The Moravians in Georgia [14]
his company should go to Nova Scotia, where the climate was milder, and offered them free transportation and aid in settling there, but this proposal Spangenberg at once rejected, and pinned his faith on the kindness of Gen. Oglethorpe, whose return from Georgia the preceding July, explained the more favorable tone of the Trustees' letters after that date. Oglethorpe asked him numberless questions about the doctrine and practice of the Moravians, and their reasons for wishing to go to Georgia, and promised to lay the matter before the Trustees, using all his influence to further their designs.
The "First Company".
On the 14th of January, 1735, the first company of Moravian colonists arrived in London. At their head was David Nitschmann, -- variously called "the III", "the weaver", "the Syndic", and Count Zinzendorf's "Hausmeister", who was to stay with them until they left England, and then return to Germany, resigning the leadership of the party to Spangenberg, who was instructed to take them to Georgia and establish them there, and then go to Pennsylvania to the Schwenkfelders. The other nine were John Toeltschig, Zinzendorf's flower-gardener. Peter Rose, a gamekeeper. Gotthard Demuth, a joiner. Gottfried Haberecht, weaver of woolen goods. Anton Seifert, a linen weaver. George Waschke, carpenter. Michael Haberland, carpenter. George Haberland, mason. Friedrich Riedel, mason.
They were "good and true sons of God, and at the same time skillful workmen," with such a variety of handicrafts as to render them largely independent of outside assistance in the settlement which they proposed to make; and all but Haberecht were religious refugees from Moravia and adjacent parts of Bohemia.
Nitschmann and Toeltschig were two of the five young men in Zauchenthal, Moravia, who had set their hearts on the revival of the ancient Unitas Fratrum. Toeltschig's father, the village burgess, had summoned the five comrades before him, and strictly forbidden their holding religious services, warning them that any attempt at emigration would be severely punished, and advising them to act as became their youth, frequent the taverns and take part in dances and other amusements. They were sons of well-to-do parents, and little more than boys in years, (Nitschmann was only twenty), but their faith and purpose were dearer to them than anything else on earth, so they had left all and come away, commending their homes and kindred to the mercy of God, and singing the exile hymn of the ancient Unitas Fratrum, sacred through its association with those brave hearts who had known the bitterness and the joy of exile a hundred years before.
"Blessed the day when I must go My fatherland no more to know, My lot the exile's loneliness;
"For God will my protector be, And angels ministrant for me The path with joys divine will bless.
"And God to some small place will guide Where I may well content abide And where this soul of mine may rest.
"As thirsty harts for water burn, For Thee, my Lord and God, I yearn, If Thou are mine my life is blest."
Though holding positions as Count Zinzendorf's hausmeister and gardener, both Nitschmann and Toeltschig were actively employed in the affairs of the renewed Unitas Fratrum, and had been to England in 1728 to try to establish relations with the Society for the Propagation of Christian Knowledge, though without success. They were the better fitted, therefore, to conduct the party to England, and to share in the negotiations already begun by Spangenberg.
This "first company" left Herrnhut on the 21st of November, 1734, traveling by Ebersdorf (where Henry XXIX, Count Reuss, Countess Zinzendorf's brother, gave them a letter of recommendation to any whom they might meet on their way), to Holland, whence they had a stormy and dangerous voyage to England.
The day after they reached London they called on Gen. Oglethorpe and having gained admittance with some difficulty they were very well received by him, carrying on a conversation in a mixture
The "First Company".
On the 14th of January, 1735, the first company of Moravian colonists arrived in London. At their head was David Nitschmann, -- variously called "the III", "the weaver", "the Syndic", and Count Zinzendorf's "Hausmeister", who was to stay with them until they left England, and then return to Germany, resigning the leadership of the party to Spangenberg, who was instructed to take them to Georgia and establish them there, and then go to Pennsylvania to the Schwenkfelders. The other nine were John Toeltschig, Zinzendorf's flower-gardener. Peter Rose, a gamekeeper. Gotthard Demuth, a joiner. Gottfried Haberecht, weaver of woolen goods. Anton Seifert, a linen weaver. George Waschke, carpenter. Michael Haberland, carpenter. George Haberland, mason. Friedrich Riedel, mason.
They were "good and true sons of God, and at the same time skillful workmen," with such a variety of handicrafts as to render them largely independent of outside assistance in the settlement which they proposed to make; and all but Haberecht were religious refugees from Moravia and adjacent parts of Bohemia.
Nitschmann and Toeltschig were two of the five young men in Zauchenthal, Moravia, who had set their hearts on the revival of the ancient Unitas Fratrum. Toeltschig's father, the village burgess, had summoned the five comrades before him, and strictly forbidden their holding religious services, warning them that any attempt at emigration would be severely punished, and advising them to act as became their youth, frequent the taverns and take part in dances and other amusements. They were sons of well-to-do parents, and little more than boys in years, (Nitschmann was only twenty), but their faith and purpose were dearer to them than anything else on earth, so they had left all and come away, commending their homes and kindred to the mercy of God, and singing the exile hymn of the ancient Unitas Fratrum, sacred through its association with those brave hearts who had known the bitterness and the joy of exile a hundred years before.
"Blessed the day when I must go My fatherland no more to know, My lot the exile's loneliness;
"For God will my protector be, And angels ministrant for me The path with joys divine will bless.
"And God to some small place will guide Where I may well content abide And where this soul of mine may rest.
"As thirsty harts for water burn, For Thee, my Lord and God, I yearn, If Thou are mine my life is blest."
Though holding positions as Count Zinzendorf's hausmeister and gardener, both Nitschmann and Toeltschig were actively employed in the affairs of the renewed Unitas Fratrum, and had been to England in 1728 to try to establish relations with the Society for the Propagation of Christian Knowledge, though without success. They were the better fitted, therefore, to conduct the party to England, and to share in the negotiations already begun by Spangenberg.
This "first company" left Herrnhut on the 21st of November, 1734, traveling by Ebersdorf (where Henry XXIX, Count Reuss, Countess Zinzendorf's brother, gave them a letter of recommendation to any whom they might meet on their way), to Holland, whence they had a stormy and dangerous voyage to England.
The day after they reached London they called on Gen. Oglethorpe and having gained admittance with some difficulty they were very well received by him, carrying on a conversation in a mixture