compelled to abet the malicious cruelty. When confronted with the prisoner, Tette- pachsit admitted that he had accused him only to pacify his tor- turers, and declared that Joshua was innocent. The Shawnese asserted that although Joshua had no poison, he had a famihar spirit by whose means he destroyed other Indians. On the evening of the i6th word reached the missionaries, that an aged MORAVIAN MISSIONS. 79 convert named Caritas had been burnt. Next day a howling mob, with blackened faces dragged old Tettepachsit to the mis- sion, lit a huge fire, and wounding him on the head with a hat- chet, cast him alive into the flames, the while they diverted them- selves with the convulsions and cries of the miserable victim. The fiames of his pyre kindled the grass and brush nearby and filled the mission with the smoke. Around the missionaries the frenzied furies danced. Several hundred miles from friends, and agonized by the probable fate of Joshua, they expected the worst. Then the murderers burst into their dwelling and de- manded bread and tobacco. Giving these, they interceded for Joshua, but to no effect. That same day the martyr, enduring torture by the aid of prayer, perished in the flames. For a time Kluge and his wife and Luckenbach maintained their post amid days and nights of terror. At last it was made clear to them that duty no longer demanded a useless risk. With great diffi- culty they made their escape, and after many hardships found refuge in the settlements on the Tuscarawas. Perforce the western mission was abandoned. Meantime two of the veterans of the Indian Mission entered into their rest, Gottlob Senseman at Fairfield on January 4, 1800, and William Edwards at Goshen on October 8, 1801. The place of Senseman was filled by Christian Frederick Denke of Nazareth, who now came to assist Michael Jung and Sebastian Oppelt. Soon their united endeavors reached out towards an extension of the mission. Being joined in 1801 by John Schnall, it was possible to commence activity amongst the Chippeway villages on the Jongquahamik. In the autumn of 1803 Bishop Loskiel paid an official visit to Goshen, and a renewal of the mission at New Salem was re- solved upon. Accordingly Oppelt and John Benjamin Haven proceeded to the Petquotting early in 1804. But a sad reverse was again experienced. Drunkenness amongst the Indians was industriously promoted by traders and by unscrupulous white settlers, in order to take advantage of them when intoxicated. The damaging consequences of this solicitation, successfully pursued especially when the people were scattered through the maple forests for the manufacture of sugar, were very far- reaching. The carousals begat a spirit of heathenish repudia- tion of all restraint. Inner corruption began to work what ex- ternal persecution alone could never have effected. 8o A HISTORY OF This was the case both at Goshen and the Chippeway mis- sion. The latter proved a failure. All these distressing features became a source of deep grief to the aged Zeisberger. His end was fast approaching. At the age of eighty-seven, and after a most remarkable career of sixty-two years of missionary ser- vice, he was called to rest and reward on November 17, 1808. During these years of toil he had itinerated amongst his "brown hearts" in Massachusetts, Connecticut, New York, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Michigan and Canada. Mohicans, Wam- panoags, Nanticokes, Shawnese, Chippeways, Ottawas, Wyan- dots, Unamis, Unalachtgos, Muncies, Onondagas, Cayugas and Senecas had been the recipients of his message. He was fluent in the Delaware, Mohawk and Onondaga tongues, and was familiar with many other Indian dialects. The translation of the Bible and of the Moravian Hymn-book and Liturgy into the Delaware, the compilation of a German-Delaware lexicon, and the composition of Onondaga and Delaware grammars formed only a part of his literary labors. He had led hundreds of sav- ages to live a consistent Christian life. By his counsels the Delawares had been restrained from yielding to the solicita- tions of Indians in British pay, when the fate of the Colonies was uncertain. Sad it is, that his mighty energy, signal ability and unquenchable devotion were so largely neutrahzed by the folly, the selfishness and the sin of white men. The War of 1812 broke in upon the charming pastoral life at Fairfield in Canada, and caused the cessation of the work on the Sandusky. When Detroit was occupied by the American army under General Harrison, it was perceived that Fairfield would soon be untenable. But whilst arrangements were being made to abandon the place, the church was transformed into a British hospital, in which seventy wounded were at once re- ceived. On October 3, 1813, General Proctor announced his intention to fortify the place. The Indian congregation had meanwhile taken to the woods. On the 5th the Battle of the Thames was fought about two miles away. It was now charged, though the proofs did not accompany the charge, that some of the Fairfield Indians had been implicated in a massacre on the Raisin, and the victorious American general, mistaking the character of the place, gave the mission to pillage and the flames. Not a house was left standing. Michael Jung, old and infirm, accompanied by Schnall, and their famiHes, toiled back MORAVIAN MISSIONS. 8 1 to Bethlehem heart-broken, and Denke, the third missionary, wandered with the scattered converts in the woods, putting up temporary homes now here, now there. Attacked and plun- dered by Kickapoo and Shawnese bands, he was cut off from communications with his brethren for a couple of years. Not till the close of the war did the converts dare to return with him to Fairfield. In 1815 it was rebuilt on the opposite bank of the Thames, and soon numbered about thirty houses, with one hundred and twenty Christian and forty-seven heathen inhab- itants. Meantime Goshen had seen its best days. Steadily the nat- ural increase of the white population and the enlargement of the land under cultivation, with the ensuing competition in prim- itive industries, rendered the conditions of life more and more unfavorable for the Indians. Therefore New Fairfield became the Christian Indians' Mecca. The original intention of the settlement of the Brethren in Georgia had never passed wholly out of mind. Missions amongst the Cherokees, Catawbas, Chickasaws and Creeks had been repeatedly planned. John Hagen's visit to the Cherokees in 1740 and Ettwein's negotiations with their chiefs at Betha- bara in the sixties failed of permanent results chiefly because of the unsettled state of the country. In 1783 Martin Schneider had visited Cherokee towns on the Tennessee River, but strife between the colonists and the Indians had once more inter- vened. In 1799 and 1800 journeys of exploration were under- taken with encouraging results by Abraham Steiner and Fred- erick Christian von Schweinitz, of Salem. Through the kind offices of Captain Butler, of the U. S. army, they were enabled to arrange preliminaries for a mission at Tellico Block-house on September 23, 1800. at a great council of from three to four thousand Indians. In April of the following year Steiner and Gottlieb Byhan set out to found the mission. The spot they selected they named Spring-place (now the county-seat of Mur- ray County, Georgia). At first the intricacies of the Cherokee language and the lack of an interpreter presented great diffi- culties ; but slowly a Christian congregation was successfully gathered and the life of the people as a whole was savingly in- fluenced. Encouraged by these results in 1807 an extension into the country of the Creeks was attempted. Karsten Petersen and 7 Si A HISTORY OF John Christian Burghardt set out from Salem for Flint River, near Milledgeville. John F. Holland joined them as an assist- ant in 1810. But five years afterwards this post was given up. In the Cherokee mission several changes had taken place. Steiner had returned, and Jacob Wohlfarth, his successor, had died in 1807. John Gambold had gone out in 1805. A school had been early established at Springplace, and the mission was solidly advancing. With regard to the Christian Cherokees it could be reported: "The men are altogether of the first re- spectability in the nation, and as such, during the late embassy to Washington, have done honor not only to the Gospel but to the capacity and good sense of the aborigines." Disinterested testimony was further borne by the Abbe de Serra, in his ac- count of his tour in the United States, as follows : "Judge of my surprise, in the midst of the wilderness, to find a botanic garden, not indeed like that at Paris, or yours at Kew; but a botanic garden, containing many exotic and medicinal plants, the professor, Mrs. Gambold, describing them by their Linnean names. Your missionaries here taught me more of the nature of the manner of promulgating civilization and religion in the early ages by the missionaries from Rome, than all the pon- derous volumes which I have read on the subject. I there saw the sons of a Cherokee Regulus learning their lesson, and read- ing their New Testament in the morning, and drawing and painting in the afternoon, though, to be sure, in a very Cherokee style ; and assisting Mrs. Gambold in her household work or Mr. Gambold in planting corn. Precisely so in the forests of Ger- many or France, a Clovis or a Bertha laid aside their crowns, and studied in the hut of a St. Martin or another missionary." MORAVIAN MISSIONS. 83 CHAPTER IX. f ' ■ THE FOREIGN MISSIONS, FROM THEIR JUBILEE TO THE SYNOD OF 1818. An era of general war is never favorable to missionary opera- tions. Now the blockade of continental ports by British naval squadrons, exchange of cannon shots with privateers, and in several cases actual capture, had to be taken into account when men were sent forth. All ordinary means of intercourse with distant colonies sometimes failed. Colonies exchanged mas- ters, and therewith the legal status of the church was altered and new requirements had to be complied with. Financial losses were frequent. In Greenland the missionaries received reminders of the rigor of the region. The age of adventure had not passed. During the intensely cold weather of three months of the year 1793 through lack of even their usual unsatisfactory source of fuel, drift-wood and scrubby brush, the missionaries were reduced to the train-oil lamps of the natives as a source of heat. On June 10, 1794, two missionaries left New Herrnhut for a neighboring island, where they hoped to procure wood but were shut in by the ice. For almost one month they found it impossible to make their way home, nor could provisions be brought to them. After encountering many dangers and supporting life by catching fish, they at last reached homie on July 8. In 179S Jacob Beck and his wife after a long and stormy voyage from Copenhagen, had a narrow escape from the ice whilst on the way from Friederich- shaab at Lichtenau. John George Grillich left Julianenhaab for Copenhagen on October 4, 1798. When only fairly out to sea, the ship had to put back on account of the ice. Two weeks later another attempt was made to set sail; but after five weeks of hopeless tacking hither and thither, was again driven back by the ice, this time in a damaged condition. In February, 1799, 84 A HISTORY OF another attempt was made to put to sea, but from the i8th to the 25th the ice completely shut in the ship, after she had barely- missed shipwreck on a sunken reef. Now the captain gave orders for her abandonment. A weary march over the ice followed. Two nights were spent without shelter, and water was to be had only by melting snow. Scarcely was the desolate shore of Green- land reached, when a terrific storm arose. Not until October 29, and after many adventures did Grillich reach Copenhagen. In 1804 and 1805 these experiences were practically repeated by Christian David Rudolph and his wife. The conflict between Denmark and Britain, until the block- ade was relieved in 181 1, meant peculiar distress. In 1808 the British government, indeed, in a spirit of true humanity fitted out two ships for Greenland. But the larger of these was lost in the ice, and was the one destined for the portion of the coun- try where the Moravian stations were situated. Flour became very scarce. Tobacco, the common medium of exchange, and powder and shot were quite exhausted. In May, 181 1, Henry Menzel wrote : "No ships arrived in Greenland last year. We have therefore not received any provisions from Europe, nor does it appear that we should receive any this year ; and if not, there is httle prospect for us left, but that we must die of famine and distress of mind ; for no European can subsist on what the Greenlanders eat, without bread. The consequences soon ap- pear in a dysentery which carries the patient oflf in a short tim.e. . . .For these three years past we have not received any seeds, and this year we can sow nothing in our gardens." The very clothing of the missionaries began to give out. But at last, on August 16, 1812, to their intense relief the Danish ship Freden arrived with goods of all kinds sufificient to meet all needs for two years. It had been sent from London by the Society for the Furtherance of the Gospel, a license having been pro- cured which permitted a Danish vessel to proceed from Copen- hagen via Leith for the express purpose of relieving the mission. John Conrad Ivleinschmidt who had now completed nineteen years of service in Greenland, and had recently lost his wife, took advantage of this opportunity to return to Europe with his children and the widowed sister Walder. They set sail on September 2. On the 29th the Freden \vrs struck by lightning during a tremendous sjtorm. The bolt killed one of the sailors and stunned another. For three days and two nights the ship MORAVIAN MISSIONS. 85 drove helplessly before the wind. For a week the whole com- pany were put on a short allowance of water. Leith was at last reached on November lo. In two weeks Kleinschmidt's young- est child died from the hardships experienced. Neverthelev^s after his furlough this hero was ready to go back to Greenland. John Godfrey Gorke, detained for a while in Europe by the war, in March, 1813, left Copenhagen with his family and two other missionaries to return to his former sphere of labor. The Danish vessel in which they sailed, the Hvalfisken, had been duly licensed by the British to carry provisions to the dreary land of bergs. With the messengers to Greenland there voyaged also a party of missionaries destined for the West Indies via England. In mid-channel between Denmark and Norway Cap- tain Cathcart of the Alexandria frigate brought the Danish ves- sel to, and pronounced the license invalid. Not till April 5 were they permitted to weigh anchor for Leith. Five weary weeks were required for the passage from the Scotch port to Greenland. Then their Captain, Lindber, contrary to agree- ment, instead of landing them at Lichtenfels or New Herrn- hut, where there was every facility for unloading, carried them to Godhaven on Disco Bay. Thence they had to coast back about 600 miles to New Herrnhut, from which station Klein- schmidt and his wife had yet another 500 miles in an umiak be- fore making Lichtenau. Twice during the four months of voyaging along the rocky and dangerous coast, did the dehcate Europan woman faint from fatigue. In 1817 John Frederick Kranich, returning for a visit at home after twelve years of work, was lost at sea, the ship foundering with all on board. Such were some of the episodes which gave variety to the often monotonous round of missionary toil in Greenland. But it was undertaken none the less willingly, nor did it go without reward. The population in the districts about the older sta- tions had become nominally Christian. Lichtenau alone af- forded opportunity for contact with utterly pagan barbarians. Here baptisms repeatedly occurred. j\Ieantime Jasper Broder- sen besides translating portions of the Scriptures comenced to render into the Eskimo the liturgies of the church, which were preliminarily printed at New Herrnhut. Henry Menzel trans- lated a short compendium of the Bible for children. This the Society for the Furtherance of the Gospel undertook to 86 A HISTORY OF print. Kleinschmidt was commissioned to prepare a version of the New Testament, with the publication of which the British and Foreign Bible Society made itself chargeable. Until the turn of the century Labrador sorely tested faith and patience. The total number of Eskimos who had made their homes at the three stations was only 228. Occasionally the heathen were hostile. Sometimes suppHes almost failed. But with the nev/ century there came a reward to the fidelity of Benjamin Kohlmeister and his associates. The awakening be- gan at Hopedale in 1804. Its nature marked its origin as from above. The conversion of two wild young fellows, Siksigak and Kapik, the latter as notorious as was Tuglavina formerly, made a deep impression on their countrymen. They had gone from Nain to Hopedale with the deliberate intention of causing trouble, but came back changed men, exhorting their country- men to repent and turn to Christ. The revival necessitated the building of a new church. By 1818 six hundred people now made the mission stations their homes. As in the case of Greenland, Labrador also enjoyed the assistance of the Society for the Furtherance of the Gospel and of the British and Foreign Bible Society for the creation of an Eskimo literature. Success encouraged a desire to widen the work. But al- though Kohlmeister explored the coast as far as Cape Chudleigh and the Ungava country, plans were strangely thwarted. On the one hand the force of missionaries was diminished by a pe- culiar accident. On the other hand the Hudson's Bay Company interposed objections. The former hindrance transpired as fol- lows. As usual the missionary ship proceeded to Labrador in the sum.mer of 1816. For more than a month after drift ice was reached, it could not make port. The floes extended two hun- dred miles out from land. But at length Okak was reached on August 29. Supplies were landed. Then the Jemima for three weeks lay a helpless prisoner of the Frost King. By dint of skillful efforts Nain was made on September 22. Here John George Kmoch, John Korner and Thomas Christensen, to- gether with the wife of the first, boarded the vessel to proceed to Hopedale. But instead they made port in the Thames on October 28. For on the very day of sailing a tremendous snow- storm followed by a gale carried them out to sea, and no exer- tions of Captain Frazer served to bring his ship to the third station. During the night of the 9th disaster threatened. MORAVIAN MISSIONS. 87 Twisted by the violeni blows of the storm-lashed waves, the larboard side of the vessel opened its seams, and water gushed in; but the overruhng power of God averted loss. It was August 7, 1817, however before Km.och and his wife and Korner concluded their trip to Hopedale, begun almost a year before. The course of the mission in the West Indies is now inti- mately connected with the movement for the abolition of slav- ery. The pens of Clarkson and Ramsay had already stimulated and reenforced the voices of Wilberforce and Sharp, and in 1788 the Crown had appointed a committee of Privy Council to make inquiry concerning the slave-trade. Wilberforce had made his first motion for a committee of the whole House of Commons on this question, and during the years 1790 and 1791 evidence was taken. Meantime the outbreak of the Revolution in Paris had direct bearing upon the issue in the French colonies. In 1 791 the National Convention passed a decree giving to the mulattos all the rights of French citizens. The plantation slaves became infected with a determination that the principles enun- ciated in the Declaration of the Rights of Man should be ex- tended to themselves. Slave insurrections broke out in Hayti, Martinique and in the British colony of Dominica. In 1793 the abolition of slavery in Hayti was proclaimed, and made possible the enormities of Toussaint I'Ouverture and Dessalines. These events prejudiced sentiment in Britain. In Denmark the neces- sity for progressive action became apparent. So long as Den- mark preserved neutrality, her colonies, and especially St. Thomas with its capacious harbor, became the rendezvous for commerce under every flag. Refugee capitalists and adven- turers from the other Antilles and all parts of the Spanish Main sought out the Danish islands. All the more likely was the slave trade to flourish there, and all the more open would her slave population be to the influence of insurrectionary move- ments in progress elsewhere. Most urgent representations were accordingly made to the home government respecting the dangers that threatened. This situation of affairs led the King of Denmark on May 16, 1792, to issue a royal order, that the traffic in slaves should cease in Danish possessions from the end of the year 1802. At the same time and in the years immedi- diately following, repeated requests were addressed to the Unity's Elders' Conference by Minister Schimmelmann and Countess von Reventlow in the name of land-owners on St. 88 A HISTORY OF Croix that the Brethren would widen the scope of their under- takings, and in particular assume the religious and civil educa- tion of the children of the slaves. With all good will, the trust could not be accepted in the measure intended by the proposers. The times were hard. Long continued drought, following a season of general sickness, lasted for four years. Scarcely any vegetation was to be seen, except the foliage of the large trees. In St. Croix drinking water was sold at a considerable price. Scarcity of provisions added its distressing features to those produced by the prostration of industry, complicated by the monetary confusion in America since the trade of these islands was chiefly with the States. Planters in their financial embarrassment frequently separated parents and children, hus- bands and wives, selling them wherever purchasers could be secured. Thus members of the church were scattered to Porto Rico, Tortola and St. Domingo. Moreover an awful tornado on August 12 and 13, 1793, long left its memory impressed upon St. Thomas and St. John. The church at Bethany collapsed in utter ruin, and the missionaries barely escaped with their lives. Most of the people lost houses, stores, provisions and cattle, and many men and women and children perished. The church at Emmaus remained standing, but the surrounding settlement was destroyed. The smaller buildings at New Herrnhut and Nisky were demolished. Not a plantation on St. Thomas but suffered. Forty ships were driven ashore. John Gottlieb Miicke, superintendent since 1791, had his burden of cares made heavy indeed. These circumstances brought John Renatus Verbeek to the islands, to minister comfort in the name of the home congrega- tions. Three months from April, 1797, he closely inspected each station. Then he proceeded to St. Kitts. Here progress had been made. Large accessions were the rule. The mission enjoyed general esteem. Steady progress also characterized Antigua. Moravian blacks were selected for positions of responsibility, owing to their well-attested reliability and fidelity. In 1796 land for a third station had been acquired at the sea-shore. It received the name of Gracebay. In Barbados Adam Haman and John Montgomery had be- gun to reap after years of patience, but the disadvantage of operations with Bunkershill, so remote from Bridgetown, as the MORAVIAN MISSIONS. 89 center, had become apparent. Hence in 1794 eleven acres had been acquired in the vicinity of the capital, and named Sharon. Verbeek returned to Herrnhut in August, 1798. Though greatly encouraged by his active sympathy and wise counsel, the missionaries on the Antilles were to realize, how- ever, that difficulties were not over. In March, 1801, St. Thomas surrendered to a powerful British fleet. The remain- ing Danish islands speedily followed this example. The requi- sition of the mission buildings at Friedensberg for a hospital followed in April. With an intermission of a few years Britain kept control of the three islands until 1815. But with all the uncertaintv of the times a new station was begun on St. Croix, Friedensfeld, central in its location. Characteristic of the con- ditions of the period were the experiences of John Gottlieb Ramsch and John Samuel Schaerf, who had been detained in company with the missionaries to Greenland on the HvalHskcn in the spring of 181 3. Having sailed from Portsmouth in No- vember, they were rapidly nearing their destination, when on January 10, 1814, their ship was chased by a vessel of superior size flying the American colors. It proved a privateer of four- teen guns. Though the Englishman mounted only six, decks were cleared for action. The missionaries went below and be- took themselves to earnest prayer. The chase was stern. Not until half past seven in the evening was the American close enough to exchange shots. The fight was stubbornly con- tinued through the night. Thrice the privateer tried to board the merchantman. But although one hundred and twenty as- sailants were met by only twenty-two. soon after daybreak the aggressor drew off.' The English ship was so badly damaged that it was fortunate she could make St. Thomas next noon. One of her men had been killed and eleven wounded. The sequel is found in the diary of Friedensberg for 1819. In March a captain from Philadelphia who was known to the mission- aries brought a fellow captain of similarly pronounced Chris- tian character to visit the Brethren. After a while it developed in the course of conversation that the latter, Captain Boyle of Baltimore, had commanded the American ship in the fight. When Sister Ramsch now described to him the earnestness of the intercessions of the missionaries during the hours of con- flict and suspense, he confessed that at the time the escape of the Enghsh vessel had been a mystery to him. He had later 90 A HISTORY OF learnt that her passengers were missionaries, and the whole epi- sode had providentially served to lead him from rough habits and a life of indifference to religion. In fact it had been the means of his conversion. Meantime on the Enghsh islands progress was being made. As soon as Tobago came again into the secure possession of Britain, Carl Schirmer was sent to the slaves on the Hamilton estate, and in 1800 John Church became his efficient coadjutor. The Antigua mission grew apace, in spite of frequent deaths of missionaries from fever. Gracebay was transferred from its old site to Manchineel Hill, in 181 1, and Newfield was begun in 181 7, the membership having grown to seven thousand. Bar- bados remained a field of more modest proportions. St. Kitts severely felt the vicissitudes of the war. Provisions rose to famine prices. In the spring of 1S05 the French fleet anchored in Basseterre harbor, and for a time the Union Jack had to give place to the Tricolor. This delayed the establishment of Beth- esda until 1819. About two thousand persons were in charge of the missionaries here at this time. Jamaica also knew its deep anxieties, from its proximity to St. Domingo. David Taylor, Christian Lister, superintendent since 1790, Christopher Herbst, John Bowen, Philip Howell, Nathanael Brown, Joseph Jackson and Thomas ElHs were the chief missionaries during the closing decades of the century. Early in the new century the proprietors of various plantations placed halls on their es- tates at the disposal of the missionaries, and in 181 5 Thomas Ward began Irwin Kill, near Montego Bay. In Surinam the arrival of John Jacob Fischer from Barby in 1789 imparted a new spirit at Hope on the Corentyne. En- dowed with unusual linguistic ability, he acquired the Arawack so as to preach within a few months, and in addition to the possession of executive gifts he was also blessed with strong physical powers. By his persuasion, the Indians removed to a more fertile spot on the Aulibissi creek, in the vicinity of the old station, where the mission was reestablished in 1793. Plan- tations of coffee, bananas and cotton soon rewarded the dili- gence of the converts, and a neat village surrounded the church. Mat-weaving and the manufacture of hammocks and the prepa- ration of lumber formed an additional means of support, the products being taken to Berbice. Before long a mission boat was regularly employed to carry these goods to market. The MORAVIAN MISSIONS. 9 1 voyage back and forth was sometimes attended with a spice of danger, Fischer and John Peter Kiuge suffering shipwreck in August, 1795, and the latter being captured by an English pri- vateer in 1796. But alas, the glory of Hope with its three hundred people was nipped in the bud. Small-pox broke out in 1800. 2vIore than twenty died within six months. Fear stimulated the re- assertion of the Indians' disposition to rove, and missionaries rather encouraged the hiving of their swarm, in order the more thoroughly to influence numerous Arawack and Carib villages. By April the majority wished to be transferred to Aporo, seven hours' distant, but their teachers remained at Hope, visiting the filial at stated intervals. Aporo never prospered. Hope itself soon met with a sore calamity. At two o'clock in the afternoon of August 18, 1806, the cry of "fire" suddenly rang out. Built as the houses were of logs, plastered externally or weather-boarded, and having lath and plaster partitions, ceiled with planks and thatched with large leaves in the Indian man- ner, the school, the mission-house, the homes of individual mis- sionary families and those of the converts quickly succumbed to the flames leaping like lightning from roof to roof. The entire village was reduced to smoking embers. Stores of various kinds, tools and implements, the tackle and rigging of the mis- sion-boat, and the very orange trees whose shade had been so pleasant, were destroyed ; books, clothing, some gunpov/der and two barrels of flour, and the charred walls of the church — this was all the devouring element had spared. The fire was of incendiary origin and two years later the place had to be abandoned owing to the hostihty of the heathen. Yet the ground was not yielded without an effort. In September, iSii, Thomas Langballe and his wife came from Paramaribo in order to renew the work. They found a desolate solitude. Where formerly the house and gardens of the mission had stood, rank tropical vegetation had taken possession ; Hope had become the home of screaming parrots and the hiding place of reptiles. Yet the memory of better days survived. Langballe and his wife met seventy-seven of its former Indians, and were assured that nearly two hundred were still living. A desire was also expressed for the renewal of the mission. Therefore in the fol- lowing year Genth and Hafa were sent from Param.aribo to the Corentyne. Three miles from Hope they found an Indian 92 A HISTORY OF house prepared for their reception by Barzillai, one of the con- verts. Neither fevers nor the toil of clearing the dense forest would have daunted them. But the indifference of the Indians themselves finally caused them to turn to others who prized the message more highly, the slaves on the plantations. For under John Wied this mission made vigorous strides for- ward. Appointed superintendent in 1790, he had been accom- panied on his voyage out by Bishop Samuel Liebisch, whose of^cial visit had materially systematized methods of work through the creation of a local board of supervision. Notwith- standing the interruption of communications owing to the war between Holland and England, flour at one time rising in cost to 150 florins per barrel; notwithstanding the repeated deaths of men and women from fever (when Liebisch visited Para- maribo fifteen missionaries already lay at rest in the little ceme- tery in the Brethren's quarter) ; and in spite of the fetishism in the very blood of the people, the congregation in the city now advanced rapidly, numbering seven hundred and fifteen in 1815. At the price of several lives New Bambey had been main- tained, but in 1813 the mission in the wilderness had to be aban- doned. So, too, the opposition of the planters compelled a ces- sation of operations at Sommelsdyk with its one hundred and fifty converts in 1818. After the restoration of Cape Colony to the Dutch, Governor Jansen was very sedulous in developing a corps of Hottentot auxiliaries for defence against future invaders. The fam.e of Baviaanskloof had spread by this time, and its people had so won a name for steadiness, that rascally natives were wont to palm themselves ofif as inhabitants of the place in order to bet- ter secure positions in the service of the Dutch planters, and the missionaries issued certificates as a protection against im- posters. Now Moravian Hottentots were particularly in de- mand as non-commissioned officers of this mihtia. Next John Philip Kohrhammer was appointed chaplain, but his chaplaincy came to a sudden termination in January, 1806. On the fourth of the month sixty men-of-war flying the British flag entered the roads. After a furious cannonade throughout the eighth, the invaders made good their landing. On the twenty-first Cape Colony once more became a British possession. On June 29 the new Governor honored Genadendal with a visit, and ex- pressed his delight at what he saw. Pursuing Jansen's policy MORAVIAN MISSIONS. 93 with regard to the enlistment of natives, however, General Baird unwittingly hampered the mission. Baird's successor, Lord Caledon, similarly appreciating the humanitarian aspects of the undertaking, suggested a new center of influence, at Groene- kloof, near the sea, forty miles from Cape Town on the high road to Saldhanha Bay. Kohrhammer and John Henry Schmidt left Genadendal to inaugurate the new mission in March, 1808. By the end of the year about one hundred na- tives had established permanent homes in its vicinity. Here in 181 1 Schmidt made a thrilHng experience. Packs of wolves constantly ravaged the flocks of the mission. Hence in August Schmidt and Bonatz organized a wolf hunt. They soon wounded one beast, but he managed to get away. Wearied with fruitless searchings, the chase was at last abandoned. Suddenly a shout apprized them that their people thought they had discovered the beast in a thicket. Schmidt gave his horse to a Hottentot and returned, gun in hand. One of the dogs plunged into the dense brush and started — not the wolf, but a tiger! (Fclis scrivl.) The natives, except one, fled. Like a flash the tiger springs on this Hottentot, and has him beneath his body in such a way that Schmidt cannot shoot for fear of injuring the man. Soon the tiger turns on the missionary, whose gun is useless at such close quarters. But he wards off its cruel jaws with his uplifted arm. They snap upon his elbow. Then he grasps the tiger's fore-foot with one hand and with the other clutches its throat. It is a wrestle for life or death. At last the beast is thrown, and the missionary plants his knee on its body, the while he keeps his grip on its throat. His com- panion, Philip, can render no aid, all blinded as he is from his own wounds. But their cries bring the others. One of them points his gun under Schmidt's arm, and shoots the struggHng tiger through the heart. Poor Schmidt has been dreadfully lacerated, and suffers extreme pain. Upon removal home, fever sets in. Happily the treatment of a physician is successful. Philip also rallies from his injuries and the shock of the attack. The first of the three pioneers of the resuscitated mission to be removed by death was John Christian Kiihnel, on April 20, 1810. He departed in the midst of usefulness, deeply mourned. But the workmen could safely pass to their reward now; their work was well established. Genadendal could soon count one thousand souls. 94 A HISTORY OF CHAPTER X. THE INDIAN MISSION, FROM 182O TO 1837. For the missions amongst the Indians these were momentous years. With the increase of white settlers in the Tuscarawas Valley, Goshen had been sufifering a steady decline. One by one its Indian families removed to locaHties where game was more plentiful and where the outrages of border ruftians need not be dreaded. For years the care of the reservation on the Tuscarawas had been a costly burden to the Society for Propa- gatmg the Gospel as trustees for the converts. Now that mis- sionary work was at an end, retrocession to the government was not only inevitable, but v/ould afford a relief. At the gen- eral meeting of the Society in 1822 it was reported that fully $32,000 had been expended over and above all income from the land. Negotiations were therefore set on foot which resulted in the retrocession of the reservation to the United States in April, 1824. The Christian Indians were to receive a per capita annuity of $400 or a new grant of 24,000 acres. This retroces- sion mvolved the abandonment of Beersheba, but Gnadenhiitten was laid out in town lots by an agent of the government. Not that missionary interest and activity ceased. The first ofificial periodical of the American Church was just in the day? of its palmy youth — The Missionary Intelligencer, a quarterly devoted to the furtherance of the foreign missions, and issued since January, 1822, by the Provincial Helpers' Conference. In June, 1823, to stimulate new interest in the mission amongst the Cherokees, with the consent of the parent society the Society of the United Brethren in North Carolina for the Furtherance of the Gospel was organized by southern members of the Society for Propagating the Gospel. Moreover, a legacy of Godfrey Haga, a member of the Moravian Church in Philadel- phia and of the missionary societ}^ in 1825 placed the directors MORAVIAN MISSIONS. 95 of this society in the position of trustees of a fund of about $200,000 for the benefit of the American Indian missions of the church. Shortly before the negotiations for the retrocession of the Tuscarawas reservation had been effected, one of the most dis- tinguished veterans of the mission passed away. This was John Gottlieb Ernestus Heckewekler, who died at Bethlehem on Jan- uary 31, 1823, almost eighty years of age. Of old Moravian stock, he was born at Bedford in England in 1743, and had come to Pennsylvania in 1754. In 1762 he had been Post's companion in tlie adventurous journey to the Ohio, and had labored for years as missionary in Pennsylvania, Ohio and Llich- igan. In 1788 he had been appointed agent in Ohio for the Society for Propagating the Gospel. Twice he had served as United States commissioner for negotiating peace with Indian tribes ; once with General Rufus Putman at Vincennes, Indiana, in 1792, and next near Niagara with General Lincoln, Colonel Pickering and Beverly Randolph. Since 1810 literary labors had occupied the years of his retirement at Bethlehem, repre- sented by his three chief works, An Account of the Histo^-y, Man- ners and Customs of the Indian Nations zi'ho once inhabited Penn- sylvania and the neighboring States; A Narrative of the Missions of the United Brethren among the Delaicare and Mohegan Indians; and Najnes zdiich the Lenni-Lenapc or Delazvare Indians gave to the Rivers, Streams and Localities, etc. Meantime the Cherokee mission was prospering. In June, 1821, Gambold, replaced at the first station by Renatus Smith, formerly of the Canadian mission, commenced a second station about thirty miles distant, at Oochgelogy, in Gordon County. It soon became a success. Here as at Springplace the young converts manifested a desire for more advanced education. Already in 1818 three young Cherokees from Springplace had appeared at Salem on their way to study in the mission insti- tute at Cornwall, Conn., and Gambold could write of five others who had preceded them. Ambition for assimilation with the whites was very evident amongst the people of the upper towns, though the tribesmen of the lower lands had begun their movement westwards, having received from government an extensive tract on the Arkansas and White Rivers in exchange for their ancestral homes. Their brethren who remained in Georgia on the other hand were making rapid progress. The 96 A HISTORY OF English language had gained precedence as the tongue in which their national records were kept. Hunting had been largely exchanged for agriculture. Agricultural implements, mills, machinery for cleaning cotton, etc., had been introduced. A powerful revival of religion characterized the winter of 1824-25. In the two succeeding years their own national writ- ten constitution was developed, Abraham Hicks, a member of the Moravian Church, becoming the recognized head of his people. Dying in 1828, he was succeeded by his brother. Chris- tian Renatus Hicks. But dangers were gathering and in- terrupte(j this pleasing progress. Disregarding the solemn treaties with the general government in 1785, 1791, 1798, etc., the state of Georgia sought to extend her jurisdiction over the 8,000 square miles of Cherokee country. During and after 1827 especially repressive measures were passed by the state legisla- ture. This naturally accellerated the tide of migration to the West. Next the state of Georgia directed its attack against the missionaries. The notorious case of Samuel Austin Worcester outraged the reHgious sentiment of the country. But Presi- dent Jackson for party reasons declined to enforce the decision of Chief Justice Marshall of the Supreme Court of the United States, that the law of Georgia under which he had been con- demned was unconstitutional. The noble missionary of the American Board had to sit in jail Hke a felon for fifteen months. All whites had been ordered to vacate the Cherokee country by March, 1831, except officials appointed by the United States or by Georgia. The compulsory withdrawal of all the Mora- vian missionaries followed, Gottlieb Byhan alone excepted, who resolved to remain at Springplace in reliance of his position as post-master. His arrest but speedy release followed. The other missionaries had found a temporary home with Captain McNair, across the border of Tennessee, about fifteen miles dis- tant, his wife being a member of the church. For continuing to visit his members, Henry G. Clauder, who had been in the field since 1829, was arrested on March 21 by Georgia Guards. But their commander upon investigation permitted him to con- tinue his ministrations, on condition that after due notice had been given he should finally leave the country within ten days. Such notice came in July, coupled with a threat of imprisonment in case it was not heeded. Hence he returned to Salem with his family. MORAVIAN MISSIONS. 97 During the months of uncertainty services were meanwhile maintained at Oochgelogy by Hicks and Christian David Wat- tee, the native assistants. At the end of the year Byhan sought release from his appointment as post-master, and Clauder re- ceived it in his place. During 1832 the state of Georgia divided the Cherokee country amongst white people by lottery. The mission property at Oochgelogy was taken from the church and seized by strangers. On New Year's Day, 1833, three families compelled Clauder to give up one-half of the mission house at Springplace, and a few days later an alleged agent of the gov- ernment of Georgia appeared, drove away the former intruders, and ignoring the United States post-mastership, ordered the missionaries oS the premises. In the course of a few years Springplace became a county-seat, and the Moravian church was turned into a court-house. Again McNair accorded the homeless missionaries a friendly welcome and provided a temporary center for missionary work, placing a house and a plot of ground at their disposal. Here the mission school was once more opened by Miss Ruede, and a number of Indian communicants, heads of families, moving into the neighborhood, it seemed as though a renewal of the ruthlessly disrupted work might possibly be made in Tennes- see, During 1834 about one thousand Cherokees moved to Ar- kansas Territory, and in the years following dissentions began to deepen as to the policy which the remainder ought to pur- sue. In 1837 the compulsory removal of the main body of the people at length took place. United States troops under Gen- eral Scott facilitated the transportation, and served as a guard both for the territory through which the emigration took place and for the exiles whom they transported. Thirteen thousand were thus conveyed during the autumn of this year, amongst whom was the division of the tribe to which the ^Moravian mis- sionaries had ministered. Chief John Ross, or Kroweskowee, the head of the nation, attached to the Moravian Church by vari- ous ties, could give no assurance that missionaries would be per- mitted to settle with their converts in the new homes, so great a mistrust of the whites had been aroused in the Indian mind by the perfidy of the recent past. Meantime the mission at New Fairfield enjoyed a steady career of usefulness, though frequent changes in the force of 98 A HISTORY OF missionaries were necessary. John Schnall died at his post of duty in September, 1819, having been identified with the mission since 1801. Abraham Luckenbach came from Goshen to assume charge. He had already served as a missionary amongst the Indians for nineteen years, and was to be the lead- ing spirit at New Fairfield for another period of twenty-four years, with various assistants from time to time. In the year 1833 C. J. La Trobe of London, who visited the reservation in the course of his travels in America, described the tract as distinguished for the richness of its alluvial soil and its luxuriant growth of sugar maple, white pine and oak. He pictures the settlement as formed of "one principal street of rude log cottages, at some distance apart from each other, stretching across an open space, flanked by wheat fields, and almost surrounded by a bend of the river." About six hundred acres were under cultivation. But soon an eventful change took place, partly on account of repeated encroachments of white settlers notwithstanding the fact that the reservation had been granted in perpetuity. In the early summer of the very next year after La Trobe's visit, three reliable Indian brethren, Abraham, Augustus and Noah, were sent to make reconnaissance in the United States territory west of the Mississippi, near the head waters of the White River. Returning in the latter part of October, they reported that they had not reached the intended objective, but had visited the Delawares about three hundred and thirty miles northwest of St. Louis, from whom they met a reception that could not be called cordial. This report at first had dampened the spirit of migration. Yet from time to time the project was renewed, and was finally carried out in 1837. Meantime the winter of 1835-36 was marked by a deep revival of religion, and at the close of the latter year the congregation numbered two hundred and eighty-two persons. MORAVIAN MISSIONS. 99 CHAPTER XL THE FOREIGN MISSIONS, FROM 1818 TO 1836. On the restoration of peace in Europe communication with Greenland via Copenhagen could again be regularly maintained. The obstacles were only those which nature placed by fencing in the inhospitable coast with ice blinks and bergs, as when Frederick Christian Kranich was lost at sea in 1824, and in the same year a company of missionaries encountered ten dreadful gales in succession during their outward voyage, the vessel at times becoming unmanageable from the freezing of the rigging and sails, and being severely damaged ofif Staatenhuk. Kleinschmidt's translation of the New Testament was printed by the British and Foreign Society, the first copies being re- ceived in Greenland in July, 1823. The translator unweariedly continued literary labors until his death on December 11, 1832. Parts of the Old Testament, and a Greenland Grammar were his additional memorial. For some time an extension of operations southwards had been desired, to reach the heathen with whom contact had been possible only when they visited their favorite herring fishery five miles from Lichtenau. Narkasamia, near the promontory of Staatenhuk, was selected, and in 1824 Kleinschmidt and his wife, John Conrad Bauss and his wife, with John Arnold de Fries and Martin William Popp, made a commencement. For twelve weeks tent-life had to be endured amid storms, and the exchange effected on October 17, was only to a sod hut of narrow dimen- sions. In a space 28 feet by 12 the six missionaries had to live as best they could. Owing to the uncertainties of transporta- tion the frame of their permanent dwelling did not reach them until June of 1828. IMoreover, the log hut which was erected but not completed in 1825 to replace the sod hut, was almost blown over during a storm early in November. This led to a removal across the Konigsbach, a salmon stream to the north, 100 A HISTORY OF and beyond it the permanent station was established. Popp meanwhile so suffered from rheumatic fever, that he returned to Europe in 1S26. Though traces of ancient buildings, relics of the former Norse settlers, were discovered, the new site also had its disadvantages. No harbor afforded a landing for the trading vessels. One of the very features which had led to its selection, the supply of brushwood that promised to afford fuel, proved inadequate after a considerable number of Eskimo fami- lies had been attracted to the place, and dependence had to be put upon imported coals, brought from Juhanenhaab. Never- theless for missionary purposes Friedrichsthal was admirably situated. Umiak after umiak of heathen South and East Green- landers came to the place. The work of evangelization pro- gressed with marked rapidity. On September 2, 1824, the first convert, Samuel Ivenak, was baptized. By the end of 1825 two hundred and fifty Greenlanders were living here. When the centenary of the Greenland mission was celebrated, January 19, 1833, the total membership of the mission was 1,808 souls. During the century one hundred and two missionaries had served — some of them for remarkably long periods: John Beck, 43 years; his son Jacob, 52; John Sorensen, 47; John Fliegel, 41; John Gorke, 44; John Grillich, still in service, 46 years; and Conrad Kleinschmidt, almost 40 years. Four mis- sionaries had lost their lives at sea, Daniel Schneider in 1742; the widowed Sister Konigseer and Christian Heinze in 1786, and Frederick Kranich in 1824. In Labrador the mission was being steadily developed. As in the case of Greenland, the British and Foreign Bible Society assisted by printing various portions of the Scriptures in the dialect of Labrador — the Epistles and the Apocalypse, Genesis, etc. Seven hundred hymns, translations by Traugott Martin and George Schneider, were printed by the Society- for the Fur- therance of the Gospel, and reached Labrador in 1825. For a number of years it had been desired that the arm of the mission might reach out helpfully towards the heathen of the northern stretches of the coast. In the spring of 1828 the mis- sionaries at Okak commenced to prepare building materials for this projected extension of operations. Permission was re- ceived from the British government to found a fourth station, coupled with the use of the coast for missionary operations as far as the 59th degree of north latitude. At length in 1829 the MORAVIAN MISSIONS. Id bay of Kangertluksoak was selected by Sturmann and John Christian Beck, and in April of the following year Beck and Jonathan Mentzel set out for this place sixty miles distant from Okak, and on dog sleds conveyed thither the framework of a house. Every circumstance conspired to favor the enterprise. Kmoch could declare that in all the thirty-three years of his experience he had never known a better condition of the ice- encrusted well-packed snow to have been maintained for so long a period. Though one hundred and five journeys in all were made by the faithful dogs, rarely did it require more than one day to cover the sixty miles between the two places ! By July 8 the frame was erected and by the 21st protected with weather- boarding. Next day — the programme could not have been better carried out if previously arranged — the Harmony dropped anchor in the bay, and with her a sister ship, the Oliver, char- tered to bring special stores and building materials for the new station, named Hebron. The entire season was so favorable that Lundberg, the superintendent, reports a journey from Nain to Okak, ninety miles apart, accompHshed by his dogs in one day! But fair seasons and mild winds are the exception in Labra- dor. In contrast with this dovetaiUng of plans, the voyage of the Harmony in 1836 was one of the most memorable she ever made. Two hundred miles ofT the coast she met drift ice in treacherous masses of great thickness, often concealed by a cov- ering of water too shallow for a ship, and threatening her safety from the heaving of the ground-swells. Only by letting down fenders of tow or "cable junk'' was serious injury averted from the vessel. For eight days she remained embedded in the ice, with not a drop of water in sight. Hopedale harbor had been clear of ice only two days when she entered it on August 4 — a providential circumstance its being free, otherwise in the nar- row and rocky channels destruction would have been inevitable. During her return voyage a storm raged on September 26, when a heavy sea carried away her skifT hanging astern, stove the cabin windows, swamped the cabin, washed away the bin- nacle and cook house, broke the wheel and nearly killed the man beside it. Five days later she rescued nine men from a wreck after they had been reduced to the last extremity of famine and exposure, one man dying on the follov.-ing night. For the mar- vellous protection of the Lord all through the series of years 102 A HISTORY OF from the founding of the mission a sense of gratitude was deep- ened in the hearts of its friends, when the events of this voyage became known. Steady progress and advance in the number of stations and in the widening of educational activities now characterized the work in the West Indies. On the Danish islands the favor of royalty was experienced in connection with a rescript of Decem- ber 24, 1830, which put the operations of the Brethren on the same footing with those of the State Church, and the valuable regard of the local government and of the planters continued to be enjoyed. On the English islands a new feature was introduced by the increased activity of the Anglican Church and its devel- opment of a more thorough organization through the appoint- ment of bishops for two dioceses with their seats in Jamaica and Barbados. Here, too, the premonitions of emancipation were accompanied with more or less grave disturbances. As so frequently, the turbulence of the forces of nature had also to be taken into account, severe tornados marking several of the years and increasing the financial burdens of the work. Most alarming of all was that of August 10 and 11, 1831, on Barba- dos. The church at Sharon was completely wrecked and the mission-houSe damaged, vv^hilst church and mission-house at Mount Tabor were left in complete ruin, the missionaries Zippel and wife, with their son escaping as by a miracle. This last calamity called forth liberal gifts in England and America for the rebuilding of the stations. Various experiences demonstrated the fact that travel by sea was not yet unattended with dangers. In June, 1820, Christian Glockler and his wife, together with Sister Scharf and seven children of different missionary families on their way to school, took passage for Germany. On July 15 altogether unexpect- edly Glockler's wife was carried ofif by a malignant fever of which the mate of the ship had previously died. A sailor in the vigor of young manhood was next seized, and was also com- mitted to the deep. Then through the perversity of a self-willed pilot the night of August 16 found them stranded on the coast of Holland. Taking to the boats, and abandoning all their efifects, unprovisioned, with nothing but their lives and the clothing that had been hastily donned, the passengers and the ship's company with difficulty made the island of Ter Schilling. Here the burgomaster set an example of Christian benevolence. MORAVIAN MISSIONS. IO3 The castaways were kindly cared for and furthered on their way. In May of 1823 a thrilling experience was made by William Eberman and his wife, newly appointed to St. Croix. They set sail from Philadelphia. When only one hundred miles out, a sudden squall threw the ship on her beam ends. Sister Eber- man was in her cabin at the time. Water was rapidly pouring in, and she was imprisoned. With difificulty a hole was cut through the deck with axes. When the rescuers reached her, they found the water already up to her neck. Nothing daunted, however, the brave missionary couple proceeded by a later opportunity, ready to endure hardness for Christ Jesus. At the close of the year 1834, after a little more than one hundred years of labor, the missions on the Danish islands num- bered 10,321 members — in St. Thomas, 1,998; St. Croix, 6,682; St. John, 1,641. In Jamaica a new era had begun. Carmel's pestilential site was exchanged for the romantic slopes of the Mayday Hills. Here the attention of Louis Stobwasser, when on an official visit, was attracted to the prospects for an opening by the gathering of negroes around Samuel Hoch who had retired to the uplands for the sake of health. Situated as his retreat was near the summit of a high mountain, the torrid heat of the lowlands v^as never known ; and yet it never became so cold that fire was needed. The blue of the sun-lit sea feasted the eye in the distance. To the south the savannah, pasture land inter- spersed with shady groves, formed the foreground of a magni- ficent view. Westward the Santa Cruz mountains, about ten miles aw^ay and studded with cofifee plantations, rose beyond a plain covered with guinea grass, woodland and well-tilled fields. To the northwest undulating tracts, hill after hill, stretched out to meet the horizon. Well might the spot elicit its name — Fairfield. Stobwasser having disposed of the property at Carmel, acquired land here for a mission, and John Ellis, lately transferred from Antigua to superintend the work in Jamaica, undertook the establishment of opera- tions. A church was dedicated on January 15, 1826. Irwin Hill was meanwhile doing well, and a new church could soon be consecrated there, to be speedily followed by New Carmel, Fulneck and Bethlehem— all by the end of the year 1831, whilst a new attempt was also made at Mesopotamia. 104 ^ HISTORY OF And now came the anxieties and the opportunities of the transition period leading to complete emancipation. For a quarter of a century the importation of blacks from Africa had been inhibited. But a slave population of six hundred thousand existed on the islands under the British flag. The long labors of Wilberforce and Buxton at last ripened in the decree that slavery should be abolished through the payment of twenty millions sterling as compensation to the proprietors. This legislation of 1833 ^^^^ preceded by various premonitions of trouble, notably in Antigua in 183 1 and in Jamaica in 1S33. As far back as 1823 there had been friction between the As- sembly of the latter island and the home government, the points especially at issue being the abrogation of Sunday markets, the cessation of the practice of carrying a whip in the field and the exemption of women from all forms of corporal punishment. Sentiment was aroused to such an extent that there were threats of transferring the allegiance of Jamaica to the United States, or even of aiming at independence. The excitement reached the slaves themselves. Agitators persuaded them, that if they did not now strive for freedom, emancipation would be forever lost. A rebellion broke out on December 28, 1831. The mili- tary speedily crushed it ; but property had been destroyed to the value of $3,334,885. A number of clergymen of various churches were arrested and tried by martial law, and acquitted, on the charge of inciting the slaves to rebellion. The animosity of some slave-holders towards those who were trying to ameli- orate the spiritual condition of the blacks caused the destruction of Wesleyan and Baptist churches in the parishes of St. Ann, Trelawny and St. James, whilst personal insults and injuries were suffered by the missionaries. During this time of excitement Henry Gottlieb PfeifTer, the Moravian missionary at New Eden, was seized, and taken to Mandeville by a lieutenant with a squad of thirty men. Explicit charges were not forthcoming. Trial by courtmartial was set for January 15, 1832, one week hence. In vain did John Ellis endeavor to secure a copy of the indictment. Knowledge in advance respecting the exact form of the accusation was withheld from prisoner. V^erbal testimony for the defense was ruled out, written evidence alone being admitted. Legal as- sistance was refused, though he had only imperfect knowledge of the English language and still less acquaintance with English MORAVIAN MISSIONS. 1 05 legal procedure. Against him two women and two men were produced. Verbal evidence in accusation was in order. Jus- tice seemed suspended. The principal witness for the prose- cution was brought from prison to the court, and had not sat under the preaching of Pfeiffer for two years. ^Moreover he was soon afterwards shot as an active agent in the insurrection. The other m.ale witness was more than suspected of having perjured him.seif in connection with the trial. One of the women had been excluded from church fellowship six years previously for adultery, and had not been seen in the church of late ; nevertheless she proposed to testify concerning the pulpit utterances of the minister. The evidence offered by the other woman was to the effect that he had publicly incited the negroes to rebellion in his address to them at Christmas — an absurdity on the face of it, since in the audience on that occasion were persons who were slaveholders. Inevitably acquittal followed. But amid the wrought-up feehngs of the times the week had "been one of deepest anxiety for poor Pfeififer. Freedom was not delayed by the disturbances. By Act of Parliament on and after the first of August, 1834, slavery be- came impossible throughout the British colonies. An appren- ticeship of four or six years, according to the class of employ- ment, was however inaugurated, to prevent evils that might have come from too hastily overturning the existing order of affairs. No less than 3 11, 070 of the inhabitants of Jamaica were affected by this beneficent legislation. Meanwhile very few Moravian negroes had been implicated in the late disturbances, even to the extent of abandoning their work for a few days. Not one member was convicted of an act of violence — not even in congregations like New Carmel, New Fulneck, Mesopotamia, Malvern and Beaufort, near to the chief scenes of rebellion. Whole properties where the Brethren had been privileged to preach, remained perfectly quiet, though incendiary fires were blazing within a few miles of them. In some cases Moravian "native helpers" were entrusted with and g-uarded their mas- ter's property, when he himself had to flee. In anticipation of complete emancipation special attention was now given to the work of education. By March, 1834, no less than twenty-six JMoravian schools were in operation. In spite of all apprehensions Emancipation Day, August i, 1834, a public holiday by Act of Assembly, was spent by the I06 A HISTORY OF liberated multitudes in a manner worthy of its significance. The thankful people thronged the churches, and with devout hallelujahs ascribed their dehverance to Almighty God. The religious life of the people was deepened by their great experi- ence. All the mission stations felt the impetus of the change- Churches had to be enlarged or new structures built. A great desire for instruction arose, though superstitions and obeahism did not die in a day. At the end of the year 1835 the total membership on the island was 8,521, an increase of 1,339 ^^ twelve months. In the eastern English islands a similar advance took place. During the year 181 9 six hundred and seventy-two adults were baptized in Antigua. St. Johns budded out into new congre- gations, Newfield in 1819 and Cedar Hall in 1822. When Chris- tian Frederick Richter died in September, 1825, he could rejoice in the knowledge that his labors had not been in vain. Joseph Newby followed him as superintendent, to be succeeded in turn by Bennet Harvey in 183 1. At the close of the year 1835 the mission counted 10,654 members, a gain of about three thousand in less than twenty years. In St. Kitts Bethesda was consecrated in 1821 and Bethel was commenced in 1831, and during the period a net increase of about one thousand souls brought the membership to 3,168. In Barbados, where John Taylor was superintendent, Sharon- was the only congregation at the commencement of the period, with a membership of from two to three hundred. Tabor was placed at the disposal of the mission by the Haynes family of Bellmount in 1826 — on a beautiful elevation commanding a fine view out to sea and in the midst of a populous neighborhood that supported fifty sugar mills. Both stations speedily arose from their ruins after the storm of 1831, and a wide-spread re- vival of religion followed. In May, 1835, the dedication of a third church, on Roebuck Street, in Bridgetown, was Taylor's last achievement, before yellow fever, fatal to ten West Indian missionaries at this time, brought his fruitful labors to an end. The Barbados mission, exclusive of Bridgetown, for which re- turns are not at hand, had increased to 1,441 members. In 1826 at the repeated solicitations of members of the Ham- ilton family, who had sought to promote the establishment of a mission there in Montgomery's day, a renewed attempt was made on the island of Tobago by Peter Ricksecker from Penn- MORAVIAN MISSIONS. 10/ sylvania. The station at its dedication two years later received the name of iMontgomery. Very frequent changes in the mis- sionary force on this island were necessitated by its unhealthy climate ; but at the end of the year 1835 the new station num- bered 309 members. At the opening of the period operations in the colony of Suri- nam were practically confined to the capital and a few estates whose mianagers permitted occasional visits of missionaries. In January, 1821, a great conflagration swept away four hundred buildings in Paramaribo, exclusive of those on side or rear streets. The roaring torrent of flame came seething across to the very edge of the Brethren's quarter, and for twenty-four hours seemed irresistible. Their prayers were heard in its being averted from the church. The deliverance was so signal, that following as it did on the heels of a great mortality from small-pox, very many were led to seriously inquire the v,'ay of salvation, and before the end of the year ninety-six adults were baptized. New estates now began to be thrown open — by 1826 six, thir- teen during the following year, and ninety within a decade. It was impossible to pay as close attention to the slaves as was desired, for they were compelled to stay within the Hmits of the estates to which they belonged, and during the early part of this period only five missionary couples were stationed in the cap- ital. But the effort was made to visit each estate at intervals of about eight weeks. Intercourse was had by v/ater up the rivers, the boats and boatmen for the regular round of visits being provided through the Dutch Society for the Promotion of Christian Knowledge amongst the Negroes of Surinam, founded in 1828. This same society manifested its appreciation of the missionaries' labors by defraying about half the cost of the new church which the increase of miembership in Para- maribo now rendered necessary. Commenced in July, 1827, its dimensions 95 by 60 feet, it was built over and around the old church in such a manner that the regular round of the services was not interrupted while its walls arose. The governor of the colony lent his countenance and personal financial aid. The reputation of the Brethren was also shown by the transfer to them of the spiritual care of the prisoners and slaves in the fort of New Amsterdam and the suburb of Zeelandia (Combe), with I08 A HISTORY OF the evident desire of thus contributing to prepare the black population for emancipation. Though the Harmony of the Four Evangelists, translated into Negro-English, had been published in 1821, as yet no por- tion of the Bible itself had been printed for circulation amongst the negroes of Surinam, few of them hitherto being able to read. The New Testament in this mongrel tongue existed in manu- script. Now the British and Foreign Bible Society judged that the time had come to place it in the hands of the people. The mission naturally felt the good effects of this beneficence ; for even where older persons could not themselves read, it often happened that their children could do this service for them. Paramaribo could now report 2,133 members, and about 400 were in addition scattered among the plantations, whilst Char- lottenburg on the Cottica, about thirty miles to the east of the city, was founded in 1835 as a center of operations for about eighty estates. During the official visit of Christian Ignatius La Trobe, the Secretary of the Society for the Furtherance of the Gospel, who landed on Christmas Eve, 1815, a number of proposals had been received for the commencement of new missions in Cape Col- ony. One of these was accepted. Though within the colony, it was to furnish a basis of work amongst the Kaffirs, being sit- uated on the White River, a tributary of the Sunday, about four hundred miles east of Capetown, in the Uitenhagen district. On February 15, 1818, John Henry Schmidt, who was to superintend its establishment, set out from Groenekloof (Mamre), with his wife and John Frederick Hoffman and God- frey Hornig. At Genadendal they were joined by the widowed Sister Kohrhammer. Their destination was reached on April 17; and several families of Hottentots from Genadendal, the nucleus of Enon, as the new place was named, set to work with them to clear away the mimosa bushes, prepare the ground for cultivation and erect temporary homes. Scarcely was the work opening up, when the border territory was plunged into all the horrors of a war of rival savages, T'Gaika and Stambe. On February 9, 1819, a band of Kaffirs suddenly rushed from neighboring wood and made off with two hundred and thirty- five head of cattle belonging to the Enon. Until March 7 the mission, isolated, and with the nearest neighbors a day's jour- ney distant, was in expectation of the worst. Guards were set MORAVIAN MISSIONS. IO9 day and night, and their vigilance alone averted an actual at- tack. Food became very scarce. But at last the colonial forces pushed the raiders back across the border. Yet a second inva- sion followed, and the mission was reluctantly abandoned by the advice of the colonial authorities, after nine Hottentot Christians had fallen under the Kaffirs' assegais whilst defend- ing their herds. At Uitenhagen suitable quarters were ap- pointed, and the utmost kindness was experienced at the hands of Colonel Cuyler. In October, peace being concluded, John Peter Hallbeck, now superintendent of the entire mission, led the return. Desolation marked the track of the African war- riors. Blackened ruins showed where houses had once stood. Orchards and gardens had been ruthlessly destroyed. Yet it was a comfort to know that their one hundred and fifty-five Hottentots were resolved to stand by the missionaries at any risk and with them reerect their Christian village. About this time another product of Hottentot diligence was a standing refutation of the slander that the Hottentot was and must remain one of the laziest of men. Across the Zonderend at Genadendal under missionary supervision, they built by vol- untary labor a bridge one hundred and fifty feet in length, wide enough for ox-teams, and resting on five massive piers. No such structure existed in the entire colony, and its completion made a sensation. But efforts at improvement suffered a check through a general failure of the wheat harvest in 1820 and 1821. The price rose to five times the normal figure. During the early part of 1822 at Genadendal alone three hundred recipients of charity were on the hands of Hallbeck. Fortunately the yield of fruit this year was unusually large, Schmidt's famous tree in its old age bearing fifteen sacks of pears. In 1823 Michael Peterleitner and his wife took charge of a hospital for lepers recently established by government in a ro- mantic valley under the shadow of the Tower of Babel moun- tain not far from the sea coast and Cape Town. Christian Hot- tentots were amongst the earliest inmates, and the steward of Hemel en Aarde, as the place was called, was a native convert, the first instance of one of his people receiving a position of trust other than that of a non-commissioned officer in a Hotten- tot regiment. Here the manifest blessing of God rested upon the self-denying labors of the missionary couple. When their teacher died suddenly from apoplexy, whilst in the act of ad- I 10 A HISTORY OF ministering baptism on Easter Monday, 1829, he was mourned as a father. John Christian Tietze became his successor. Meantime in 1824 a fourth station was begun, Elim, about forty miles southeast of Genadendal. Now sundry innuendos appeared in public prints at Cape Town, an anonymous writer who shielded his personality under the pseudonym of "Rusticus" alleging that the missionaries were not disinterested in their efforts to promote the material welfare of the natives. As so often under similar circumstances, when the accused secured an ofificial investigation their complete vindication followed, and with it came an unqualified expression of the confidence of gov- ernment in their aims and methods. Indeed, Lord Somerset, the Governor, in 1827 gave special publicity to his sympathy. On the northeast frontier a Tambookie chieftain named Bowana had requested that missionaries be sent his people. The Lon- don Missionary Society, the Glasgow Missionary Society and the Wesleyans liad ah-eady founded missions in KafTraria. Yet it pleased the Governor to solicit from Hallbeck the services of the Moravian Church. He himself, with John Fritsch and sev- eral natives undertook an exploration of Bowana's territory — no pleasure jaunt in the cold of a South x\frican winter. On June 27 snow-drifts several feet high had to be passed. On the night of the 29th Hallbeck's wagon stuck in the river Tarka, and his wet clothing was frozen stifif. Along the Oskrall and the Klippaat rivers Bowana pointed out land eligible for a mis- sion. In February, 1828, Lemmertz, Hoffmann and Fritsch, with twenty-odd Hottentots and Wilhelmina Stompjes, a Chris- tian Tambookie Kafifir woman, set out for permanent occupa- tion of Shiloh, as the new station was to be named. But mis- sion work on the Klipplaat had to encounter many obstacles. Bowana found objection after objection when it came to the question of building, notwithstanding his fine speeches of the year before. His Tambookies were stolidly indifferent. Then knavish Fetkanna raiders swooped down on the cattle. Locusts ravaged the gardens. In 1829 Mapasa, a son of Bowana, led fifty armed men to the mission with a view to massacre the very people whom his father had invited. Had it not been for Wil- helmina, the fate of the strangers had been sealed. She was at work helping her husband, the gardener of the mission, when her countrymen marched in, bedecked with gaudy crane feathers and lavishly smeared paint. The war dress told her quick MORAVIAN MISSIONS. Ill glance the murderous intent of the young chief. Although Kaffir etiquette expected silence on the part of a woman in an assembly of men, she boldly pushed in amongst the gleaming assegais, and with all the fervid eloquence of a righteously indig- nant woman dared Mapasa to his face. With reproaches for his treachery, she energetically bade him begone. Somewhere be- neath his war paint the young African possessed a conscience, and this conscience the honest fideHty of Wilhelmina touched. He gave orders to withdraw, and next day sent an apology for having caused alarm. Now a change for the better set in. Early in the next year the baptism of the first converts took place, one of them the future mother of John Nakin, hereafter to grace the record as consecrated native minister. By December, 1835, Adolphus Bonatz preached to 340 Tambookies in addition to his 162 Hot- tentots, and the former could enjoy the Church Litany and the history of our Lord's passion and death in their own tongue. Tambookies stooped to agriculture, and old prejudices were breaking down. Meanwhile at Genadendal a remarkable revival of religion blessed the year 1833. When slavery was abolished, on Decem- ber I, 1834, the mission in the Colony had reached a member- ship of 2,386. In all the missionaries of the Moravian Church now had 51,000 souls in their recognized care. 112 A HISTORY OF CHAPTER XII. i THE MISSIONS, FROM 1836 TO 1857. Uneven pulsations mark the onrush of the incoming tide. Here it surges with a swirl and a dash ; there lapping wavelets almost imperceptibly achieve and maintain their advance. Not every wave carries its front of foam as far as the preceding. Momentarily the appearance of retrogression may deceive a casual onlooker. Nevertheless all the while in the main and all along the entire Hne of the coast the tide is steadily adding depth to depth; where children were lately playing, the deep laden barque may now ride with even keel. Somewhat similar are the impressions received by one who observes the gradual advance of the missionary cause for any considerable period. The ultimate gains become clear, even though here and there increase has fallen below the general ratio or though retro- gression has temporarily characterized specific phases of opera- tion. The period now under review illustrates this principle. On the whole it was one of marked advance. The forty-four stations of 1836 became sixty-nine by 1857, the two hundred and eighteen missionaries became three hundred. The souls in charge increased from 51,097 to 71,347. Yet in 1840 the mis- sion treasury was burdened with a debt of $35,000. Extraor- dinary exertions and the liberality of friends resulted in its re- moval within ten years. A mission had been attempted on a new continent, Australia, and temporarily abandoned. Some undertakings appeared to remain at a standstill; others had gone forward with a bound. In Greenland the hopes which led to the founding of Fried- richsthal, not far from Cape Farewell, had been speedily realized through the removal thither of heathen Eskimos from the east coast. By this time comparatively few unbaptized persons could be found between Friedrichsthal and New Herrnhut, though the roving life of the Eskimos in search of a livelihood MORAVIAN MISSIONS. II3 decidedly interfered with their advance in culture. For this reason since the year 1840 special attention had been directed to the founding of schools at the fishing villages. True, study had to be pursued among unfavorable circumstances, for the young men had to go fishing or seal hunting in their kayaks during the day, and could give to the instruction only the half- attention of weariness. Yet such as it was, it was appreciated, now that the New Testament was in the hands of the people. By the close of the present period rudimentary instruction was being imparted at twenty outposts in addition to the four schools at the stations. Ever and again the fearful drawbacks of Hfe on the ice- mantled, fog-curtained desolation, called Greenland, inevitably reasserted themselves. Seasons of scarcity came, whose inten- sity was magnified by the inborn improvidence which Christian education could only slowly eradicate. Such a period of dis- tress was the winter of 1842 to 1843 ^^ Lichtenau, where out of five hundred adults sixty-two were carried ofif by an epidemic within seven weeks. The missionary in charge writes : ''Owing to absolute want of hands to dig new graves, many of the corpses had to be deposited in old places of sepulture — a prac- tice to which the baptized Greenlanders were unwilling to have recourse." Labrador likewise had its years of leanness, the winter of 1836 to 1837 being memorable for its misery, especially at Nain, Okak and Hebron. A famine raged. Ordinary food com- pletely failed. Tent-coverings of skin, skin-canoes, and skin- boots were masticated and swallowed to satisfy the unappeased gnawings within. Scurvy broke out. The missionaries mean- while strained every nerve to render help, and shared their sup- plies with their people. When the famine was relieved, the dearth of dogs rendered impossible the remunerative pursuit of the chase in the next season. The condition of the heathen in the far north excelled in its utter distress. One savage was known to have killed his wife and children, and to have sup- ported his own life by the horrible food thus obtained. The new station at Hebron was completed with the dedica- tion of its church in October, 1837. But much opposition had to be encountered from the heathen, led by an old grey haired sorcerer, Paksaut. Yet Mentzel and Barsoe and Schott labored on in hope against hope. What was their surprise, therefore, 9 114 ^ HISTORY OF in February, 1848, to receive a visit from tu'o men as tlie ad- vance couriers of various families who desired to remove from Saeglek, the headquarters of the opposition, and settle at Heb- ron. By summer eighty-one of these benighted followers of the sorcerer had become inhabitants of the place, and the old sorcerer himself being drawn into the favorable environment before long expressed his deep penitence for his former satanic doings, and asked whether Jesus would hear him if he prayed. In February, 1850, the baptism of this erstwhile renowned "angekok" and that of his wife, after a long and thorough pro- bation, made a deep impression as a triumph of grace. In Labrador and the adjacent Arctic lands attempts were now made at extensions of missionary activity, though no sta- tion was actually founded. In 1847 Captain Parker, of the Truelove, a whaler from Hull, visited Northumberland Inlet, west of Cumberland Island. The shores of this bay and the numerous islands which studded it he found well peopled by Eskimos — at this time suffering from famine. Captain Parker at their own soHcitations took an Eskimo couple to England, and there they excited much interest. The owner and the cap- tain of the Truelove urged on the Moravian Church the plant- ing of a mission on Northumberland Inlet. The negotiations resulted in an agreement, that when Captain Parker returned his Eskimos to their home together with the supplies of food furnished by British beneficence, he should touch at Greenland on the way, and take with him Samuel Kleinschmidt for the commencing of a mission. But tlie'ice-barrier at Upernavik and the death of the Eskimo woman from consumption with the unwillingness of her husband to proceed to their former home rendered the project a failure. During the winter of 1856 to 1857 Augustus F. Eisner of Hopedale performed a very trying sleigh journey south-west to Eskimo Bay, a settlement of the Hudson's Bay Company near the great inlet of Ivuktoke, to ascertain if some method of permanently ministering to the sparse settlements could be inaugurated. The Hudson's Bay Company was desirous of the estabHshment of a mission, and had extended an invitation. The adventurous party was one of five. A ten days' journey by dog-sled and snow-shoe brought them to Rigolette, the headquarters of the Company. Their report was unfavorable. In a district about one hundred and fift}' miles in length only MORAVIAN MISSIONS, II 5 twenty-one fisher families were to be found. These with ten families of Eskimos constituted the entire population. In June, 1857, Matthew Warmow of Lichtenfels accompanied Captain Perry in the Lady Franklin to Cumberland Inlet, and conversed with and preached to the people at various points, whilst he spied out the land. Special interest attaches to the voyage of John Augustus Mientsching;!^ for many years a missionary in Labrador, who was engaged as interpreter for the expedition fitted out in 1850 by the British Government to search for Sir John Franklin, one of the fifteen expeditions sent out by Britain and America to rescue the officers and crews of the ill-fated Erebus and Terror. On the Investigator JMiertsching sailed from England in Janu- ary, 1850, and passed the winter of 1850 to 185 1 at the Princess Royal Islands, only thirty miles from Barrow Strait. A north- west passage was discovered, but could not be reached owing to a branch of the paleo-crystic ice that barred the way. As soon as possible in 185 1 Captain McClure turned his ship south, and rounding Baring Island wintered next on the northern shore of Bank's Land in the "Bay of God's ]Mercy," musk-oxen affording food. In April, 1853, the time had been appointed for abandoning the ship, so as to reach the American continent over the ice, when three days previous to the set date the pres- ence of the Resolute and the Intrepid became known. On ]\Iay 2 the weary company were received on board the rescuing ves- sels. For two years their daily allowance had been two-thirds of the regulation rations. Captain Kellett of the Resolute showed Miertsching distinguished kindness. His services as interpreter had been invaluable, and he had contributed no little part to the efforts of the officers to systematically provide in- struction and amusement as a counterpoise to the melancholy dreariness of the long Arctic nights. As a missionary explora- tory tour the long voyage, ending in October, 1854, was with- out permanent results. In the Danish West Indies this was a time of transition. The connection of the missions with trade for the support of the work was gradually ceasing. The Creole patois step by step gave place to the English. A system of education was being inaugurated by government, with a view to prepare for the emancipation of the slaves, rendered inevitable by Britain's cx- am.ple. In the year 1839 Governor General Van Scholten, at Il6 A HISTORY OF the instance of the King of Denmark, paid a visit to Herrnhiit, and laying before the authorities of the church his plan for the inception of elementary schools, proposed that a commence- ment be made on the island of St. Croix, and that the teachers be supplied by the mission, whilst the government would erect the buildings and render financial aid. It seemed a providential call. Accordingly in 1840 Bishop Breutel was dispatched to confer prehminarily with the missionaries and arrange neces- sary details. Eight schools were soon built, each to accommo- date from one hundrd and fifty to two hundred children. With considerable ceremony the first was opened on May 18, 1841, on Great Princess Plantation, near the grave of Frederick Mar- tin, the governor and other civil authorities lending the encour- agement of their presence. Teachers were at first secured from among members of the church trained in the normal schools of the Mico Charity. In 1847 the new school system was extended to St. Thomas, having previously been inaugu- rated in the smaller island of St. John. On September 18, 1847, King Christian VIII issued a decree emancipating all who should be henceforth born of slave par- entage in his West Indian colonies, and providing for the ces- sation of all slavery at the end of twelve years. Instead of calming discontent, this proclamation rendered the negro popu- lation only the more eager to anticipate the joys of freedom, and in a quiet but determined and very thorough manner a slave insurrection was planned. Alarming reports became current on July 2, 1848, and after dark the ringing of bells and the blowing of conch shells throughout the island of St. Croix made the white population aware that something unusual was immi- nent. Early the next morning the plundering and rioting com- menced. That same day the Governor General issued a procla- mation of emancipation. This did not at once pacify the riot- ers— especially at the east end of the island, where a clash of arms occurred and bloodshed preceded the restoration of order. After the insurrection had been quelled, the Governor General was tried on the charge of dereliction in duty and condemned ; but on an appeal to the Supreme Court of Den- mark an honorable acquittal followed. Buddhoe, or "Gen- eral Bourdeaux," the leader of the insurgents, was captured and exiled to Port of Spain, Trinidad, with the understanding MORAVIAN MISSIONS. II 7 that his Hie should be forfeited if he returned to the Danish islands. Whilst the skies were reddened bv the flames of burnine plantations the missionaries did their utmost to restrain the rioters from violence. For weeks the attitude of the negroes remained threatening, and grave trouble was anticipated on October i, the day set for adjusting wages. Then in particular the good offices of the Brethren proved of peculiar service. As the years passed the fruit of their efforts appeared in growing congregations requiring new and larger churches at each of the three stations prior to 1854. In St. Thomas, Eugene Hartvig removed from Nisky to the town in 1843, to promote educational work and care for the members residing there. Thus a congregation was gradu- ally formed, which increased in importance as the character of the island began to change after emancipation. Plantations were abandoned, but the town of St. Thomas gained from the splendid facilities offered by its magnificent harbor. In the British islands the work of grace coincident with eman- cipation continued. Energetic efforts were put forth to cope with the problem of education. In 1837 Charles James La Trobe was sent out to inspect the schools at the instance of the British government, and as a result funds for the erection of the needed buildings and for the maintenance of teachers began to be gathered in England, and parliamentary grants sup- plemented private beneficence. In 1837 Jacob Zorn, the able superintendent of the mission, founded a normal school at Fair- field, and ten years later a similar institution was begun at Cedar Hall in Antigua for the eastern islands, in charge of Alan Hamilton. In 1854 a training institution for female teach- ers was Hkewise established at St. John's in Antigua, for female teachers, its founder being George Wall Westerbv. Jamaica presented a spectacle of rapid advance. The con- secration of churches at new stations became the order of the day, Bethany (begun in 1835) being followed by Beaufort, ■Nazareth and Xew-Hope (now Salem) in 1838, Lititz in 1839, and Bethabara in 1840. It was in fact impossible to make use of all the opportunities for new work. Yet trials were not ab- sent; the more intense the light, the deeper the shadows. In 1842 a perplexing phenomenon appeared in several parishes of the island, an outburst of one of those periodic stirrings of the Il8 A HISTORY OF deeply emotional nature of the negro peoples, that are to be observed from time to time. This was the organization of a counter-infatuation, MyaHsm, over against the ancient Obeah- ism, that dark heritage received from their African fathers. It proclaimed its purpose to be the cleansing of the world from wickedness through the possession of power to discriminate between good and evil men, and it sought the overthrow of the Obeah. The leaders of this satanic craze seemed to be veri- tably possessed; and for a time there appeared to be a danger of wholesale lapses into heathenism. John Henry Buchner writes : "The mark and sign of these people, who are called Myal-men, is a handkerchief tied quite fast around the waist, and another tied in a fantastical manner around the head. I have seen and spoken to several of them whom I have known before ; but I should hardly have recognized them, their features being distorted, their eyes wild; in fact they had the appear- ance of people who are quite frantic. They are bold and dar- ing, and there is no reasoning with them. This madness com- menced on an estate where several of the late Guinea negroes were located, and now has spread over the whole parish where hundreds are now practicing this MyaHsm. Under these cir- cumstances many breaches of the peace have been committed: more than one hundred cases have been tried, and the jail is filled with these people. Though they have threatened us, they have not yet come to disturb the services in our chapel; but they have molested other places of worship, and we are in con- stant dread of their approach. Every night the howling and singing of the votaries of Myalism reach my ear Supersti- tion is deeply, very deeply, rooted in a negro's mind; and it was distressing to see that so many believed in their doings as if they were from God, and that it was so difficult to persuade them that it was Satan's work One old communicant sis- ter, of Williamsfield, now feeble in body and mind, was per- suaded by the Myal people that the shadow (soul) of her de- parted daughter had no rest, but was upon a cotton tree in the pasture. They directed her to procure a little coffin, covered with black merino, when upon a Saturday night they all, about twenty, went out with her to this cotton tree. A firefly upon the tree was to be the 'shadow.' After singing and dancing for some hours around the tree, they pretended to have caught the shadow, whereupon they closed the coffin and buried it. MORAVIAN MISSIONS. 1 19 On a former occasion a white fowl had been sacrificed to the 'shadow' under the cotton tree, the tree and coffin sprinkled with its blood ; and the same was that night repeated." Piti- fully ludicrous though these proceedings may appear, this gro- tesque superstition worked much trouble, till from the very excess of its own intensity a revulsion of feeling set in, and by the close of 1844 the manifestations became infrequent. But belief in witchcraft and in the Obeah by no means died out. The mission was greatly hampered about this time by the severe sickness of a number of useful workers, and death thinned the ranks. Seven fell from fevers or similar causes within a couple of years. A special loss was sustained when Jacob Zorn, the energetic superintendent, died in 1843. Born of missionary parents, and enthused with the true missionary spirit, wholly consecrated to his work, "a mian of abundant grace and excellent gifts, humble, affectionate and discreet, yet talented, laborious and energetic," he seemed to have been stopped in mid-course, being not quite forty years of age. But to him was given the joy of seeing his labors crowned, and of perceiving the mission emerge out of many embarrassments into strength and vigor. The official visit of Bishop Hermann and William Mallalieu in 1847 l^d to a reconstruction of the arrangements for the supervision of the work on the island. Conferential govern- ment was now introduced, Rudolph Wullschlaegel as superin- tendent having associated with him Pfeiflfer, Spence, Renke- witz and Buchner. But two years later Wullschlaegel was transferred to Surinam, and Buchner took his place. In 1852 the sudden death of James Spence, a loss reminding of that of Zorn, caused the transfer of Jacob Seller from Antigua. In 1850 a time of severest test had to be endured. The cholera swept through the island, and death cut a broad swath. Twenty thousand persons are thought to have perished. New Fulneck and Irwin Hill suffered most, the latter losing one- fifth of its members. Here Abraham Lichtenthaler was the indefatigable missionary. ^Moreover, in consequence of the failure of the coffee and sugar crops ruin spread through the land. Many estates were abandoned. The laboring classes had to shift for themselves. Poverty crippled and idleness in- terfered with the growth of honorable qualities, the while various vices were engendered. Yet with it all the work of the 120 A HISTORY OF mission was steadily prosecuted. When the centenary was celebrated in 1854 the total membership was 12,794, as com- pared with 8,591 in 1836. In Antigua also stations multiplied after emancipation ; Leba- non (1837), Gracefield (1840), Five Islands (1838) and Gracebay (1848) each serving to relieve the overgrown congregation at St. John's, which at one time had a mem.bership of upwards of seven thousand. In the early months of 1843 repeated shocks of earthquake wrought havoc at various posts, the very heaviest being on Feb- ruary 8, when churches, schools, mills, sugar-works and all kinds of stone buildings were thrown down or wrecked. It was the most severe calamity that had transpired on these islands within the memory of man. In some villages scarcely a house was left standing. The south gable of Lebanon church was thrown down. Here and there the earth was full of great cracks, from which oozed a thick and slimy water, smelling strongly of sulphur. For weeks the services had to be held in the open air. On the morning of Good Friday repeated shocks drove the missionary and his people out of the church at Beth- esda, St. Kitts, the building rocking like a ship. Again in August, 1848, a terrific hurricane raged on the islands of St. Kitts, St. Croix and Tobago, as well as on Antigua. St. John's, Lebanon, Gracehill and Cedar Hall were the chief sufferers. At Gracehill the loss was estimated at $6,500, at Cedar Hall from $3,500 to $4,000. The training school was completely de- molished. The mission dwelling nearby resembled a dis- mantled hulk. Beams and furniture, clothing and books were strewn around the fields like stubble for a distance of 400 to 500 yards. During the night, whilst the lightning blazed and the thunder boomed and crashed, the howling wind had made sport with lumber and roofing, chicken-coops, grind-stones, drip- stones and the like; and the fearful artillery of the elements had driven the mission family with the scholars to the cellar as a last place of refuge. All out-buildings and fences had been swept away, and the gardens were ruined. Throughout the greater part of these years (his term of office commencing in 1844 was destined to continue till 1872) the superintendent in Antigua was the energetic and far-seeing George Wall Westerby, who was consecrated a bishop whilst on a visit to England by Bishops Seiflferth and Rogers at Ock- MORAVIAN MISSIONS. 121 brook on July 5, 1853. On January 3, 1856, the ordination of John Buckley as a deacon at St. John's by Bishop Westerby marked an important step in the direction of West Indian development, for with him began the line of Moravian ministers of African blood. St. Kitts in 1845 rejoiced in the founding of a fourth station, Estridge, the Brethren Ricksecker and Klose being specially active in this undertaking. In Barbados, though Clifton Hill was begun in 1839, the num- bers remained apparently stationary. Then in 1854 the cholera carried away one-seventh of the population. More than twelve thousand persons met with sudden death in the course of a few weeks, Sharon and Bridgetown suffering most among the mis- sion stations. In Bridgetown for a time the burials averaged three hundred a day. Drought accompanying the pest, pro- visions were dear, and the misery, especially of the orphaned, was pitiful in the extreme, making incalculable demands on the good offices of the missionaries. At one time, too, riots added 'to the unparalleled distress. At length the day dawned for the mission on the beautiful island of Tobago, though large numbers could not be looked ior, the population being comparatively thin. And this was in spite of the frequent changes in the missionary force demanded by the treacherous cUmate of the beautiful island. True, To- bago escaped trials as little as other places. On September 11, 1847, Montgomery was wrecked by a hurricane, the lives of Prince and his wife, the missionaries, being spared as by a miracle. He pictures the scene of desolation thus: "When our limbs, stifT with the cold of that dreadful night, bore us tremblingly forth from the ark of refuge, what a scene met our gaze! The cocoanut trees had their graceful branches either twisted oflf or dangling down the trunks ; those trees which are of a tougher texture showed the stumps of the branches dis- playing white clusters of splinters, the more brittle of them snapped short of¥. Spouts, rails, beams and shingles were heaped in confusion. The negro houses were a heap of ruins ; the school, flat on the ground, and sliding far down the gully; the church, with the north side stove in, the roof down, and an avalanche of benches, beams, rafters, etc., protruding to a con- siderable distance through the rent on the north side. Our dwelling rooms were deluged— beds, books, clothes and papers 122 A HISTORY OF were wetted and blown together in inextricable confusion The crops of cane and provisions, so smiling the day before^ were all destroyed." Moriah on the other hand had been but little injured. In Surinam two obstacles had still to be encountered, the first inevitable — the fever-breeding climate entailing terrible mortality — the second about to be removed — slavery and its attendant evils. In Paramaribo and on the plantations alike^ the sacredness of marriage among the slaves was not regarded by their owners. Any negro husband might be sold away from his wife and family. Again the education of the slaves was rather dreaded than encouraged, even such rudimentary knowledge as would serve for spelling the way through the Bible. The number of plantations to be visited, so long as the slaves were tied to the soil, involved most exhausting voyages in the narrow dug-out canoes, and at best the instruction could be imparted only at intervals. No wonder that a people barely above the fetishism of Africa made very slow advances in Chris- tian culture and higher Hfe. Sometimes the secret hostility of overseers found pretexts for hindering the visit to his planta- tion ; it was the season of full creeks, perhaps — then the blacks could be given no leisure, being all needed to float timber to market, or to work the mills that crushed the canes. Nevertheless the mission made marvellously rapid strides. Station was added to station — Worsteling Jacobs in 1838, but again abandoned in 1843 owing to its unsuitable situation; Salem in the Coronie district, in 1840; Beekhuizen, near Para- maribo, in 1843 ; Rust-en-Werk, on the lower Comewyne, in 1844; LiHendal, on the same river, becoming an independent station with the consecration of its church in 1848; Annaszorg, an abandoned plantation purchased for the church as a center of operations among the plantations on the Warappa and Mat- appica creeks, in 1853; Catharina Sophia, on the Saramacca, in 1855 ; Heerendyk, the abandoned plantation Nut-en-Schadelyk, in 1856, a relief to Charlottenburg. The congregation in Para- maribo grew remarkably — 5,502 by the middle of 1856. The total membership increased from 3,795 in 1836 to 23,316 in 1857. All honor to the faithful workers, and to the able men in suc- cession charged with the administration of affairs — Rudolph Fassavant, Otto Tank, Henry Rudolph Wullschlaegel and Theopilus van Calker. MORAVIAN MISSIONS. I 23 In spite of the opposition of slave owners to the education of the blacks, schools were not only commenced on a nmnber oi stations, but in 1844 Gottlieb Wiinsche of Rust-en-Werk made a first attempt to train negro lads with a view to their becoming teachers of their own people; and in 1851 a normal school was successfully founded at Beekhuizen, in charge of Herman Voss, and after his early death, under Gustavus Ber- thold. The students were young slaves sent by planters who were favorably disposed. Beginning with the year 1856 a new sphere of usefulness was also entered upon. Government then assigned to the IMoravian Church the spiritual care of the non- Catholic inmates of the hospital for lepers at Batavia on the Copename, and Theodore Dobler was assigned the duties of chaplain, with a faithful native "helper" Jacques as his assistant. Although it had been impossible for several decades to supply the little congregation at New Bambey in the Bush country with a missionary, intercourse with Paramaribo had been main- tained by the few surviving converts. Between 1830 and 1840 repeated visits were also made to them by John Henry Voigt, who found the sons of chief Arabi anxious for a renewal of fixed operations among their people. Jacobs and Rasmus Schmidt followed his example in 1838 and 1840. Thus encouraged, the remnant of the Bush negro congregation built a church and mission house — light structures with wattled walls and roofs of palm thatch. Hither Schmidt and his wife came just before tlie Christmas festival of 1840. The sons of Arabi, Job and John, stood by them loyally, but the determined attitude of the heathen element manifested fixed hostility. Once a heathen woman rushed on Schmidt with a drawn knife, but was fortu- nately disarmed in time. Fever before long did what threats and dangers could not accomplish. Schmidt died on April 12,. 1845. His wife for a tim.e maintained the post alone. Next year John Godfrey Meissner, coming out from Europe, married her, but the fatal climate claimed him as a victim in three years. Then Mads Barsoe and his wife came to the relief of the heroic woman twice a widow. But he also speedily succumbed. In the emergency another noble woman caught up the falling standard, and planted it firmly, the widow ]\Iary Hartmann. She had come to Surinam in 1826, about twenty-nine years of age, with her husband, John Gottlieb, and with him had served in Paramaribo and at Charlottenburg till he was called to his 124 A HISTORY OF eternal rest in 1844. In 1848 she volunteered to go alone to Berg-en-dal, on the Upper Surinam, where a small congrega- tion had formerly been gathered, but which had diminished owing to the unavoidable removal of the missionaries. Here she had ministered, teaching the children and doing the work of a prophetess amongst the adults. Occasionally she had ventured on journeys to the Bush country, though no more proof against fevers than any other European, bodily infirmity at length becoming her cross. Nevertheless after the repeated deaths at Bambey the desolate condition of the few Christians there appealed to her, and she removed thither alone, thus cut- ting herself ofif from intercourse with her fellow countrymen. Year after year this soHtary white woman lived on in the land of savage blacks, and alligators and snakes and venomous spiders and noxious vermin, breathing the heavy steaming air of the swamps. Only once and for one single day during the ensuing four years did she visit her brethren and sisters at Para- maribo, restricting her visit in this manner from the fear lest by reason of attachment to her fellow workers she might be made less willing to go back to the poor negroes of the wilderness. Testimony to the success which crowned her self-immolation is thus borne by a German commissioner sent to inquire into the condition of Surinam at this period : "Our worthy hostess was one of the rare characters of the present age. With the patience of a saint she labored in the midst of these people, imparting religious instruction, and keeping alive the spark of religious life, which so easily becomes extinct The con- gregation she instructed in the church, the children she taught in her own dwelling to read and write Bambey may well be called a Christian village in the midst of the wilderness of heathenism. The peace and quiet, which was not interrupted by any dancing and its attendant horrible yelling, together with the neat and cleanly appearance of the settlement, the inhabi- tants of which about one hundred in number were engaged in the manufacture of earthenware goods, cotton-weaving, and the shaping of coryars, made a pleasing impression upon us." But on December 30, 1853, this heroine was overcome by the hardships of her situation, having been brought to Paramaribo just in time to bid her fellow missionaries farewell. Previous to this her little congregation removed from Bambey to Coflfy- MORAVIAN MISSIONS. 12$ camp, near where the Sara creek empties into the Surinam, on account of the more healthy site. In South Africa Genadendal was prospering. Its business enterprises flourished. The cutlery had to be enlarged to meet the growing demand for its products. Smiths, carpenters, masons, wagon-makers and tanners drove a brisk trade. Dis- tant Shiloh also advanced in externals. Fritsch and Bonatz undertook the erection of a grist-mill, the latter shaping the mill-stones with the labor of his own hands out of materials furnished by the hard sand-stone of the Klipplaat. The aston- ishment of the Kaffirs was boundless, when it was set in mo- tion in 1838, the first mill in the entire region. Here a smithy was also established. Only Enon suffered a retrogression. Owing to repeated seasons of drought the Zondag ceased to flow. Irrigation became impossible. Gardens and fields ceased to be productive. The very trees, the distinguishing ornament of the place, began to perish. The necessaries of life became scanty. Water at last could be procured only by digging in the "Zeekoegats," the low pools in the bed of the river — "pools of the hippopotamus" as the natives called them. Remunerative labor could not be procured in the immediate vicinity, and mi- gration to more favored spots set in. Providentially rains were sent before the station had to be abandoned; but for many years the effects of this drought continued to be felt. Emancipation went into effect throughout this colony on De- cember I, 1838. It affected about 35,000 souls. Partly in an- ticipation of this measure, on November i, 1838, the corner- stone of a normal school for Hottentots, a building seventy- four by twenty-three feet and two stories in height, had been laid. Next year it was opened with nine pupils, Theodore Kiis- ter having immediate charge. Before long candidates for teacherships and for the ministry were entrusted by other mis- sionary bodies also to the care of this seminary. As in the West Indies, the church gained large accessions after emanci- pation. At Genadendal alone four hundred and fifty were re- received within one year, after each case had been carefully de- cided on its own merits. During the season preceding emancipation government had urged the establishment of a new station. About sixty miles west by south of Enon and north of Cape St. Franciscus a tribe of fugitive Kaffirs had taken refuge along the Zitzikamma, 126 A HISTORY OF under the protection of the colonial government. Originally occupying land northeast of the country of the Tambookies, they had been expelled by the more warUke Fetkannas, when these in their turn had fled before the renowned Zulu chief,' Chaka — hence the name Fingoos, "vagrants," given them by fellow Africans. Agreeably to the request of the civil authori- ties, Halter and Kiister and Neuhaus in 1839 made their way to the Zitzikamma. Speedy returns justified the project. Within half a year a Httle village clustered around the mission, and young and old swarmed to the services from the neighbor- ing kraals. A great awakening marked the spring of 1840. Governor Napier, who was deeply interested in the new station, selected for it the name of Clarkson, in honor of the distin- guished advocate of freedom. But now like a bolt from a clear sky, the sudden death of Bishop Hallbeck shocked the mission and its friends. He died •on November 25, 1840, fifty-seven years of age. When he cam.e to the Cape, in 1817, the mission embraced only two sta- tions with about 1,600 souls; now seven with a native member- ship of nearly 4,500. "In him a powerful mind was united with an affectionate spirit ; a capacity for generalization, with a readi- ness to enter into the smallest details ; great ability in direction, with surprising facihty of execution ; originality of thought, with sterling sense and a decided preference for whatever was practical and useful. His plans were ordinarily marked by sotmd judgment, though his temper was naturally arduous and impetuous ; and in the transaction of business he exhibited un- common regularity, energy and despatch. No Hottentot or enfranchised slave found him otherwise than ready to give him counsel in temporal, as well as instruction in spiritual things. Though by no means an eloquent preacher, his discourses were Scriptural and experimental, delivered with great warmth of heart, and accompanied with the demonstration of the Spirit and of power." Teutsch became superintendent, and Rudolph Kolbing came to take charge of the educational work. Extension was the order of the day, amongst colonists and natives. Outposts were regularly maintained — Kopjes Kasteel, Bosiesfeld and Twistwyk being served from Genadendal, Houtkloof from Elim, and Louwskloof, Goedverwacht and Wittezand from Mamre. Nor was the advance one in numbers only. Various agencies MORAVIAN MISSIONS. 12/ were set at work for the spiritual elevation of the people, for example, the formation of a missionary society at Genadendal in 1845. For some time plans for a removal of the hospital for lepers from the mainland had been contemplated by government. At length in December, 1845, ^^e transfer was effected to Robben Island, a small rocky island near the entrance of Table Bay. Joseph Lehman and his wife accompanied the seventy-two un- fortunates to the new home. Since the early thirties the movement of the Boers eastward and northv/ard had been of significance. The exodus involved the trekkers in more or less incessant strife v/ith the native tribes. This reacted upon the condition of the entire eastern border. Kaffir raids became frequent. !Many cattle were Hfted. The proportions of a state of belligerency were almost reached. At last war actually broke out — the War of the Axe, in ^larch, 1846, so named from the fact that the immediate occasion for hostilities was the murder of a Hottentot, to whom a Kaffir thief had been manacled whilst being conveyed to Grahams- town for trial on the charge of stealing an axe. The escort was attacked en route, and the Hottentot slain. In this war the Gaikas and Tambookies played a leading part, under the gen- eralship of Chief Sandili. With the quelling of the outbreak in 1853 British KafFraria was created a colony. At first Shiloh was the only mission station in all Kaffraria that escaped the consequences of the strife. The hand of the Lord was v/onder- fully stretched over it. Thither missionaries of other societies fled. When peace was temporarily restored in 1848, the ad- vance of the frontier to the river Kei brought it within the limits of colonial rule. But this proved no unmixed blessing; for on the founding of Whittlesea hostile traders suggested to government to order the missionaries to push on beyond the frontier and do pioneer work, that the lands which they had reclaimed might be placed at the disposal of settlers. But the authorities had a more just conception of missionary labor. Instead they encouraged the founding of ]Mamre on the Bicha in the vicinity of Fort Peddie ; but with the renewal of hostili- ties this place had to be abandoned. So also Shechem, later Goshen, begun in 1850 on the Windvogelberg. not far from Shiloh, was perforce for a time deserted. At length Shiloh itself was exposed to Kaffir incendiarism. The missionaries 128 A HISTORY OF and about seventy faithful Fingoos found refuge in Colesburg, on the Orange River. Savages applied the torch to the evi- dences of industry and civilization, and after the restoration of peace Shiloh and Goshen had to be completely rebuilt. Meantime Teutsch died at Genadendal on July i6, 1852. Kolbing now became superintendent, with Frederick William Kiihn as his assistant. At the synod of 1857 it could be re- ported that the African mission during twenty years had in- creased from a membership of 3,308 to one of 7,037; and that several natives, trained at Genadendal, were giving promise of distinguished usefulness, notably John Nakin, John Zwelibanzi, Nicholas Oppelt and Ezekiel Pfeififer, the first two Kaffirs, the last two Hottentots. 180 165 150 135 120 105 MAP OF THE SETTIOy slio"wiiig- the S of the MORAVIAN Ml 4-CHURCHKft IN PARAMARIBO (DIhe Great Town Chourck (Z) Combe l3)lUst en Vrcdc (i) TaniocL 58 r' \lslzjid )ions ? 14 a ; •V^>--C^vi 90 75 SO 15 )RU) (.ItEEtLANI) SIGNS Lichtenfe' r r-" Arctic Circle '"^^3!!ji>^u • 00 SO 40 A T L ! -Ascrrt \ A N T 1 ( () r i: A x\ ^ w »; s T ""aribbeau Sea ^; <'lCut "X^S^^Oa!^" IKS ^l-. S* Thonuu Cape de Verdt c ,» Sierra Lcjona STs*fla,^-a/-S'fj6e. -^?9Pl? ; pf "/apricora 10 20 ao LV^^. MORAVIAN MISSIONS. 1 29 CHAPTER XIII. r THE THREE NEW MISSION FIELDS ENTERED BETWEEN THE YEARS 1848 AND 1857 — THE MOSKITO COAST, AUSTRALIA AND CENTRAL ASIA. Along the Caribbean coast of Central America, from the Wama or Sinsin Creek to Rama River, and for about forty miles inland, lies the Moskito Reserve. From 1655 to 1850 this ter- ritory enjoyed a semi-independent status, under the protection of Great Britain, being ruled by a so-called Indian "king." The terms of the Clayton-Bulwer treaty in 1850, and of the treaty of Managua in i860, transferred the protectorate to Nicaragua, and in 1895 all vestiges of semi-independence were swept away. Special attention was directed to this district of Central America about the year 1847 by an attempt of the Prussian government to establish a colony there. But it proved difficult to direct the tide of emigration thither owing to the reputation of the climate. At this time Prince Schonburg-Waldenberg, a hberal supporter of Moravian Missions, earnestly solicited the efforts of the Moravian Church in behalf of the people of this little known land. In response the Conference commissioned Henry PfeifFer and Amadeus A. Reinke, missionaries in Jamaica, to undertake a tour of exploration. Proceeding via Greytown, they reached Bluefields, the capital, a village with JL from six to seven hundred inhabitants, on Mav 2, 1847. The place itself perpetuated the cognomen of a notorious buccaneer of the seventeenth century, one Blauveldt, and was found to be characterized by an absence of religious observances. For the EngHsh speaking people a catechist of the Anglican Church, an ex-schoolmaster from Jamaica, read prayers and a sermon on the Lord's Day. Xow and then unauthorized colored per- sons went through a caricature of infant baptism and collected fees from the negroes whose innate religiousness they imposed upon. 130 A HISTORY OF For the Indians — Moscos, or Moskitos, Woohvas, Ramas, Sumoos and Caribs — who periodicaUy visited Bluefields to trade in tortoise-shells and deer-skins, and pay tribute to their "king," no ray of light pierced the fog of superstition through which they groped. They were the unquestioning slaves of their "sukias" or medicine-men. Their reUgious conceptions were ex- tremely scanty. They had a dim idea of a mighty, good and benevolent being, named "Won Aisa" — Our Father. But no personal relationship subsisted between him and man. It did not enter into their thoughts to honor him with any form of wor- ship. On the other hand a great crowd of evil spirits, the "Ulassa," played a prominent role in their life. These spirits incessantly threaten man and bring upon him all the forms of evil and misfortune to which he is exposed. They scare off the fish which he in vain tries to catch. They cause the tree, as it is being felled, to fall so as to inflict injury. They are at fault, when the arrow or the ball happens to miss the deer caught trespassing in the corn field. They occasion sickness and death — often in league with a personal foe. Yet they were not regarded as the cause of sin, for the Indians themselves were almost unmoral, devoid of ethical judgment. But they lived in constant dread of the bad spirits, and life for them con- sisted largely in efforts to ward off their malevolent influence. The average man was, however, too weak for this. He required special assistance, such as could be alone rendered by the "sukia" or medicine man. The latter beHeved himself enpow- ered to cast out Beelzebub with the aid of Beelzebub. His secret formulas and preposterous mummeries, of which his sim- ple-minded fellow-countrymen stood in awe, procured him the substantial rewards of the successful imposter. Polygamy was common, the number of a man's wives being limited only by his ability to purchase and maintain them. The great vice of the people was drunkenness, the national drink being "machla," an intoxicant decocted from corn. For the rest, the tropical cli- mate induced indolence. The rudest sort of shelter beneath the magnificent shade of the forests, a bow and arrows, a dug-out canoe, an iron pot for cooking and a hammock woven from grasses or the inner bark of trees — and the Indian was content. A string of colored pearls around his neck might be the sole relief of his nakedness, even a breech-cloth being absent. MORAVIAN MISSIONS. I3I The first result of the visit was that the "king" urged the ex- plorers to commence a mission in his territory, and offered a plot of land in Bluefields besides an island inhabited by Rama Indians. The Germans were solicitous of the establishment of stated services in their own tongue, and the British consul promised hearty cooperation. PfeifTer's report and his own wilhngness to become a pioneer led to his appointment, with Eugene Lundberg and Ernest George Kandler as his co-workers. They reached Bluefields on March 14, 1849. Most of the other Europeans, however, re- moved to Greytown, created a free port of entry in 1851 because of the thousands who sought the Golden Gate of California via Nicaragua. In October, 1853, the baptism of the first convert, a negro woman, took place. Intercourse with the Indians was still lim- ited. But as the language was mastered, visits to Indian vil- lages, especially to Pearl Key lagoon, became fruitful. When Rudolph WuIIschlaegel in June, 1855, on his way from Surinam to take his place in the Conference, rejoiced the missionaries by an unexpected visit, and consecrated their new church, the average attendance was about three hundred. The consecra- tion was accompanied by the baptism of one of the sisters of the "king," :\Iatilda, the first of the Indians to openly decide for Christ. Meantime reenforcements had arrived— amongst the rest Paulsen Jiirgersen and wife, who proceeded to Pearl Key lagoon, and founded Magdala. As the crow flies this place was about twenty miles distant, but ten more by the waterway navi- gable for canoes. In 1854 Pfciffer retired. His successor was Gustavus Feurig, well qualified by fourteen years of experience in Jamaica. Mag- dala now gave large promise of results. The visits of the mis- sionaries to Rama Key, an island fifteen miles from Bluefields, awoke a ready response among the Indians, and a church was built in 1857. The blackfeliows of Australia claimed the attention of the church in the years following the synod of 184S. Australia has been compared to "one of the atolls that lie in the tropic waters around it, being in eflfect a great ring of fertile soil surrounded by the barrenness of the ocean, and enclosing in its turn a deso- late sea of rock and sand. In the inhospitable interior of Aus- 132 A HISTORY OF tralia all the kindly influences of nature fail. The rain clouds shun it, or pass over it without meeting the hills that should arrest their course and pour them down in showers upon the yearning soil ; rivers, wandering inland from their sources near the shore, sink into it without causing it to smile ; its secrets are locked in perpetual drought, and its histories are written in the bones of men and beasts, that striving to penetrate its mysteries, only added thereto by the uncertainty of the fate that overtook them in its wilds. But along the entire coast-line, and exending inland variously for a distance of from fifty to two hundred miles, is a belt of rich land." Again between it and the sea of sand and rock that makes up the bulk of the conti- nent, is another belt of poorer soil suitable only for raising sheep, but excellent for that. At the time of the Dutch discovery the habitable strips along the sea-coasts were occupied by the Papuans, the very lowest of savages. Such their descendants have largely remained. Divided into very small tribes, they are nomads by inherited m- stinct. A hut of branches or bark, scarcely affording shelter, is their only home, if such it may be called. For clothing at most they wear an opossum skin or a grass mat. When first discovered they had not a single cooking utensil. Without a domestic animal, and cultivating nothing, their food was the flesh of the kangaroo, opossum, wild dog, lizard, snake, rat, or loathsome reptile or grub, or even that of a fellow man. Their women were slaves and beasts of burden. Their infants were killed without compunctions, if sickly. Of religion they had very little. Their conception of God was that of a gigantic old man, lying asleep for ages with his head resting upon his arm, which is deep in the sand. One day he is expected to awake and eat up the world. Religious ceremonies were confined to circumcision and the "corroboree." In connection with the former, inflicted on youths as they came to maturity, various rites were observed, like the punching of a hole through the nose for the insertion of an ornament, and the knocking out of the two front teeth with a wooden mallet. The corroboree was a midnight orgy, when the naked savages danced and howled till exhausted, having previously so marked their bodies with white clay, that at some distance they resembled moving skeletons. The vilest immorality accompanied these heathen rites. The dead were indeed interred with care in graves lined with bark. f,V--— ■ C** i^t^'^i-l J MORAVIAN MISSIONS. 1 33 and kept free from weeds, whilst food, and after it had been in- troduced, tobacco, might be placed to supply needs in the spirit- world. In ghosts and in witchcraft they had firm faith, and in the power of the "evil eye." It was very unlucky for a man to meet his mother-in-law. To avoid the blight of her counte- nance, he would go far out of his way. Such were the black- fellows, when the whites arrived, and unfortunately for them the first whites with whom they came in contact were those that did them no good. In 1788, eighteen years after Captain Cook's famous explorations, the British Government began to make use of Australia as a penal colony. The convicts taught the natives the vices of civiUzation. Drink began to play havoc amongst them. The ex-convict who remained in the country thought no more of hunting and shooting natives than kanga- roos. Sporadic attempts at missions amongst them had been made by various societies ; but up to the middle of the nineteenth cen- tury the possibility of converting and changing the native Aus- tralians, body, soul and spirit, had not been demonstrated. Meantime they were tending to extinction in colonial Australia. Repeated calls had come to the Moravian Church in the thir- ties and in the forties to have compassion on this race. In Herrnhut, Niesky and other German congregations "Australian Associations" had been formed amongst the young men. for stated prayer and systematic giving in behalf of a future mis- sion. The synod had therefore committed the church to an attempt. Andrew Frederick Christian Tager, a member of Niesky, and Frederick William Spieseke of Gnadenberg were despatched as pioneers, and arrived at Melbourne on February 25, 1850. where a cordial welcome was accorded them by Lieu- tenant Governor Joseph La Trobe, a brother of the Mission Secretary in London. To his kind offices and the sympathy of Christian friends the favorable issue of negotiations for a tract of land and the first establishment of the missionaries in their new home in the "Malice," or scrub, were largely owing. Permanent operations were commenced in October, 185 1, on a reserve in the Lake Boga District. The terms of the grant indeed contemplated a possibility that the course of events might render inexpedient the permanence of the missionary operations in this particular quarter. The climate proved healthy, save that Tager suffered from an affection of the eyes. 134 A HISTORY OF But the natives were exceedingly shy and timid, and their no- madic tendency appeared to be almost invincible. In the year 1854 an additional missionary, Paul Hansen, ar- rived, and La Trobe, resigning office, returned to England. Now the position of the missionaries was rendered trying by the discovery of gold near Mount Alexander. The road to the dig- gings lay along the River Murray and past the station. The unbridled wickedness often attendant upon a rush to gold-dig- gings, and disputes as to the right of way through the mission- tract and the title to the mission-lands, vexed their souls. The civil authorities decided the points in dispute against the mis- sion. Tager, now in poor health, acting on his own responsi- bility as superintendent, and without consulting the authorities at home, in 1856 abandoned the field, though Spieseke pro- tested. After a careful investigation of the whole affair the Confer- ence could not withhold censure. The promise was given, that the honor of the church should be redeemed by a new attempt as speedily as practicable. The third new undertaking of these years had Central. Asia as its objective. From almost the beginning of its missionary" operations the Moravian Church under the leadership of Count Zinzendorf had directed its gaze towards the millions of Mon- g-olia and the Chinese Empire. Several unsuccessful efforts had been made via Russia or Persia. From the standpoint of the church the founding of Sarepta was planned as one pier of a bridge to the Orient. Wlien the Czar Alexander I looked with favor upon the Brethren, Godfrey Schill and Christian Hiibner of Sarepta in 1815 had been quick to renew efforts in behalf of the Asiatics. Two Buriats from Lake Baikal had been con- y^Tted. The Gospels had been printed in Kalmuck Tartar by saac Schmidt of St. Petersburg. But in 1822 an imperial edict had peremptorily prohibited further operations. '^^kJfJir^ ^^^^ representations of Dr. GiJtslaff, of China, when on a visit '"'•'' to -Herrnhut in 1850, therefore received a sympathetic hearing. \' He wished the Moravian Church to again seek to enter the great Chinese Empire from the west, so that two streams of missionary force might meet in the heart of the land when open to Europeans. MOR^WIAN MISSIONS. 1 35 Numerous volunteers came forward. Edward Pagell of Gnadenfrei and Augustus William Heyde of Herrnhut were se- lected. Calcutta was reached on November 23, 1853'. Their first destination was Kotghur, where Mr. Prochnow', of the Church Missionary Society, welcomed and assisted them as laborers in a common cause. Here a considerable period was spent in Hnguistic study under a Tibetan lama. In April, 1855, they set out on a tour of preliminary investigation, in spite of the fact that two Roman Catholic missionaries had recently been murdered when attempting to proceed to Tibet by way of As- sam. At Leh, in Ladak, they were made to feel anything but welcome. .Nor did they discover a bright prospect for a mission in Chinese territory. When the frontier was crossed by passes at heights varying from 13,000 to 17,000 feet above sea level, nothing was gained. Invariably the Tibetans refused to sell provisions of any sort for man or beast; and the "gopas," or head men of each village, besought the Europeans to return, saying that if they did not succeed in stopping them, they them- selves would have to answer to higher officials with their heads. The next winter was therefore spent in Kotghur. Circum- ' stances necessitated the founding of the first station amongst the Tibetan speaking Buddhists of Lahul, as near as possible to the frontier of Chinese Tibet. It w^as the best that could be done. Through the intervention of Major Lake of the British East India Company, in 1856 land was secured in the valley of the Bhagar, sixty miles or so from the borders, near Kyelang, and across the river from the town of Kardang, at an elevation of about 10,000 feet. Before winter the mission house was com- pleted— a solitary outpost of Christianity amid the Western Himalayas, over against the fortress of the Dalai Lama; but again the missionaries sought the friendly hospitality of Kot- ghur, in order that early in 1857 they might welcome the arrival of their future leader. This tvas Henry Augustus Jaeschke, hitherto a professor in the college at Xiesky. Appointed because of his preeminent linguistic abilities, that he might translate the Scriptures into Tibetan, he arrived at Calcutta in January, and hastened to his colleagues. With his arrival a new stage of the work of this mission began. 136 A HISTORY OF CHAPTER XIV % f'V THE FOREIGN MISSIONS, FROM 1857 TO 1869. Provincial independence was coupled with the recognition of the fact that the work of evangelization amongst the heathen remains one of the strongest bonds linking each division of the Brethren's Church to the Unity as such. More complete occupation of existing fields and the extension of the entire enterprise were proclaimed to be the definite policy of the church. In Greenland, as a consequence of the official visit paid in 1858 by Ernest Reichel mission stations were established in succeeding years at Umanak on an island up the fjord from New Herrnhut, and at Igdlorpait on an island nine miles from Lichtenau. To supply the requisite native assistants two normal schools were commenced in 1866, at New Herrnhut by Bindschedler and at Lichtenau by Kogel and Spindler. Labrador, like Greenland, also enjoyed official visits — that of Levin Theodore Reichel in 1861, and that of Charles Linder in 1864 and 1865 in the interests of the Society for the Further- ance of the Gospel — and had also its attempts at extension. In 1864 a spot was selected to the south of Nain — to be known as Zoar. Here Michael Ernest Beyer laid the foundation of a new mission, and hither Augustus Ferdinand Eisner and wife moved in May, 1866. It afforded special opportunity to exer- cise a helpful influence over European and half-caste settlers. Although previous attempts had been so fruitless, another exploratory tour was undertaken northwards. Gottlob and Daniel, two native assistants, stirred by the news of the achieve- ments of John King in Surinam, brought the gospel to their countrymen as far as Cape Chudleigh and along the eastern shore of Ungava Bay, voyaging in a sailing vessel of their own. MORAVIAN MISSIONS. I 37 They set out in July, 1867, and during the following winter returned to the missionaries to report the welcome tidings of a desire for a "teacher." Meantime Saeglek, a point north of Hebron, had been chosen as the site of a proposed mission, and a rude temporary cabin had been built. But then the Hud- son's Bay Company sent an agent thither, and to avoid disputes the missionaries withdrew. Nachvak Bay, thirty miles farther to the north was next chosen ; again the trading company inter- posed. Now Xullatatok Bay was hit upon ; but circumstances compelled the postponement of active operations. The winter of 1862 to 1863 was attended with great mortality at Hebron. One sixth of the people died. The sickness was so general that at one time frozen corpses of necessity lay nnburied for a month. During the following winter influenza and erysipelas proved very fatal at Okak, Xain and Hopedale. These visitations led to the establishment of an orphanage at Okak, at Easter, 1865, in accordance with plans adopted at a general mission conference convoked some time before at Nain. Ten of the most destitute Eskimo waifs were gathered together into a home superintended by the native schoolmaster and his wife. The West Indies had enjoyed the influence of the marked revivals of religion in America. Thoughts were consequently turned to the possibility of complete self-support on the part of the native church. Discussion of this project formed one of the main purposes of an official visit paid by Bishop Cunow and the Mission Secretary, Thomas L. Badham, during the years 1862 and 1863. But untoward externals interfered, fre- quent and wide-spread droughts, yellow fever, disastrous tor- nados and earthquakes. The civil war in America put an em- bargo upon many articles of commerce, whilst the stagnation of the sugar trade deprived many of their means of livelihood. Emigration, in particular to Demerara, set in — notably from Barbados. This unfavorable change is clearly disclosed in the contrast presented by extracts from two letters written from Barbados by John Henry Buchner in 1858 and 1863. When proceeding to assume the superintendence of the mis- sion in the former year, he thus chronicles his first impres- sions: "On Thursday morning the steamer brought us in sight of Barbados. . , .It delights the eye by its rich cultivation. The island is spread out like a garden, with its cane fields, its wind- 138 A HISTORY OF mills, its extensive town and numerous scattered houses. When we arrived the harbor was very lively, many vessels were taking in their cargoes, and boats were passing in all direc- tions. .. .When we landed on the wharf, the crowd at work there, and the large number of sugar hogsheads waiting to be shipped, at once gave us the idea that we had come to a stirring and prosperous place.... We passed numbers of gentlemen's houses, many of them with prettily laid out gardens, and pre- senting an aspect of wealth and comfort. The road was very lively. The number of carriages and vehicles of every descrip- tion, as well as of pedestrians, would have reminded us of some populous district in England, had not the dark complexion of the passers-by, and the appearance of the houses, and of many natural objects convinced us that we were in the West Indies." Five years later he writes : "How many of the people of this island still live, is a mystery to us. Hundreds have no ostensible means of getting a Hvelihood at all. You have per- haps heard that thieves and vagabonds have been going about the country in gangs of from ten to twenty, robbing and plun- dering, and causing not a little alarm. Now that most of them are lodged in jail, and a proper watch is kept, all is again peace- ful and quiet. Of course, all receipts are falling off, especially the school-fees and the subscriptions to the Missionary associa- tions. But this is not what distresses us most; the church is not so well attended as formerly, and the schools are half empty. This is simply because adults and children have no clothes but rags,, in which they can not show themselves. This is a state of things which is beyond our power to remedy. . . .It is a sad, sad tale which I have to tell. The distress here is fear- ful; and it is not a passing depression, likely to continue but for a short time ; it is a crisis which will require years to develop its results, and which will, I fear, entail severe suffering on all classes." After having personally inspected the operations on all the various islands, Cunow and Badham convoked a general con- ference at St. Thomas in June, 1863. It was a gathering that marked a new epoch. The visitants embodied the results of their observations in the form of proposals to be now acted upon, and after endorsement to be laid before the Mission Board as the basis for the new methods of operation. Self- support, native agency, local management and education were MORAVIAN MISSIONS. I 39 the chief points involved. Conditions that varied not only as between island and island but also as between the stations in a given sub-division of the field — differences in regard to tem- poral prosperity, social advancement, mental culture and Chris- tian experience — rendered very difficult the formulation of gen- eral principles universally applicable. Whilst the justice and ultimate necessity of attaining self-support were fully recog- nized by all, practical obstacles were often in the w-ay, and could not be ignored. Jamaica promised to attempt it, except that the outlay for buildings and for the journeys of missionaries would still have to be met from the general mission treasury. The Danish islands together with St. Kitts and Tobago, ex- pressed a willingness to rely upon a gradually decreasing grant for a decade, in the hope that during the interval local resources might attain a sufficient development. Antigua and Barbados, while acquiescing in the principle of self-support, and hoping later to make theory and practice equal, found present hind- rances insuperable. With regard to native agency, although a commencement had been made, and although of the 687 native assistants and of the 122 school-masters many had rendered and were rendering efficient help as exhorters and evangelists, it was felt that the church must proceed with circumspection in appointing native pastors. ]Meantime the meetings of the "helpers" were to be developed into something resembling the sessions of congregation committees and conferences at home. The school system was to be carefully fostered, and an approach to uniformity of method attempted through the work of the four normal schools — a fourth having been commenced in 1861 at Bethabara in Jamaica for female teachers. At the same time eagerness to advance did not shut out of view a recognition of the danger of raising the standard of the mission-schools far above the real requirements of the people. But the happy anticipations aroused by the brave plans of the general conference were rudely interrupted. In 18G6 cholera and yellow fever entered St. Thomas. By January 23, 1867. 860 deaths had been recorded in the city alone. Sea cap- tains began to avoid the port as a pest hole. Doctors and mis- sionaries and volunteer nurses stood bravely at their posts, and the pestilence was subdued. But on October 29 a terrific hurri- cane passed over the Danish islands. Shingles and planks flew throujrh the air. Then the cabins of the natives gave wav. At 140 A HISTORY OF length the very finest buildings were rent and cracked. In the town more than three hundred lives were lost. Seventy-seven vessels were wrecked. The fine new church at Nisky was in ruins, and the other houses were partly destroyed. Not a sta- tion on St. Thomas or St. John but had been seriously damaged. The fields were devastated, and the groves and woods were choked with wreckage. Then just before three o'clock on the afternoon of November i8 a terrible earthquake visited the devoted island. Shock followed shock. A huge tidal wave with an awful roar carried the sea far inland, and after dashing on shore vessels of every size and sort, receded, leaving the bottom of the sea perfectly bare and exposing sunken wrecks for about three hundred yards. Three times the terrifying experience was repeated. Royal mail steamers went down with their valuable cargoes and precious freightage of human Hves. The wharves and warehouses along the shore were laid waste. Tremendous damage was done to property. Providentially the Moravian church still stood amidst hundreds of ruined houses. More damage was done to mission property elsewhere, the losses being estimated from $10,000 to $15,000. The mission school at Friedensberg, St. Croix, was turned into a hospital for the disabled seamen of the United States frigate Monon- gahela, which had been carried ashore, and left high and dry. For six weeks following shocks recurred daily with few excep- tions. The sullen rumblings were an ever repeated reminder that at any moment the seismic disturbances might increase in intensity. Many people fled from the towns to the hills and open country. Not until the following February was it con- sidered safe to renew public worship in the town of St. Thomas. That these calamities called forth the active benevolence of the membership at home goes with the saying. A large legacy received through the agency of the London Association proved a godsend in the emergency. Meantime memorable things were transpiring in Jamaica. In August, 1858, a spirit of prayer and inquiry appeared in the normal school at Fairfield, now in charge of Sondermann and Prince, and before long spread through the congregations, until it culminated in a manifest outpouring of the Holy Spirit in i860, especially at Carmel, Fulneck and Fairfield. Whilst strange phenomena — fits of trembling or temporary loss of speech — bore testimony to the emotional nature of the race and MORAVIAN MISSIONS. I4I pointed to the close connection between the psychical and the physical, the most striking features of this experience were the deep sense of sin and utter want of comfort and peace until assurance of pardon through the grace of an atoning Saviour found entrance into hearts. Then the fruits of faith became very evident. Churches and schools were crow'ded, contribu- tions became liberal, the demand for Bibles and devotional works enlarged, the sacredness of Christian marriage received wider recognition, and additions to the churches multiplied. Ere long all the mission congregations on the island shared in the happy experience. The demand for Bibles especially be- came so large that it could scarcely be met. The Westmore- land Bible Society alone issued about two thousand copies. Early in the following year the work at New Hope, on ac- count of its low and swampy site, was removed to an estate which had been purchased by Alfred B. Lind, henceforth known as Salem, where he encouraged the blacks to colonize and themselves become independent planters on a small scale. In 1865 Mizpah was also founded between Bethabara and Bethany. Meanwhile the vacancy in the Mission Board caused by the death of Bishop Wullschlaegel in March, 1863, had deprived Jamaica of the services of Augustus Clemens. In his place Abraham Lichtenthaeler became superintendent. On the neighboring Moskito Coast the missionaries were now slowly counteracting the nomadic tendencies of the In- dians, and village-life was being successfully introduced. Hopes could be entertained that in time the scope of the work would be coextensive with the territory. At Rama and at Reitapura (Brown Bank) churches had been built, and in Bluefields the congregation was growing in numbers and in influence. Special assistance had been afforded by the gift of a small schooner, \^Thc Mcssoigcr of Peace,'' presented by friends at Zeist in 1858. The year i860 was signalized by an official visit on the part of Bishop Westerby of Antigua, commissioned by the Board. At Rama Key he especially noted the decided change for the better. The people were no longer wretched savages. Now decently clad and contented and happy they were living in neat cottages, roughly built indeed, and thatched only with palm leaves and having floors of clay, but clean and divided into sepa- rate rooms that made some provision for privacy. In October of the same year the fruits of former visits up the coast 142 A HISTORY OF appeared in the founding of Ephrata at Wounta Hallover, not far from Cape Gracias a Dios. Here Kandler was stationed. The situation required a man of courage, tact and abihty. White men, mahogany-cutters from Belize, were bringing in Hquors, and drunkenness and brawling were distressingly fre- quent. In addition to this new undertaking, on Corn Island, directly east from Magdala, Jacob Jonathan Hoch began Joppa amongst a purely negro population. Early in this same year the political status of the coast had been readjusted. By the terms of the treaty of Managua Britain, having already in 1850 resigned all claims to ownership in the stipulations of the Clayton-Bulwer Treaty, ceded her pro- tectorate to Nicaragua. "The local chief was induced to accept the arrangement on the condition of retaining his administra- tive functions and receiving a yearly subvention of $5,000 from the suzerain state for the ten years ending in 1870. But he died in 1864, and Nicaragua never recognized his successor. Nevertheless the reserve continued to be ruled by a chief elected by the natives and assisted by an administrative council which assembled at Bluefields." For the present the Indians asserted a quasi-independence under Chief George William. Now the mission at Magdala especially prospered. Grune- wald's normal school was removed thither from Bluefields. The outposts on the peninsula east of Pearl lagoon gained in every way, so that in 1864 Tasbapauni (Red Bank) could be developed into an independent station, Bethania. Here Peter Blair, a native of Jamaica, was given charge. But this mission also had its trials. On the night of October 18, 1865, a terrible hurricane swept the coast. At Bluefields only eight houses remained, and they half-ruined. Of these eight the mission-house was one. Church, school, kitchen, teacher's residence and the boat-house were leveled. The second "Messenger of Peaec" — a gift from England — lay on her beam ends, badly damaged. At Ramah only three houses re- mained besides the church and mission-house, and these had lost their roofs. At Magdala the home of the missionary was shattered to pieces. Bethania had been carried away by a tidal wave, and Blair had difficulty in escaping by boat. Only one solitary post showed where the station had stood. At Joppa Hoch and his family for weeks had no other shelter than the displaced roof of the church, which kept its shape when it fell MORAVIAN" MISSIONS. 1 43 from the walls. The destruction of the cocoanut palms and the devastation of the provision grounds rendered starvation a possibility. Discontinuance of the mission was under con- sideration. But deep sympathy was aroused in the home con- gregations, and liberal gifts came in. Bluefields church could be anew consecrated in July, 1867, and Ephrata in August, 1868. The development of the India rubber industry provided the people with a new source of income. A third "Messenger of r-' Peace" was supplied by the young people in America, stirred by the appeals of Amadeus A. Reinke, the former pioneer. Lundberg was now superintendent. Surinam progressed meanwhile under the wise and energetic leadership of Van Calker. New stations were commenced — Beersheba in 1858 at the edge of a savannah near La Prosperite Estate, for the Para district, and Waterloo in the Nickerie dis- trict and Clevia on the Lower Surinam near its confluence with the Comewyne, in 1859. In the Bush Country on the Upper Surinam, a spirit of inquiry was spreading, and the labors of Gottlieb, the native assistant at Gansee, and of his two coad- jutors bore fruit in the application of forty of their countrymen for baptism, by August, 1861. By the providence of God a very remarkable movement was also in its incipiency. About the end of the year 1857 a stranger made his appear- ance in Paramaribo, declaring that God had warned him through dreams to come hither and seek the truth. He was a heathen Bush-negro, of the Matuari tribe. John_Kin2: by name. Hi.> mother had formerly lived in town, but after the death of her parents the family had removed to the Saramacca district, and had lapsed into utter heathenism. Up to manhood John King- had been little better than his fellows. Like them he had been accustomed to the ancestral fetish worship of Africa, was hard- ened to the debauchery and immoralities and cruelties of heathenism, thought little of the frequently occurring fights with poisoned iron rings, was familiar with the "zvinti" dance and alleged witchcraft, dreaded the power of the evil eve. and trembled at the sight of an old rag fluttering in a cleft stick that had been planted as "medicine" before the door of a hut. But now be wished to follow the light that had been given to him in dreams. "In the first of these he saw a large, light and beauti- ful house, full of people clothed in Avhite garments who were heard singing so delightfullv, that he had never heard the like. 144 A HISTORY OF Then he saw a dismal building like a jail, in the courtyard of which an enormous fire was blazing. As he approached the fire the flame leaped up and touching him caused him indescriable torment. Near it he beheld vessels as large as those in the boiling house of a sugar plantation, in which he was told wicked people were tormented in burning oil. In the house itself he to his terror caught sight of the dark form of the evil spirit. A 'person w^ho showed him these objects then desired him to go and tell his people what he had seen and what was the lot of the damned. With the horrible feeling that he himself belonged to this number, King followed his guide to a river, into which he sprang — and awoke. When restored to consciousness, he was almost beside himself with terror, trembled from head to foot, and was for some time unable to rise from his bed. Not until evening did he regain sufficient composure to relate his dream to those around him. What he stated filled his hearers with horror. A week later he dreamed that he was in a church at the door of which a man was standing who said, 'King, do you know what you ought to do? You must have your name set down at the church, for if you abide by what the heathen say, you will be lost for ever.' " These experiences had led him to Paramaribo as a sincere inquirer after the truth. Here he proved a man of singular capacity and endowments — sincere, energetic, desirous to learn, gifted and diligent in study and in work. On August II, 1861, he was baptized in Paramaribo, receiving the name of John. Returning to his village of Maripastoon, on the Sara- macca in the dense forests four days' journey beyond Gansee, he forthwith commenced to labor as an evangelist amongst his people, with the fervor of one possessed of the conviction of a direct call from God. The results enforced his belief. Before long his near relative, Adrai, the local chief, sought bap- tism and took the name of Noah, The conflict was protracted and sometimes bitter. King's Hfe being threatened. But he destroyed the rude temples, and threw the broken idols into the river; and in October, 1865, Kalkoen, the aged supreme chief of the Matuaris, through his ministrations and those of another native evangelist, Manasseh, could be baptized by Drexler, choosing for himself the name of Joshua. John King's career now became one of peculiar interest. Long journeys were undertaken by him in all parts of Surinam, MORAVIAN MISSIONS. I45 up sluggish and fever-breeding streams, through the dense jungles where white men could not have lived. With an utter abandon of fearlessness he braved the "zinnti" men, and exposed their follies and deceptions. And though these bHnd leaders of the blind, enraged at the prospect of losing their occupation, conspired against him, he passed unscathed, their poison fail- ing to reach him. Once indeed even he fell a victim to fever; but the prayers of the brethren were heard for his recovery. Related by birth to the Aukas (or Djukas) as well as to the Matuaris, he undertook an expedition to them also, and pro- posed to guide the Brethren Bramberg and Lehman to their distant villages. But before the missionaries crossed the boundary of the colony proper, armed men presented a hostile front, and a reluctant return was the sole resource. By this time at Coftycamp, Gansee, Goejaba and INIaripastoon, about eight hundred Bush-negroes had been enrolled in the member- ship of the church. Meantime momentous events had been transpiring. On July I, 1863, by royal proclamation the emancipation of the slaves became an accomplished fact throughout Surinam. According to the terms of the edict a ten years' apprentice- ship was first provided for, the choice of masters being volun- tary, and the contracts being subject to governmental supervi- sion. Furthermore each ex-slave was required to declare him- self either a Christian or a Jew in faith to be entitled to the bene- fits of royal favor. About two-thirds of the entire slave popula- tion had already been in connection with the Moravian Church. Hence this wide-reaching measure specially concerned the mission. The removal of the hindrances inherent in slavery was a source of hearty joy to the missionaries. Yet it was impossible that all the consequences of slavery could be at once eradicated. The immorality and the utterly lax ethical concep- tions instilled into the slave race must be a source of trouble for a generation at least. Marriage of slaves hitherto received no legal recognition. Even now the requirement that a civil contract be entered into before a magistrate if a marriage were to become valid — a regulation involving considerable expendi- ture of money — drove only too many of the ex-slaves into con- nections resembling concubinage rather than wedlock. To counteract the heritage of the past, special attention was now paid to the schools. Sixteen of these were being carried on II 146 A HISTORY OF by the mission, with two thousand three hundred and thirty- eight scholars. To develop the normal school, it was trans- ferred to the capital in 1866. In general, sudden expansion in the number of the adherents of the mission was a result of emancipation. In the city the membership had grown to more than six thousand; in the entire colony it reached a total of 24,330 by the year 1869. Discipline naturally suffered in conse- quence, but the missionaries kept the old standard in view. Of the South African congregations for the greater part of the present period it could be said in apostolic language, "Then had the churches rest, and were edified ; and walking in the fear of the Lord, and in the comfort of the Holy Ghost were multi- plied." Yet at the beginning it seemed as though the condi- tions necessary to external peace would be wanting. Already in 1856 the failure of the attempt to secure the loyalty of the Kaffir chiefs by the payment of salaries in return for the sur- render of certain of their rights, became evident. A would-be prophet who possessed influence with chief Sandili, aroused a wave of wild fanaticism amongst his people by pretending that if they would follow his suggestions they should secure the aid of their departed ancestors in a war of extermination against the colonists. The peculiar test to which he put their faith, was the requirement, that they should unhesitatingly slay their cattle. This act of self-sacrifice complete, he bade them await the appearance of two blood-red suns as the heaven-sent sign for the promised success and vengeance. But the omen failed to appear, though the people obeyed his injunction literally. Gaunt famine stalked through Kaffraria. Swarms of despairing beggars streamed into the colony and pitifully pleaded for food. This was the only army evolved by the delusion. In the east- ern part of the country the population was reduced to almost one-third. Hundreds clamored for alms at the mission sta- tions. Shiloh, for example, received a permanent influx of three hundred of these poor deluded refugees. The mission- aries devised all manner of labor that they might not be degraded by acknowledged pauperization. Warriors distin- guished for former prowess might be seen roaming through the forests for firewood; others cut pliant osiers and wove them into baskets ; . others shouldered pick and shovel for the un- wonted labor of ditching and draining. One result of these experiences was the founding of a new station, Engotini, six MORAVIAN MISSIONS. I47 miles distant on the Engoti, a tributary of the Oxkraal, begun by Henry Meyer, who had come to Africa in 1854. Under his energetic' leadership rapid progress was made. Meanwhile another extension of operations was to be noted in quite a different quarter, the Picketberg range near St. Helena Bay, eighty or ninety miles north of Cape Town. Since 1846 the little valley of Goedverwacht had enjoyed the services of a native teacher trained at Genadendal, Joshua Hardenberg. By the year 1858 the work had assumed such proportions that the establishment of a regular station seemed imperative. But the peculiar history of Goedverwacht precluded the formation of the station at the place itself. In the year 1810 a Dutch farmer, Buergers by name, had purchased nine hundred acres of fertile valley in the Picketberg, and in time rendered his estate a garden spot through the well directed labor of his Hot- tentot slaves. Here he lived in comfort until disturbed by rumors of impending emancipation. To keep his slaves about him in this emergency, he selected six of the most intelligent and faithful, and made an extraordinary proposal to them. If they solemnly covenanted to faithfully serve and care for him so long as he lived, he would bequeath his entire property to them. They readily agreed. He therefore drew up his last testament, bequeathing his land to the six jointly, with the pro- viso that it should not be sold until the death of the last of the six. Emancipation came on December i, 1834. They re- mained true to their pledge. Mr. Buergers himself died in 1843, ^^'^ the once despised Hottentots became the joint owners of a fine piece of property. Hither their relatives gradually removed, till there arose a village of about five hundred souls. It was in response to a request made by these people that the church sent a teacher to them in 1846. But the uncertainty of the tenure of the land, contingent as it was upon the lives of the six ex-slaves, suggested the purchase by the mission of the neighboring farm of Wittewater as the actual site of the station, Goedverwacht being served in conjunction with it. Two deaths saddened the friends of the African mission, that of Daniel Suhl, the principal of the normal school, on April 30, 1858, and that of Charles Rudolph Kolbing, the superintendent of the mission, on December 28, i860. Both had rendered valuable services ; and the former left the school in such a con- dition that the enlargement of its accommodations was a neces- 148 A HISTORY OF sity. Three of its graduates were now serving as assistant mis- sionaries ; fifteen were filling posts as teachers in schools of their own and sixteen in schools of sister churches. Benno Marx succeeded to the vacant ofifice. Now special attention was paid to the operation of a printing press by the students. De Bode, a missionary periodical in the Dutch language, and De Kinder Vricnd, for children, were issued at stated intervals; and a commencement was made in 1861 with the publication of parts of the Harmony of the Gospels, translated into the Kaffir tongue. Frederick William Kiihn received the oversight of the mission as a whole, to be succeeded in his turn by Ferdi- nand Bechler in 1865, when elected a member of the Mission Board to fill the vacancy caused by the death of Bishop Cunow. Meantime an advance was made into Kafifraria, at the request of government. John Henry Hartmann and Richard Baur advanced by ox-wagon into the Tambookie country eight or nine days from Shiloh, and found at Baziya a spot suitable for the commencement of a mission in the land of Chief Joyi, which Baur and his wife proceeded to occupy. The gradual advance into heathen Kafifraria lent special importance to a conference of missionaries engaged in the service of the eastern group of stations, held at Shiloh from February 18 to 20, 1863 — a first step in the direction of separation into a distinct missionary province. But in 1863 a sudden calamity gave a temporary check to the work in Kaffraria. Hitherto South Africa had been remark- ably free from tornadoes, so far as the experience of the mis- sionaries was concerned. Towards sunset on the evening of September 28 a cyclone struck Baziya without any warning. In a few seconds the mission-house was completely destroyed. But miraculously Baur and his family crept from the ruins un- hurt, save for minor bruises. Parts of the house were found a mile away. The missionary's wagon had been broken in two and one half carried one hundred yards. Other articles were found two to three miles away. A temporary refuge was secured at the home of Mr. Gordon, the Anglican missionary at All Saints', about half a day's journey distant, until Baziya could again be made habitable. The year 1867 finally marked an involuntary withdrawal from a sphere of activity. With the retirement of Kiister and his wife from missionary service the care of the hospital for lepers MORAVIAN MISSIONS. 1 49 on Robben Island, their latest charge, at the desire of govern- ment passed from the Moravian to the Anglican Church. Thus the forty-five years' ministration to these poor sufferers in Africa tame to an end. All the more opportune, therefore, •was the overture received about this time from Baroness Keffenbrink-Ascheraden in respect to the founding of a similar institution at Jerusalem. Long ago it has been said that "failures are with heroic minds stepping-stones to success." This was exemplified in connec- tion with the mission in Australia. In May, 1858, Moravian missionaries were again at Melbourne, Spieseke, who had pro- tested against the former retreat, being accompanied by Fred- erick Augustus Hagenauer. Sir Henry Barkly, the new Gover- nor, and the Bishop of Melbourne lent their support. It was proposed by the former that the missionaries should now begin operations in the Wimmera District, a fairly watered tract and unlikely to become the scene of serious difficulties with the colonists. In accordance with this advice a site was fixed upon near Antwerp, a station belonging to a Mr. Ellerman, who gave the mission a section of his land and manifested continuous sympathy with the undertaking. The new mission received the name of Ebenezer. For a considerable time the only hopeful sign was the willingness of some of the people to give up their nomadic habits. Souls they scarcely seemed to have. If any race resembled the driest of the dry bones seen by Ezekiel, this was the one. But by and by to the amazement of their country- men two of them, Bony and Pepper, young men, began to build something of a house in imitation of the one occupied by the missionaries. Nevertheless there did not as yet appear the faintest trace of interest in their message or of longing for sal- vation. For weary months it was a scattering of precious seed on bare rocks. The ingrained habit of begging, especially for tobacco, was a source of annoyance. Grossly material interests alone appealed to the blackfellows. Feuds often led to strife. Once Spieseke was in imminent danger. Spears and boom- erangs were already flying. The women and children had fled or had taken to the trees. In a moment's intermission of strife he threw himself between the hostile parties, now forty or fifty paces apart. For a time it appeared as though his life would be the penalty. But calm, decided courage won the day, and peace was restored. 150 A HISTORY OF Suddenly in the midst of all that was unpromising, the story of Kajarnak received its counterpart. It is January 17, i860. Hagenauer is absent, and Spieseke is showing to a group of savages pictures illustrating Scripture history. Now one is shown of a man kneeling in great distress, in a garden. An agony is on his brow. "What is that ? Show me that again !" asks one of the group. "Pepper," says the missionary, "that is Jesus. He weeps ; he is in great sorrow, and He weeps for thee, Pepper," It is told over and over again ; and the thought of the suffering Saviour in Gethsemane awakens the long slumbering soul in the Australian savage. Hagenauer on re- turning recognizes that Pepper's interested question only con- firms signs of an inner working of the Spirit that have already been somewhat perceptible to him. One Sunday when he is riding back from a distant appointment, one of the missionaries comes upon this same Pepper, preaching the Christ he has just found and only half knows to a company of about fifty asso- ciates. He is now given special instruction, and on August 12, T.S6o, is baptized, receiving the name Nathanael. On the same day the church at Ebenezer is dedicated. Gradually it became evident that the dry bones could be clothed with flesh and sinew, could receive a new heart and be filled with the inbreathing of the divine Spirit. Here progress was more rapid amongst the men than the women. Gradually the old terrible customs began to disappear, and the place commenced to assume the aspect of a neat village, good houses with nice gardens taking the place of the wretched heaps of bark-covered sticks. The "Mallee" gave place to fields. Christian family life was under- stood and appreciated. The school worked marvellous changes amongst the young. Meantime the initial success encouraged friends in Mel- bourne, and led the Presbyterian Assembly of Australia to offer to supply the money for the establishment of another station, if the Moravian Church would furnish the men. The proposal was accepted. New recruits were sent out to the mission, and Hagenauer was appointed to explore Gippsland. On a reserve near Lake Wellington and on the banks of the Avon a new post was founded in 1863, Ramahyuk, that is in the blackfellows' tongue, "Ramah, our home." Here the first convert, James Matthews, was baptized in 1866. A vigorous school soon be- came characteristic of the place. MORAVIAN MISSIONS. Ijl Similar success, however, was not vouchsafed to a third attempt in the wilderness eight hundred miles northwest of Ebenezer, near Cooper's Creek, whither the Brethren Walder, Meissel and Kramer were sent in 1866. Efforts put forth at Lake Koi)peramanna. forty miles west of Lake Hope, had to be abandoned, owing to severe drought which scattered the blacks and compelled neighboring settlers to leave their sheep-runs. Furthermore the missionary association at Melbourne found it difficult to defray the expense of the mission. The three mis- sionaries were therefore transferred elsewhere. Yet another point was also occupied by William Julius Kiihn, namely, Yorke's Peninsula, about one hundred miles west-northwest of Adelaide ; but after varying success the missionary passed into the service of another church. Whilst Ebenezer and Ramahyuk advanced in numbers and various industries gave employment — sheep-raising at the former and the cultivation of arrowroot at the latter — it soon became evident that the church had been called to minister beside the death-bed of a race. The weaknesses inherited from generations steeped in unchecked vice had sapped the vitaHty of the people. Consumption and kindred diseases were almost universal. Births were few in proportion to the marriages. When ignorance and conceit are amalgamated and fashioned into weapons of offence and defence they present an almost invincible front — invincible save by the grace of God. This the missionaries on the western Himala3'as for years experienced. The opposition was one of supreme indifference and contempt. Outside of Chinese Tibet, Pagell and Heyde and Jaeschke might go where they pleased without hindrance. Buddhist monasteries might be invaded, and the folly of idolatry de- nounced under the shadow of prayer-mills and within the sight of shrines wreathed in incense, and yet no angry demonstra- tions be called forth — only dull scorn. Conviction of sin seemed impossible where the very conception of the actual nature of sin was lacking, so distorted was the mind and so benumbed the conscience of priests and people. It was often difficult even to gather an audience. If a village were entered in the course of a missionary tour, the people remained in their houses, to which the missionary had no access. If the weather permitted, the householders might be on the flat roofs. Then, the house door being fastened, the stranger must needs boldly mount up 152 A HISTORY OF by a ladder outside. Possibly the people would meanwhile vanish. If they remained, he must be content to hear the invi- tation passed on to gather for the performance of the "tadmo," i. e., juggler, merry-andrew, clown. A "holy" man will say to him : "Your religion is good perhaps ; but you do not fear sin." "How so?" the surprised missionary replies. "You kill sheep." On his trying to prove that God has not forbidden this, and on his retorting that the Buddhist himself eats mutton when he can get it, the latter will say: "Yes, but I kill nothing, not even the merest insect." "But you let others do the killing for you." "That may be ; but then only half the sin is mine. Besides I acknowledge and repent of my sins in the evening of each day on which I have eaten flesh." In October, 1859, the arrival of their brides from Germany gladdens the hearts of these lonely men, and they can begin to enjoy some of the comforts of home life. Previous to this they have begun to employ a new method of making known their message. A lithographic press has been set up, and a Tibetan, Sodnom Stobkyes, who has been in their employ for some years, proves an adept at handling it. Thus Jaeschke begins to dis- seminate his translation of the Harmony of the Gospels. Copies can be sent into the great closed land, Chinese Tibet, by means of traders who come over the passes with their packages of salt fastened to the backs of sheep. In 1865 Pagell and his wife establish a second station at Poo, in Kunawur, in the valley of the Sutlej, and nearer to the border which they wish to cross. Jaeschke, who will henceforth devote himself to the work of translation, is succeeded as superinten- dent by Theodore Rechler. But most noteworthy of all is the gleam of hope in the baptism of Sodnom Stobkyes and his son Joldan on October 11. In March of the following year their example is followed by two other men, and later by the wives of these last. Jaeschke's labor bears fruit in the publication of the gospel of St. Matthew in Tibetan by the British and Foreign Bible Society. But ill-health and the complete undermining of his wife's constitution necessitate his return to Europe in the following year. His translation of the New Testament must be completed there. Meantime an unexpected opening offered itself. Small-pox was making fearful ravages in Chinese Thibet. Whole families had died out. In their extremity the people of Tso-Tso, one r- MORAVIAN MISSIONS. 153 of the western provinces, sent for Pagell to stay the scourge by vaccination. Although in bed from sickness at the time the cry for help reached him, he regarded it as a providential sum- mons, and set out over the passes scarcely free from snow. Nevertheless the officials had no intention of permitting his planting the gospel within the territory of the Dalai Lama. After he had vaccinated six hundred and thirty-nine persons, he was compelled to return. Not wholly disheartened by the inhibition of missionary labor in Tibet, Pagell persevered at Poo, and on December 15,2868, baptized his first convert there, Baldan, now named Joseph. At Kyelang also a few others were added to the little church. Now the mission had reached the stage when indiflferent tolerance passed into sharply accen- tuated hostility. The converts were ostracized. 154 A HISTORY OF CHAPTER XV. THE FOREIGN MISSIONS, FROM 1869 TO 1879. Significant of the place which the missions had come to- assume in the Hfe of the church were the dedication in Septem- ber, 1871, of the home for missionaries on furlough at Klein- welke, in Saxony, erected by voluntary gifts, and the presenta- tion to the church of the "Whitefield House" at Nazareth, in Pennsylvania, designed for a similar purpose, and as the per- manent residence of retired missionary couples, the gift, also in 1871, of John Jordan, jr., of Philadelphia. Although the balance sheet presented to the synod of 1879 disclosed a deficit of $23,570, there was good reason to thank God and take courage. To thoughtful minds such a deficit emphasized the truth that the task of evangelizing the heathen world is and must remain for the Brethren's Church a work of faith, a providential provocation to renewed fidelity and yet more strenuous effort. This conviction was deepened by the action of the synod. After a searching investigation it declared that the causes of the repeated deficits in the accounts of the foreign missions "lie neither in defective administration at home nor in inconsiderate extension in the field itself. They rather lie in the considerable decrease in legacies received, and especi- ally in the general embarrassment of business vvrhich shows itself in a decided lowering of direct contributions and in the lessen- ing of the profits of industries carried on in various mission- provinces in behalf of the work. In addition larger demands have been made upon the mission treasury for the pensioning and educational accounts — and here the administration dare not abridge." In Greenland it had been a very trying decade for Henry Kogel, superintendent since 1871, and for his associates. Despite the work of the two normal schools, at New Herrnhut and Lichtenau, very little advance had been achieved in the MORAVIAN MISSIONS. 155 direction of self-dependence. A veritable army of misfortunes, officered by influenza and pleurisy and other diseases, had swept up and down the coast in the winters of 1871 to 1872 and of 1875 to 1876. Poor Friedrichsthal, thus far the largest and richest of the congregations, had especially suffered. Once its four hundred and sixty-nine people had been wont to bring to the Royal Trading-post one thousand three hundred barrels of seal oil in a season. After the disastrous winter of 1871 only eight seal-catchers were left, only five boats could be manned, and out of twenty-three boys in the school only three had fathers living. Of those who had died six were male "helpers" and five female "helpers," a severe loss to the mission, as it was not easy to find persons suitably quaHfied for the position. Missionaries and traders had to come to the relief of the widows and orphans in a most liberal manner. By this time every station and out-station had its school. Every child connected with the mission acquired the ability to at least read, and the majority also to write and to cipher as well as to memorize Biblical history. The girls learnt sewing and the arts of feminine handiwork. In 1871 a new and revised edition of the Greenlandic Scrip- ture History was issued, and in 1878 a similarly improved edi- tion of the Hymn Book. In 1873 a Catechism, in 1876 a song book for schools, with notes; and in 1877 and 1879 volumes of sermons for the use of "helpers" at the out-stations, were wel- come additions to the literature of the language. Kleinschmidt also prepared a dictionary, and labored at a revised translation of the Scriptures. In Labrador extension continued to be the goal. The attempt of Samuel Weitz at Nachvak had been frustrated by a variety of circumstances, and the house erected there had to be temporarily abandoned. But in 1871 the determined mis- sionary with his devoted wife and Adolphus Hlavatschek — the latter to superintend the trade — were willing to go once more to the far north. They selected Nullatatok Bay, a natural, land-locked harbor, sixty miles north of Hebron, surrounded by dizzy, snow-capped crags. The waters of the bay extend inland about four miles, and the entrance is almost barred by a majestic cliff beetling up precipitously a thousand feet above the surf. A beach about five hundred yards long by three hundred wide forms the only available site for dwellings. Here, 156 A HISTORY OF with a lake-like expanse of blue water before them, the mis- sionary party speedily put up the little one-roomed house which was at first to serve as residence, school and church. Later the abandoned dwelling at Nachvak should be removed hither. Only two families of heathen now lived at Nullatatok. But with the founding of Ramah, as they named the new post, it was hoped that in time the nomadic savages would be induced to cluster here. In any case it was felt to be the true way to commemorate a mission jubilee, by pushing forward into the "regions beyond." On October 11, 1875, the first reward of this bold faith came in the baptism of Kangersaut (Boaz), Salome and Mary and two children. For Theodore Bourquin, superintendent of this mission province, the years were full of cares. His own health and that of his wife necessitated a return to Europe for a furlough in 1871. On resuming his duties he was compelled to deal with a very difficult situation. This arose from the unavoidable con- nection of the mission with trade. From almost the inception of the work in Labrador this had been carried on for a variety of reasons — not to make profits as a main purpose, but that the comforts and sometimes the necessaries of life might be procured by the natives without their being at the mercy of conscienceless speculators, whose transient visits moreover inevitably produced demoralizing results, and that the effort to advance the people in the scale of civilization might be facili- tated by their being furnished an opportunity to dispose of the products of their industry at fair rates. Besides the mainte- nance of a vessel afforded the mission its only sure connection with Europe. But in the case of people with a disposition hke that of the Eskimo, their two-fold relationship to the Euro- peans as their religious teachers and the purveyors of their external comforts, afforded occasion for misunderstandings and mistrust. In seasons of scarcity they would expect to obtain credit at the stores, and humanity compelled the granting of supplies to refuse which would mean direst want. But that obligations thus incurred must be repaid in the case of the able- bodied in seasons of plenty, was a conception not so readily apprehended or assented to by the Eskimo. The difificulties which thus arose led to a complete separation between the spiritual and the temporal administration at each settlement in the year 1866. Men were sent out from Europe or henceforth MORAVIAN MISSIONS. 1 57 exclusively charged with a commission to act as traders, to whom no spiritual duties were assigned; and henceforth the missionaries were to have no other relationship to the people than that involved in their spiritual office. For a few years all went well. But disaffection did not wholly cease. Nor did discontent end in murnmrings. On March 28, 1873, when Charles Adolphus Slotta was busy in the store at Okak, a man suddenly and without warning attacked him and threw him down. The natives who were present failed to interpose, and ran out. No serious injury was inflicted. The store was closed, and business suspended, until the culprit voluntarily withdrew from Okak and his fellow countrymen besought that it might be reopened. Next winter there was scarcity at several places— no seals, very few foxes, few ptarmigans, little fresh meat. At Nain influenza appeared in autumn. A number of thefts occurred, attributed to the stringency of the times. William Haugk, the store-keeper shut the door, and put up the shutters, and declared that business would not be resumed till the stolen arti- cles had been returned. This measure failed of the desired effect, but led to the holding of a mass meeting by the Eskimos on December 22. It lasted for three hours and was tumultuous in the extreme. Even the "helpers" acted with the turbulent. Happily the celebration of Christmas brought most of the law- less to their senses; many of them expressed their penitence, and the way was now open for negotiations looking toward a readjustment of affairs by Samuel Bindschedler, the superin- tendent of the trade and chief agent of the Society for Propa- gating the Gospel. Reconciliation was effected. The celebra- tion of the Holy Communion on January 17 was characterized by deep solemnity. But alas ! the feelings of the natives carried them into fanaticism and worse. Such an outburst took place a few days later as would have been thought impossible in the case of the phlegmatic Eskimos. The ringleader in what fol- lowed was the man who had been most outspoken in connec- tion with the lawlessness of December. At an assembly held in the house of this man an actual descent of the Holy Spirit was claimed to have been experienced. "A post in the house was worshipped as the cross of Christ, and the Eskimos were fetched in from neighboring houses that they might kneel before it. The leaders then breathed upon their hands folded on their 158 A HISTORY OF breasts, thus imparting to them the Holy Spirit. The celebra- tion of the Lord's Supper was also travestied." Next day the missionaries had to rescue a woman from the murderous assault of her husband, who was deluded with the belief that she was possessed by a devil. It was a critical hour for the mission at Okak, But God heard his servants' prayers. The extravagances vanished as suddenly as they had appeared. Further disturbances were attempted by the ringleader in the trouble, but his former associates silenced him. A welcome calm ensued. All these experiences rendered a visit by a number of the Mission Board desirable. Bishop Levin Theodore Reichel, in spite of his weight of years, undertook the delicate task, being especially qualified by his former visit to Labrador. His efforts during the summer of 1876 were instrumental in restoring confi- dence on the part of the people, whom he exhorted to sobriety in thought and act, to careful thrift and diligence. The regu- lations with reference to the trade were revised, with a partial return to the arrangements which obtained prior to 1866. The visitor was gratified to observe signs of advance in civili- zation during the period since his former coming to Labrador. Two stations had been added. At the various missions the old sod-huts were disappearing, log houses taking their place. Neatness and order appeared within. Hunting was on the decline, but fishing was improving. Skin-canoes were being replaced by fishing-smacks. The number of dogs, the all im- portant means of transportation in winter, had more than trebled. Family life supplanted the ancient herding of the people in the overcrowded hovels of former days. Education was making progress, and natives were able to serve as school- masters. All this rendered the publication of the Scriptures the more opportune. Thanks to aid given by the British and Foreign Bible Society, Erdmann's translation of the Old Testament from Joshua to the Song of Solomon had been issued in 1870 and 1871 ; and Bourquin's revision of the Eskimo New Testament came out in 1878. Besides a Catechism and a revised edition of the Hymn-book and a text-book for instruc- tion in geography had been placed in the hands of the people. Amongst the important transactions of the general synod of 1869 not the least important had been the series of resolutions to provide for the gradual emergence of the West Indian con- MORAVIAN MISSIONS. 159 gregations from the status of missions, so that they might con- stitute a fourth federated province of the Brethren's Unity. Loyally the missionaries and their people accepted and re- sponded to the demands thus made upon them by the church. Yet neither well-informed observers, nor the workers in the field itself overlooked the fact, that islands where considerable illiteracy, the superstitions of Africa, the dark practices of obeahism and poisoning and very lax conceptions of personal morality still abounded could not be spoken of in the same breath with lands where inherited tendencies of generations, that had known nothing else than the Christian standard of ethics and that had enjoyed ample facilities for enhghtenment, made for at least the appearance of godUness as persistently as the West Indian environment made for the contrary. In one sense the West Indies must remain mission ground for decades, even though no longer a field for missions exclusively amongst utter pagans. Providential circumstances interfered sorely with the solution of the financial problem of self-support, particularly in the Eastern islands. Retrogression in the general economic con- dition was produced by earthquakes and tornadoes — Antigua and St. Thomas, for example, experiencing a hurricane in August, 1871, which involved a loss of $10,000 to mission prop- erty, and damage to sugar estates from which it took years to recover — protracted and repeated seasons of drought that caused abandonment of estates now become unproductive, with lack of employment for very many. Nevertheless steps were taken towards self-dependence. One important measure was the founding of a theological seminary at Fairfield, in Jamaica, in 1876. Walter L. G. Badham, at the same time Principal of the normal school, took charge. A two years' course of studies was pursued. The normal school for females at Bethabara, and its counterpart in St. John's, An- tigua, continued to render valuable services. That for young men at Cedar Hall, on the other hand, was abandoned in 1871. The Mico Institution was open to members of all denomina- tions, and its excellent equipment rendered it needless to main- tain the similar school of the church. In 1872 Abraham Lichtenthaeler retired from active service. He was succeeded as superintendent in Jamaica by Edwin E. Reinke. In the same year the venerable Bishop Westerby l6o A HISTORY OF closed his long period of oversight in Antigua — thirty-eight years. The migration of West Indians to Demerara now caused an extension of the missionary activity to this South American colony. The proprietor of the extensive Eel Air estate, Mr. Quintin Hogg, well known for his philanthropy in connection with the Polytechnic Institute in London, desired the services of a Moravian missionary for his employes, and offered to pro- vide the salaries of a missionary and of an assistant, who should serve as school-master, for five years. After visits by Henry Moore, a native minister in Barbados, in company with the superintendent of the mission on that island, James Y. Edgehill, the offer was accepted. In October, 1878, Moore, with Alex- ander Pilgrim as his assistant, left for Georgetown. Services were commenced early in November at Cumming's Lodge. In addition to the direct opposition of the "sukias" and the difficulties inseparable from missionary effort amongst nomadic savages of the tropics, on the Moskito coast indirect hindrances were now caused by the uncertain political status of the country. Enlarging intercourse with traders, who exchanged gin and rum and brandy for the valuable india-rubber of the Indians, further ministered to the positive corruption of many. Fevers are never wholly absent from this swampy tropical land. Hence changes in personnel were frequent, and were the more unfortunate since the idiosyncrasies of the Moskito syn- tax and of the Indian love of metaphors could not be acquired in a day. It was this partial lack of men which measurably accounted for the abandonment of Joppa, on Corn Island, in 1871. Its few people had gladly looked to the missionaries for medical aid, but manifested marked indifference to their mes- sage. On the more populous mainland the readiness to receive the word claimed the services of all available men. Yet Corn Island was not altogether deserted. In the same year in which Joppa was given up, a Mr. and Mrs. Hall, from Bristol, Eng- land, came to the Moskito Coast to do missionary work, and settled at Quamwatla, a small village on the shore of a little lake drained by a tributary of Prince Apolka River, and about half way between Pearl Key and Ephrata. Within less than one month Mr. Hall died. His widow first removed to Ephrata. Next year she took pity on the forsaken condition of Corn Island, and removed thither to commence a school. Here her MORAVIAN MISSIONS. l6l abors were not appreciated as they deserved. Her health gave vay under the strain. She was rekictantly compelled to return o England in 1875. But the memory of that lonely grave at l^uannvatla led her to present the sum of $5,000 to the Mission joard for the establishment of a new station on the Moskito "oast. This gift was used for the permanent founding of \arata on the Wawa River, north of Ephrata, which Frederick smith, a graduate of the normal school in Jamaica, had just ommenced as a filial. Another out-station had also been com- nenced, Kukallaya, across the lagoon west of Ephrata and some listance inland, the fruit of the labor of Peter Blair, who had emovcd thither in 1871. Here a village of about three hun- Ired Indians clustered along the banks of a small stream. Experience had taught the need of a staunch little vessel for :onmiunication from station to station along this coast, but the bird "Messenger of Peace" became unseaworthy after only five -ears of service. In June, 1874, moreover the little 'Wfcta," her )redecessor, was driven ashore near Greytown and dashed to )ieces. In response to a new appeal the keel of the "Herald," L trim little schooner of forty tons, and fifty feet in length, was aid in the ship-yards at Shorcham, and in September, 1875, she :ast anchor in the lagoon at Bluefields. But on the night of Dctober 2 and 3 of the following year a mighty hurricane swept he Moskito Coast. Bluefields, Magdala, Rama and Bethany ;ach suffered severely. During the tornado the "Herald" was n imminent danger. A vessel riding at anchor beside her in he harbor at Bluefields went down with several on board. She vas then driven into the mangrove swamps lining the lagoon. Hfcre she lay sheltered, and suffered no material injury. Had ;he not been spared to transport provisions to the stations vhich were now threatened with famine from the destruction )f their banana groves and provision grounds and from a plague )f locusts and grasshoppers that followed, the consequences of he storm might have been disastrous for the mission. Surinam even more than the Moskito Coast experienced ihanges in personnel during these ten years. Thcophilus van [Talker had been appointed Director of the school for the sons )f missionaries at Klcinwclke after the synod of 1869. His suc- :essor, Theodore Enkelmann, had scarcely become accustomed :o his duties as superintendent, when he was compelled to retire Dwing to a painful malady, and died at Herrnhut in 1870. Her- 12 l62 A HISTORY OF man Clemens, the next in charge, died at Salem on the Coronie in 1872. Now Eugene Langerfeld stepped into the breach. Moreover, seven other brethren and ten sisters of the mis- sionary force died during the period, and ten brethren and six- teen sisters v^rere compelled to retire from active service on account of age or sickness. With it all the era was a critical one for the mission from another cause. Final and complete emancipation of the slaves went into effect on July i, 1873, the period of apprenticeship having come to an end. Government no longer exercised con- trol over contracts for labor. It was inevitable that the bless- ing of liberty would be abused in some cases, and that removals of the people hither and thither until new adjustments had been made, would sever ties that had bound many to the mission and to restraining influences as regards their morals. Immorahty at times became the product of a liberty that degenerated into license. In other cases the ambitious aped after "quality," and mistook glittter for worth. The tendency which ever drives labor to the large cities in the hope of easier or more remunera- tive work came into full play. On many estates the planters began to feel the lack of men. This led to the importation of Chinese and of Coolies, whose heathenism exercised a deprav- ing influence on the blacks. Efforts were forthwith set on foot to carry the war into the very camp of the new paganism ; but the barrier of language could not at once be overcome. Small wonder that in the ten years the numbers of the mission fell from 24,156 to 21,636. In the educational system of the Colony the mission began to play a more important part than ever. The normal school at Paramaribo continued to supply well qualified native teachers. Governmental examinations tended to raise the standard, and the Director himself was required to have passed a pedagogic examination in Holland. At the close of the year 1878 the scholars enrolled in the day-schools of the mission numbered 7,269. Thanks to the liberality of the missionary society in Zeist, since 1875 the scope of this branch of activity had been widened by the establishment of a primary school in the city. It soon reached an attendance of 150. But whilst the congregation in Paramaribo and those on the estates occasioned grave solicitude during the period of transi- tion, new life appeared in the Bush Country. On the Surinam MORAVIAN MISSIONS. 1 63 River, just north of the fifth degree of north latitude, and due east of Maripastoon, Hes Berg-en-dal. This is a timber-produc- ing estate, which the church purchased in 1870, being at a convenient distance from Gansee, Victoria and Coffycamp. At this point the river curves so as to form a kind of harbor. On the lofty bank of the stream, and approached by a flight of steps is the solidly built "great house" of the estate, seventy years old but as serviceable as if new — one story in height and fifty-five feet by twenty in dimensions. In the rear towers up the steep hill which gives the place its name. Eighty houses clustering among the mango trees along the bank constitute the village of the negroes whose thrift is instanced by the fifty or sixty boats or corials usually moored in the stream. Here in the olden "great house" the missionary Lehmann makes his home in April, 1870, with David Peter Iveraar, the son of the helper Thomas of Gansee and a graduate of the normal school, as school-master. At Gansee also a church could be opened on September 30, and before long a house was erected and pro- vision made for a resident missionary. In happy contrast to the perplexities of Surinam South Africa now presents in the main signs of advance both in externals and in the inner life. In general there is peace throughout the decade, and missionary labor moves on harmoniously. In the Western Province, the division having been effected in accordance with the resolution of the synod of 1869, William Theodore Bauer succeeded Ferdinand Bechler as superinten- dent upon his election as a member of the Department of Mis- sions in 1S74. Special attention was paid to the efficiency of the normal school at Genadendal. Examinations by government inspectors reflected special credit upon Ballein and Zachert, the missionaries in charge. Seven of the thirty-one students whose preparation was completed during the present decade were members of the Reformed Church or of the Berlin Mission. Thus the Moravian Church was permitted to contribute to the solution of the problem of Africa's evangelization beyond the bounds of her own mission fields. The development of the railroad system of the Colony now afforded abundant employment to the members of several con- gregations. But with this advantage evils were combined — the temporary removal from the wholesome influences of the religious life of the mission stations, contact with irreligious 164 A HISTORY OF whites and temptations to fall into drinking habits, for canteens sprang up like mushrooms in the vicinity of the camps of the laborers. Yet much transpired at the mission centers them- selves to warrant the hope that growth in grace was permanent and deep. Mamre, distinguished as the point of extension in the Western Province through the establishment of its filial, Johanneskerk or Pella, especially enjoyed a deepening of its religious Hfe. At Elim an awakening amongst the school-child- ren in 1876 gave promise of a bright future. The churches at Enon and Clarkson were enlarged in 1870 and 1871, and a new church built at Snyklip, and new schools at Mamre and Elim, without drawing upon the mission treasury. Theodore Weitz was appointed superintendent of the newly organized "'Eastern Province," with headquarters at Shiloh. Extension of labor amongst the "red" Kafiirs called forth all energy. The Kei River now formed the boundary between British and Independent Kaffraria. The natural features of the latter region were striking. ''Consisting farthest from the sea of lofty plains on the slopes of the Sturm and Draken ranges, the ground is hilly and undulating nearer the coast, being inter- sected by the picturesque and well-wooded Amatola range and its spurs, which have been described as the home of the Kaffirs, and have always formed their chief stronghold in their wars with the Colony. The climate is healthy, and the soil in the well-watered regions wonderfully fertile. Snow at times covers the higher mountains, and appears occasionally for a very brief period in the plains. The heavy rainfalls during the winter months are often very destructive, and cause delay and peril to the traveler. The elephants, quaggas, zebras and many other kinds of antelopes, which were common here not many years since, have begun to disappear from most parts of the country before the advance of civilization." Here a still power- ful people, numbering about three hundred thousand, were massed in four chief tribes. Physically resembling the Cau- casian rather than the Negro or the Hottentot, with brown skin, however, and woolly hair, the Kaffir was a born warrior. His importance was reckoned by the number of his cattle and of his wives. In number the latter were limited only by his ability to purchase. His mental capacity was higher than his moral qualities. Theft and lying were not esteemed disgraceful as means to an end. Lighthearted and cheerful, sociable and MORAVIAN MISSIONS. 1 65 hospitable, he was amiable so long as his will was not crossed; but then capable of sudden passion, he could combine ferocity and cruelty. His reliction was a compound of atheism and superstition. His witch-doctors possessed even greater power than his chiefs. The "umJilaJilo," or smelling dance gave them good opportunity for exercising their cunning — certain mum- meries by tiie aid of which it was pretended that they could smell out persons guilty of having inflicted sickness or misfor- time on any individual through uncanny means. The most frightful tortures were meted out to the victims designated by spite or envy. Stretched out upon the ground with arms and legs extended, and hands and feet pinned to the earth by sharp stakes, ants of a peculiar kind, whose bite was very painful, were shaken all over them to torment them by creeping into eyes, nose, ears and mouth, besides stinging all over the naked body. Finally fires were kindled so as to slowly roast them to death. Amongst their religious rites, circumcision had a place, and was attended with licentious abominations. Kaffir corn, from which beer was malted, maize, melons, and tobacco were cul- tivated by the women. Primitive industries, like tanning, pipe- making, blacksmithing and basket-weaving and pottery, were somewhat practiced. Feudal and patriarchal features combined to characterize their mode of government. "The hereditary head of a tribe (ukioiikaiii) had under him several minor chiefs (iiikcsi), whose dignity was also hereditary. The ''ukumkani" decided questions of peace or war, and settled disputes amongst his subordinate rulers; but each of the latter had full authority over the people in his own district, subject only to the advice and control of his councillors (ampakati). The "inkosi" is appealed to for help by the poor, and as the father of his people is expected to give what is needed, a cow, or a sheep, or a "kaross/' If it were not for the many fines imposed on trans- gressors, the herds and possessions of many an "ifikosi'' would rather dwindle. Generally speaking, the "iiikosi" was endowed with sufficient business capacity to make the dignity he he held afford him a fair pecuniary return. In all judicial proceedings, which were conducted with a certain degree of dignity, the accused was considered guilty, until he had proved his innocence ; if the '^inkosi" was the accuser, he was almost sure to be condemned. Murder was punished with death, all other crimes with fines in cattle, a penalty which the Kaffir l66 A HISTORY OF called being "eaten up." The nearest relatives of the con- demned were expected to contribute, if a man was unable to pay the full amount of the inflicted fine. From early years their laws were a matter of deep interest to the natives, which they dehghted in discussing; in this occupation they often displayed a striking degree of those qualities which distinguish a lawyer." In Independent Kafifraria there still remained a wide field for pioneer activity, and Baziya here formed a point of vantage for the future extension of the Moravian mission. When there- fore repeated requests for a missionary were presented at Shiloh from Zibi, chief of the Amahlubi, and a vassal of the great chief Ngangelizwe, it was recognized as a providential call. Hart- mann of Goshen and Richard Baur of Baziya made a tour of reconnaissance by ox-wagon in April and May, i860. But meanwhile the settlement of various territorial disputes through the mediation of the governor of British Kaffraria had involved the removal of Zibi from the border country near Shiloh, to Nomansland, a district bounded by the Draken Mountains and the rivers Tina and Xinixa being apportioned to his Hlubis and to Lubenya's Basutos. The tour of exploration resulted in the calling of Henry Meyer of Engotini, to establish a mission in the new home of the Hlubis, with Samuel Mazwi as his assist- ant. In the early part of November the veteran, by this time an accomplished Kaffir linguist, made a lonely journey of a week through the trackless wilderness, accompanied only by two Christian Kaffirs. The chief himself was not at home; but his wife accorded a cordial welcome at Ezincuka (z. e. among the wolves), amid the sandstone crags of the Draken, where the primitive shelter of a cave whose front had been walled up, afforded the missionary a temporary home. Though the place was two hundred and forty miles from Engotini and seventy- five miles from the nearest white man, and four days' journey on horseback distant from the nearest point whence a letter might be despatched, he determined to bring his wife and child- ren hither. In the spring of 1870 they set out. Three weeks of exhausting travel compelled her and their four children to remain at the Enghsh mission of St.- Augustine. No wagon had ever crossed the mountains. There was no path. At one impassable spot a road had to be broken with the help of Zibi's men. When Meyer reached his kraal, one of the innumerable Kaffir wars had broken out. Meyer must hasten from chief to MORAVIAN MISSIONS. 1 6/ chief to endeavor to make peace. Under the circumstances Ezincuka was untenable. But he would not retreat. Some- what to the northwest, in a central position between five mutu- ally hostile heathen tribes, but with the full consent of the local chief, Lehanna, who claimed jurisdiction, he drove the first stake of the new station — Emtumasi. His house was built high up amid the rocks, for safety. Then he returned for his wife. Their trip was thrillingly perilous. Hostile marauders all around, once their wagon upset. A fall of snow on the moun- tains drove them for shelter within a smoky Kaffir hut, without window or chimney. Sixteen days they tarried here. But it was not lost time. Some of the people were found to have formerly lived at Shiloh. The enforced halt brought them a gracious opportunity to hear God's Word daily. At last Emtu- masi was reached, and the work of evangelization commenced. As many as fifty dusky warriors sought the missionary's minis- trations. But scarcely were hopes awakened when muttering thunders of strife rolled around the mountains. Assegais gleamed. Zibi was on his defence. Lehanna scoured the coun- try. Provisions were scarce. The cattle of the mission were stolen. Once during this time of terrible anxiety Meyer was compelled to be absent at Shiloh, securing provisions, and con- veying word to the colonial authorities respecting the state of affairs. The wife and children are indeed "among the wolves." Swollen rivers detained the husband for weeks. Fuel failed at Emtumasi. The lonely woman and children must search for miles for brushwood and dry grass. Their candles gave out, and the evenings and nights were long. Then cruel Lehanna came and boasted of the Basuto missions which he had plund- ered. Two of the children were seized with typhus fever. But God was merciful. They recovered, and the husband rejoined her in her extremity. It was just in time. Presently clouds of smoke ascended from Zibi's kraal. Lehanna's threats seemed about to be verified, for Zibi's men were scattered to the cran- nies of the mountains. On the heights above the mission the Basuto yells rang out, and the hills echoed with the fierce beat of spears on shields. But God was merciful. For some unknown reason the foes drew off. Then followed two years of utter solitude. The chieftain who had invited Meyer to Xomansland did not dare to show his face. But Meyer faithfully sought out the hiding places of Zibi's men, l68 A HISTORY OF and their hearts were somewhat softened by distress. More- over his energetic representations to the British commissioner proved a factor in hastening the restoration of peace. Now came reward. For Zibi and his men it was good to have been afflicted. A hunger for the Word and for enhghten- ment arose. The assegais were gladly laid down and primers and spelHng-books taken in hand. A little village sprang up beside the mission house. By August, 1873, thirteen converts met around the Lord's table, and nine candidates desired bap- tism. Out-stations were soon required. The cry "What must I do to be saved?"' passed from kraal to kraal. On Sunday crowds came from far and near, no longer smeared with war paint, no longer in nakedness and lilth, but clean and clothed. Ludini, Zibi's uncle, was a dignified old man, somewhat laconic, but apt to speak to the point. Now he repeatedly put one question to Meyer, at each visit, "Where is my teacher?" His people also desired to learn of Christ. Their appeal could not be set aside. Building operations were therefore com- menced at this new point, twenty-seven miles away; but the money at the disposal of the missionary was soon exhausted. Yet Meyer was not downcast. Gathering his Emtumasi Chris- tians, he and they prayed for means to complete what had been begun for Ludini. The very next day a letter from America brought a sum which sufficed to complete the mission house; and so they called it " Elokulweni" — i. e., in faith. Thither the Meyers removed, native Brethren taking care of Emtumasi and its two filials, Tinana and Mvenyane, until missionaries could come to the help of the pioneer. For he needed rehef. Over- work, anxieties, exposure, and in addition to all a painful tumor in the left shoulder rendered a furlough absolutely necessary. Nevertheless he was indefatigable in pastoral visits and evan- gelistic labors. Bvit at last he must bid farewell to his children in the faith. On January 6, 1876, he turned away from the Draken Mountains, and from the four mission stations planted by him in a heathen land. In London and in Holland he kindled large audiences by his enthusiasm in spite of pain. But medical experts assured him that an operation was his only hope. This was attempted in Marburg. Only beside his bed was his family circle ever fully complete on earth — a typical missionary family in this. In the wanderings of his delirium he was even vet with his Kaffirs. Their tongue had banished MORAVIAN MISSIONS. 1 69 the speech of his boyhood. And so, in fancy still at his post, Meyer embraced his wife for the last time, and whispered the name of their youngest son and of the Saviour, and passed to reward, not quite fifty years of age. Elukolweni and Alvenyane were in charge of Alvin Richter; at Tinana Otto Padel was stationed, whilst Emtumasi was entrusted to John Nakin, the efficient native assistant. And in the following years each steadily advanced. Meanwhile, another "iiikosi," Stokwe, a Tambooki living about halfway between Shiloh and Baziya, had requested that a missionary be sent to him. John Henry Hartmann, together with Paul Gwazela of Goshen were dispatched, and so in 1874 Entwanazana was founded on the Umtata River. But now perplexities thickened. The result of many nego- tiations for a grant of land at Emtumasi, adjudged by the com- missioners to be within the sphere of Lubenya, the Basuto chief, was a refusal on his part. Moreover his vassals persisted in regarding the work of the mission there from a tribal stand- point. Eor them to join a Hlubi organization would be dis- loyalty. Therefore a reluctant withdrawal of the missionary for a season seemed to be the only alternative. In addition rumors of a coming Kaffir war, to be of dimensions far exceed- ing any preceding one, filled the air. Guns and rifles with bayo- nets found a ready sale in frontier settlements. Soon after Christmas the Gcalckas. joined by Bowana's and Lehanna's Basutos, rose in an effort to throw off the British yoke. Stokwe joined the raiders. Nganglizwe was restless, yet loyal to those whose suzerainty he had accepted. Hence in God's providence, the entire Kaffir mission did not become involved, as had been feared. The campaign was brief. Sandili. a troublcr of the peace for years, fell in a skirmish. Kreli, chief of the Gcalekas, hid in the fastnesses of the mountains. Stokwe was defeated and captured. Sir Bartle Frere, in the name of Queen Victoria, could offer anmesty to all except a few ring- leaders. But Entwanazana had been looted and stood in ruins. In June, 1878. Hasting returned. His former people had been scattered, the land being taken away from Stokwe's Kaffirs. Yet seventy-eight souls could soon be reported as gathered round him. Meantime the older congregations of the Eastern Province were begfinning to assume a more distinctively Christian char- 170 A HISTORY OF acter. Chief hindrances remained the disorders attendant upon the war, and the abundance of canteens in the frontier districts. Nevertheless progress was observable. The beehive shaped kraals were giving place to houses after the European mode, where the decencies of Hfe could be observed. A commence- ment was made at an effort to contribute to the support of the gospel. Special attention was paid to the schools. For the erection of a new church at Shiloh the people themselves con- tributed $2,500 in 1870 and 1871. In Australia imposing numbers could not be expected. In all Victoria there were not more than eight hundred pure Papuans. But although the fruits of missionary labor could show an increase of only one hundred and twenty-five in 1879 as compared with sixty-eight ten years before, the improvement in quality had been remarkable. At Ramahyuk in 1872 the school earned one hundred per cent., the highest number of marks attained by any of the fourteen hundred schools under the supervision of the government inspector. Ebenezer blos- somed out like an oasis, thanks to the windmill and aqueduct, constructed by Adolphus Hartmann, which had rendered irri- gation possible. When the project of founding a hospital at Sale, near Ramahyuk, was agitated, the first contribution received towards the erection of the building came from the native congregation, a donation of $15. In 1876 an orphanage was begun at Ramahyuk itself, in charge of native Christians. Commissioners appointed by government in 1877 to inquire into the condition of the aborigines of the colony and to suggest the best means for furthering their interests, in spite of preexisting prejudices against the system of reserves reported favorably, and especially gave the palm to the two stations conducted by the Moravian missionaries, as exceeding in efficiency the four under the direct management of the Board for the Protection of the Aborigines. On the other hand, with all the expenditure of faithful labor, the Himalayan mission remained comparatively fruitless. Con- verts had to face the certainty of being disowned by relatives, and of losing employment, whilst local chiefs were incessant in both open and secret opposition. Great rejoicing had attended the baptism by Pagell in 1872 of a young convert, Nathanael Sodpa Gjalzan, an ex-lama from Lhassa. His linguistic attain- ments had been invaluable. The schools had extended their MORAVIAN MISSIONS. I/I influence, and in the spring of 1876 the baptism of the Moham- medan teaclier in the school at Kyelang had been followed by the conversion of five of his scholars. Mission tours had Been frequent, and large numbers of copies of tracts and of parts of the Xew Testament distributed. Jaeschke's literary labors had not ceased with his return home in 1868. He carried through the press the Synoptic Gospels, the Book of Acts, the Epistle to the Hebrews, and the Revelation, besides a translation of the Harmony of the Gospels. Redslob, who arrived in 1872, had completed the translation of Genesis. In hope against hope the missionaries persevered, and laid the foundations of future success. Now yet another sphere of unselfish service was entered. In 1865 a benevolent German lady, Baroness von Keffenbrink- Ascheraden, with her husband visited the Holy Land. The misery of the lepers, crouching and begging with their hoarse cries beside the Zion gate of Jerusalem, w'ent to her heart. She purchased a plot of ground outside the Joppa gate, and built a house to serve as an asylum. A local committee of Christian gentlemen was formed for the supervision of its affairs, with Bishop Gobat as chairman. But to build a house was easier than to secure men and women willing to cope with this terrible disease at less than arm's-length. It seemed natural to turn to the Moravian Church, identified for forty-five years with the care of lepers in Cape Colony. Frederick Tappe and his wife, for years pre- viously active in Labrador, consented to undertake the work. The asylum was dedicated in May, 1867. But deep preju- dices at first thwarted its usefulness. Fanatical Moslems would not enter the Christian dwelling. Independence and the pleas- ures and privileges of begging were not supposed to be coun- terbalanced by tender care, by a comfortable home, by changes of linen and good food, conditioned by the observance of neces- sary rules. On the day of dedication not one solitary bene- ficiary was at hand. However w-ithin a year twelve patients were sheltered, and within ten years twenty became the average number at one time. "But now the maintenance of such an institution, requiring about $1,500 per annum, called for the exercise of faith in God. How was such a sum to be raised? There was but one answer, 'Ask, and ye shall receive.' And prayer was made and answered. It happened that while the 172 A HISTORY OF Baroness pondered upon this matter, a small pamphlet from the pen of Bishop James La Trobe, giving an account of the self- denying labors of our missionaries among the lepers in South Africa, fell into her hands. She at once wrote to the author, claiming his sympathy and aid for her cherished plan on behalf of the lepers in Emmanuel's land. Her touching letter, pubHshed in the Mm-avian Magazine, eHcited a ready response, not only from members of the Moravian Church, but also from Chrisians of other names. And ever since that day of small things, the Lord has raised up many warm friends to this cause in England, Ger- many, Switzerland and in the United States. It is true there have been times when the Committee and Managers have been in sore straits, but neither compassions, nor faith, nor supply have failed. Year by year help has come seasonably and often most unexpectedly." MORAVIAN MISSION'S. 173 CHAPTER XVI >' .7 THE FOREIGN MISSIONS, FROM 1879 TO 1889. A net gain of thirteen stations and of eleven thousand and thirty-one adherents and of sixteen missionaries as compared with the figures at the beginning of the decade, gave proof that divine favor rested upon the work. This very extension, how- ever, carrying as it did with it an increasing outlay not only for current expenses but also for the training and outfit of mis- sionaries, for the education of missionaries' children and for pensions, as well as for the erection and care of additional build- ings, and complicating the work of administration, involved an ever increasing strain upon resources. Seven of the ten years showed deficits in the annual accounts, ranging from $6,866 to $16,951. Nevertheless by the blessing of God the liberahty of members and friends made it possible for the general synod of 1889 prior to the close of its sessions to rejoice at the announce- ment that the last deficit had been made good. Greenland saw a slight increase in the number of members, although only the most southern station, Friedrichsthal, any longer came into contact with actual heathen, and these for the most part visitors from the east coast. In the year 1881 Jacob Brodbeck undertook a tour of exploration thither in the com- pany of heathen Eskimos who were returning home, but met with no other persons whatsoever. In 1883 Nordenskjold, the Swedish explorer, contemplating an expedition to the same region, requested the aid of Brodbeck as interpreter. The wish was granted, in the hope that missionary work might be done. The expedition reached the 66th degree of northern latitude. Having spent the winter in Europe, Brodbeck set sail from Copenhagen in the barque Albaon, March 30. On April i the ship was running under close-reefed sails. A storm had been raging since the previous day. About ten o'clock, the night being very dark, breakers were suddenly seen right ahead. In 174 A HISTORY OF a moment there was a fearful crash. The vessel had struck on a reef near the Shetland Islands, Only the mate, two seamen and one passenger managed to crawl out onto the rocks, to which they clung till morning, when they were rescued by a boat from the shore. Of _the others, including Brodbeck, noth- ing was ever seen. With this exception, the life of the mission in Greenland moved on in an uneventful manner, but the gradual impoverish- ment of the people scattered along the west coast became more and more painfully evident. The prospect of ultimate self- support on the part of this mission field was becoming more and more problematic. The normal school at New Herrnhut was closed in 1884; and whilst that at Lichtenau was theoretically retained, during several years its usefulness was practically sus- pended for lack of adequate forces. Labrador, at the end of the decade showed a slight decrease in the number of Eskimos, but an increase in the number of white settlers, attached to the church, a total of 1,283 in all. The trade carried on in connection with the defrayal of the costs of the mission still occasioned no little perplexity. Con- ducted by the Society for the Furtherance of the Gospel, its agents since 1876 were regarded as in the service of the Mission Board, although not charged with spiritual duties. At their head stood a warden. Trouble again arose in connection with the debts of the natives and assumed such a character that the society commissioned Benjamin La Trobe to visit Labrador as its representative. Zoar had been the chief center of dissatisfac- tion. Ever since 1882 the unpaid indebtedness of the Eskimos of this station had been steadily increasing, in spite of consid- erable advances from the "poor fund," until the twenty-six men who were heads of families there owed in all about $2,715. From its founding in 1865 this place had earned a reputation as a poor point for fishery, etc. And the character of its people left a good deal to be desired in regard to amenability to regulations. During the autumn of 1887 their industry was attended with complete failure. Much distress arose. Instead of humbling themselves under the afiflictive providence, certain of the people planned to plunder the store. The trader was however warned in time, and sent for Bourquin, the superin- tendent of the mission, who came from Nain to allay the dis- satisfaction. His earnest representations for a time appeared MORAVIAN MISSIONS. / 3 to have quieted the restless spirits. But later a man shot twice into the store where the Rinderknecht and Lundberg were busied, because they had refused his unjustifiable demands. After a thorough examination into the whole affair, La Trobe with the missionaries decided upon the abandonment of the store at Zoar. This carried with it the probable withdrawal of the missionaries. The decision had a wholesome effect at the other stations. In yet another respect the Society for the Furtherance of the Gospel was occasioned perplexity during the decade. The Cordelia, an auxiliary supply ship used in the trade between Labrador and London, was run down by a steamer in the Thames in 1881. All hands were saved, but the cargo perished, a considerable loss to the treasury of the society. The Indian missions in North America had passed through severe trials. During the Civil War lawless bands ranged through the Cherokee country. On September 2, 1862, Ward, a native missionary, was shot by Indians as an alleged southern sympathizer. New Springplace founded in the early forties was pillaged. Gilbert Bishop, the missionary in charge, after suf- fering arbitrary arrest by a subordinate Northern officer, made his way with his family to Pennsylvania. Canaan, the first sta- tion to be established, in 1841, after the removal from Georgia, was destroyed. In both places the converts were scattered. Yet in 1866 Edwin J. Mack had returned from Salem and reoccupicd New Springplace. Later a church was built at Talequah, the capital of the "nation." In 1837 two-thirds of the people of New Fairfield had removed with their missionary, Jesse Vogler, to the west of the Missis- sippi, ultimately settling near F'ort Leavenworth, in Kansas, where New Westfield was founded on a reserve of twenty-four thousand acres, a mission doomed almost from the outset by the tide of white migration westwards. Meanwhile the remnant at New Fairfield pursued the uneventful tenor of their life. After a period marked by prevailing indifference, the heart of Adolphus Ilartmann — missionary- here since his transfer from Australia in 1870 — was gladdened in 1887 by an awakening whereby sixty persons were brought to Christ or renewed in an earnest desire for a consecrated life. At New Westfield, Kan- sas, the church was twice burnt by incendiaries (November 15, 1880, and January i, 1886) — presumably by bad whites or half- 176 A HISTORY OF breeds. The greater attractions of the government industrial school at Lawrence having induced the people to send their children thither, the day-school at New Westfield was closed in December, 1884. Retrogression in this period also marked the work amongst the Qherpkees. The church at Taleguah, for lack of attendance was sold to the Presbyterians in 1880. The consequent removal of one missionary for a time placed the entire field in charge of Theodore M. Rights, having car^ of Sp^ringplace and Woodmount and preaching occasionally in Talequah. But in 1884 Benjamin Lineback was called as a co-worker, and two 3'-ears later a church was consecrated at ]^k/bodmount, the Cherokees themselves contributing $575 towards this purpose. Meanwhile attempts were made to open out-stations; but the membership remained small — less than two hundred in all. On the other hand with the approval of the Mission Board in 1884 the American Province, under the leadership of the Northern Provincial Elders' Conference and the Society for Propagating the Gospel at Bethlehem, energetically undertook new labors in behalf of the aborigines of the American conti- nent. In 1885 a mission was permanently established in west- ern Alaska. For the Moskito territory God had special blessings in reserve. The first traces of the awakening manifested them- selves in May, 1881, at Magdala. Soon the awakening became general, and spread to Bluefields, Bethany, Ephrata, Karata and Kukallaya. All the neighboring villages felt the effects. Though in addition to the proofs of a genuine work of the Spirit of God fanatical excesses also appeared, caricatures wrought by the enemy, the entire revival approved itself a work of God and did not burn out hastily. Indians, Negroes, Creoles and Spaniards felt the mighty movement of the Spirit in their hearts. Men wrestled with God under a crushing sense of sin for days, it might be, and then light dawned upon their darkness. Sins were confessed openly. Restitutions were made. In November, 1882, a conspiracy against the govern- ment in Bluefields came to naught because of the religious movement. More than a dozen "sukias,'' the forefront of the opposition, surrendered to the truth. Liberal offerings were made by some who had formerly strenuously resisted even the entrance of light. "At the reopening of the chapel at Magdala, MORAVIAN MISSIONS. I 7/ January 19, 1883, an aged Indian, named Fox, rose and said: 'Brethren, I can not make long speeches, but I will say this: make ten collections for the chapel, and I will give something each time.' All the brandy and rum shops in the village were closed, with one exception. The people went to the chapel instead of to the public house. At Quamwatla two hundred Indians returned to the village, which they had left eight years before owing to superstitious dread of poison supposed to be buried there. They rebuilt their huts and awaited the arrival of a missionary. As in apostolic times, the Lord added to the church daily such as should be saved. The chapel at Karata, built seven years before with considerable misgivings, was filled with an auditory of two hundred persons. Sixty-six Indians were baptized there on November 16, 1881 ; the next day eighteen couples received the blessing of the church upon their union." Several hundred heathen asked for instruction and applied for baptism. Before the end of the year 1887 nine 1^ hundred and sixty-one adults were baptized. During the decade the adherents of the mission increased in number from 1,030 to 3,294. Three out-stations were added. Indians across the border of Nicaragua also desired instruction; but the govern- ment of the republic interposed a prohibition, on the ground that the Romin Catholic was the only church recognized by their constitution. Yet in 1888 the regulations were in so far relaxed as to permit visits on the part of Augustus Erdmann and Frederick Smith, and negotiations were begun for the placing of a "helper" at Sandy Bay in Nicaragua. One result of the revival was the erection of chapels in a number of villages not regularly occupied, and in many cases without assistance from the treasury of the missions. Whilst the course of the mission as such throughout these years afforded .special satisfaction, the political situation became grave. So long as the little strip of undeveloped coast remained wilderness there was little inducement for any power to place a new interpretation on the terms of the Treaty of Managua, according to which it enjoyed independent government whil-^t recognizing the suzerainty of Nicaragua. But after the estab- lishment of tiade in tropical fruits and the exportation of mahogany and other valuable timber as a consequence of the civilizing effects of missionary labor, and with the influx of traders and gold-seekers and adventurers from many lands, the »3 178 A HISTORY OF situation changed. During the early summer of 1879 Chief Henry Clarence was poisoned, and died suddenly. Great excite- ment ensued. The absorption of the coast by Nicaragua appeared likely to follow. But the election of a new chief was effected, Albert Hendy by name, a convert of the mission. Yet ominous signs reappeared from time to time, and his sud- den death at Magdala, on November 8, 1888, once more threw affairs into confusion, and threatened both the independence of the territory and the free prosecution of missionary activity. But once more fears were dispehed by the election of Jonathan Charles Frederick, a nephew of the late chief, in March, 1889, and the quiet and orderly conduct of affairs was maintained. By the year 1884 the Herald began to succumb to the influ- ences of tropical seas that shorten the life of all kinds of craft. Liberal contributions again came in. A serviceable schooner, the Adele, built for use along this coast, was therefore bought, and renamed the Meta, in 1888. But of yet greater import- ance to the mission as an auxiliary to the faithful efforts of the Brethren, and rendered especially desirable since the revival, was the completion of the translation of the New Testament into the Moskito Indian tongue by WiUiam Sieborger, who brought his manuscript to Europe in 1888, to be printed at the expense of the Herrnhut Bible Society. In November, 1879, an important conference of ministers and delegates was convened at Nisky, St. Thomas, in order to take the steps necessary to carry out the legislation of the general synod, which should prepare the way for Provincial autonomy. The resolutions of the synod and the proposals of the Mission Board were discussed with frank thoroughness, and various conclusions reached from the standpoint of the mission itself. The first of these, which sought a division of the work into two Provinces, met with the approval of the Mission Board. It was recognized that Jamaica presented features different from those prevailing in the eastern islands, and that the distance of this western sphere of operations from the Lesser Antilles would involve large outlays, if the West Indian mission were hereafter maintained as one organic whole. Moreover in Jamaica such a degree of organization had already been devel- oped, that few changes were necessary to adapt the situation to the desires of the general synod. Supervision was already exercised by an executive conference under the direction of the MORAVIAN MISSIONS. I 79 Department of Missions. Here, therefore, the five members of this executive were retained in office — Edwin E. Reinke, President; George Henry Hanna, Treasurer ; John Paul Pulkra- bek. Secretary; Peter Larsen, and Alfred Lind — until 1884, when a new executive of three was chosen, after the analogy of the order of affairs introduced in the Eastern islands — George Henry Hanna, President; Alfred Lind, Treasurer, and Callendcr Smyth, Secretary. General mission conferences were appointed in both missionary provinces for every five years, when a new election of the executive should take place. Provision was made for the convening of this assembly in the Eastern Province in such a manner that each island should be adequately represented. Here the executive was constituted of Benjamin Romig, Presi- dent; Samuel Warner, Treasurer, and John Lewis Hasting, Secretary — reelected in 1884. In every case the election, whether proceeding from the general conference, or as in the Eastern islands in 1884 by the vote of all the ordained mission- aries, was subject to the approval and confirmation of the Mis- sion Board. Upon the removal of Benjamin Romig to Berth- elsdorf in 1887, Theodore Xiebert was chosen his successor as President of the Eastern executive, and when Hasting retired from active service on account of ill health in 1887, Frederick Clemens became Secretary. A further change was necessitated in the following year, when both the Treasurer and the Secre- tary returned home owing to illness. Samuel L. Thaeler under- took the duties of the former, whilst those of the latter fell to Henry Weiss. Unfortunately for both divisions with the increase in the pro- duction of European beet-sugar, the cane industry. West India's chief source of wealth, steadily declined. Employment became uncertain, and wages constantly fell. Under the cir- cumstances the steady decrease in the appropriation from the mission treasury in aid of the West Indian work caused hard- ship, and the achievement of self-support within the decade was found an impossibility, notwithstanding the loyal efforts of mis- sionaries and people. An indispensable condition of self-support was the develop- ment of a native ministry. The death of Badham in 1879 ^^^^ resulted in the temporary closing of the theological seminary in Jamaica. The task of establishing a like institution at Nisky in St. Thomas was now assigned to Augustus Romig-. But an l80 A HISTORY OF affection of the throat conipcllcd liini to roHnquish tlio task after a few months in iS86, and Edward Foster was called from England as his successor. Later the Western Province renewed an attempt to prepare caiulidates for the ministry in connec- tion with the normal school at l-'airlield, but in i88S this was once more abandoned owing to untoward circumstances. Progress in numbers characterizetl the work in both portions of the iield throughout the decatle. Jamaica making a gain of more than fifteen hundred, and the Eastern islands of more than two thousatul five hundred. Of special imj^ortance for the future of the mission in Jamaica was the recognition of the church as a body corporate in 1884, title to the mission property in the island being vested in the Provincial Conference of the island together with the President of the British Provincial Elders' Conference and the Mission Secretary in London. In the Eastern islands a noteworthy event was the erection of a memorial church in the city o'f St. Thomas, to commemo- rate the one hundred and fiftieth anniversary of Moravian mis- sions, large gifts being received for this purpose from all parts of the Brethren's Unity. The foundation of a massive stone structure was laid on August 21, 1882, and the dedication took place on May 16, 1884. The queen of Denmark on this occa- sion took opportunity to convey her warm appreciation of the beneficent results of the missionary labors of the Brethren. As in Jamaica, steps were also taken in the Eastern islands to secure the title to mission property; but here the varied con- dition oi things on the different islands and the fact that different governmeiUs had to be dealt with protracted the nego- tiations. In the early part of the year 1879 ]\Ir. Quintin Hogg, the patron of the mision in Demerara, paid a visit to his estates in that colony. Now he asked that Alexander Pilgrim might be sent to the Reliance plantation near the Essequibo. This took place in April. .\ further extension followed in i88j. In the village of Beterverwachting there lived a number of mem- bers of the Congregational church, who had separated from their parent organization in 1863, and since then had been served by their own deacons. Once a month an ordained min- ister had administered the sacraments. But in the course of years he had accepted a call elsewhere. Now fifty-seven of MORAVIAN MISSION'S. l8l these people asked to be received into the Brethren's Church and regarded as constituting a filial of Graham's Hall. The request was granted. By the end of the year 1888 there were one hundred and twenty communicants here alone, whilst the membership at Graham's liall had grown to four hundred and forty-five, of whom two hundred and twenty-one were com- municants. Reliance on the other hand failed of success, chiefly through the opposition of a high church clergyman, and was therefore abandoned. Moreover at the end of the year 1884 the patron of the mission gave notice that the decline of the sugar industry rendered it impossible for liiin to as largely sustain the work in Demerara as heretofore. Meantime in the Surinam mission numbers grew very rapidly. At the end of the year 1888, 26,106 adherents could be reported, an increase of more than 5,000 when compared with the total ten years before. The growth was not an even one. On the plantations, especially those near the capital, a decline followed the abandonment of sugar production, and the consequent removal of the people to tov.n. Along the Coronie and Nicke- rie, where the negroes cultivated their own land, an increase was perceptible, for instance at Salem and Waterloo. In Para- maribo itself, the seven thousand three hundred in church con- nection had become thirteen thousand. Distinct organizations had been budded oft', Rust-en-\'rede in 1882 and W'anika in 1886. These with Combe and the old church grew rapidly, the central organization leading with a total membership of 8.280. This rapid growth in numbers in the city proved no unmixed blessing. Slavery's heritage of evil in connection with se.xual morality, and the practical difficulties placed in the way of poor persons by the cost attendant upon the recognition of mar- riages by the ci\nl authorities, rendered necessary numerous exclusions from church membership. At the same time arrangements that sufficed for the administration of discipline whilst the congregation remained small, were now inadequate. To add to the difticulties a prominent missionary in August, 1879. became conscientiously insubordinate, carried away by peculiar views concerning church discipline, holding that exclu- sion must be determined by the congregation and not by the missionaries. He refused to yield either to the Provincial authorities or to the Unity's Elders' Conference. An official visit on the part of Eugene Reichel and Theophilus van Calker 1 82 A HISTORY OF in 1880 resulted in his dismissal and the remodeling of the arrangements for the cure and care of souls. For a time trouble still made itself felt beneath the surface. But gradually a better state of things arose. The erring missionary made acknowledgment, and besought reinstatement. After a time he was given the means of earning a livelihood in connection with secular employment carried on for the benefit of the mis- sion. The erection of the Rust-en- Vrede church afforded opportunity for the employment of energies, and caused a beam of light to radiate the darkened sky. But new difficulties arose in connection with problems of church discipline. John Haller, the missionary now charged with the general oversight in this connection, like his predecessor but from a different standpoint in his turn failed to act in agreement with his colleagues in Paramaribo, and with the Mission Board, being inclined to compromise that tended to laxity, from his appreciation of the perplexity in which the colored people were placed by the cost- liness of civil regulations regarding marriage. For a brief period discipline was at a low ebb. The controversy in time so preyed upon Haller's health, that in 1885 a furlough became necessary. He was not destined to return to Surinam. In December, 1886, he died, at the age of forty-five, a brother of rare personal gifts, but of a temperament which unfitted him for collegiate labors. Now the "native helpers" themselves commenced a movement for the attainment of a higher standard of discipline, and in 1893 the colonial government altered the laws which had impeded true marriage on the part of the negroes. An increase in numbers also characterized the work in South Africa, more particularly that among the Kalifirs. In the West- ern Province the drift of population to the capital took thither many young people from the mission stations. During the visit of Bishop Kiihn in 1882 and 1883, the advisability of gath- ering these scattered children of the mission into a congrega- tion in Cape Town was discussed. On his return the Mission Board entered into the project, and Philip Emil Hickel was called. He met with hearty sympathy from Christian friends, and the consecration of a church and school on Moravian Hill took place in 1886 and 1887. In November, 1887, it became possible to take a step in ad- vance in connection with the normal school at Genadendal, the MORAVIAN MISSIONS. I 83 formation of a class of theological students, definitely des- tined for the ministry. Prior to this the first ordinations of native brethren had already transpired, Bishop Kiihn hav- ing received John Xakin, Charles Jonas and John Zwelibanzi into the ranks of the ministry on January 7, Januar}- 28 and February 11, 1883, at Shiloh, at Enon and at Clarkson. Through- out the congregations also the desirability of attaining self-sup- port was beginning to manifest itself more plainly in the steady increase in contributions, alike for meeting the stated expenses and for defraying the cost of repairs to churches and schools, and this in spite of the gradual impoverishment of the Colony. The decline in colonial prosperity meanwhile had its embarrassing effect upon the various enterprises prosecuted for the benefit of the mission ; nor did the desired success attend the effort to introduce new industries, silk-culture, the growth of arrowroot, the production of castor oil, etc. With it all the future of one congregation was temporarily placed in jeopardy by the death of aged Christina Lewis of Goedverwacht, the last of the slaves of Mr. Buergers, in December, 1888. It could scarcely be fore- seen that the thirteen persons whom the government deter- mined as his heirs, should reject the tempting offers of neighbor- ing planters, desirous of purchasing their valuable patrimony, and in a spirit of splendid self-sacrifice should offer it to the church at a nominal figure, and then individually make liberal contributions towards the erection of a permanent house of worship. The Kaffir mission, embracing the three older posts in the Colony proper, Shiloh, Goshen and Engotini, together with the two widely separated groups in Tembuland and East Griqua- land (Nomansland) experienced liuctuations, expansion pre- vailing on the whole. In consequence of the war with insur- gent Basutos and Tanibookies, in 1880 and i88r, Entwanazana had to be abandoned and was looted and burnt. Baziya and Tabase experienced similar misfortunes in 1880. but were reoc- cupied and rebuilt. On the other hand Bethcsda and Ezincuka in 1883 and 1887 advanced to the status of fully equipped sta- tions, and Mnari or Xxotschane and Magadla in Hlubiland became out-stations. In both divisions of the South African field difficulties arose in relation to the title to the stations and mission property, complicated especially in Shiloh and Goshen by restiveness of a 184 A HISTORY OF minority of members under certain municipal regulations — difficulties shared at the same time and in a similar manner by the Anglican and Wesleyan missions. Negotiations were set on foot, with a view to secure a permanent decision from the colonial parliament. A tendency decidedly favorable to the desires of the mission became apparent in this high court dur- ing the summer of 1888, but the proceedings protracted them- selves beyond all expectation. Meanwhile it was the more desirable that a decision on all points at issue should be obtained, since the opportunities for evangehzation were widen- ing. Amongst the Hlubi and Tembu Kaffirs alone it was esti- m.ated that about eight thousand heathen were yet to be found. In hope against hope the West Himalayan mission continued to be prosecuted, the scanty results that came to the surface exercising no deterrent effect upon the fidelity of missionary zeal, as httle as did the lamented death of Pagell and of his wife in 1883. Here the most notable occurrence was the founding of a station in Leh, the capital of Ladak, and the most import- ant town in Western Tibet. This transpired in December, 1886, thanks to the friendly influence which the British commissioner, Mr. Elias, brought to bear in seconding the efforts of Heyde to obtain concessions from the Maharajah of Cashmere. Suc- cess had been conditioned on the sending of a medical mission- ary to take charge of the polyclinic and hospital of the city. For this purpose Charles R. Marx had taken a degree in medi- cine at Edinburgh, and now came with his wife as the coad- jutors of Brother and Sister Redslob, transferred to Leh. The dedication of a place of worship transpired on September 2, 1888. Jaeschke, whose broken constitution had compelled a return to Europe in 1868, lived long enough to see the publication of his invaluable Tibetan-English dictionary; but his death in 1883 anticipated the completion of his translation of the New Testa- ment. Redslob with the aid of the converted lama Nathanael supplied the missing books. In 1884 the entire New Testament in Tibetan v/as printed in Berlin at the cost of the British and Foreign Bible Society. The first copies reached Leh in 1885. Redslob next undertook the translation of the Old Testament; and Genesis, in addition to the translations of a treatise on the Catechism and other works by Heyde, could speedily be sent forth from the lithographic press at Kyelang. MORAVIAN MISSIONS. I 85 In Australia, the slow but steady decrease in the native popu- lation pointed to the inevitable certainty of the extinction of the Papuans in the southern colonies. All the greater interest therefore attached to the tribes of wild aborigines beheved to exist in the northern portions of Queensland. Three or four beckonings of circumstance indicated a call to commence mis- sionary operations there. But as often as an opening com- manded attention, other circumstances interfered, even after an important tour which Hagenauer made in 1885, when he met with the representatives of eighteen tribes near Cookberg and the Bloomiield River. Nevertheless the Mission Board and the United Synod of the Presbyterian Churches in Australia kept steadily in view the importance of evangeUzing these poor savages and the Kanaka laborers on the sugar plantations, whenever a favorable opportunity should offer. In the year 1887 the German Province gave signal proof that the old spirit of consecration survived. In the year 1880 the ownership and the full responsibility for the home for lepers near Jerusalem had been given over to the Unity's Elders' Con- ference. Age and the state of his health unfitted Tappe for further service in 1884. His place was taken by Francis Miiller, a student of the institute at Niesky. Numbers had been increasing and the need of a better equipment was apparent. At a new site just outside the city, on the road to Bethlehem, a new and larger house was completed in 1887. Now volun- teers were called for in the German Moravian Church for ser- vice in the wards and in the kitchen. Nine brave women responded. Three only were required ; and Paulina Pletz, Augusta Ehrle and Magdalene Jeflfe were accepted for the work. 1 86 A HISTORY OF CHAPTER XVII. ■^Ji^ THE FOUNDING OF THE MISSION IN ALASKA. Discovered by Vitus Bering in 1742, and a Russian depend- ency for more than a century, the vast territory of Alaska was purchased from Russia in 1867 by the United States for $7,200,- 000. The climate of the southern part is comparatively mild, and very humid, owing to the warm Kuro-Siwo, or Japanese current, of the Pacific. The northern portion experiences the terrible cold of protracted arctic winters. Its people, estimiated at about 35,000 prior to the discovery of gold on the Yukon, have been classed as Americans, Russians, Haidas, Thlingits, Aleuts, Innuits or Eskimos, and Athapascan Indians. Eight distinct languages and several dialects are spoken. As a rule the natives are strongly built, and inured to hardship. The men have slight beards or none at all, and frequently trim closely the scattering hairs on their chins or pluck them out. An Asiatic cast of features predominates. The Eskimos are distinguished from the Eskimos of Greenland and Labrador, by being taller and more robust. All the various races of Alaska are charac- terized by a rather massive head, ' straight and coarse dark brown or black hair, dark eyes, high cheek-bones and a nut- brown or yellow complexion. The natives of southeastern Alaska, taught by contact with civiHzation, have frame or log houses, wholly above the ground, with sleeping apartments partitioned ofi from the main or living- room, where the central fire-place is built; and many of the Thlingits use a modern cooking-stove. On the other hand, the Eskimos, being largely nomads, in summer occupy tents constructed of the best material that is at hand, skins or cotton canvas. In making a winter house, a cellar from twenty to twenty-five feet square is dug, from three to five feet deep. At the corners and along the sides of the excavation are set posts. On the outside of these poles pieces of drift-wood are laid one MORAVIAN MISSIONS. I 87 Upon another to the top. Other timbers are placed across the top, forming the roof or ceiHng. Against the outside, and upon the roof, dirt and sod are piled, until the whole has the appear- ance of a mound. A narrow platform extends along one side or several sides of the room, upon which are stowed the belong- ings of the family and bedding of furs. This platform is also the sleeping place. Large shallow dishes of earthenware, bone or stone, filled with seal oil and with wicks of moss, are the combined stove and lamp of the family. Sometimes these lamps are of huge dimensions, two to four feet in length and eight to ten inches in width, with thirty or forty wicks. In one corner of the hut frames are suspended in which snow or ice may be placed, which thawing and trickling into a tub below shall fur- nish the water supply of the family. At one side of some rooms, and in the floor near the center in others, there is a small open- ing. This is the doorway and opens into a hall twelve to fifteen feet long and very narrow and low, leading to a well or shaft. This shaft is six or seven feet deep and leads up a rude ladder to the open air. Within, the combined smell of reeking oil-lamps, rancid blubber and the effluvia of human beings and dogs, becomes malodorous in the extreme. When on hunting or traveling expeditions, temporary snow huts are built, peaked, or in the shape of an inverted bowl. All villages of any consequence have their public hall, resembling the private dwellings, only much larger. Some of these are^ty feet square, twenty feet high and contain three tiers or platforms. These buildings are known as the kashima or kaslilca. Here the public festivals are held and dances take place. They are also the common workshops in which the men make their snowshoes. dog-sleds, spears and other implements. Fishlines and nets and bird-snares are constructed of sinews and raw hide. Arrows, spears, nets, traps and harpoons with f^.oats made of whole seal-skins inflated, are used in hunting, though guns are being introduced by the traders. For trans- portation on land the people have snowshoes and dog-teams and sleds, and on the water the kayak or bidarka and umiak or hidarra. With a frame-work of drift-wood, these canoes are made of skins; the kayak being a long, narrow, light, graceful craft, from sixteen to eighteen feet long, tapering at either end, with one, two, or three holes for the paddiers. The umiak is the family-boat, and nuiy be from twenty-four to forty feet long, 1 88 A HISTORY OF with a carrying capacity for fifteen persons and twenty tons of freiglit. The food supply of the arctic Alaskans consists of the white whale, the walrus, seal, deer, squirrels, hares, beavers, land otters, etc., and of many varieties of birds, especially geese and ducks and gulls. Pish also form a large portion of the diet, raw, frozen, broiled or dried. Berries are used either in a fresh state or are mixed with whale or seal oil, or with fat chopped fine and beaten into a paste — "native ice cream." Love of strong drink, in spite of all law to the contrary, is a special curse. Ignorant and savage, and with a religion built out of belief in ghosts and evil spirits, the Eskimos are superstitious to an extreme, and ascribe everything they do not understand to occult influences, thus falling ready victims to the chicanery of shrewd men who choose to drive the profitable trade of "shamans" or witch-doctors. Believers also in the transmigra- tion of souls, they fancy that spirits enter even into rocks and winds and tides and animals, and that their favor or malevo- lence determines the business of the community as successful or unsuccessful. They also suppose that these conditions may be changed by sorcery. By suitable incantations, nonsensical mummeries and ventriloquism, the shaman can control the winds and tides, and can reward friends and punish enemies. Marriage is entered upon with no special ceremony. If the parties are young people, the affair is largely arranged by the parents. Perhaps the young husband joins his wife's family, and is expected to hunt and fish for them. If he refuses to give his father-in-law the furs he takes, he is driven out of the house, and some one else more active or more obedient is installed as the husband of the girl. Sometimes a woman has ten or twelve husbands before she settles down. In this con- dition of things it is not at all strange that the women become indifferent and often false to their husbands, and that childhood is a pitiful stage of experience. Love has Httle to do with family-life, and husbands and wives may be exchanged by mutual agreement. Polygamy also prevails to a limited extent. There are various festivals which involve heathen rites — a whale dance, seal, walrus and reindeer dances, etc. There are festi- vals for the spirits of wives, of dead friends, of bidarkas, etc. Inhuman cruelty is sometimes practiced towards the sick. MORAVIAN MISSIONS. 1S9 The prevailing diseases are scrofula, diphtheria, catarrhal dis- orders, pneumonia, ulcerations and consumption ; and the death rate is large. A superstitious fear exists with reference to a death in a house, so that when the sick are thought to be Hear- ing their end they are carried out and placed in an out-house. If they do not die as soon as was expected, they are killed, usually by the .y/mwio;/. The dead are wrapped in skins and drawn on a sled to the rear of the village, where they are placed on scaffolds, out of the reach of animals, or upon the ground and covered over with drift-wood, or, as among some of the tribes, are left upon the ground to be soon torn m pieces and devoured by the dogs of the village. The commencement of a Moravian mission in Alaska was quite unforeseen by the members of that church until soon before its inception; and the call came from an unexpected quarter. At the annual meeting of the "Society for Propagating the Gospel Among the Heathen," held on August 23, 1883, at Bethlehem, its President, Bishop Edmund de SchweinitzTcbm- municated a letter from the Rev. Sheldon Jackson, D.D., of New York, then Secretary of the Board of Missions of the Presbyterian Church, and since 1885 "United States General Agent of Education in Alaska," in which he urged the estab- lishment by the Moravian Church of a mission in Alaska among the Indians and Eskimos. Instrumental himself in founding the Presbyterian mission at Sitka a few years before, Dr. Jack- son considered the Moravian Church to be especially fitted for this much-needed work, in view of the long experience of Mora- vian missionaries in evangelizing tribes of degraded savages; and stated that he had unsuccessfully applied to other denomi- nations on behalf of these neglected heathen. The society having favorably entertained his appeal, with the sanction of the Department of Missions, Adolphus Hartmann. missionary among the Indians in Canada, and William H. Weinland, a member of the graduating class of the theological seminary at Bethlehem, were appointed to undertake a tour of exploration. Steaming out of San Francisco on May 3. 1884, in the U. S. Revenue Cutter Concin, they reached Unalaska on :\Iav 16, and thence proceeded in the Dora, of the .\laska Commercial Company, across Bering Sea to the mouth of the Xushagak. 190 A HISTORY OF Here was a Greek church whose priest claimed the district of the Nushag-ak and Togiak Rivers as his parish. Passing on to the Kuskokwim, they traveled up this river beyond Kolma- kovsky in two large bidarkas. Their interpreter was Mr. Lind, an agent of the Alaska Commercial Company. The natives they found approachable. The land seemed to be prevailingly flat, sandy soil on either side of the river, covered with tundra, though wooded mountains appeared in the distance. Retrac- ing their way overland with the frequent use of bidarkas to Nushagak, the return voyage to San Francisco was made without special event ; and on September 25 they reached Beth- lehem in safety, recommending that a mission station be founded on the Kuskokwim, near the native village of Mum- trekhlagamiut, about eighty miles from the mouth of the river. The spring of 1885 sees a company of missionary pioneers in San Francisco, en route for Bethel, as this projected station is to be named. They are William H. Weinland and John Henry Kilbuck, a Hneal descendant of Gelelemend, a Christian king of the Delawares in the last century, recent graduates of the theo- logical seminary, with their v.dves, and Hans Torgersen, a prac- tical carpenter, who as a lay-missionary will assist in establish- ing the mission. He has left his wife at New Fairfield, where he has hitherto been engaged. They charter a schooner, the Lizzie Merrill, to convey themselves and their building material and supphes to the mouth of the Kuskokwim, taking with them a small sail-boat, the Bethel Star, with which to navigate that river. Weighing anchor on May 18, they arrive at the Kusko- kwim on June 19. Before ever their goods are all at the site of the mission, Torgersen on August 10 is drowned in the river. The situation is most serious. Two young men, utterly inex- perienced in house-building, with their brides of a few months, face to face with an arctic winter, and not having a roof over their heads ; Kilbuck, moreover, sufifering from an affection of the eyes that at times almost blinded him ; the material which they have brought for the construction of a house so wet from the frequent rains that they doubt whether they can use it ; and, to crown all, both of them able to communicate with the natives only by "sign language," except for the aid of Mr. TJnd. Less brave souls might have searched for some possible means of a retreat. Not so, these missionary couples. They dry their lumber as best they can in the kashima which Lind kindly places MORAVIAN MISSIONS. lOI at their disposal. They erect their dwelling according to the best of their ability; and it is taken possession of by them on October lo. They write concerning this time of test, "You see that we can say, 'The Lord is our Helper.' " The winter, which soon set in, was unusually severe. On December 29, the thermometer reached 506-10 degrees below zero. In October neighboring lakes were like rock in the grasp of the cold; and it was the end of May before the river was clear of ice. In the summer of 1886 a second station was founded, in order to insure communications, and named Carmel, on the Nusha- gak River, near Fort Alexander, by Frank Wolfif, who resigned his pastorate at Greenbay, Wisconsin, to volunteer. Returning the same year, next spring he proceeded thither with his wife and two children and Mary Huber of Lititz. In the same year, the summer of 1887, Weinland and his family were compelled to return, owing to severe sickness— a retreat which preserved them for a successful career of pioneer mission-work in Southern California; but it was too late to send reenforcements to Bethel. A weary, weary time was the early part of the winter of 1887 to 1888 at the lonely outpost of civilization and Christianity on the Kuskokwim. Work enough there was to do. At times troops of natives covered with boils, the heritage of a period of semi-starvation, clamor for salves and medicines; the school must be taught, its seventeen children clothed and fed— often washed, or even disinfected, when first received ; there is a log- house to be built with native help ; there are heavy parental anxieties about little Katie, the missionaries' child, and some- times the utter cruelty of the unfeeling heathen is such that it would depress any except the stoutest-hearted. But dawn is at hand. It is the Passion Week, 1888. Daily services, such as are customary throughout the Moravian world, have been commenced on Palm Sunday. Twice, or even thrice a day, there have been natives who are willing to listen for an hour and a half to two hours at a time, to what of the language the missionary can command. It is Good Friday He is explaining that the blood shed by Jesus Christ on the cross was for the taking away of all sin, when some of the older men exclaim, ''Kon-jd-uah! (Thanks) We. too, desire to have our badness taken away by that blood." It is Easter Sunday 192 A HISTORY OF at day-break, and forty people have gathered about tJic grave of Torgcrsen. They sing, in the native language, three hymns of the Resurrection. It seems the message, that "He died for our sins and rose again for our justification," is balm for the wounds of the hearts of Eskimos, as well as of the Caucasians who have sent the messenger, and of the Indian messenger who brings them the glad tidings. They leave the grave, having sung "Praise God from whom all blessings flow." A number of natives soon apply for membership in the church — some have already months ago hinted at such a desire, before they realized the full significance of this step. A period of instruction and probation follows, and on September 10, 1888, eight are gathered in as the first fruits of the mission amongst the Eskimos in Alaska. On May 12, 1888, Ernest Weber, of Gracehill, Iowa, who had volunteered and had been ordained for service in Alaska, left San Francisco, and arrived at his destination on June 16. He is soon quite at home in his work, his arrival making it possible to hasten the erection of the log-house planned for a school and chapel. At the beginning of December he takes Kilbuck's place as teacher in the school, for the latter on the third of the month starts off with a dog-team for a five weeks' visit to Carmel, where he would confer with the missionaries about their work. But though man may propose, it is God who disposes. The difficulties of travel and the heavy rains so prolong the journey thither that Christmas has passed before he reaches the other mission-station. Then terrible storms and intensest cold delay the return. Seventy-three days elapse before he reappears at home, like one risen from the dead, "his hair and beard long and his face all covered with black spots where it had been frozen." The thermometer during this period had registered 59° below zero. It had been a miracle that he got through with his life. "No wood but green willow brush to burn, and very little food to be gotten for his teams of fifteen dogs." Mean- time his wife, worn out with overwork at home, had been seized with serious illness, and was confined for several weeks to her bed. Yet grace sustained her, so that she could write : "Never before did I feel the nearness and dearness of my Saviour so thoroughly." MORAVIAN MISSIONS. I93 This visit to Carmcl made it possible to send tidings home in February instead of mid-summer, by the kind offices of Lord Lonsdale, who was about to close an adventurous tour in the arctic regions. Already the conviction had become fixed, that additional help should be sent to both stations, and a call had gone forth for volunteers. Now, it appeared as though the brave woman who had so long toiled to the utmost of her strength without female help at Bethel might be compelled to return home, for a time at least. The news sent a thrill through the Moravian Church in America. Fully nineteen volunteers came forward for service in Alaska. Two were selected. John Herman Schoechert, of Watertown, Wisconsin, who was subse- quently ordained, was appointed to go to Carmel ; and Carrie Detterer, of Riverside, New Jersey, a daughter of a former pas- tor of the Moravian congregation there, was chosen for Bethel. In addition, the wife of Bishop Henry T. Bachman, one of the Provincial Elders of the American Moravian Church, North, offered to go to Bethel for one year, with her youngest son, in order to give IVIrs. Kilbuck the rest she so much needed. Accordingly this new company of missionaries sailed from San Francisco on May 15, 1889, separating at Unalaska, to arrive safely at their respective destinations about a week apart in June. At Bethel health had been restored to Mrs. Kilbuck, so that her absence from her post was not required. About twenty children were attending the school. The little congre- gation numbered twenty-two, not counting the missionaries. At Carmel the absence of the Greek priest, who had left for San Francisco, rendered labor more agreeable. During the sum- mer the ministrations of Wolff to the men of the canneries seemed to be not wholly resultless. Louis Giinther, a German sailor, had confessed his faith and joined the church. Two of the girls of the school were, moreover, candidates for member- ship in the church. Here the number of scholars in October, 1889, was thirty-one. Tn this year a "Brief Grammar and Vocabulary of the Eskimo Language of North-lVestern Alaska" was prepared and published by Augustus Schultze, D.D., President of the Moravian College and Theological Seminary, as a help to future missionaries. A new and greatly enlarged edition came out in 1894. 14 194 A HISTORY OF CHAPTER XVIII. i THE FOUNDING OF THE MISSION IN GERMAN EAST AFRICA. About mid-way in the route of the Cape to Cairo railway, the great trans-continental line of Africa, lies the sphere of influ- ence assigned to Germany by the Conference of the Powers in Berlin in 1885. Victoria Nyanza and snowy Kilimanjaro form its northern boundary marks. The Indian Ocean washes its eastern shore. Lakes Nyasa and Tanganyika fix its limits to south and west. With good reason Caucasians have been wont to shudder at the thought of tropical Africa. Its sluggish waterways and tangled jungles symbolize death. "There the voyager drives his paddle through a waste of fetid mire, where mangroves spread their dingy leaves to hide foul depths of putrefaction among their rotting roots. Sour odors of decay mingle with the sickly sweetness of blossoms in the hot fever-laden mist, that shrouds the rankness of vegetation on either bank except at noon." Such a characterization suits the flat lowlands of equatorial Africa near the sea. But the East Africa of Moravian mission- aries is happier land, though even here the white man must run the gauntlet of fever, before reaching the healthier highlands. Directly north of Lake Nyasa, and to east and west of its northern end, rise mighty peaks joined by glorious ranges of hills. Six to seven thousand feet are often reached. Rungwe towers up nearly ten thousand feet above the sea. Here on one of the foot hills is a point occupied by white men early in the nineties. Amid a clearing on this mountain, about four thousand feet up, houses of brick with shady verandahs and thatched roofs form their homes. Rungwe rears its mighty head three miles to the northeast. Its precipitous sides are mostly naked rock. Yet soft grass clothes the ledges, and on the shoulders of the passes and in the ravines a luxuriant forest growth abounds. About the station the fertile soil has accorded MOR.\VIAN MISSIONS. I95 a propitious welcome to fruit trees aud garden plants. Many springs gush from the slopes, and a clear stream dashes ilown a stony ravine. The air is pure, and the climate healthy though hot. To south and southeast and west and north the charms of Kondeland lie spread to view, the east shut in by the great wall of the Livingstone Range, twelve thousand feet high and more. Elsewhere the lofty fertile plateau, broken by peaks and cut by gorges, presents glimpses of villages of round, conical roofed huts, peeping out from among glossy dark green banana groves or well tilled fields of maize or mighty forests of mag- nificent Muaz'c trees, the lindens of Kondeland. Gigantic tree ferns curtain the steeps, down which mountain torrents roar. In the long grass of the lowlands buffaloes and wild swine and panthers and hyenas are hiding. Twenty-five miles away shim- mers the clear blue of the great lake. Here dwells a veritable tangle of tribes. They all belong to the superior Bantu stock ; but the internecine wars of centu- ries and the raids of Arab slavers have driven to these highlands a variety of peoples, distinguished by differences of speech and tribal peculiarities. An inability to organize, reciprocal strife of village with village, unconditional subjection to their petty chiefs, and the insidious corruptions of Arab slavers, who intro- duce weapons, powder and brandy, the while they foment mutual strife, explain in large measure the failure of the men of equatorial Africa to work out a worthy destiny. The people themselves present traits of superiority, as com- pared with otlrer Africans. Physically and intellectually the Bantus are a tine stock, manly and erect in form and gait. Their women, if clad in civilized dress, would many of them claim a certain type of beauty. All esteem cleanliness. Their houses, circular and palm-thatched, are kept tidy and their vil- lages neat. For savages they are comparatively good-natured, and peace loving. On the whole they enjoy contentment and happiness. r>rave in war, their fortune is deserved. Yet after all credit has been given, they remain pagan sav- ages. Mistrust, innate beggary, greed, and unblushing theft, and amazing conceit and self-righteousness meet in them. Litigation and strife over ownership of cattle constantly dis- turb family peace. Theirs is a curious idea of justice. A favorite method of deciding the merits of a suit is by the ordeal of drinking Muafi. Muafi, a juice pressed from the leaves and 196 A HISTORY OF tender twigs of a certain tree, is a strong poison. But it may be so diluted as to become only an emetic. When resort is had to this ordeal the sorcerer prepares the drink in two cups — and here is his opportunity for fraud, and thereby for increasing his influence. The two litigants drink in the presence of the vil- lagers. He who is first compelled to vomit is the man who has justice on his side. His opponent must pay him a fine of so and so many cattle. The position of woman may be higher among the Konde people than among many Africans. But here, too, polygamy is limited only by a man's ability to buy and keep wives. An ox or two is the price. An old man with adult children will buy as a new wife a young girl of ten, who is not to leave her parents' house until grown up. Yet the transfer of cattle is made. When the maiden becomes conscious of her charms, she prefers some stalwart young warrior and elopes with him. The aggrieved bridegroom that was to be seeks to recover his cattle. The father protests he could not hinder the flight, and the cattle are his. So a feud arises between the venerable bridegroom and his younger father-in-law and the family of his successful rival. As among all savages, moreover, toil belongs to women. They till the fields of maize, and gather bananas, whilst lordly man enjoys the chase, or glories in battle, or lolls at his ease with his pipe. Mighty influence is possessed by the medicine-men, for firm belief in witchcraft prevails, and with it cruel penalties are im- posed on those thought to be convicted of injuring others through its means. These people have some conception of God, a conception ele- vated above that of fetish worship. Yet dark ignorance and confused contradictions inhere in their religious sense and usages. That there must be a divine creator, they appreciate. But his very dignity renders him unseen, inapproachable, and carries with it the impossibility of a revelation. They name him "Mbamba,'' the Good, or "Kiara," the Heaven. He is abso- lute goodness, but absolutely removed from men. They neither worship him nor ofTer sacrifices. Yet in special exigencies the village chief may guide his people into the depth of the forest, where echoes of nature's sounds are divine voices. Under the chief's lead they dance there, and call on "Mbamba." Then they place the leaves of a certain tree in their mouths, chew TRAVEL IN GERMAN EAST AFRICA. MORAVIAN MISSIONS. I97 them lightly, and take a sip of beer. Now the beer is blown out through the leaves as a fine spray. This is their only form of devotion. The ceremony concludes with feasting and dili- gent drinking of beer. They suppose that the unseen god dwells in the forest depths, and is pleased to be honored thus. In 1891 four young missionaries of the Moravian Church came to these people of the Konde highlands. About the same time the Berlin Missionary Society began operations to the east. Isolated in the almost trackless wilderness, the Moravians com- menced to build about forty miles from the nearest outpost of the German government, with great mountains intervening. An utterly unknown language had to be learnt. Their base of supi)lies, at Quelimane on the coast, was several hundred miles and several weeks' journey distant. Dreadful fevers were inevitable. George Martin died before the first house was built. Other missionaries died within a few years. Though not hostile, the people were wholly indifferent, feeling no need of a Saviour because without a true sense of sin. Ingratitude on the part of slaves who were nursed out of sickness after being rescued from the Arabs by German soldiers, had to be endured. At Utengule, a station begun some twenty miles to the north- west, Chief Merere forbade his people to attend the services, and for a time they refused to sell provisions. Merere had sold land for a mission with the purpose of gaining the white men as valuable allies in war. He had been driven from his old home by the fierce Wahehes, and plotted revenge. When the favorable time came he sent for missionary Theophil Richard. The interview took place in an open court before his fortress, whore Merere lay in the sun haughtily lolling on an ox-hide. Instead of consenting to join the raid, Richard warned iiim against robbery and murder. But he spoke only of victory and revenge. "Victory?" asked Richard, "how do you know you will conquer? You may be defeated and fall in the fight. In that case, are you ready to go before the presence of God, whose will you have ncjt done?" The war commenced. A pitched i)attlc was followed by a hasty flight back to Utengule. And now the position of Richard became critical indeed. Merere might vent his wrath on him who had been a prophet of evil. The pursuing conquerers might identify the missionary with their foes. But God held his hand over him, and kept him safe from both, though the breach between Merere and the 198 A HISTORY OF mission now became fixed. Merere ordered Richard to leave. But he refused to go. Thereafter even in Utengule the gospel began to conquer. At Rungwe peculiar interest attended the first baptism. The missionary Traugott Bachman was to leave Rungwe for Ipiana, a station recently established on the north-w^est shore of Lake Nyasa. On February 7, 1897, he preached his farewell sermon on the parable of the tares among the wheat. When he had closed, all unexpectedly a woman who had been under instruction, Fiabarema by name, arose. She stepped up to the pulpit and said : "I have risen to say that I belong to God. I wish to follow Jesus and to belong to Him alone. By the power of God I must shun sin. God is my father." A death-Hke still- ness prevailed in the church as the missionary replied, "God has heard what you have said, Fiabarema ! Do this, and God will take you as His child." Then followed the closing prayer, as usual. The people said, "The woman is drunk." But her confession of faith had made a deep impression. That evening she was baptized in the church, hastilly decorated with flowers, and took the name Niuniiagire, that is, "I have found him — Jesus." After less than nine years the status of the work was as fol- lows : four stations were manned in the Nyasa country, Rungwe, Ipiana, Rutengania and Utengule, and foundations were being laid at Mbozi (Nika). About them was a population of from forty-five to fifty thousand souls according to the mission- aries' estimate, or of from seventy to eighty thousand accord- ing to the reckoning of government officials. Nineteen mis- sionaries were engaged. More than one hundred converts formed the membership of the Christian church in their care. Theodore Meyer from the first has been superintendent of the undertaking in the Nyasa region, and Theophil Richard man- ager of its external interests. In consequence of the founding of this mission, the church in 1896 took over from the London Missionary Society the Urambo mission some three hundred miles to the north, near where the Gombe River makes its way towards the northern end of Lake Tanganyika. Thus, by agreement with other mis- sionary organizations on the continent and in Britain, the Mora- vian Church assumed responsibility for the evangelization of the western half of German East Africa. THE MORAVIAN CHURCH. IQQ Moreover the men and women who went thither in response to the call were characterized by a spirit worthy of the best missionary traditions of the church. When prior to the synod of 1899 the great deficit rested like a load upon the undertak- ings of the Unity and retrenchment appeared inevitable, they met in conference to discuss their relation to this deficit. They realized that East Africa had entailed heavy outlays since 1891. They knew also that it had involved for themselves much that men reckon as sacrifice. Near them were the graves of com- panions and co-workers. But they wrote home to the Board: "Brethren, if retrenchment is unavoidable, we beg you not to recall us. Rather than abandon the work God has given us, we will relinquish claim to your support, and will do our work wholly at our own cost." Resolves like this are a wholesome demonstration, that the instinct of Christianity remains essen- tially what it was in the apostolic age. Happy is the church privileged from time to time to receive and loyally respond to such stimulus from its standard bearers in the field. Made universal, and everywhere yielded to, this spirit would enable "the hosts of God to fill the whole world with a knowledge of Christ in this generation." 200 A HISTORY OF CHAPTER XIX. A BRIEF SURVEY OF THE FIELD DURING THE CLOSING YEARS OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY. With the constant extension of operations Moravian Mis- sions during the closing years of the century became more than ever a work of faith. To the pieviously existing fields four were added in 1890 — Trinidad, California, North Queensland and Nyasaland, and in 1896 Urambo in Unyamwesi, in German East Africa. The first practically constituted an extension of the West In- dian work, a considerable nucleus of members being to hand, emigrants from less fortunate centers of industry in British or Danish islands. Commenced by way of experiment at St. Made- leine, in 1892 a church was dedicated on August 2 in the capital, Port of Spain, Marc Richard being in charge. Later, out-sta- tions were established at Chaguanas and Manantao. In a few years nearly live hundred members were enrolled, and the enter- prise could be regarded as an important strategic point for labor in behalf of the eighty thousand Coohes of the island. In California the destitute condition of the "Mission Indians," former proteges of the Roman .Catholics, but forsaken for nearly sixty years, since the secularization of the church by Mexico, had appealed to the Women's National Indian Asso- ciation. In turn these ladies had applied to the Moravian Church, and William Weinland had been sent on his recovery from the efifects of the Alaskan climate. Potrero, "The Ramona Mission," was speedily founded near Banning, and in 1896 Mar- tinez in the desert was occupied by David Woosley. The call to Queensland came from the Federal Assembly of the Presbyterian Church of Australia, the veteran Hagenauer having made a tour of exploration. The Presbyterians ofTered to bear the cost, if the Moravians would furnish the mission- aries for the cannibal blackfellows. James Ward and his de- MORAVIAN MISSIONS. 201 voted wife volunteered to leave their comfortable parsonage at Ballinderry, and Nicholas Hey accompanied them. They selected Mapoon, near Cullen Point, within the north-western corner of Cape York Peninsula, as the scene of operations, and soon gained the confidence of the dangerous savages, through their influence moreover securing kind treatment for a ship- wrecked crew in place of barbarity. Ward's early death from fever, January 3, 1895, was a severe blow. But his brave wife and her sister, with her brother-in-law, Hey, maintained their post, and ne.xt year were rewarded with the baptism of the first converts. In 1897 Edwin Brown commenced the establishment of a second station, at Weipa, somewhat farther south. The Nyasa Mission originated in the receipt of a large and quite unexpected legacy from a gentleman of Breslau, John Daniel Crakau, who died in 1887, combined with an appeal from the well-known Alexander Alackay of Uganda conjointly with Bishop Parker of Equatorial Africa, in 1888. Other missionary leaders, like Dr. Warneck, urgently seconded this call. The directors of the East Africa Colonial Company in Berlin assured Bishop Buchner of their readiness to cooperate in ways within their power. Accordingly in the spring of 1890 Theodore Meyer, Theophil Richard, George Martin and John Hiifner set out for the country to the north of Lake Nyasa, via the Suez Canal, Zanzibar and the Shire River. Martin's grave paved the way for the advance, at Kararamuka, and all suffered from fever. But Rungwe was founded among the Konde people in August. Other coadjutors came out. Fever proved fatal to three of these. But Rutenganio and Ipiana were founded in 1894 and Utengule, among the Safuas and Sangos, in 1895. Small wonder, too, that with the steady advance in the old fields, the cost of the world-wide work frequently exceeded the income of the mission treasury. During the decade the annual cost of the work increased by $92,640. Deficiencies of specially large amounts were those of the years 1894, 1896 and 1897, viz., $26,390, $25,334 and $62,068. Yet by the providence of God each was in its turn made good, the last just before the con- vening of the general synod. That of 1896 was wiped out by a single stroke of the pen on the part of a generous friend of the church, John Thomas Morton, of London, who had already on more than one occasion lent liberal aid. At his death, in Sep- tember, 1897, he constituted Moravian Missions the bene- 202 A HISTORY OF ficiary of a large part of his residuary estate under certain conditions. His trustees were directed to pay over the money, estimated at several hundred thousand dollars, during a period of ten years, and the sums so received zvere to be tised solely in behalf of out-posts which should be thereby developed into fully equipped statiojis. The money should not be employed to relieve existing missions. In connection with the administration of the missions an important step was taken in 1894, when on June 2 by a decree of the Saxon government the rights of a corporation were extended to the board, under the title of "Missions-anstalt der cvangclischen Briidcr-Unitdt.'' Varied features characterized the special fields of operation. As for Greenland, a sufferer in more than ordinary degree through shipwrecks, four vessels carrying supplies being lost in 1895, 1896 and 1897, it became more and more evident that with all the faithful endeavors of the missionaries self-support could not be achieved. Meanwhile work among actual heathen was no longer carried on, the people having been Christianized. Under all these circumstances plain intimations had been received of the desire of the Danish government and church that a transfer of the Moravian stations to the latter should be effected. In recognition of the facts of the situation the general synod of 1899 with practical unanimity agreed to the transfer. One of the most significant features of the problem was that with one possible exception the missionaries now laboring in Greenland did not oppose the measure, but rather welcomed it. In its favor were the following considerations : First, ^Moravian work as a mission is accomplished in Greenland. There are no actual heathen, in the full sense of the word, to be found in Greenland, at least on the west coast, which is alone really habitable. For the few East Greenlanders Denmark has appointed a minister, Pastor Ryttel. The Eskimos are descendants of Christians for several generations. The ultimate aim of a mission is the upbuilding of a fully organized and self-dependent national church. This will be an impossible achievement amongst the proteges of the Moravian Church, the circumstances and con- ditions of their winning a livelihood rendering intellectual labor, needful for the training of native pastors, out of the question. The State Church, on the other hand, which has the care of MORAVIAN MISSIONS. 203 8,000 to 10,000 Greenlanders, many of whom are halfbreeds and more vigorous and intelligent than the full-blooded Eskimos, is ready and willing to assume charge of the 1,700 souls at the Moravian stations. By the transfer a native Greenland church can be established. Further, whilst Denmark recognizes with gratitude the work done by Moravians, she believes that they are now standing in her way. The honorable thing for the suc- cessors of those who went out primarily as assistants of Hans Egede, is to withdraw, now that the time is ripe for Hans Egede's successors to take charge of the entire field, and now that they are able and willing so to do. In this manner an example of Christian comity will be set, and the Protestant world assured that Christian comity is more than a mere theory. Furthermore, the Danish Church is in a good condition to care for these people. A better. state of spiritual life characterizes the Danish Church now than in many periods of the past. There is an abundance of candidates for service in Greenland. These candidates learn the language in a special seminary at home, where they study it for two years prior to their appointment. When appointed, the married men engage to serve at least nine years in Greenland, the unmarried at least six. Some remain for life. In Greenland they are assisted by native catechists, many of them half-breeds, who are trained for the work and who are able to visit the scattered population with ease, being expert with the kayak, a canoe few Europeans ever learn to manage. Finally the withdrawal is likely to redound to the temporal benefit of the people ; for the conditions of life seem to render it necessary, and the Danish government requires, that they be removed from their present limited environment and scattered from the mission stations. Such a scattering will be of double advantage from a physical and temporal stand- point. On the one hand it will render more easy the sucessful catch of fish and furs, on which they depend for a livelihood. On the other hand they may then be more free to marry with Greenlanders of the Danish Church. It is evident that the present narrow village life, with its isolated conditions, villages being quite cut off from each other, promotes a degree of inter- marriage that is to some extent a cause of numerical decrease. It is due to them to remove every crippling influence upon their race as such. 204 ^ HISTORY OF In Labrador Albert Martin had been superintendent since the return of Bourquin to Germany in 1889. It had been a decade distinguished by severe epidemics, and the total number of Eskimos in care of the mission had decreased, whilst the number of white settlers connected with the church had so increased as to counterbalance this loss. The abandonment of Zoar, whence many natives had removed after the closing of the store in 1889, was determined by the mission conference in 1893. Ramah, on the other hand, was rebuilt, and during the years 1896 and 1897 Makkovik was founded to the south of Hopedale, Herman Jannasch dedicating its church on Christmas Day of the latter year. And preparations were made to estab- lish a station at Rigolette yet farther to the south. In Alaska the membership expanded from 84 to 987 by the end of the year 1899. Ugavigamiut was founded eighty miles up the Kuskokwim from Bethel; Bethel numbered six out-sta- tions, Ugavigamiut two, and Carmel three. More than twenty native helpers rendered efficient assistance. But sad experi- ences caused sorrow throughout the church. To the dismissal of three missionaries was added the loss by drowning of Ernest Weber and his wife and child in Kuskokwim Bay on one of the last days in June, 1898, when returning from furlough, their small steamer foundering with all on board. Upon Herman Romig, medical missionary at Bethel, devolved the burden of leadership on the Kuskokwim, a burden rendered the heavier by the failure of the vessel with supplies to make a landing in the summer of 1899. In 1896 the Mission Board transferred to the Home Mission Board of the American Province, North, the care of the work amongst the Cherokces in Indian Territory, long languishing. As a consequence of national legislation, which cut down the mission farms upon whose produce the missionaries had been largely dependent, to the paltry size of four acres in each case, this branch of activity came to an end in the spring of 1899. Meanwhile the new work in California compensated in some measure for this loss. In the West Indies the constant movement of the population, intensified by the stagnation of the sugar industry, together with the impoverishment of the masses had rendered the effort to attain self-support impossible, though loyal eflfort had been strenuously put forth and heavy sacrifices made. In 1897 the MORAVIAN MISSIONS. 20$ superintendents of the eastern islands met in conference, and after thorougli discussion agreed to a general retluction in the salaries of missionaries, already none too high. However, num- bers indicated a slight advance — of one station and three out- stations in the Eastern Province, and of six stations or out- stations and four preaching-places in Jamaica, whilst the mem- bership in each Province was marked by a net gain of rather more than one thousand in ten years. Trinidad was a new and hopeful field, rapidly developing under Marc Richard. Since 1897 Edwin C. Greider had been President of the Eastern and Frank P. Wilde of the Western board. Here the synod of 1899 attempted to solve the problem by granting to these Provinces practical independence with certain restrictions. A fixed annual grant, normally of $3,500, shall be allowed to each Province for ten years, and certain specific donations were voted. The cost of maintaining one theological seminary on the islands, under the jurisdiction of the Mission Board, shall be a charge of the general mission treasury. Mis- sion P>oard will continue to bear the expenses, as hitherto, for foreign brethren now in service, i. c, pension, etc. For foreign missionaries appointed after December, 1899, Mission Board will undertake half of the expenses connected with outfit, pen- sion, education of children, etc. ; the other half must be borne by the Province, Synod furthermore bore in mind the possibility of extraordi- nary emergencies, arising from the effects of convulsions of nature. In the event of such misfortunes, special appeals will be allowed. For the Moskilo Mission the year 1894 was critical in the extreme. Thgn the nominal suzerainty of Nicaragua developed into complete ownership, the Reserve being wholly incorpo- rated into the Republic. Business being unsettled, and various regulations altered, the expense of maintaining the undertak- ings of the church was heavily increased. Yet with all the anxiety, and in .spite of many changes in personnel occasioned by the climate, there was a steady advance, the number of sta- tions and outposts being increased by five, and the membership by nearly two thousand. Here after many years of faithful labor, Augustus Martin resigned his office of superintendent, to be fofTovNccTFy Augustus Erdmann, who was called higher within a year. In turn William Sieborger, whose translation ■■'■j^ 206 A HISTORY OF of the Gospels and Acts was published by the Herrnhut Bible Society in 1890, assumed the reins. Dcmcrara suffered a hea\y loss in the death of the founder of the work at Graham's Hall. Henr\- Moore, in Xovember, 1896. John Ding^sall, teacher in the high-school at Bluefields, became his successor. The abandonment of the Bel Air estates, o\A-ing to the fact that the maintenance of the dikes more than absorbed the profits from the sugar, led to a removal from Gra- ham's Hall to Cumming's Lodge prior to the death of Moore. A new beginning was also made in Georgetown, and an attempt was made to evangelize Coolies and Chinese who were pressing into the colony. As in the case of the West Indian field, the fluctuation of the people, and especially the removal of many to gold diggings along the Demerara River militated against large increase in numbers. Surinam, where Frederick Stahelin succeeded Jonathan Kers- ten as superintendent in 1894, continued to be characterized by growth, a net gain of more than three thousand, and of five stations in ten years. Specially significant was the spread of the work amongst the Bush Negroes of the interior, though the self-sacrifice of Kersten at Albina demonstrated once more the impossibilit}- of a white man's permanently enduring the climate. In 1891 the appointment of the first Chinese ''helper," Lazarus Fu Ahing, gave promise of happy labor amongst the immigrant Asiatic heathen, and yet higher hopes were raised by the fidelity of another Coolie convert and evangelist, Abraham Lincoln by name. A further development of usefulness was the appoint- ing of a missionar}- and two deaconesses, in 1897, to minister to the Protestants among the inmates of the leper hospital at Groot Chatillon. South Africa, West, where the founding of Etembeni and Elinde, near Enon, reminded that the day for labor amongst pagans was not over, though for the most part the work had to be restricted to the ''settlements," rejoiced in a gain of rather more than one thousand members in ten years, the total rising from 7871 to 9181. Moreover the steady advance towards self-support and self-discipline was most gratifying. The increasing tendency of the young people to seek employ- ment in the towns occasioned a repetition in Port Elizabeth of the procedure attended with such good results in Cape Town, and the ministrations first of a native brother and then of II MORAVIAN MISSIONS. 20/ Rudolph Scliniitt prepared for Ihc establishment of a congre- gation in this busy port. William Bauer dying in August, 1892, Paul Hennig had been charged with the leadership in the Province. Similarly in the Eastern Province, where Ernest van Calker had succeeded Otto Padel, there was marked growth, peace had blessed the land and missionary labor could be uninterruptedly pursued. As a result of the visit of Bishop Buchner in 1892- 1893, Tabase, Elokolweni and Mvenyane were raised to the rank of stations, and a number of out-stations were commenced. The membership rose from 3671 to 5314. Thanks to the liberality of Mr. Morton in 1896, a training school for native teachers and ministers was founded at Mvenyane. The Himalayan field, distinguished for many years for almost fruitless toil, and during this decade characterized by severe sickness and death amongst the staff of missionaries, limited towards the west by agreements with other societies and to the east by the impenetrable boundaries of Tibet proper, gave out a gleam of hope. Poo especially showing signs of life. The native evangelists Paulu and Ga Puntzog, boldly itinerated amongst their countrymen. New outposts were established at Chot and Gui, near Kyclang. and at Scheh, near Leh. The number of inmates of the Home for Lcf^ers in Jerusalem steadily increased, forty-three at the close of the year 1899, twenty-nine males and fourteen females, thirteen being Chris- tians and thirty Mohammedans. In 1891, Miiller and his wife were succeeded in the management of the institution by Charles and Anna Schubert. Three deaconesses, trained in the Deacon- esses' Institute of the Moravian Church at Niesky, in Silesia, assisted. Native laborers were employed in the garden and for all varieties of out-door labor, the lepers themselves being able to do only the lighter forms of work. Within the decade a number of improvements were added to the building, and one result of the visit of William L. Kolbing, in the train of the Em- peror of Germany when his majesty was present at the dedica- tion of the Church of the Redeemer in Jerusalem, was the enlist- ing of the sympathy of a wider public. Though a Building and a Pension Fund exist, the annual costs must still be met by the stated gifts of members and friends of the church. During the year 1899 the cost of supporting this worthy charity amounted to $6,122, and the accounts closed with a de- 208 A HISTORY OF ficit of $981. Thus like the entire evangeHstic activity of the Moravian Church, it remains a work of faith. But like the world-wide enterprise of Moravian Alissions, it also serves as a bond uniting the several provinces of the Brethren's Unity, and afifords a channel for the benevolence of members in the mission-congregations. In 1899 both divisions of the West Indian field, Surinam and Bohemia, in addition to the four home provinces, were represented amongst its supporters. In Ger- many, Switzerland, Britain, Holland and in the United States there are those beyond the immediate membership of the Moravian Church, who count it a privilege to statedly aid by their gifts. At the close of the year 1899 the statistics of the missions were as follows : Income from Home Sources, $142,533.62 " Foreign " .... 128,100.00 Total Cost, ........ 416,007.50 Ordained Missionaries, 166 Physicians (already included), (2) Lay Missionaries (unordained), 23 Married Women 180 Unmarried Women 21 Total Missionaries, 390 Ordained Natives, . 18 Other Native Helpers — Men 1089 " " " Women 756 Total Native Workers 1863 Principal Stations, 146 Sub-Stations 68 Organized Churches 214 Communicants, 34.054 Sabbath-schools, 126 Membership of Sabbath-schools 18,091 Total Contributions of Native Members, . . . $129,100 Total Membership, 96,380 !;!3i;4-r" ■ r CjL"-' ■ i M ^- 1 TOUTOtA' 4 to*— »^ .nT ''~ S' CROIX WEST INDIA ISLANDS CENTRAriM ERICA "'..w^f^'t MORAVIAN MISSIONS ^* ^^y. JTL4NTIC 0CE4N >,^i^au *'■ HAITI on ^^^^N OOHKICO rttm^R"* ** .,..'\^ KAf.r^ LEEWARD ISLANDS I A H S I A l,...r *»""«* ^-.^ MORAVIAN MISSIONS. 2O9 CHAPTER XX. THE AIM AND METHODS OF MORAVIAN .MISSIONS. In the records of the early missionaries of the Moravian Church a characteristic phrase, recurring with significant fre- quency, aptly sets forth their distinctive purpose — the aim of Moravian missions from the first, viz., "to win souls for the Lamb." Thereby all m6re ecclesiasticizing is excluded, the wholesale herding of savages into the Christian fold at the command of a chieftain. But it equally declines to endorse the ultra-Protestant notion, that all has been done which is re- quired, when the message of salvation has been delivered within the hearing of a people. It involves far more than philan- thropic and humanitarian impartation of culture, the European- izing or Americanizing of races: national customs, national notions of social order, national festivals and dress are not to be interfered with, if they arc free from idolatry, superstition and vice. Nor is the aim to denominationalizc. This was clearly demonstrated in the instructions framed for the mission- aries by Count Zinzendorf in 1738. In them he deprecated an^, attempt to instil formal tenets of systematic theology. Christ, the one sacrifice and a complete saviour, was to be appre- hended by converts as their perscTnal saviour. Discussions of a purely scientific character, for example the problem of the origin of sin, should be avoided. Sectarian diflFerences, rooted in the historic events of Christendom, should not be perpetu- ated. The very regulations which had proved valuable for the civico-rcligious life of Herrnhut, it might be unwise to dupli- cate in the congregations won from heathenism. Efforts were from the first directed primarily to the moral and spiritual in man, since everywhere the law of conscience exists, everywhere the will of man is the responsible subject of that law. and everywhere men have some idea of God to whom their will is responsible. But with the purpose of winning souls for the Lamb it was and has been ever since realized that a »5 / I 2IO A HISTORY OF (very wide aim is conjoined. Religion is not something super- added to life or artificially interjected into ordinary occupa- tions. It does not occupy a sphere distinct from the secular. ' It interpenetrates and dominates all conscious activity. Hence / heart-conversions display their effects in every relationship of life. If effected in sufficient number, an entire race will be ,wholly transformed. Family life is created, the home arises, industry emerges, civilization progresses, and the faith possess- ing power of self propagation, responsibility for spread of the rule of Christ is avowedly accepted. Therefore contempora- neous with the effecting of heart-conversions, the organization !and development of native congregations, self-dependent alike in financial support, in the dispensation of the word and the sacraments, in the administration of discipline and in effective prosecution of a policy of organized extension and of self-mul- tiplication, has long been enunciated as the aim of missionary endeavor on the part of the Moravian Church. But in seeking to attain this aim, it has consistently guarded against effecting a merely nominal profession of Christianity on the part of large numbers. On the contrary, special attention has been paid to individuals, that converts may really be "turned from darkness unto light, and from the power of Satan unto God." A regen- erated membership is primarily striven for, as a means whereby the national life in heathen lands may eventually be brought wholly under the sanctifying influence of Christianity. This apprehension of the aim of missions has carried with / it a corresponding breadth of view in relation to the methods of missionary work. Preaching in public and in private, herald- ing and the dispensation of the sacraments are held to be primary work, with well-organized stations as centers of itin- eracy. A translated Bible is placed in the hands of the people. A Christian Hterature is created and scattered. The value of education is justly appreciated. Eleemosynary adjuncts, the services of the medical missionary, the hospital, the dispensary and the orphanage, and the home for incurables are em- ployed. Since the silent forces of example and of character ever prove influential, Christian artisans demonstrate to heathen and new converts the dignity of industry, the blessings of a consistent life and the sweetness of a Christian home. But all these agencies are supplemented by a most scrupu- lous attention to the care of individual souls. Prior to bap- MORAVIAN MISSIONS. 211 tism or confirmation preliminary instruction is given with a ^'iew not merely to inform the intellect, but to influence the heart. A regular round of pastoral labor is prosecuted as in congregations in the home lands, and in addition a system of close religious conversation with individual converts is also statedly maintained. As a rule such conversations take place frequently with each adult, so that every male member of the mission-congregation is brought face to face with the mission- ary several times each year, and every female with the mis- sionary's wife. Those who avoid these interviews are looked after by the missionary and his assistants. Moreover, the spirit of fellowship is fostered by means of associations of old and young in every w^ay that is practicable. Bible-study, the prayer-meeting, temperance leagues, societies of Christian Endeavor, Bible societies, missionary associations and the like, and fraternal organizations of a Christian type are encouraged. At each station, for the systematic oversight of individuals, the converts are arranged in five classes, each of which has special services of its own: i. Nciv People, such heathen as apply for general Christian instruction ; 2. Candidates for Bap- tism, such as have applied for Baptism and are under instruc- tion preparatory to this sacrament ; 3. Baptized Children, the children of members of the church under sixteen years of age prior to their confirmation ; 4. Baptized Adults, all above six- teen years of age who have been baptized but not yet con- firmed ; 5. Conimunieants, all who have been confirmed or bap- tized as adults. The congregations, through their elders, cooperate with the missionarv in the administration of discipline in tiie narrower sense, consisting according to circumstances of the word of brotherly yet formal admonition, or of temporary exclusion from participation in the Lord's Supper, or of temporary sus- pension from all the rights and privileges of membership. Even those who have been placed under the final degree of discipline are not thereby at once cut off from the ministrations and care of the church. They are particularly looked after by the mis- sionaries and their assistants, and are readmitted when suffi- cient evidence of penitence and a desire to lead a consistent life has been manifested. But if they persistently continue in sin, their names are finally stricken from the register. Development of native-agencv_is considered of highest im- 212 A HISTORY OF portancCj though the characteristics of certain races and the orcumstances of certain fields have necessitated extreme cau- tion in proceeding to apply the accepted principles of mis- sionary polity. No scheme has been found universally and invariably applicable, yet the general lines of procedure present an affinity in all the mission provinces. Everywhere in the selection of assistants regard is had for the respect they enjoy in the church on account of their approved fidelity in Christian life, everywhere well ordered matrimonial relations are a sine qua non, and it is required that they set an example in the ful- filment of duties involved in church membership, such as the stated payment of dues, etc. The several grades of assistants are known as "Helpers," "Lay Readers" and "Assistant Mis- sionaries," the last especially supplying a source from which "Native Ministers" are recruited. The term "Helper" has been adopted from St. Paul's designation of Priscilla and Aquila in Romans 16:3, 9. Appointed by the missionaries, as a rule in conference assembled, the "Helpers" receive no com- pensation, unless assigned to specific work which takes them from home and temporarily deprives them of their means of livelihood. Often they are assigned to districts, within which they visit converts from house to house and acquaint them- selves with their spiritual progress, call upon the sick and report them to the missionaries, labor amongst the heathen and bring individual cases of interest to the notice of the mis- sionaries, exhort those converts who appear to be lapsing and draw the attention of the missionaries to them, settle differ- ences amongst the people and when necessary call in the aid of the missionaries, promote zeal for the education of their children on the part of parents, go after the erring and keep a watchful eye upon and extend a sympathetic hand of help to those under discipline. At stated times the "Helpers" meet with the missionaries and bring in their reports. Female "Helpers" labor among those of their own sex. "Lay Readers" are native assistants of superior qualifications, licensed by a "Mission Conference" as Bible-readers and leaders of cottage meetings. They devote one or two days each week to this work, and sometimes receive a small compensation. "Assistant Missionaries" as well as "Native Ministers" receive appoint- ment from the Mission Board, and stand on the same general footing with the foreign agents, save that they have no claim THE MORAVIAN CHURCH. 213 upon Mission Board for the education of their children, or for pensions and furloughs. As a means toward the independence, self-support and self- management of congregations won from heathenism, respon- sible and representative members are chosen by the council of each congregation to assist in the management of its spir- itual and temporal affairs, and to see to it that the necessary money be raised for prosecuting the local work, for repairs of buildings, for the relief of the poor, etc., the actual adminis- tration of the fund for the poor being in the hands of the "Helpers." Normally two boards exist in each congregation, the one controlling the expenditure of all moneys raised by its membership and participating in the management of its exter- nal affairs, and the other constituting a body of advisers with whom the missionary consults in reference to the cure and care of souls and in particular in reference to the administration ot discipline. Amongst the agencies employed in seeking to attain the aim of missions, the education of the young holds a foremost place. Experience has taught that those members of mission-congre- gations who were baptized as infants and who were instructed in the schools from earliest childhood are far in advance of those who abandoned heathen faith and practices as adults and received instruction and baptism in mature years. At^eacli station, and as often as possible at outposts, there is as a rule a graded school, generally two, the sexes being taught apart. The missionary exercises control, but native teachers are em- ployed wherever practicable. With exception of the primary department, the classes receive instruction in reading, writing, arithmetic, geography, Bible history, singing, and in some instances in grammar. Mission Board gives aid toward founding the schools and guarantees their continuance for ten years. Thereafter the congregations must undertake the financial responsibility, meeting expenses either by school fees alone or by fees supplemented by collections. Sometimes these schools receive a measure of governmental aid, being then subject to inspection. At various times Moravian mission schools in Jamaica, in other West Indian islands and in Australia have attained very high standing in government examinations. In addition to the station schools, normal schools are maintained in a number of mission provinces, in order to train native 214 A HISTORY OF teachers. In the Western division of the South African field and in Surinam and in the Himalayan mission, theological studies are pursued by the senior students, as a preparation for ministerial service. The West Indian field and the mission in KafTraria are equipped with theological seminaries. Until that stage of development is reached vi^hereby the rights and prerogatives of an independent province of the Brethren's Unity are acquired, these higher schools and seminaries are under final control of the Mission Board, though the provincial authorities of the respective mission fields exercise immediate supervision. Unfortunately racial peculiarities present special obstacles in connection with the securing of a native clergy — an indispensable condition of independence. Experience of years has shown that in Labrador and amongst the Indian tribes in care of the Moravian Church in North and Central America, the prospect is not bright in this respect. Nor is there likelihood of training natives of Australia, though min- isters might be obtained from the South Sea Islands. In the West Indies a measure of success has been reached. There is no reason why in the end this should not also hold good of Surinam, though the difificulties there are far greater on account of the lower intellectual and educational status of the ex-slaves and their descendants. In South Africa the Kaffirs in par- ticular possess the needed talents, and the normal school at Genadendal has already sent forth an able set of teachers, who would form the natural source of supply. The people of the Western Himalayas are capable of a degree of education, and here also the work of some of the assistants holds out hope for the future. Everywhere, however, peculiar difificulties stand in the way, since the native minister and his family must raise themselves above the mental and moral status of their people, and must prove superior to their environment of superstition, looseness of morals, etc. Even where the requisite moral and educational endowment can be found, less frequently are precision, system and orderly regularity of method at hand, qualities so essential for the administrative functions of the pastorate. These are the gift of heredity perpetuated through generations that have enjoyed happier conditions of life. Patience on the part of the home church is therefore a condi- tion of achieving the complete development of the native Chris- tian church. MORAVIAN MISSIONS. 21$ CHAPTER XXI. THE ADMINISTRATIVE POLITY OF MORAVIAN MISSIONS. "Mission stations" constitute the centers of operation in each land where the evangelization of the heathen is under- taken by the Moravian Church. A station normally comprises a church, a school or schools and a dwelling or dwellings for the missionaries, since several couples may cooperate at the same post by means of a sub-division and systematization of duties. In many instances this group of buildings is surrounded by the homes of converts, the village being situated on a some- what extensive tract of land acquired by purchase or grant. Where this is the case the converts participate in the commu- nal government to a degree varying with the stage of develop- ment attained. Where there are several missionaries at one station, one of their number is appointed responsible head. From him reports are expected at least quarter-yearly in fre- quency, and he presides at conferences of his colleagues. All business of importance is decided conjointly, the "Slalion-supcr- intendent" having executive powers. Unless another mission- ary be specially commissioned as treasurer or steward, it further lies within the province of the "Station-superintendent" to man- age all money matters and render account for all receipts and disbursements. He also in the last resort assigns duties in the arrangement and distribution of work and oversees local activi- ties. Drawn from any of the four provinces of the Moravian Church, on the Continent of Europe, -in Britain and Ireland, and in the United States, the missionaries receive their call directly from the Mission Board with the exception of those laboring in Alaska and amongst the Indians of North America, who by consent of the Mission Board receive it through the medium of the executive board of the American Province. North — ultimately also from the central authorities 2l6 A HISTORY OF in Germany. The wives of missionaries in most fields partici- pate actively in the v^ork, and are especially charged v^ith duties in relation to the female members of mission-congregations: hence they are reckoned amongst the laborers and receive a formal call to the service. In the selection of candidates for mission service the Board takes into consideration their physical as well as mental, spir- itual and temperamental qualifications. Endowments that fit men and women to endure the moral, spiritual, mental and physical strain of missionary work are regarded as prerequi- sites. Medical certificates of sound powers of body are required not only in the case of the man, but also in that of the prospec- tive missionary's wife. Training for mission service is imparted in the Mission Institute at Niesky in Germany or in the various theological seminaries of the Moravian Church, and men are sometimes called from positions in European or American con- gregations. Besides the Board may appoint men who have not received special preparatory training, if in other re- spects qualified for the work. Assignment to a definite sphere of activity within a mission field does not in every instance pro- ceed from the Board. This depends upon the degree of pro- gress attained by the mission in question, the largest practicable measure of home rule being a principle of misison administra- tion. All appointments are, however, subject to the veto of the Mission Board. In a majority of fields conferences, constituted of all the mis- sionaries, meet at stated intervals to consider and discuss the necessities of the mission, to devise measures for the further- ance of the work and to mutually encourage one another, measures of importance and new departures requiring the sanc- tion of the Board. The constitution of the several mission provinces differs in acordance with the characteristics of the field in question and the stage of development. In the earlier years the "Superintendent" of the province is charged with executive functions and possesses very large powers. He pre- sides at conferences of the missionaries, conducts the official correspondence with the Board, must keep himself informed with regard to each station and the work of each missionary in the province, is responsible for the general oversight of the work, has an eye to the opportunities for advance, is empowered to require an adherence to the general principles according to MORAVIAN MISSIONS. 21/ which the mission is carried on, and represents the entire field in negotiations with other religious bodies, with civil authori- ties or native chiefs. With the "Superintendent" is usually associated a "Warden" charged with the financial oversight. Often the germs of conferential administration inherent in the association of "Superintendent" and "Warden" have developed into the organization of a "Provincial Conference," constituted of the "Superintendent" and "Warden" — both appointed by the Mission Board — together with other missionaries elected by the "General Mission Conference" of the province, their number being fixed by the Mission Board in agreement with each prov- ince. The term of office is usually five years. Like the "War- den" the members of this executive board in the field as a rule are charged with the service of a station or with other forms of active missionary labor. The "Provincial Conference" meets to transact business at least once a month. It assigns to specific work the men and women sent out by the Mission Board, makes the necessary moves amongst the missionaries within the field, serves as executive of the "General Missionary Conference," has the oversight of routine afTairs, including mat- ters of finance, within the annual budget, regulates discipline and supervises the educational system of the mission province. Minutes of its transactions are submitted to the Mission Board, which reserves the right of veto, and in particular the powers of calling to mission service, the dismissal of missionaries, the granting of furloughs and permission to retire on pension, the decision with regard to founding or abandoning stations, and the dealing with cases where the year's estimates have been exceeded. The West Indian Mission occupies at present a position inter- mediate between that of a mission-field and that of a self-sup- porting and self-dependent province of the Moravian Church. Local circumstances as well as the distance involved have required the separation of the work for administrative pur- poses, Jamaica constituting one province and the other islands where Moravian missions are established being grouped as a second. Unfortunate economic conditions render it impossible for either province as yet to dispense with aid, notwithstanding loyal and strenuous efforts at self-support. An annual grant of $3,500 is received from the Mission Board in each case, with a maximum of possible increase up to $5,000 in case of extra- 2l8 A HISTORY OF ordinary needs. The expenses of one theological seminary, on the island of Antigua, are also guaranteed by the central authorities, and an annual grant is made towards defraying the cost of educating teachers for the mission schools. The fur- loughs and pensions and return journeys of missionaries who went to the West Indies prior to 1900 are also a charge upon the general treasury, as is the education of their children; but half of the amount involved in these accounts for missionaries appointed thereafter will be assumed by the West Indian churches, and the Mission Board is wholly relieved of respon- sibility for current expenses. The latter, including the salaries of all missionaries as well as of native ministers, must be met by the contributions of members on the islands. Overagainst this the West Indian Provinces enjoy home rule, according to the terms of a constitution modeled in the main after that of the independent provinces of the Moravian Church, save that the Mission Board reserves the right to scrutinize resolutions of synods and the minutes of the provincial executives together with the annual statement of accounts, and a power of veto or suspension of resolutions until the convocation of a general synod of the Moravian Church. Both West Indian provinces enjoy partial representation in the general synod during the period of transition. The Mission Province of South Africa, West, is also approaching self-support. Here the advance is such both in the degree of internal organization attained and in the stated liberality and in the development of the resources of the mis- sion, that the general synod has directed the Mission Board to make appropriations for its current expenses only in case of extraordinary need, though the existing rules in regard to fur- loughs and journeys of the missionaries remain in force. Mean- while the mission province or its congregations retain all con- tributions or monies raised locally. Constituted of five members, the Mission Board is elected by the general synod, is responsible to it and renders to it a comprehensive and detailed report of all its administration. Its financial transactions are brought into review and thor- oughly examined, and full account must be rendered for the discharge of powers and commissions. Of the five members three must be chosen as representatives respectively of the German, British and American divisions of the Moravian MORAVIAN MISSIONS. 2I9 Church. In the case of a vacancy requiring an inter-synodical election, that province which has lost its representative first makes nomination of his successor. In the general conduct of the missions, in the management of the finances, and par- ticularly in the appointment and direction of missionaries and superintendents, the Mission Board exercises supreme control. It has its seat at Berthelsdorf, near Herrnhut, in Saxony, the normal term of office of its members being ten years — the interval between the convocations of the general synod. The Board has delegated the supervision and general manage- ment of certain fields to one or another provincial executive of the home churches. Further it enjoys the right of consul- tation with all these executive bodies, constituting as they do conjointly the Directing Board of the Brethren's Unity, and on matters of principle or in affairs of highest moment, such as the problem of entering a new or abandoning an old field, for its guidance the Mission Board may require from them a formal vote. Subordinate officers are the Treasurer of Mis- sions at Herrnhut, Saxony, the Secretaries of Missions in Lon- don and in America, and the various Agents of Missions in Ger- many, England and America. These officers are appointed by the central body and are authorized to receive and disburse contributions in accordance with established rules, and repre- sent the Mission Board in other ways. 220 A HISTORY OF CHAPTER XXII. THE FINANCIAL MANAGEMENT OF MORAVIAN MISSIONS. Ever since their inception Moravian missions have been a work of faith, and their history illustrates the wonderful pro- vision made by God for the advance of His kingdom. Heavy deficiencies have frequently occurred, but in His time and way they have been made good, and the work has continued. Dur- ing the ten years preceding the general synod of 1899 the aver- age annual cost of the entire undertaking was $356,760, an increase of $92,640 being occasioned by the growth of the work, when a comparison is instituted between the figures at the close of the decade and those at its commencement. Three mis- sion provinces approached self-support. Jamaica each year averaged contributions amounting to $41,184, and drew from the general treasury $2,534; the Eastern division in the West Indies brought together the sum of $40,109 each year, and required aid amounting to $3,552; South Africa, West, con- tributed $34,617, and received in aid $3,504. The review of the financial status of the work presented by the Mission Board to the synod further disclosed the fact that from a business point of view the situation was critical. Such it still remains. With every effort to retrench where retrench- ment is possible, healthy growth is a condition of all religious activity. Vitality and extension here remain mutually retro- active. If the development of self-support must be the watch- word apprehended with increasing clearness in each mission province, the need of more complete consecration of time and means and of a faithful discharge of stewardship requires to be borne in upon the conscience of the home churches with all possible impressiveness. The sources of revenue for Moravian Missions are the fol- loAving : I. Annual contributions from members of the Mora\aan Church in the home provinces. MORAVIAN MISSIONS. 221 2. Annual contributions from friends, not themselves mem- bers of the Moravian Church. 3. The interest of funded legacies, bequeathed with the pro- viso that the capital shall remain intact. In some instances the terms of the bequest have designated a specific phase of the work. 4. Legacies devoid of any explicit proviso, whose employ- ment is wholly at the discretion of the Mission Board. 5. Annual grants of various auxiliary associations. Of these the following are the more important, in the order of their establishment. The Brethren s Socicly for the Furtherance of tlie Gospel, founded in 1741, in London, and constituted wholly of members of the Moravian Church, the British Provincial Elders being ex-officio directors, provides for the current expenses of the mission in Labrador, in part by trade. The Society of tlie United Brethren for Propagating^ the Ciospel Among the Heathen was reorganized at Bethlehem. Pennsylvania, in 1787, the origi- nal association having been founded at Lancaster, Pennsyl- vania, in 1745. Chartered in 1788, its directors are the trus- tees of a fund bequeathed by ("lodfrey Haga of Philadelphia in 1825. The Provincial Elders of the .American Moravian Church. North, are ex-ofUcio directors, and this societv with the aid of the American congregations has assumed the finan- cial support of the mission in Alaska, besides being specially obligated to aid the missions amongst the Indians of North America. The Brethren's Missionary Society of Zeist was estab- lished in 1793, and devotes its energies especially to the sup- port of the enterprise in Surinam. The London Association in Aid of the Missions of the United Brethren occupies the unique position of a missionary evangelical alliance which devotes its entire income to the support of Moravian Missions. Estab- lished in 1817 by friends who sympathized with the church in its embarrassment caused by losses sustained during the Napo- leonic Wars, it consists exclusively of members of other churches than the Moravian. During the decade preceding the general synod of 1899, ^'i'*^ association contributed $475,000. The Missionary Union of North Schles^cig, founded in 1843, ^^^s rendered aid especially to missions in Danish colonies. Besides these there arc a number of Women's, Young Men's and Juve- nile societies, generally local in their membership. 222 A HISTORY OF 6. A considerable part of the income is derived from the mis- sion fields themselves, and in a three-fold manner. It is a fun- damental principle of missionary activity that the converts shall be taught the obligation and blessing of systematic beneficence at an early stage in their Christian experience. Stated contri- butions are therefore expected from them in support of their churches. Of these contributions the officers of the several congregations have the disposal. They are also encouraged to organize missionary societies and gather special collections, in order that the gospel may be carried into "the regions beyond." In a few of the mission provinces, especially Labrador, Surinam, South Africa, East and West, trades and traffic are maintained for the benefit of the missions. It is the aim of the Mission Board to place these busines undertakings in the charge of men with commercial training and experienced in mercantile or manufacturing pursuits. Nevertheless, though not mission- aries in the strictest sense and though holding no position involving spiritual work, their appointment is not regarded merely as a business transaction. They consecrate their busi- ness ability to the Lord, and perform their duties in accord- ance with this high ideal, the furtherance of His kingdom being their primary aim. The relations of these brethren to the mis- sionaries proper are in each case determined by the Mission Board. Until a mission province reaches the stage of recog- nized independence, the business undertakings stand under the immediate supervision of the constitutionally appointed boards of the province, and the ultimate supervision of the Mission Board, which retains the right of final decision in all matters of a personal or of a business character. Detailed reports of the business are sent to the Mission Board at stated intervals. The primary object of these undertakings in any case is not to gain funds, but rather to assist the native peoples in attaining Christian civilization by promoting habits of steady industry and by holding up to them the dignity of labor. In some instances, moreover, as in Labrador, a market is thus provided for the proceeds of their skill, which would otherwise be lacking. The expenditures of the missions have been classified as fol- lows : first, expenditures of the missions themselves, including the support or the salaries of the missionaries, as also traveling expenses and the costs of erecting and maintaining buildings, MORAVIAN MISSIONS. 223 as well as the costs of the mission schools ; second, furloughs with pay, pensions and the education of the children of mis- sionaries— every missionary, whether foreign agent or native born, on retiring from active service from incapacity, or for due cause with the consent of the Mission Board after serving for a period of years, being granted a pension, every widow of a missionary being similarly provided for, homes for mission- aries in transit or in retirement existing in Germany and in America, and the children of foreign agents being educated at the expense of the church ; third, the education and training of candidates for mission service, including medical education in a number of instances ; and finally, the salaries of the Mission Board and their subordinates and the necessary expenses of administration. A system of graded salaries and of graded pensions has been approved in principle by the general synod. ^lissionaries who are compelled to return on account of climatic conditions, or who without being disabled are no longer available for service in the foreign field, are at disposal for service at home, either in the employment of the Mission Board or by transfer to the work of one of the home provinces. The Mission Board, possessing corporate rights in accord- ance with Saxon law, holds title to the mission property of the Moravian Church, and administers the entire property and the finances of the missions, as it does all other matters within its jurisdiction, confcrcntially, though one of its members is specially charged with the carrying out of the resolutions formulated and the instructions given in regard to questions of property and finance. Associated with the Mission Board and especially with its financial executive is an advisory board known as "The Financial Committee of the Missions," consti- tuted of four business men elected by the general synod, one of them being the "Manager of the Financial Office of the Mis- sions." All important financial measures, investments, ques- tions connected with the extension of trade for the benefit of the missions, the yearly budget and the annual statement of accounts must be brought before the "Financial Committee" before final action is taken by the Mission Board, who must be guided by the opinion of the Committee. In the matter of investments the greatest caution is required and all speculation is prohibited. The Mission Board is not permitted to advance 224 A HISTORY OF money to missionaries or other persons for private purposes^ even as the regulations prohibit missionaries from engaging in business or speculation on their own account. After the estimates of the various mission provinces have been made and sent in, the "Finance Committee" submits them to a thorough scrutiny and lays them with its comments before the Mission Board for approval. The annual budget is then completed by the Mission Board, and each mission province is obligated to abide by the estimate thus determined. A sum- mary of this budget is published in the Missionsblatt, that mem- bers and friends of the church may know what will be required for the ensuing year. Provision is made for an annual audit of the accounts, and an examination of the securities and cash balance. Extraordinary audits also take place from time to time. The several executive boards of the four provinces of the Moravian Church, that jointly constitute "The Directing Board of the Unity," may at any time inspect the books and have the right to require detailed information respecting the annual statement. Finally the general synod, constituted of representatives of the entire church and acting by commission of all its provinces, institutes a searching inquiry into the financial management and into the entire administration of the affairs of the missions. It formulates and from time to time amends the regulations deter- mining the relations of the missionaries to the Board, reviews and revises the constitutions of the several mission provinces, determines the principles governing salaries, furloughs, retire- ments, pensions and the education of missionaries' children, and indicates the general spirit in which the mission work shall be conducted. In the last resort, the missions stand directly in the control of the general synod, and therefore also of the entire Moravian Church. INDEX. Th« rrfcrrnc»-» «re to p«K» niimh«ri Abini, 67. Abrnham, the Mohican, 55. Abr.iham of St. Thomas, 5. Abyssinia, 32, ^^. Act of N. Y. Assembly against the Moravians, 25. Administrative polity of the Missions, The. 215-219. Adrai (Noah), 144. Africa (see Algeria, Cape Colony, Egypt. Guinea Coast). Africa, East Equatorial, 194-199. 201. Africo, 16. 70. Agents of Missions, 219. Aim of Missions, The, 209. Alaska, 176, 186-193, 204, 221. Albina, 206. Algeria, 17. Andrew, Negro of St. Thomas, S. Anna, Negress of St. Thomas, 5. Annaszorg, 122. Antes, John, 33. Anthony the Mohican, 51. Anthony, Negro, J 3, 5. Antigua, 38, 63, 88, 90, lo'', 117, 120, 159. 160. Apiif)inlment of Missionaries, 213, 216. Aporo, 91. Arabi, 67, 123. Arawacks, The, 39. Arbalik, 13 Audits of Mission accounts, 224. Aukas, The (Djukas), 145. Australia, 131-134, 149-151, 170, 185, 214. Bachman, Mrs. Henry T., 193. Bachman, Traugott, 198. Badham. Thomas LeojX)Ki. 137, 13.S. Badham, Walter L. G., 159, 179. Bagdad, 32. Baird. Sir David, 93. Baldan, Joseph. 153. Ballein, 163. Bambey, 67, 92, 123. 16 Barbados. 64, 8S, 90, ir>2, 106, 121, 137, 138. Barham, 38. Barzillai, 92 Basseterre, 64, 90. Batavia, Surinam, 123. Bauer, William, 207. Bauer, William Theodore, 163. Baur, Richard, 148, 166. Bauss, John Conrad, 99. Baviaanskloof, 15, 70-75 (see Genaden- dal). Baziya, 148, 166 183. Beaufort, Jamaica, 105, 117. Bechler. Ferdinand, 14S, 163. Beck. Jacob, 83, 100. Beck. John, 12-14, 59. too. Beck, John Christian, loi. Beekhuizen, 122, 123. Beer>heba, Ohio, 94. Beersheba, Surinam, 143. Benesse, 33. Bennet, 64. Berbice (see Surinam). Berg-en-dal, 163. Berlin Mission.ary Society, The, 197. Berthold, Gustavus, 123. Berwig, George, 14. Beterverwachting, 180. Belhabara, Jamaica, 117, 139, 159. Belhania, Moskito, 142, 161, 176. Bethania, St. John, 10, 36, 86. Bethany, Jamaica, 117. Bethel, Alaska, 190 193, 204. Bethel, St. Kitts, 100. Bethesda, 90. 106, 120. Bethesda, Kaffraria, 1S3. Bethlehem, Jama ca. 103. Bethlehem, Pa., 22 31, 50, 56. 77, 94, 176, 189. Boyer, Michael Ernot, 136. Bindsched er, Samuel, 130, 157. Birkby. James, 64. Bishop, Gilbert, 1 75 Blackfellowg of Australia. The, I ;i. 226 INDEX. Blair, Peter, 142, 161. Bode, De, I48. Bohler, Peter, 19-21, 23. Bohnisch, Frederick, 5, 12, 13, 58. Bomper, Abraham, 40. Bonilce, 7. Boers, The, 72-74, 127. Boga, Lake, 133. Bogue, 38. Bonatz, Adolphus, 93, 1 11, 125. Bony, 149. Borm, 8. Bosjesfeld, 126. Bourquin, Tlieodore, 156, 158, 174, 204. Bowana, no, 169. Bowen, John, 90. Boyle, Captain, 89. Bramberg, 145. Brasen, 45. Breutel, John Christian, 116. Bridgetown, Barbados, 88, 106, 121. Brief Grammar and Vocabulary of the Eskimo Language of North-western Alaska, Schultze, 193. British and Foreign Bible Society, 86, 100, 108, 158, 184. Brodbeck, Jacob, 173. Brodersen, Jasper, 60, 85. Brookshaw, Benjamin, 63, 64. Brown, Edwin, 201. Brown, Natbanael, 66, 90. Brown, Peter, 63, 64. Brown Bank, 141. Brownfield, John, 20. Bucker, John, 10, 36. Briidergarten, 34. Bruyn, de, 14. Buchner, Charles, 201 207. Buchner, John Henry, 1 18, 119, 137. Buckley, John, 121. Buddhoe, 116. Budget, The annual, 217, 223, 2^4. Biininger, Abraham, 20. Buergers, 147, 183. Biittner, 25. Bunkershill, Barbados, 88. Burghardt, John Christian, 82. Buriats, The, 134. Bushmen, The, 15. Bush Negroes, The, 39, 66, 67, 123-125 143-146, 163, 206. Butler, Captain, 81. Butler, Christian, 34. Byhan, Gottlieb, 81, 96, 97. Cairo, 33. Caledon, Lord, 93. California, 200. Campbell. Alexander, 44. Canaan, Indian Territory, 175. Cape Colony, 15, 16, 6g, 70-75, 92, 93, 108-I11, 125-128, 146-149, 163-170, 182-184, 206, 207. Cape Town, 182. Caribs, The, 130. Caries, Zacharias, 38, 65. Carmel, Alaska, 191-193, 204. Carmel, Jamaica, 38, 65, 66, 103, 105, 140 Catawbas, The, 81. Cathcart, Captain, 85. Catharina Sophia, Surinam, 122. Cayugas, The, 50. Cedar Hall, 106, 117, 120, 159. Central Asia (see Himalayan iVIission). Ceylon, 16. 17, 18. Chaguanas, 200. Charlottenburg, Surinam, 108, 122. Cherokees, The, 19, 81, 95-97, 175, 176, 204. Chickasaws, The, 81. Children of Missionaries, The, 223. Chilloway, Job, 52. China, 32, 134, 151-153. Chippeways, The, 56, 57. Chot, 207. Christensen, Thomas, 86. Chudleigh, Cape, 86, 136. Church, John, 90. Church, Samuel, 66. Clarke, General, 74, Clarkson, 126, 164. Classification of members, 211. Clauder, Henry G., 96, 97. Clayton-Bulwer Treaty, Tl e, 142. Clemens, Augustus, 14 {. Clemens, Frederick, 179. Clemens, Herman, 162 Clevia, 143. Clifton Hill, 121. (-.oil'ycamp, 125, 145. ComLe, 107, 181. Comenius, 2. Conferences, Mission, 216, 217. Constantinople, 32. Contributions, 220. Coolies, The, 162, 2co, 206. Cooper's Creek, 151. Copts, The, 32. ''Cordelia," The, 175. Corn Island, 142, 160. Cornelius, Native Helper, 63. Cost of the Missions, 220. Cottica, The, 40. Craig, General, 74. Crakau, Daniel, 20I. Creeks, The, 19, 81. Cumberland Inlet, I15. Cumming's Lodge, 160, 206. Cunow, Godfrey Andrew. 137, 138, 148. Cupido, Christian, 67. INDEX. 227 Cuyahoga. The, 56. Cuyler, Colonel, 109, Daehne, Christopher, ^0-42, 67. Damietta, 32. Daniel, Labrador, 136. Danke, John Henry, i;^. David, Christian, 10, 12, 14. Uelawares, The, 26, 28, ;,i, 49, 51, 77, 98. Delmi.in, 16. Demerara, 137, i6o, iJ'o, 206. Denke, Christian Frederick, 79, Si. Dennis, Governor, 31. D'Esneval, Count, 32. Detroit, 54, 55. Detterer, Cairie, 193. Dillon, Count. 65. Dingwall, John, 206. Directing Board of the Unity, The, 2:4. Discipline. 210, 211, 215. Djukas (see Aukas). Dober, Leonard, 3 7. Dobler, Theodore, 123. Drachart, Lawrence, 35, 43, 44. Drexler, 144. Earthquakes, 120, 140 East Equatorial Africa, 194-199. 2CI. East Indies, 1 he, (see Ceylon, Tranque bar, Malabar, Nicobar, SeramjHjre, I'atna). Ebenezer, Australia, 149-151, 170. Eberman, Wm., lo^ Kconomy at Hethlehem, The, 26-2S. I'.den, Jamaica, 104. K. 131 139, 140, 143. 145. I47- 148. 154, »59. •f'^. 163, 174, 180, 182, 207, 213, 214. Northumb.rland Inlet, 114. Numuagire, 198. Nxitschane, 183. Nyasa, 194-199, 201. » »lH.ahism, 1 18, 1 19. Ohneberg 36 Okak, 45-47. 60, 86, 100, loi, 113, 137. "Oliver,"'' The, lOI. Oly, Carmel, 7. Onondaga, 26 50. Oochi;elogy, 95, 97. f)ppelt, Nicholas, 128. Oppclt, .Sebastian, 79. Oqihaiiages, 137, 170. Oxley, William, 43. Fachgatgoch, 25, 49. I'ackanghill, 77. Packanke, 51, 52. Padel. Otto, 169, 207. Fagell, Edward, 135, 151-153, 170, 184. Faksaut, 113 Palliser, Sir Hugh, 43. Palmetto I'oint, 64. Papuans, The, 132. 232 INDEX. Papunhauk, 31, 49, 51. Paramaribo, 40, 66, 6;, 68, 92, 107, 108, 122, 162, i8i, 182. Paravicini, 17. Parker, Captain, 114. Passe vant, RuJolph, 122. Patna, 69. Paul (St Thomas), 8. Paulu, 207^ Paxnous, 30. Pearl Key Lagoon, 131. Pella, 164. Pemaholend, Jacob, 77. Penn, John, 52. Pennsylvania, 19-31, 48-53. Pensions, 217, 223. Pepper, Nathanael, 149, 150. Perry, Captain, 1 14. Persia, 17, 32. Perth Amboy, 49. Peterleitner, Michael, 109. Peters. Daniel, 44. Petersen, Karslen, 81. Petquotting, The, 56, 79. Peyster, Major de, 54. 55. Pfeiffer, Ezekiel, 128. Pfeiffer, Henry Gottlieb, 104, 105, 119, 129-131. Philadelphia, 48, 49. Philip, Hottentot, 93. Piesch, (ieorge, 14. Pilder, George, 33. Pilgerhut, 40, 66. Pilgeriuh on the Cuyahaga, 56. Pilgrim, Alexander, 160, 180. Pless, von, 10. Pletz, Paulina, 185. Pliitschau, 15. Pontiac's Conspiracy, 48. Poo, 152, 207. Popp, Martin William, 99. Port Elizabeth, 206. Port of Spain, 200. Posaunenberg, 8, 9. Post, Frederick, 26, 31, 52. Potatik, 25. Potrero, 200. Powell, Joseph, 26. Presbyterian Church in Australia, The, 150, 185, 200. Prince, Isaac, 121, 140. Princess Royal Islands, The, 115. Prochnow, 135. Proctor, General, 80. Protten, Christian Jacob, 16, 17. Provincial Conferences, 179, 217. Pulkrabek, John Paul, 179. Purysburg, 19. Putnam, General, 76. Pyrlaeus, 25. Quamw^atla, 160, 161, 177. Queensland, 185, 200. Ralfs, 40. Ramas, The, 130. Ramah, Labrador, 155, 156, 204. Rama, Moskito, 131, 141, 142, 161. Kamahyuk, 150, 170. "Ramona Mission," The, 200. Ramsch, John Gottlieb, 89. Rasmus, Jens, 10. Ranzau, 70. Rauch, Christian Henry, 23-25, 38. Rechler, Theodore, 152. Rcdslob, Frederick Adolphus, 1S4. Regnier, Dr. Frederick, 40. Reichel, 64 Keichel, Ernest, 136. Reichel, Eugene, 181. Reichel, John Frederick, 69, 70. Reichel, Levin Theodore, 136, 158. Reinke, Amadeus A., 129, 143. Reinke, Edvvin E., 159, 179. Reitapura, 141. Reliance, 180, 181. Renkewitz, 119. Revivals, 53, 86, 96, 98, 106, ill, 112, 137, 140, 164, 175, 176. Rhenius, Captain, 16. Richard, Marc, 200. Richard, Theophil, 197, 198, 201. Richter, Abraham Ehrenfried, 17. Kichter, Alvin, 169. Richter, Christian Frederick, 106. Ricksecker, Peter, 106, 121. Rights, T. M., 176. Rigolette. 114, 204. Rinderknecht, 175. Rittmansberger, Andrew, 64. Robben Island, 127, 149 Romig, Augustus B., 179. Romig, Benjamin, 179. Romiij, Herman, 204. Rose, Christian Lewis, 75. Ross, John, 97. Roth, John, 48, 50, 53. Rothe, 70. Rudolph, Christian David, 84. Ruede, Miss, 97. Riiffer, John, 32. Rumswinkel, van, 15. Rungwe, 194-199, 201. Rust-en- Vrede, l8l, 182. Rust-en-Werk, 122, 123. Rutenganio, 198, 201. Ryttel, Pastor, 202. Salaries, 222, 223. Salem, Jamaica, 117, 141. Salem, North Carolina, 81, 82, 94, 96, 175- INDEX. 233 Salem, Ohio 53 55, 77. Salem, Surinam. 122, 181. Saiiioyedes. The, 17. Sandili. 14^1 169. Sandusky, 5^, 55, 80. Sam!y Hay, Nicaragua, 177. Sarepta. 134 Savannali, 19, 20. .Scharf. John "amuel, 89. Scharf, Sister, 102. .Schaukirch 63 Schebosch. 26. Schuchschiquanink, 50. Scheh, 207. Schill. Godfrey, 134. Schirnicr, Carl, QO. .•^chlegel, Frederick, 65. SchUswig, Missioi ary I'liion of North, 2-1. Schmick, John Jacob, 4S, 50. Schmidt, Anthony, 26. Sc!.midt, CJcorgc, !•;, 16, 70, 71. Schmidt, John Henry, 93, lo8. Schmidt, Isaac, 134. Schmidt, Rasmu.";, 123. Schmidt. Kudolph, 207. Schnall, John, 79, 80, 98. Schneider, Daniel, 14, 17. Schneider. George, 100. Schneider, Martin, 81. Schneller, 64. Schnechert, J. H., 193. .Schonl)runn,"52, 53, 55. Schonburg-VVaklenberg, I'rince, 129, Schools, 19, 20, 22, 67, 71, 82, 88, 91, "5. 97. 105. 113. "5- "6. 117, 123, '39. '45, 155- '<'^, i^'4, 170 «7i, 176, 2«3 Schott, 1 1 ^ S hryver, Admiral, 15, 17. Schubert, Charles, .07. Schulius, George, 19. Schull/c, A , 193. Schumann, Christian I.ewt.s, O9. .Schumann, Theophilus Solomon, .'O, 42, 06. .SchwSllier, John Martin, 70. Schweinitz, Edmund de, 189. Schweinitz, Frederick Christian von, 81. Schweinit/, Hans Christian .Mcxander von, 56. Schwinn, iJaniel. 70, 74. Scott, General, 97. Secretary of Missions in .\merica, The, 219. Secretary of .Missions in Ix)ndon, Ihe, 2 1 9. Seidtl. .Nathanacl, 36, 40. Seiler, Jacob, 1 19. Self-support. I37-I3q, 154, 159, 178 l8o, 205, 210, 220. «7 Senseman. (iottiob, 31, 50. 57, 79. Senseman, Joachim, 25. Senthea Creek, 67. Serampore. 69. Serra, Abb«"' de, 82. Shamokin, 23, 26. Sharon, Barbados, 89, 102, 106, 12I. Sharon on the Saramacca. 40, 66 Shawnese, 78, 81. Shcchem, 127. .Shckomeko, 23 26. Shikelimy, 26. Shiloh, Cape Colony, no, 125. 127, 146, 148, 170, If>4. " .Ship Committee,'" The, 4}. Sieborger, William, 17s, 205. .Siksigak, 86. .Slave Code, A., 6. Slavery, Abolition of, 87, 104-106, 116, 125. 145, 162. Slotta, Charles Adolphu^, 157. Smith, Frederick, l6l. 177. Smith, Kenatus, .5. Smyth, Callender, 179. Snyklip, 164. Society for the Furtherance of the Cios- pel, The, 43, 44, 84, 85, 86, 100, 174, 175, 221 Society for the Furtherance of the Gos- pel, North Carolina, The, 94. Society for the I'rom<>rd, no. Sommelsdyk, <>S, 92. Sondcrmann, 140. .Sources of Income, 220-222. South Africa, ICast, 164-169, 1S3, 184, 207, 214. South Africa, West. 163, 164, 170, 182- l.''4, 206, 214, 218, 220. .South Africa, Division of the Field, 148. South Carolina, 19 Span^jenbcrg, .Augustus Gottlieb, 3, 7, 14, 19, 22, 23, 26, 27,36,43. Spence, James, 119. Spieseke, William, 133, 134, 149, 150. .Spindler, I '6. Springplace, Georgia, 81, 82, 96, 7. .St. Croix 7, 9. 36, 62, 88, 89, 103, ll6, 120, 139, 140. St. John, Island of, 6, 10, 36, 62, 88, 103, 116, 139, 140. St. lohn's, Antigua. 38, 10 ■, 117, 120, >59- 234 INDEX. St. Kitts, 64, 88, 90, 106, 120, 121, 139. St. Madeleine, 200. St. Thomas, 4-10, 36, 62, 88, 89, 103, 116, 117, 139, 140, 159 St. Thomas, Town of, 117, 138, 140, 180. Stach, Anna, 13 and note. Stach, < hristian, 10. Stach, Matthew. 4, 10, 12, 13, 35, 58. Stach, Rosina, 13. Stahelin, Frederick, 206. Stahlmann, ; .eorge, 34. Stambe, 108. Station Superintendent, The, 215. Statistics of the Missions, 58, 62, 64, 66, 100, 103, 106, 107, 108, 111,120,126, 128, 146, 162, 173, 174, 180, 181, 206, 207, 20S. Steiner, Abraham, 81, 82. Stellenbosch, 73. Sternberg, Martin Godfrey, 59. Stobwasser, J,ouis, 103. Stokwe, 169. Stoll, Rudolph, 67. Stompjes, Wilhelmina, 1 10. Stnrmann, loi. Suhl, Daniel, 147. Sumoos, The, 130. Superintendents, 216, 217. Surinam, i^, 38-42, 66-68, 90-92, 107, 108, 122 125, 143-146, 161-163, 181, 182, 2o5, 214. Synod, The (jeneral, 218, 224. Tabase. 183, 207. Tabor, Barbados, I02, 106. Tager, Andrew F. C, 133, 134. Talequah, 175. 176. Tambookies, The, iio, ill, 127. Tank, Otto, 122. Tappe, Frederick, 171, 185. Taylor, David (Jamaica), 90. Taylor, John (Barbados), 106. Teedyeuscuiig, 31. Tellico Block-house, 81. Tettcpachsit, 78. Teutsch, Christian Louis, 126, 128. Teunessen, Martin, 71-75 T'Gaika, 108. Tha. ler, Samuel L., 179. Theological Seminaries, 159, 179, 183, 214 Thomas, CJovernor of Pa., 26. Thornton, John, 44. Tibetan Mission, The, 135, 151-153. Tietze, John Christian, no. Tinana, 168. Titles to Property, 180, 223. Tobago, < 5, 90, 106, 120, 12 J, 139. Torgersen, Hans, 190. Tornea, 14. Tortola, 9. Trade, 27, 38, 44, 65, 156-15S, 174, 222. Training-schools (see Normal Schools). Tranquebar, 15, 34, 68, 69. Treasurer of the Missions, The, 219, 223. Trinidad, 200. Tschoop (see Wasamapa). Tso-Tso, 152. Tuglavina, 46, 47. Turner, William, 60. Tuscarawas, The Massacre in the valley of the, 53-55. Tuscarawas Valley, The, 52-55, 56, 76, 77, 94, 95- Twystwyk, 126. Ugavigamint, 204. Uitenhagen, 109. Umanak, 136. Ungava, 86, 136. Urambo, 178. Utengule, 197, 198, 201. Van Alphen, 14. Van Calker, Ernest, 207. Van Calker, Theophilus, 122, 143, 161, 181. Van den Bempen, 15. Van der Graft" Governor, 70. Van Scholten, Governor, 115. Van Vleck, Jacob, 56. Verbeek, John Renatus, 88. Visits paid to the Mission fields by rep- resentatives of the Board : Spangenberg to the West Indies, 8. Zmzendorf to the West Indies, 8-9. Nathanael Seidel to the West Indies, 36. Nathanael Seidel to Surinam, 40. Sternberg to Greenland, 59. Layritz to Labrador, 45. Loretz to the West Indies, 62. Reichel, John Frederick, to the East Indies, 88. Liebisch to Surinam, 92. Verbeek to the West Indies, 88-89. Stobwasser to Jam.iica, 103. La Trobe, Christian Ignatius, to Cape Colony, 108. Breutel to the West Indies, n6. Hermann and Mallalieu to the West Indies, 119. WuUschlaegel to the Moskito Coast, 131- Reichel, Ernest, to Greenland, 136. Reichel, Levin Theodore, to Labrador, 136. Linder, to Labrador, 136. INDKX. 335 Cunow and Hadliam to the West Indies, 137. I.?S. Westerby to the Moskito Coast, 141. Reichel, Levin Theodore, to Labrador, 158. Keic.iel, huj^ene, and Van (.alker, to Surinam, IS, i\\, 162. Zcist, .Missionary Society of, 221. Zibi, 166 16S. /iegenbalg. 15. Zinrendorf. Nicholas Ixjuis von, 1 4, A, 9, 14 15, i(), 17, 21, 22, 23, 32,34, o. .^7. 3^ «j5. 209 Zip|>el, 102. Zoar, l.abrador, 136, 174, 175, 204. Zoetclmelksvallei, 15 Zom, Jacob, 117, iio. /.welibanzi John. 128, |S^ Princeton Theological Semina7 Libraries 1 1012 01245 4957 !ii-!:'iii i :S^\f:::\ :r,/,/i 1 1;::!