Daily Reports Of the Year 1750

JANUARY

Monday, the 1st of January. Yesterday, Sunday, the last day of the year, our dear God granted us much good from His word; and today He has again begun to let the streams of His love and kindness flow out over us through the contemplation of His dear and sweet gospel. I not only noticed this in my own heart but also experienced it in several of my dear listeners to the praise of His glorious grace. May He graciously hear our common prayers which were sent off to Him several times on bended knees in the name of the Lord Jesus for us and our establishment in spiritual and physical matters, and for our authorities, benefactors, and German Fatherland;¹ and may He be pleased with our weak offerings of praise for all the spiritual and physical blessings He has shown us for the sake of the blood of Christ that speaks for us. The weather has been delightful and pleasant yesterday and today; and our parishioners, both large and small, have assembled in such numbers at the public divine service and communal prayers and have also shown themselves so orderly and devout that it could not have been anything other than joyful for us.

Wednesday, the 3rd of January. After General Oglethorpe’s regiment was disbanded,² two soldiers settled at our place. They behave themselves very well and visit the public divine service diligently and devoutly like the others. A short time ago they bought a plantation on Ebenezer Creek and built a hut there. I have been asked to visit them, which I did yesterday afternoon. For the first time I bent my knees with them in their new house, which was very enjoyable for me and them.

Wednesday, the 10th of January. All sorts of necessary official business and a trip to Savannah from the 5th to the 10th of this month have prevented me from continuing this diary in the past days. Therefore, I wish to catch up with the most important things and briefly summarize the following points: 1) On the 3rd of this month in the evening I unexpectedly received a packet of letters from our worthy Fathers,³ benefactors, and friends in Europe, which again contained nothing but joyful and edifying news that awakened us to the praise of God: e. g., that our merciful God has graciously heard our and other believers’ prayers in that He has again mightily strengthened the health of His servants, our worthy Fathers in London, Augsburg, and Halle. and has kept them until now for the good of His church and of us. We are still enjoying their fatherly love and intercession unabated. Through their service and otherwise through His wise providence our dear God has preserved our old benefactors in their affection for our congregation and has applied a considerable new blessing to our institutions through a legacy.

Moreover, the Lord Trustees have lent a gracious ear to my humble suggestions for the advancement of silk manufacture. Mr. Verelst’s letter of September informs me that they were very pleased with the forty-nine pounds and thirteen ounces of silk spun off by our people which was sent off to them last summer and that, at my request, ten families among us will receive two pounds Sterling each for building a convenient hut for preparing the cocoons. They also gave orders and plenipotentiary powers for one of our skilled carpenters to make machines for spinnning off the silk,⁴ one for each of the ten copper kettles which they wish to send us with the next ship, each costing thirty pounds Sterling, and that for each of them two neighbors will join together and learn to spin off the silk through mutual help. Every girl who wishes to learn it thoroughly is promised two pounds as encouragement.

Because, according to that, the Lord Trustees are making such good arrangements for advancing silk manufacture and have actually put a part of my imperfect suggestions into their fiat, I have been strengthened in my hope that they will also be pleased by the other and more important part of my petition and suggestions: namely, to arrange the price of the spun-off silk like the government in Carolina (at least as an encouragement for a few years) in such a way that good pay will be given both to the producer of the cocoons and to the person who spins it off as a good reward for their industry and thereby put them in a position to participate correctly in this business that is so pleasing and profitable for the English nation.⁵

Mr. Verelst promises me to report in his next letter the remainder of the Lord Trustees’ desires in answer to my letters, and I am awaiting this eagerly. Meanwhile, I heartily rejoice at this good news, especially since it came early enought in this year to encourage our inhabitants to continue their industry in planting and caring for the white mulberry trees. Their feelings about this had been much cast down by an unpleasant report that the Lord Trustees wished to give a low price for the silk from now on. They had not heard this from me or from Mr. Lemke, but from Savannah and other places.

2) On the 4th of this month we had a general assembly of all our inhabitants, who elected new leaders from their midst for taking care of some external business⁶ and otherwise for the advancement of good order. On this occasion I advised them of some of the content of the letters we had received, with the promise to make the main and most important points useful to me and to them after my journey, God willing. I found very dear and impressive the beautiful verse that our dear Senior Urlsperger called out to our entire congregation at the close of his letter from Psalms 52:10: “But I am like a green olive tree in the house of God: I trust in the mercy of God for ever and ever.”⁷ My God, grant me also this firm faith and blessed hope!

3) On the 4th of this month I journeyed to Savannah for official reasons: to preach the word of God to the German people of our confession there and other nearby areas and to administer Holy Communion. Since Christmas we have had rather pleasant weather; but toward Sunday (it was the 7th of this month) it changed, and it has become a cold and hard winter, which especially the cattle and other beasts in the forest will feel, not only because of the great and almost unusual cold but particularly because of the smooth frozen snow that has lasted for several days. It rained and snowed alternately and then froze again so that the grass, the trees, and the bushes are hanging full of frozen snow and icicles. The branches have been bent entirely crooked, and many of them have been broken down here and there. Otherwise there are very few crooked branches in this country. Therefore, some workers who need such a thing for making something consider a usable bent branch or piece of wood to be a rarity. If we were to see such frozen clumps of ice on the trees every year, then we would probably also see more bent wood.

In such cold weather, poor people who have become accustomed to this warm country suffer very much with their children in their very poorly protected huts because of their lack of warm clothes and quilts; and I wonder why (if they do not have the means to build warm dwellings) they do not build little heated rooms of clay like poor peasant folk in many places in Germany and like some Indians in this country, since such material is to be had here in superabundance, near at hand, and free of charge. Unfortunately, the attendance at divine services also suffers greatly in such cold winter days, as I have now experienced in Savannah also. Yet I was pleased that a fine little flock of hungry souls not only assembled in the morning and afternoon to hear the divine word but also asked me to hold a prayer meeting for them in my quarters, which I did with heartfelt pleasure. I had only twenty-four communicants. I received a letter from the area of Charleston that informed me that the last German indentured servants to arrive have been sold in all parts of Carolina and that the children must serve many years after their parents are redeemed. To the contrary, the children of the servants in this country are freed along with their parents. It is a great trial for our inhabitants that, instead of the servants they had described and desired from proper places in Germany, they have received all sorts of wild artisans who are unfitted for agriculture and that the best artisans among them, such as carpenters, wheelwrights, cabinet makers, etc. have been held back by Mr. Z. /Zouberbuhler/ and other gentlemen.⁸

Thursday, the 11th of January. After I had returned safely from my trip, which was rather difficult because of the cold weather, and had caught up with my work that I had neglected meanwhile, I have had time to read again with devotion the lovely, newly received English and German letters, which I had read with only a fleeting eye because of the intended necessary trip; and I praise God for the blessing, encouragement, and strengthening of my faith that He granted me from them. May He repay our worthy friends and Fathers with manifold grace and blessing for the time and effort that they spent in writing such blessed letters and may they find a blessed fruit from that in heaven.⁹

It also seems great in my eyes that our loyal God has inclined various benefactors of all classes to a very special love for us and that they have continued so richly to lay their generous gifts into the hands of the Reverend Dr. Francke and Senior Urlsperger.¹⁰ These gifts, which were for the continuance of our institutions and for the better subsistance of us two and for the education of my two boys¹¹ have been forwarded here safely through the untiring efforts of our worthy Court Chaplain Albinus. In the account from our dear Halle and in the letter of our dear Senior I find such beautiful details of it that we marvel, rejoice, and praise our merciful God. If I could recite details here and name the worthy benefactors, it would, to be sure, be very edifying; but I fear that it might annoy our benefactors, who would rather have their good works hidden. Some of them are now in the Church Triumphant and will be followed by their good works. May the Lord in His mercy preserve those who are still alive and refresh them in life, suffering, and death!

Sunday, the 13th of January. The very cold weather has again let up completely, and it has almost become summer. Because the snow melted quickly, a lot of water is running together; and the low river is beginning to rise. Today toward evening we again received another heavy rain.

In the confession service today we also had a confirmation service with an orphan girl and six boys. One is from Purysburg, one is a Reformed young man of twenty-seven years who has already held to our congregation for several years and wishes to remain with it.¹² Another boy moved to our place with his parents two years ago and is learning a good handicraft from our town schoolmaster. His mother is Reformed, but she keeps herself as a righteous member of our congregation. The remaining boys have already been at our place for a long time with their parents. The girl, who is an orphan with neither father nor mother, has been in service in Savannah; and, after completing her period of service, she would have remained in false freedom with wicked compatriots and in ignorance if I had not insisted, according to my guardian rights with which her dying mother had entrusted me, that she move here and be instructed. Our dear God has accomplished much in her with His word, and she has become a completely different person so that she has caused us much joy through her love for God’s word and her Christian behavior.

A righteous nature is also revealed in one boy, others have many good emotions and good resolutions and have changed themselves noticeably in external ways. One of them, the son of E., has a love for God’s word and for prayer but has a great obstacle in his wicked and worldly parents so that he has not increased more in recognition and is better grounded in practical Christianity.¹³ The twenty-seven year old servant from Carolina is the worst of them all both in recognition and in change of life, for which some ill-behaved people among us are probably to blame, whom he wrongly considers to be his friends. He promises much good and is now receiving a better testimony from his employer than in past times. Because he insisted so assiduously, both through himself and through others, upon being admitted to confirmation and Holy Communion and because I had been told that further exclusion would turn him away from our place and into some sinful place, I no longer refused to let him go along with these children.

Before the confirmation I repeated what I had preached in the last preparation sermon from Acts 2:37-38 about righteous parishioners; and I also instilled in those then being confirmed and then confessing the important words of admonition and warning in Hebrews 10:22-31: “Let us draw near with a true heart,” etc., which words of God I had previously laid on their hearts with great diligence in the last preparation and prayer meetings. This holy act has again made a good new impression not only on the children but also on the other people present; and I ask God (and I am helped in this by the congregation) that a fruit will remain from it.

Sunday, the 14th of January. On this Second Sunday after Epiphany we held Holy Communion with seventy-five persons. Among them was a righteous man from Purysburg, whose son is found among the children who went to the Lord’s Table for the first time today. I baptized this boy more than fifteen years ago, not long after my arrival in this country; and of the children we have baptized he is now the first to be confirmed. Until now they have been only such as were born already in Germany or Salzburg and have come to Ebenezer in four transports or from other places in this land.¹⁴ If God continues to grant his blessing on the preparation, then the next candidates for confirmation will consist mostly of children who were born here and have been raised in the fear and admonition of the Lord and who, for the most part, give me good hope.

Both yesterday before the confirmation and also today before the act of Holy Communion, I told the congregation something about the spiritual condition of these seven children with regard to their Christianity, which they should apply partly for their awakening, partly for their intercession, and partly for avoiding unpleasant judgments. These children, as well as other young people, who have now enjoyed for almost sixteen years the benefaction of instruction for confirmation and Holy Communion, were encouraged again in the sermon about the friends of Christ and after the sermon by the previously mentioned words of Hebrews 10 to be aware of their salvation during their period of grace. May God lay a rich blessing on all this for the sake of Christ!

Monday, the 15th of January. In the afternoon of the day before yesterday we had a heavy rain during the confession service. Then a very strong wind arose that lasted all night, drove the clouds away, and veered to the west. To be sure, yesterday and today it became very cold at night but very pleasant in the day. We consider this a great blessing, especially yesterday because of the public divine service. We are accustomed to enter into the church record the name, the fatherland, and the days of birth and baptism of those children who are admitted to Holy Communion for the first time.¹⁵

When I was asking a mother today for these facts about her son, I found very beautiful subject matter for joy and for the praise of God. She told me among other things that until now she has had to shed many tears because of her husband’s poor observance of Christianity; but yesterday she again received hope that he had picked himself up again through God’s grace and wished to be more serious. God had pulled at his heart mightily through His word. When, after the sermon, he let himself be persuaded to attend the prayers in the orphanage with the honest Kalcher, he received much profit from it, according to his own admission. He had, she said, also begun to pray again at home with her and the children. He is, to be sure, sickly; but she also promised God that she would gladly have a sick husband, if only he were pious at heart.

She further told me that she looked upon it as a gracious disposition of God that her son was an apprentice with Christian people and at the same time so near to the church. He should have gone to another master, whose trade he would have liked to learn; but he saw that the man had little fear of the Lord, and, therefore, he chose a different work with a pious master. Another person had told her that she had recently felt unexpectedly a cordial love for this youth and, to be sure, as noticeably as if it had flowed down into her heart from heaven, and this on the occasion of his sincere prayer in silent solitude, when he himself did not know that anyone was hearing him. Afterwards she called him to herself and asked him to pray with her that way, whereupon God placed a beautiful blessing on this person.

Tuesday, the 16th of January. Yesterday was chosen for putting the long bridge between the town and the plantations into a safe and durable condition; and for this purpose all the men of the community have lent a hand to complete the work in one day. All the foundation is good: only the planks and the split crossbeams were rotten. I had some business with the leaders of the community before evening and I reached the bridge just as the work was over and everyone wished to go home. I was asked to pray with them first, which I did with pleasure. At the same time I thanked God for having mercifully averted all harm from man and beast, although some people and their horses were sometimes near great misfortune.

This morning the sawmiller Kogler showed me the place where the shoemaker N. barely escaped an evident misfortune. He is given to drink; and, therefore, I had sincerely warned him several times with the example of the shoemaker Arnsdorf, who was also given to drink and who drowned while drunk. When this miserable man, whom no admonition or threatening had helped so far, was crossing the mill bridge while a bit under the influence, he missed his step and fell into the millrace some nine feet from the millwheel. Through the counsel and an advance payment of dear Mr. N. a very advantageous improvement had been made on the first course, which saved this man’s life. And, therefore, we are doubly pleased that we spent some money on this arrangement. May God let this incident and this miraculous rescue serve this poor man as an occasion for true conversion!

Friday, the 19th of January. The content of Mr. Verlest’s last letter has served to encourage our inhabitants greatly to devote themselves seriously once again to planting mulberry trees for the manufacture of silk. It is an especially great benefaction for our poor people that every poor family will be given two pounds Sterling for building a hut for processing the silk more conveniently. We will probably find more than ten families who need this benefaction, yet God will look out for these even if the money ordered by the Lord Trustees will not extend to everyone. Because their generous ordinance will give our young women a much desired opportunity to learn thoroughly the spinning off of silk, there are now more apprentices than can be accepted this year by our three spinners. Each of them will accept two: indeed, girls who are daughters of parents with many mulberry trees and who have already had practice in silkmaking. The others can then practice it and raise a good number of trees (which here takes from three to four years on good soil) before they need to spin off silk.

Sunday, the 20th of January. During this week, both in town and on the plantations, I have informed the congregation of the edifying contents of the lovely letters from our worthy Fathers and friends in Europe that we recently received. God be praised, it was to my and other people’s rich edification. I hope that our Fathers and benefactors will find a beautiful fruit in heaven from the writing of these letters, which have given us so much profit through the blessing of God. We remember them diligently before the Lord.

The old woman N.N. /Granewetter/ who married N.N. /Caspar Walthauer/ has only one daughter still at home; and the latter has suddenly been seized by a very severe epilepsy and brought into a very dangerous condition. Since yesterday she has regained consciousness a single time; and her first and last words since the attack of sickness were “Something is pressing on my heart, and that is my sins.” Her mother and father show no seriousness in their Christianity and allow much useless gossip in their house, which greatly annoyed this otherwise well-natured girl, especially since the mother did her no little harm with untimely thoughts of marriage.¹⁶ In this girl’s plight and apparent mortal danger the consciences of her parents and siblings are becoming active again; I only hope that their good resolutions will be realized. Even though I could not speak with the girl, I could still say what was necessary with her relatives, who were present, and pray with them for the patient.

I visited the lying-in woman, Mrs. Hessler; and, since she needed assistance because of her husband’s poverty, I brought her some money, which the couple accepted with very humble and sincere thanks to God and the benefactors. I was told many edifying things about her recently buried two and a half year old son; his memory serves the parents for their awakening and strengthening of their heavenly mind. For example, the said child had often said before his last sickness: “Tomorrow I will come to heaven.” When the two older brothers told him that he was not yet in heaven but still with them, he kept on saying, “I am coming to heaven tomorrow. Only pious children come there, the naughty ones do not come there.” His mother had to give him two books; one of them he considered his Bible and the other his hymnal. He whiled away his time with them, and he often had a certain verse sung to him from the song, Sieh hier bin ieh Ehrenkönig, etc. He did not want to sleep until his mother had prayed with him, then he fell asleep quite satisfied, with his hands folded.

Sunday, the 21st of January. Concerning another sickly girl who had a great desire for her dear Savior and for death, I was told that she had said that her dear Savior must not love her because He did not take her to Himself but let her get well again.

On this Third Sunday after Epiphany I received a letter from the surveyor in Abercorn in which he informs me that finally, at my representation, he had received instructions from the President and Assistants of the Council to survey the fertile land behind Abercorn for our inhabitants.¹⁷ It is a new sign of divine providence over us that we are receiving the said highly fertile land, which is very convenient for agriculture and cattle raising. Until the very end this was fraught with all sorts of difficulties. To be sure, this evening wet weather has begun that is inconvenient for surveying, yet the eleven men (mostly young unmarried people) who wish to take up their plantations in that region went out to be present at the surveying.

Tuesday, the 23rd of January. N.’s /Granewetter’s/ sick daughter has recovered from her dangerous epileptic illness that continued most violently for almost two days. Since one could give her little or no medicine, only the famous Schauer balm was used diligently externally on the arteries of her hands and head, and this was of great use.¹⁸ Partly the wet weather and partly other things kept me from being able to travel to her plantation to present the girl from God’s word her obligation to this new goodness of God. Since Christmas God has knocked rather resoundingly in three ways at the home of this family to awaken them from their sleep of security:¹⁹ for 1) one of their sons-in-law died; another son-in-law was attacked by side-stitches and fever at a burial; and 3) the youngest daughter was visited with epilepsy. I caused the husband to think about this remarkable threefold visitation of God and asked him to safeguard his salvation. He was again mightily touched and made many good resolutions. God also granted him and others much good from His word in today’s weekday sermon.

Wednesday, the 24th of January. This morning I held up to the said father and his whole family God’s merciful conduct towards them and their poor conduct towards Him, and I warned them from God’s word against further disobedience and ingratitude and also against persistence in customary sins.²⁰ They have all resolved upon much good, and they prayed with me willingly and sincerely. The widow N.N. is now living here, too. Her two little boys are so weak that we can hardly hope for them to survive. We also prayed for her, and our dear Savior showed us much good. We also asked Him, for the sake of His merits, not to hold the mother to account that she, too, was to blame to a large extent for this sickness and the premature death that we feared for these children, for she has moved around several times with her husband and changed their habitation. At their last plantation they suffered much for lack of a dwelling.

Thursday, the 25th of January. I learned by chance that Mrs. Granewetter’s little son, a child very weak from its birth, was bedridden. This moved me yesterday to visit the mother and child and to pray over them and also to impart comfort from the word of God to the mother in her suffering, comfort that she greatly needed and of which she is capable. This morning she sent a man in from her plantation and informed me of the death of her child, about which everyone who loves her and her child rejoiced more than grieved. In her widowhood she was healthy, contented, and calm; but, after marrying an old widower /Walthauer/, who came to this country four years ago as a servant just to better her domestic situation,²¹ she has fallen into much disquiet. I think that God has taken responsibility for this frail little boy for her own good, because it moves something out of the way of the stepfather that was making him restless.

It is the law in this country that, when a dying father leaves a son behind, his land falls to him and the mother can not convey it to anyone else or sell it.²² This usually hinders a widow in a second marriage, or else she suffers trouble from her husband, who will not move onto, or willingly remain on, the land that does not belong to her but to his stepchildren. And that is the case with this Mrs. Granewetter’s second husband, who went to Purysburg a week ago for one day but has not yet returned.

Saturday, the 27th of January. The surveyor returned to Savannah several days ago without finishing his business. A few weeks ago a great planter with many Negroes took up a large piece of land in the area where our young people wish to take up their land; and now that the surveyor wishes to survey our people’s land, there is almost nothing usable left over. As soon as I heard that, I immediately wrote to Mr. Habersham and made the suggestion that we get at least six plantations of fifty acres in the same good region. Now he informs me that the surveyor has new orders to accommodate our people the best he can. He is still using many persuasive arguments that our people should acquire Negroes and that I should use them at the mill for (in his opinion) the great profit of the community. Otherwise, he did not see how our poor people would be able to exist very long. I more or less shudder at Negroes and such complications, nor do I believe that our Salzburgers know how to use them correctly; yet, I shall commend the matter to our Lord, who knows our needs.

Sunday, the 28th of January. For two days and two nights there have again been very strong and cold storm winds, and between them it also rained heavily yesterday afternoon. Old Gschwandl²³ and his daughter had to go out into the forest in the rain to come to the aid of a suffering cow; today they both have the dangerous sore throat with high fever, and the daughter has caught the purples at the same time.²⁴ I do not doubt that this bodily tribulation will serve the spiritual good of them both. He is a diligent man in God’s word and prayer; the daughter does not lack literal recognition and good resolutions but she does lack sufficient loyalty. Our dear Savior, our loyal Shepherd, surely follows all the souls among us right untiringly and powerfully; and He seeks in all ways to bring them to His grace or to keep them in it or to strengthen them in it. Oh, if only He could achieve His purpose in all of them!

Thomas Bichler, who has a consumptive fever in a high degree, seems to be going nearer and nearer to his end. Today he said that he was not afraid of death; for he keeps his faith in Him who says, “I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh to the Father but through me”.²⁵ He was crying as he said this, and he fell asleep again from his great exhaustion. We presented the condition of his soul and body to God in prayer most humbly and sincerely and asked Him, as the expert on hearts, to reveal to him clearly his spiritual leprosy, his original sin and disbelief, and all other sins committed in his life, and to grant him true remorse and true faith in Christ, who, in today’s gospel Matthew 8: 1 ff., especially revealed His loving Jesus-heart to all suffering people, and to prepare him in this order better and better for his end. His wife, the pious Mrs. Bacher’s daughter /Maria/, is expecting her confinement at any time.

Monday, the 29th of January. Like the deceased Sanftleben some time ago, our honest Hans Schmidt has changed his plantation and way of living several times. He is an upright lover of the divine word, he prays diligently, and is a serious Christian; and God gives him the grace to keep free of unbelieving and heart-gnawing worries about making a living and to hold firmly to His promises. Today I brought him the dear words of our divine Savior, “The mountains shall depart and the hills be removed,” etc.;²⁶ and after that we prayed. His little son from his first marriage was recently violently sick with the purples and epilepsy so that human eyes saw no hope for his recovery; yet, he did recover, and in him our Savior proved Himself to be a mighty and kind Lord, as He was presented to us last Sunday from the Book of Wisdom 16:12-13 and from the gospel on the Third Sunday after Epiphany.

Today I found the senior Gschwandl already out of bed and well on his way to a good recovery. We prayed and thanked God together. On Sunday the news came to our place that Mr. Habersham and Mr. Harris fear that their ship that sailed away at the beginning of last August may have suffered misfortune at sea. At that time I had written very much to the Lord Trustees about silk culture in Ebenezer and how it might be better advanced. Copies were retained, which I packed together yesterday and sent with a brief little letter to Court Chaplain Albinus. Peter Schubdrein is still in Savannah and is taking this little packet with him.²⁷ Our inhabitants are now very busy planting young mulberry trees, as we are also doing on the mill plantation, where there is a desirable opportunity for making silk.

Tuesday, the 30th of January. When I came to the sick Bichler today, I found him a little stronger. He is well applying his period of grace for a penitent and trusting preparation for blessed eternity. He complained of his previously unrecognized great and inordinate self-love and pride with tears, and he asked me to speak right out to him and tell everything that I recognized wrong in him. He would not hold it against me now as he used to do. He is not satisfied with himself because, in examining the course of his life as far back as he can remember, he has not felt the great divine sorrow and remorse for his many and great sins as he wishes or considers necessary; whereas, his heart and eyes wish to flow away with tears. He cannot speak for crying when he considers the great love of God in Christ for him as a great sinner; and it grieves him heartily that he has so often insulted such a good God and great Benefactor with so many sins. I told him that this was the right sorrow towards God, which is joined with a general hate for sin and with a sincere love to, and yearning for, the Savior so that one would rather die than intentionally insult Him further. If God found it necessary to grant him a greater measure of sorrow at his sins, then it would soon come to him.

I recommended to him the Passion story and the beautiful Passion hymns. Another good sign of the sincerity of his penitence I find in his poverty of spirit: he does not think himself worthy of the least of God’s gifts, rather, when good people bring him something for his need and refreshment, he cannot marvel and humble himself enough at the clear proofs of the providence of God, who knows his needs, that he lets so much good fall to such a great sinner. Not only because he is very poor, but also because he is much in debt in the community and especially to a merchant in Savannah, he has had many worries;²⁸ but now his heart has been freed by God, whom he can now trust to provide for his family. While I am writing this, the word comes that this Bichler’s pious helpmate has borne a healthy little girl. We prayed this morning for her at her sick husband’s house.

A young person who was instructed and confirmed here some time ago requested the late Pastor Freylinghausen’s Compendium of Theology²⁹ in order to repeat from it what was formerly preached to him and others. He was one of my dearest and most diligent pupils, who thoroughly understood everything that was preached about this compendium from God’s word, and he also led a pious and Christian life. Afterwards he got into very troubled spiritual circumstances in which he remained for a considerable time and did nothing but complain, and he refrained from Holy Communion for a long time. However, he has found himself again; and I hope he will someday become a useful person, provided that he becomes and remains right loyal. In his external service with a pious family he practices writing; perhaps we can use him here some day as a schoolmaster. He has very good natural gifts.

Another master told me today that his apprentice is behaving very christianly and righteously and that he had no complaint whatever against him. He has especially great love for the word of God; and no greater pleasure could be given him than to be allowed to attend the sermons and prayer meetings all the time. Yesterday N.’s oldest little son, a child of three years, was buried, who was surely ruined by his parents’ badly run household.³⁰ At his burial we completed the very edifying life story of the pious and richly blessed, little daughter of the late Dr. Stöller in Köthen; and from it our dear God granted my soul and my parishioners indescribably much good. May he let a fruit from it last into heaven!

Together with Mr. Meyer I held a conference with the leaders of the congregation, which was very useful to me in many matters. I would like so much (and my dear colleague is of similar mind) to help advance not only the salvation of our dear parishioners but also the physical improvement of their plantations with regard to farming, dwellings, cattle raising, and a trade in all sorts of lumber products; and we find all sorts of real obstacles. After having heard the opinion of the community through these leaders, I am traveling at the suggestion of Mr. Habersham and in the name of Jesus to Savannah in order to see whether something can be arranged through the counsel and aid of this friend of ours for the improvement of our external circumstances, since my last suggestions are no longer valid.

Wednesday, the 31st of January. Yesterday evening our boat came back from Savannah and brought us letters that had been sent to us on a ship that arrived in Charleston. We have reason to praise God that all our worthy Fathers and benefactors in London and Germany are still alive and are still faring well, also that Messrs. Habersham and Harris’s ship, on which were our chests with the spun-off silk, arrived safely in London last October, about which it was announced a few days ago that it had been lost at sea. Mr. Verelst and the Secretary of the Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge, Mr. Broughton, have written to me in a very friendly way.

I have now been charged by a prominent gentleman in Germany with a commission which, to be sure, I will gladly carry out, but which will take a considerable bit of my time.³¹ For I must not only confer with experienced people here and in Savannah about the points that have been given to me to answer, the correct answers to which have the spiritual and physical welfare of certain persons as its aim, but I must also write many folios with much reflection.³² I like to work when granted divine grace, and it is truly a heartfelt joy to serve God and my neighbor in my humble way; but, because I must let myself be used for all sorts of things, I must suffer all kinds of judgments, especially if I can not do it to the satisfaction of this or that person. A woman who arrived with the last people³³ came to me with her little child that was born on the ship and was baptized by the young Matthew Neidlinger; and she asked me to enter this child in our baptismal and church register. From her confession and tears I recognized with joy that our dear God had not only touched and awakened her heart through His word, to which she listens diligently, but has also brought her to a true feeling of her sins, which she formerly either did not know or did not recognize as such. She considers it a gracious dispensation of God that she has come into this tranquility and to the acquaintance of a pious Salzburger woman. God is also working mightily on her husband, and His word is penetrating to his heart.

FEBRUARY

Thursday, the 1st of February. There were several reasons for my trip to Savannah that I finished today, safe and sound, God be praised, which concerned my health and the physical welfare of the congregation; and with God’s help I was able to accomplish one thing and another, even if not everything, as desired. The last suggestions that I made (by which to be sure, my aim was the improvement of the subsistence of the entire community, but especially of the poor among us) were not approved by the members of the community. They would gladly have inexpensive goods from England and the West Indies, but they do not wish to work cheaply enough for us to achieve our purpose. In order that I might have fewer public expenses they have offered to do some communal works, with which I shall be satisfied until they themselves see the difficulties of communal work or of a contribution for paying off some public expenditures.

Now at the present time I know of no other means to raise and advance the members of our community than for them to undertake all sorts of wood working, such as splitting barrel staves and shingles and dressing lumber for houses in the West Indies and for us to procure for them a fairer merchant to take such woodwork from them at a fair price.¹

I found the last to be impracticable and harmful for us; on the other hand we would fare much better if we sold our boards and other woodwork at a fair price and bought from the very same merchant as much West Indian goods, such a sugar, rum, and syrup, as we need, instead of payment. We must avoid complications in merchandizing, since we do not have the people for it. A single unfortunate incident of importance could give such a blow to our small undertaking that everyone would lose courage. In the meanwhile I have found three merchants who will gladly take our inhabitants’ barrel staves, shingles, hoops, and dressed lumber at a very good price, since they are assured that they will be provided with better work from them than from the slaveholders in Carolina. They now have enough work throughout the whole year and good and certain payment, as every reasonable person must admit.

The second reason for my trip this time was to discuss this and that with our friend Mr. Habersham concerning the content of his last letter to me. He advised that those among us who have money should buy Negroes and move to larger plantations and thus give their neighbors room for farming and cattle raising. As far as the poor are concerned, one must remember that one might help them get some Negroes. He himself offered to procure some such Negroes for them on credit. These suggestions were, to be sure, announced to our inhabitants; but I have heard that they do not wish to be confused with this matter, and in this they are doing the right thing, for another upright merchant in Carolina, who would also like to trade with our inhabitants, told me that, if poor people borrowed Negroes, they would become slaves of their slaves and of the merchants, and also lazy people. If they had the money to buy one, there is less danger; but they should not buy one newly brought from Africa, but rather one that was born in Carolina or at least has learned the English language and how to work, because nothing can be accomplished with the new ones without the encouragement and example of the old Negroes.

To be sure, I shall not in the least way prevent the use of Negroes at our place since I have already had to suffer for a long time the reproach in this country of having stood in the way of the inhabitants’ desire for Negroes. If our inhabitants can get good farmhands for money and work with them in the wood business, they will proceed more surely and can do without the Negroes. The Lord Trustees would just have to make better arrangements, perhaps with a jail or workhouse, to punish runaways or disobedient servants. If they planted less and worked more in the wood business, the work in the shade would be easier than with corn and rice, etc., in the heat of the sun; and it is much more profitable. To be sure, this work will at first get off to a slow start because they have had no practice in it, but everything would become easier with time. This could also be a means of bringing more servants and other useful German workers to this colony and to our place.

How well the poor German people would be advised if they would let the Lord Trustees send them here instead of going to Carolina, Pennsylvania, etc., for they care for the people in a fatherly way both in the contract and on the voyage; and God has always granted grace for the colonists and servants to come here safe and sound.² On the other hand, in Savannah I heard the sad news that some Swiss and many Germans have arrived before Charleston in a ship in a right pitiful condition. Many died on the way; and now that the ship must remain at a certain distance, four or five must be buried in the sea every day. The minister Zübli wished to go with another man to these compatriots of his; but, while he was still rather far from the ship, he smelt an almost unbearable stench of death, which apparently kept him away.

The third reason for my trip was to ask the President and his Assistants to pay me the money ordered by the Lord Trustees for advancing silk manufacture, or at least to assure me that I will receive it from them at the proper time.

In the evening prayer meeting I had the opportunity to tell the German people many good things about the seventh commandment, which followed in the order of contemplation.³

Sunday, the 3rd of February. Dear Mrs. Kalcher in the orphanage has had bodily weaknesses for some years, which have sometimes attacked her unexpectedly in church, at which time it always appeared that she was very near death, or rather near a blessed dissolution. She has lived until now, contrary to her and other people’s expectation; and our dear God doubtless granted this for the good of her righteous husband, her children, and our community. Like the prophetess Hannah in the Bible, she is in prayer almost day and night and lets neither work nor physical weakness keep her from it. The dear word of God and the sacraments are greater in her eyes than anything else in the world, and she feels their power abundantly in her soul and in the entire conduct of her Christianity. Yet it pleases our wise God to humble her both inwardly and outwardly so much that she feels little comfort in her soul. Rather, she must fight much with disbelief, doubts, anxieties, and other powers of darkness, so that one could also say in her case, “Without feeling I will trust”.⁴ Yet our Savior is so true to her that He aways reaches His merciful hand to her hardest spiritual suffering and temptations⁵ and lets fall into her heart this or that powerful or comforting gospel verse with great emphasis during prayer or tears. She has no lack of external suffering either, which, however, appears minor and easy in her eyes. Her husband is just like her in his righteous thoughts and seriousness in his Christianity.

This morning a pious Salzburger sent me a letter by his son in which the following was written:

I cannot help but inform your grace in what a dilemma I have been in this week because of the incorrect report about the Negroes; for we are told that you now see the matter entirely differently and that we will not be able to get along without Negroes, which I cannot comprehend and which is entirely against the faith that I feel very powerfully through the grace of God. I was greatly strengthened in this faith when, after the edification hour, I heard your steadfast thoughts; and I cannot see it as anything but a hearing of our poor supplication, which⁶ has strengthened your heart among all kinds of ideas that may be false. Oh, may you continue untiring in the power of God; full of hope and faith I see a glorious crown of reward over you and your descendants. May the Lord awaken our hearts to a right great trust in Him!, for He is a Lord over all things.

I must marvel how one can spread such untruths about me in the community during my absence, as if I had changed my mind about the Negroes and their introduction and as if I were now convinced that our inhabitants could not get along without them.

Monday, the 5th of February. Through the merciful providence of God we have reached a point that the very fertile and well situated land behind Abercorn has been surveyed for some people, mostly young ones, and just as I requested. Not long ago I wrote to Mr. Habersham, who is a member of the Council, that it would be to the harm of the Lord Trustees and to the poor people if the surveyor surveyed the plantations according to his previous custom. He makes only one main line, and he directs himself according to it in surveying the plantations, one after the other. Thus it occurs that many turn out almost entirely unusable; and it could have been different if he had used reason and fairness and had excluded the entirely worthless and unusable land from the plantation. A person receives only forty acres, and all or most of it should be good, but this seldom happens. This time it has been surveyed as our people wish. There are ten of these small plantations: namely, four for four families who have been settled until now around the town on small and somewhat poor plots of ground, and six for six young people, some of whom are still apprentices.

I would have liked to see some of our householders abandon their very unproductive land and settle on this new land; and for this I would gladly have given them some assistance. However, they found moving away very undesirable for several reasons: 1) They are already worn out and can no longer do heavy work like felling trees. 2) For some years they have so built up their dwellings and spent so much on houses, kitchens, stalls, and barns which they would have to leave behind for small payment while establishing themselves again with new expenses on another piece of land. They would not be able to make use of the sawmill at all, and they could use the gristmill only with great difficulty. 3) They would thereby distance themselves greatly from divine services and the schools; and they could bring their hearts to this last less than to anything else.

Some of them are beginning to make use of the very fertile land on the island on the Mill River, which reaches for several miles in length and breadth. If they could continue in this and if others would aid them, we would have here the most beautiful cattle pasture and fruit orchards. Only much work is required here because of the reeds and thick trees and bushes; and at times it is flooded by the Savannah River, especially at some places, which makes the soil very rich and fruitful. This island is a great blessing for our inhabitants if only because of the quantity of useful wood. Grass grows here so rapidly and abundantly that one must marvel. It lacks only good workers.

Good Mrs. Granewetter has borne a great cross after she married a widower /Caspar Walthauer/, who came to this country four years ago with the German servants.⁷ He is no lover of the divine word and of prayer, as she is, but prone to greed and worldly cares. At the same time he considers himself much cleverer than other people, and he makes very coarse judgments over good books and good people. A certain book, called Cabinet Preacher,⁸ is his best book, with which he passes his time and drives away his melancholy and is sometimes moved to merriment and laughter. I would have liked to speak with him, but I did not find him on his plantation. From Mrs. Granewetter’s words I realized that she had adjusted herself well to this cross and knows how to speak lovingly to him and to answer. She also prays diligently for God to open his eyes and save his soul, even if his body should perish.

Tuesday, the 6th of February. For some days we have had very warm weather both day and night, as a result of which the plum and peach trees have budded and blossomed. We do not notice the same thing in the mulberry trees; also, it would not be good if the leaves and blossoms came out so early, because they cannot bear any frost. Yesterday and today the wind has veered to the cold evening and midnight regions⁹ and it is as cold as if it would snow again. The water in the river has been steadily rising for several weeks and is now so high that it has stopped all our mills.

A good friend in Charleston¹⁰ has made every possible effort so far to recover our two servants and three boys who ran away to Congarees in Carolina. However, he appears to be hindered in that by the government itself, which gives protection and safety to all sorts of people who have flowed together at this newly settled place and thereby deprives people of their property. It now appears that our poor people will not recover their servants and that I will also lose the money spent in searching for them. I fear that this matter will be of evil consequence with other single servants, especially when the dry spring and summer come, since it is easier to travel then than in winter. At our place they are kept very well in work, food, and in other things; but anyone who knows the mind of frivolous tradesmen apprentices, who love bodily freedom and visiting cities, cannot expect much good from such people who do not convert to God, especially since they know that there is no possibility of getting them back from Carolina and that it is easy to get there from Georgia.

Thursday, the 8th of February. Yesterday evening a German man arrived here by boat from Savannah Town in South Carolina and asked me to marry him to an English widow, which was done today in our church with Christian witnesses.¹¹ He speaks good German although he has already lived for many years in America among the English; but the widow cannot speak a word of German, and therefore the marriage had to be conducted in the English language for her sake. They were both moved by God’s word, and they showed in a noticeable and praiseworthy way their joy at the marriage that is customary here. The husband has been in our Sunday services and evening prayer meetings a few times when he has come down here or gone back up, and he told others that he was edified. He is attached to our Evangelical Lutheran religion and is a sincere lover of it. Some time ago there was a German man, a mill builder by profession, in our neighborhood, who, to be sure, also called himself a Lutheran but did not have even the appearance of any religion. He was very devoted to drink; and now I hear that he was drunk near Augusta and froze to death in the last snow and great cold. Thus God seizes people!

I have learned from what this and that person have told me that up there where Augusta is situated there is very good land that hardly has its likes in fertility. However, such people have gathered there who cannot get along elsewhere; and therefore it is said that things go on there in a godless way, and it is more scandalous than heathen, just as in Congarees, which is only a day and a half journey from Augusta and Savannah Town. If our place had the advantage of fertile land that other areas have, all sorts of nations and sects would already be living among us. But God’s providence has allotted us a land with which we can be very well satisfied, but at the same time He has granted us, according to His wisdom and benevolent goodness, advantages which we should rightly consider among the most important in the world. These are the following: His word, the holy sacraments, the ministry, freedom of religion, churches, schools, sawmills, gristmills, and rice stamping mills. We are also situated between the main river and some tributary rivers, called creeks, so that we have the most beautiful opportunity for trade and travel. The people do not live only from farming, but from many other things that the Creator has given them in their land. Ours has also been ordained for us, which will be revealed in due time.

Friday, the 9th of February. A good friend in Savannah gave me a German calendar that was composed and printed in Philadelphia for the current year. Since many calendars in this country contain many foolish and merry things, this one is, to the contrary, arranged seriously, usefully, and even edifyingly. In addition to the lovely verses that appear between all the changes in the moon, it also contains a truthfully composed narrative of the nature of this colony and of colonists in Africa. While reading them, I marveled that the author gave our Ebenezer such a good testimony. It reads as follows:

How do our (the German) people live in Georgia? Answer: The soil is not good for German crops; and, even though they sow and plant according to German ways, their crops do not have half the weight or quality of those further north. Viticulture should prosper better in the future, as also cotton, rice, Indian corn, etc. This land may be very good for making tiles and bricks, earthenware, glass, etc. The forests are said to offer tar, cypress shingles, boards, barrel staves, etc. Some of the people live very poorly, because no trade and merchandizing flourish. But, despite the poor soil, one colony of those who have been sent there, Salzburgers who had been expelled from their fatherland for Christ’s sake, have built up a fine city, plantations, and mills with uninterrupted prayer and almost superhuman work, so that they eat their bread by the sweat of their brow and can support themselves honestly and in a Christian way. In their need they are so calm and content that they could serve as the most beautiful model for all Germans in America.

Later it also says that the Salzburgers have two Evangelical Ministers, whom the Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge called upon and sent.

To be sure, it is true that the soil of this colony, at least from the sea up to the area of Palachocolas (which is a good day’s trip above us on the Savannah River) is not especially good for raising German grains such as wheat, rye, and barley; but it is all the more convenient for trade in all sorts of wood products, preparation of pitch and tar, and producing cotton, wine, and mulberry trees for developing silk manufacture, if only there were enough people and pertinent arrangements there.

Good and useful oak, cypress, pine, and black nut trees, etc. have become very scarce in the previously occupied colonies because of irresponsible misuse, so that one now already pays, e.g. for a thousand staves for rum barrels three to four pounds Sterling, which until a short time ago were worth two pounds Sterling or less. Since N.’s deceit¹² we have not been able to move our inhabitants to prepare the said wood products for export to the West Indies, even though we have given them all sorts of suggestions. I hope that the very good price that is now being given will incite them to it. To be sure, in our area there are not many white oaks, which alone are used for staves for rum barrels, but there are all the more of them on the very rich land behind Abercorn, which have now been surveyed for ten families who belong to our community.

Likewise, there are very many white oaks standing on the Uchee land near our town,¹³ which is ours, even if not yet occupied. There is a great quantity of water oaks and cypresses in our district, the former are used for syrup barrels and the latter for roof shingles in the West Indies. Cotton grows easily and abundantly here, but it has this inconvenience that the seeds stick very firmly in the lint and it takes a man or a woman a whole day if one wishes to free a quarter of a pound from the seeds and prepare it for spinning. Now we know of a little machine that costs a couple of shillings, through the help of which a single person, even a child of six years, can prepare from four to six pounds and not get even the least bit tired.¹⁴

Saturday, the 10th of February. Today at noon a very violent storm with rain, hail, and thunderbolts arose in the south. It struck in a pine forest across from us; and, along with the downpour, the wind was so strong that it threw down not only many roofs but also the strongest fences. The wind drove the rain with such force through the roofs and walls and windows that we and other people had little that was dry in our living rooms, chambers, attics, or kitchens. This unusual storm lasted for only a few minutes, otherwise it would surely have caused more damage. It is said to have been less violent on our plantation. God be praised for having averted greater danger.

Monday, the 12th of February. Saturday night N. suddenly became dangerously sick and did not expect to live until morning. He contracted the dangerous side-stitches, from which God soon freed him again. He has a sincerely pious wife, who accomplished more through prayer than through work, even though she is also industrious in her work. Her desire for God’s word is very great, and she regrets no time or effort spent in hearing it and in repeating it with other pious people and in praying. She lives in great poverty with her husband and children, but is sincerely content.

Tuesday, the 13th of February. Our servants have brought some very bad habits into this country, which they sometimes do not even consider to be sins: the misuse of the holy name of God, cursing, swearing, and unnecessary asseverations are very common among them, and some of them are amazed that we consider such things to be sins in Ebenezer. Now, because such things in themselves are not serious sins, but rather are very vexing, I do not let an opportunity pass easily publicly or privately to present to them from God’s word both the ugliness of this sin and the great harm they are doing to others by it, especially the children. This was done again just yesterday in the prayer meeting. I also warned the other listeners sincerely to not to participate in foreign sins,¹⁵ report evil customs and practices, as can be clearly seen from the two remarkable verses Leviticus 5:1 and Proverbs 29:24.

These poor, mostly unwitting, tradesmen-apprentices have still more un-Christian habits, sayings, etc., which I hope God will free them from. With them and others I am excellently served by the late Wirth’s Confession and Communion Booklet¹⁶ and in it the heart examinations and duties of life according to the Ten Commandments. On this and that occasion I can prove and convince them that what they hear here is not our own dogma but the Evangelical dogma of the entire Lutheran Church that is based on God’s word. I wish I were in a position to give this booklet even to these strangers, as it is now in the hands of all our householders. Some of them have already requested one from me, but they will have to make do with borrowing until I have several dozen sent. They could be very simply bound. They are showing a great desire for hymnals and Bibles, but I cannot serve them in this now.

In the meanwhile I have given each of them a New Testament with an attached Psalter, which they bring to church diligently in order to read the chapters with us and to look up the chief verses that must be looked up by the congregation during the sermon. Then they can see with their own eyes and almost grasp with their hands that we are teaching not according to men but according to God’s word and that no more or less can be demanded of people than what stands in the holy scriptures of the Old and the New Testaments. Still, we are happy that they visit these good opportunities gladly and diligently.

Thursday, the 15th of February. This morning the widow N. reported to me that her youngest remaining little boy had followed his father and his little brother, who was buried recently, into heaven through a temporal death. In their nine years of marriage they had five children, but all of them died at a tender age. I hope that this procedure of God will serve to their true conversion and righteous Christianity. She has a naturally good disposition and also loves God’s word. However, because her heart has not changed, some of her inborn bad habits sometimes show forth. She is now living with her parents-in-law, and therefore in a large family, where it is sometimes right turbulent. Perhaps God will soon ordain that she will have her own plantation and therefore more quiet for her own good.

On judgment day we will know clearly and with certainty the reason why our dear God has let most of our children who were born here die already at a very tender age, and whether it is the nature of this climate and whether the mistakes of their parents have contributed something to their premature deaths.

Last night it thundered and rained heavily; and, because it was as warm as spring at the time, not only the peach and plum trees but even the mulberry trees are putting out seeds and leaves. Our inhabitants are devoting themselves seriously to silk manufacture, for which they are getting more and larger trees every year. This is a very convenient land for this, and I marvel that so few in this country apply themselves to it. When we moved to this so-called Red Bluff fourteen years ago, if our inhabitants had wished to follow the advice given them and had planted many mulberry trees, how useful it would be for them now! The reason that almost no one in this country wishes to devote himself to this light, pleasant, and useful business is simply the all-too-great wages that are customary here that the least worker can demand and get.

It is said that, after the Lord Trustees stop giving encouragement, silk making will scarcely bring one shilling per day. On the other hand, in daily wages, if they work for other people, they get from eighteen pence to two shillings, and even more in other places in this country. And, therefore, they leave off silk manufacture as, in their opinion, a poorly paying matter. However, they do not remember that 1) they are disobeying the authorities, our dear Lord Trustees (who are truly a right gracious authority) and are doing their part in preventing them from achieving their intended purpose in establishing this colony. 2) They do not consider that, once there are enough trees on hand and nearby, it will be very easy work for weak people of all ages; 3) that the work with the silkworms takes place at a time when one is not kept from other business of agriculture and husbandry, for it starts very early in the spring after the fields have already been prepared for planting and, indeed, after they have been long cultivated with European crops.

To be sure, the planting of Indian corn takes place already in March and April, but then it proceeds rapidly. On the other hand, chopping out the grass is the most difficult and tedious work, which occurs when the silkworms have spun themselves in their cocoons and this business has been completed. In five weeks all the work with the silk making is completely past, except for the spinning-off, provided one understands it well and has a warm dwelling. It is indeed a great blessing for poor people if they can earn something according to their strength not only now and then but throughout the whole year, even if it does not occur at one time. Now they can earn something in the spring with silk making, in the summer and fall with planting and making butter, and in the winter with spinning, knitting, etc.

4) Silkmaking is something that will bring everyone steady earnings. On the other hand, not everyone, e.g. widows, old people, children, and frail people, can earn something with day wages or in the field. Also, there is not and will not be work for day laborers all the time. What will such people who have not planted any mulberry trees or have not learned silk making do after this? With such high wages every gentleman or man of means must gradually fail. For the work of the best day laborer in the field or in housework or in rowing a boat, etc., is hardly worth six pence (according to local comparison of things), yet he must give the day laborer eighteen pence or two shillings or more for light or heavy work in winter or in summer. Thus, every time he uses a day laborer he will become poorer by one or two or more shillings. How much does that amount to all together? Now that Negroes are being introduced into this colony, for which the unfair day laborers, servants, and other workers are to blame, there will be little for poor people to earn in daily wages, as is already evident in and around Savannah.

5) If the principle were right that, “if I cannot get the usual wages on my own land, then I would rather not work at all,” then all agriculture in this country would be stopped. For everyone agrees that the most industrious workers in the field, when they compare the work and the harvest, do not bring more than four pence per day. But what a great difference there is between work in the field in the hottest summer and work with the silkworms in the shade in the spring? And the profit is even greater: namely, once things have been properly arranged with trees, adequate dwellings for keeping the worms warm at first and cool and airy at the end of the fourth week and once we have gained more experience.

I know from experience in my house that my wife, who has entered the business through obedience to the Lord Trustees and as an example for our inhabitants, can make over a hundred pounds of cocoons with the help of only one other vigorous woman whom she needed only in the last three weeks and that she had more pleasure than effort with it.¹⁷ Let us suppose that one pound of silk cocoons costs nine pence, then a hundred pounds would make seventy-five shillings Sterling, which a woman can earn in five weeks with a maid who helps her in the last period in picking leaves and other domestic chores. Further, let us suppose that she must spend some fifteen shillings every year on her forty mulberry trees, which are required for a hundred pounds of silk, until they have grown up and need no more special attention, then the profit still amounts to three pounds Sterling. The more silk that is made, the greater the profit, if one just knows how to manage it.

If God should let me live, or my dear colleague (who is entirely of my mind in all matters), then we would like to make a test near the mill where we have a great number of beautiful trees on good soil, in order to convince both inclined and disinclined people in a few years and show them what an easy and profitable matter silk making is, even if we cannot expect that the Lord Trustees will give a bounty or encouragement forever. I will add only one reason why I consider silk making such a useful thing: namely, one can make it to one’s advantage in this country no matter where one wishes to live.

Mulberry trees grow everywhere, if one just does not let them strangle in the grass. In addition, one finds convenience for silk-making everywhere, whether one lives on the river or deep in the country, near or far from the capital and mercantile city. On the other hand, with rice, corn, beans, sweet potatoes, barrel staves, shingles, and other heavy things it is a very difficult matter if one does not live on a river and near the place where he can bring his crops and things to market. Also, if one had fifty pounds of spun-off silk, which is no longer a secret among us,¹⁸ then it could be sent at small cost not only to Savannah but even to England; and its value would amount to fifty pounds Sterling. But I must also add that, if the Lord Trustees were to withdraw their hand and their encouragement before this useful matter were properly established and matured, many would lose their courage; and I would be disgraced before many of them, for whom I have made every possible effort near and far in order to achieve the Lord Trustees’ purpose.

Our people see no example of industry in silk making in the whole country among either prominent or simple people. Indeed, there are always people who predict for them that with time it will not be worth the effort; and it would be no wonder that everything fell in ruin again if the Lord Trustees withdrew their hand. As mentioned the high daily wages stick in everyone’s head. Nothing can be done in this by compulsion, rather one must await the help of God at the time and in the manner that pleases Him. Meanwhile, as a superior, I must not become tired or cross in achieving His purpose by accomplishing the common good in some other way with God’s guidance and prosperity.

Saturday, the 17th of February. Our people who had taken something for sale in Savannah brought back an unpleasant report: namely, that two more servants had run away; but on their way to Augusta they had been delivered into the hands of the English by the Indians in a cunning way. Now they will surely be punished as an example to the others. It is now raining a great deal; therefore, we can well expect high river water and the flooding of low areas around the river. There is now, to be sure, much to grind and to saw at our mills, and an inundation would cause great hindrance in this. But it will be the Lord who does it, if it happens. Why should His servants not be pleased by it? “He can, better than we think, turn all bad into good.”¹⁹

As soon as people hear about the boards from our mill, none of them will remain lying here even if we could saw such beautiful durable boards on ten mills. They are also exported to the Spaniards and French in the West Indies; and a merchant told me not long ago that he is to bring many boards that he ordered here to a French place, etc. Provided God’s grace continues to protect and bless them, they will continue to prosper as they have begun, to the great advantage of our place. If we had capable builders, we could undertake many useful things.

Monday, the 19th of February. We have unexpectedly received right hard and biting winter weather again. For several days the wind has come from the north and has brought us cold rain, snow, and ice. The trees are hanging full of icicles that are breaking the branches. The plum and peach trees were in full blossom, and the sap was rising in the mulberry trees and they were beginning to sprout seeds and leaves so that we must worry that they will suffer great damage as they did two years ago. The right hand of the Highest can change all things. This very cold weather kept many weak people and children from visiting the public divine service yesterday, Sexagesima Sunday, both in town and on the plantations; for, when it is cold here, then it is much more painful for the inhabitants than in the northern colonies because they are used to warmth.

The day before yesterday I had an opportunity to send to Savannah our current packet of letters and the diary from January of this year to the 17th of this month, which Mr. Habersham is, if possible, to put it into the hand of Capt. Gill, who is standing by in Port Royal ready to sail. However, the very wet and uncomfortable weather that has come has prevented the man from his trip so that this packet will be sent off only in a few days.

Among the servants of the last transport were some tradesmen who are useful and necessary here, such as carpenters, wainwrights, cabinet makers, etc., who, however, were picked out in Savannah. Now it has come about that two fine people, who, with their brother at our place, were the best in the whole transport, were redeemed from the Savannah minister by payment of twelve pounds after some prescribed heavy work was finished.²⁰ At the beginning of last week they moved to our place and are working for me as carpenters for a very low wage out of gratitude to me for advancing them the money. We need them very much both for building the town school and also for other dwellings that our people need, God be praised! for the impending happy silkmaking. I see this also as a sign of divine providence over us that we have received these skillful and industrious brothers, who live a Christian life, for which I formerly had no hope. Skillful and well behaved tradesmen are a rarity in this country, mostly they are bunglers or cursers and drunkards who come from Germany into the New World. If one gets them as servants, they are restless and seldom do well because they know that their trade has value here and that they can quickly earn their passage money. If God has resolved to occupy this land with white people, then everything that appears impossible must be made possible. For important reasons I cannot at present believe that it is according to the will of God that this land, in itself fertile and well situated, will be filled with Negroes or Moorish slaves.

Wednesday, the 21st of February. Yesterday the rainy weather let up, but it got all the colder in the night. We will soon see how much the former and present cold have damaged the crops and trees. Many large and small branches have been broken off by the heavy icicles, and they almost cover the driveways and footpaths from the town to the plantations and to the mill. It is, therefore, a new testimony of divine providence over mankind and cattle that no damage has been done through the falling of the branches since we have always been walking, driving, and riding. Also, there are many horses and cows in the forest both by day and by night.

Thursday, the 22nd of February. The worldly minded N. has brought herself and her daughter into need and debts. When I was talking to the mother and daughter about it today and praying with them, they both became very moved, and I only wish it would blossom into a true conversion.

A soldier’s wife who has settled at our place with her husband loves God’s word sincerely and is showing a fine sincerity in her Christianity; in my house she remembered certain sins for which she has often apologized to God, and she believes that He has forgiven them for the sake of Christ. When she fled during the Spanish invasion from Frederica to Carolina, all of her children died, one after the other, so that of nine only a single one was left to her. At the time she took these sad circumstances so to heart that she lost her mind and gnawed the flesh on both of her arms from her hands to her elbows, from which one can still see the marks. She is a native German and wishes to support herself honestly, even though she and her husband cannot bear such hard work as farming demands.

I wish that all of our weak and worn-out workers would plant only as many crops as they need for their family’s use; most of their time they should and could apply to easier and more profitable work, which they could do according to their strength and mostly in the shade. It is a blessing worthy of thanks that there is more work and opportunity to earn some cash at our place than there are people who wish to work and earn.

Year after year a great quantity of staves for barrels, cypress shingles, and dressed lumber of pine and cypress are demanded for export to the West Indies, for which a good price is paid. Similarly, much money would be earned by those willing to bring the sawed cypress logs to the mill by water. This is no difficult work, since the cypress trees stand in a great quantity around Abercorn Creek and the Savannah River.

Sunday, the 25th of February. Today, Esto Mihi Sunday, eighty-six people were at Holy Communion, among them a mother and her son from the area of Purysburg. It will soon be revealed how much our dear God blessed in their souls His word, which was preached to them yesterday in the preparation and confession services in both churches and today in the sermon. In any case, all of them listened diligently and hungrily. The weather was good, even if very windy.

Monday, the 26th of February. Today I was, by request, on the new land by Abercorn, where several German people have settled, to baptize a child there. The whole day was spent on this trip, for not only did I baptize his child, but also the people gathered to hear God’s word and to pray with me. I read to them the beautiful 25th Psalm, repeated from it the summary of my sermon yesterday concerning its eighth and ninth verses, and instilled in them the main truths of this beautiful psalm. The people showed me great love, insisted that I enter their homes, and asked that I or my dear colleague would sometimes come to them and preach the word of God to them and, if possible, to hold Holy Communion. When I gave them hope of that, provided they would improve the road, their joy was very great. They are all Evangelical Lutherans.²¹ One of them served for three years at our place and, after completing his service, lived here for a year; and here he converted righteously to God and is now a light among his compatriots. In my presence he praised God sincerely for having ordained so wonderously according to His wisdom and goodness for him to come to our place and instruction despite all the dissuasion of the wicked German people around Savannah, by which God has illuminated and given a new birth to his soul.

Through God’s providence the German people have received a very good, fertile, and well situated land, than which they could not have wished for anything better. For that reason they wish to call it Goshen. Some of our young people have also taken up their land in this neighborhood; therefore, a community of the Evangelical Lutheran religion will gradually assemble here. They are all very poor yet (as it appears to me) contented. They are working industriously and hope to be saved somewhat from their poverty by a good harvest. We must always preach to them of love and Christian tolerance, as I did today. They diligently hold their meetings on Sundays and Holy Days and have for it the late Dr. Spener’s Gospel and Epistle Sermons.²²

A very fine married couple bear the cross that the husband has gradually lost all his strength and is incapable of work; his face is as pale as a white cloth and his blood is as thin as water and nut colored. Such patients do not complain of any pain, but only of great fatigue. This condition afflicts mainly industrious field workers in hot weather and may well be a form of hectica. Several men among us are afflicted that way and know of no medication against it. None of Mr. Thilo’s or Mr. Meyer’s medicines have done any good.

Tuesday, the 27th of February. N.N. has been excluded from Holy Communion and other privileges of Christians because of his vexing life (he is very given to drink); but last week he came to me and asked me to accept him again and let him go to Holy Communion with his wife and other members of the congregation. I admonished him sincerely to a true repentance and conversion of his life and let him go this time. He hears God’s word regularly and also has a good literal recognition;²³ indeed, he would be a useful man in many ways and prosper well in his household if only he wished to desist from his vice of drunkeness. His wife, who is honest,²⁴ would like to see me announce to the congregation that he is being allowed to Holy Communion again at a new promise of improvement and to admonish him publicly of his duty. However, I considered it advisable to be lenient with him this time, too, and to reserve severity for the future (if it becomes necessary with this man, who already has already become skilled in boozing).

I guard myself from the highest and most extreme grade of punishing vexations, just as from excesses in them; and God has always helped to keep them from being necessary. It appears that God has mightily seized this N. in his conscience again, for eight days ago he was in extreme danger of crushing his head in the millwheel. Recently he heard the sad example of one of his drinking buddies, who moved from Purysburg to Savannah Town and drank himself full, as was his custom, and died in the snow during a cold night. Today I stopped of at Kohleisen’s house. I reminded him of the promise he made before and during the confession service, warned him against lying and disloyalty and also against a relapse into his old sins, whereby he would distress God, His servants, and His children and would draw God’s judgments on his neck. I also showed him from God’s word which means he should use and in what order, if the last should not be worse for him than the first. Then I prayed with him and his family. This afternoon I visited some other families on the plantations, where our dear God granted us much for our common edification. It gives me an especially great pleasure whenever I recognize the grace of God in our little school children, which puts many of the bigger children and adults to shame. The pious parents, especially the mothers, not only teach them Bible verses but also lead them in prayer, intercession, praise, and thanks. They love me and my dear colleague and pray for us, which redounds to my very great comfort.

Wednesday, the 28th of February. We hear from Savannah the sad news that a merchant and planter in the region of Purysburg, who has only recently returned from New York in his vessel, capsized in his boat not far from Savannah and almost lost his life. Two Negroes died in the water, but he and a Negro saved their lives with difficulty. They would both have lost, if not their lives, then at least their health, on a wet and swampy land in the cold night if a man passing by had not heard their cries and brought them back to Savannah. The greatest loss, according to this gentleman’s estimate, consists of important letters that were in a trunk and could not be found, even though a considerable reward was promised to seekers and finders. With his Negroes he had caught a swimming deer and let them cut its throat, but the deer struck out with all four feet in such a way that the boat turned over. This merchant is now having many boards cut at our mill in order to take them to the French West Indies. Now at the end of this month I am again thinking with humble and grateful heart of the divine goodness, which has so far averted all harm from us and has granted us much spiritual and physical good. Hallelujah!

MARCH

Thursday, the 1st of March. Last night after the prayer hour I was told something about a servant and his wife that has caused my conscience no little disquiet today. He was formerly a soldier and absorbed some disgraceful superstitions and forbidden arts;¹ and he has started practicing them in the house of N.N. The circumstances are partly silly and tasteless and partly annoying; and I was amazed that the old widow would tolerate such godless things, which caused a great vexation. Today I did not find the servant at home; meanwhile I examined his wife and mistress, who at first pretended ignorance; but afterwards they confessed the wicked deed, at which the son of N. was also present but tried to extenuate the circumstances as much as possible.

By directing them to the spiritual examination concerning and from our duties according to the the First Commandment, I showed them what a curse they had brought upon their house through this heathen, yea gypsy-like, behavior of their servant, of which they were aware. This would strike their souls, I said, if they did not show real repentance. Hereby God made it known that their hearts are still unchanged despite all their good practices. Formerly I could not convince them of this, but now it can be done better.

Friday, the 2nd of March. German people who come into this country uncalled have generally not amounted to much in the fatherland; and, unfortunately, I now know from much experience that they will continue here what they began there.

Saturday, the 10th of March. Contrary to my expectations I had to delay eight whole days in Savannah, where, to be sure, I was not idle but was able to spend my time partly in preaching, holding Communion, and conducting prayer meetings and partly in visiting and encouraging the German people and writing letters to Carolina and London, but particularly in attending the meetings of the Council. Still, it was painful for me to have to be away so long from my regular official duties. It was the gentlemen of the Council who kept me away so long. They are tired of the all-too-great expenses of the Lord Trustees’ cowpen at Old Ebenezer and have again offered to sell it to our congregation and it took a long time for them to come to a proper decision and contract.² A large part of our people’s and inhabitants’ welfare demands that this cowpen not come into strange hands because they would not only carry off a large part of our cattle, which are scattered here and there, but also spoil and very much reduce the pasturage. Praise be to God, who has now helped us in this matter!

God has also granted the benefaction that the gentlemen of the Council have willingly ceded us the ironwork for a new sawmill that is to be built here, for otherwise it would have gradually spoiled in the storehouse in Savannah. It weighs more than a thousand pounds. The gentlemen of the Council have also approved the help they promised for completing the ten machines for spinning off the silk, the building of ten huts for poor people, and the L 2 Sterling for every young female who will learn silk spinning in this year. However, I shall not need any money from them now because our congregation will owe them a great sum for the said Trustees’ cowpen. This will all be paid off gradually partly by the just mentioned encouragements from the Lord Trustees, partly with our expected silk, partly with boards for the public buildings in Savannah, and partly with beef, which is readily bought in Savannah.

It is not by chance that our miraculous God has let these blessings I have reported of the cowpen, the iron work for a new sawmill, and the encouragements for silkmaking, come to us at this time, since it is the anniversary of our arrival in this country, after we suffered many trials for two years in Old Ebenezer and were removed to this spot on our pilgrimage. I am coming home with the words of Hebrews 11:5-6, which are to be my text at our Memorial and Thanksgiving Festival, and with the words of the exordium, Psalms 116:7-9. How much good we can still hope for!

Sunday, the 11th of March. Our servants at the mill (two industrious and Christian young married people) almost lost their lives a few days ago, as I was told after my return. After finishing their work, they wished to eat a soup for supper, which the wife herself had prepared. Because it was too hot for the husband, she put it in the window. We do not know whether something poisonous fell into it or whether it had previously been in the water or in the food; but they must have eaten something poisonous, because both of them had such a terrible attack of vomiting all night long that they saw almost nothing before them but death. However, God blessed the medications and soon gave the husband his health and strength back again. The wife’s recovery, however, was slower, but she is now out of danger. In Savannah a friend told me that I should warn our inhabitants against the wild honey that is found in hollow trees in the forest. Recently a Negro brought some to his master’s plantation not far from Savannah, and all the occupants of the house became sick from it. A child that had eaten rather much of it swelled up and died before the doctor could arrive from nearby.

Monday, the 12th of March. Sixteen years ago today we who belong to the first Salzburger transport came ashore in Savannah after withstanding the sea voyage; and we began to live in huts like the patriarchs and the folk whom the Lord redeemed from Egypt and from oppression with His mighty arm. Already a week ago yesterday, on Invocavit Sunday, I announced to the congregation that our Memorial and Thanksgiving Festival was to be held this Monday. Yesterday after the morning sermon I not only announced this festival we were to celebrate once but also told our parishioners how fitting and useful it would be if both the townsfolk as well as those who dwell on the plantations would attend our public prayer hour, which is to be held again by day for the first time now that the days are getting longer. This occurred, and many people prayed and sang with us this time.

Because various newcomers have come to our place since the last Memorial and Thanksgiving Festival, I briefly explained to them before the prayer the occasion and purpose, as well as its proper and God-pleasing celebration; and I encouraged them to prayer and the praise of God. God granted us His word abundantly both this morning and this afternoon; and the parishioners gathered in a large number to hear it. My heart was afflicted and somewhat disquieted and depressed by an unpleaant report that I had to hear yesterday evening and in more detail this morning; but, during the preaching of His word from Psalms 116:7-9 and Hebrews 13:5-6, God so roused my spirits that I must praise His kindness for it. Yesterday during the afternoon divine service two of our unmarried servants ran away and traveled to Purysburg in a stolen boat with the purpose of going further into the land. They are, like the former renegades, two baker assistants, who had it good with their householders and whom no one would have expected to run away. Two other servants helped them in this; indeed, had there been room in the little boat, one of them would have run away, too.

Tuesday, the 13th of March. Yesterday evening after the repetition hour news came here that the runaway servants had been caught in Purysburg and brought back here. I thank God that Mr. Meyer is still holding the office of judge at our place. If we must proceed with the punishment of wickedness, this does not harmonize with my evangelical office, indeed, it would draw much criticism. He has sent these two renegades, along with their instigator, to the authorities in Savannah, who will proceed with them according to the laws of the country (which are rather lenient in this regard).

Other German people in this country are so wicked that they can’t easily stand the punishment of a German, even if they can stand seeing an Englishman punished. In their work, intercourse with their neighbors, and dissolute life, their behavior is of such a kind that they have a bad odor among the Englishmen, who are their benefactors; and they have made themselves unworthy of the great affection of the Lord Trustees. I, too, have little love for them; therefore, I will hardly make any more effort to further the coming of redemptioners or other Germans into this country. To be sure, I will still serve them with my office, but I will be careful not to let myself be used for their worldly purposes and intentions. For I know from much experience that we are subject to unkind judgments and calumny if we do not approve of their wicked obstinacy and cannot agree with their wicked nature. The Court Chaplain /Ziegenhagen/ does much good for them in London, but (as I have learned here) it is not well applied.

Some people have learned hypocrisy and smooth words here, but this is often revealed here. Much good in spiritual and physical matters has been done for our indentured servants not only in London and on the sea voyage, but also since they have been with us; yet we find little gratitude in them. To be sure, they are moderating their juvenile pranks and behavior; yet, I still know no one who has accepted the word of God for his conversion and improvement. I have had the salvation of their souls as the purpose of my association with them and attitude towards them from the first hour that they arrive in Savannah; and for this reason I have overlooked much and have assigned them to Christian-minded and substantial householders, but I have had little joy from them.

Wednesday, the 14th of March. After the misery I had during the past two days, our dear God has again comforted me and raised me up. Our schoolchildren, especially the little ones, have given me much pleasure by the things I have seen and what I have heard of them; and I have been planning to give them a pleasure in return and to give them and their mothers an occasion to praise the Lord. For that reason a short time ago I bought some neckerchief cloth in Savannah at a moderate price, which I and my dear colleague would have gladly distributed to them directly after the Memorial and Thanksgiving Celebration, that is, yesterday; but my own business and also the disquiet with the servants did not allow it. It took place today with blessing and joy both in town and on the plantations.

First they recited the verses we had contemplated on Sunday and at our festival, and I recited to them the beautiful words from 2 John 4³ with the application that so far the girls had pleased me more with their good behavior than the boys had and that I, therefore, wished now to make them a pleasure in return by giving them a neckcloth. We would also think of the boys if we saw improvement in them at school, in church, and on their way home. With the gift, every little girl also received a lesson and an admonition. We have thirty-two girls in the two schools; and all of these received a gift, which amounted to thirty-three shillings Sterling. After this pleasure with the children, I had another at the consecration of a new house below the mill where various neighbors and other Christian people had gathered.

Friday, the 16th of March. Yesterday morning I was called to Abercorn to baptize a German child. I let the German people living in the neighborhood know that I wished to preach the word of God to them and to sing and pray with them if they could assemble at a designated place between our glebe land, Abercorn, and the German people’s plantations; and this they gladly did. The sermon was about the words “Let your conversation be without covetousness; and be content with ...” etc. “What should a man do . . . ?”⁴ In this hut there was also a sick Catholic man, who considered it a great blessing of God to hear the word of God. He thanked me for my visit and encouragement with weeping eyes; and he acknowledged that this physical sickness was redounding to the health of his soul. I notice no popish dogma in him even though he does not declare himself for us publicly.

Sunday, the 18th of March. We are having a very pleasant and at the same time fruitful spring. Even though the rain seems to have been lacking so far, we still see no lack in the trees and other plants. This may be the result of the snow, by which the earth was saturated several times. To judge by appearances, provided God gives His blessing to our work, much silk will be made this year because the mulberry trees are now in fuller leaf than we have ever observed before. The industry that nearly all of our inhabitants are showing in the useful and easy work is admirable. It is a pity that I have not yet received from the Lord Trustees an answer to my letter concerning the price of silk, as Mr. Vereist promised in his last letter. Also, cauldrons for the spinning off should have been sent, but our people are still waiting for them.⁵

Monday, the 19th of March. Young Mrs. N. fears that she will soon be a widow and that her three little children will be orphans; because her husband has contracted an apparently dangerous sickness through immoderate work. Both marriage partners are so keen about work more through avarice than through necessity, and they have raised so many crops that their health could not possibly have held out in the long run. I hope that God will let this chastisement redound to the salvation of their souls.

The pious widower, Steiner, has ceded the plantation he has had so far to his neighbor; and with the money he received he has bought another, which he considers better and more fertile. He has already settled himself nicely on it, and this morning he had his house consecrated with God’s word and prayer. His physical strength has greatly decreased, and his three boys are still small and weak. As a result, they cannot yet help him much in the field and in his housekeeping and husbandry.⁶ He is patient and content with God’s guidance.

Wednesday, the 21st of March. One of the most prominent inhabitants of Purysburg informed me in a letter that the governor of Carolina is withdrawing the subsidy on silk manufacture. Therefore, an Italian is selling his cocoons at a very low price and will even move away. Since no one now understands how to spin off the silk, I have been asked to recommend a skillful and practiced woman from our place. However much I would like to help my neighbor, I am in no hurry to let myself be used for such things by strange people. Yet, it is always the custom of both prominent and simple people of this and the neighboring colony to write to me in all sorts of secular matters, since there is no one else present who is willing to take on common things for the good of the congregation. To be sure, in answering letters and in other such matters I make great haste, yet it still takes a lot of time because of their complexity. I beg God, and hope in His mercy in Christ, that He will not let my actual spiritual office be harmed by such numerous external matters that are piled up on me.

N.N. has allowed her servant (a rather dissolute person) to carry on all sorts of superstitions with disgraceful misuse of the name of God in order to free her cattle from the evil that other wicked people are supposed to have done to them; and in the whole domestic economy.

This her son has helped loyally both with her and his own cattle. Indeed, they are so blinded that they firmly believe that their cows have been helped by this miserable man and his superstitious amulets and ceremonies, which are almost like magic. And now they think they are enjoying the profit from it in their milk and butter. Indeed, they say that their stalls have been made so safe that no wicked person or witch can come in and harm the cattle as long as they stand on that place. Today I investigated and described this godless carrying-on, by which the entire congregation has been vexed; and I made a beginning toward punishing it by withdrawing certain benefactions which the mother and son have enjoyed and should continue to enjoy. This will soon be proclaimed in the community and will somewhat avert the vexation.

At present they do not recognize the wrong but deem their proceedings to be innocent and ascribe the improvement of their cattle to this sinful art and to the blessing of God, which He has placed on it.⁷ In this I look on them with great pity, but also with great disgust. As long as they will not bring the fruit of repentance, I do not look on them as members of the Christian community. The godless servant is a good friend of a very wicked and shameless young hunter, who wished to settle in our region but moved to Purysburg. He is said to be full of such wicked arts. What miserable people come into this land!

Thursday, the 22nd of March. Some of the women on the plantations have requested me to hold a singing lesson twice every week and to teach them the melodies in our hymnal that they do not know, just as was done a few years ago in town. The beginning of this so useful and for me pleasant practice was made this morning on the plantation of the pious widow /Maria/ Bacher. To be sure, we are actually holding a singing lesson; but we pray and praise God at the beginning and the end of the lesson. Some errors have gradually been sneaking into the melodies we have formerly learned; and, if we did not prevent them in such private singing lessons, they would finally become general and habitual. May God be pleased with this practice for the sake of Christ!

The orphanage⁸ is now being repaired from the ground up, or rather rebuilt; and meanwhile Kalcher and his family have had to move into an adjacent building. She told me that, in her first prayer outside of the orphanage, God had forcefully reminded her of all the major benefactions that had occurred to her and many other living and now deceased people in it and that this had aroused her to His hearty praise. Among the special blessings of the Lord she counts the special merciful assistance of the Lord in her threefold very dangerous births, the frequent public contemplations of the divine word conducted in the orphanage, the communal prayer, the safe birth of several children, and the blessed departure of some believing people from this world, etc. Because of the many spiritual and physical blessings she has received she has a great love for this house so that she often implores our dear God to let her live there until she is carried from there to the churchyard.

This new building will be a third shorter and narrower than the previous one was; but it will also be all the higher, namely, with two stories. Therefore, it will also be more impressive and spacious that the old orphanage was. A part of it is destined for holding school; and a parlor and chamber along with the attached kitchen will be used by Kalcher for his family. The remaining room will be at the service of the widows and orphans, and also of the sick, who will consider it a blessing to live, work, and enjoy necessary care in it. Unless the greatest necessity drives them to it, they do not respect the orphanage and prefer to get along miserably in their own homes. Until now the widows and orphans outside of the orphanage have cost me £9 Sterling.

Friday, the 23rd of March. N. must often feel bitter pangs of conscience for having been disobedient and unkind towards her father even in his last sickness ten years ago. Some time ago she converted righteously to God, and we notice in all her actions that it is her earnest purpose to be saved. She does not think it by chance, but a just chastisement of God, that nearly all her children have been taken away from her by temporal death. In the case of her brother, she used God as a tool to bring him out of his wild and disorderly life and to our place. My conversation and prayer with her was very pleasant and blessed for me. N.N.’s wife is being visited rather severely by our dear God with external and internal sufferings; yet she has had no harm, but only profit, from it, as we can now recognize from her confessions and Christian behavior. She has been so purified in this furnace of misery and has so increased in her recognition and experience of Christianity, and, to be sure, in a short time, that I marveled and rejoiced at it when I spent a short time in conversation and prayer with her before the countenance of the Lord.

Sunday, the 25th of March. In this month we have had very dry and partially hot weather, and the parched soil has greatly needed a penetrating rain. Yesterday toward evening it thundered a little; and some black clouds came from the west, which brought us rain and hailstones on two occasions. Since then it has again become as cool as autumn air is accustomed to be. Even though there was little rain, it was still a blessing for which we thanked God. Some of the hailstones were the size of a walnut; however, because not many of them fell, they probably did no damage to the green rye and wheat in the fields.

Monday, the 26th of March. My dear colleague and I have often been told that there is a good and convenient opportunity at the lower part of our plantations to build a new sawmill. We consider this very important because we look upon such establishments as a means by which we can provide our inhabitants with a good service. Therefore, several weeks ago, my dear colleague inspected the place with our two best builders. Today I traveled there with him and the two said men, and, to be sure, not without profit and joy at God’s gracious care, which is gradually being revealed to us in external matters. Thus providence has settled our dear Salzburgers at a place that has a noticeable advantage over the most fertile areas of this country, even if it is not recognized by everyone. At this place there is right desirable opportunity to build a durable sawmill, which in this country is a rare, useful, and productive work and which must not be judged according to the circumstances in Germany.

The following are the reasons that our sawmill, which is now in a very good condition, has not contributed much more than the support of all the mills: All of our mills, consequently also the sawmill, stand on an arm of the Savannah River and have had to be fortified at great expense against the tearing of the current and because of the frequent dangerous inundations. The repairs, which are very considerable, require extensive expense every year, even if not as much now as in the early years. Only one gristmill runs almost all year. On the other hand, the other gristmill, as also the sawmill and barley-stamp, must stand still for several months in summer when the water in the river is too low. Indeed, even if they always ran, the grain that is brought to the mill from here and other places would not suffice to give the miller steady work, because even under present conditions it must often stand idle for many days and nights. Nevertheless, these works must be kept in shape even if they do not run constantly and earn something.

If there were more people in the country and if more of them would plant European crops, then the income from the gristmills, as from the rice-stamp, would be considerably increased. For a little more than a year we have noticed a remarkable increase in the income from the sawmill, which we wish to apply to the building of a new sawmill, since God himself is ordaining it and leading us to it. We can promise ourselves more advantages and stronger returns here than from the one we now have. For, 1) the gentleman of the Council will cede us the iron work gratis; provided the Lord Trustees are willing; and the Lord Trustees will more likely be pleased than to oppose having their sawmill, which is lying idle here, be of use to the colony. A few weeks ago I wrote to Mr. Verelst about it.

2) This sawmill will not be built on an arm of the Savannah River, where great expenses are required to strengthen it against danger. Rather it will be built on a little river that comes out of the country and flows into the Mill River, where we fear no tearing current and no inundation. We can now have it built by our own people and, indeed, much more cheaply than then when we had to send for a strange builder, to whom I had to pay £ 10 Sterling per month and thus £ 30 all at once in a quarter year. This is to say nothing of what was paid to the mathemetician and engineer Mr. Avery, who had laid a durable foundation. An unexpected death ended the mill construction he had begun.

3) There is a countless number of mature pine trees in the area of the mill that is to be constructed, and they can be brought to the mill easily from all directions, because the empty wagons ride uphill from the mill and return downhill loaded with wood. The boards can be brought a short way by land carriage and, at high water, in little rafts to and on the Mill River, and afterwards in larger rafts to Savannah and to the ships (as has been done so far). This place is situated about a half an hour from our present mills; consequently, our inhabitants will have an opportunity to earn something to facilitate their economy both from constructing the mill and from chopping and from bringing in the logs, and later with rafting the boards. This has always been one of our purposes in undertaking such public works. We hope, however, that at the same time it will bring in so much to the congregation that the communal expenses for it will be, if not entirely covered, at least greatly decreased. We are not the least bit worried about the sale of our boards, not even if we had ten sawmills (as a merchant from Port Royal said to me recently) that ran day and night. So far, we have been unable to saw as many boards as there are hands reaching for them. Not only the wood, but also the very accurate cut give the boards from our place an advantage over all others. The merchants who transport them to the English and French in the West Indies, admit this themselves.

From the following I think our friends in Europe will be able to see the difference between here and in Europe in regard to the sawmill. The following price is paid gladly and for cash money for the boards we bring down, either on the water or on the landing there: hundred feet

Those men who take them down in rafts receive six shillings for a thousand feet; and, because they take 10,000 feet or more each time, two men with two helpers (since 10,000 board feet require four men) earn sixty shillings or three pounds in four days, and they must spend two nights on the water. They travel with the ebb and remain still during the flood.⁹ The money other people earn at the mill is such a sum every year that one must marvel. If he wishes to be industrious, the sawmiller alone can earn £2 Sterling every week (that is, in six days, since he does not saw at night). For this reason industrious and knowledgeable people are looking forward to the mill we are planning. In other places in Europe sawmills are sometimes harmful for a country because they consume much wood and spoil the forest, but we do not have to worry about that here. The sawmill we are to build will be set in a region where our plantations end and where nothing can be seen far and wide but dry sandy pine forests. Consequently, no plantations can be set here, so the plentious, beautiful wood would be of no use to anybody, unless it were made useful for the entire community, as previously mentioned, through the help of a sawmill.

Wednesday, the 28th of March. The hailstones of a few days ago did more damage than we expected, but we must ascribe it to divine goodness that it was not even greater. In the middle part of our plantation they fell in great quantity, and some were as large as chicken eggs. The peas, and the rye that had formed ears too soon, were beaten almost down to the ground, and a great many leaves were knocked from the mulberry and other trees. After that the air became very cold, windy, and dry both by day and by night. We greatly need rain, for which we are humbly invoking God, the Source of all gifts. The people who live in town are now showing a great new desire to learn the new melodies and hymns from our hymnbook. This pleases me greatly and is encouraging me to equal diligence. Neither the time nor my strength would allow me to assign an hour in the day or night for it; and therefore for this practice I will apply the two hours on Tuesdays and Fridays that were formerly dedicated to the public prayer hours. A beginning of this was made yesterday evening (Praise be to God, to our edification and enjoyment).

Friday, the 30th of March. I see it as a testimony of divine paternal care for us that we have received at our place the three Schubdrein brothers who came to this country with the last servants and redeemed themselves in Savannah with our help.¹⁰ They have already given several proofs of their industry and honesty among us; they are lovers of the divine word, live quiet and Christian lives, are domestic and contented, and show a very tender love to one another. They are now building the school and orphanage under one roof; and, as soon as they are through here, various other jobs are waiting for them. No one can be found for work from our own carpenters (most of whom do not understand very much); they all have their own homesteads and are without servants. Three of them are among those who bought the cowpen or cattle ranch from the Lord Trustees for the congregation and are therefore involved in much business.

It is no little harm that we do not have enough capable carpenters at our place. We do not wish to have any of them sent expressly from Germany; for such people are too proud of their profession and make great pretensions. For some time now I have promised our young people £2 Sterling, if they would take up a trade and settle amongst us.

After our congregation has me buy the said cowpen or cattle ranch of the Lord Trustees, it will furnish many small and large hides, some of which will spoil and some of which will be sent to Savannah if no one amongst us learns how to tan. A shoemaker here practices this work, but he understands it too little. I have no love for his bungling because he sins through it. If such a craftsman well understood his craft and showed proper industry, he could do a lot of good here for himself and his neighbor. The fresh or raw hides here are exceptionally cheap, also the chalk; there is a quantity of bark from red oaks here in the neighborhood gratis. There would be no lack of market for the leather, because it is sent to other colonies. Fish oil in some quantity is also inexpensive. Boards for vats and whatever else is demanded for establishing a tannery can be had amongst us easily and cheaply. Also, my practical help will not be lacking. The only thing lacking is a skillful and willing man who would and should learn tanning from a Frenchman in Purysburg, who is willing to come here for a certain amount of money.

APRIL

Sunday, the 1st of April. May God be heartily and humbly praised for having again let us end another month happily and begin a new one with health and blessing! Not only we ministers and teachers in the churches and schools, but also our parishioners, both grownups and children (with very few exceptions), have been hale and hearty for the past three months of this year; and our arrangements, institutions, and occupations have proceeded without hindrance to the noticeable advantage of the community. I especially rejoiced when my dear colleague told me that God had right noticeably blessed the income from our gristmills and sawmills and thereby given many people in our community a good chance to earn money and also enabled us to set some money aside for constructing a new sawmill.

The excellent fir trees, with which large districts are filled, would stand there entirely useless if they could not be made into boards. Few places in Germany have any that are so beautiful and long right to their tops. They also have tender veins or yearly growths (as our people call them) and are very durable, as far as the heartwood is concerned.¹

After completing her years of service, the daughter of a deceased widow has come to our place at the request of her dying mother to have herself educated here. This she now recognizes not as a burden but as a blessing. She has good reason for this, for much spiritual and physical good has been done for her here in the house of my dear colleague (in which her mother died). She has been instructed as loyally as possible both by him and by me and prepared for Holy Communion. Because she previously served the President,² she is now being requested by another person in authority, whose wife would take good care of her. I am pleased that she does not wish to change her place without God and her superiors. Provided she remains loyal to the grace she has received, she can still become a useful tool for the glory of God. To be sure, I would prefer it if only our dear God would enable her to remain at our place; but meanwhile we must move cautiously.

Monday, the 2nd of April. Yesterday our dear God began to fulfill our desire for a fruiful rain; today it rained more and even more penetratingly. God be praised for this blessing! Because of the great heat of the sun and the dry wind, the gardens and fields have been very parched and dry; and the growth of the leaves for fodder for the silkworms has also been held up. I was summoned to Savannah for today with the seven men who have bought the Lord Trustees’ cattle for themselves and the community in order to discuss this important matter thoroughly and to sign a contract. God blessed this journey to the strengthening of my health, even though the rain drenched us.

Friday, the 6th of April. Both the extensive business with the President and his Assistants and the weather were to blame that I could not return home before this morning. The gentlemen of the Council showed me and our people every conceivable kindness and cleared away everything that could possibly have been harmful or a hindrance to them in the right use of the cowpen they had bought, and they were as kind as we could have hoped for in every way. God very clearly revealed the footsteps of His fatherly care in that, and I would be very disappointed if the members of the community were blind or ungrateful for it. I plan to report the details in letters. The German people behind Abercorn who were in Savannah also had some spiritual and physical profit from my humble services.

Saturday, the 7th of April. A German man behind Abercorn has been dangerously sick for a long time; and (as it seemed to me when I visited him a few weeks ago) he had some very good emotions. Now word has been brought to me that he has died. His wife requested me to come and hold a burial sermon for him. Unfortunately, I could not grant her wish because he died in his popish religion that he brought into the country with him. To be sure, he read and loved the Bible and also made use of Protestant books and public divine service; yet, he would not come over to the truth. After all, as I told the messenger, it is written, “For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.”³ We cannot even agree to go such a long way to our co-religionists’ funerals, which demands some expense and an entire day. It is enough for us to preach God’s word occasionally on their own plantations and hold Holy Communion every three or four months and try to serve them here and in Savannah in their physical needs. I gave the messenger a beautiful book to take with him, namely, Senior Urlsperger’s Instruction for the Sick and Dying, which they should use for their sick and at their funerals.⁴

Tuesday, the 10th of April. This morning a young Swiss called on me, who had come to our place yesterday from Congarees in Carolina. He told me that there was enough work at the said place but that there was no money and the workers had to accept goods, meat, cattle, or crops as pay. The soil is very good but does not lie on any convenient river and is a hundred and fifty English miles from Charleston. Since they cannot bring their crops to market in Charleston except by land, the profit is very small because of the transportation costs. The people there live far apart and are therefore well dispersed, almost each in his own wilderness. Things are said to look rather bad among them spiritually, but it seems that most of them are concerned more for good land and physical freedom than for the one thing that is necessary.

Friday, the 13th of April. Yesterday morning (as occurs on Maunday Thursday every year) we commemorated the establishment of Holy Communion in both churches and preached to the congregation the dogma of Holy Communion from 1 Corinthians 11:23 ff. Today we celebrated the memory of the life, death, and burial of our dearest Savior in both the morning and the afternoon; and we held Holy Communion with eighty-four persons. In this nearly ended period of the Passion we have contemplated the story of the suffering and death of Christ from evangelist Luke. May God grant us a lasting blessing from it!

Monday, the 16th of April. Yesterday and today Holy Easter was celebrated according to the old calendar,⁵ during which we preached abundantly from God’s word. Our dear Lord granted us much strength in body and mind; and we hope that He, in His goodness, will not let the sown seed of His word be in vain and remain without fruit, since we have invoked Him for this both publicly and privately. The wife of our schoolmaster /Georg/ Meyer had to hold her Easter celebration on her sickbed. She is a true disciple of the Lord Jesus and very well acquainted with His cross and guidance. She attended Holy Communion on Good Friday with the congregation and did not let her physical weakness prevent her. Our dear Savior so blessed its trusting enjoyment in her soul that she was once again assured of the gracious forgiveness of sins and of being a child of God and of having hope of everlasting life. To be sure, she is very weak in her body and at times full of pain; but she is strong of mind and well content. She considers it a great blessing and a gracious guidance of God that He has led her into the wilderness of solitude and the cross, where He speaks to her in such a friendly manner after He has brought her to a recognition of and feeling for her sins and to a trust in her Savior.

Wednesday, the 18th of April. Yesterday morning I traveled to the German people behind Abercorn at their request and preached the word of God to them in the morning and afternoon, held Holy Communion, and married a couple. The bridegroom is a sincerely pious person, who was converted righteously to God during his years of service at our place and who, through God’s gracious providence, received a very fruitful and very well situated plantation in the said area behind Abercorn. He married an orphan from our community, the late Klocker’s oldest daughter /Gertraut/, who is well provided for with this young person. The inhabitants of Abercorn and of this only now settled beautiful region that they call Goshen have shown great joy that they can be served with the word of God, holy baptism, and Holy Communion at their place, since we are not far away. They follow, and I hope that God will gather a little flock here that will serve Him in spirit and in truth and give a good example to other co-religionists.

Their industry in building huts and in cultivating, and also in cattle raising, is, to be sure, very great; but I am afraid they will not keep it up long. Therefore, I admonish them to the festina lente⁶ according to the example of our inhabitants. During the first years the work in the great summer heat, the extraordinary sweating and the drinking of much water do not appear to hurt them especially; but gradually their blood becomes so thin and weak that one can see in their faces the harm they have done to themselves.⁷ In a few years some of them have lost all their strength and are now incapable of hard work. These new colonists are poorer than our people and are bad off when first establishing themselves. What the Lord Trustees allow them does not go very far.

Thursday, the 19th of April. Yesterday I received a letter from Col. Stephens, in which he advised me that two more German people had absconded, one from him and the other from another magistrate. Someone was sent after them, but it seldom happens that such renegades are found because among the German people in this colony and in Carolina they have people nearby who support and hide them. Once they are there, there are a thousand difficulties in getting them back again. Of the servants of the last transport⁸ who remained in and near Savannah, all have run away but two, who were on their way but were caught and brought back. Those who have wives and children can not get away so easily, otherwise they would probably go away, too. If I did not know how well our and other servants are kept in this colony and how much more care they enjoy than those in Carolina, this wickedness and ingratitude would not trouble me so much. Our single servants are not to be trusted either, even though they have been outwardly quiet and withdrawn since the punishment of the last three renegades, who were arrested in Purysburg.

There has fallen to me a large family of nine persons, namely, four adults and five small children,⁹ all of whom will be freed with their parents.¹⁰ Now I know from experience what a burden and loss it is to have such people in service. There is almost as great a difference between their service and work and that of the Salzburgers as between day and night. Therefore, a weak Salzburger hired-hand or maid is better and more useful than two strong ones of the kind that have come to us.

For some time our inhabitants have put their faith in silkmaking and have therefore made every possible effort, and they are still doing it with amazing industry. It appears, however, that the Lord Trustees have no means to encourage this useful matter further; and, consequently, I fear that this activity will fail. God still liveth: “Soul, why art thou daunted?”¹¹

It is no wonder if our dear inhabitants let themselves be persuaded in their difficult circumstances to acquire Negroes, if only their means will allow it. A good Negro costs at least 30 £ Sterling, who among us could raise such a sum? No one would easily let himself borrow. I recently revealed my scruples to the Council in Savannah regarding the purchase and holding of Negro slaves; and I was assured that they were eternal slaves in their own land and that they lived under great tyranny and difficult circumstances and were legally bought and sold. Therefore Christians should feel no more scruples in buying them or possessing them than the Patriarchs and even Philemon himself in the New Testament, to whom St. Paul sent back the servant Onesimus and demanded not his emancipation but just good treatment. They also have an opportunity to come to a recognition of Christ.

Sunday, the 22nd of April. There is now a very great and almost unbearable heat. It may have rained a couple of times at our place in the past week, but few drops fell on our plantations. Therefore, things look pretty bad for the European grains,¹² which have had almost no penetrating rain for more than two months. Yesterday evening a very strong wind arose from the west that rushed up as if it would bring a strong rain with it, and at the same time it was pitch-black dark. But it left without any rain.

Wednesday, the 25th of April. Several months ago the Evangelical Lutheran people at Congarees in South Carolina (which newly settled place they also call Saxe Gotha) asked me to come to them and serve them with the holy word and with Holy Communion. I have sent them books for adults and children, and at the same time I have written that my circumstances did not allow such a long journey. Now again I have received a letter in which they repeat the same request, and they add that I should help them get a church and minister. They now make up a congregation of two hundred and eighty souls¹³ who could all go to a church if it were built in the middle of their surrounding plantations. The Reformed had received 500 £ Carolina money (which amounts to somewhat more than 500 guilders) from the government for building a church, but no one wished to help the Lutherans if I would not do it.

A couple of families have moved from here to there, who could have supported themselves well here; afterwards three grown boys were seduced from their service and two servants ran away, all of whom are being sheltered in Congarees. The inhabitants there (as a minister from Carolina once wrote me) live together in a brutish way and respect their Reformed minister very little. I have no heart for these people. If they were really concerned about God’s word, then those who went away from here would have remained with us, and others would not have settled on such gathering places of evil people, since there is also good land and nourishment at other places. Their bellies are their God, as one must imagine of most German people in these regions. In this self-same letter I find that they have built and are building a gristmill and sawmill. Why should they not be able to build a meeting house if they are serious?

Friday, the 27th of April. A couple of years ago unknown Christian friends and benefactors of our community gave us a chest full of bound volumes of the late Ambrosius Wirth’s Confession and Communion Booklet,¹⁴ which has been reprinted in Nurnberg and of which every family has received a copy. We rightfully treasure this little booklet because of of its thorough examination of the heart according to the holy Ten Commandments and because of the scriptural duties of life and the accompanying Bible verses. Some young people, and some who came to our place after the distribution, have a great longing for this little book. Also, a favor would be done to other German people in this country with them, and perhaps through divine kindness they would be used as a means to bring them to a better recognition of themselves and of the way to salvation. Therefore, we would be very happy if some twenty-five of the said booklet could be sent here. They do not have to be donated, for one can well pay a couple of shillings for such a lovely book. Hymnals from Halle, Bibles, and Arndt’s Book of True Christianity can not long be requested gratis. May our loving God repay our known and unknown benefactors for all the good they have done for us so far!

MAY

Tuesday, the 1st of May. At the end of last month, after a prolonged period of severe drought, God gave us several long-lasting rainstorms, one after another, for which we owe Him our most heartfelt praise and thanksgiving. Our barley and European peas shot up high and fast in this heat; they turned completely white and some have been harvested already. It remains to be seen what the wheat and rye harvests will yield. What God does is indeed well done!¹

N.N. and Mrs. Schweighoffer are the oldest people in our community; both are past sixty now and they have experienced a great many things. Mrs. Schweighoffer is a true disciple of our Lord Jesus, although taking care of her is probably not an easy task for her family; she is beset by many sinful weaknesses, which are due not only to her age and her many infirmities but are also rooted in her excessive love for her children.

N.N. has always been a mean and ill-tempered man; and even now, when he is practically facing death, he is giving no sign of genuine repentance. I talked to him sincerely and showed him from God’s word the right path which he could take in order to escape impending damnation. I also admonished his family and encouraged them to read to him aloud, to pray with him, and to converse with him particularly on those spiritual matters which would prepare him for a blessed death.

Wednesday, the 2nd of May. Today Mr. Meyer resigned his office as judge, and I could not very well refuse to accept this obligation once again.² God will not fail me, nor forsake me. The office of judge is made especially difficult by the fact that those people in the community with whom one cannot agree become angry and embittered, to the detriment of the ministerial office. I believe God will guide me in this also! He will grant me understanding in all things, just as He has given me strength of body and mind so far, as well as a cheerful disposition, so that neither work, nor travel, nor other obligations have turned into a burden for me.

I well see that it is God’s will that I shall manage our community in secular matters also; and I am, therefore, ready to accept this responsibility willingly and await His fatherly assistance and blessing. Our benefactors here in this country realize that appointing a judge in Europe to act as an agent for Ebenezer could be damaging to our community and not at all in its best interests.

Saturday, the 5th of May. I had to go to Savannah for a few days on private as well as communal business, and I returned safely yesterday evening. God be thanked! Various improvements have been made since Mr. Habersham joined the Council, and several ineffectual and tedious people have been dismissed from their public offices. I notified the Council of Mr. Meyer’s resignation, and I was assured of the members’ complete support and their willingness to advise me in public matters; and I have no reason to doubt their future assistance.

It pleases me in Savannah that the Germans living there are eager to hear God’s word and that, when they learn that one of us preachers is in town, they arrange to come together for a meeting in a suitable house in the evenings after their work is done. This time I preached to them on the subject of Christ’s dear words: “Blessed are the pure in heart”.³ Last Sunday, the second after Easter, my dear colleague, Mr. Lemke, was down there; and he preached God’s word to them and held Holy Communion.

Tuesday, the 8th of May. Our schoolmaster on the plantations⁴ is not only held in high esteem by his pious mistress; but at school he conducts himself also with so much eagerness and good faith that we are very satisfied with his services. I hope this young man will, in time, turn into a useful tool for God’s glory. This afternoon a man who lives here asked me to give him permission to allow two Negroes or black slaves, whom he wished to hire, to work on his land on Sundays. He thought it was an emergency since he could get neither these Negroes nor white laborers to work in his fields on weekdays. I would have thought neither this man nor his wife capable of such an un-Christian request; it was encouraged by the bad practices of others who allow their Negroes to work for themselves and earn money on Sundays. Two other men, each of whom keeps a Negro, may also conform thus to the world.

This example makes it quite clear how some of our people here succumb to temptation as far as Negroes are concerned and how poorly some of the colonists follow the guidelines and the restrictions regarding Negroes as set down by the Lord Trustees. It is expressly stated that no one should permit his Negroes to work on Sundays; rather, they should be given the opportunity both in their masters’ house as well as in their neighborhood to educate themselves towards an understanding of Christian religion.

Wednesday, the 9th of May. Today, at noon, a German arrived in our settlement and visited my home; he has been living in Pennsylvania for the past twenty years. He, his wife, and nine children traveled to Augusta, taking the longer route over land. He would like to settle there and build a sawmill; according to him, he has received permission in Savannah to do so. I asked him what his religion was and received the unexpected answer that his father had been a Lutheran schoolmaster in the Palatinate and that he himself adhered to no particular religion, but considered himself to be a Christian. Holy baptism, in his view, is not a sacrament but merely an empty ceremony. His children had not been baptized, he said, and he did not celebrate Sundays, but rather the Seventh Day. He was, however, unlike the English Seventh Day Adventists.

From what he told me I was able to convince him that he did indeed not adhere to a formal religion but that he was nevertheless a member of a sect. He behaved in quite an overbearing manner and, although in error, quoted a jumble of sources in order to prove himself correct; he believed our church to be confused and lacking in understanding. He could not stay long, and I was glad to see him depart. Judging from his view of religion, shared by others no doubt, Pennsylvania must be in a pitiful state indeed! May God help His servants!⁵

Thursday, the 10th of May. An old Reformed widow has been visiting our settlement regularly and has attended the preaching of the divine word frequently and piously. Once again, she has arrived from Purysburg; and she assured me that her soul benefitted greatly from God’s word in our sermons and prayer hours. I visited her, and she told me that she had resolved to talk to me regarding her soul’s condition but was afraid she would be too ignorant for such a conversation because she was Reformed. I tried to put her at ease and asked her to come and see me frequently and to talk to me freely. For the past few years she has found herself troubled by frightening thoughts regarding her fate after death.

God has been sending us very good weather for some time now. Many praise God and point out that the European crops have turned out better than one could have expected or hoped for after the long and hard drought. Hail has done severe damage on some of the plantations; otherwise, the wheat and rye crop will be better and larger than in previous years, and there is no sign of mildew or rust.

Saturday, the 12th of May. The old widow I mentioned earlier visited me this morning in order to tell me of her spiritual problem, especially since she has to leave for home and be with her son on Monday. She has been raised in great ignorance; God, however, has led her to the realization of her sins and the recognition of her Savior since she suffered from various tribulations in her old age, and since she came into the home of a good and pious man who adheres to our religion.⁶ Since that time she has, to be sure, worried rather badly about her soul’s condition, but she also experienced some inspiration and consolation by the Holy Ghost.

She has a solid foundation in Christian matters and offers astonishing proof that her prayers are certainly being well received. I was quite impressed and edified by the naive manner in which she mentioned the blessings which my office has wrought in her soul and the simple way in which she told me of the good things which God had sent to her since her last husband’s death. People like her are always amazed to see the abundant advantages, both spiritual and physical, which God sends us when they come to visit us and to witness our children’s skill at answering questions when they take part in our preaching of the divine word and our prayer hours and when they learn that all of our efforts are intended for the best of our community.

Monday, the 14th of May. For the past twenty-four hours we have had heavy rains, but without thunderstorms. Afterwards, yesterday, it was warm and dry again; and the weather was quite suitable for harvesting the European crops.

N.’s family⁷ is one of the most disorderly among us; it seems these people may come to a bad end and be a proper warning for the rest of us. The old man has been sick for some time now, but he still clings to his habitual worldly concerns. I visit him frequently, instruct him in the order of salvation, and explain it to him clearly, using God’s word. At the same time I try to impress upon his mind the most obvious lessons contained in God’s word in order to inspire him and to awaken his soul; yet I notice very little improvement. Approximately half a year ago he married a sickly, but very pious woman, who is more than willing to aid in saving his soul. However, he has but little esteem for her and does not pay much attention to what she has to say. His oldest daughter used to live in our settlement and was widowed here; she left, after receiving a great deal of assistance and support from us, and moved to S. in order to get married again; she did not prosper.

The oldest son still lives here, a miserable creature both spiritually and physically. One of his younger brothers suffers from dropsy, and the next younger brother is also a useless and corrupt man, who will probably not amount to anything. One of the daughters is still unmarried; and, of all of them, she is least ignorant of God, of His counsel, and of human salvation. She is not without any talent either, but her mind is turned towards wordly matters and, in this, she follows the steps of her parents and siblings. I pity them all. The best I can say of them is that, so far, all are attending faithfully our preaching of the divine word; and they still continue to read it and to listen to it. Perhaps our miraculous Lord will work a change of heart in one or more of them, either in health or sickness.

Wednesday, the 16th of May. The German settlers of Goshen (a rather fertile and easily accessible area near Abercorn) like me to visit now and then and to preach God’s word to them. Today the fine weather made it convenient for me to go there; in God’s name I made the trip and preached to them on last Sunday’s gospel, Dominica Cantate, dealing with God’s fine spirit and its effects on grace. Most Christians, unfortunately, are blind and ignorant of this most important teaching, and this is very much to their disadvantage; a fact I was able to demonstrate by quoting Bible verses and passages from the catechism. If our dear God continues to dignify me by letting me preach His word to these German people, to which I am sincerely inclined but from which I am often hindered by the remoteness of the place and by my many tasks in our congregation, then I intend to choose our little church catechism as the text on which to base our contemplation, about which I am fond of preaching.

Some people are prejudiced against accepting both the truth and an honest Christianity. I believe, however, they can be convinced, by quoting from the catechism, that more than lip-service, pretense, or meaningless conformity, such as just going to church or practicing religion superficially, is necessary for being a true Christian. A young couple, to the annoyance of their neighbors, had been quarreling a great deal. After my sermon I asked them to come to the glebe land at Goshen and tried to reconcile them. Our merciful God saved me from great danger on my trip back, just as He had done already several times during my stay in this country in the past. O soul, never forget this!

Thursday, the 17th of May. I got news that Mrs. Waldhauer, the former widow Graniwetter, and her only little daughter are dangerously ill, so I went to visit them this morning on their plantation. I found them both recovered but unhappy and in distress. No doubt her old, stingy, ill-mannered husband is the reason for this. I spoke to both of them, but I do not know how much it will help. She herself is not entirely without blame either, although her husband’s conduct encourages her transgressions. Oh, how rare is a true Christian unity between so-called Christian married couples! Our listeners often have an opportunity in the past to find confirmed by God’s word the damage done by such marital discord as well as the resulting distress.

Sunday, the 20th of May. Several Englishmen arrived by boat today, this Rogate Sunday; I expected trouble and uproar, but nothing happened after all. It is a considerable blessing that English law protects the sanctity of Sundays so strictly and severely punishes misconduct on these days. Although in this country (and this may be true of other colonies, too) people generally do not observe these well-meant laws too closely, I can, however, point to the legal facts when dealing with disorderly people and, in case they persist in their troublemaking, I am empowered to enforce the law as a justice of the peace. So far, thank God, this has not been necessary.

Since Mr. Meyer resigned his office as Justice of the Peace and passed it off on me, I have re-read the English civil code, which is contained in the very thorough book The Office and Authority of a Justice of Peace by W. Welson. I translated the laws which pertain to our people into German and plan to read them aloud in our next community meeting. Whenever impudent people have to be kept in order, they like to refer to English freedom. However, in the future they will be confronted with the actual laws and will be forced to concede that English laws do not encourage undue licence and libertinism.

Monday, the 21st of May. Among the previously mentioned Englishmen were a man and his wife who asked me to baptize their child, which they had brought along. I did so today in Jerusalem Church. They chose three witnesses for the baptism from among our congregation; and, since the mother of the child knew German (several years ago she spent some time here with us and also with other German-speaking settlers), I held the baptismal service in German. The child was already eight months old because its parents had been unable to find a preacher at the place where they lived until now.

Tuesday, the 22nd of May. Recently, the official in charge of building churches in Savannah asked for a larger number of boards from our mill. These boards have to be of a certain length, thickness, and width; and we did not have in stock what was needed. Normally, the mill can not be operated around this time of the year because of the low level of the river water. We were worried that the building of the church might be delayed because of the lack of needed boards. God, however, brought it about that the water rose and the needed boards could be cut to specification within a few weeks and be sent to Savannah on five rafts today. Our community benefits greatly from both the gristmill and the sawmill, especially since the mill-dam was rebuilt so well and our costs for repeated repairs have gone down. For this we humbly praise God’s mercy. We cannot cut as many boards as there are customers for them; therefore, we decided to build another sawmill along a little stream which is fed by a natural spring and thus does not depend on water from rainfall alone.

Wednesday, the 23rd of May. Young N. contracted a violent fever from too much labor and excessive heat. He paid no attention to his condition and continued to work hard unnecessarily despite a paroxism; and, as a consequence he is now so ill that he is unable to do any work at all. He still refuses to spare himself and will probably start to waste away and die before his time. As the saying goes: “Avarice is the root of all evil.” He is obsessed with greed although he has considerable means. His wife, the former G. from B., cried and told me, in his presence, that it was her dearest wish that, as the result of a divine merciful plan, her husband would be restored to health and be transformed into a better man. Indeed, it seems that there is beginning to be a growth in the good he has received, heard, and perceived here from God’s word and from his pious father-in-law, Mr. G. and also from Master Z., who loyally looked out for his soul. His wife also has a fine talent to urge the divine truth upon him in a plain and firm manner.

She considers this present misery, as well as other things in her marriage which did not turn out as well as expected, a well-deserved punishment for her sins. She regrets especially that she did not follow the advice of her old, pious father, but rather conformed to the world in a crude manner and ignored all his warnings. I also visited the widow Sanftleben, who lives by herself on her plantation. I found her both ailing and depressed; I consoled her and felt strengthened by divine merciful guidance. Both she and I recognized my encouragement to have been through divine providence. God has meant it well with her in her past and present tribulations and, by trying her, intends to lead her to His Son entirely and to guide her away from this world’s wickedness and from her own previous sins. When the heart has mellowed, then the gospel can enter it more easily.

Thursday, the 24th of May. On several occasions in the past, after Rogate Sunday and shortly before Exaudi, our miraculous God has granted us the joy of receiving letters and gifts from our benefactors and friends in Europe; this year the same has happened. Yesterday afternoon, on the road close by the plantations, I met a messenger from Savannah. He gave me two packages of letters, some addressed to me and some to Mr. Meyer; and he brought news that three chests containing things for us had arrived. I had known this already because a good friend in Savannah to whom the chests had been delivered for us had written to me. Only one of the letters was for me, the others were for Mr. Meyer and his brother /Johann Georg/, and for several other people here. This time, no mention was made in any of the letters concerning the contents of the three chests; we think, however, that the gifts are partly things from Augsburg and partly books and medicines from Halle. We sent our boat to Savannah immediately in order to bring back as much as it would hold safely.

The letter addressed to me was by dear Pastor Maier in Halle, one of our most esteemed patrons and benefactors. For the past several years I had had no word from him and I was therefore most pleased to hear of his restored health and of his work; and his kind, fatherly letter gave me much joy. I also read several passages from the very friendly and edifying letters sent to Mr. Meyer and by Dr. Ehrhard and Mr. Laminit and found myself greatly strengthened in faith and encouraged to praise God. They not only wish our welfare but are also trying to contribute to our well-being by advice and assistance. May our merciful God reward them generously for their goodness! Today we remembered and celebrated Christ’s Ascension in both churches and, through the preaching of the gospel, our Lord granted us much blessing for our souls.

Friday, the 25th of May. Today our entire community (that is, its male members) assembled for a meeting and, together with those present, I instituted the following: all people living in and around town as well as those living on the plantations are going to be grouped into seven districts or sections, and for each district a headman was decreed, referred to by the common English title of “tythingman.” The tythingmen will not be a burden but a help in keeping good order and in helping with questions of subsistence. They will confer with the people living in their districts, in order to discuss temporal matters with them, as well as practical matters concerning food production. I, in turn, will meet with the tythingmen in order to consider their ideas and to make suggestions of my own. Upon the recommendation of the headmen I will also try to give additional aid to those in need. Some of our people manage their households poorly and do not lead orderly lives; it will be easier now to know who those are and to set them right. Others are hard-working but too shy to tell me of their difficulties, and in these cases it will be possible for me to learn of their needs in order to assist them properly and in time. Widows also will now know to whom to appeal; and, if vagabonds or other disorderly people come here, it will be simple to find them and to encourage them to leave.

From now on, if there is something which I need to make known to our community, it will be faster and easier to do so through these seven men rather than call a meeting of the entire community. Holding a larger meeting is usually very inefficient, and it hardly ever fulfills its purpose; most people are too shy to voice their opinions publicly. My main goal in this new arrangement is to receive, from time to time, the suggestions of these seven sensible men as to how subsistance can be improved for those among us who are worn out and overworked, and also to encourage the tythingmen to be the tools for trying this or that new thing.

Today I read in the latest edition of the newspaper from Charleston how much in demand and consequently how expensive the following are: cypress wood itself and cypress boards, as well as shingles and barrel staves made from white and red oak. I knew that already from a letter I received from Charleston. The reason that these items, which are indispensable in the West Indies, are so rare and so expensive here is in part due to the fact that not many oaks and cypresses that are both of good quality and also growing close to the water are left. In the past much of this useful timber was not treated carefully and economically. On our large island adjoining the Mill River, however, the land is as fertile as the best land in Egypt and has many excellent trees suitable for making a variety of wooden goods in great quantity that can be transported to market conveniently by boat.

I therefore advised our people to plant less and to spend more time making shingles, barrel-staves, and the like, which can be done in the shade and does not require too much physical strength, considering the greater chance of profit compared to the hard work of farming in the heat of summer. Another benefit would be that our people would be able to acquire goods from the West Indies despite our shortage of ready cash since traders from there prefer exchanging goods to using money. Also, I read to them from the aforementioned newspaper how cheap rum, sugar, and syrup (which is used locally for brewing a tasty beer) are right now in Charleston, whereas these same goods are sold at much higher prices in Savannah.

Our people’s health would not be undermined as much from work of this sort, since they would earn more and also would have something better to drink than mere water. They would be able to recover some of their strength as can be seen from those who did less of the strenuous and not very profitable labor on their farms and who switched to some other useful work. Work on those farms which are already running smoothly would not have to be abandoned altogether; the cooler hours in the morning, during the day, and in the evening could be used, for instance from five o’clock to nine in the morning and from four o’clock in the afternoon to seven in the evening. During the hottest hours of the day, people could make various kinds of wooden goods in the shade of the forest where it is considerably cooler. If they were to hold to such a schedule then they would have an easier time of finding and keeping good farmhands and servants. Nobody can earn enough by farming alone to afford a servant’s wages and keep, considering the amounts commonly paid in our area, but it is easy the other way. If the trees growing on the large island between the Mill Stream, Purysburg, and Abercorn, which are of a very good quality, were to be felled regularly and their wood used in the manner suggested above, then, eventually, the land could be transformed into fertile pastures and fields which would have a great advantage over all those on high ground.

In past years people did not want to clear this very fertile stretch of land because of the many trees; they felt they could not manage without hired workers. However, I was surprised that, even after the arrival of fieldhands, no progress was made in this area. It would be impossible to build houses or stables on this island because of occasional flooding from the Savannah River during the winter or in the spring when the snow melts in the mountains. However, it would be possible for people who wanted to cultivate this land to live in town and keep their cattle there and use the island, which is about half an hour away from town either by water or by land, for growing their hay and crops. One acre there could easily return more than three or four times as much as elsewhere and easily pay for the work. In this way our town could grow; there would be space enough for several hundred families to live and farm here.

Sunday, the 27th of May. Today we held Holy Communion for eighty people. Our loving God granted us His word richly in both sermons as well as in our repetition hour, and we were all edified. It seems that some servants attend our services as well in order to meditate and to provide for their souls. They listen to God’s word regularly, attend prayer meetings, and strive for a more orderly life than they lived after they first arrived here. One of them, who is the wickedest among them, promised me today that he would improve his conduct; and he asked me, in case he reverted to his old improper ways, to admonish him with utmost severity. He regrets having mocked our faith in the past, for which he and another man are at present under censure by the church. He promised he would avoid this man’s company in the future.

Wednesday, the 30th of May. Three days ago, several urgent public duties made it necessary for me to travel to Savannah. This afternoon, praised be God, I returned in good health and in good spirits, having come to no harm. We might have had some problems concerning the payment for several thousand feet of boards which a certain merchant who lives in our neighborhood received from our sawmill a few weeks ago. Luckily, I went to see him in Savannah shortly before his departure for the French West Indies. We have to tolerate such difficulties. We lack experienced and practical people; possibly our friends in Europe can not imagine this fully. Honest people who do not have their own personal interest first and foremost in mind are rare in this country. Some among us might be willing to be more practical but do not act accordingly; especially, most of our people lack the necessary knowledge of the English language. In Savannah I received several letters from the Lord Trustees, as well as from Mr. Broughton, dear Mr. N., and Mr. Albinus. All the letters were friendly and had a most pleasant content. I wish to make the following notes concerning them:

1. All the letters were already five or six months old. I especially regret the delay in the letters from the Lord Trustees because the time for silk-making is past now, in which we could have made a significant advance toward the improvement of our silk manufacture. They had bought silk worms seeds from Italy; however, the seeds hatched underway and all the young worms perished. The Lord Trustees encourage our silk-making here in our colony according to our people’s wishes as well as those of some merchants in London. The merchants in London had such a high opinion of the quality of the silk made and spun here that they are even going to petition Parliament for support of this enterprise, which may turn out to be of considerable importance since the Pope and other Catholic princes and nobles in Italy have forbidden the export of silk.

The English have no areas better suited for silk-making than Carolina and Georgia, and it would therefore be most regrettable if the people of these two colonies did not apply themselves to it, especially since they are being assisted regularly by sound advice and significant contributions. Most Europeans in this country, however, have a very harmful way of thinking, which one learns from the other, namely, that of expecting to get rich quickly by working only a little. The wages of Europeans are not proportionate to the work they do. Consequently, they will refuse even the most important task if it does not promise a certain large daily profit. Therefore, if they will not renounce this evil principle, the silk manufacture will not progress or prosper, even if the Lord Trustees encourage and support it.

2. Our dear Mr. N. had been too sick to write to us for some time. Now, however, to our great joy, this has occurred. He continues to be one of our most generous benefactors, as is evidenced by the gifts sent not only to us but also to my dear colleague, Mr. Meyer, my children, and our community. In addition to that, he sent us a good quantity of inexpensive articles of clothing which we needed urgently, as well as some seeds. Praised be God!

3. To be sure, no letters arrived from either our esteemed Senior Urlsperger or from Dr. Francke this time. The chest from Halle with books and medicines arrived in good order, even if it has not yet been brought here from the ship. Mr. Albinus wrote to me that the ship from Hamburg which had carried our chest had sunk but that our chest was saved. God be praised for His merciful protection and for having kept our Fathers and benefactors in reasonable health and having restored others who have been ailing in this or that way.

4. Mr. Broughton recommended a very frail man to me, whom the Lord Trustees had sent to Savannah to serve as schoolmaster. The man is a midget, however, and is indeed not suited to teach the children. Besides, Mr. Broughton writes very seldom and then only very little. I received a very kind and inspiring letter from our dear Mr. Whitefield. He holds Mr. Ziegenhagen, the court preacher, in very high esteem.

JUNE

Friday, the 1st of June. In yesterday’s evening prayer hour, as well as today during the meeting on the plantations, I started to read from the important and very kind letters from Europe which arrived recently. This may be very helpful for our people here, with God’s blessing, since nearly all that our most esteemed benefactors and friends have written to us this time is intended for our spiritual and physical well-being. This past spring, our loving God blessed our people here in Ebenezer richly by demonstrating to us His mercy and loving care, and I was greatly moved in remembering His goodness.

This afternoon, the seven tythingmen of our community, who live in the seven districts into which our town and settlement were divided, came to my house for the first time. The purpose was to review their duties with them and to outline my own intention to work for the spiritual and physical well-being of our community, and, concerning this undertaking, to pray to God, who wishes that all things in our community be done in an honest manner and kept in good order. The men are sensible, godfearing, and willing. May God anoint them with His spirit just like the elders in Israel and make them worthy of their task so that my own duties will be made easier by this arrangement and that our community will benefit from their service as far as our physical subsistance is concerned.

Sunday, the 2nd of June. This morning Mr. Thilo and his wife¹ received Holy Communion in private. God granted us a fine treasure of edification through His word, our prayer, and this holy act. Mr. Thilo has been ailing for the past several months and was bedridden for most of the time. It seems this sickness will benefit his soul greatly.

Today I watched with pleasure as the silk spun by our people was weighed in my house and part of it was packed into a fairly large crate, which will probably weigh nearly one hundred pounds. The plus ultra,² which our most esteemed Senior Urlsperger, filled with confidence and faith, called out to us a few years ago when he heard that silk had been produced in our orphanage for the first time, applies this year, too, since this year our silk manufacture was increased by a significant amount compared to previous years. If the houses of some of our people had been better equipped for silk-making, we could have produced even more than we actually did because our supply of mulberry leaves was abundant. During the first phase of spring the mulberry trees and their leaves were delayed in growth by a long-lasting period of drought and by cool nights so that most leaves matured only towards the end of our silk-making season here.

The aforementioned plus ultra brings to my mind a Spanish type of coin, called Pieces of Eight, which is used in this country for currency, and which bears the words plus ultra in its legend. Besides the Sola Bills issued by our Lord Trustees, our people are paid for their work and products, as well as for their silk, with Pieces of Eight. May God teach us anew and make us more aware of the fact that we depend on Him for all things and that our prosperity has to come from His grace and can continue only through His goodness. May He make us grateful for His bountiful blessing!

Sunday, the 3rd of June. Today, our loving God let us live to celebrate yet another feast of Holy Pentecost. Yesterday evening a preparatory sermon on the beautiful third article of our catechism was held in Jerusalem Church. It taught us sufficiently the nature of the good intention of the dear Elders who decreed that this feast be celebrated by Christians everywhere and what God’s purpose is in allowing us to live and take part in this celebration once again. May He allow all of us to be strengthened in our faith through the power of the Holy Ghost! Today, during the celebration of the feast, we contemplated the Gospel passage containing the important and comforting words on spiritual anointing, starting from John’s beautiful words “And ye have been anointed from the Holy One”.³ We clearly felt the Holy Ghost’s presence and grace, and its powerful effect, both through God’s word as well as through prayer. May He continue to give us the strength to lead a godfearing life by sending us the kind of divine enlightenment which we received by the spiritual anointing through Holy Baptism in the past and now through the gospel.

Tuesday, the 5th of June. Today I had to go to Savannah in order to bring those things before the Council which had not been taken care of the last time I was there. God made my journey down a safe one, and He sent me great edification and joy during the evening prayer hour when we and the German people who had come to attend our meeting contemplated the Pentecostal verse “If ye then being evil”.⁴ Each time these people learn that a minister from Ebenezer is going to be in their area, they eagerly come in order to to hear God’s word being preached. Mr. Altherr from St. Gall is a great supporter of the good: he willingly provides the room, the benches, and the lights so that the evening prayer hours can be held in his house. He also frequently assists us and our people from Ebenezer whenever we or they come to Savannah; I feel I can justly compare him to that Gaius whom John mentions in his third epistle.

Sunday, the 9th of June. I had a second opportunity to hold an evangelical sermon for our German people explaining the aforementioned beautiful Pentecostal verse. I felt strongly our merciful God’s assistance to me while I spoke, and I pray He may bless this verse. The German people know that our crate containing books arrived from Halle; some of them would like to have Bibles and hymnbooks. However, it will no longer be possible for us to give those away as presents. In the past, it caused considerable difficulties when we gave away books for free among people in our own community; and it was therefore decided to sell the various Bibles, hymnals, readers, and Treasure Chests⁵ at a very low price to those who could afford to buy them. Only those who are less affluent or those who are completely destitute will either receive books as gifts or receive something towards buying them.

In the event that many Germans in our area and in neighboring colonies are fond of such very useful and quite inexpensive books, then I will have more sent to us from Halle. I wrote a letter concerning this matter to Mr. Albinus several months ago. There are various important reasons which moved us to settle the question of the distribution of the books we received in this manner. A pious German widow had gone to Charleston and then returned to Savannah; she brought me the unpleasant but true news that people there devoted themselves to opulent living and behaved proudly. They no longer adhere to the divine word, give other people cause for complaints, and have a rather bad reputation. Those are people who were poor when they arrived in this country and who became well-to-do; it is said of such men, “The property of fools will destroy them.”⁶

The chest from Halle contains books and medicines; all arrived in very good condition. May our merciful God, for the sake of Christ, repay these and other benefactions richly! May He also bless our Lord Trustees with His grace for the support which they have shown once again to our community; especially their encouragement of our silk-making by donating money to us as well as by sending the ten cauldrons to our community for preparing the silk for the spinning. May He also make us grateful for this.

Monday, the 11th of June. This summer there was very little rain in our area; but in other places, especially around Savannah Town, it must have rained a lot, because the waterlevel in the river keeps rising. Our crops are doing fine, however, despite the weather; and we hope for a plentiful harvest with God’s blessing. If God were to punish the faithless and the disobedient among the people living in Georgia and Carolina by sending them a bad harvest (which, however, God be praised, has not happened since we arrived in this country) then this would, indeed, be a severe punishment since our supplies of food from the previous year run out or are no longer fit for consumption just after the time of harvesting. Flour made from Indian corn does not store well at all, neither does Indian corn itself. After only a little while worms invade it and it becomes very bitter.

Tuesday, the 12th of June. Today, our loving God showed us anew, and much to our joy, the signs of His fatherly care for us here in Ebenezer. Through His blessing, our people were able to produce about one thousand pounds of cocoons and seventy-four pounds and two ounces of raw silk from those cocoons which are not set aside for raising fresh silkworm seeds (counting each pound as containing sixteen ounces). For this, a little more than ninety-nine pounds Sterling was paid to them in cash. This is most welcome here, where things are so expensive; and the money will help them buy new clothing and some other things which they need in their households.

Each woman who has mastered the art of spinning silk received a vat and a machine as her own; in addition to that, two of them received five pounds and one of them four pounds Sterling as tuition money for fourteen young girls from our community who have learned to spin silk this year under their instruction. Each of those fourteen young women and girls, some married, some unmarried, received, in addition to the above-mentioned tuition money, a pound Sterling as payment for their hard work and the time they spent learning. Yesterday and today have been days for distributing the money and for marvelling at God’s mercy, which we do not deserve, as well as for joy and the praise of God. For me, for my dear colleague, and for other pious souls here, it was also a day for the strengthening of our faith.

Through divine power this was impressed on us even stronger by the precious word of our Lord for yesterday and today, that is, for the 11th of June and for the 12th of June, as contained in our Treasure Chest on pages sixty-two and one hundred sixty-one. I can also see from this that our Lord is pleased to do good unto Ebenezer. This was further confirmed by what our esteemed Mr. Albinus wrote to me and by what I read with great joy from his letter in our weekly sermon today at the plantations. His thoughts and words deserve to be set down here, for my own edification as well as for that of our friends. He writes:

I have trust in the Lord that the material circumstances of your community will improve with time, although it must endure its measure of tribulations. If only the people of Ebenezer do not spoil the blessings sent by our Lord by ungratefulness, complaints, and lack of faith. Ebenezer! “The Lord has helped us so far.”⁷ What we say today. Tomorrow we shall add: and to the end of our days into eternity! May our Lord fulfill our hope for the sake of Christ!

Saturday, the 16th of June. Our esteemed Mr. N.⁸ remains a generous benefactor to us and continues to show to our little community here in Ebenezer his genuine interest for our true well-being. Recently this became quite clear to us, to our great joy, not only from the large amount of the most useful things he sent to us but also from his noteworthy letters addressed to me and to Mr. Meyer as well as from the very practical suggestions he wrote to the Lord Trustees for improving the conditions of our community with regard to its physical support. Another very gratifying result from these beautiful letters, as well as from the suggestions made to the Lord Trustees, is, in my opinion, the change of heart which Mr. Meyer has undergone. He had decided, because of poor health, to withdraw from the trading business he had started earlier, as well as from the offices of agent and justice of the peace; and thus he put an end to our hopes and expectations for a successful trading business.

I had put my trust in God and consoled myself with the thought that I had a knowledgeable and reliable assistant in Mr. Lemke, who is my very dear colleague, brother-in-law, and my children’s godfather. Then, when I least expected it, goods and letters from our esteemed Mr. N. arrived, which moved Mr. Meyer to change his mind and decide to resume the trading business. We intend to assist him in this as much as we can, to provide him with comfortable living quarters and to hire for him a bright young man as a servant.⁹ We are very pleased to contribute our share to such a profitable enterprise which has our benefactors’ support. Today, against all my expectations, I heard from Mr. Meyer himself that he would also be willing to assume the offices of agent and justice of the peace again, if I would spare him the trips to the Council meetings held in Savannah.

Sunday, the 17th of June. Our merciful God has answered our prayers. Yesterday, shortly before sunset, He sent us a penetrating and fruitful rain, which filled us with joy and praise of His name. This time, I considered the unexpected rain an especially impressive blessing from our Lord. The reasons for this are: 1. that I consider it a merciful answer to my poor humble prayers; my faith was strengthened and I was filled with joy and confidence in divine mercy; and 2. that this great blessing from the Lord came at the closing of a week during which our dear God had shown us so much goodness from beginning to end.

On Monday, due to the unwavering assistance of my dear colleague, we had completed the extensive and complicated business of settling the accounts; in the afternoon we were ready to start paying out the money we had received for our silk. On Tuesday, in Zion Church, God granted us much common edification through the beautiful letters sent to us by Mr. Albinus. In the afternoon, with everybody present in high spirits, we continued paying out money to those who made silk, to the women who spun it, and to their fourteen apprentices. On Wednesday the silk which had been brought to my house was sorted, packed, and made ready for shipping. This work was made pleasant and easy for me by the good-will of the people who had worked together on the silk-making and by their genuine affection for each other.

I won’t mention all the other spiritual and physical blessings we received from our Lord recently and in the past; among these blessings I count especially the remarkable strengthening of body and soul which I felt distinctly during the long hours of rather taxing work, and of writing letters, from Wednesday afternoon until Saturday evening. I submitted a detailed report of almost five folios on our progress and problems in silk-making, as well as other things pertaining to our community, in three letters, addressed to Mr. Martyn, Mr. Verelst, and Mr. Lloyd (a member of the Lord Trustees and the most vigorous supporter of our silk-making). This did not include the accounts which have to be submitted to the local Council as well as to the Lord Trustees and receipts our people had to make out in duplicate and sign after receiving their money. I also felt obligated to answer the very important letter which our prominent benefactor, Mr. N., had sent and also the letter from Mr. Albinus and to write several letters to our most esteemed Fathers in Augsburg and Halle. After I had completed this tiring, although mostly pleasant, task, I felt almost stronger than I had before, through God’s goodness (which is the reason I mention all these things here).

On Friday morning God granted us much edification through the pleasant letter from our dear Mr. N., from which we read aloud during a gathering at the plantations. I was very pleased by Mr. Meyer’s decision, after he had considered Mr. N.’s wise suggestions, to resume the trading business, which had been begun and then discontinued. In the afternoon, eight householders and two widows came to my house; each received two pounds Sterling, as ordered by our most kind Lord Trustees. Altogether, I paid out twenty pounds Sterling in order to assist those people in building the kind of sheds which are necessary for silk-making. On Saturday morning I again asked our surgeon, Mr. Meyer, whether he were willing to act as the agent and justice of the peace in Ebenezer; and he agreed, on the condition that I relieve him of the duty of traveling to Savannah in business matters.

I also received word that my dear colleague’s house and study had been repaired properly and that the construction of the house which we intend to use for holding school as well as for other purposes had been completed except for the kitchen. Finally, this parade of divine blessings was crowned by the much-needed rainfall. Therefore, in the evening, I was especially moved and impressed by the Sixty-fifth Psalm which our worthy Dr. Francke laid as a basis for his sermon on the praise and thanks due for the kindness and blessing of God that He had shown to the Orphanage for fifty years.¹⁰

At Mr. Meyer’s request, I asked our community not to overburden him with minor matters but to refer these to the seven tythingmen or headmen serving in the seven districts of our community. They should appeal to him in only those cases which cannot be settled otherwise and bring before him only important matters and disagreements. If they had to write contracts and other documents, schoolmasters and other skillful people would serve them. In turn, they would come to Mr. Meyer to validate the drafts during his bi-weekly court session. During these two set days he would be ready to hear their complaints and attend to their affairs in general. On the other days, however, people should spare him, except in emergencies and very urgent matters. He also asked me to encourage people to pray for him regularly, as well as for the other officials, which would please God and also benefit them. Today we read, as is proper, the sixth chapter of Acts, and I was impressed that, in the first Christian church in Jerusalem, the Apostles, together with the congregation, had appointed seven pious and experienced men to take charge of the community’s secular affairs. I pray that God may grant that same measure of wisdom which had inspired these seven men to our seven tythingmen or headmen whom we have put in charge of keeping good order.

Tuesday, the 19th of June. Several of our servants are sick with fever because the field-work is hard and the heat is great. I am trying to care for them, body and soul, as best as I can. White servants are treated with contempt in this country because they get sick from the heat when they work the fields. I believe from my limited experience that it would be possible, if people were agreeable, for both householders and servants to succeed and protect their health. It is too strenuous for white people to plant local crops such as Indian corn, beans, and rice, because these have to be cultivated during the hottest time of the summer and some of the fields have to be located in the most humid and low-lying areas where there are almost no drafts of fresh, cooling air. People ought not plant these crops with the intention of selling them. Rather, they should plant only as much as they need for their own use; then the few cooler hours in the mornings and evenings would suffice for getting the work done. Moreover, people ought not to plant their crops in soil which has been used over and over again; instead, they should choose the most fertile land which is not too far away, since a small patch of more fertile soil yields more than a much larger area of over-used soil does. How profitable it would be if they joined forces and used the above-mentioned island! It would definitely have to be a communal enterprise, however, since a large area would have to be cultivated within a year and it would have to be guarded during the nights because of destructive vermin.

Wednesday, the 20th of June. In his letter of November the third of last year, which arrived here on the twentieth of last month, our esteemed Pastor Maier in Halle wrote to me the following:

My most recent collection for Ebenezer was the sum of twenty Reichsthaler from a major’s wife in Breslau, who wishes to remain anonymous. In sending me the money, however, she requests that, instead of getting a receipt on paper, she would prefer a more real one; namely that two children of your community be named Friedrich Karl and Anna Francisca when receiving Holy Baptism. We trust that her wishes will be remembered at the earliest possible opportunity.

The first child born here after the arrival of this pleasant letter, which illustrates so clearly the divine protection of poor parents and children, is a boy; he was delivered this morning and will be baptized in Jerusalem Church this afternoon. I had decided to distribute the gift we had received in the order in which God would let two children be born. The parents who are the first recipients are probably among the most needy of our people here; a few days ago they lost a cow and a calf, at a time when the new mother needed the milk more than ever. I gave ten shillings Sterling to the father of the child to help with the expenses for the care of his wife. If this gift is used properly, then I intend to add another sum, up to one half of the twenty Reichsthaler sent to us. The husband showed surprise; he considered himself a great sinner and quite unworthy of this gift. He did, however, recognize that God had granted him His unmerited mercy and protection, despite his own shortcomings, by relieving him of his worries concerning the midwife fee. Midwives here do not charge much, but for poor people it is difficult to spend even a small sum. I was therefore pleased to be able to help with the gifts sent by our Lord. The husband was also overjoyed at the beautiful name which his child was to receive as stipulated by the benefactress.

Sunday, the 24th of June. Our most esteemed Doctor and Professor Francke favored us two unworthy servants of the gospel, as well as our community, by sending us his written observations concerning the interaction of God’s works in Halle and at other places. From them we can learn not only the state of our Evangelical Church and certain characteristics of our times, but also very rich material for a new awakening in Christianity and in our office, as well as for the edification of our listeners and the heart-felt intercession for His Zion. This Sunday, the second after Trinity, I felt so strengthened that, despite the oppressive heat, I was able to read aloud to our dear listeners some passages selected from the appendices to the year 1747 after the catechism and before common prayer. I made public the important news of how the truth is being persecuted in the Swiss canton of Lucerne.¹¹ I also started reading, explaining, and applying an edifying letter from a group of Protestants from Carinthia who had been transported to Siebenburgen and who, just like the people from Salzburg, had to endure hardships because of their adherence to the Evangelical religion.¹² I intend to continue the contemplation of this letter in the future.

Tuesday, the 26th of June. Because it has become known in our community for some time that I wish, God willing, to send my two boys, Samuel Leberecht and Gotthilf Israel, to Halle to attend the well-run schools of the Orphanage, one of our inhabitants here was found willing to accompany my children on this trip and to take along his own son, who is almost seven years old, and enroll him in the same school. For his age, this young boy has learned a great deal in our school in town; and he is ready to be sent to introductory Latin courses, if there is enough money for that. He is a very well-behaved child and quite promising; but he is still very young and needs the care of his mother. I therefore advised the father to keep his son here with us until he is a little older and able to make more progress in the subjects of writing and mathematics, and has learned more of God’s word and our catechism. The father of this young boy is a pious and hard-working man who, in moderation and without over-taxing his health, has succeeded in earning good money by making boats in Ebenezer. He serves as an example for others to convince them that working with wood is of advantage in this country.¹³

My older son, Samuel Leberecht, asked me yesterday, almost in tears, to send him and his brother, Gotthilf Israel, to Halle as soon as possible; he would like to arrive there while our esteemed Dr. Francke is still alive. I encouraged him to pray for health and a long life for this dear man.

I intend to travel to Savannah towards the end of this week since it is time to preach to the German people and to hold Holy Communion for them. I also have business matters to attend to there because of our silk and the cowpen we purchased (our cattle ranch in Old Ebenezer); and I intend to send off the letters I have written. Our friend, Mr. Habersham, is a capable and hardworking man, who is eager and willing to serve our Lord Trustees and this colony as a member of the Council and the entire society in this country, but his efforts are hampered by numerous obstacles.

Friday, the 29th of June. Barbara Zorn, an orphan with neither father nor mother, was commended to my care by her dying mother a few years ago. Since then she has completed her time of service in Savannah and has arrived here in order to be instructed. God has so blessed His word and example in her that she has been converted to God with her whole heart and conducts herself in a way which is pleasing to Him. God shows her much goodness and will show her more in the future. She has been saved from great temptation because she is willing to listen to advice.

JULY

Sunday, the 1st of July. Two days ago I traveled to Savannah and arrived there in good health in the evening. There are so many things to take care of, both matters connected with my office and matters concerning this colony and our community, that I will probably have to stay for eight days. Unfortunately, as a result of this, I will not only have to delay several important matters at home but I will also be unable to hold Holy Communion, which is supposed to be held on the Third Sunday after Trinity. Yesterday evening, at a meeting of the German settlers, I continued to discuss the Ninth Commandment, after repeating some of the main points of the Eighth Commandment which I had explained earlier and by which our merciful God shows us that deceit, falsehood, and meanness fill the human heart. I had to hear confessions in the morning, one hour before public service, because Sunday morning was the only time some of the people from the plantations could come. I based my preaching on the Thirty-second Psalm.

In addition to this short sermon, God’s word has been spread five times so far in this place. We also held one public prayer hour. In the morning, I explained the important verses Acts 26:16; in the afternoon I preached on Luke 15:1 ff. and in the evening on the important and very necessary teachings of true repentance; I felt blessed and inspired by the Holy Ghost. Mr. Zuberbuhler, the regular minister, preached to the Englishmen; and in the afternoon a student from the orphanage held an edification hour with much fervor on 2 Corinthians, 4:17.

Monday, the 2nd. of July. I had planned to deliver the silk made by our people, together with the silk-accounts, today, the first Monday of the month (on which day, according to the rules set by our Lord Trustees, the Council is to meet). However, neither the president nor the other members of the council came to the session. Nevertheless, I was able to use this time well since there was other business to take care of. Yesterday, during the sermons, our dear God moved the hearts of several people by His word; this became quite obvious from their looks and demeanor when they came to church and to the meetings held in the evening. In particular, one pious woman came to me after we had finished the edification hour and asked me to give her an opportunity to talk to me. I visited her today; she revealed her troubled soul to me and accepted instruction in God’s word most eagerly and gratefully. God blessed our prayer and granted us both encouragement. She is an honest soul and is inclined to the Reformed religion. The state of her soul reminded me of the consoling Evangelical hymn: Weg, mein Herz! mit den Gedanken, als ob du verstossen wärst, etc., which I saw neither in her hymnal nor in others which German settlers had brought with them from their homeland; I decided, however, to make public its important and consoling text in our evening prayer hours so that our listeners may benefit from it; and I intend to spend an entire week on this undertaking.

Tuesday, the 3rd. of July. Today the members of the Council did meet in session. Already a few days ago I had outlined to two of them my method of paying our people for their silk, so the Council had agreed, even before I submitted the accounts, that I had been too thrifty in spending the money sent by our Lord Trustees and that I had paid our people too little money for both fine and coarse silk. Therefore, they changed my accounts in favor of our people; and I sent them back to my dear colleague so that the people could re-sign their changed receipts. Mr. Meyer took them back to Ebenezer; he had arrived here yesterday in order to attend to some business connected with our trading, as well as to send money to Mr. N. for the goods he had sent here. I thought that I had paid our silk-makers enough money; also, nobody had complained. Furthermore, I was unable to arrange money matters differently because the cocoons for which our Lord Trustees had agreed to pay a fine sum had already been spun off by the time the letters and instructions from the Lord Trustees arrived here; also they had not been weighed in the presence of Mr. Meyer or another reliable person. The original agreement had been that the cocoons should be graded best, medium, and poor; for each a certain bounty (premium) had been set by the Lord Trustees, and for each kind of spun silk, according to its worth, fourteen, twelve, or six shillings would be paid. This year no silk has been made either in Savannah or any place else, leaving me without any comparison as to pricing.

There was also another reason which caused me to use great care in spending the money sent by the Lord Trustees: namely, that they had already incurred considerable expense this year in supporting the silk-manufacture in our settlement. I was afraid that they might become dissatisfied upon being presented with such a large account (one hundred and eighty-six pounds), although in the past and at present such sums were paid upon their orders. What I had paid for fine and coarse silk came to ninety-nine pounds Sterling. The fourteen young women who learned how to spin silk received twenty-eight pounds, Christoph Rottenberger, who made the machines to fit the ten copper vats shipped here to be used in the spinning process, got fifteen pounds, and ten poor householders were paid two pounds each to assist them with the building of the sheds which are needed to simplify the silk-making. I won’t even mention other sums of money which were spent on various necessities, following the instructions from the Lord Trustees.

The reason that the members of the Council decided to change my accounts in favor of our people is that they fear my thriftiness (which is not unacceptable to our people) in pricing the silk might be laid before the Parliament and might result in a more permanent lowering of the prices to a degree which is below that which the Lord Trustees had promised us in their last instructions to us. The Lord Trustees intend to go before Parliament to ask for the fixing of the silk premiums at a time when the Pope and other principalities in Italy would impose a general silk embargo and, as a consequence, English looms would be more idle than normal. Settlers here are not content with a modest bounty or encouragement; rather, they demand large sums of money without considering whether or not either the Lord Trustees or Parliament will be able to sustain such high prices for long. If in the future no premium can be paid for a given year, then they will stop making any silk at all, as past experience has shown.

Thursday, the 5th of July. I received a letter from a friend in Charleston, in which, among other things, he tells me that news has come via the sugar producing islands in the West Indies that, unfortunately, a serious rift between England and France may occur. The reasons for expecting such a conflict were not mentioned. May our merciful God avert this punishment from us in His goodness, even though we deserve such punishment and even more for our sins! Oh, how frequently am I reminded of the important first line of the hymn: “Lord, Thy loyalty is so great that we must marvel.”¹ During this entire week, in our evening prayer meetings, I have been explaining to our congregation the most excellent hymn: Weg, mein Herz, mit den Gedanken, etc. Both I and our listeners felt edified; and we recognized quite clearly not only the proper kind of Evangelical penitence but also the powerful motives leading to it, as well as the reason why no poor sinner must despair as long as he is penitent. Everything is confirmed by verses from Holy Scripture. Praised be God! In the evenings my spirit, which is tired out during the daytime, is refreshed and encouraged by song and God’s word. May God watch over us in the future as well!

Friday, the 6th of July. For the past few days, the members of the Council, as well as the most prominent among the colonists, have been busy composing a petition to the Lord Trustees and the King. Namely, 1. that the union of the two colonies not take place. This would also encourage the people to devote themselves seriously to silk-manufacture, as is the wish of the Lord Trustees as well as that of the English people; 2. that the company of soldiers be replaced by a company of rangers or hussars on horseback; they would be most effective fighting the Spanish or the Indians. Although I do not have much insight in such matters, I believe that the main purpose in this is to guard the Negroes or to prevent their defection to the Spanish side, which is easier done using rangers than employing infantry; 3. that the taxation of the plantations, which is far too high, be made equal to that customary in the Carolinas; there, people pay annually only a few shillings for one-hundred acres, compared to the taxes in Georgia where the amounts proposed are twenty shillings for some people and ten shillings Sterling for others. So far, these taxes have not yet been in force, but they soon might be. This last point, however, is not to be included in this petition but is to be postponed for another time so as not to burden the Lord Trustees with too many complaints at once.

Mr. Meyer returned from Ebenezer today at one o’clock in the afternoon, bringing with him the new receipts signed by our people. He also intends to sign the above mentioned petition. A week ago today when I left from home, my wife had been sick. Mr. Meyer brings me the news that three days ago, before he had returned to Ebenezer, she had been so sick and weak that people feared for her life. She had wished very much to see me; instead, after Mr. Meyer had arrived, when she had heard that business would keep me away for some time yet, her fragile mind and body were taxed even more. Finally (as I see from a letter by Samuel Leberecht),² she submitted to God’s will and regained her composure. Mr. Meyer assures me that yesterday evening he had found her somewhat stronger in mind and body and that he has some hope for her recovery. When I heard this sad news, I was reminded of the words we had contemplated in yesterday’s evening prayer hour: “He is, indeed, neither bear nor lion, who only,” etc. and “His heart is accustomed to pure loyalty and mercy. God has a fatherly mind. Our suffering pains Him, our misery is His sorrow, our death troubles His heart.”³

I wish very much that I could return home, but I have to obey God, since He, in His providence, orders me to stay here.

Saturday, the 7th of July. This evening the church in Savannah will be consecrated. I would have liked to stay here and preach to the German people the following morning. However, the sad news of my wife’s dangerous illness forces me to return home. Yesterday, between eight and nine o’clock in the evening, I signed, together with Mr. Meyer, the petition drafted by the local authorities, the Council, and the most prominent of the colonists here. This petition is directed to our Lord Trustees, and concerns the matter of vetoing a merger of the colony of Georgia with that of Carolina and the matter of creating a company of hussars or rangers to protect the colony against Indian attacks; we left in God’s name at three o’clock this morning.

While I was still in Savannah, my dear colleague had written to me that a certain master-builder is looking for work here; he is willing to undertake all sorts of wooden construction at low prices because he would prefer to live among us modestly and enjoy the quietude, God’s word, and good order, rather than live somewhere else more sumptuously, especially since we pay cash here which is not the case in other parts of Georgia or Carolina. This builder had contributed to the financial ruin of the merchant Mr. David Zubli by constructing for him a fancy flourmill and sawmill, built to work like a large clock; at present he is in litigation with him. This young man /Brown/ arrived in this country from Scotland not long ago, where he was an apprentice. He seems to know his business and is an honest man, although he most likely is a poor judge of character and probably lacks the experience necessary to work as an independent master-builder. If our two carpenters, Kogler and Rottenberger, who are very skillful, were more serious and would not waste their time on minor efforts but rather pay more attention to their craft, then this man, who seems capable enough, could work under their supervision and direction; there certainly is no lack of work. We are eager to build a new sawmill; already last spring trees were felled to provide the necessary lumber.

Sunday, the 8th of July. Old Kiefer of Purysburg brought a young, twenty-four year old man to me. He told me that this was the orphan /Johann Paul/ Francke, who was one of our first four orphans here in Ebenezer. Although he had been treated very well by us, he left, first to join his poor mother in Purysburg, then to live among the Indians. He spent twelve or thirteen years with an Englishman, who sent him on trading trips into Indian territory, accompanying pack-horses loaded with various goods. He has forgotten both his native German language as well as everything he had been taught here. He confessed that he had lived for so many years among the heathens, although they had been baptized Christians, and that his conduct had been filled with sin.

Now, however, he desired to lead a proper life and was willing to be instructed in the Christian teachings. Since he no longer knows any German, as already mentioned, he intends to stay with Kiefer’s family in order to reacquaint himself with his mother-tongue as well as to use the means of salvation together with them. Whether or not he is serious about this will become clear in time. For the time being, I suspect, he is one of those people who intend to reach certain goals and, as soon as they get what they want, they fall back into their old habits again. Kiefer thinks highly of him.

This Sunday, the fourteenth after Trinity, our locksmith Bruckner fell ill in church during our public morning service; he was suffering from serious abdominal pains due to chronic constipation. He is an honest man and certain of his salvation in Christ; however, he is disturbed because he believes that he caused his condition by a certain carelessness. Several people are sick with a fever, especially servants who worked too hard in the fields. An older man, Conrad Baumann, died on Friday and was buried yesterday. His wife and child are still in Wurttemberg; about six months ago, he and Martin Burkhart wrote a long letter in which they asked their wives and children and some other families to come and join them here. He used to share the house with Matthias Brandner, a Salzburger and true Christian, who is a well-to-do man, who lacks nothing in either the spiritual or the material sense. While Conrad Baumann had been ill (as Mr. Lemke wrote to me in Savannah), he was seriously homesick; this might have contributed to his death even more than his illness itself.

I am surprised that people who lived in poverty while they were still in Germany think that in this country even a moderate amount of work is an unbearable burden. It ought to be obvious to them that, after completing three or four years of service, starting households of their own would turn out to be a more difficult task for them than any other ever before. In part, the large and almost unfair daily wages which are demanded by free people and are, indeed, paid contribute to this way of thinking; people add up what they could be earning even if they just got eighteen pence a day, which comes to more than twenty-four pounds Sterling per year. Some people here earn two shillings a day and get free meals on top of that. Of course, only merchants can afford to be that generous, because they simply charge higher prices for their goods to keep their expenses down. I am not surprised that even some of our people here prefer Negro servants to white ones.

Monday, the 9th of July. On the ninth of May of this year, the newspapers of Charleston in South Carolina reported the strange story of a Negro, Caesar by name, who discovered how to use two simple and easily obtainable remedies for curing the effects of the very poisonous bite of rattlesnakes; poisons induced by either food, drink, or other means are likewise rendered harmless by his medicine which, cleanses the blood. The Assembly or Parliament in Charleston, in recognition of his very useful remedy, put up the money and bought his freedom. In addition to that, they decreed that, for life, he is to receive for his support an annual amount of one-hundred pounds in local currency, which comes to fourteen pounds Sterling.

The governor and the other members of the Assembly must have been convinced of the effectiveness of his medicine; otherwise they would not have made the news public and they would not have spent so much money on this Negro. He uses only two herbs, roots included, which are cooked and their tea drunk; the English names of these herbs are plantain and horehound. He treats the wounds resulting from snake bites by dressing them with tobacco leaves which have been soaked in rum (sugarcane brandy). Until now, no known remedy for the bite from rattlesnakes existed, and many a victim died suddenly. If this very simple remedy indeed effects such an important and long-needed cure, then the above mentioned monetary reward is well worth spending. I feel sorry for the doctors in this country; they rely almost entirely on simple or mixed medicines from Europe and make no use of the herbs and roots growing in this country; if they only had the wish to be better doctors they would have ample opportunity to learn to do so.

Wednesday, the 11th of July. Hanns Maurer’s pious wife came to me in tears and told me that her young son had eaten sand and raw rice; as a result, his body is bloated, and he seems to have swellings not unlike those of people who suffer from dropsy.⁴ She had not been aware of his unhealthy eating habits because he had kept them secret, but now he confessed everything to her. His sister, who is about fourteen years old, did the same and, as a result, is also in poor health. When children eat unhealthy things, such as sand, dirt, charcoal, raw rice, grain, etc., it becomes quickly obvious that they are sick because they turn pale, their faces get bloated, and they gain weight. Recently I heard of several children who behaved in this manner. I promised to those who would stop, and whose skin would turn a healthy color again, various rewards; I repeated my promise in school on several occasions, and I brought and distributed gifts. However, the children are so voracious that they cannot control their appetites when they are alone.

Our most esteemed benefactor, Dr. E. from M. sent a letter to Mr. Meyer, giving us excellent advice on how to deal with this childhood disease; however, I do not believe it will be possible for us to put his advice into practice although both I and Mr. Lemke are more than willing to help by contributing money and other support. Some time ago I translated an article into German which had appeared in a London magazine, describing a cure. I also translated the newspaper article mentioned above, which reports how to cleanse the body of poisons and how to cure poisonous bites from rattlesnakes; I circulated my translation among our people here so that they could make use of it if necessary. I do not doubt that the two herbs, plantain and horehound, are available in this country; the newspapers talk of them as of well-known and ordinary plants.

Thursday, the 12th of July. After a long drought, which lasted for two weeks, we have had plenty of rain for the past eight days. Yesterday, and again today, there was a heavy downpour. Our main river, as well as the smaller rivers branching off from it, carry little water. Therefore, our mills are standing still; that is something which has not happened for a long time. We assume that up in the mountains, where the Savannah River originates, there is just as little rain as in our area because we heard that in some places the crops of Indian corn were spoiled; we do not expect ours to wither away. Early plantings may be damaged and may not yield as much as expected, because the time for their setting cobs and ears coincided with the drought; our rice, on the other hand, could not be better.

Rice and grain are very expensive in Georgia and Carolina and not easily obtained. Now, at the beginning of the Dog Days, the temperatures in the evening, at night, and in the morning, are as low as in the fall; people had better watch out for their health. Meanwhile, I read in the newspapers from Halle for the year 1748 that our all-powerful, miraculous, and just God afflicted various areas in Europe not only with a destructive war and great devastation, but also with cattle-plague, thunderstorms, lightning, floods, fires, and a plague of locusts, which even reached England. I feel obliged to praise His divine mercy and patience; He averted punishments of this kind from our country and our area and granted to our kingdom, as well as to other nations, a time of noble peace which may endure for a while. Letters I received from Charleston and newspapers printed there seem to indicate that a war between England and France is to be expected soon. Bloody conflicts between the English, the French, and those of the Indians who sympathize with the French broke out in Nova Scotia, which the English intend to colonize in earnest. These Indians do not recognize our king’s authority in this country, and French supporters in Canada are aiding them secretly.

Friday, the 13th of July. Old Mitzcher died last night after several weeks of serious illness.⁵ He was sixty-four years old; he had lived for a while in Purysburg and then spent the last few years with his family here in Ebenezer. His entire life was filled with sinning; even during his last illness it had not been easy to make him realize his trespasses. He would have liked to take Holy Communion a few weeks ago; however, I did not want rush him or be rushed in this matter, and finally he received Holy Communion at his urgent request two days before his death in the presence of his family. He repented his sins with all his heart and professed a great hungering and thirsting for the Savior of all poor sinners to whom he commended his soul as a poor worm.

Old Kiefer from Purysburg was present, at my request, because he was more familiar with this man’s character than I am. Kiefer reminded him emphatically of his earlier life in Germany and in Purysburg; he commended to him that kind of order which grants grace to even the most hardened sinner. The dying man accepted all this so that pious Kiefer was able to vouch for him. Yesterday at his funeral late in the afternoon, I based my preaching on the edifying vita of the late Pastor Mischke, whom I hold in high esteem and I continued where I had left off last time. Strangely enough, I came across a passage dealing with his going to confession and attending Holy Communion. Since we also are going to take part in this Holy Sacrament, the day after tomorrow, we felt the text had provided us with a most welcome opportunity to prepare ourselves, with God’s blessing.

Sunday, the 15th of July. We would have liked to hold Holy Communion fourteen days ago; however, at that time I happened to be in Savannah to take care of the German settlers there. Afterwards, quite unexpectedly, I found that the President and other members of the Council required me to stay for a full week with the result that Holy Communion could not be held eight days ago. Today, I and seventy-four members of our community shared its blessing, God be praised! It was the fifth Sunday after Trinity. Several people had indicated their intention to participate but were unable to come; I do not know what prevented them from joining us. Others were asked to abstain this time, with good reason. Widow Lemmenhofer and my own wife would have preferred to take Holy Communion together with the community if they had not been kept from doing so by their lingering ailments. May our merciful God, in His goodness, protect these and other patients; may He use physical sickness in those who do not believe and use sickness in the unbelieving as a chastisement leading to salvation. Let us hope that those among the adherents and friends of Christ who are afflicted may not lack the consolations of the Holy Ghost; however, He would certainly not allow that, for He loves them much too much.

The heavy downpour is continuing. Today, especially today since three o’clock in the afternoon, it has rained violently and continuously; and this prevented us from holding our usual repetition hour. May our merciful God let this rain be a blessing for us and not a punishment! So far, the thunderstorms have been moderate; there are no reports of lightning striking or of fires resulting from lightning. In all fairness, we ascribe being spared to our Lord’s mercy. In the forests there are many trees which show the traces of being struck by lightning, some of these are quite close to our town.

Monday, the 16th of July. Sad news reached us from Savannah: an Englishman from Frederica drowned after falling out of his boat at night. A few days later, a German man sighted his body in the harbor at Savannah and pulled him out. It is likely that the Englishman had been drunk at the time of the accident. People say that, as a practical joke, he set a trap in his boat so that his friends would fall overboard when they got up; however, he himself became the victim of his prank. May God, by this terrible example, awaken others among us who sin so often!

At present, Creeks, Cherokees, and some French Indians are involved in a heated war against each other, resulting in atrocities being committed frequently. They usually torture their prisoners in terrible ways; for instance, first they play a long game of cat and mouse, beating, pushing, and wounding their victims. Then they tie them to poles and singe their naked bodies with burning pine-wood torches, roast their skins, and revive their prisoners from time to time, when they seem unconscious and near death, by throwing cold water on them, in order to be able to continue their cruel entertainment for some time longer. Indians who are executed this way or by other barbaric methods are said to display no signs of pain during these tortures; they do not flinch, nor do they cry out. I heard this not long ago about an old man who was scalped while still alive and shot to death afterwards; likewise about a young half-cast boy, born of an Indian mother and a European father, who was burned to death in the aforementioned manner by the Creeks. These heathens are otherwise cowards, but all the more cruel.

Tuesday, the 17th of July. Today, before my weekly sermon on the plantations, a Salzburger who arrived here with the first transport announced to me that necessity had forced him to buy a black female servant and that God had provided him with the means for doing so. His German servant was sick and wished very much to be free; he still had wife and children in Germany. He could not find a white female servant, he was badly pressed since he had three children, and both he and his wife were worn out from work and sickly. In the past, if anyone in our community spoke against using Negroes, then it was this man himself, a Salzburger named Leimberger; he probably would not have made this decision if he had not been forced into it by great necessity.⁶ Our own servants never were of much use, in the past they were lazy or restless; and now most of them have stopped working because of sickness, thus causing their employers great expense and trouble. Therefore, I do not feel that I can object when people wish to introduce Negroes into our community; in this as in all things I trust in God, who will show us in good time whether or not this practice is of any advantage to our people here.

In his last letter, our esteemed Mr. N. shared with me some very realistic thoughts which I have considered many times since. He writes:

Under these circumstances (namely, white laboreres asking such high daily wages and steep prices for their work), one can not blame the English for using Negroes as much as they do, since no workers are available cheaply. After all, goods produced here have to be produced inexpensively because of the cost of shipping them overseas; once exported, these goods still have to be competitive in price with goods produced by other nations.

Towards the end of his letter our benefactor promises to send an experienced winegrower along with a transport of servants, and he adds:

If this vintner does not succeed in finding cheap labor, then it will be no surprise if he, too, in order to keep his vineyards, calls for Negro laborers or else loses heart.

In this very important letter he approves of the small trading business started by Riedelsberger, for which I had lent him some money. Not only did this new business allow him to pay off his debts within two years, but he was also able to improve the state of his household and to do some building. In addition to that, he could afford to buy a Negro servant. Leimberger and another Salzburger on the plantations do no merchandizing; they rely on farming only, which is not profitable enough to afford buying male or female Negro servants. However, they were able to obtain the necessary money through various kinds of work connected with our mills. They had been hired to help with repairs, with cutting lumber and delivering it, with transporting some of our boards to Savannah, and with hauling loads from and to the mills for some of our people here. It goes without saying that their success is due to God’s blessing, otherwise it could have gone with them as it went with Peter and his companions when they fished throughout the night and caught nothing.

I am not sure that I am right when I conclude that God, who granted quite a few of our people (actually, a large number) a good income without the use of Negro servants, will continue to grant them prosperity if we are able to increase the opportunities for working and earning enough money. We are planning, with God’s help, to build a new sawmill for the benefit of our entire community. How easy it is for white people to make silk and to work with wood in the shade, now that this is getting underway! In the past, people had to work very hard to shell rice by using a wooden handmill; now we intend to build a rice husker next to the rice stamp, both run by water. In addition, our rice press and barley press are to be improved. Recently, in Jerusalem Church, I read the following beautiful passage from an account of a community of Evangelical Austrians who had moved to Siebenburgen:

They live here under these conditions: some earn money as tradesmen or by skilled labor; those who have not learned a craft work as day laborers or get wages by the hour, and some unmarried persons enter into service. All are accustomed to be content with very little and they lead very limited, modest, and simple lives.

At this point I made the following comment: “If the people here in this country were more like those Austrians, then they would succeed without the help of Negro servants.” Afterwards I heard that this remark of mine was ill received by several of the people; they believe that, since their own physical strength is declining and their servants are of almost no help, they are entitled to use Negroes. I have decided not to say one more word on this subject, either for or against it, since God’s hand could be involved in this matter. One thing, however, is certain: if Negroes were to be commonly used instead of poor white people then the latter’s opportunity for earning money at the mills would decrease also if the mill-owners were to use Negroes, too, or if people were to send Negroes to work at the mills. But in this matter, also, we trust in God!

Thursday, the 19th of July. A short while ago a new and quite large house was built on public land, close to the old orphanage. It has two large rooms and one smaller one on the first floor and one very long and wide room upstairs. This house, which had been in the planning for a long time, will be used for various communal affairs, especially for holding school; Kalcher and his family, who had stayed at the orphanage this year, will live there. God will show us whether or not such a spacious and well-built house, standing on a hill where the air is healthier, could be used in the future to provide a home for widows and orphans or be made into a hospital. Other considerable advantages of this house are its good well, the barn, many mature mulberry trees, and adjoining land where gardens could be planted. At present and for the next few years we have no need for a house which would serve these purposes; the reasons for this, however, I do not wish to mention at this time.

When the last batch of letters from Europe arrived here, good progress had been made in the building of this house but, it had not yet been completed. When Mr. Meyer, in the best interest of the entire community, had decided to devote himself again to the commerce he had been forced to give up, and when he also willingly agreed to resume the office of justice of the peace, he had mentioned that his old house, which had been built with money collected by Mr. Vigera, was too small. For the purpose of merchandizing, additional rooms would have to be constructed; and it was decided that the best solution would be to move Mr. Meyer into the new house rather than to rebuild his old one, which would have to be more spacious; another floor would also have to be added. Mr. Meyer agreed to this and moved into the new house last week. In turn, Kalcher bought, for twenty pounds Sterling, the house which was built by Mr. Vigera and which had been Mr. Meyer’s home until now. Kalcher now has a good house of his own, with two large rooms and one small one, and he lives right next to Mr. Meyer, which means that he has the use of the good well and that he also may take advantage of various other things which are the property of the orphanage. He is willing to let us use one of his rooms, which has a stove, for holding school; and he is asking only very little money for it. When we have the necessary money, we plan to build a schoolhouse next to the church.

Friday, the 20th of July. For the past fourteen days we have had much rain. It is a blessing for people and animals; not only our Indian corn, rice, and other crops picked up noticeably, but the grass on the meadows and hayfields grew very well and we have new hopes for a good hay harvest. The water level in the river has been rising steadily for the past six days; and our mills can be operated again, much to the relief of our people here as well as others. We would not appreciate our mill as much as we do if it did not occasionally lie idle (although the one with the double course fails us only very seldom in the year). In this country, God has been teaching us to be more respectful of wind, water, rain, sunshine, gristmills, and sawmills than people normally are; all of these things are indispensable blessings from God.

Saturday, the 21st of July. God-fearing Steiner is worn-out from too much hard work; his disloyal and strong-headed servants (a young married couple) stirred up much trouble for him and did considerable damage. Now he is forced to let Brandner, whose field-hand died recently, have them. It is to be hoped that Brandner will be able to discipline them since he has a clever wife who is quite experienced in running a household, and she probably will be able to keep these unruly people in check; Steiner, as a widower, did not do as well in this respect. He feels that his strength is dwindling fast, and he suspects his departure from this world is near. He asked me to take care of his three young sons and to take charge of their education in the case of his death; his household is deteriorating greatly because he lacks a wife or a housekeeper, and he is getting poorer and poorer. Only a few days ago he lost two good cows and three pigs to a very common disease. In the newspapers from Halle for the year 1749, number 18, I found instructions for preventing fatal sicknesses in animals; the author is a prominent and experienced man, and we are grateful for his advice. I am letting my sons write out several copies of this article to make the information known to our people. The preventive measures are inexpensive and easy to obtain.

Monday, the 23rd of July. It is surprising how cool the nights are during the dog days this year. The heat in the daytime is also moderate, and we can not complain. Several of the servants who were sick are recovering from the fever; and, since their employers nursed them back to health, they should repay their kindness with gratitude by serving them well. By working hard from now on they could probably lessen the financial burden brought on by their missing work and causing additional expenses. However, disloyalty and ungratefulness are among the main characteristics of our German servants here, as bad as ever seen in Negro servants. I am very sad that I can do so little with my office to improve these matters. From past experience I know that these servants only cause trouble.

I am not surprised that our Salzburgers have lost their confidence in white servants and do not wish to have anything to do with them in the future. These people are only a burden; and it would mean financial ruin for our people if they had to pay them or if they had to reimburse our Lord Trustees for paying their passage from Europe, namely, for each adult six pounds Sterling. They hardly earn their keep and clothing, and they are mostly unruly and ill-tempered. Other Germans here in this country contribute to this by corrupting talk and tempting them into disloyalty and dissatisfaction. A female servant who is of marriageable age can hardly be found any more because there are many opportunities for such women to get married quickly within our own community, or else they marry and leave us. If permission to marry is denied, nothing but considerable trouble results.

In this country, people do not hire free servants as is done in Europe; rather, servants are bought for a number of years, so little can be accomplished with them. We do not have much hope for improvement of this situation because there are so few white settlers in this or other colonies. The land for plantations costs next to nothing, and people have the opportunity to earn unreasonably high daily wages. Maybe this problem will improve if more Negroes come to this country. From experience we know that, when these unwilling servants regain their freedom and work for their own profit, then they usually do hard work well and fast, and they make excellent colonists.

If a solution could be found for our dear, over-worked Salzburgers concerning their subsistence, then it would be of advantage to this country if all servants could be set free with the understanding that they themselves would pay off the money laid out for their passage from Europe in time by making barrel staves, shingles, etc. Wooden articles of this kind are very much sought after in the West Indies, and the prices for those goods have gone up considerably in Carolina and other provinces where good oaks are becoming rare. We, however, have an excellent opportunity to make such things if we use the timberstands growing on our large island. The day before yesterday, a servant of Col. Heron again delivered a letter to me in which he asks my help in obtaining barrel staves, shingles, boards, etc. for his ship he has sent to Savannah.

Several of our servants bought their freedom from service, some of them in Savannah and some of them here in Ebenezer, with cash I lent them (because under the circumstances it had been in the best interest of our community). Two of them do work as carpenters and they are very loyal;⁷ two others, at our request, started making clay bricks and firing them. I had been worried that their first serious attempt at this very difficult work would miscarry, since they knew how to make and fire bricks only from watching but had had no actual training themselves. Furthermore, heavy and long-lasting rains had done some damage while the bricks were being fired. However, my dear colleague told me that, when the kiln was opened, the bricks looked so fine that both young men were quite encouraged to continue from now on with this very much needed and useful work, which is rather important to our community.

In Savannah only very poor quality bricks are being made, one thousand pieces cost between eighteen and twenty shillings Sterling, and they are stored at quite a distance from the waterways. How much more would it cost if those were bought and then transported to the river and then shipped to us by boat! Also, the more craftsmen and reliable workers we have among us, the more improvement is to be expected in our food situation. The conditions here are ideal for making bricks: down at the river there are veritable mountains and large expanses of good quality clay, water and wood are also near by, and there is plenty of both available. Furthermore, several thousand bricks can be shipped in one load for sale in Savannah. I wish we had a potter, too; we could make good dishes easily and sell them locally in neighboring colonies, and in Augustine.⁸

Several of our men tried their hand at tanning, but there are still problems. A man in Purysburg, out of greed and spite, is asking forty pounds Sterling tuition money. I wrote a letter to a good friend in Charleston, and at the same time to Pastor Brunnholz, asking them to teach us by correspondence how to make various kinds of leather; for we need tanners urgently. I am also asking those of our esteemed benefactors in Europe who read this diary to write to us and have a competent tanner teach us this skill by letter. The reason we do not want skilled craftsmen from Europe to come to join us here is that these people then insist on doing only what falls within the competence of their craft; we had trouble of this kind in the past. However, skilled craftsmen, like those mentioned earlier, are needed here if we are to make a success of trading, which is most important here, and if we are to improve our subsistence. I have no doubt that our Fathers and benefactors understand very well why I include such secular matters, which will not be of interest to all readers, in this diary.

I would like to speak briefly again of the four servants whom I helped to buy their freedom: they are an example for the fact that these people can contribute greatly to the community if they work for their own profit and if they are free.⁹ Other servants would behave in a similar manner if they were given an opportunity to obtain their freedom; likewise the households in which they work would be better off since people are fairly tired of the problems with their servants, who do more harm than good. Such a solution would also be in keeping with the plans of our Lord Trustees.

Young Kiefer and his brother-in-law, Kronberger, both keep a Negro at our place, and they planted good fields of Indian and local crops. Our people here took notice of that; it seems that they are all set on either buying or borrowing Negroes. We would certainly not begrudge such an opportunity to our dear people who can not succeed without help; it would be easier for them to solve their food problems thus than if they were on their own or had white servants. However, we will not become involved in the buying or selling of Negroes, even if they would welcome it. If they like the idea of giving their servants their freedom in exchange for six-thousand barrel staves made within five months (and I hope that both our people as well as the servants will like this solution), then soon each household, or two together, could buy a Negro in the near future without incurring too many debts, especially if our people themselves worked more with wood instead of concentrating on farming. In this matter, too, let us trust in our benevolent Lord and His blessed mercy!

Tuesday, the 24th of July. A single young woman and her illegitimate child were among our servants here. Yesterday, quite unexpectedly, this child died and was buried today in the cemetery on the plantations. I have never seen any mother carry on as she did during the funeral, screaming and crying; probably she could not even hear the good things that were being said at the funeral service. Both she and her child had been been lucky, living with a family of substantial and Christian Salzburgers; as I heard, the child was also well cared for during its short illness.

Wednesday, the 25th of July. This morning I traveled to Goshen to visit the German settlers behind Abercorn. They met quickly in order to hear a sermon on the noteworthy words from Psalms 5:5-7; and I demonstrated to them, with love and seriousness, the extent and dangers of sinning and in which order they can extricate themselves from their temporal and eternal misery. These people show much affection for both me and my dear colleague and they listen, even when they are reproached for improper conduct. However, true conversion comes not easily.

When I returned home in the evening and was about to leave for our prayer meeting, I received the unpleasant news that the Indians, once again, had come and stolen a riding horse each from two of our people and taken them to Augusta; this had happened to other people in this colony before. One of the horses had been recovered by force; the better of the two, however, was speedily ridden off by the thieves; this horse was of greatest importance to Hanns Schmidt, a good man, who had bought it for ten pounds Sterling for his business in connection with the cowpen which had been purchased near Old Ebenezer. Immediately after our prayer hour I wrote a letter to several gentlemen in Mount Pleasant and in and around Augusta, asking them to take possession of this well-known horse if the Indians brought it in and to restore it to us. Tomorrow morning, one of our fastest messengers will be sent after these Indians on horseback, carrying this open letter. It could very well mean the financial ruin of Schmidt if he were to lose this horse, which is an absolute necessity to him.

Last week, a party of Indians had come to Savannah in order to get the presents which, by order of the king, they receive each year; clothing, blankets, linen, pretty boxes, woven cloth, rifles, powder, lead, axes, knives, and other household items. Instead of showing gratitude to, and affection for, the white people, these Indians first behaved disgracefully in Savannah; and then, on their way back home, they stole whatever they could find and take with them from gardens, fields, and paddocks. Usually, if they run out of meat underway, they shoot the best cows and oxen, take only the choice pieces and leave the rest to rot in the forest with the hide still on.

As a result of being treated so kindly by the English and after receiving so many gifts from them, these Indians have turned rebellious, and they have become impertinent and mean. On the other hand, the French and Spanish know how to keep them in check. The Indians know the boundaries between English, French, or Spanish territory very well; and they are crafty enough to let themselves be bribed by the French and Spanish into doing damage to the English. At present there is talk of a war between the English and the Indians, which seems to be unavoidable because the Indians take more and more liberties. In Europe, deer skins have become inexpensive, and traders can no longer afford to pay the same good prices they paid in the past. The Indians, on the other hand, insist unreasonably on being paid the same as before. This situation can easily lead to war. May God avert this danger from us!

A soldier from Frederica, together with his wife, has settled on a plantation on Ebenezer Creek; this year he planted its worst kind of land. In the spring, I saw with pity how scraggly his crops looked; nothing but a very poor harvest could reasonably be expected. However, since husband and wife both had worked very hard and said their prayers, God granted us good weather, especially in the area of their plantation. As a result, their crops of grain, beans, squash, and melons turned out as well as on one of the best pieces of land; both are filled with joy and praise the Lord. At noon today the wife, who lives in genuine fear of God, brought me, in a container she carried on her head, some fruit from their plantation, namely, a very large watermelon and several kinds of exceptionally good peaches.

Friday, the 27th of July. At the beginning of this week, when our shoemaker, Kohleisen, wanted to travel to Savannah, I sent word to him through his tythingman, or headman, to warn him not to get drunk again since, intoxicated, he would probably start some trouble, as, unfortunately, is his habit of doing. One of the people who took the same trip told me afterwards that, when he came aboard for the journey back home, he was dead drunk and fell into the river after they had left. No doubt he would have drowned, had it not been for the mercy of God, who allowed his traveling companion to save him most miraculously. After that, he was in great danger two more times. He has behaved this way ever since he came here, and word has it that he was the same way back in Germany. We have tried to be kind to him and we have tried to be firm, but we have succeeded only in preventing him from drinking excessively here in Ebenezer. He makes up for it at other places though, for example, in Purysburg or in Savannah, whenever he gets a chance to go there. So far, he has been an example of God’s patience and mercy; I fear, however, that one day he will be made an example of divine justice and punishment, since he exhibits no signs of repentance. His wife is a pious woman; she has shed many a tear because of him and has sent many a sigh to God.

Saturday, the 28th of July. Our merciful God granted us very good weather which makes the fields fertile. A short while ago we had sufficient rain; now we have sufficient warmth and sunshine. The nights are cool, however; and we can sleep in comfort. Two weeks ago we believed that the river would rise a good deal (but the water level fell soon after that and we could not even use the lower millrun). Our people here as well as people in other communities would welcome it if our mills were rebuilt so that they could operate throughout the year, at least when using the lowest run. The water level usually falls after the wheat harvest and after the rye has been brought in, just at the time when we need the mill most.

Recently, my dear colleague has been giving some more thought to this problem; he is thinking of having a channel dug to bring in more water to the mill stream. Various other practically-minded people had thought of such a solution in the past; however, we have lacked both the manpower and the money for such an undertaking so far; and we still do. It has to be considered, though, that profits from running the mill year round would, hopefully, soon cover the building costs. As long as we don’t have enough laborers, however, we can not start work on the channel, even if we had the money. Since our field hands arrived here, our farmers have started to plant larger rice and grain fields, so that public works do not benefit from these laborers.

Until now, much other useful public work could not be undertaken if God had not seen to it that the three Schubdrein brothers bought their freedom in Savannah, with money supplied mostly by us. Furthermore, we would not have a worker with his wife and five children in my house who, in addition to doing whatever needs to be done here, can also be called upon to work on public undertakings. Maybe these people can help dig the planned channel; on the other hand, we do not want to interrupt the useful progress of making and firing bricks. An impoverished English engineer, Brown, recently moved here to Ebenezer and asked us for work. For some time now he and Kogler have been busy making improvements on our rice stamp and barley press. Next to these, on the same drive-shaft, a machine will be mounted for shelling rice with great speed.

Brown also had some good ideas for constructing a windmill, which is to be used to separate the chaff from the kernels. We consider it a sign from God that we have received this knowledgeable, hard-working, and modest worker, who is content with little. People think that the work he did in Purysburg and in our rice stamp was well done; the fact that he is not very successful and poorly paid has its special reasons. Furthermore, here in Ebenezer, he will never work as an independent master builder; rather, he will work under Kogler’s and Rottenberger’s supervision, which he is quite willing to do. Since Kogler now has such an able assistant for building mills, I hope that very soon he will start the construction of a new sawmill, which is to be run by a small and easily accessible river. The preliminary discussions and work have been completed already. If God grants us success in this undertaking (as we trust and hope), then the food situation in Ebenezer will be much improved.

Monday, the 30th of July. For the past few days our schoolmaster on the plantations /Wertsch/ has been ill with fever; meanwhile I hold school in his place since my dear colleague is busy teaching the children in town. There is quite a difference between the schoolmaster we used to have on the plantations, and the new one. This can be plainly seen from the increased number of children attending school as well as from the fact that the children’s education is progressing very well. The parents also say that their children love their schoolmaster like a father and are very eager to go to school. I enjoyed very much seeing for myself how well-behaved and well-taught our children are. Almost the only good thing that has resulted from the arrival of the transport of servants here¹⁰ seems to be that we acquired a clever and hard-working schoolmaster, who also conducts himself properly. We also take good care of him.

Widow Lemmenhofer seems ever closer to death. She is suffering from dysentery and other ailments and her health is declining rather than improving. She is a good widow, as described by Paul, and she has had a good reputation in our community during all the time we have known her. Today, when I arrived, Mrs. Kalcher, a woman who is well-versed in the catechism, was with her. She was telling her about yesterday’s consoling sermon based on the Seventh Sunday after Trinity dealing with those of the poor whose character exhibits the good qualities described in the introductory verses of Tobit 4:22 and the gospel.¹¹ We prayed together and I felt strengthened and awakened.

Tuesday, the 31st of July. It seems that the suggestion which I had recently made to some of our people concerning their servants, namely to give them their much sought-after freedom in exchange for making a certain amount of barrel-staves, is not very practical. One major obstacle is apparently that we do not have enough oak trees which yield wood suitable for barrel staves. Although many oaks grow on our large island, I hear that the trees have so many branches that only a small part of the wood could be used and that it would require a great deal of work at that. Some trees also have worm-holes and are useless for this reason.

On the good land on this side of the island most of the white oaks have been felled and then been left to rot away or were burned since this area used to be used as plantation land. We have, however, an abundance of very good cypresses; from which shingles, timber for building, and boards can be made, which bring a good price. There are enough white oaks on the Uchee land¹² and on the new plantations behind Abercorn, which our community will be able to use if they get more help.

AUGUST

Wednesday, the 1st of August. Whenever God lets me live from the end of one month to the beginning of the next, I become deeply aware of the progress of time; I try to benefit from this awareness in our communal meetings, while preaching on the divine word as well as while praying. The fleeting nature of time and our haste into eternity impress me greatly and cause me to think seriously upon my own death; various health problems, although minor, contribute to some extent to these feelings. This time, God in His goodness made the change yesterday from the last day of July to the first day of August a memorable one and granted great edification to my soul through my praying and contemplating God’s word, first in my house, then in the one into which Kalcher just moved, and then in the school at the plantations, where, much to my delight, I now hold school in place of our sick schoolmaster /Wertsch/.

It would be too big a task to enumerate in detail all the spiritual blessings God has sent to us; I will mention here only how our loving God has granted a great deal of consolation to me and my wife, who had been dangerously ill for a long time. We both felt strengthened despite our circumstances, which are frequently oppressive enough, by the edifying contemplation of the passage devoted to yesterday, the last day of July: “Call upon me in the day of trouble”¹ etc., which is contained in Mr. Bogatzky’s Daily Housebook of the Children of God;² while reading these edifying words it almost seemed to me as if the author had known of my wife’s spiritual and physical difficulties and had set down his instruction and consolation for this day accordingly.

No two faces could be more alike than the similarities between my wife’s spiritual and secular circumstances during her protracted tribulations and those described in this beautiful testimony to a woman who bears her cross steadfastly, like a person blessed in God. Shortly before that, we had been reading from the Little Treasure Chest:³ “Restore unto me the joy of thy salvation,” etc.; “As one whom a mother comforteth, so I will comfort you”.⁴ Afterwards, in our little room, we prayed together, simply and with all our heart, to God, our Father. I had returned to my work right after that, but then it occurred to me to consult the Daily Housebook in order to see which verse was dedicated to the day. When I saw what it was, I felt that God’s promise had been fulfilled by this verse, together with our beautiful meditation “I will comfort you,” etc.; and, filled with joy, I hastened to show this passage to my wife. I have no doubt that the time will come when God will let us offer our sincere thanksgiving to Him for all His help.

In addition to the books and newspapers, the chest from Halle contained selected verses for special holidays, printed in large letters on quarto pages; these I gave to the schoolchildren on the plantations today and they were overjoyed. I gave to each child one verse with which it had not been familiar so far; to the youngest children I gave the ones which were the shortest and the easiest, the older children received longer and more difficult verses; the children will memorize these verses at home and will recite them by heart tomorrow and the day after tomorrow. My dear colleague will do the same in the school in town tomorrow. Very recently I felt inspired anew by reading in the East Indian Reports about the great care our esteemed missionaries and their dear assistants there take to teach the children.⁵ May our loving God bless them and their simple endeavors.

In Augsburg, some time ago, in complying with a humble request from us, the powerful evangelical words from Zechariah 9:9, “Rejoice greatly, O Daughter of Zion” had been copied on parchment most beautifully, decorated with edifying scenes and then framed under glass. The costs were met by several of our most esteemed benefactors, especially by our dear Pastor Schäffer in Regensburg. Unfortunately, during shipping, while still in the chest, the glass was broken, presumably by customs officials in London; in the past this prevented us from displaying these very beautifully written and painted pages containing the verse. Now, however, we were able to mount both pictures on the wall behind the pulpit in Jerusalem Church as well as in Zion Church, since this verse brought a joyous message to the Zion and Jerusalem of the New Testament. When a teacher is standing there preaching, they are visible above his head.

We also have several rather edifying etchings from Augsburg, done on large pages of best quality paper, depicting artistic and life-like scenes from the life of Christ from His birth to Ascension. Until now, we could not display them in church because we lacked frames; now we hope that engineer Brown, who works here, will be able to make some for us. They will be fine decorations for our church, and people will be edified by looking at them. Perhaps at some time in the future our dear God will send us such edifying Biblical pictures for our schools, which would enhance considerably the lessons taught to the younger and more simple children. I know from experience, since our catechism is illustrated, that the pictures are of value in teaching.

For several years now, some people among us who are knowledgeable in such things have been of the opinion that a rather long channel ought to be dug in order to increase the water level at our mill stream by about two feet, bringing in more water from the Savannah River. The advantage of such an undertaking would be that at least our flour mill could be worked at times when the water level is at its lowest. Nobody doubted that this plan would be practical, if only we had enough money and laborers to make it a reality. If we had not lacked both money and workers in the past, we would have gone ahead and undertaken this necessary and much wished-for task.

However, my dear colleague, Mr. Lemke, realized, on the basis of calculations he had been making yesterday and the day before yesterday, that, had we dug this channel, it would have done us great damage; he proved thoroughly and mathematically that, through this channel we had planned, water from our mill stream would have flowed back into the Savannah River rather than the other way around. These calculations did not turn out the way our people, as well as others, would have wished, since now there is no hope left that the water level could be increased in our mill stream, no matter how hard people were willing to work. Nevertheless, I consider it a benefaction from God and a sign from Him that we learned of the nature of these two rivers beforehand, rather than learning of it after having built a channel and spent even the least amount of money on it. May God allow us to submit totally to His fatherly guidance in all things from now on, and may He permit us to practice the festina lente in a Christian manner! May He also fill the hearts of all of our people here with gratitude for the great blessing of our mills. Although they cannot be worked year-round, they are still a worldly treasure for our community. Perhaps God will grant us a second sawmill soon, which, in turn, will enable us to construct a second flour-mill we are planning to build in a little river that is not as close by as could be wished but is deep and convenient enough, and which is fed by springs and rain, resulting in running water throughout the year.

Friday, the 3rd of August. Recently, N.N. promised to mend his ways, but now he has sinned again: in anger, he shouted incredible curses at his wife. I punished him for this yesterday, and I demonstrated to him from God’s word how he would be judged. But it did little good. He threatened to run away and leave his wife and children. I did not answer because I knew well that he would not do that; he would not leave the children. Today I visited the couple again. To my great joy I found that he had asked his wife’s forgiveness on his knees, and he had prayed to God, asking Him to grant them a change of their circumstances and to forgive them their many sins. He was embarrassed and depressed; he willingly listened to me when I showed him that he was in grave danger, and he promised to pray frequently, on his knees, and to keep his shortcomings in check. His wife was likewise reminded how to behave towards her hot-tempered husband and to conduct herself obediently, cleverly, quietly, and gently. We prayed together, and I left them the beautiful words Colossians; 3 12-15 for later contemplation.

Sunday, the 5th of August. Today, my dear colleague, who had held the sermon in Zion Church again, brought me the news that today, on the Eighth Sunday after Trinity, widow Lemmenhofer had been set free from her earthly pains and tribulations by a temporal death. Yesterday, after school, I had gone to visit her and had found her very weak and eager to leave this world. I asked her whether, in her heart of hearts, she was sure that her sins had been forgiven and that she would enter the heavenly kingdom. She had no doubts whatsoever. She had trouble in speaking because of her weakness and the pain. I reminded her of the words: “Look unto me and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth.”⁶ God had blessed her husband in church with these words not long before his death. I also recited for her the precious words of our crucified Savior: “Verily I say unto thee, Today shalt thou be with me in paradise.”⁷ This message filled her with joy. Finally I asked her whether or not she had put her worldly affairs in order and whether or not she had seen to it that after her departure from this world no quarrels and disputes would arise. She answered that Glaner knew her wishes.

She had lived on her late husband’s small plantation close to the mill, and her household was always well-run; her neighbors, especially the aforementioned Glaner, helped her out regularly when she needed them. She had enjoyed living quietly by herself, and therefore she had never engaged any servants. The house she had built on the plantations was one of the best, built in the style of Salzburger houses, made of strong wood. She also leaves a good many head of cattle and horses and various household items and furniture. There are even rumors she may have left a good sum of cash. Glaner, her only relative by marriage, will probably inherit all, although I am sure she also thought of some of our widows and orphans and I do not doubt she left them something, too.

Monday, the 6th of August. Widow Lemmenhofer was properly buried today after school, which I am still holding myself while our schoolmaster is sick. God granted us a great deal of edification; we contemplated part of the vita of the late Pastor Mischke.⁸ Many people had come, as always when a pious member of our community is buried; invitations are not necessary.

At present, with God’s help, in my free time at home and on the plantations in the hours after school and before our weekly sermon, I am reading a very remarkable account of the missionaries in the East Indies.⁹ God has granted me to apply the not inconsiderable benefit I derived from it to fulfilling faithfully my Christian duties and my office as a teacher. I found, among other insights, the following items especially impressive:

1. Missionary work and missionary institutions are sanctified by God not only through the fact that so many gifts are given in joy and with the blessing of many hundreds of honest servants and children of God but also by the fact that other very important tokens of divine mercy, all-encompassing power, and wisdom are revealed by Him every day; it would lead too far to enumerate these in detail here.

2. The genuine unanimity between the missionaries and their assistants.

3. Their untiring efforts in assuming their various tasks at home and on their journeys.

4. Their wisdom and quickwittedness in the face of so many serious incidents. The clever and Christian conduct of missionary Fabricius at Madras during the siege laid by the French and the subsequent occupation of the area after its fall ought to serve as an example for the wisdom and strength given to these servants of God by Him and ought to demonstrate how much He loves their prayer and service.

5. Their exceptional patience and steadfastness in the face of the personal suffering they have to endure, both spiritually and physically, just like the first adherents of our Lord Jesus, as is written in 2 Corinthians 6;4-10.

6. The great care with which they hold Holy Baptism and Holy Communion; it shows most pleasantly God’s assistance and blessing. I am taking note especially of the edifying signs of God’s grace in those who were baptized, received Holy Communion, died, etc.; I intend to share these examples with my own listeners, partly in order to humble them and partly in order to enlighten them.

7. Their insatiable hunger and thirst for saving all people in those parts of the world; they need such enthusiasm as a means to help them overcome people’s fears, stupidity, prejudice and other serious difficulties.

8. The humble and friendly manner in which they embrace even the poorest, least important, and most despised persons, following the example of our Savior.

9. Their Christian and most commendable custom of praying, of singing, and of holding funeral sermons at the funerals of their converted Christians in order to edify the survivors and the funeral attendants.

10. Their steadfast teaching of the dogma of sin, as well as of the blessed salvation from sin, through the powerful Savior of the world.

11. The frequent repetition of publicly held sermons.

12. The very useful effect of the schools built now and then for the heathens.

13. Their Christian thriftiness in distributing the gifts sent by European benefactors, thereby serving to spread God’s word.

14. Their frequent visits to sick and dying Christians.

15. Their lively exchange of letters not only among themselves, but also their communications with rural parsons and teachers of the catechism, as well as their brotherly letters to their beloved brothers in Madras and Cudulur.

16. Their frequent prayer and teaching of God’s word both at the mission house as well as in the houses of newly-converted Christians. May God protect His servants and the good works done through them; may He send them among the heathens so that many poor souls can be saved! May He also bless the friends and benefactors of those missionaries and inspire others to follow in their footsteps!

Tuesday, the 7th of August. Last night, and also for some time during the day today, we had some rain; towards noon it turned into a violent downpour that lasted for the rest of the day and into the night. The water-level in the Savannah River is rising very fast now, and our mills can be worked again. Because of the bad weather I thought only a few people would attend our weekly sermon; however, in addition to the children, a good number of men and women came. God, through His word, granted me great edification. Our schoolmaster seems to have recovered somewhat from the fever; he held school himself again today for the first time since he fell ill.

Wednesday, the 8th of August. Since some of our people here have shown considerable interest in keeping slaves, after our servants arrived here, I, too, have been thinking about this. While I was considering the problem, God arranged matters so that, at the time I had to make a decision, I was reading the two appended reports of the East-Indies account, numbers sixty-five and sixty-six which had arrived in the chest from Halle. The following passages in these reports added to my information and influenced my thoughts: appendix number sixty-five, page 797: “Several heathens told one of the assistants, Joshua, that, in their opinion, the Patres in Trankenbar (as they call us missionaries) did so much good by putting an end to the slave trading there. They also said such good deeds were rare.” From appendix sixty-six, page 1042: “Another heathen was very pleased that the slave trading had been stopped.” From an edifying letter by Mr. Diego, a country parson, to Doctor Professor Francke, page 1072: “After I had left for Tanschauer, the Roman Catholics got together, went before the city sheriff, and accused me of having commited the crime of slave trading (which is a sin and very much abhorred by the heathens who, also punish it).”

Therefore, on Sunday (the 5th of this month), when I heard that young Kieffer had bought another young female slave in Carolina for thirty-four pounds Sterling, I became very uneasy. They now have one male Negro, two such black women, and a young boy as slaves. At the closing of our prayer hour we sang: Wer hofft in Gott und dem vertraut, wird nimmermehr zuschanden; and: Wer auf diesen Felsen baut, etc.¹⁰ People sang these words of faith with so much enthusiasm that I was strongly impressed; and I would have wished to write them down, using large letters and the same style as our verses for holidays which were printed in Halle, and to fasten these sheets on the doors of all of our dear listeners! In the future, I will not say anything against keeping slaves anymore, since our Lord Trustees allow it. Also, many of our people here are convinced that slaves are necessary because we lack capable and reliable servants I, however, sigh, for myself as well as for others: Lead us not into temptation! People could easily be tempted, if they are insincere about the preceding fifth petition but, rather, fall even deeper into sin by obvious or subtle conformity to the world.

I was positively impressed by what Mr. Lemke said to me on Sunday: because the children of Israel did not know any better, the Lord saw to it that the Canaanites remained in the land, turning afterwards into a nuisance, leading to unrest and punishment. The same could easily become true as far as Negro slaves are concerned; there are many sad examples to that effect.

Friday, the 10th of August. The seven tythingmen or headmen of the seven districts in our community are of great service; so far they had several clever plans and carried them out well. Today, after school and before the time for our weekly sermon, I met with those who administer the areas at the plantations. I read to them a certain written document and also explained it; I asked them to make the content of this document known among the people of their district. This is quite important for me, for my dear colleague, and even for the entire community. The devil is ever on the alert to hamper attempts at improving people’s circumstances; his work is all the more dangerous if it is cloaked in the pretense of good intent, as is the case in this matter. However, when we learn the truth in time, things go well.

N.N., an honest man, had taken the side of a certain person; in his anger, however, he had gone too far; and I had to remind him of his duty and punish him. He was finally willing to listen to me and followed my advice, otherwise the damage done would have been even greater. He regretted his temper, almost crying; and he told me something which I had to know in order to prevent certain irregularities which were about to take place in Old-Ebenezer. Conformity to the world occurred several times in the past, but I never know for sure what is in everybody’s heart. This time it became apparent in several people who have business at our recently purchased cowpen.

Saturday, the 11th of August. God has sent a violent fever to Zoller, that mean servant of the wife of our clock-maker. It is my dearest wish that, harnessed by disease, he will take the opportunity and allow us to save him from his misery¹¹ and lead him to genuine repentance and to Christ. He is good at pretending; he acts as if he truly feels and regrets his many and serious sins. His wife, who has a better heart but who is quite ignorant,¹² says now that he has started to pray, using his own words and confiding his misery to God; she also says he asks her to pray with him frequently.

Sunday, the 12th of August. This Sunday, the ninth after Trinity, seventy-four members of our community and three people from Purysburg held Holy Communion. Several more had indicated their wish to participate, too; some did not come, for reasons unknown to me, others I myself asked, out of love for them, to wait a little longer in order to prepare themselves better. Several people from Goshen came and attended our public service, and we had quite a large gathering. God, in His mercy, granted us to spread His word vigorously, three times. He will surely not let it be without His blessing. I believe that God’s word teaches all of us the path to life in such a simple and easily understood manner that, at the reckoning on the Day of Judgment, no excuses will be possible. God may have pity on those who, despite all attempts at enlightenment, warnings, and punishments, prefer to remain in spiritual death and seek consolation in the pleasures of the flesh.

Monday, the 13th of August. Yesterday morning I received several letters at once, some from Charleston and some from Savannah. Dr. Graham writes in one of them how happy he was to hear that a machine had been invented and constructed which promises to do the following: to make the shelling of rice fast, cheap, and easy, separate the chaff from the grain, and to press it, all in one process and with the use of one water-driven mill wheel only. We also made several improvements on our old rice press. God helps us in all things; strangers are surprised by this and sometimes share our joy. If only all of our own people here would recognize how much goodness, spiritual as well as physical, our Lord has shown to us so far; if only they would do their part through prayer, good will, and honest and well-done work in exchange for cash in order to contribute to various useful projects.

Yesterday I spoke on the gospel dealing with the subject of Christian charity towards the poor; at the end of my sermon I asked my listeners to contribute lovingly their share through prayer, good will, and work, so that we here in Ebenezer can continue to make plans for projects which will benefit our community further and to carry out some of these plans. This way not only the poor among us would find an opportunity to increase their income but also those who would supervise them in their work, and this, in turn, would enable them to help the needy. Among such plans is the building of another millrun of the kind which could be worked for the most part of the year, even if the water level in the millstream is at its lowest; at present, we have only one, and we can not cope with the amounts of grain brought in for milling by our own people as well as by some from other places, at the time when it is most necessary.

Another plan is to build, in the German style, a second sawmill at a very convenient site; with God’s help, we hope to obtain a good income from such a mill. Since the previous batch of letters arrived here, several strange problems arose to hamper the building of this mill. I had attempted to deal with these difficulties by composing a written document (which I mentioned in the entry for the 10th of August), and I hope it will have its desired effect. Col. Heron (the former commanding officer in Frederica) wrote me a friendly letter from Charleston; he is asking for many boards, which he wants to ship to the West Indies and to Charleston. These boards, especially those made from cypress wood, are so much in demand in Carolina that the merchants pay almost any price one asks, up to twenty shillings Sterling for one hundred feet. Mr. Heron informs me also that definite news reached Charleston, namely that the government in our colony would change soon. He mentions that Mr. Habersham would be in a position to tell me more about it, but he did not write anything about that. Someone who had been at Port Royal heard there that Parliament had decided to strengthen this colony again with a sizeable regiment for its defense.

Wednesday, the 15th of August. Recently, during the dog days, our weather was moderate, partly because of the rain and partly because of cool winds. Of the people who have lived here for some years, only a few came down with fever this summer. Most of our servants, however, are sick with fever; they have to get used to this climate. The three Schubdrein brothers, who bought their freedom, have served our community well as free men. So far, despite the hard work they did, they had remained healthy, but now they are complaining of some ailment. They are honest people, and they are setting a good example for others. They are also well-liked and respected by most people of our community.

The youngest brother wishes to go to Germany as soon as possible in order to bring back with him to this country the rest of their brothers and sisters. This might be the opportunity I have been waiting for; and young Schubdrein could accompany my two sons, who wish to pursue their studies and who are eager to leave, to London and then on to Halle. May our dear God reveal to us His merciful and welcome wish in this matter! In taking such an important step no undue haste ought to be shown. Concerning the plans for my sons, I had written to Charleston as well as to our esteemed Mr. Albinus. Mr. Habersham’s ship had to wait for the right winds and was finally able to sail on the 1st of August. Already several years ago I obtained the permission of dear Doctor Professor Francke to send the boys to Halle.

Friday, the 17th of August. Ruprecht Steiner, an honest widower, is weak and despondent, not only from too much hard work but also from bad luck; in quick succession he lost several head of cattle and some pigs. He also had to let go his two willful servants (a married couple); and his household has been deteriorating for quite a while now. He has three sickly sons; the oldest is about thirteen years old, and they do their best to help, but I would have preferred to see him keep the servants. He thinks, however, that the couple was a bad influence and he could no longer stand their quarreling and dishonesty nor could he discipline them. Servants of their kind need two masters, both the head of the household as well as a wife who can keep a sharp eye on them. Brandner will handle them better. I gave twenty shillings Sterling as a gift to Steiner because he was so ill and depressed; also, in keeping with the wish of the Lord Trustees to encourage silk-making, I gave him two pounds Sterling for that purpose as well as several large and well-developed mulberry trees. I would like to help him in other ways also, if only I knew how. I could assist him in finding light work, since he can not possibly run a plantation; I could ease his worries for his children, and the two older ones I could place with good masters for learning a trade. However, he loves his sons so much that he does not want to be separated from them.

Saturday, the 18th of August. This week the long bridge which leads to the sawmill and which is used for rolling logs up to the mill was repaired. Shortly before that, our new rice-mill had been completed; both undertakings are quite important for us and will benefit our community greatly. Today we held a conference with our most experienced master-builders and carpenters in the hope that they will come to a conclusion regarding the sawmill which we intend to construct. If the new dam is to be built the same way our present dam at the mills is built, then it would require a great deal of time and money; therefore we suggested another method of construction which would result also in a durable dam, but our expenses would be cut by one-fifth; and we convinced them all. God be praised for the signs of His merciful care for us and His guidance in this important undertaking! May He be praised also for the good will among our workers! May He continue to look upon us in kindness and may He bless this important task, which we will undertake in the very near future! We intend to work only for His glory and for the benefit of our community.

Monday, the 20th of August. I had asked a good friend of mine from Carolina, with whom I exchange letters regularly and to whom I lend books if he needs them, to send me Dr. Walch’s Introduction to the Religious Struggles of the Evangelical Lutheran Church,¹³ which I wanted to read. What I have learned so far has made me quite sad; it is rather obvious how busily Satan has been at work since the blessed Reformation took place, sowing the seeds of discord among the members of the Christian Church as well as in the hearts of many of its ministers, widening the rifts of disagreements. I myself will do my best to pray with all my heart for our poor and troubled church, which is being maligned by its Papist and other enemies because of its problems; and I will strive, day and night, for peace and grace, without which no one will be granted to look upon our Lord. I find it highly significant that our Lord Jesus, in His prayer as a High-priest of His church, recommended peace and unity of purpose with so much emphasis to His ministers and listeners; also, after His resurrection He preached peace to His apostles and granted it to them.

Tuesday, the 21st of August. Some of our people could not come to terms with the fact that I had assisted those who run the plantations and that I had, in a manner of speaking, forgotten to take care of my own house and my own family’s needs. Therefore, some time ago, without my knowing about it or planning any of it, the President and the Assistants of the Council saw to it that I was given a piece of very fertile land in Goshen, behind Abercorn, altogether six-hundred acres, to be used by two of the preachers for the community of Ebenezer. I could not have wished for anything better. Also, a few months later, I was offered a plantation for my family of almost five hundred acres in the same neighborhood, close to the Savannah River; there, I would have our esteemed friend, Mr. Habersham, as a neighbor.¹⁴ Doctor Graham also lives there; he is a member of the Council and a friend of our community.

The land bordering on the western side of this plantation is settled by German people of our religion; they gave the name Goshen to this area which is extremely fertile and easily accessible. They would welcome me as their neighbor because they are worried that someone would move there who would run his plantation on a large scale with a great number of Negro slaves. My plantation has many advantages: plenty of good soil, trees, and pasture land. A creek runs through it, and on its north-eastern side it is bordered by the Savannah River, making it very easy to travel to and from it; fish can be caught simply by immersing a trap made from wooden dowels.

If I had refused this property, I would surely have invited bad will; several people from Carolina were most eager to buy this plantation. However, the members of the Council were not too pleased at the prospect of having these people from Carolina settle there, but they could not have very well refused to sell to them, had I refused to accept. The cost for surveying comes to five pounds Sterling; and I am assured by the authorities that there will be no pressure on me to take possession right away. At present, my official duties, my other business affairs, my lack of experience in running a plantation, and especially my frame of mind, make it practical for me to remain where I am, for the time being, rather than to start working the land, which could, eventually, improve our living conditions.

My wife is constantly ill, and the servants here in this country are unreliable and cost more than their services are worth; furthermore, I cannot bring myself to buy Negro slaves. Also, I am almost forty-seven years old and I have to devote so much of my time to the everyday affairs of our community that, by necessity, I have to neglect some of the main duties of my spiritual office. It seems my wife will depart this world soon; both my older sons are willing and able to pursue more advanced studies; and, some time ago, they made their decision to serve the Church of Christ. As far as my two little daughters are concerned, I trust that our Heavenly Father will take care of them even without this new plantation. However, I am willing to spend the money for the surveying as well as the taxes should a larger sum be due soon. I think that this land could be used to the advantage of our community, or it could help some of our dear friends and assistants who might want to join us in the future; if not, then I feel sure that I will be able to recover the money I spent on it by selling out to someone who wants to work this plantation. My dear colleague, Mr. Lemke, does not wish to run a plantation, either; otherwise I would have let him have this property. Who knows what God intended by sending me this land in such a surprising way.

Yesterday evening I received a letter from Mr. Habersham. He writes that he had been out on the plantation and had brought a surveyor along in order to fix the property lines for him and me; he asks me to come, too. I wrote back to him and explained the reasons for my not being able to travel just now; I trust in his honesty and friendship, and I am sure that he will have my best interests at heart.

Wednesday, the 22nd of August. God has punished unruly N. with sickness; and, as a result, his conscience is in uproar and his disgraceful behavior in the past causes him much grief now and he is in tears. Yesterday he poured out his distress to my colleague, and he confessed several sins which are especially severe and are burdening his conscience. Today he sent word to me that I might come and instruct him and help him ease the misery of his soul and conscience. I was most willing to do this; I talked to him, and we prayed together. I told him, however, of a woman whom I know in Savannah, who, just like him, came to recognize and regret her sins, especially her trespasses against the Eighth Commandment while she was sick, and who, after her recovery, fell back into her old bad ways.

Thursday, the 23rd of August. Our friend, Mr. Habersham, wrote me another letter, urging me to come to Goshen in order to discuss with him the surveying of our plantations. Although I have so little time and my wife is so dangerously sick, I had to leave this morning and travel there to see him. Towards noon, after an uneventful journey, I arrived at Dr. Graham’s house, where he and his entire family are now living. However, I had to wait for him since he had gone up the creek in order to meet the surveyor and his assistants. He came back only a little after six o’clock. By then it was evening and it had begun to rain heavily, so I had to stay for the night. We concluded our business quickly, and we were both pleased with the surveryor’s work.

Several people, honest and meaning well, had come; and they tried to convince me of the considerable advantages of using Negro slaves. It is quite obvious how much work gets done by these Negroes, not only in other parts of this colony, but also here, among us, at Kieffer’s plantation and at that of his in-law, Kronenberger, who both have Negro slaves. However, my doubts are not on the question of whether or not Negro slaves are useful; rather, I doubt that a Christian should buy them with a good conscience and keep them in perpetual slavery. At this time, I seem to be completely against this idea; however, I wish with all my heart to be enlightened and to be able to form a more educated opinion.

Recently, a ship carrying three-hundred Negroes docked in Charleston; all the slaves were sold at very high prices. Until now, an adult young male fresh from Africa went for a little more than twenty pounds Sterling; now the price has risen to forty pounds. Who, except the very rich, could risk that amount on an unproven and still inexperienced slave? Several of our people who are practically minded are of the opinion that one should rather buy slaves who are already familiar with the country and the kind of work expected of them.

Friday, the 24th of August. I received a short letter from our esteemed Pastor Brunnholz; Mr. Meyer received a long letter from Mr. Vigera,¹⁵ and he gave it to me to read because it contained a passage which pertained to Mr. Brunnholz. Among other things, I read the amazing news that last fall, N.¹⁶ had brought a shipload of Germans from Rotterdam to Philadelphia and sold them there as servants, both male and female, strutting about in velvet clothes embroidered in gold, playing the rich merchant. His cargo also included a consignment from someone in Rotterdam, consisting of a great many goods for trading and a quantity of Rhine wine. He sold these goods in Philadelphia and then returned to Holland and Germany in order to pick up more people. His brother stayed in Philadelphia.

A German merchant, Mr. Heinrich Schleydorn, had the presence of mind to extract a promise from N.N., orally and sealed by a handshake, to make good the damages he had caused to our community and some of its members in the past. After that, apparently, Pastor Brunnholz had written to me, in order to ask me to delegate the necessary legal authority to this aforementioned Mr. Schleydorn so that he could attempt to persuade this man, at first in friendliness, and then, if kind words were to no avail, to coerce him to make good the damages for which he is responsible. This letter, however, did not arrive here. Who knows what methods N. used in Philadelphia to lay his hands on letters addressed to us? He is quite familiar with the handwriting of our friends and he knows where and when letters are sent back and forth between Philadelphia, Carolina, and Georgia.

In the past, he very cunningly intercepted and secretly opened my letters addressed to Philadelphia and did the same to letters sent to me by Mr. Brunnholz and by Mr. Vigera, without our noticing any of it for a long time. He had been worried, and quite rightly so, that his various schemes would have become apparent and been endangered if we had been able to keep each other informed through regular correspondence. Another circumstance which makes me think that he tampered with the letter sent by Mr. Brunnholz is the fact that since he left Philadelphia we have been receiving our letters on time again and none have been lost. Mr. Vigera writes that the so-called Prince of Wurttemberg¹⁷ had become a soldier in Boston and then defected soon afterwards, masquerading as a preacher in Maryland for some time.

Mr. Vigera also writes that a skilled miller, Samuel Schröder from Danzig, had arrived in Georgia with the transport of servants from overseas; he went to see Mr. Vigera and shortly afterwards went on to Nova Scotia. Mr. Vigera had told him that he would have been better off if he had stayed in Ebenezer for a while, where he would have had the opportunity to serve God and his fellow-man. The miller had answered: “If I had known then what I know now, then I certainly would have stayed there.” After his arrival, he had fallen in with some dissolute fellows; they all came to Ebenezer for a visit and left soon. He did not show even the least love for God’s word; he was a good friend of the vile and treacherous Dippelian S.¹⁸ who, as Mr. Vigera reports in connection with the aforementioned miller, traveled from Charleston to Philadelphia, using the land route in the middle of winter and barely escaped with his life. Mr. Vigera married an English lady who does sewing and tailoring for ladies.

Sunday, the 26th of August. Today, on the last Sunday of August, I should have preached and held Holy Communion for the people of our faith in Savannah; my trip to see Mr. Habersham because of our new plantations, however, made this impossible, since I was unable to return from there as quickly as I had planned. I sent word to these German people and informed them of this impediment; I made them a firm promise that one of us would come to them in eight days, that is, on the Twelfth Sunday after Trinity, God willing. Certainly, it would be rather desirable if some rewards of our office were to be reaped from among the people of Acton and Vernonburg, since we have worked with them now for several years to the best of our ability, through God’s grace. Since they have neither ministers nor schoolmasters, they tend to quarrel; and there is considerable disorder among them which affects us negatively, too. Some of them are honest people and willing to accept God’s word with an obedient heart.

Wednesday, the 29th of August. A few days ago, Col. Heron wrote a friendly letter to me from Savannah, where he stayed for several days because of his boat and because he had to take care of certain unpleasant matters. He asks me to come to Purysburg, where he wants to meet with me on his way back to Charleston in order to discuss some important business. Since I had to be in Savannah on business in any case, especially because of what Mr. Vigera had written to me regarding N.N., I preferred to meet him there rather than travel to Purysburg; in this way I was able to attend to two matters during one trip. Today, at noon, I arrived back home in Ebenezer, happily and in good health. On my way, however, I had witnessed the aftermath of a very sad accident which had taken place at a certain dangerous spot in the Savannah River between our plantations and Purysburg, where several mishaps had already occurred in the past. Yesterday a large merchant’s barge, which had been on its way from Augusta carrying more than one-thousand pounds of tanned deer skins, got caught in the strong current and collided with a tree-trunk floating in the river, and overturned. The Negroes and the white people who had been aboard were in extreme danger of their lives; several of our people here, however, rushed to their aid and saved them.

Today, some people arrived from Purysburg to lend their assistance, too; and all were busy fishing for, collecting, and drying as many tanned hides as they could find. Most of them were lost in the river, and most of the ones brought ashore were ruined. Several months ago a very promising young man from Purysburg drowned at the very same dangerous part of the river; and on a few occasions our boats and people, too, have been in grave danger and have been saved by our merciful God. Our people here would be willing to contribute their share to a communal effort to keep this dangerous part of the river free of the many floating logs if some people from Purysburg and some of the merchants who use this river most were likewise willing to do their part. Here, in this country, it is a major drawback that rivers and creeks which are used for transportation are not kept clean of floating obstacles. Once, when I spoke to an official about this, he answered me that only a person who had felled a tree could be held responsible to keep it out of the waterways, and nobody else; people had better cope with this situation as best as they can. The banks of the rivers here are densely covered with trees, which are frequently felled by storms; and sometimes the logs come to rest at dangerous spots in the water.

Col. Heron brought me the pleasant news that the Lower House of Parliament in Carolina had refuted, using iron-clad reasons, the opinion of the Governor that it be necessary and useful to unite Carolina and Georgia and to have both provinces under the authority of only one governor; rather, it was demonstrated that such a step would be of considerable disadvantage. There is little doubt now that Georgia will remain separate from South Carolina and North Carolina, even if the Lord Trustees were of a mind to dissolve the government of Georgia, since only recently the plan of unification had been rejected by the local Council as well as by the most prominent citizens of this colony, and their decision was reported to the Lord Trustees. If the governor of South Carolina were our friend, then a unification might prove advantageous; however, rather the opposite is true, and many colonists, especially the weaker ones, have to suffer for it.

Thursday, the 30th of August. I received an answer to a letter of mine from a benefactor from Charleston. He informs me that he will not be able to supply us with silk-worm seeds from Portugal, as I had asked him to do, the reason being that at present no ships from that country are sailing to our colonies or vice versa. He advises me to write to London as soon as possible and to ask the Lord Trustees for such seeds; it would be easy to obtain the seeds that way since ships sail regularly back and forth between Lisbon and London. Several weeks ago, when I sent samples of silk made by Portugese silk-worms to Mr. Verelst, I told him that I had asked this benefactor, Mr. Hector Beringer de Beaufain, to get us such seeds and that I had no doubt that he would be able to do so; now, however, I have to give up this hope. I do not plan to write to Mr. Verelst immediately; the reason I mention this problem here is, that I hope that our esteemed Mr. Albinus will, as soon as he receives this diary, ask Mr. Verelst to obtain the needed silk-worm seeds from Portugal for us.

SEPTEMBER

Saturday, the 1st of September. Once again, the passing of another month and season strikes me as something special and causes me to reflect on the spiritual and physical blessings we have received from God, and I welcome this occasion to praise His great name and to admire His wisdom as well as His ways of guiding us. And now, with the change of month and season, I consider it my duty as a Christian and as a minister to keep this diary for our benefactors and friends in Europe who follow God’s works and rejoice in them, in order to inform and edify them and, to the best of my knowledge and recollection, to set down in this diary the examples of God’s ways, works, and blessings.

I shall start my account with yesterday, the 31st of August, and I rightfully consider it a sign of divine grace that I received several very pleasant letters from our most esteemed Fathers, benefactors, and friends, in England and Germany. I had just sealed a packet of letters to our worthy Mr. Albinus, in which were some letters and the diary for the last two months, and I had given it to my dear colleague, Mr. Lemke, for forwarding, since he was going to Savannah on official business, when several packets of letters and English and German writings were brought to us from Savannah. What brought us rich material for our hearty pleasure and for the praise of God consists of the following:

1. The news of the life and tolerable health of our worthy Fathers and benefactors in London, Augsburg, and Halle. Our dear Senior Urlsperger entered his sixty-sixth year on 20 August, old style; and therefore it pleases me all the more that he was still alive and in good health when he sent the last letter. That is precisely what we read in Mr. Albinus’ letter about our prominent benefactor, von N. N., Court Chaplain Ziegenhagen, and Dr. Francke. In his pleasant letter of 8 May he writes thus:

Our dear Court Chaplain is now, God be praised, as cheerful as one might expect. That is a great comfort for me. From Augsburg we have received news, thank God, that Senior Urlsperger and Mr. von N.N. are very well. Likewise, our dear Dr. Francke has, God be praised, gotten along tolerably well so far; but he has his many trials and suffering.

2. The news of the love, affection, and intercession of these and many other benefactors, who are also continuing so zealously to further the spiritual and physical welfare of the Ebenezer congregation before God and man, as is so clearly and abundantly evidenced by their letters as well as by the consignments of charities that have flowed together in Augsburg and have been sent to us. The names of our highly esteemed benefactors in the two said consignments are a good oder for our edification and shall be included in our intercession. Since they enclosed very pleasing gifts for the information of my children, my faith is strengthened again that our almighty and loving God will also care for them on the journey and in Halle, since I am planning to send them with the first safe and convenient opportunity to London and then on to the schools of the Orphanage.

3. Our dear Mr. von N. N.’s zealous efforts and his wise suggestions to the Lord Trustees and to Ebenezer for furthering our true interest, about which I read most encouraging examples in the letters from Mr. Albinus and Senior Urlsperger’s letters as well as in the letters that he himself has written to us. I have been concerned that this highly esteemed benefactor might receive both from the Lord Trustees and especially from us more than one reason to withdraw his favor from us and no longer to devote his time and thoughts to the betterment of our physical conditions since his efforts with intercession, suggestions, and expenditures have already failed several times. We are assured, however, not only by Mr. Albinus of his continued affection, rather it is now proved by his very useful and pleasing letters to me and to Mr. Meyer. May our merciful God, who has His pleasure in mercy and merciful people, continue to keep these His worthy and chosen tools, may He strengthen them in soul and body, may He keep them in health and life for the good of us and His church, and may He grant His spiritual and physical blessings to them, their families, and their descendants!

Among the proofs of divine goodness and care I also righfully count the edifying letters and writings from our other worthy benefactors and friends, which we have received with pleasure in the said packet, for example, from our worthy Counselor Wallbaum, from Mr. von Bonin, and from Pastor Wehlen in London, who wishes to begin a correspondence. We place our hearty and ardent wishes for the Lord’s blessings on the German verses that our dear Mr. Albinus composed and printed for Mr. Ziegenhagen’s birthday at the beginning of his fifty-eighth year; and we hope for much blessing from the printed sermon on the gospel for the Fourth Sunday after Epiphany. I agree wholeheartedly with Senior Urlsperger in his letter of 10 February of this year when he writes, “I especialy rejoice that God has helped our Court Preacher so far that he can again preach.” May our loyal God strengthen him! Secretary Martyn has had, to be sure, an ailment in his eyes, yet he has written me a fine long letter in the name of the Trustees, which will redound to the great encouragement of our silk makers.

To be sure, Mr. Verelst wrote but little, but he closed his letter of 9 May with the lovely words: “Mr. Ziegenhagen having brought me the packets herewith seyt vion,¹ i have the Pleasure of forwarding them with my good Wishes to you & the People of Ebenezer, who are blessed & will be with Success in their industrious Undertakings under the Protection of that divine Providence, in whom they trust.”

And thus God has revealed to us from the distance the footsteps of His goodness and care at the end of the summer and the beginning of the autumn. But when would I be finished if I should tell of all the proofs of God’s grace and love that we have experienced and enjoyed all summer and especially during the last month? To them belong the tolerable health of the ministers and their parishioners in Ebenezer; the entirely bearable summer heat and the fruitful weather, the great blessings in the fields and gardens, the good condition and great usefulness of our mills, which are now in full operation again; further that, just at the time that we are to begin construction of our new sawmill, our loving God has let come to our hands such a joyful report of some charitable gifts that have flowed together at Augsburg.

The reason that some members of our community were reluctant to start building another sawmill and showed almost no enthusiasm is that we still owe money on our mills. God, however, blessed both my oral and written arguments to the seven tythingmen or headmen (I included a copy of it in the package which was sent off to Mr. Albinus yesterday); as a consequence, this very important undertaking was started cheerfully and energetically a few days ago. Also, I am further strengthened in my faith by a very kind paragraph, written in Senior Urlsperger’s own hand, which was included in the package we sent. He writes:

My dear Mr. Boltzius! Once again, speaking for myself as well as for other benefactors and friends of Ebenezer, I can put your mind at rest regarding the debts accumulated before and after your demise. Let it remain at that.

Also the following paragraph from our so fatherly-inclined Senior Urlsperger is so full of love and friendliness toward me and my family that I humbly praise God for it and say, “I am not worthy of the least of all the mercies, and of all the truth, which thou hast showed unto thy servant.”² Precisely this splendid evidence of our heavenly Father’s loving care for me and my family through this dear man and many other worthy servants and children will make me wise, cautious, and once more loyal to employ all the charitable gifts we have received according to their purpose and to show all possible Christian caution for the maintenance and increase of useful institutions in our dear community.

If, as we hope, God also gives us the new sawmill, we should have no reason to incur any more debts; and, through divine blessing, we should be enabled through trade to pay off the great debts on our mills. Our most esteemed Mr. von N.N. understands only too well why, during past years, our expenses were big and our income small. If our God could make my Christian friends convince me that a Christian can buy and work slaves in good conscience, then we would be able to use slaves (whether bought or borrowed) also in communal work which would, indeed, keep our expenses down and increase our income, to the benefit of our community. It occurs to me just now what Mr. Martyn wrote on the subject of Negro slaves in his letter of the 3rd of May, which arrived here a short while ago: “The Trustees are pleased to find, you are satisfyd with the several Regulations, on which the Act for permitting the Use of Negroes in Georgia is to be formed. The People may be satisfy’d, that the Trustees have the Prosperity of the Province constantly in their View, & only hope in Return, that the People will have it in theirs also.”

Among the blessings shown to our people here this summer we also rightfully count the fact that none of our servants have died of fever, excepting one very stubborn, over-worked man, who refused to take any kind of medicine and was unwilling to keep to the diet prescribed for him. My dear wife has been close to death several times; each time we were able to say: “Blessed be the Lord who daily loadeth us with benefits, and the God of our salvation” Praised be the Lord!³

Other blessings which God has granted to us this past summer have been noted now and then in this diary. For example, the better arrangement of the new mill for shelling and pressing rice, or the fact that we are able to use the means of salvation in our churches and schools in peace, good order, and grace; further, that God protects us in His mercy on our journeys over land and water, where so many others perish, or that He inspires people to become our good friends and helpers, etc. I want to add one more example of divine care for us here, which I treasure especially now after the arrival of the English and German letters. Namely, at the end of the previous month I received five-hundred acres of land, which I described in my last installment of this diary.

Until now, land has not been especially valued in this colony because the Lord Trustees curtailed its use and ownership strictly, in sharp contrast to the practices in other colonies, which seemed to have been in accord with the British concept of freedom. Now, however, Mr. Martyn, the secretary, reports a change which, up to now, had been greatly desired by our people here, and which will offer the opportunity of settling and working land of the best quality within a short span of time. He writes: “That they may not have the least thing to complain of, the Trustees have resolved to enlarge all the Tenures of Lands already made to an absolute Inheritance, & that all the future Grants shall be in the same manner, & proper Deeds are preparing to free the Grants from these Conditions, which were necessary in the Infancy of the Colony, & could not properly be taken off during the war.”

Other than using Negro slaves (which is allowed, too), Englishmen living far and near wanted nothing more than such a decision as the Lord Trustees have now made, as quoted above. I am not sure what I can do with the parcel of land which was allotted to me; however, since I obtained it through divine providence without any efforts on my part, I trust that God will enlighten me in the near future as to the proper use of this land. A short time ago, I and my dear colleague each received a tract of three hundred acres for the use of the parish; this property lies near my own five-hundred acres and is also entirely fertile land well suited for farming, except that it is not as conveniently close to the river. Only a few days ago I learned that it is against English regulations and English law for one parish or community to have the use of two glebes or to own any parish-land of double size. It was therefore decided that, on behalf of the church, Mr. Lemke and his family should become the legal owners of the three-hundred acres allotted to him as the second preacher of Ebenezer; the surveyor is to be paid three pounds Sterling for his sevices.

At the moment, Mr. Lemke is unable to spare this sum; the money will be paid, of course; but Mr. Lemke is not eager to own this piece of land himself. We do not intend, however, to let go of it and see it come into the hands of strangers; if the wrong person were to buy it, we could be saddled with a mean neighbor, and this would not be to the advantage of our community and our cowpen in the forest and its adjacent areas. God will reveal to us in time why He changed the minds of the members of the Council and caused this good land to come into his possession. I wrote today’s diary entry with great joy; after I had finished I went to see Mr. Mayer in order to re-read, together with him, some of the letters and pamphlets which had reached us. Also, I hoped to learn from him as much as was necessary for me to know, what practical suggestions our esteemed Mr. von N.N. had made in his letters.

In a certain letter to Mr. Mayer, Mr. N.N, had not only given us more good advice concerning the improvement of our circumstances, he had also, most lovingly, commissioned him to reply in detail to the various important points concerning the improvements of our households and the settlement of our district. This will serve as a means to inform this wise and experienced benefactor and true friend of our colony sufficiently and allow him enough insight into the actual conditions of our life here, into the obstacles we are encountering in settling this colony and into the reasons behind the great poverty of so many of our people. At the same time, he will have the information he needs for giving us even better advice for dealing with various difficulties and problems.

Since this prominent benefactor is well aware of my many duties and the fact that I am constantly under the pressure of time, he charged me only with one task: to describe to him in detail the entire process of silk-making, from beginning to end. I think I will be able to do this properly and easily, since a good quantity of silk has been manufactured for the past few years at the orphanage as well as in my own house and since my own wife is rather experienced in silk-making. May God guide us in all of our undertakings, for the sake of His glory, for the honor of Mr. von N.N., this most esteemed benefactor of our community, and for the honor of other friends as well!

Sunday, the 2nd of September. Today, the Twelfth Sunday after Trinity, I had to hold public service in Jerusalem Church all by myself, preaching twice and conducting our evening prayer hour. The reason is that my dear colleague went to Savannah in order to preach and to hold Holy Communion for the German people of our faith there. May God grant that he be able to prepare them well for eternity; these people, for the most part, lead rather disorderly lives. May God also bless the dear words which he has sown in the hearts of our own eager listeners here in Ebenezer! God has promised us this; He will keep His word.

Usually I make notes on my thoughts for Sunday’s sermon at the beginning of the week since, during the week, unexpected tasks are likely to intrude. I had resolved, with God’s help, to hold my sermon on today’s gospel verses on the healing of the deaf and dumb, it being one of Christ’s great works of love and grace. In reading through the text, I found these beautiful words which I intend to use as our introductory verses: Psalm 92; 5-7: “Lord, thou lettest me sing joyfully of thy works, and I praise the creations of thy hands. Lord, how great are thy works? Thy thoughts are so very deep. A foolish man believes them not, and a fool disregards them.”⁴ Our dear God reminded me so forcefully of His works of grace and love He has granted to us during the course of the past summer and the beginning fall, both through the change of the season and also through the letters which arrived from Europe; my mind is filled with astonishment, considering His mercy and blessings which none of us deserve.

I found it remarkable that our wise, miraculous, and loving God guided me in my morning sermon, so that, towards noon, I preached from a full heart, abandoning my notes, and not only used the aforementioned verses for my introductory verses, as I had originally planned, but made them the subject of my entire sermon. I spoke of God’s great works and of man’s varying attitude towards Him. I was able to tell my dear listeners what great blessings God, our Lord, has granted to us so far, according to the first, the second, and the third article, or, for that matter, in the realms of nature and grace. From the very beginning, He has blessed our community here, and we have to consider this: His thoughts, that is, God’s intentions and plans, are inscrutable, as many of His works among us show.

In looking back, we sometimes realize His purpose. The cross is a mystery. We try to understand God’s works properly, to admire Him, and to glorify Him (until it is time for us to enter the kingdom of His glory ourselves, we shall at all times honor His name and rejoice in Him, since we are able to share in God’s thoughts concerning the governing and guidance of Christ’s church on earth). In striving to understand God’s ways, we have taken a warning from the bad examples of fools and buffoons, and we have been encouraged by the good example set by David. Most of the servants who had been sick were present in church, and I admonished them kindly.

Monday, the 3rd of September. The two older Schubdrein brothers, namely the carpenter and the mason, came to see me yesterday evening. They told me that they like our community all the better the longer they stay and that all three of the brothers have decided to settle here permanently. They well see the many spiritual and physical advantages that God has granted more to us than to our co-religionists and especially more than to many Lords in Germany; and therefore they would like to have all their kinsmen here with them. We would like to have many people like these three brothers at our place. They are not only knowledgeable, skilled, and industrious but also lead a good life. The youngest brother plans to travel to the fatherland as soon as possible and to fetch his family and other good friends.

Last spring a man in my neighborhood had a poor white mulberry tree next to his house; because it would not grow properly, he sawed it off eighteen inches from the ground and grafted a twig from a Spanish mulberry tree to it. This grafted twig had two eyes from which in six months two branches grew, one of them fifteen and a half feet high and five inches in circumference. The longest branches next to the trunk were cut off in the summer, otherwise they would have become longer.

Tuesday, the 4th of September. However tired I am of traveling, because of which I must neglect much of my regular official duties, I still could not avoid making another trip to Savannah today to attest our rightful demands against N.N.⁵ in Philadelphia before the authorities and to fill out and send a legal plenipotentiary power to an Evangelical Lutheran merchant there by the name of Heinrich Schleydorn to demand, amicably or seriously, that the said N. repay the large debts he made here and the great damage he caused here.

Wednesday, the 5th of September. The Lord Trustees’ letter to the President and his Assistants was communicated to me. It was almost the same as my letter from Mr. Martyn, except for the powerful reasons for inciting the gentlemen of the Council and, through them, the inhabitants of the country to make silk. Among other things it was stated that Parliament, in ordering this year’s sum of money, had its eye on silk manufacture and that the industry of the inhabitants in this so very much desired matter would contribute greatly to keeping Georgia a separate colony from South Carolina and letting her have her own governor and justice.⁶ The new law rescinding the tariff on all silk from the English area in America will be passed as of last summer, and a copy was sent to us by the Lord Trustees. From it we can clearly recognize both the said benefaction as well as the conditions and cautious regulations concerning it, and likewise our lawful manner of exporting the silk. To be sure, I could not learn how much the duties or tariff had been on each pound of silk and has now been exempted. But it must have been no bagatelle because a special act of Parliament was passed concerning it, and the rescinding of this tariff is looked upon as a good encouragement for advancing silk manufacture.

Thursday, the 6th of September. As soon as I returned from my journey, I and my dear colleague opened the little chest, which had come to us at the same time as the letters for us in Savannah; and in it we found a pleasing treasure of many copies of some sermons and of a meditation concerning the Lords’ Prayer. The title of the sermons is “The Right and Constant Use of Faith. A Word of Admonishment and Comfort for New Year’s Day 1750. A Word of Instruction on the Right Manner of Seeking and Obtaining Grace from the Lord Jesus.”⁷ The meditation is titled, “A Short Explanation of the Lord’s Prayer together with some Annotations Concerning It.”⁸ I have long wished to read something from this wise and experienced theologian, and it has grieved me whenever, in the accounts of missionaries, I read only the announcements of these important materials which the new missionaries brought with them in their hearts to London. May God reward His faithful servant for this and all the other spiritual and physical benefactions which we have received so far since 1733 from him and through his blessed service. May He also grant us the ability to use this treasure of good books wisely, here among the people of our community as well as among others, to fulfill the purpose He intended, namely, to find that on the Day of the Resurrection of the Just, the seed from his work here in America, too, has blossomed.

Friday, the 7th of September. Last night, God eased the intense pain suffered by the wife of Kogler, our saw-miller; and saved her life, which had been in grave danger. This encouraged her and other Christian souls to praise Him, who, even though He does send us tribulations, also relieves their severity and even protects us from death. She had given birth to a very weak boy, who died in the course of the night shortly after receiving private baptism. I asked for the details of how private baptism was administered and found that no mistake had been made. Together, in Kogler’s house, we praised the Lord for this great blessing, namely, that He had allowed this weak child to live long enough to receive private baptism and that He had welcomed this child so soon among the blessed flock of other Christian children.

Saturday, the 8th of September. Yesterday afternoon I visited Mrs. Rottenberger and encouraged her to trust in God, to prepare herself for eternity, and to pray frequently, especially in view of her present condition. I also prayed together with her. This morning her husband came to tell me that she had given birth to a healthy baby girl last night; the child is to be baptized this morning. I had not known that her delivery was that close, but I was filled with joy that God, in His mercy, had guided me to visit her yesterday and allowed me to be of service to her.

Sunday, the 9th of September. Shortly before the ceremony was to begin, Rottenberger came to see me and asked me to suggest a proper Christian name for his little daughter. Bearing in mind the request of the anonymous, noble benefactress from Breslau who had sent twenty Reichsthaler to our dear Pastor Maier in Halle, asking that, in the way of a more real receipt than a piece of paper, two children of our community be named Fridrich Carl and Anna Francisca, I seized this opportunity gladly. I told the father of the loving request by this most esteemed noble benefactress and I explained to him that both names, Anna and Francisca, were beautiful and good names. He was pleased, and so was I.

First, seven weeks ago, Schefler’s little son, Fridrich Carl, and now this child, Anna Francisca, have received Holy Baptism to my own joy as well as that of the parents and the godparents. These people are pious and honest, and the little girl is their only child; they will, no doubt, raise their daughter to fear and obey God. The little boy, or rather, his parents, had received a fine gift of money from this aforementioned benefactress; at the right time I will present them with an additional sum. Likewise, I intend that the little girl also share in the gift, and I hope that, in this matter, I acted according to the wishes of this esteemed and noble benefactress and followed the instructions of her dear pastor well.

Among the contributions from Augsburg which reached us very recently, we found a list of the names of our dear benefactors. Some of them stipulate that their gifts be used for a specific purpose; for example, one-hundred florins were designated for the much needed maintenance of our churches and schools. Both of our churches, in town and at the plantations, are built entirely of wood; and, since wood here in this country tends to rot quickly, we are constantly in the process of repairing and replacing damaged parts and thereby running up considerable expenses. We would like to construct a larger church in town, if God were to send us the means for such an undertaking! Our present church was meant to be used as a church only on a temporary basis; originally this building was to be our school in town and, at the same time, was supposed to house the schoolmaster. The money we received for schools and churches may also be used to pay the salary of our schoolmaster at the plantations, whom we have to support.

Monday, the 10th of September. Several years ago a weaver⁹ /Held/ moved from our community to Carolina; afterwards he talked a great deal about Ebenezer and our people and about how much he and his wife had liked living here. Now he is impoverished and has accumulated debts, and he asked to be hired by our community to tend cattle. To his relief and joy, we agreed, after he had given his promise to lead an orderly life. I sent him a letter, which is to be handed on to an Englishman to whom he owes money, recommending that his debts be settled before he leaves for Ebenezer. There are more who would like to move here if we offered them work; however, we are not interested in people who are willing to come here only for the sake of earning money and who would be eager to leave after having achieved this goal.

A tanner from Purysburg came to see me and offered to teach his craft to two of our people for forty pounds Sterling. He estimates that he would have to live here for more than one full year, the time it would take our men to learn this trade properly. He thinks that our men would be able to earn about fifty pounds Sterling per year if they succeeded in mastering this profitable skill properly. We would have gladly paid eight or ten pounds Sterling to this man for his offered services, but the sum he is asking is much too high. Also, he would have needed to come here only once in a while in order to teach our people, since both are clever men and have already some experience in tanning. But these people are obsessed with gaining their own advantage.

Thursday, the 13th of September. My dear colleague learned that high-lying land was available near Purysburg on a large island which is separated from our large island, which in turn borders on the Mill River, by a very shallow creek. People could settle on this high-lying land while making good use of the surrounding low-lying land. Some years ago, four of our people set out to find this land, but without success. Mr. Lemke saw and inspected this land today, accompanied by several knowledgeable people; their description of the land could not be better. This island is located between the Savannah River and a wide creek that flows into our Mill River north of Abercorn. The land has a good elevation; part of it is densely covered by trees, which can be cut into wood for barrel staves and shingles; part of it is good grazing land. Some think that even the elevated parts of the land could be in danger of being flooded when the water level in the rivers is at its highest; others disagree.

There is also a spot well suited for building a good gristmill or sawmill. General Oglethorpe must have known about this island, and he probably had special plans for it. For this reason he stopped us from going beyond our island at the Mill River. If people from Purysburg or other people were to settle this land and to build a mill there, then we would be greatly disadvantaged. Therefore, I wrote a letter to a member of the Council (it is headed nominally by the President emeritus now)¹⁰ and asked that he petition the other members on our behalf: namely, that the entire island be reserved for several people of our community, and especially for Mr. von N.N.,¹¹ our esteemed benefactor.

Mr. von N.N., together with Mr. Urlsperger, who continues to protect us with fatherly care, could suggest to the Lord Trustees that they settle the entire district around Ebenezer with Christian and hard-working people of the Protestant faith. It is possible that they have already done so, if through God’s will a certain opportunity for it has arisen.

Our people have asked me, through their headmen, to help them acquire more land for larger plantations; at present they have fifty acres and they want one-hundred acres because they need more land for farming, raising cattle, lumber, etc. This island north of our island is located about three English miles from town by water and is even nearer by land. As soon as our boat returns I will receive news of what we may expect. At least I hope that this island will not be given over to other settlers before we have sent word to the Lord Trustees and received their answer. Our friends in Europe may well wonder why such a good piece of land in our neighborhood has gone undetected for so long; however, they have to bear in mind the following:

1. These low-lying areas, although very fertile, are so overgrown with larger and smaller trees, bushes, tall, thick and thin reeds, vines, and thorny bushes that it is difficult to see what lies beyond and even more difficult to penetrate on foot. For this reason, not even the surveyors themselves know any details of such land for certain.

2. The surveyors have no advantage from surveying such land; the work is very difficult and therefore nobody is interested in it.

3. From the very beginning, none of our Salzburgers were eager to explore the area around us, nor did they have the time. Also, because of the lack of money, they were not even able to clear and settle the island, which is located right at their own door step, so to speak. Some time ago, the members of the Council permitted me to have this island searched for high-lying land which would be suitable as church property; however, our people returned without having had any success.

4. Since Mr. Oglethorpe had reserved this island for his own purposes, as mentioned, our searches were bound to remain fruitless in any case.

God’s grace is manifesting itself in a most miraculous way in the six-year old daughter of Zimmbernburg¹² to the great joy of her parents and other people. She has told her mother that God has allowed her, during school, to look straight into heaven; afterwards, she had difficulty recognizing her schoolmates after-seeing so much beauty. God has sent so many bitter tribulations to Mrs. Kogler that she no longer wishes to go on living once she is properly prepared for departing this world. I explained to her that she must not seek readiness for eternity in herself, but in Christ; all sinners are entitled to that. It is said: “I shall gaze after Thee, I shall press Thee firmly in faith to my heart.”¹³ Whoever dies in that manner, dies well.

Friday, the 14th of September. For some time now we have had plenty of rain; occasionally (as, for instance, today) the rain turned into a heavy downpour. God has granted us fine crops of rice, grain, beans, and squash; because of the heavy rains, harvesting is being delayed, and making hay is difficult, too. It is to be hoped that these crops will sell at a good price, because they turned out quite well, especially our grain, beans, and sweet potatoes. These crops grow well even in Savannah Town and Augusta; during the summer, news reached us from there that their grain was scorched practically beyond recovery. A man from Augusta offered to get our people a price of eight pence per bushel of grain if they woul agree to come there with a large boat. If they were willing, while going up the Savannah River, to take a cargo of oyster shells needed for lime-burning to a place about half-way to Savannah Town, they would get one bushel of grain for each bushel of oyster shells they brought, which is quite a profitable business. With a large boat, and three men at the oars, the trip takes ten days going upstream and four days coming downstream.

Salt is also rather rare there; and a few months ago a merchant told me that our people could get as much as six bushels of grain for each bushel of salt, which costs as much as three or four shillings in Savannah and sells for fifteen or sixteen pence in Charleston. Crops grow well up there and people keep quite a few Negroes; but they lack a market for selling their crops and use them mostly for feeding their many workmen who, accompanying caravans of pack-horses, are sent on trading trips among the Indians. I wonder whether it would benefit our community if we had a practical and hard-working man among us who would be interested in starting a trading business between here, Augusta, and Charleston. Grain is very cheap in Augusta and wheat is also inexpensive; if someone were to go there to pick up a boatload himself, he could get one bushel for under two shillings, compared to the asking price of four shillings here. The grain could then be ground into flour in our mill and sold in Savannah; our mills and our community would benefit from this kind of undertaking, and some of our people would get an opportunity to earn some money. Not all people like to do the same thing, for this reason we ought to encourage a variety of businesses in order to develop people’s different talents.

We were able to start working our mills again a few weeks ago, and both our people here as well as people from other places are taking advantage of this; some bring their wheat to us from as far as Carolina and from the area around Port Royal, and we mill their grain as fast as possible. They seem to know exactly when our mills start working again, as if they got word by express rider; and strangers from far away arrive here at our mills with their wheat, rye, and Indian corn. This means good profits for the mills, even though we ask only two pence for each bushel we mill. People like to bring their grain here because we charge so little and mill their grain so fast, and also because we treat them in a friendly manner. Good people among us, together with their children, thank our dear God with all their hearts for our mills (as I was able to witness in a family only a few days ago), especially if they could not work the mills for one, two, or three weeks during the hottest part of the summer when the water-level in the river is low; after such an interval this blessing, which is so conveniently close to us, takes on a new meaning.

In my diary entry for the 13th of September I mentioned the letter which I had written to an important member of the Council in Savannah, in which I asked that we may be allowed to settle the beautiful land on the large island between here and Purysburg and that people from Ebenezer, our esteemed Mr. von N.N., and Mr. Lemke may take land there. I regard it as another token of divine providence that he has sent me a very encouraging answer.

Saturday, the 16th of September. Continuing rains makes harvesting of crops and putting up hay very difficult for our people. Therefore, in last week’s sermon, I told them that for the next two or three weeks I intended to suspend the sermons commonly held on Tuesdays and Fridays since this would give them more time for bringing in their harvests. They sent one of their headmen to my house to ask me to continue holding the sermons since they did not impede their work; so, today, I mentioned after my sermon that I would continue to hold our weekly sermons as before.

Sunday, the 17th of September. Today, the Fourteenth Sunday after Trinity, I felt very depressed and sad; however, our dear God protected me from any harm to my health, and I was able to hold my sermon and repetition hour properly. Moreover, He blessed my soul anew during the preaching of the divine word by Mr. Lemke and myself. I spoke on the gospel verses dealing with sickness and health and explained that we should strive to follow God’s will in all things. My dear colleague presented to his listeners the verses Colossians 1:12-14, dealing with preparing oneself for becoming an heir to the saints dwelling in the light, a very edifying and blessed text. There were a couple of German, or rather Swiss, married people from Savannah here in Ebenezer, and they attended our public service three times today; I hope they were properly edified.

Monday, the 18th of September. From time to time many strangers arrive at our mill with their European and Indian crops.¹⁴ In the past, our saw-miller Kogler and his family offered their hospitality to these people; but, as a consequence, they suffered considerable inconvenience and expense. It has become necessary now to build a comfortable house and to install an innkeeper. Since Schmidt, an honest man, became our foreman at the cowpen in Old Ebenezer, his house has stood empty for almost half a year; also, a good man was needed at the mill to supervise the servants there and to help with running the milling business. It seems that Kalcher, a hard worker and sensible man, and his family are willing to take on the obligations of acting as innkeepers and supervisors at the mills. Both I and my dear colleague were relieved to hear this; also, the profits yielded by our mills will increase now that the servants will be properly guided in their daily chores.

We had been forced to accept women servants who could not find support and work otherwise; after the harvest is over, we hope to find a large family willing to work at the mills. However, even a sufficient number of servants will not solve our problems if they are not guided in their work by a clever man. With the proper supervision, however, they could work at the sawmill, too, helping to make and move larger pieces of wood and carrying boards to the storage areas where they are kept before being shipped. This would be quite practical, especially since we are often at a loss to find enough workers for the various tasks which have to be completed without delay, not to mention that day laborers are much too expensive. Furthermore, it is not always possible to get the same day laborers to complete a certain work, and this often leads to confusion and problems.

The day laborers and carters at the mill have earned so much money during the past four years that, although I am glad for them, I do wonder whether or not they use their money properly. In the past, we have had a great deal of trouble getting carters and day laborers to work for us, and we have not always been successful in getting what we wanted. Now, we hope that Kalcher, this clever and hard-working man, will take care of most of this work himself and supervise the servants so they do things properly; such an arrangement was badly needed. The carters and day-laborers who worked for us sometimes in the past still have many opportunities to earn enough money, if they are willing to listen to good advice.

We also have another reason for making these changes regarding the situation of our servants; we plan to arrange their workloads and the problem of feeding them in the manner which I outlined in detail to our esteemed Mr. von N. in my letter of the 13th of September of this year; namely, they are to plant only as much as is needed for their own food; and they are to work in the mills, tend the mulberry trees, and spend the rest of their time as Kalcher does with wood-working, which, as we know from experience, is a profitable undertaking. Such a new arrangement will show us whether or not white servants deserve their poor reputation as workers. Just today I heard that some of them do not work hard enough to earn even their food, not to mention their clothes. Judging from the servants we have now, I can not guess how people with a background in farming would have done, who, from early childhood on, are used to hard work; the servants we have now are former bakers, shoemakers, masons, and members of other trades.

At present, not only Englishmen, but also most of our own people, are prejudiced against using white servants; therefore, no more industrious workers can be sent to this colony from Europe; as a consequence, our colony, as fertile as it is and as suited to farming, silk-making, the raising of cattle, wood-working, and trading, will be populated with Negroes, just as Carolina is; and this will result in a twofold considerable drawback. Namely, 1. We not only have powerful and dangerous enemies in the French and Spaniards on our borders, but also in the Indians, who are getting prouder and more impudent, and also in the Negroes; and they could become a considerable hostile force, with only very few white people here to rally to the defense; and

2. the original purpose of this colony, which our wise and merciful God sought to fulfill through the English nation and through the Lord Trustees, namely, to provide a safe haven and refuge for poor people of the Protestant faith, seems to suffer from these changes. These poor people are either not tolerated in their homelands or they are unable to provide for themselves and their families because of the many obstacles laid in their way. All English colonies (excepting Pennsylvania and, perhaps, New England), are heavily populated with Negroes; where they become too numerous, poor white people find themselves unable to prosper. If Georgia had been managed according to the original purpose, then there would be land enough for many thousands who would be able to feed their families easily, once they had settled in. I hope I made it quite clear in the aforementioned letter to our esteemed Mr. von N. that, if the workloads of the white servants could be arranged differently, these people could prove very useful and many other German people would be welcome to come here and make a good life for themselves.

It is a great tribulation for us that our servants are such poor workers. However, we should accept such tribulation with faith, patience, and hope (better than the Israelites in the desert); we should use these servants as well as we can until it pleases God to take this and other tribulations from us in His mercy. It is said: “Said I not unto thee, if thou wouldest believe.”¹⁵ Frequently, we sing these words: “Only faith is lacking on earth. If it were there, we would have what we need. He who can comprehend God in faith will not be forsaken by Him when all is lacking.”¹⁶

In addition to a certain lack of faith and obedience on the part of our people, there are some other reasons (in my humble opinion) why, in the past, our servants did not do better. Some of them are not very good at running their households, since they left their homeland at a very young age, almost as children. Also, back in Salzburg, their servants had all been honest and hardworking; therefore, they are somewhat at a loss as to how to deal with the kind of servants we have now. The servants who have arrived here so far have a history of causing trouble in Germany, too, and of being sly and lazy. Their masters need a firm hand in keeping them in check, and they have to be on the alert in foreseeing and forestalling the various crooked schemes and secret plottings. In this respect, our people here are much too soft-hearted and too compassionate; they do not exercise enough severity with this mean and lazy riff-raff and rather dismiss than discipline them.

Tuesday, the 19th of September. Georg Philip Ports, who worked as a servant here a few years ago and who is a good and hard-working man, did, on the advice of his brother, settle last year on a plantation next to his near Goshen. He has worked so hard that he now has a good harvest of Indian corn, beans, squash, and rice standing in his fields. Since then, on several occasions, he has said how much he regretted leaving Ebenezer and pursuing a life filled with troubles and temptations. He also asked me to take him and his young wife back and to welcome them again into our community, he would gladly be a servant for the rest of his life; his wife is from here.

Today he came to see me twice. He told me that he felt so disturbed living on his plantation that he could not possibly remain there. Whenever he stayed in Ebenezer, his worries left him; and whenever he returned to Goshen, his heart felt heavier and heavier with every day. He asked me most humbly to assist them in returning to us, saying he could not possibly return to his land or work it.

I told him that our God was a God pleased by things done in good order and that it would be His will that he go back home in order to wait and see, but that he should definitely not let the good crops which were ripening in his fields go to waste and rot, since this would not only be a sin, it would also cause anger and hostility among other people and lead to bad talk about Christianity, me, and our community, of which he considered himself a member. I advised him to be patient for the time being, to harvest his crops, and to wait for his calling while praying to God with all his heart. If it were God’s will that he move to Ebenezer immediately then He would send a sign by changing my mind in this matter and that of my dear colleague as well as granting us the means and opportunity to assist him in moving here. He left after we had prayed to God together, but he returned soon after that, telling me again that he found it quite impossible to return to his land, etc. I explained that what was happening to him, namely, the troubles he had to endure in body and mind had to be considered a temptation for disrupting God’s order; if he gave in to that temptation, then the Devil would cause great damage to his soul, as well as impair the reputation of my office and my own person. Therefore, I had to tell him that, if he gave in to this temptation and let his ripening crops rot away, then I would have to withdraw any promise of helping him in the future or of allowing him to settle in Ebenezer again, since I had to avoid inviting unnecessary hostility and bad gossip to our community.

If, on the other hand, he were to resist his compulsion and his unusual whims and followed the advice I had given him while praying often and with all his heart to God, then I would be willing to help him come back to us. He went away after this explanation, and I hope he will do as I instructed him. He is an honest man who is earnestly concerned about his salvation. However, his neighbors and other people who know him think him a fool. He seemed angry and depressed; and I feared that, if I did not help him now (at least by giving him hope and a promise), he could slide into a miserable life and stray into sinful error.

I was called to visit Krause’s maid-servant who, for the past several days now, has professed a need to see me. She arrived here last fall together with other servants; in Germany she had led a despicable life. God had begun to open the eyes of this woman; while she was still in good health, she had started to recognize her sins; and she often prayed by herself and in tears, on her knees, asking for mercy. Now, on her sick-bed, she continues in this manner. She has derived considerable benefit from listening to God’s word; only recently she began to understand so much better than in previous years God’s teaching of man’s blessing. She has given thanks to God frequently for leading her to us, and she wishes the same could happen to all of the sinners in Germany who are still imprisoned by blindness and false security and who go on living irresponsibly until they suddenly face eternity. I was pleased by her confession, and I had not expected such good progress in her repentance. I have noted repeatedly that our servants are very receptive to what we teach in our sermons, they listen carefully from beginning to end to all the praying, singing, reading, and preaching. This has always pleased me, and I had hoped that the seed of the divine word would not be wasted on them.

Ports, whom I mentioned before, did not go home after all. He sent word to me that I might meet him at a place close to town. When I came, he said to me that he could not return to his plantation, even if it meant losing his life, except if I were to give him my solemn promise to get him back to Ebenezer. I promised and took him to my house for dinner. After that he went home much easier in his mind.

Mr. Whitefield writes from London that God keeps forever increasing the opportunities to convert large numbers of people from all walks of life. He asks me to think of a method to help the poor Negroes recognize and find Christ. He has a very high opinion of Court Preacher Ziegenhagen; he speaks of him in a very reverential and emphatic manner. He intends to come to America soon and to visit Georgia once more; he mentions in this letter again that he has always had high hopes that this colony would develop well and prosper after overcoming various initial problems. I hold him in high regard as one of Ebenezer’s benefactors, as is my duty. However, I do not hesitate to express my own opinion to him clearly on some matters, just as I do to Mr. Wesley.

Saturday, the 23rd of September. Last night we had heavy rains, which continued into Sunday, although not as violently and with a few pauses between showers. We managed to reach and leave church almost without getting drenched. Unfortunately, our rice will be ruined; it was cut several days ago and then had to be left out in the rain. Fresh shoots are forming, and this batch is no longer fit for consumption. These and other problems in our community and in my own home sometimes threaten to make me lose heart; however, our steadfast and loving God has encouraged me today through His word during our preaching on the verses 2 Kings 6:27, which we used as an exordium: “If the Lord do not help thee, whence,” etc.¹⁷ as well as through the consoling gospel verses Matthew 6; 24-34. During our morning and afternoon sermons I had explained three important points of this text, proven them, and demonstrated their practical application, namely: 1. Mankind’s total inability to care for themselves and other creatures; 2. God’s all-encompassing power to care for mankind and other creatures, and 3. God’s extreme willingness to care for all mankind and, especially, to care for all his children.

The sad history from which our introductory verses were chosen reminded me that God has sent our community its share of physical misery; however, He has spared us, so far, from more severe tribulations and suffering of the kind which His own people had to endure. We have, therefore, good cause to thank God, to use His blessing well, and to be content with His guidance. As is our custom, every fourteen days my dear colleague holds the sermon in Zion Church for the convenience of the people from the plantations, especially their women, children, and the sick, and they particularly welcome this during the wet season.

Sunday, the 24th of September. Glaner asked me to mediate between him and his neighbor’s wife, which I did most readily. Glaner had foregone participating in Holy Communion several times because of their quarrel, but now he no longer is willing to do that. A short while ago he fell seriously ill, and the bickering between him and that woman, although mostly trifles are involved, weighed on his conscience. Of the two, Glaner is more to blame; I told both of them what I thought needed saying. May God grant him a better disposition and allow him to learn fully the deeper sense of the commandment: “Love thy neighbor as thyself”. Sometimes one is surprised by what God reveals to us of other people’s natures by coincidence. I believe it is very necessary for one to make the effort to listen to both parties. We prayed together, and they made their peace with each other in the presence of N.’s husband.

Monday, the 25th of September. The men who bought cattle from the herds of the Lord Trustees half a year ago are now obligated to pay off one hundred pounds Sterling; Our miraculous God gave them the opportunity to work hard and to try to save the necessary sum. Payment is due right after Michelmas. These men intend to present a petition to the members of the Council asking for assistance and requesting to be allowed to pay only fifty pounds since our cowpen is in very poor condition and certain ruthless neighbors continue to contribute considerably to the damage. The petition details their hard work, the high expenses they encountered, and their poor profits. Also, they do not think that they would be able to pay another one hundred pounds Sterling within another half-year. I myself will deliver this petition. Rather, from the beginning, we have had doubts as to the success of the cowpen planned by the Lord Trustees; however, for various reasons we felt we had to purchase it, since otherwise it could have meant the end of our community’s cattle raising if this cowpen had been acquired by unfriendly outsiders.

Tuesday, the 26th of September. Soldier Dods, who arrived here from Frederica one-and-a-half years ago together with his German wife, is doing well among us. He has only one child; and he asked me today, in tears, that, for the sake of God’s glory, it might be raised better than he himself was. He likes to hear how readily other children recite their verses and catechism in church and how well they answer the questions their teachers ask; he hopes to live long enough to see his own five year old son do as well as these children and to share this joy.

Wednesday, the 27th of September. Today I visited the German people living at Goshen; they had met in the house of one of their members, and I held an edification hour for them. As our text we used the beautiful, thorough, and edifying essay Explanation of the Lord’s Prayer¹⁸ by our esteemed court preacher Ziegenhagen, which we had received recently. Our dear God has granted me His blessing while reading from this text, both earlier at home and again during my sermon today; it is a thoughtful, edifying, and consoling essay for meditation. Oh, if only all of our listeners learned to pray properly, as instructed by these explanations of the Lord’s Prayer! What a change we would all undergo! We would have heaven on earth and in our hearts! In reading this essay, one can not help but be filled with respect for the Lord’s Prayer.

Before this aforementioned edification hour, I had to talk to a woman regarding a certain public nuisance which she had created for others by her quarreling and constant outbursts of anger; I admonished her in kindness and with strictness. I also reminded all listeners to treat each other with love, tolerance, and forgiveness and to bear God’s word in mind, especially the important words of Christ which are printed in the aforementioned essay both immediately after the Lord’s Prayer as well as in the beginning of the text. Quarrelsome and unforgiving people need not hope that their prayers will be heard, as these words of Christ show. On the other hand, it is well to be peaceful, eager to make peace, and peace-loving.

Thursday, the 28th of September. These few people at Goshen like to hear God’s word; there are some, though, who think that I am too severe in my preaching. Some time ago, I had held a sermon on the text of Psalms 5; 6-7: “Thou shalt destroy them that speak leasing: the Lord will abhor the bloody and deceitful man.”¹⁹ Afterwards, a woman came to me and complained that I had been too angry this time. She said she could tell from my face that I had been listening to ill-willed rumors about them and that I had never before, ever since they had come to this country, held such a severe sermon.

I had learned that a certain widow was dangerously ill; on my trip back I went to see her and talked to her of God’s word. She told me that several times she had been very frightened in her conscience and had been afraid that she was lost. She added that she did not know why she should feel that way, she had never in her life committed serious sins, such as stealing, or lived an unclean life as some young people sometimes do. I told her that not only such obvious sins counted, but also that sins like original sin, that main evil, and the various sins of omission and commission resulting from it could exclude her from heaven; this she could see from the verse: “The sins of the flesh are manifest”;²⁰ sins like animosity, discord, envy, and anger were among these.

I told her I thought that her fear of being lost was one of the punishments sent by the Holy Ghost and that she should pray to God asking Him to enlighten her as to her sins. She would then learn what is said in the verse: “For God so loved the world that, etc.” and “whosoever believeth in him shall not perish, but have ...” Finally, we prayed together; and then I explained to her the story of the fiery serpents.²¹

Friday, the 29th of September. God has answered our prayers. After so much rain He has sent us good, dry weather again. Our crops of rice, hay, and Indian beans can now be harvested while they are dry. Some of the rice did spoil; however, the damage is not too great. The water-level in the river is rising every day, and more than another eight or nine inches will result in flooding; some of the low-lying areas are inundated already, and it is a blessing that those of our people who live at the Mill River were able to bring their rice across before that happened. However, people settled on low-lying land around the rivers and creeks here are still better off than those in Augusta or Savannah Town, although there is much bragging about how fertile their land is and how abundantly their various crops grow.

The same is true of our low-lying land right next to the islands across our Mill River as well as the land on these islands themselves and other low-lying land. This land gets very wet in the rainy season but is not flooded by the rivers, although this means that these fields have to be improved periodically by either fertilizing or resting the soil; fields which are flooded regularly by rivers rich in silt need neither. I think of such land as the land of Egypt, which is irrigated and fertilized regularly by the floods of the Nile. I read that the same happens in the land around the river Gambia, which is settled by Negroes; despite the great heat they have good harvests. The main advantage which our low-lying lands have over those of Augusta and Savannah Town is that the flooding there occurs suddenly and unexpectedly; in our area it is predictable and happens gradually.

Upstream, the Savannah River is much narrower than down here in our area. Also, there are not as many small creeks branching off which can channel some of the overflow away from the main river. This is the reason that sometimes, in the course of only one night or twenty-four hours, the water rises by twenty or thirty feet, causing a sudden flood. Cattle and pigs often drown, and the crops are damaged. On the other hand, our people have enough time to prepare for a flooding.

Philip Ports, whom I mentioned in the part of my diary which I sent off recently, came to see me today and informed me that he has purchased a plantation close to the mill. It is easily accessible and fertile and includes a sturdy house; he paid a little over fifteen pounds Sterling for it. He is grateful to our Lord for fulfilling his wish to be a part of Ebenezer again and to live in his spiritual birthplace. I also prefer that he and his young wife have their own plantation, rather than being taken care off by me or by my dear colleague. A short time ago he had earnestly asked us for such an arrangement; in return he offered to work for us as a field-hand and his wife as a servant, and he said that both of them would work hard and serve us faithfully. He owns a plantation near Goshen; it is easily accessible and fertile as well. He does not mind letting it go but prefers the opportunity to live and work here. He is an honest young man and a hard worker, but not very strong physically and not really fit for hard labor.

Saturday, the 30th of September. Today, on the last day of this month (the Sixteenth Sunday after Trinity), seventy-three people went to Holy Communion. May the name of the Lord be praised for this blessing which He grants us in our pilgrimage so often and in such gratifying order! Since last Thursday I have been plagued by a persistent cold, and my throat is hoarse; yesterday I was unable to hold the sermon in preparation for Holy Communion in either Zion Church or Jerusalem Church; my colleague took over with great eagerness and ability. How fortunate that Ebenezer has two ministers, who, if necessary, can assist one another so that our community need not be disadvantaged or diminished if one is sick or has to travel. Since I was able to rest yesterday, God restored enough of my strength to enable me to preach today as usual and to repeat my sermon. I praise God’s mercy with all my heart and thank Him for His assistance, which I do not deserve!

A German man from Savannah Town,²² who recently lost several thousands of barrel-staves and whom I mentioned earlier, attended our public service three times; I was told he shed many tears during the sermon, and only God knows whether he cried because of his great financial loss or because the preaching of God’s word moved his heart.

In our exordium we contemplated David’s important words of prayer: Psalms 39;5, “Lord, make me to know my end,” etc.²³ We preached on the subject of physical death, examining the gospel verses of the young man of Nain who died and was resurrected. My dear colleague spoke on Job 14; 1-2, dealing with the shortness of human life and its tribulations. May our dear God allow us to benefit from these precious words of divine truth until all eternity!

The aforementioned German man is from Danzig and is a follower of the Evangelical-Lutheran faith . He offered to give one of our people his land at Savannah Town in exchange for a plantation of one-hundred acres at the Mill River. He would spend more time working in wood and making things for sale than on farming. However, I believe that this trade will not come about. He told us that the commanding officer at Fort Augusta also had many barrel-staves made and had planned to send them to Savannah for sale; however, he may very well learn a lesson from this man’s misfortune. One thing becomes clear from such business ventures: that the people there, who are so far away from Savannah, consider it worth their while to work in wood and to make things for trading with people from the West Indies. How much more would our people profit from such an undertaking, being so much nearer to Savannah! Barrel-staves made by our people, as well as shingles, barrel-hoops, and lumber for construction, as well as boards, could be transported easily and without any danger on the river, using the boards themselves as rafts. During our repetition hour it started to rain again; the dry weather lasted only a few days after all. The river continues to rise, and it looks as if all low-lying land will be flooded soon and our mills will have to cease work.

OCTOBER

October the 1st. On the first day of this month, I had to go to Savannah again in order to take care of our community’s business; the weather was pleasant for traveling. As soon as I arrived, after eight o’clock in the evening, Mr. Zübli, the preacher, sent word that I should come to see him; he had traveled here from his parish in Carolina to visit the people of the Reformed faith in and around Savannah. He was very ill and had to keep to his bed; he suffered from a fever, chest pains, and a severe cough. He was rather troubled in mind and body. I consoled him and, together with other good people, prayed with and for him. I also gave him some of the medicine which I had taken along with me on my trip and took care of him as best as I could until Mr. Meyer arrived; at Mr. Zübli’s request, I had sent for him by express boat. Mr. Zübli is a good, talented man; and our dear God will enlighten him even more through this physical tribulation, and make him ever more fit for his office. This incident as well as various others will prove to him more and more that I am his friend and have his best interest at heart. I hope he will recover soon.

October the 2nd. A chest from Halle arrived in Charleston aboard one of the ships which docked there recently. Just now, while I was in Savannah, a captain had it brought there. No letter accompanied the chest, but I assume that it contains the books and medicines which Pastor Zübli had sent for. I opened the chest, which was in poor condition and partly smashed, and found almost what I had expected. There were various useful bound books, larger and smaller ones, some for him and some for us, as I will explain shortly. The medicines were packed in a separate little box and addressed to Mr. Thilo; without opening this box, I took it along with me on my way back. May God be praised for this precious blessing, too! No letter and no instructions had been included; therefore, I assume that such a letter is still underway, or got lost before reaching London. We have all of the letters written to us by Mr. Albinus. Mr. Zübli was very pleased with the books; and I said to him, referring to this token of divine care for us: “I shall not die but live, and declare the works of the Lord.”¹

Several of our people have asked me to assist them in acquiring additional land for larger plantations; they wish to add another fifty acres to the fifty acres they already have, giving each of them one-hundred acres of land, preferably on the island on the other side of the Mill River and between Purysburg and Abercorn. They should be able to get good land not only on these islands, but also in other areas around Abercorn and on the Uchee land² wherever they find it acceptable to settle, if only they would move. Due to a mistake made by the surveyor and also due to a lack of good land close by, it happened, after we moved from Old Ebenezer, that, for the most part, three households had to be crowded into one plantation of fifty acres (and largely pine forests, at that) along the Mill River; their additional acres (of a total of fifty) were situated across the Mill River on the island. As a result of this, the plantation of each one household is very long and very narrow.

This arrangement, although made in brotherly love and by necessity, is rather inconvenient; in the future, the situation could even worsen when the present householders die. Therefore, several years ago I had started advising them to come to agreements with each other and to combine their three strips into one plantation again and for two of them to move in each case. For that purpose I had petitioned the Council in Savannah for good land around Goshen, which also lies close to our glebe and is settled mostly by Evangelical-Lutheran people. In order to encourage them to settle on this new land, I agreed to give two pounds Sterling to each one who would willingly let his neighbor have his strip of land; those who stayed on and got the land of their former neighbors, along with the houses and stables, would be obligated to assist their brothers and neighbors settling on new land by helping them with the work.

However, my advice and suggestion had not been accepted, although a few times it seemed as if people were willing to make such arrangements; in the end, they pretended that they would be unable to cope with the hard work. Now, such efforts will have to be made, or they will not get the additional acres of land they want; furthermore, they would be unable to obtain a land grant or a deed for their land, which is now splintered into so many little parts, in writing; they would also lose their pastures and other things necessary for securing better supplies. That miserable man, N., cheated people out of the good wood for barrel staves;³ at present, there is almost none of it left on their narrow plantations. People did not understand the value of good trees, either; many well-grown stands of white oak were felled without any plan and then left to rot away or were cut up as firewood. Sometimes oak was used to make fence posts, when fir or other wood would have been good enough. Now, people are getting another chance to look for and obtain good oak for making barrel staves, offering them the potential to earn good money in a short span of time, as other Germans or Englishmen in this country do.

The reason for this good opportunity is that through the most extraordinary good-will of the members of the Council our people have permission to look for land wherever they want to, either on the aforementioned islands, or on the Uchee land, or behind or around Abercorn in Goshen. I will do my very best, with God’s help, to support this advantageous enterprise by offering my advice and assistance.

The 4th of October. Yesterday evening I traveled from Savannah to Abercorn; there, despite the cold night, I had to make do with a very poor little inn run by a destitute Englishman, who means well. I noticed that the river had already risen here quite a bit; my suspicions were confirmed when I got to see that almost our entire mill land was flooded as well as the mills themselves. For the second time within twenty-four hours now, the water has risen very quickly to an impressive height. May God in His mercy, as He has done so far in the past, avert damage from the mills and our low-lying plantations!

The 6th of October. The Salzburger Glaner recovered from a severe sickness only recently; as soon as he was better, he fell ill with another ailment. When I entered his room, he said these verses to me: “Behold, thou art made whole: sin no more lest a worse thing come unto thee”.⁴ I knew already why he quoted these words to me. A short while ago he had confessed to me in tears the unworthiness of his heart; it is likely that after his illness, which God, in His mercy, sent to him as a reminder and punishment, he disregarded this divine sign so that our wise and merciful God found it necessary to punish him again. His eyesight is severly affected by a discharge, or something like it.

I talked to him of his spiritual and physical condition and explained in particular the beautiful example of old Tobias. For a long time now he has been a widower; he has no children and is quite alone. However, he could have saved himself numerous difficulties connected with the running of his household if he had followed the advice and opinion of Christian people and married his neighbor, widow Zant, who is a very pious and good woman and who was formerly married to carpenter, Pilz, an honest man. In doing so, he could also have avoided his poor health as well as the weakening of his Christianity. It seems, he will now follow this advice.

The 7th of October. A short time ago, Krause’s maid servant was close to death. Today, I found her much improved; and there is hope for her recovery. I explained to her the great blessing of the period of grace, and I recited these well-known words for her several times: “Whosoever neglects this time and doth not turn to God, let him cry woe when he goeth to hell.⁵ “Item, “Today thou livest, convert today, etc.”⁶ This fall, several people got sick with fever. May God let these ailments turn into a spiritual healing for those people! But laziness and a false feeling of security is widespread among them, notably in one certain man; and mere words fail in such cases. God himself, who loves our souls, has to punish such people by various means. Oh, may He succeed every time!

The weather has been dry and cool since the first of this month, although the days are still warm enough for processing our rice. The high water seems to be receding again, and we all hope that our mills will be operational soon. Several families who planted too late suffered damage to their rice crop through the flooding.

The 8th of October. The sixty-seventh continuation of the account of the missionaries in the East Indies⁷ was among the books which Pastor Zübli had ordered from Halle. Once again, it contains much that astonishes me; and it fills me with joy to see the important missionary work continue with so much blessing. Although our Lord has called one or another dear laborer away from work and suffering into peace and eternal joy by physical death, He continues to support all the others who are in His service and who have resumed the task of those dear workers who have passed on. I am very pleased to see that our dear God enlightened three more men to go to the East Indies; they were honored by kind words not only in the preface of the continuation of the account mentioned above, but also in the last letter we received from Court Chaplain Albinus. In this letter, dated February the 27th of this year, he writes of them: “A short while ago, three esteemed brothers had been among us; they will go to the East Indies as missionaries. Their names are Mr. Schwartz, Mr. Polzenhagen, and Mr. Huettemann.”

We can only hope that these men turn out to be blessed tools in the hands of our Lord, as they are honest and inspired men of great talents. May our Lord let them arrive in India under His protection and blessing! On January the 20th they left from Deal; after that they lay at Falmouth for four more weeks, waiting for the right winds. This was, however, also part of God’s special plan, since there were violent storms (near London also a rather strong earthquake), and many ships, including one bound for the East Indies, which had left from Deal, were greatly damaged while they were still safe in harbor. He knows the proper hours for joy, etc.

The 9th of October. Old widow Müller has been sick with fever for several weeks now; she seems to have derived great benefit for her soul and her Christianity from this sickness. She keeps learning more and more about herself and her impure heart, and she repects now only salvation in Christ. I talked to her of last Sunday’s exordium verses: “I know also, my God, that thou tiest the heart, and hast pleasure in uprightness.”⁸ I also explained to her the closing words of the last gospel: “Whosoever shall exalt himself shall be abased; and he that shall humble himself shall be exalted”⁹ Previously, she had been lacking in genuine humility and in an honest heart.

The water level in the river, which has been very high, has begun to recede again during the past few days; tomorrow our mills will probably be able to resume work in sawing and milling. This time, the high water was to our advantage; and our community will benefit from it for many years to come, if God sends us His blessing. Many cypress trees grow in the low lying areas adjoining the rivers; and, so far, we have been unable to use them in our sawmill because people always claimed that the red cypress, which is a very durable kind of wood, would not float; therefore, it would have been too difficult to get the trees out of the low lying, swampy areas, which are the only places where they grow, by horse cart. Several of our people had given it a try and felled such red cypresses, but the trunks did not float. Boat-wrights and other people who ought to know confirm this also, namely, that every small piece and even splinters of red cypresses sink to the bottom of the water.

Last spring we hired several people and had them fell a good number of trees in an area south of the mill so that, if worst came to worst and they indeed would not float, the trunks could be transported onto high lying land by horse cart and brought to the mill from there during the dry season in the summer. Close to the town, and also north of the mill, we tried something similar; trees were felled and not only sawed into pieces of fourteen, sixteen, eighteen, and twenty foot length, but we also took the bark off the trunks and stored these pieces on top of several logs, so that they could dry out during the summer. Now, however, we know with certainty and pleasure that all the red cypress logs indeed float and that some of them have been brought to the mill. The trunks below the mill were brought to the high ground and can now be brought very easily the short way to the mill by cart.

This matter of the cypresses is a real blessing for our community because there are many of these trees alongside the large island as well as on the island itself, and in many other areas; now we know that they can be transported easily to the mill. The planks and floor boards made from red cypresses fetch a good price.

The 10th of October. Mr. Meyer, our justiciary, has been a widower for more than fourteen months now, experiencing the usual sorrow and practical drawbacks. Today he married a Christian young woman /Barbara Zorn/, who had never been married before; and, although she is an orphan without either father or mother, she is endowed with many fine spiritual and good physical qualities. Her mother, an honest and hard-working woman, had come from overseas, already widowed, together with my present colleague; she worked in his house as a servant and died there a few years ago. Her only daughter had not been living with her but was in service with the President of the Council, Col. Stephens; she could do nothing to change this situation, which had made her very sad, especially since it was denied to her to raise this child here with us and to instruct it properly in God’s word.

When she was on her deathbed, she sent for her daughter; she impressed upon her most urgently to move to Ebenezer and to be prepared for Holy Communion here with us, after the time of her service had been completed. At that time, she showed little inclination to do this; she was a high-spirited young girl and preferred the so-called English freedom to Ebenezer’s quiet and strict order. Also, there was no lack of meddlers and dispensers of bad advice. Her dying mother, however, designated me as the guardian of her only daughter in the presence of my colleague; I gave her my solemn promise to take care of the child to the best of my ability and to see to it that she would receive a proper education here in Ebenezer and would be prepared for Holy Communion by us.

After the mother’s death I wrote to Mr. Stephens and informed him that I considered it my duty, because of both my office and my conscience, to think of her now as my own daughter; and I asked him, as her present master, to ensure her spiritual and physical well-being and to warn her earnestly against violating her mother’s last wishes. This letter, which showed both love and sincerity, had the good result that she was released from her service earlier than expected and sent here to Ebenezer. My dear colleague had a position to fill in his own house, and he took her on. He instructed her faithfully, in his own home, in Christian dogma and taught her reading and whatever else was necessary as well. Together with other grown children she came to my house for the lessons in preparation for Holy Communion.

It became quite obvious how powerfully God’s word did its work in her soul; she gained a thorough understanding and a healthy experience of Christian dogma, as she showed in her Godfearing conduct at all times. She quieted down and sought the company of pious, adult women and learned, in addition to proper Christianity, various female skills, which are absolutely necessity in running a household. Since her genuine conversion she excelled among other young women by her love of God and her virtuous conduct, without being conceited about it. Mr. Meyer has found a wife in her which God Himself designated for him, and for this precious gift he will be grateful to God for as long as he lives.

My text for today’s wedding was Hosea 2; 14, “I will allure her, and bring her into the wilderness, and speak comfortably unto her.” The following verses also apply to this young woman: “When my father and mother forsake me, then the Lord will take me up.”¹⁰ Likewise, from the last gospel: “Whosoever shall exalt himself shall be abased.”¹¹ Since our loving God rewarded this young woman for her Godfearing heart, her obedience towards her teachers and her betters, and her virtuous conduct in her earthly existence so markedly with a good match, we hope that other young women here will follow her good example. The marriage ceremony was held (as we usually do) in an edifying manner in Jerusalem Church, but without any worldly festivities, amusements, and expenses. Before we left church I read to the dear people who had gathered there a remarkable chapter from Proverbs; after that we fell to our knees in order to pray and to praise God. In church, before and after the marriage sermon, we sang and prayed; after the wedding was concluded according to the Augsburg Agenda we accompanied bride and groom to their home and finally took our leave with prayer and offering our good wishes. The bride’s name is Barbara Zorn, and she is eighteen years old.

The 11th of October. The chest from Halle, which contained medicines for Mr. Thilo and books for Mr. Zübli, also brought us those parts of the Harmonicum Antonianum which had been so far lacking from our library. Now, we have the entire work, a precious and very useful treasure, for our edification and strenghtening of our most holy faith, as for that of our successors. May our loving God reward the esteemed Pastor Mayer, the editor of this work, and the orphanage in Halle for this blessing to our Christian church! From the orphanage, we received these and, in the past, many other books, frequently and free of charge; may our loving God reward the people there also a thousandfold and bless them spiritually and physically! We also would like to add the writings of the late Dr. Spener¹² to our library, if they are available.

What we have so far, is the following: theological writings in German and Latin, consisting of reflections, writings on dogma, guidelines for leading a proper life, thoughts of consolations based on faith, and various necessities of actively practiced Christianity, etc; Further, we have our catechism and tables related to the catechism and short sermons based on the catechism, for example, on the subjects of nature and grace, the true milk of the gospels, complaints about Christianity, which has been abused and neglected, etc. Further, we have instructive writings on the blessed return to the Evangelical truth, and on inner and spiritual peace.

The 12th of October. A year ago, many children in Carolina and, to some extent, in Savannah, fell sick with the same disease, namely, a rash covering the entire body, which the English call measles (perhaps the same as our Maseru). This fall, too, many children in our community are coming down with such a rash, which is similar to the purples,¹³ and they also develop a fever. Many are seriously ill, others are not as severely affected. Kalcher’s oldest daughter seems to have suffered a relapse and may be in some danger. She is a fine girl, Godfearing, virtuous, and quite accomplished in various skills which are needed in running a household. It would indeed be a great loss for her dear parents if she were to die in the bloom of her youth. She is one of the three children born in Old Ebenezer who are still alive; all the rest have died.

In my dear colleague’s house almost everybody is sick; however, we must praise our God’s mercy for letting him recover from the fever attacks from which he suffered. His dear wife also was saved from great danger and a most painful condition, and his only daughter is likewise starting to regain her health and strength again after being near death with sickness. Those of us who are sick and weak are making excellent use of Richter’s¹⁴ medicine which we received from the blessed orphanage in Halle and, as is our duty, we praise our most loving Father in heaven for this very precious blessing. Based on my own experience (from my early youth on I was rather sickly and was attended by various doctors; and therefore I was frequently in a position, during times of illness, to observe the effects of treatments and medicines), I am firmly convinced that our medicines are not only some of the safest to use but also cure a wide variety of ailments; the sick need to be somewhat patient, of course, and they have to follow the instructions of their doctors. Many people are rather slack in the latter.

The 13th of October. Eight days ago yesterday, as is my duty, and with love for our community, I presented to our people the thoughts which I had outlined in this diary under the entry for the second of September. I offered my services and assistance in order to promote the changes which I proposed; I also gave them enough time to think things over and to discuss them with each other and to form plans for improving and simplifying that undertaking which has the blessing of the authorities and of all of our friends. Some people had made arrangements with their neighbors in the past, since they did not like it that their plantations (of a total of fifty acres) should be parcelled up into two and three narrow strips of land and that other people, selected by drawing lots, would take part in owning good land. They traded pieces of land among each other, thereby extending their property lines across the original narrow strips, others bought land from neighbors who moved away or settled on another farm, also with the effect of obscuring the original boundary lines of their properties.

Now, these pieces of land have to be returned, and the original narrow plantation strips which had been changed in time have to be restored. Otherwise, it will be impossible to obtain grants or deeds from the Lord Trustees in writing for land which has been splintered up into so many small pieces. I could easily convince our people on this point. They also recognize, for the most part, the suggested changes and the land which has been offered to them as an advantage for which they ought to be grateful. Together with me they think that not only our people here, but even the entire country, as well as the Lord Trustees, would benefit from such a useful arrangement; and they wish that it had been made at the very beginning, right after our arrival here, or two years after that when we moved away from Old Ebenezer to the present location of our pilgrimage.

If our people could be settled closer together, it would be in their best interest, as far as the material circumstances of our Salzburgers are concerned. They could help each other better, their lives would be more safe and secure, and their Christianity would prosper, too. They say, and they are telling the truth, that their purpose in leaving their homeland was not finding an easier life but, rather, to be able to take better care of their souls and those of their children.

For a long time now ignorant people, and even some of the authorities here in this country, have put the blame for the present situation of the narrow plantation strips on my shoulders.¹⁵ It is also rumored that after my death and that of the original householders all sorts of confusion, disputes, and quarrels would arise. Therefore, I suggested certain changes as early as two years ago; and I shared my thoughts and motives with our community, advising them to move.

At that time, nobody had been willing to do so; they were less worried about being at a disadvantage as far as their properties were concerned than about enduring a lack or a lessening of their spiritual wealth, as for instance, going without churches or school, which we have not only in town but also in the middle of the plantations. The householders on our side of the long bridge, on both sides of town, felt the same way; there each plantation is shared by two households. These issues were brought up again because of the petition which I had filed with the members of the Council in the matter of adding land to some of the plantations. I was instructed to advise our people to agree to the changes which I listed in my diary entry of the second of September. This I have done, arguing most forcefully, as was suggested to me; however, I did suspect that our people would not be swayed, as I learned today. Only two or three householders seem willing to let their neighbors have their strips of land and to move to other land close by; this would give us only two plantations for re-settling.

All the others believe that they lack the necessary physical strength and temporal means to settle new land; also, they like to stay close to the church and the school for the sake of their children. They are willing to take a chance as to whether or not the members of the Council will be willing to obtain for them, from the Lord Trustees, grants or deeds in writing for their long and narrow plantations of fifty acres. If the Council does not wish to help, then it is believed that the Lord Trustees will do it themselves, for the reasons cited above. After all, it may be all the same to them whether our people, their subjects, own fifty acres in lots which are long and narrow or which are shorter and wider. My opinion in this matter of our plantations which are so practically divided, is that, although this arrangement seems to go against reason and logic, God wished it to be so, even if ignorant people put most of the blame on me.

The 15th of October. Yesterday, the Eighteenth Sunday after Trinity, my dear colleague preached to the people living at Goshen near Abercorn. Nineteen people went to Holy Communion. May God bless His word and communion in all of them! On the one hand, they enjoy listening to God’s word and also show considerable eagerness for partaking in Holy Communion; on the other hand, the results are less than we expect. Meanwhile, it is our duty, following the example of our Lord Jesus and His apostles, to continue with our prayer and preaching and to leave the rest in His hands. Some years ago, when I saw how little the Germans living in and around Savannah valued God’s word, I believed that I could bring about a change in them by refusing, for a certain time, to preach to them or to hold Holy Communion. Dear Mr. Francke, however, reprimanded me sternly, since I had caused more damage than good by my conduct. Now I am wiser and no longer let an opportunity slip by to serve them with my office.

The 16th of October. A short while ago, sad news reached us from Savannah concerning a German who undertook to sail for the Sugar Island, Jamaica, in a small craft which he had built himself. On his way back, close to a Spanish island, he was shipwrecked and lost all of his cargo. His life and that of his crew was saved but they had all been made prisoners because they were suspected of smuggling goods on which the Spanish had an embargo, for instance, Brazil wood. Many of the sea-going people in this country have no conscience at all; otherwise how could they be so bold and, by force of arms, steal from other people goods such as Brazil wood, salt, and other things, and to bring them aboard their own vessels. People do a brisk business on the black market with the Spanish and the French, and the King of England gets cheated out of the tariffs due him. Good Christians abhor these practices and refuse to be a party to such goings-on.

I cannot understand that the conscience of some, who claim to be Christians, allows them to trade with such black marketeers. Germans living in English colonies are quick to learn to make illegal deals, even mastering these methods and perfecting them. Even though in the eyes of the world they may appear rich, such conduct is without blessing. A few months ago a large ship, badly damaged, sailed up our Savannah River. Its cargo was loywood, that is wood used in the dyeing process; the captain, under great danger, had smuggled it in from the Spanish West Indies. Since such people go out with the purpose of robbing others, they do not shrink back from murder. Furthermore, because they have to work very fast when they fell trees illegally, they can not afford to take much care and ruin a great deal of wood. I have heard that soon there will be very little left. One only has to look to this colony and to the neighboring territory to see how poorly people manage cedar, live oak, white oak, cypresses, and other valuable trees.

The 17th of October. Old Mrs. Landfelder sent for me; she was in need of hearing God’s word and being consoled by it, and she requested assistance in her prayers. She seemed troubled about her salvation. God blessed me in my talk with her; I cited the gospel verses dealing with those who are racked by gout, and I explained to her what I thought was necessary and suitable in her circumstances, and I consoled her. She is old and worn out from too much work, therefore she thinks that her death is quite near. On the other hand, although she has very little money, she buys medicines from our doctor and is little perturbed about God’s judgment of her. In the past, she has been rather self-righteous, and her attitude towards me and my preaching has not always been of the kind which befits a faithful listener. Today she asked my forgiveness for her past behavior. Another half-hearted Christian, just like her, did the same. If she had been willing to heed good advice, then she could have avoided her destitute circumstances in Savannah and Vernonburg and the great poverty of her family. But the eagerness to marry has brought her and others much suffering, especially if such a marriage was contracted with an unconverted man of another religion. She is very close to death; it is a token of God’s mercy that she has been allowed, towards her end, to live and die at a place about which she used to spread lies and which she had formerly despised. She and her family realize this now.

The 18th of October. This week, two French merchants in Savannah caused me considerable trouble by their wish to have boards cut by our mill, a request which came very much at the wrong time. One of them came in person and asked me, and when I could not oblige him, the other wrote to me and tried to force me to do as he wished by sending along a rather large sum of money. Our friends in Savannah and Charleston had ordered so many boards of varying thickness that it is virtually impossible for us to fill other orders, as much as we would like to. Since people know that I supervise the work in the mills and that I am in charge of all correspondence in English, all too often the results are hard feelings towards me and unflattering remarks about my person. Mr. Meyer does not wish to take part in the running of the mills.

Our mills, especially the saw-mill, are earthly treasures for our community, and we derive more advantages from them than I can enumerate here. Although my dear, faithful colleague does most of the actual work, I must take a certain interest in such things; furthermore, I cannot refer strangers who come to us with their demands to him. There are also many reasons why it would not be practical to send quickly for a man from Europe whose sole responsibility it would be to supervise the work at the mills and the sale of our boards. To mention only one such reason: at present, we can not afford to spend the money on hiring such a man; partly because we still have to pay off our old debts, partly because we keep improving and repairing our mills, and partly because now we intend to build another saw-mill.

Among the people of our community there is nobody whom we could put in charge of the mill business. If, however, with divine blessing, we succeed in putting up a second sawmill (the dam for it has been completed already), then it will become necessary to find a foreman for that mill, especially since it will be somewhat out of the way; it will take approximately half an hour to reach it from our present mills, using a short-cut which was made recently. We can see quite clearly that God has given us His blessing for these very profitable undertakings; His blessing is the reason that they were protected from harm when it seemed unavoidable. Furthermore, in time, we have increased the number of our communal projects, and they have become more and more useful to us. Praised be the Lord!

From now on, it will make things quite a bit easier for us that Kalcher, this sensible, honest, and hard-working man, will be the supervisor of the women working at the mills, as well as our innkeeper and assistant there. Very soon now he will move into his new house, which is rather well built, together with his pious and capable wife and his four well-behaved daughters who all show good promise.

The 19th of October. The Salzburger Thomas Bichler is not making any progress either in his Christianity or in the running of his household. His body is growing weaker, and he lacks sufficient supplies from time to time; it is his own fault. At first, he had been our miller; after that, General Oglethorpe, upon my recommendation, made him the commanding officer of the rangers. In addition to that, he kept an inn in town, raised cattle, and farmed. After the rangers had been dismissed, he was no longer interested in being either an inn-keeper or a farmer, and he asked to be installed as the foreman at our cowpen. In this position he received annually the sum of sixteen pounds Sterling, and his field-hand got ten pounds Sterling; in addition to that, he had ample opportunity for raising crops, as well as certain other advantages. He quit this job, too, and moved in with his mother-in-law.

Now, he has more troubles; he has a horse, which was the source of overweening pride in his days as an officer; his overbearing, sinful manner had been giving offense in our community. Due to his own fault, this horse kicked his only son, a good child, and injured him so severely that he died miserably the next day. This accident happened a little more than a year ago, in the presence of the father, on a Sunday during our afternoon services. At that time, both I and Mr. Meyer were unaware of an English law which applies in such sad cases; this law is called deodand (quasi Deo dandum). Therefore, nothing more could be done but to grieve, and to humiliate ourselves before God, asking Him to have mercy on our community by not burdening it with this child’s blood. A good while after that, when Mr. Meyer had relinquished his offices as our justice of the peace and our trading agent, I had to read through the English laws in order to familiarize myself with them to an extent which seemed fitting for a justice of the peace. I made an excerpt for the purpose of reading it aloud to our people, and I came across the law deodand, which prescribes that a horse or other animal which kills a human being becomes the property of God and has to be given to Him or, by the authorities, to a community’s poor.

Bichler was not present when I read the English laws to our people; but he heard about it from others and, in particular, of the law which pertained to him and his horse. He is determined, and calls it a matter of conscience, to keep this horse for his own use, and he has told me to obtain a judgment in this case from the authorities in Savannah. Since then, his good luck had been waning constantly; in this manner God intends to punish him. On the other hand, he is a capable, talented man, and a productive member of our community; he could be even more valuable to us if he were converted and in the process gave up his pride, short-temper, stubbornness, and belligerent attitude towards people in authority and if he could quit his self-righteousness. Almost everybody prefers to avoid dealing with him because of his character. His bad luck in the past he blamed not on himself, but on his superiors and on other people. At all times, I had sought to influence him towards his own best interest in spiritual and physical matters, and I still attempt to do this, against all odds. Secretly, he speaks ill of me, and in Savannah, in my presence, he was told that he was the worst enemy of me and our community.

The 20th of October. Four days ago I had to go to Savannah on business. Bad weather and many errands prevented me from returning earlier than today; I arrived here in the evening. My duties as our community’s trading agent require the frequent traveling, and I pray that our dear God may forgive me whatever omissions may result from the fact that I have to neglect some things here at home as a consequence. May He not, for the sake of Christ, find fault with me for it. Last month, on the twenty-fourth of September, a drunken man fell into the river at Savannah and his body has not yet been recovered. Such accidents have happened frequently here in the past. It is not surprising that God makes an example of such people, since in this area sea-going men and boatsmen are in the habit of cursing and uttering disgusting oaths, and they drink far too much hard liquor. But they do not believe in God’s anger, and they are not afraid of His wrath.

On that day (mentioned above), during the afternoon, an unusually violent storm and downpour occurred; one boat with a cargo of salt capsized, although the crew survived. A serving maid who arrived here with the last transport of servants, an orphan of our faith, has finally persuaded me, after begging me for a long time, to buy her freedom from her masters in Savannah upon certain conditions. The people for whom she worked are glad to see her leave because she is German. I was also encouraged to this step by Christian friends, who argued that, by coming to us, she would be saved from too much temptation, danger, and corruption, and that she would be led towards God’s word. She will serve here, earning the money which was advanced, namely six pounds Sterling. Such poor people who come to us as the result of their own repeated asking, commonly consider it an advantage to live among us and accept our strict order more willingly.

It became rather cold after all the rain we had had; last night there was ice. I had met an old woman in Savannah who moved from Pennsylvania to Charleston recently, together with several German families. She had intended to visit her son, but learned that he, a habitual drunkard, had been found in Augusta last winter, frozen to death in the snow. She is Lutheran, and she praised the great work done by Pastor Muhlenberg and Mr. Brunnholz. Her husband and the aforementioned son who froze to death, and who had been to Ebenezer at one time, had been of the faith of his father; her other children, who are married in and around Philadelphia, have not chosen their religion yet. She told me more of their terribly confused state. She will now return to her family again.

The 21st of October. Yesterday afternoon, shortly before I returned from my trip, Mrs. Christ,¹⁶ who had been very sick, died and was buried today before evening. I hope that our wise and merciful God, during the last days of her life which she spent here with us in peace and proper preparation for life eternal, has led her to His word, which she liked to hear in days of health and sickness alike. God certainly did not forsake her two young children; it was this dying mother’s last wish that I should be in charge of the children’s upbringing and education, and nobody else should be allowed to interfere. The brothers and sisters of these two children would like to take them and use them in their households. However, they would not be well provided for in such an arrangement, as the mother had been well aware. If she had stayed in Savannah or Vernonburg, or if she had not changed her opinion of Ebenezer, then these two poor orphans could very well have gotten into the wrong hands; there are many examples of such things happening.

The 22nd of October. Yesterday, the Twentieth Sunday after Trinity, my dear colleague preached in Savannah and held Holy Communion. In past years, I frequently suffered from a lack of physical strength, and I lost courage easily; I found it difficult to preach twice a day and to hold our evening prayer hour as well. Our faithful God, however, has come to my aid for several years now so remarkably that, to my own astonishment and to that of other people, my strength does not diminish, even when I preach several times a day and attend to the various duties of my office as well. God alone is responsible for that! May He be praised, most heartily, for His mercy, which I do not deserve at all!

Mrs. Bacher, a good woman who became our community’s midwife a few years ago, is getting frail with advancing age, and it is not easy for her to go about her business. She has trained her daughter to be her assistant; the daughter is a sensible, capable and honest woman. She and her husband, a good man, live on her mother’s plantation. The good women in our community will praise God for this blessing! We prayed to our Lord in this important matter and asked Him to enlighten us in His wisdom. Mrs. Bacher tells, praising the Lord, how God, on several occasions when she had to deal with particularly dangerous deliveries, heard her prayers, gave her courage, and granted a successful birth in order to strenghten her faith. She also told me that something I had said to her and her late husband several times had also come true: namely that God mercifully rewarded the work of the Egyptian midwives by building houses for them. Miraculously, and against her expectations, this had happened to her, too, and had greatly improved her circumstances.

The 21st of October. The last entry in my diary for this month, according to God’s will and His miraculous ways, has to be the recording of an event which is the saddest in my life, excepting the death of my late colleague, although I am able to find some consolation in certain circumstances. Today, at five o’clock in the morning, it pleased our all-wise, miraculous, all-powerful, and merciful God to call my little son Samuel Leberecht to Him. He died after a painful agony, in his fourteenth year. He was our oldest son. He was very talented and especially obedient and God-fearing, which is most important. His pious conduct and his blessed, edifying end gave us strength; otherwise, our pain would, of course, have been much worse.

He was born here in Ebenezer on the second of January, 1737. It was a difficult birth, very painful and dangerous for his mother; at the time we had prayed most humbly and urgently for a successful delivery. Yesterday, and the night before, his unexpected and painful death gave us cause once more to offer Christian prayers to our Lord on His throne of mercy. Two weeks ago, he and his brother Gotthilf Israel, whom he loved most deeply and affectionately, had come down with the purples. Either they had not completely recovered yet, or the children went outdoors prematurely, but both became bloated, complained of a piercing pain in their sides and about stiffness in their joints. In addition to that, Samuel Leberecht’s chest had become congested and he had great difficulty breathing.

Yesterday morning, while he was still in bed, he started to suffer from epileptic attacks. The convulsions were extremely violent and persisted until his blessed departure from this world; he did not respond even to well-proven medicines which we administered with utmost care. He was out of his mind with fever. However, even during this agonizing paroxysm he never said anything which was in the least childish or unfitting; his first words were only: “Lord Jesus, wash me in Thy blood and forgive me all of my sins”. A few hours later, in the same painful paroxysm, he prayed in a loud and clear voice (but not being in his right mind) the Lord’s Prayer, the Evening Blessing, the Christian Creed, and various other good prayers; he repeated those several times.

This morning, not long before his passing, he said to his weak and ill mother that he did not want to die, but he did want to go to his dear Savior. Shortly before his death he struggled to get up and said: “Papa will see it”; then he rolled over on his side and died suddenly. When I saw what had happened, we prostrated ourselves in mind and body: I, my other young son, Gotthilf Israel (who had wanted to stay day and night with his brother, whom he had loved so much), and the desolate mother. Once more, we commended his blessed spirit unto the wounds of his most precious and beloved Savior.

After I had finished writing all this down, I was told of a rather moving event, which I regard a beautiful sign of the workings of the Holy Spirit in the heart of this child, and I feel I have to share this edifying moment: at about one o’clock in the morning he said he thought he saw an angel before him. But he could not find the right words to express himself, and his mother tried to help him; she said, perhaps it was his beloved Savior. He seemed content and agreed that indeed it was his beloved Savior. Towards the end, his brother was on his mind, too, he seemed to feel that he had to help him. But he was no longer coherent.

The last few Sundays, while I was away in Savannah, he attended his ailing mother with much love, he read to her and they prayed together. She was impressed by his seriousness, his respect for God, and his eagerness for prayer and God’s word. He liked very much to pray, to read God’s word, and to listen to it; his conduct was exemplary, and all the God-fearing and honest people among us liked him well. He studied hard and he had made excellent progress in theology, Latin studies, geography, calligraphy, arithmetic, and drawing. He had made a good start in Greek and singing; God had endowed him with a rich talent, a fine carrying voice and much enthusiasm. He would have made faster progress if he had not attended the same lessons in Latin and Greek as his brother, whom he loved so much and who is almost three years younger; he wanted to study together with him and help him with the lessons, when necessary.

Both brothers had wished very much to go to school at the Orphanage at Halle; although young people normally wish for more freedom, both were more than willing to live under the strict rules and regulations at Halle; they both wished to leave as soon as possible. A long time ago, I had thought to enter them both into the service of our Lord, since He had granted both many good talents and a serious inclination for studying. God willing, I was firmly decided to send them, as soon as a safe opportunity offered itself, to London and from there on to Halle, either at the end of this year, or at the beginning of the next. I had already assembled the clothes which they would need.

He had an overwhelming, simple respect for our most esteemed Fathers in Europe; especially he felt drawn to Dr. Francke, who once had sent him and his brother a very pleasant and encouraging letter. He was afraid that Professor Francke would die before he got a chance to see him; this was one reason he wished to leave as soon as possible, he was longing to meet this dear servant of God while still alive and to see him in Germany in person, as he had seen his engraved portrait here in this country. I need not mention the remarkable workings of the Holy Spirit in him, which we had noticed from his earliest childhood on; I need not mention the great love which he showed his parents, and the complete obedience towards them and his elders, or his eagerness to help people, or his compassion towards the poor and suffering; describing his character in such detail is superfluous; it is not necessary.

Only the glory of God (who manifested His grace in him and through him) and my duty towards the benefactors of this blessed Samuel Leberecht and their plans for him could move me at all to write so much about this son, who showed so much promise for the future. These benefactors kindly contributed money and books; they made it possible for him and his brother to take private lessons from our doctor, Mr. Thilo, for two years; this arrangement had been a blessing for the teacher, Mr. Thilo, as well, since he could make good use of the money, considering his poor income. I mentioned the talents of this son, who was such a joy and a source of strength to me, and God’s gifts to him, in order to thank these benefactors; I wanted them to see that their kind support of his education was well placed and pleased God. I wished very much to send him to Halle, for the sake of our Lord, and to have him prepared for entering the service of our Lord. It is written in Isaiah 55;8: “My thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways . . , etc.”

In writing these lines, I wish to thank most humbly, and with all my heart, all of the benefactors in Europe, both known and unknown, for all the blessings, spiritual and physical, which they have shown to my late son and to his younger brother, who is still alive. May He reward them and their families for their goodness and bless them here on earth as well as in eternity! Although the main purpose of their benefactions, namely, to prepare this boy completely for the service in Christ’s church, has not been fulfilled, it has nevertheless been fulfilled to a degree: he was dedicated to our Lord and was being taught to help me on many occasions and to make my work easier for me.

Personally, I suffered a great loss. However, since he was dedicated to our Lord and to His church, and since he was to leave for school in Halle, my heart had already been prepared for our parting. I no longer looked upon him as my son, but I considered him to belong to the Lord. Since our Lord, the Master over life and death, pleased to call him away from this world and to Himself, I feel quietly content and I say: “The Lord gave, and the Lord hath taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord”¹⁷ Now he is beyond danger, he is in good care, and he is at peace; therefore, my tears are not tears of sorrow, but of joy. With this death, our kind Savior granted me and my dear wife His immense mercy.

In the morning hours of the first of November he was buried in a Christian ceremony. Our dear listeners came from town and from the plantations and congregated in Jerusalem Church. We sang two edifying hymns and read aloud a passage from the Holy Bible between the songs. After that, my dear colleague held the funeral sermon, based on the fourteenth verse of the fourth chapter of the Book of Wisdom: “His soul was pleasing to the Lord, therefore he took him quickly from the midst of wickedness”¹⁸ My dear colleague had loved our Samuel as if he were his own son and he had taught him most carefully. At the beginning of the sermon, we, the parents, were addressed with verses from the gospel passage for next Sunday: “Thy child liveth.”¹⁹ After the sermon, we kneeled and prayed.

After that (instead of reading his vita), in order to inform and edify our people, the community was told some of the most remarkable events which had occurred in this child’s life, suffering, and death. Then we accompanied the body quietly to the churchyard. While the coffin was lowered into the grave, we sang the beautiful song Gott Lob! die Stund ist kommen, etc. His last resting place is next to that of his late cousin²⁰ and godfather, Mr. Gronau, for whom he always had shown great respect and whose blessing and prayers had been upon him. Finally, I thanked our dear people for showing their love to me and to my son by coming so willingly and in such great numbers to the funeral and by shedding their tears. I addressed them with the verse: “ Delight thyself also in the Lord, and he shall give thee,” etc.²¹ Only a short time ago, at his own initiative, my late son wrote this verse in chancery calligraphy and pinned the sheet to my door.

NOVEMBER

The 1st of November. Yesterday, the day the great change in my life occurred which I reported at the end of last month, I had gone out before evening in order to hold one of my soliloquies with my precious Savior. While I was out walking, a thick package of letters from Europe was brought to me; it had arrived with the Germans whom the Lord Trustees had sent to Ebenezer, partly as free men, partly as servants.¹ All letters contained good news; and just now, in my present tribulation, when I need encouragement urgently, they are a source of considerable consolation to me. They are from our well-meaning authorities, the Lord Trustees, from our most esteemed Fathers, and from other dear benefactors and friends. The fatherly letter from our most esteemed Senior Urlsperger began with the words: “God has thought everything out well and done everything correctly. Praised be our God!”² Mr. Laminit, a true Israelite, sends his wishes to me through Mr. Mayer and he says: “We know that all things serve to the best interest of those who love God.”

All German letters from the servants and children of God in London and Germany contain many beautiful evangelical expressions, which refresh my heart; and they contain so many signs of our Heavenly Father’s care for me, my family, my dear colleague, his family, and our entire community that my faith is greatly strengthened in our Lord and King, who doeth all help that is done on earth. It is especially comforting for me and all of us that our most esteemed Fathers, Senior Urlsperger, Professor Dr. Francke, Court Chaplain Ziegenhagen, Deacon Albinus, and Mr. von N. are still alive and in good health and that they are continuing faithfully to pray for us, to work, talk, and write on our behalf. May Jesus Christ, our King of Grace, in His mercy, reward them on the Day of Judgment, the day of His glorious return, and even before that, in their lives, suffering, and death.

I did not know that so many true servants of Christ in so many different parts of Germany still remember me fondly and pray for me; some I had met during my days as a student in the service of our Lord. They wish me well; and they, too, praise God for all the goodness He has shown to our dear community here so far. I learned of this through several letters which I received from some of them this time, and I felt greatly encouraged. My belief in the Communion of Saints, of which, by God’s grace, I am an unworthy member, is a great consolation to me. I am looking forward to joining this eternal Communion in Heaven. Once again, the letters of our esteemed Lord Trustees show considerable good-will towards me and our community here. They will send us another thirty-seven servants and it is to be hoped that these will be of more use than the previous ones who arrived here a year ago.

Last spring I asked for the iron parts of a sawmill near Savannah which is no longer in use; now, the Lord Trustees have given them to our community as a gift. Further, they are granting us fifty pounds Sterling towards the high purchase price of our cowpen, which we bought from them. I received twenty pounds for repairs on my house and another eighteen pounds to contribute to the expenses I incurred from supporting a large family of useless servants which had ended up with me. The Lord Trustees request a list of the names of our householders, together with the number of acres of their plantations in order to be able to send them an official letter and a deed of ownership. They also decided on a very useful change in the membership of the Council at Savannah; I am glad to say that Col. Stephens, who had become senile, was replaced by Mr. Parker, the highest-ranking council member, who was made vice-president, and Mr. Habersham, the youngest member of the Council, was installed as the secretary.³ They also ordered that a general meeting take place next spring in the manner of a small parliament. Our community will be represented in it by two knowledgeable deputies. The intended purpose of this parliament will be to formulate resolutions reflecting the best interests of each community and of the entire colony; the resolutions will be sent to London for their ratification and their approval by the Lord Trustees. God willing, this assembly is supposed to take place from then on regularly in following years.

The 2nd of November. My dear colleague and Mr. Mayer went to Savannah in my place, in order to obtain clarification from the Council in the question of the Lord Trustees’ intent concerning the German free colonists and servants.⁴ My own thoughts on their settling I wrote down in a letter addressed to my friend Mr. Habersham. This morning, at my request, our householders assembled, both in order to discuss the problems connected with the arrival of the new servants, and in order to hear their opinions as to whether they preferred to stay on their old plantations or whether they planned on moving, as they had been advised to do by the Council, and to select new, good land for their plantations. They have first choice; people arriving now will have to be content with the best parcels of whatever land will be left over. Most intend to stay on the land which was given into their care through God’s goodness: land close to the church, the school, and the mills; furthermore, the large, fertile island on the Mill River is almost at their doorstep.

Those of our original residents who did not have a plantation of their own up to now, either because of their trade or because they were minors at the time, or for other reasons, will take land close by, on the Uchee land. New colonists will settle near them, wherever they please. Up to now it was believed that the Uchee land consisted of many thousands of acres of fertile, good land; now, after people took a closer look, it turned out that there is only a modest amount of good land available. The best sections of land are supposed to be further up north along the Savannah River. This afternoon, I set down all these details in a long letter to the Vice-President of the Council and its other members, so that this time, as is the wish of our people, the question of the land for plantations will be settled properly for once and for all.

The 3rd of November. This morning I received the sad news that the youngest daughter of the late Klocker, a very well-behaved girl, took ill last night and may be in grave danger. Soon after the first messenger had left, he came back and reported her increasing weakness. I hurried to Mr. Mayer’s house to visit her with the verses we had just sung in tranquility: “Just as a bird seeks a hollow tree”;⁵ but I could neither speak nor pray with her, for she had already died or rather fallen asleep. She, too, had had scarlet fever and then the very same attacks with bloating of the body⁶ as our son Samuel Leberecht. Judging from the foam around her mouth, I assume (and Mr. Thilo, who was sent for soon thereafter, agrees) that, just as in the case of our own child, epileptic convulsions hastened the approach of death.

Yesterday she had still been well and in high spirits; she had moved back into Mr. Mayer’s house from Mr. Lemke’s, convinced of her full recovery; and she probably suspected nothing less than such a sudden change in her condition. Both of her parents had died young, and she was raised well and properly by Hans Flerl, a good man, and by his wife, also a God-fearing woman. After that, she had been in service in my house at first, and later in Justiciary Mayer’s, until he got married. Mr. Mayer put her in service with Mrs. Lemke, taking the place of his new wife /Barbara Zorn/, who, until her marriage, had worked in the Lemke’s household. Meanwhile, Mrs. Lemke got herself another maid; and, as mentioned, Mr. Mayer took the girl back into his house. We lost in her a rather fine, God-fearing, and sensible young girl, well versed in God’s word and eager in her work. Often she had pleased our entire community by her clever and well-phrased answers in church, as well as by her conduct in general. In my home, as well as in Mr. Mayer’s, she behaved in such a Christian manner and with such virtue that her blessed memory will be held dear by all of us.

God, in His wisdom, which we fail to understand fully, sent me such special tribulations this month; therefore, I turn to some of the remarkable and edifying sentiments expressed in the letters which we have just received and which were written to us by these servants of God (no doubt, as a result of His bidding). They strengthen me greatly and are worth being quoted in part in this diary to give food for thought and edification to others as well. They are as follows:

“We owe thanks to our Lord, for He continues to protect Ebenezer. Even if there be some little sadness, it will pass. Oh, how I will laugh! God is steadfast. God has also sent you laughter in the past. Since we welcome God’s blessings, how can we refuse tribulations and sadness? . . . Without God’s help it would be impossible not to lose heart and to continue the work, in these times of corruption and horrors. You feel its effects, nevertheless; yet you continue to work, and you believe that your work will not be in vain but, rather, will endure in the Lord. In time, when the passage through this vale of tears is completed and the Good Shepherd appears to us, we will be filled with unspeakable, glorious, joy. Meanwhile, we have to practice patience . . . Our Lord comes to our aid. In this matter also, as in all things, He will advise us. Lord Jesus, I belong to you, in life and death. Help me soon, I am but a poor soul! . . .

“Oh, how miraculously! How wonderfully does our Savior guide His servants and children! How right we are to follow His hand, even blindly, for in the end we will get to see His light and His grace! May our eternally faithful God grant to you and to your esteemed family ever more grace from His abundance; may He see to it, if possible, that the faith with which you discharge your office not be in vain and not a single soul of your community be lost during your tenure. . . . Our Lord, Lord, Lord, may He strengthen you in all physical tribulations, may He make life endurable for you, and may He make it possible for you to say, joyfully, at any time: Ebenezer, so far the Lord hath never forsaken us! He is faithful, He, who called you; and He will take care of you. He does as those wish who worship Him. He hears their cries and He comes to their aid. Yes, He does abundantly more than we ask of Him or understand.”

An old, faithful servant of God in the principality of Anhalt sent me a catalogue containing a listing of all honest ministers who are busy upholding the peace and unity in dogma, in order to edify their people to promote the kingdom of Christ. He tells of a preacher, whom I know and whom I hold in high esteem, that he was born on the thirty-first of October, 1709, the day on which I and my late colleague received our vocations also my instructions.⁷ This day has now also become the memorable day on which my oldest son died, whom I had dedicated to the service of God and His church.

The 4th of November. Our merciful and eternally faithful God has come to my aid and proven most impressively His power during this time of my great physical weakness; today, the twenty-first Sunday after Trinity, in the absence of my dear colleague, I was able to preach His holy word to my own blessing as well as that of my listeners, and I held the funeral services. In the morning we considered Abraham, this edifying example for Christian householders and families: Genesis 18:19. In the afternoon we contemplated the royal example from the gospel for the same purpose. Oh, how many good thoughts did our Lord let us speak and hear for our consolation and encouragement! My dear wife, who for many weeks now had been too weak to leave home and attend church, has been strengthened by God so miraculously that she was able to come not only to the funeral of her beloved Samuel Leberecht on the first of this month, but also to join us twice today at our public service, much to her great joy in our Lord and to the consolation of her soul. However, she regards this respite the calm before the storm and is preparing herself for it, by the grace of her Savior.

Before our service in the afternoon I received letters from the secretary of the Lord Trustees, Mr. Habersham, and from my dear colleague, in which they ask me to come to Savannah. I can not leave during the first days of this week; partly because I am very hoarse, a condition which set in towards evening; partly because I have to hold a wedding ceremony tomorrow, and also partly because of the poor health of my children and the children of my dear colleague. Meanwhile, I have finished my letters to these two friends concerning the necessary details about our people here as well as about the newly arrived colonists. These dear people lived through an especially difficult and dangerous voyage at sea; however, they did not complain, but behaved in a rather quiet and content manner.

The good opinion which my dear colleague and the two men of our community who had met them formed of them pleases me and encourages me to take care of them as well as I know how, to the extent of the abilities which God has granted to me. I also asked my listeners in particular to receive the new people with love; and I emphatically warned those of them who usually behave in a less exemplary manner to treat them properly and without giving cause for complaint. All of them are eager and willing to settle in Ebenezer. May God give His blessing to their arrival and to their new life among us!

The 5th of November. George Glaner (or Klammer, as he was incorrectly called in Memmingen) was married today to widow Zant, the former wife of Pilz, who was an honest carpenter. We chose a passage from yesterday’s gospel: “He believed and his whole house.” My God and Savior granted me a great deal of edification and hope for eternity during the ceremony; the small gathering consisted of the bride, the bridegroom, and some friends. Although this is a difficult time for me and my family, which has been sent to us according to God’s plan and will, I felt strengthened and consoled through His word and our prayer. May His name be praised for this most humbly!

The 6th of November. This morning, our miraculous and merciful God called to Him our youngest daughter, Christiana Elisabeth, in her eighth year, during our, her parents’ and our two remaining children’s, prayer and tears; also present was a friend who loves Jesus and His children. For some time, she, too, had been suffering from a bloating of the body, and she had great difficulty breathing, just like her brother Samuel Leberecht, whom she had loved dearly. However, it had seemed that her condition had improved somewhat and responded to the medicine which she obediently and willingly took; she felt well and there was no restlessness, either during the day on Sunday, nor at bedtime. She went to sleep saying her prayers; and her loving mother kissed her good-night, hoping that she would get up the next morning healthy and well. Our miraculous God, however, had other plans.

Yesterday morning, she showed the same symptoms from which Samuel Leberecht had suffered; her chest was congested, she had great difficulty breathing, and finally the convulsions started; and they lasted, on and off, for the next twenty-four hours, just as in the case of our son. We felt her pain even more than she did, and we were greatly relieved at her release from all suffering. Towards the end, the convulsions lasted longer and longer (we could barely watch and were filled with deep pity for her, and we were most painfully moved); I read the eighty-first Psalm and the beautiful words: “Open thy mouth wide, and I shall fill it.”⁹ I tried to console my family, who were in tears and filled with grief witnessing such misery. I explained how God’s heart and that of our Savior were eager for our salvation and how willing and ready He was to fill us and our dying child with the entire wealth of His grace and mercy. We kneeled before the Lord and prayed to Him in simple words, telling Him of our anguish and that of our child; and we asked Him fervently to open wide the mouth of the heart and the soul of this dying child and to fill it, and to end her suffering soon, for the sake of Christ, if it pleased Him in His wisdom. I had not expected how soon our merciful God would hear our poor prayers; however, it happened to our great consolation and strengthening our faith. She became suddenly quiet and passed away, praying, crying, and praising God.

Because of yesterday’s wedding, many people kept coming and going at our house; and the dangerous illness of this child, who was quite gifted and liked by everyone, became known in town and on the plantations. As a result, this child was commended to the care of the Holy Trinity and our God both in and outside of my house through the intercession of Christ and through the prayer of many of our faithful during these past twenty-four hours. She was a dear well-behaved child; and she showed great willingness to die and to join her dear Savior (as she called him affectionately), both in the past, when she was still in good health, as well as towards the end, when she was still able to talk. Once, during one of her last severe convulsions, she called out to Samuel, whom she had loved even more than her brother Gotthilf Israel and who had loved her as much. Once, she asked for her catechism. My late colleague,¹⁰ while he was still alive, and other god-fearing godfathers as well, had been pleased and had praised God, for immediately after receiving Holy Baptism she displayed a special and quite unusual friendliness, more as if she were the child of angels rather than of humans.

My dear late colleague, in his wisdom and Christian way of thinking, used this example for stressing the fact that Holy Baptism and the Articles of Baptism ought to be shown the respect due to them. He liked to quote the late Dr. Spener, saying: “Baptizing a child is more worthwhile than crowning an emperor.” After Holy Baptism, Christiana Elisabeth, who had been in good health until then, became very sick and came close to death. Her sickly mother (who, while confined to her lonely bed during this last of her deliveries, had benefitted greatly from the gospel and the prayers in which the kind Abba and Father joined her often) had given her up to her Savior; she had then been overcome by unspeakable joy when she became convinced, most sweetly, that our loving God fulfilled His priceless, inscrutable and glorious promise, as is quoted from Isaiah 60,61, and 62 and noted on page 159 of the Treasure Chest.¹¹ He had fulfilled His promise partly on earth, in her child who had been baptized, and He would fulfill His promise partly later, completing it in Heaven, since the child had become, through Holy Baptism, a living member of the spiritual body of Christ and of His church.

We became aware of this edifying fact once more, deep in our hearts, since we remembered yesterday that her dear brother Samuel Leberecht had drawn a crown for her not long before his own sickness and departure from this world. At the time, I had not known this and had taken the piece of paper, torn it, and wrapped something in it. However, she came to me and told me that the crown was for her and took the drawing back. When we thought of this incident, which seems so childish, we prayed and cried tears of joy, remembering the beautiful words: “The righteous shall live forever, and the Lord is . . .”¹² and: “Therefore they shall receive a glorious kingdom and a beautiful crown, etc.”¹³ Now, it is as if she were calling to us from heaven: “O, you dear souls, your crowns, your psalms, your crowns of gold are ready. Be sure that you strive rightly for victory!

The 7th of November. Today, around eleven o’clock, many of our dear people came to attend the funeral sermon and the funeral of our dear little daughter. My dear colleague, who returned from Savannah only yesterday, held the funeral sermon on the previously mentioned beautiful words Wisdom 5; 16-17, dealing with the most exalted state of the righteous in heaven. In the introduction, to console us, he called out to us the word of our Lord Jesus, which He spoke in the house of the first preacher at Capernaum: “The maid is not dead, but sleepeth.”¹⁴ Like her brother Samuel, she looked so beautiful in the coffin that she appeared more like a sleeping person rather than a dead one. Both are alive in their Savior.

The 8th of November. I received a friendly answer from the members of the Council; in it they expressed their willingness to do their best for our community and for the people who arrived recently. They would like me to come and join them in their council session tomorrow. However, to some extent, they are aware of my situation; and they would be willing to wait, if I preferred to come at the beginning of next week. God will give me strength and allow me to do some more good, through His grace, during the short remainder of my life; I wish to do so with all my heart, and God Himself sent me this desire.

For the past fourteen days the weather has been very cold, both during the days as well as during the nights; as a consequence, our good colonists, who had arrived just recently, suffered much discomfort and endangered their health by traveling in an open boat to Savannah.¹⁵ The people there did their best to assist them; and yesterday afternoon several families arrived here at the mill in a large boat; they were speedily provided with plenty of fresh and good food and then housed temporarily. The rest will arrive here probably tomorrow. The chest sent to us by those kind, dear people in Augsburg was unpacked in my house today and its contents were undamaged. God be praised most heartily for all the goodness He shows to us, despite our tribulations, from near and afar. May He reward those dear people who are His true servants!

The 9th of November. The blessing that our kind God let come to our hands in the large crate from the benevolent city of Augsburg, which consisted of pomesin, implements, linen, stockings, engravings, and all sorts of books, is great and marvelous. However, it cannot be distributed until the manifest of all these very necessary and useful gifts follows after it. May God be a rich Rewarder for them! He knows His people in all places, and He knows all our worthy benefactors of the present and past times, whom we humbly and confidently commend to His mercy and loyalty in our poor prayer. From the letter of our worthy Deacon Albinus I have seen that our miraculous God has also awakened for us a new benefactor in the region of Holland, who has put 25 £ Sterling into the hands of our worthy Dr. Prof. Francke. May He bless him for it in time and eternity and let him garner a rich harvest in everlasting life for this imposing gift.

Among the dear blessings we have just received we righfully count some selected sermons by our dear Court Chaplain Ziegenhagen, which have again reached our hands in a large quantity for our edification. May our gracious God strengthen this His proven and experienced servant for many years in strength of body and spirit and let the Church of Christ enjoy his service and prayer for a long time.

The righteous Kalcher, along with his family, has now moved to a newly built and convenient house at our mill to be the overseer and drayman there. Until now it could truthfully be said, “What He does turns out well”; and I do not doubt that his and his pious wife’s service, work, and edifying example will also be blessed both for our inhabitants and for strangers. Because the new colonists have been brought from Savannah to the mill and will be provided for there initially until better arrangements are made, Kalcher and his wife are almost indispensable for us. For the provisions go through their hands, and he serves these dear strangers very well with his well arranged wagon. We are now trying to shelter them in the empty houses in town and in the homes of various christianly-minded householders so that they can get to know us and we them and so that we can see further to their shelter later.

Today Carl Flerl’s little son, a sensible and skillful child, died of a sore throat. The father loved him so much that I thought he would be unable to resign himself to his death; yet he was very resigned and content with the divine will, especially since he knew that he had come to his dear Savior and to other pious children. Both parents fear the Lord; and especially the mother is an old and experienced disciple of the Lord, which I consider one of the greatest blessings for living and dead children. This afternoon I visited Eischberger’s and Brandner’s children, who are also afflicted with scarlet fever and, some of them, with sore throats. These children, too, cause me much joy through their proper and Christian behavior. They prove patient in suffering and they yearn, if it pleases God, to go where all pious people have gone for thousands of years, where we hear an everlasting “halleluiah” to the glory of our God. The righteous Brandner considers it significant that God began His chastisements over parents and children in my and Mr. Lemke’s houses. He remembers that it went the same way some years ago with the cattle disease, which was first observed in the cattle of my late colleague. When people were astonished at that, the blessed man, he said, opened his testament and read from 1 Peter 4:17-19 the words: “For the time is come that the judgment must begin at the house of God,” etc. I found this parallel and observation sad, to be sure, yet dear. From it I see how our dear parishioners profit in a Christian way from the things that occur among us.

The 10th of November. All last week, which was an extraordinary week of tribulation for me and my family, I was sickly and somewhat weak in spirit and had such a great hoarseness that I could not give any public sermon but could only visit some sick people. Necessity required me to hold the confessional on the plantations yesterday morning, when our merciful God noticeably strengthened me through His gospel while I was preaching it and made me fit enough to perform some external business at the mill and among the newly arrived colonists. My hoarseness also mostly disappeared last night so that today, the Twenty-second Sunday after Trinity, I could again preach to the old and new inhabitants about the right way of repentant sinners. Everything comes from thee, my God. We held Holy Communion with fifty-nine people. More than seventy registered, but very wet weather had come, by which several weak women and those who live on the most remote plantations were kept away. Also, some of them are on the large boat that is to bring the still remaining servants and colonists from Savannah to the mill.

Yesterday I waited for them all afternoon at the mill but could not wait long enough. My heart is very much concerned for the salvation and the physical welfare of these dear strangers; and today our dear God gave me the grace to show them from the above-mentioned text and from the whole psalm in what order they can expect pure good from God even in physical things, also what a blessing it is that, after having survived the sea voyage, they have come to our quiet Zion, where they have an opportunity to praise God and to keep their oaths. They listened very attentively. In the afternoon my dear colleague had as his text the dear words of Jeremiah 33:8-9. An honestly disposed planter in Carolina, who has corresponded with me for some time, reported to me in a letter some things that give sad examples of the great perdition of many people, probably of some ministers, too, in this region.¹⁶

The 16th of November. In the weakness I have felt so far I have had to take a trip to Savannah and remain there a few days at the demand of the President of the Council. I had to leave my dear family behind in a weakly condition; and, because I myself was not well, I suffered much disquiet and sorrow during all the business. Yet our merciful God strengthened me time after time and blessed my prayers and conversations with pious people, even if my renewed hoarseness and weakness did not permit me to hold a public sermon. My greatest sorrow is that I must neglect so much in my ministerial office because of these external affairs. I am writing this desire of my heart only in order that our worthy Fathers and friends will pray for me and my dearly esteemed colleague, who is my loyal assistant in everything and to whom I can truly apply what is written in Philemon 11:20-21.¹⁷

A young man named Neidlinger came over who should be an organist, musician, and scrivener; and our worthy friends in London hope that he will someday be useful to us at the mill and the sale of boards, as schoolmaster, and in other ways.¹⁸ First of all we must test him. The new President, the Secretary of the Lord Trustees, and the Assistants of the Council showed me much affection¹⁹ and made arrangements for the old and new colonists to acquire their land as quickly as possible, indeed, in such places and in such ways as pleases them best. The old inhabitants on the Mill River, also a few near town who are scattering and are leaving their very unsatisfactory plantations to their neighbors, are receiving a hundred acres; and the remainder, including the recently arrived, are receiving fifty acres. However, the old inhabitants must bear the expense of the surveyor, after that they will receive their written grants.

The 17th of November. Today I have been busy with visiting some sick and with setting up our servants, during which our dear God has granted me His blessing and assistance. It is now written in my heart: “Give us help from trouble, for vain is the help of man.”²⁰ Some cannot help, and others will not, of which I cannot give any examples. The senior Eischberger’s two children, a boy and a girl, have had violent paroxysms with their scarlet fever or red disease but now appear to be recovering, for which the pious old parents are humbly praising their good God. Their joy is especially great because they see good signs of God’s grace on them, and since my last visit I have seen in them a hearty love for prayer, God’s word, and the Savior.

Our dear and righteous Steiner is still weak and bedridden, and he will lose his life and his household if he is not soon helped. But it seems that our loving God, who never tries anyone beyond his strength, wishes to send him, like the said Eischberger, help and assistance through the present servants.

In the afternoon the householders from the plantations assembled in Jerusalem Church; and, after our communal prayer, I told them something of the joyful content of the letter from the Lord Trustees and of what I had been able to accomplish in Savannah for the good of the community with the President and his Assistants with respect to the enlargement and better arrangement of our plantations, for which we have God to thank. The important point concerned the finding of places for the recently arrived servants with Christian householders. There are many who wish to take the servants and maids, and even the children of both sexes, into their service; but there are not many single servants on hand. In this transport there are seven married couples, among whom there are some very small children.

A single servant and a maid were held back in Savannah, two young servants, an old carpenter, and a young woman died either on the very difficult voyage or in Savannah; and a family with two very small children (who are counted among the above-mentioned married couples) are lying sick in Savannah. After I had got to know them and had examined them as to which householder each person would suit as servant or maid, I wrote down at home, in simplicity and after submitting my heart to divine direction, the distribution of these servants. I first thought of who were the most needy and who should have the advantage for the good of the community. These are Mr. Mayer, Brandner, Kalcher, the said Steiner, and the senior Eischberger. Next in line came those who also need the servants very much; I offered to have them given by lot, but the inhabitants could not agree on this. Only one family, a man, wife, and child, was given by lot. And thus the entire transaction ended in love and peace and was concluded with a prayer.

The old and young tanners, Neidlinger, each of whom has a wife, etc., actually came here as servants. But they wish to begin their trade and are requesting an advance for this. We do not know yet how to use the organist Neidlinger. I am planning to settle two large families as free people on their own land with an advance of provisions; and the remainder, to wit, two families, one widower, one widow with two children, two servants, four maids, and three boys have gone into service with Christianly-minded householders. None was left over for the mill, except for a young and half-trained carpenter apprentice, for whom our worthy Court Chaplain paid from our Ebenezer fund. A man by the name of Birkholt, who paid for his passage in London, let some of his compatriots persuade him to settle with his wife and children some six miles from Savannah, which well-disposed and knowledgeable people regret for more than one reason. He did not come to me, perhaps because he owes two pounds two shillings Sterling to our fund, which was advanced to him in London and which I consider as good as lost.

The eighteenth of November. On this Twenty-third Sunday after Trinity during the preaching of His word and during the prayer our gracious God gave me back abundantly those powers of body and mind that I had lost on my trip to Savannah and in my business there. Oh, how I and my family and my dear colleague and his family praise our gracious God for all the good at Ebenezer in general and especially for all the blessings of the Jerusalem and Zion Churches, in which we preach His word and perform our communal prayer with great pleasure, joy, and blessing. Today Mr. Lemke prayed in Zion Church and I in Jerusalem Church; and this evening, although it was very cold, we held a public prayer hour with our old and new parishioners.

I was very pleased that so many had assembled. The parishioners heard a sermon of warning based on today’s gospel, Matthew 22:15 ff., for I spoke on the three kinds of listeners. They are disloyal, malicious, and hypocritical listeners. In the introit from Hebrews 6:7-8 we heard something about the loyal and blessed listeners. May He bless this heavenly rain of His word in each and every one!

Concerning Carl Flerl I was told that he praises God sincerely for the blessed departure of his little son from this world, by which good has been done not only to the child but also to its parents. The father recognizes that he loved this sensible child all too much and would have sought the world and temporal things to better its physical care. Now that it is with its Savior in heaven, his heart has been torn by the grace of God from all visible things, the child died an edifying death.

The 19th of November. The condition of my family, my health, and my community prevented us from having our annual assembly in both churches after the harvest was garnered in order to praise our loving God communally for all His good in general and especially for the good harvest of this year. It was therefore announced yesterday in both churches that the parishioners in and around the town should gather today for this purpose in Jerusalem Church and the parishioners on the plantations should gather tomorrow in Zion Church, God willing. First I told my listeners something about the beautiful words of the 85th Psalm: “Shew us thy mercy, O Lord, and grant us thy salvation.”²¹ Then I laid as a basis for our edification the hymns of praise and thanks after a good harvest that are found in the new and well arranged Augsburg hymnal: O GOtt dir dank ich allezeit für deinen reichen Segen,” etc. This had happened to come to my eyes unexpectedly yesterday, Sunday; and from it our friendly God let much matter for the recognition of His manifold goodness and the praise of His glorious name fall into our hearts, and He let this praise flow humbly from our lips in humble prayer.

After we had offered our God prayer, intercession, and thanksgiving on our knees in the name of Christ, we sang our arousing final song: Gute Nacht, ihr eitlen Sorgen, lass mirs Herze frey,” etc. During that time I tenderly remembered my beloved and blessed Samuel Leberecht, who had copied this song very legibly for me and for others of our inhabitants and had sung it often with them in his mature and penetrating alto voice. He had also sung it shortly before his departure with his mother in her chamber to my great refreshment, along with another from our hymnal: Lass dich GOtt, etc. On the way to church another godly person tearfully remembered this singing of ours, which was so blessed by God.

In his letter of consolation to me a Christian friend from Purysburg attested having enjoyed similar edification in our church. This is being reported for no other reason than for the glory of God, who performed his work of grace in this child. I believe that, in citing this child’s gifts of grace and works of love, I shall be reproved just as little by Christian friends who read this diary as was that pious widow in Acts 9, who showed the apostle Peter the coats and garments of the deceased Tabitha as evidence of her faith and love.²² This comforting story was the last assignment that I read with Samuel Leberecht and his brother Gotthilf Israel from Castellio’s Latin New Testment not long before his blessed death.²³ I had wished to stop earlier in the said ninth chapter of Acts, but he wished to have it expounded to the end, and this will impress me all my life. A righteous Englishman and his sincerely pious wife (my benefactors in Savannah) let the following comforting verses flow in their letter of condolence on the departure of our two children:

And is the lovely Shadow fled!

yet stop these fruitless Tears:

He (she) from a thousand Pangs is freed,

you from ten thousand Fears.

Tho lost, he’s (she’s) lost to Earth alone,

Above he (she) will be found

Amidst the Stars & near the Throne,

which Babes like him (her) surround.

Look upwards, & your Child you’ll see

Fixt in his (her) blest Abode.

And who then would not childless be,

to give a Child to God?²⁴

The 20th of November. In this vale of tears, sorrow and joy always alternate, as I often experience both in Christianity as in the performance of my office. Our dear God refreshed and rejoiced me yesterday and today in the harvest and thanksgiving sermon; but today and yesterday He has let me experience vexing things from some young people of the last arrived servants, which have both troubled and worried me. The friendly letter of our dear Senior Urlsperger will give me an opportunity in the prayer and weekday sermon to tell these people much for their instruction.

The 21st of November. Our most worthy Court Chaplain Ziegenhagen has given our Jerusalem Church an exceedingly beautiful and costly painting, which is five feet high and four feet wide, which has been cleaned today by a skillful man, like a true painter, from some dust that had settled on it. It has been placed very imposingly above the table against the wall between two windows, where Holy Communion is always held. It presents, very animatedly and edifyingly, the Last Supper, which our Lord Jesus held with his twelve disciples in Jerusalem when he was betrayed. It not only gives our dear house of God a great adornment but also makes an edifying and wholesome impression on those who gaze at it properly. Our dear Savior and His disciples are so excellently adumbrated that one can imagine nothing but true devotion and zealousness of heart in their most important undertaking. Judas is also among them; and his character can also, as it were, be read from his forehead and his face. God be praised for this gift.

The 23rd of November. Our worthy friend Mr. Habersham is very much concerned with advancing our community’s physical welfare in this country and through letters to the Lord Trustees; and he is now requesting some reliable information about our past and present situation, which I have given him this evening in a detailed writing. God doeth all things well in His time. He knows what we are lacking, but He also knows when and how He should help us. From the fatherly letter by our dearest Senior Urlsperger our loving God has granted us much instruction concerning the mystery of the cross and the comfort of pious people during it, also concerning His merciful care for us and others.

The 24th of November. This morning I received the news not only that Carl Flerl’s stepson, Johann Gruber, is dangerously sick but also that N.’s son and the senior Eischberger’s little son are, too, and that Zoller’s very weak little child, which was born two days ago, died last night. May God let these sorrowful events, which we have never had in this way in Ebenezer, make a blessed impression on both adults and children! May God especially touch the heart of N., who put too much work on him and thereby caused his premature death! Yesterday evening the surveyor arrived at the mill. He called on me today and promised me that next Monday he would survey the Uchee land, which, for a better name, we will now call the Blue Bluff, for some of the old inhabitants and for the newly arrived colonists. This pleased me very much. For the sooner these people are put in order, the better it is for them and me, since otherwise I must have all sorts of expense. For some time now I have had to expend so much money that it is now difficult for me to advance anything to these dear strangers and to serve the poor. The cowpen we bought also demands advances because the Lord Trustees’ servants let it get into great confusion so that very little of it can be liquidated. Yet, at the express order of the Lord Trustees, 200 £ Sterling should be paid annually, 100 £ every six months. Still, this cowpen we have bought is a great blessing for the community, the reasons for which I have previously reported; and we hope it will be so in the future.

The edifying harvest and thanksgiving hymn and the sermon held on it seem to have made a good impression on my dear parishioners, and our loving God has let us hear much good after we presented the matter contained in it for vigilance in recognition and godliness. One of the new colonists requested a new Augsburg hymnal in order to copy out the hymn, and right after the sermon a godly widow also borrowed the said well-arranged book in order to study and repeat this hymn. In our congregation we have a very beautiful treasure of old and new chosen and edifying songs, which, through the blessing of God, contribute much to our edification in the public divine services and in the prayer meetings. Everyone of the adults who can read (there are few of them who cannot) has a hymnal to hand and joins in the singing according to his ability. No one has to fear that a hymn will be sung that does not stand in his hymnal because we all have one kind of hymnal. The newly arrived colonists and some of the grown children are lacking them, but we hope for a new supply from Halle.

The 25th of November. On this last Sunday of this church year our loving God has, to be sure, granted us cold, yet good, weather, good health and strength, and much edification and blessing from His word. When I see the church so full (as again today) and see the attention so great and constant before me, I often think of the well-known proverb: Exitat Auditor Studium.²⁵ I find this to be my case, yet I think that even a few, even if it were a single soul, are worth having the word of God preached to them willingly and joyfully. Many of the listeners come a long way from the most remote plantations and many come with a great hunger for the heavenly manna of the gospel; and we beg the Father of all Mercy to repay them all graciously for their love to Him and to His word and house and to let them return home well fed, quenched, and refreshed in a spiritual way.

When, shortly before my call to America, I was with the late very righteous Pastor Mäderjan in Thommendorff one Sunday, I was amazed that his listeners had already come several miles to church on Saturday evening and had visited all the prayer and edification hours, catechizations, and sermons so uninterruptedly and untiringly and had waited until the following Monday for their return home. I had not known of such hungry listeners previously except for what we read of Christ’s listeners in Mark 8. But this beautiful and edifying behavior of the said dear people occurs to me almost as often as as I see it in certain souls among us. Now surely God has graciously repaid them for their love to His word on this last Sunday of the church year with a blessing and treasure from the holy gospel. For, both in the morning and the afternoon, everything we both preached to them with the strength of God was straight from the gospel.

In his introit my dear colleague repeated the incomparable promise of God in Jeremiah 33:8-9, about which he had catechized two weeks earlier; and today he had as the text of his catechization the excellent words of comfort in Psalms 91:14-16. Assisting, protecting, being with us in our need, extricating, and hearkening unto us has been the work of God among us in this almost-ended church year. He will also fullfil His remaining promises to us (even though they are too great and glorious for us poor, unworthy sinners) and reveal them to His glory and satisfy them with long life and His salvation. May He fullfil all the pleasure of His will in us with mercy for Christ’s sake!

In the morning I had as my introit Psalms 60:13, “Give us help,” etc.;²⁶ and from the gospel for the Twenty-fourth Sunday after Trinity, Matthew 9, I presented the mighty assistance of God to the needs of His children. The examples in the gospel and the now revealed matter was especially suitable for our dear listeners, who are immersed in all sorts of need, and for our present tribulations. During the sermon I also righfully mentioned something of the threefold deaths in one night that were mentioned yesterday and their burial on one day and in one churchyard and in one hour. There has never been such a sad event in Ebenezer, as a pious person remarked in my study.

That reminded me of the delicate expression that Master Lutz in Lindau composed in the edifying funeral hymn for the blessed death and burial of our dear Senior Riesch, who had such fatherly affection for us.²⁷ Our well known colleague Fels, who preached the major sermon on the last Feast of the Ascension at St. Stephens in rather good spirits, quite unexpectedly ended the course of his life and sufferings in the fifty-second year of his life and in the eighteenth of his ministerial office with a violent colic last Sunday morning at seven o’clock.²⁸ One hour later his dear friend and colleague, Senior Riesch, made his entry into the tabernacles of the fully just. A most painful and almost unheard of fate! Such a thing has not occurred here as long as the gospel has been preached, and it still resounds in our ears since it was first made known to us. Lindau, do not forget it!

I have wished to cite this sad event in Lindau diligently in the sermon for our people not only because it is remarkable in itself and belongs among the unfathomable ways of God but also because both of the two dear deceased men were Ebenezer’s friends, intercessors, and benefactors and because their memory is blessed among us and because its renewal in these unusual circumstances will make a wholesome impression on the spirits of those Salzburgers from Lindau,²⁹ who have felt great reverence for this pious and diligent minister. My special purpose in this was to preserve my listeners, including the new colonists, from improper application of what God has done among us through the death of some children to humble us so that they will not ascribe it to the time, the land, our place, or secondary causes and thereby either sin or harbor unnecessary fears. Now there has been placed into our hearts and into our mouths the prayer, which stand twice verbatim in the Psalms,³⁰ “Give us help from trouble: for vain is the help of men.” There we should not lack divine assistance in all our sufferings, labors, and doings, provided our prayer be made in faith. Immediately after that is written, “Through God we shall do valiantly.”

The 26th of November. The senior Eischberger’s daughter has the present children’s disease, which some people call the “measles” with the Englishmen and others call the red disease or scarlet fever, and at the same time she is having severer paroxysms than her brother had. But he died, and today I found the little girl out of bed and rather healthy so that it appears that God will leave the old parents this their only child for some time as a helper. After this illness the children have an uncommon appetite, and one must always hold them back so they will not eat too much.

We encouraged ourselves mutually to achieve our salvation, and we praised God for all the blessings He has shown us and others. Because it was raining so hard that I could not visit any other people, I called on their neighbor, the pious Mrs. Straube and her children. She has had a very painful condition in her side for some days; and, because God has alleviated her pains and has shown the beginnings of an improvement, she wished to praise our dear God with me for His kindness. Therefore my visit brought her much joy and comfort.

Our butcher, Riedelsperger, began some time ago to trade with some people in Savannah Town and Augusta; and, because there is very cheap corn there, he went up there by water more than three weeks ago with some men who need much corn for their horses at the cowpen at Old Ebenezer. He truly gives such a description of the bad conditions of the colonists in the said region that the least and poorest inhabitant of Ebenezer should consider himself fortunate to live at our place. To be sure, everything grows there abundantly on the low ground (which is like our large island); but the harvest is very uncertain because of the unexpected flooding of the Savannah River, and this fall the inundation spoiled much corn and drowned many cattle. Except for Indian corn and beans everything is uncommon and three to four times more expensive than in our area. There is a lack of money; there is great uncertainty and great deceit in trade. Conscience seems to be outlawed there, and the people live in such sin that it could not be worse.

The 27th of November. In the assembly on the plantations yesterday I continued reading the fatherly letter from our dearest Senior Urlsperger; and we received, praise be to God, much material for edification and encouragement as well as instruction in the ways and dispensations of God. From it I also had a right desired occasion to bring much to the minds of our new inhabitants and to our last year’s servants that may be advantageous to them for recognizing divine blessings and their conduct. The Lord Trustees had much pleasure in the new colonists after their arrival in London; on the other hand the ungrateful and ill-behaved conduct of our servants caused them no little sorrow. However, since for some time they have begun to be better disposed and to perform their work more loyally, I am sincerely pleased and the Lord Trustees and other worthy benefactors will rejoice, and this will bring them a blessing. How movingly and impressively it is written in the said fatherly letter for all our inhabitants, both free and indentured:

My heart has much concern for all those among them who fear the Lord, walk the paths of good order, and take advice, for all Ebenezer, and for everyone who wishes to be saved, even if that has not yet occurred. That is known by the Lord, that is known by those who are around me. I shall now conclude everything in the words, ‘Lord remember my Ebenezer fondly and all those whom I have now named.’ We praise the Lord together for everything by which He helps Ebenezer, but we also participate in all misfortunes that they experience jointly or individually. Greet your new people for me heartily and tell them that they are now being brought daily to God with the old inhabitants. They should just follow the words of their ministers, then they will enjoy the fruit from that in time and eternity.

The 28th of November. We have had dry weather for a long time, and this has been very convenient and advantageous for the construction of our new milldam. It is now almost complete, and all the work is approved and praised by all knowledgeable people. Last night we had rain with thunder and lightning, which is something very unusual at this time. Today it has been as pleasant by day as in spring. However, we assume that after the thunder we will have either much cold or else much rain. The wind appears to be veering to the west. The river water has fallen so far that the sawmill has not been able to go for two days. Today it is beginning to saw again. It is too bad that we have been unable to get any merchants for our excellently cut and durable cypress boards. To be sure, they bring a good price in Charleston, but it is an advantage only for the inhabitants there, while strangers must pay such a tariff that we are scared away from sending them there. In the West Indies they cannot be used as well as the pine boards. We are amazed that boards of such beautiful and durable yet easily worked wood are not exported to England.

Carl Flörl’s stepson and Kalcher’s second little daughter are dangerously sick, but it is written to the parents’ comfort: “This sickness is not unto death, but for the glory of God, that the Son of God might be glorified thereby.”³¹ In both children the gifts of the Holy Ghost that are working in their hearts are so revealed that they cause joy and the praise of God. To be sure, my heart is very burdened by the tribulations that our wise God has visited on large and small in the congregation, especially since we have had to say from the last introit verse, “Human help is in vain.” However, I shall still be comforted and refreshed when I see the good intention of our heavenly Father achieved in many of them. Surely He leads us on no other paths than those on which He has led the people of His covenant since the very beginning, through suffering into glory.

The 29th of November. The three Schubdrein brothers, who have not yet been a full year in Ebenezer and who arrived here in great poverty and debt, have established themselves so well here that they attest a burning desire to have here their parents and five brothers and sisters, who are faring very miserably in Nassau. For that reason the yongest brother /Johann Peter/ (a righteous Christian and loyal worker) has resolved with the approval, counsel, and assistance of his two like-minded older brothers, to take a journey as soon as possible into their fatherland and to fetch to Ebenezer not only his family but also some other useful people, who are faring badly over there, if he can get permission from the Lord Trustees. This settled young man, who has been born again in truth, is in a condition to report from experience the truth about Ebenezer and Georgia; and we can rest assured that he will bring no other people to Ebenezer than those who will fit here and love our order and arrangements. Also, because of his honesty, he will easily find trust among his compatriots for his tales and reports, for people in Germany are otherwise not without distrust, and for good reason. I am now seeking through my friends in Savannah an opportunity for this young man to go to London, and I am planning to recommend him and his cause as much as possible to the Lord Trustees.³² Benefactions are very well applied with such people.

This week the surveyor is occupied in measuring our plantations for some of our old inhabitants and for our new ones on the Blue Bluff or mountain (formerly called the Uchee land), and today he received new instructions from Savannah to direct himself in his work according to my and Mr. Mayer’s orders, also according to the mind and the desires of our colonists. He is doing this, too; and there is a great difference between the surveying in previous times and the present time. Formerly the poor people had to take whatever they were given, and now they themselves can choose what, how, and where they wish.

Indeed, the gentlemen in Savannah are offering those who are settled close together on the Mill River a new and very beautiful district at Goshen, which they have only now declared vacant and on which several can settle together very conveniently. There is no such fertile and well situated land far or near. Our glebe land and my own plantation lie in this region, and people of our confession are settled all around. Thus we hope that our dear God will gather a beautiful congregation here, which He can easily provide with a minister and schoolmaster. I loyally proclaim these advantages to our inhabitants as evidence of divine providence.

The 30th of November. A couple of months ago Mrs. Thilo requested Holy Communion on her long-lasting sickbed, but no day for it was ever determined for me. Yesterday evening at nine o’clock he sent to me to ask me to give her private Communion because she had unexpectedly become so weak that they were predicting her death. When I came to her, she spoke very well of her Savior’s mighty help in driving out Satan and blotting out her sins and also of her living hope for eternal life. After saying prayers of repentance and confession she received Holy Communion. She had a difficult night, and today I found her very close to death.

DECEMBER

The 1st of December. Righteous Ruprecht Steiner was sick last week, but by divine goodness he has recovered somewhat; and we hope things will go better with him now that his household seems to be getting better arranged. The last servants, man, woman, and child, have almost ruined him. Because he has no housewife yet has three still unreared children, these servants have been disloyal in their service; and they cost him no little bit in upkeep. Now God has ordained for an apparently honest family of the recently arrived servants to agree to take over his plantation, to care for his house with cleaning, laundry, and repairs, and to give him a third of all crops and butter. Today the whole matter was discussed and concluded in my presence between Steiner and this family to their mutual satisfaction. I am advancing money for clothing and provisions, which these servants will gradually pay back from their produce. If they behave well and I reach my purpose with poor Steiner through them, they will enjoy many advantages during and after their period of service.

The 2nd of December. May God be heartily praised for having let us close another church year in this pilgrimage and begin a new one. On this first Sunday in Advent He granted His holy word to us abundantly in both churches; and, because our old and new parishioners gathered in large numbers for the preaching of His Holy word and for holy prayer, we hope that divine goodness will bless for their spiritual growth the spiritual seed we have sown. In this year I am planning (as we have always done so far) to lay as a basis for my sermon an important Bible verse in the introit¹ and then the Sunday and Holy Day gospels. My dear colleague, on the other hand, will catechize on the regular Epistle texts, whereas in previous years he has laid Bible verses as a basis for his catechization. If he preaches every two weeks in Zion Church (as he did today), he will also have the gospels and will build his sermon on a Bible verse in the introit.

Today I preached on the gospel of the righteous mind of the disciples of the Lord Jesus, to wit: 1, concerning its characteristics; 2, concerning the blessedness of this disposition. From the main verse from Romans 12:16, “Be of the same mind one toward another. Mind not high things, etc.” I recommended to the parishioners the unity and humility of this mind of true Christians, and I did this to the best of the ability granted to me by God.

The 4th of December. On the 28th of last month we had a violent thunderstorm at night with rain and lightning. Then it became as warm as it usually is at the end of March. The river is rising very rapidly, and this is an indication that it has rained much more upcountry than here. The continuing dry weather is very bearable for the workers at the long and wide milldam; and we hope that this very useful, even though costly, work will come to an end this week. About twenty-four men are working on it every day, and they are using six carts and as many horses. And how much beautiful money our inhabitants are earning from it.² There is nothing like it in any place in this or the neighboring colony. May God let everyone recognize how many advantages they enjoy here.

In her poverty, a mother in our neighborhood has great joy in her three year old little boy because he falls on his knees voluntarily to pray, admonishes his parents, learns short verses and little prayers willingly, and sings while playing. Unnoticed, he has learned this and that good thing from his mother. In that regard I admonished her to show all Christian caution in her conduct, speech, and association with her husband because the child would learn evil more quickly than good when hearing and seeing. I gave her an example of a man she knew very well who, as a then wild and angry man, was accustomed to say to his wife, “Satan is looking through your eyes.” The little boy very soon learned this monstrous and un-Christian speech and even said it to his sister. I am planning to give this mother and her child the lovely booklet, The Power of God in Little Children.³

The 6th of December. God has visited the righteous Brandner for a long time with a great cross, to which he has known how to resign himself well. For some years he has had a great bodily weakness, by which he has been much impeded in his business affairs. After he recovered somewhat, his industrious and honest wife and all four children became dangerously sick with scarlet fever and sore throats,⁴ of which they have not yet been cured. This tribulation is all the worse for him because he has neither servant nor maid. To my great sorrow I read in the fatherly letter of 16 July of this year from our dear Senior Urlsperger the words: “Three months ago I wrote to Secretary Martyn and advised the Trustees at the time that they should at least reflect on some of the suggestions from Mr. von N.N.”⁵

The 8th of December. Things are now going somewhat better for Mrs. N., but she still seems to be in considerable danger. We cannot discover what her sickness actually consists of. Some days ago, when she was near death and unconscious, she had attacks of epilepsy. She is warning others against postponing repentance until one’s sickbed; and, because some of her acquaintances in Abercorn and Savannah are walking evil paths and have little regard for God in their malice, she let them be admonished to conversion and to a change of disposition. I have no doubt that she believes in the Lord Jesus, who has surely forgiven her all that others have found offensive in her. Whenever I visit her, she only listens to what I tell her from God’s word, but she speaks little.

Several weeks ago young /Georg/ Mayer’s apprentice had a slight case of scarlet fever;⁶ and, because he went out into the air too soon, he suffered very serious attacks of swelling and short-windedness, and yesterday he had violent convulsions. It appears that he will soon be gathered unto his people, the communion of saints in heaven. He is a sincerely pious child who is a very edifying example for other children and adults not only through his devout behavior in church but also through his zealous prayer and Christian conduct. Everyone who knows him must give him the character of a true Christian. Yesterday he complained of the weakness of his faith that arose from his feeling of his sinful perdition. However, I presented him with some dear gospel verses of a kind that are strong enough to strengthen one’s weak faith in Jesus, the Savior of poor sinners. He found the following verses especially impressive: “The Law recognizes sin and crushes the conscience. The gospel comes to hand and, etc.”⁷ He wishes to die, but we do not wish to let him go. However, it is rightfully said, “May the Lord’s will be done.”

The 9th of December. Last week three little children were brought safely into the world with God’s assistance, one on Tuesday (It was the 4th of this month) by Mrs. Simon Reuter, and yesterday twins by Mrs. /Helena/ Hüber, a woman who arrived here sick and miserable among the last servants yet became well again through medicine and care, but especially through the goodness of the Lord. She appears to be a sensible and Christian woman, who loves God’s word. She and her husband⁸ are very poor and need our help, which we give them as best we can.

In the afternoon of this Second Sunday of Advent the sincerely pious boy of sixteen years, Johann Georg Häfner, was released from all evil through a temporal death and was brought to joy in his Lord, whom he has served with an upright heart.⁹ Now we have, to be sure, one less pious child, edifying example, and zealous prayer in the congregation; yet we do not begrudge him his blessed dissolution and are content with God’s providence. His hand has not been shortened, and His grace is still just as powerful for drawing even more inhabitants of our place to Himself and to make them into zealous prayers. We detect much good in our young people.

The 11th of December. This afternoon in my present physical weakness my dear God granted me the pleasure of being able to hold the burial sermon for the youth who passed away yesterday. He was very much like the pious orphan in Bayreuth, Johann Georg Stangen, whose last hours can be found in one of the Contributions to the Building of the Kingdom of God.¹⁰ At the funeral I acquainted the adults and children with something from these last hours. Four weeks ago he had recovered from scarlet fever and would not let anything keep him from attending Holy Communion, and some people assume that he contracted his last sickness by going out. His master /Georg Mayer/ told me that in the last months of his life he took very little notice of the advantages of his trade and that this had been explained as inattentiveness, as if he had no pleasure in the work.¹¹ However, people noticed that he was excessively desirous of God’s word and private prayer and that, whenever his professional duties let up even a little, he would seek out a hidden spot in order to speak alone with his Savior. From that one could conclude that, despite all his external work, his spirit was always up there where he always wished to be.

His righteous behavior and blameless and edifying conduct were known to most people, especially to the pious among us. Because of this deceased youth the matter of my sermon yesterday on Luke 21:25 ff. impressed me all the more when I presented to myself and to my listeners the end of sinners and the end of saints. In the introit we contemplated the important, partly comforting and partly frightening, words of Psalms 37:28. Because of this boy and the publication of the first part of the above mentioned “last hours” of the pious orphan boy in Bayreuth the memory of my Samuel Leberecht was renewed very tenderly in my heart. He was much like both of them in grace, and therefore he had a high regard for the blessed boy whom we have just buried. He has now been six weeks in the blessed loving and God-praising communion of all God’s children, and he is enjoying perfectly in his soul what he wrote in red ink and chancery letters after the baptismal names of many children and young people: “Delight thyself also in the Lord; and he shall give thee the desires of thine heart.”¹² He must have had a good impression of this verse in his heart, for during my absence on journeys he fastened it, with his mother’s approval, on the door of my study, where it is still fastened and will remain fastened.

The 11th of December. Scarlet fever is still persisting at our place, along with the purples¹³ in some people; and it is striking down not only children but also adults. All of them have painful, grave attacks, and it is a fatal sickness. God’s counsel and God’s hand are above us, and we should all humble ourselves under them. May He treat us with mercy, and not according to our merits! In addition to keeping the patients warm and inactive, knowledgeable Englishmen advise bloodletting and attribute the sad consequences to a failure to do so. It seems that way to me, too, according to my slight experience, for we have noticed that those children who have bled at the nose were greatly alleviated, indeed soon recovered, whereas in the case of the others, where nature could not break through, there has been great short-windedness, swelling of the limbs, sore throats, fearful vomiting, paroxysms, death, or long-lasting sickness.

Adults who have this scarlet fever say that there is an extraordinary movement of the blood as if it wished to break out of all veins. A grown girl had her first period during her paroxysm, but then it rose immediately to her breast as if it all wished to come out of her throat, and from this she suddenly died five weeks ago in Mr. /Ludwig/ Mayer’s house. A pregnant woman in her first months was brought into mortal danger by the extraordinary motion of the blood in her body. However, because the blood broke out and she aborted, she soon recovered. A short time earlier another woman with the same scarlet fever had been bled and had had her period at the wrong time during her paroxysm. I have heard of these examples only from my wife, but there may be more of them. Oh, how necessary it is for all doctors to be well acquainted with nature and at the same time servants of nature!

The 12th of December. The widow Schweighoffer is the oldest person in our community. She came across the sea as a sick person with the first transport; fifteen years ago she was afflicted by a stroke on the right side while working hard with a cold. She had great spiritual doubts, great unrest, and sorrow because of her then still unconverted children; and she suffered much in all sorts of sickness and often from unnecessary worry. Despite that, she has so improved her life and has lived now for seventeen years in this land. God’s word and prayer are now her meat and drink and her medicine and her everything in all incidents of this her pilgrimage. She marvels at God’s patience and forebearance with which He has borne her so far and always given her time to prepare herself for blessed eternity, and she praises Him for it. Now she is sick again and hopes that she will soon cast off her tabernacle. Her daughter, Mrs. /Maria/ Riedelsperger, is also often led by our dear God into the wilderness of the cross. Her physical suffering is the least for her, even though it is great for so weak a body. But her gravest suffering is that she must so deeply feel her old sins, the accusations of her conscience, her inablility to pray, her lack of faith and comfort, etc. I spoke and prayed with her.

The 13th of December. In addition to the above-mentioned pious boy our dear God has reminded us this week of our mortality through the deaths of three other children, who belong to the servants Seckinger and Hüber. Two were sucklings and one a little girl who was very swollen by a foul fever.¹⁴ During the fever both young and old show no diet with respect to eating and drinking and the necessary steaming out,¹⁵ and it is surprising that not more die of it. Despite all the sorrowful incidents through the chastising and disciplining hand of God, it is my comfort that it is so often written in Holy Scripture, “God’s mercy endureth forever.”¹⁶

Through this unending goodness of the All-highest, very many useful institutions have been made and maintained in Christendom for the care of the poor sick. Because this goodness is enduring and unending, I hope that it will gradually spread out over us or let so much material good flow to us that we can establish a spacious sickbay for poor people in our district, which, for various reasons, would be not only very necessary but also highly useful. To be sure, our all-generous Father in heaven has from time to time granted our dear Salzburgers and other inhabitants of our place their bodily sustenance by the sweat of their brow. However, because clothing, linen, and other necessary European goods are excessivly expensive in this land, very few of them acquire more than is absolutely necessary from their farming and cattle raising; and they live in poorly protected houses and huts and are not provided with sufficient blankets and quilts. Therefore, especially in winter, which is harder on them in this climate than in Europe, they must endure much in sickness, childbirth, etc. Their quick recovery is hindered, and they also contract long-lasting sickness and consumption. Doctors’ fees are, to be sure, bearable among us because our physician and surgeon have received simples, medications, and other things serving for cures from London and from the blessed institution of the Orphanage in Halle, also some from our dear Augsburg. If, however, we had the means through God’s dispensation and from contributions of Christian friends in England and Germany to establish and maintain a spacious sickbay, much good would accrue from it to the congregation and the whole country under the influence of God’s blessing.

For the initiation and establishment of such an institution a sum of 2,000 pounds would, to be sure, be required. According to my humble opinion its maintenance would not cost much more than 100 pounds if one counted a kitchen and herb garden to be laid out for it. If God should let the presently planned mill construction turn out well and grant us a good profit from both sawmills and gristmills, we would contribute as much as we could to such a useful institution. The new milldam is very firmly built, and everyone marvels at this construction. This imposing construction, which has lasted so far, was led by the very industrious Joseph Schubdrein and, to be sure, in such good order that we could not wish for a better contractor and overseer. He has, to be sure, helped build gristmills, but he has never worked on a sawmill, because there are none in his fatherland because of the lack of wood.¹⁷ Because he had had no experience in the construction of sawmills himself, the completion of this important and very useful work will be somewhat protracted. But God will grant everything at the proper time.

Late in the evening two days ago it thundered, lightninged, and rained, but it soon stopped. Since then it has again become cold at night but tolerable in the daytime. So far the winter has been very bearable, and the autumnal weather has been dry and therefore exceedingly advantageous for our mill construction. God be praised that this important work, and at the same time the great expenses, will come to an end this Saturday. In contrast only a few bearable expenses will be demanded to raise the sawmill, for which we have more ironwork in supply than we could use for two or three sawmills.¹⁸ It is no small benefaction that even the weakest people among us have earned circa 73 £ Sterling cash money on this milldam since the harvest, that is in two or three months, partly with their labor and partly with their horses and servants.¹⁹ How much is earned by our people who have lucrative jobs at our old sawmill and gristmill, either daily or on occasions and either with or without horses! That is why there is no cash money anywhere in the country but in Ebenezer.

The 17th of December. N. registered to come to the Lord’s Table this coming Sunday and testified that he and his wife have again been shamed no little bit by their three year old child and aroused to a new seriousness and Christian caution in their Christian conduct.²⁰ She said, namely, that a discord had arisen between the two parents during which the child said to them, “You are wicked people, let us pray.” They accepted this as a chastisement and correction of God through the mouth of a little child and were very humbled before God because of their sins. He had been a very wild and malicious man, whose heart, however, was made rather mellow and soft some time ago by the hammer of the divine law and by many chastisements. His resolutions and practices are very good. However, because of long practice the wicked emotions in him are so strong, especially when there is an outside cause, that he is often carried away by sin against his will. I warned him against further disloyalty against the working grace of God: otherwise, it will not turn out well. I gave him two edifying sermons by Court Chaplain Ziegenhagen.

Since Kalcher and his large family moved into the inn by the mill to be our host, overseer, and drayman, we have again had the desired occasion in this house to praise our almighty Creator of heaven and earth and also of our useful millworks, in the name of Jesus Christ, for His blessings. This was done this afternoon by me and some others who were called together. Until now N. has been one of the wicked servants; and recently he almost incited me to dismiss him from service at the mill, which would have pleased other people there. Today he attested to me that God had inclined his heart and that he had resolved to become a different man through the grace of God. Whether his resolution is true will be shown by his later life. As long as no crass excess or vexation forces us, we send no wicked person away but are patient with him according to the word and example of God. I know how useful this method was with the workers at the Halle Orphanage.

The 18th of December. Jacob Hüber and his wife told me with joy and to the praise of God that they have received many benefactions from good people in Ebenezer through divine governance. In her whole life she had never had such a good childbed or experienced such kindness. In all those who came here recently from the Territory of Ulm I find that they like to work and are content with what God grants them. I hope that they will gradually learn what they do not yet understand about housekeeping and farming, provided they do not wish to be cleverer than other people. It gives us a pleasure to serve them in every spiritual and material way. May God illumine and convert them all, then even the bad habits that we have observed in some of them will disappear. We must show patience, forbearance, and leniency. Most of them are still lacking recognition of truth for the sake of salvation; and they now have opportunity enough, through divine guidance, to garner what they neglected in this matter in former times. For that reason I would have liked to see them take up their plantations not far from the town and church. Only Scheraus is settling far away, for he is taking up his plantation several miles behind Abercorn on the boundry of Goshen, where, to be sure, there is the best land but no church, school, or mill.

The Salzburger Bichler is being humbled by God in many ways. He has tried all sorts of ways to support himself better than others. He has always aimed upwards and tried to get ahead of other people, but by this he has come into temptation, loss, and debts.²¹ He has good understanding and other natural gifts but is now one of the poorest in the community; indeed, I believe that there is no one so poor as he. Today it pleased me that he has begun to recognize the humbling and crushing hand of God and to humble himself before it, whereas he had previously blamed his misfortunes on other people. In his great poverty he is also consumptive and incapable of work. Oh, if only God could achieve His purpose in him!

The 19th of December. This time more than a hundred people registered to come to the Lord’s Table on the coming Fourth Sunday in Advent; and this week my sermon is aimed at instructing my dear parishioners, both the old and the new, how they should properly prepare themselves for this holy table through the power of the Holy Ghost. On the Third Sunday in Advent, after the introduction of the introit verses Romans 5:15 and Matthew 11:2, I treated the two major points of Christian dogma, to wit, the fall and the resulting great perdition of mankind, and at the same time the great grace of God in Christ.

Now, I know from God’s word and from experience that many people, even among us, wish to be Christians and to go to Holy Communion but have not yet learned the first letters, the A.B.C.s as it were, of true Christianity and therefore stand in the fancy of faith, in trust in the opus operatum of prayer and going to church and Holy Communion.²² These peope erect their own justification and go cheerfully into hell with the comfort of God’s mercy and Christ’s merits, or they let themselves be kept for a long time from true conversion, the core of Christianity, and from the imitation of Christ to their and other people’s great harm. Therefore this week in the prayer meetings and weekday sermons I am treating the basic and principal dogma of Christianity from the fall and resulting great perdition of all men and of all human nature as clearly and sincerely as God is allowing me through His grace. For this purpose I am excellently served by the second and forty-first chapters of the first book of the blessed Arndt’s True Christianity and by the heart and conscience examinations from the late Ambrose Wirth’s Confession and Communion Booklet.²³ Because, through God’s great goodness and providence, both books are in the hands of all our parishioners they can re-read and repeat the explicated and inculcated points again at home.

The 21st December. Yesterday evening our schoolmaster’s wife asked me on the street to come to her as soon as my circumstances would allow me, and I did this today. She is a believing soul, who has often had a certain assurance of her state of grace through the witness of the Holy Ghost from the certain words of the gospel. However, her feeling of faith and the grace of God have disappeared, especially when she detects subtile disloyalties and moral lapses; and everything has become sin so that she well needs encouragement from the gospel, as she received today.

Old Mrs. Schweighoffer has recovered again and can again visit the prayer meetings and Sunday sermons, in which she is almost exactly like the pious Hannah in Luke 2²⁴ and also like the others who awaited the redemption in Jerusalem. She told me to the praise of God and with a joyful heart how much good the Lord has showed to her daughter in her sickness, from which she had now recovered, and how seriously she had been concerned about the true salvation of her still frivolous brother.

Yesterday and the night before we had a gentle and rather warm rain. After it a very violent and cold storm wind arose, which lasted all night and today with the greatest violence. I often think now of the dear people of Luzern, who will surely have left London already two or three months ago and will therefore have come close to the borders of Georgia. This storm wind, which has just come out of the west and is precisely against the ships headed here, will drive them back very far; and, because it is freezing, it will cause them much discomfort. May God be their leader, protector, and provider!²⁵

The water in the river has risen so high that it has stopped all the mills. All the inhabitants and neighbors have surely been provided with flour because we have had full use of the mills for many months.

The 22nd of December. Among the last transport of German people a young apprentice and an older unmarried serving woman came to our place, who had behaved shamefully on the voyage, because of which the woman is now pregnant. I reproached them several times with this shameful and vexing defilement, but they helped themselves with denials and then went to Holy Communion anyhow. Finally they both acknowledged that they were guilty of this misdeed and promised to convert to God before they could be tablemates of the Lord Jesus. Yesterday evening they were with me again, and I spoke to them again from the law and the gospel and bent my knees with them before God. They both left me, first the woman and then a while later the young man, with emotion and tears. They are both very ignorant in the necessary articles of Christianity, but they seem to have docile dispositions.

A young man out of Wurttemberg, who has traveled about in South Carolina and this land for some years with disorderly people, showed up here a few months ago and hired himself out to a Salzburger as a servant. He visited me a couple of times and expressed a disgust at his former life and a pleasure in good order. He had largely forgotten what he had previously learned from the catechism and the Wurttemberg confirmation booklet, but he promises to learn it again. I admonished him sincerely and prayed with him and gave him a New Testament along with the psalter that was bound with it. One must be very cautious with such people and go gently with them if one does not wish to drive them away. If they are here for a while and achieve a better understanding through the abundant preaching of the divine word, then they begin to love our place and good order and can all the better digest a necessary chastisement. May God teach us wisdom!

The 23rd of December. In these four Sundays in Advent it has been cold, to be sure; yet the violent wind has ceased and the sun is shining bright so that we are suffering no hardship or hinderance from the cold, especially during divine services in our well protected church. God has strengthened me and my dear colleague to preach His divine word to a large gathering. A hundred and twenty-two persons went to Holy Communion. Since the last German people came to us, Jerusalem Church, or the town church, is almost too small for us. When it is necessary, our dear God will surely see to a new one for us. The present church was not built too large because we have had the intention from the very beginning to change it into a schoolhouse and residence for the schoolmaster if the congregation increased so much that we would need a larger church.

If all the children who were born and baptized sixteen years ago in Old and New Ebenezer were still alive, how large our congregation would be! It pleases me and draws my heart heavenward that such a beautiful troop of chosen and transfigured children from the Ebenezer congregation are resplendent before God’s throne, among them my blessed colleague Gronau (the friend of children) and two of his dear children. I, too, now have had two dear children up there for almost two months, where it is said, “Here it is good to be.” Their withdrawal through temporal death has caused me and my helpmeet many afterpains, but the Lord always helps us up again. He will give us grace to hasten our journey to blessed eternity and will make us more and more certain of our salvation in Christ.

Now my Redeemer has borne with me for forty-seven years in this pilgrimage with ineffable patience; and even in this land He has granted me good health and strength, which I had lost in my young years through excessive study, harmful treatments, and all sorts of difficult circumstances in my poverty so that I (as my parishioners say) have almost become young again. I can also well feel that I have more strength of body and mind than in former years. Despite the good condition of my previously fragile body, I forsee my departure from this world every day and and concern myself with ending my course with joy as soon as it pleases the Lord. My dear colleague, the members of the congregation (with scarcely a single exception), my family, our dear Fathers in Europe, and many other friends wish me a long life, which I also recognize as a great blessing because I surely believe that in the still remaining time our Chief Shepherd and Savior will, through the Holy Ghost, make me very capable to serve Him and the congregation. This is my sincere desire and the content of my prayer. May my God never let me forget how much mercy and blessing He has shown me, most unworthy one, from His word and sacraments, from edifying writings sent after us, from the blessed letters of our worthy Fathers and friends, and in numerous other ways both spirituallly and physically and both near and afar.

The 24th of December. In today’s evening prayer meeting I repeated something from yesterday’s morning sermon from Isaiah 40:3-5 concerning the preparation of our hearts for the gracious coming of Christ, which is very appropriate at the present time. I showed the parishioners in many ways that the proper preparation demanded by our Lord consists of a change of mind and heart and how long those reveal themselves and hinder their true blessedness who shy from the true conversion that God Himself wishes to effect through His word or who postpone it from one time to another.

The 25th of December. On this first day of Christmas the dear gospel of the incarnation and birth of Christ was preached by me in Jerusalem Church and by Mr. Lemke in Zion Church. It rained most of the day, and therefore it was very convenient for the people on the plantations that they had their divine service nearby, namely, in their own church. Praise be to God, who gives His word abundantly and who so noticeably strengthens us two, who must preach it. May He, for the sake of Christ, richly bless the precious seed that was sowed today!

The 26th of December. Also on this second day of Christmas we have had some unpleasant weather with fog and rain, by which, however, our parishioners did not let themselves be kept from public divine service. Toward evening yesterday my dear colleague traveled from Zion Church to Goshen behind Abercorn to preach to the Germans there and to administer Holy Communion. During this evening’s prayer meeting he came back home safe and sound. May God be heartily praised for having strengthened us both in body and spirit during this holy period and for having assisted us with His spirit for the preaching of the gospel. In the evening prayer meeting we praised His name for that and likewise for His other spiritual and physical blessings, and we invoked it communally for a blessing on the word that was preached.

On the first day of Christmas I dealt with the gospel for that day concerning the conspicuously great mystery of the incarnation and birth of Christ, and on the second day I dealt with the Godpleasing behavior of our parishioners during and after the preaching of the gospel. After the holy days we are accustomed to repeat the content of the same sermons in the prayer meetings and in the first weekday sermon.

After the rain a strong and very cold wind arose in the evening, which again brought us a heavy frost. The water in the river has fallen somewhat again, which is good for the mills. Carl Flerl’s stepson, a boy of about eleven years, was mortally sick. When he was very close to death, he said to his pious parents that a man had been with him, who told him that he would not die but would be able to help his weak and sickly mother with her work. One expected nothing less than that it would happen, yet it actually followed. We had him in our house during the holy days. His mother is a true friend of God and prays zealously, and she surely accomplished much with her prayer for this one and only child (for the youngest died recently).

The 29th of December. For the past three days there has been an uncommon cold both day and night, with which there was a violent west wind. What will our dear Protestant friends from Luzern have to undergo if they are on the sea not far from the coasts of South Carolina and Georgia? May God stand by them! For a long time we have had no other wind but west and southwest, which is against those coming from England. Yesterday and today the sky has been entirely clouded as if it would snow, which at this season is something not entirely unusual. The last colonists, both free people and servants, have been so well sheltered in town and on the plantations that they can suffer not the least lack of warm dwellings and bedclothes or of foodstuffs. The mill was still for only a few days. What advantages these people have over the first, second, and third transports, who had to get along very miserably with their hard work in Old and New Ebenezer without mills, without good land, without dwellings, without boats, without wagons and horses, without meat and other healthy food, without good and knowledgeable advisors. I am often sincerely ashamed and bow myself before God that I was so very inexperienced in external economic matters concerning the plantations. Otherwise I would have been able to lighten many loads and difficulties for our colonists.

The 31st of December. Now that this old year is going to an end through divine goodness, my duty as a Christian and man of authority demands that I briefly advise our readers, such as Fathers, friends, and benefactors, dear to us in the Lord, about the major blessings the Lord has shown us in this newly ended year so that they in their place can help us praise Him for all His blessings.

1. We have enjoyed the jewel of undisturbed physical freedom in this year, too, even though it was said that the French wished to break again with the English. Especially, once there was almost a dangerous war with the Indians, which, however, our King of Peace changed into grace. We have had not the least trouble from Indians, Negroes, or other vagrant riffraff in town or on the plantations. Along with such external and physical peace we have also had the best peace and unity we could desire among one another.

We authorities, Mr. Lemke, Mr. Mayer, and I, as well as the seven tythingmen, stand in a bond of love and good understanding, on which the God of Love and of Peace has laid His blessing for the advancement of good order and subsistence. Churches and schools in town and on the plantations are used loyally by the ministers and parishioners for the purpose for which God granted them to us. We have nothing to complain of concerning the diligent and devout attendance at public divine services on Sundays and Holy Days, weekday sermons, and prayer meetings. Rather, they have shown themselves in such a way that we can believe that most of them have an upright love for God’s word and the holy sacraments. I believe I can apply what is written in Acts 9, “Then had the churches rest throughout all Judaea . . . and were edified.” Also, the divine promise spread to us, too, which He gave to his people who would attend divine services and leave their houses and fields alone and without any guard that He would take everything into His special protection during the holy days and during the divine services. Nor do we know of any grave vexation, and therefor no one has had to be legally punished.

2. God has kept us ministers in the church and teachers in the school in health so that we have not had to neglect any part of our duty because of sickness. He has given us the joy of performing our office among the people here and among strangers, in Goshen, and in Savannah not without blessing. In particular we have observed a noticeable change in the behavior of some young people who came here last year as servants.

3. The more our dear God spares me and my dear colleague from sickness, the more He has visited our families. His three children have all been dangerously sick, and He took two of mine within seven days through temporal death and thereby dealt me a wound that I still feel. Yet, to the praise of God, I must say that He is letting this tribulation do me much good. Many parents in the congregation have been visited in this same way through the sickness of their children or kinsmen, and possibly also through incidences of death. Yet not as many of them have died as in Carolina, but most of them have recovered again. God has granted us much edification and comfort during the sickness and at the burials of our dear lambs.

4. It is an especially dear blessing of the Lord that He has let us receive very pleasant reports of the health and life of our dear Fathers in London, Augsburg, and Halle and has kept us in their and other dear benefactors’ favor and intercession and has often caused us joy with their printed writings, through letters, through good counsel, and through material aid. He has also inclined the hearts of the Lord Trustees and of the praiseworthy Society to us live in love and benevolence. May He keep them and all our benefactors long in His blessing!

5. Our dear God has also inclined the hearts of the Lord Trustees to us to give willingly for our new sawmill all the ironwork that has lain in the storehouse in Savannah, which is a very great benefaction. There are more than two thousand pounds of good useful iron, of which we need only a little for the sawmill we are planning and most of which we will save for future use. God has not only let us know of a very good opportunity to build a new sawmill in our district but has also granted us the means to do so through the income of the previously used sawmill and grist mill and this iron that has been given to us. But we would not have been able to undertake this important and useful construction if God had not given us a capable and very industrious and well behaved carpenter among the servants who arrived a year ago.²⁶

Joseph Schubdrein. See entry for Through his guidance and industry the new milldam was completed before Christmas, and it is an imposing and durable work from which most of our inhabitants have earned a sizeable sum of money.

If God grants health and blessing and the cold does not last too long, the mill construction itself should soon be undertaken. Sawmills and gristmills are not exceptional establishments in Germany, even though they are great benefactions; but here they are a special earthly jewel, for which we have great cause to thank God. Because of the low land no mills can be built far and wide, even though some have been begun in vain at great cost. We have to see to it that our inhabitants, who cannot live by farming alone, can earn something from time to time for clothing and other necessities. For this the construction, maintenance, and use of the mills are a great service. A large sum is earned and spent every year at the mills. For that reason cash money comes to our place, which is not found elsewhere in Carolina or in our colony.

To be sure, we have often been advised to use Negroes or Moorish slaves at the mills, through whose cheap labor and minimal expense for food and clothing the mill would have a greater income. But where would the earnings be for the congregation, for whom the mills were built? At the first mill we had to give out much apprentice money, as it were; and through lack of experience we did not know how to use much wood and many boards correctly. We also paid many expenses in vain, and we suffered great loss through N.²⁷ However, for somewhat more than a year it has begun to bring in good money, of which to a large extent the milldam was built, which cost a considerable amount.

If the new sawmill is completed, as we hope, then, because of the good location and very many matured, thick, and impressive pine and cypress trees, we promise ourselves a great advantage for improving our subsistence and advancing a useful trade, which is as necessary for the community as the mill itself is. Among the divine benefactions we have received this year I rightfully count:

6. The discovery of an advantageous way to bring all sorts of cypress to the mill in rafts at small cost, whereas it formerly seemed impossible.²⁸ Such trees stand around the river in great numbers and give the most beautiful and durable boards, of which a great quantity have been sawed for the milldam and for sale, even if we have not yet been able to sell them.

7. Among the pleasant signs of divine providence over us belongs the better arranged trade through the service of my colleague Mr. Mayer, for which our prominent benefactor, our dear Mr. von N.N. in Augsburg,²⁹ has given much encouragement by encouraging Mr. Mayer with word and deed. From the blessings from the mill account a very spacious and very comfortable house and store have been built as his dwelling and shop. A kitchen, garden, and outhouses have been laid out, and everything has been arranged most conveniently for trade. Also, most trade goods can be had for a reasonable price. This store is provided with goods at the expense of the mill account, and Mr. Mayer is provided with a servant, whom he is to train for the trade.³⁰

Among the coins that are accepted here are pieces of eight, on which stands the Plus ultra, which appears so remarkable to me and which often encourages me to raise my heart to the praise of God for the increase we have experienced so far and to sighs for His continued productive blessing. During the Christmas service and during the repetition hour the day before yesterday my faith was greatly strengthened by the fact that the wisdom of God has so arranged it that Christ our Lord was born in the time of Caesar Augustus, who was called an “Augmenter,”³¹ by which He wished to give us a sign that He truly wished to be our Augmenter in the realm of nature and grace. The blessing He merited and gave to us is an increasing good. This He has showed in the poorhouse in Augsburg and in the Orphanage and other institutions at Halle,³² and I am greatly impressed and pleased that our late dear Professor /August Hermann/ Francke as founder and director of the said blessed Orphanage was named Augustus and that his worthy and pious son /Gotthilf August/ as successor in the theological faculty, ministry, and directorship of the Orphanage and of the Paedigogium Regium bears this same emphatic name.³³ In the Old Testament God ordained that the children of pious parents were given very significant names, whose true meaning and secret purpose were made known and became edifying only at a later time. Why did people in the New Testament not wish to recognize His careful purpose in this matter and thus rob themselves of a great advantage for the praise of God and the sincere enjoyment of His marvelous ways and ordinances?

8. Through the blessed harvest in European and local crops and through the purchase of the cowpen at Old Ebenezer our all-wise and thoroughly kind God has provided right paternally not only for our old inhabitants and their servants but also for the new colonists who arrived two months ago, by whom our community has been augmented. All of them can be provided at a reasonable price with grain from the harvest and with meat from the cowpen.

9. Through the heart-inclining power of God and through the affection of the Councilmen at Savannah our old and new inhabitants have received not only good but also more land than in previous years, to wit, a hundred acres instead of fifty. Since He has now begun to grant servants also, I hope that He will gradually let His blessing come to them for the better arrangement of their plantations and households and let them rest after so many trials and tribulations. Nothing is impossible for Him. At the very time that He gave them more land through the service of the gentlemen in Savannah, the joyful news came from the Lord Trustees that all inhabitants would soon receive their grants, or sufficient written assurance concerning their plantations, and that they will possess an absolute power over their land, free of any previous restrictions, just as it is in England and all other colonies.³⁴

10. Previously our righteous and clever Kalcher was a very useful manager and father at the orphanage. Recently, he assumed the calling as overseer, drayman, and host at our mills, which we hope will redound to greater alleviation and the advancement of good order. After Mr. Mayer moved into the above-mentioned new house, Kalcher bought the house that Mr. Vigera had had built largely with other money, but now he has given it back to me. This now serves us very well, for school is held in one of the rooms, which is provided with an iron stove, and the other part of the house is for a widow who cleans Jerusalem Church, washes its cloths, lights its lamps for the evening prayer meetings, etc. Also, space has been made for two families of the last colonists and their little children until they build something on their own land. Thus this house is a blessing in many ways, even though much money is invested in it and it will soon demand some repairs.

11. It seems a minor matter, to be sure, that some redeemed servants began burning bricks in town last summer and autumn with advances from us, but we do not consider it a minor matter. In addition to the fact that it has increased useful work and more subsistence among us, we have obtained bricks nearby for building chimneys and other useful things and do not have to bring them up from Savannah at great cost. With them the parsonage has been as well protected against fire as man can do.

12. As evidence of the kind providence of God over us I could also cite that the silk turned out very well last spring and summer and that the inhabitants have been encouraged to industry in this work by the cash they received for it. Many young women have thoroughly learned how to reel silk and have been provided with twelve cauldrons and machines for spinning off the silk. Likewise, the poor have had much opportunity to earn at the mills and elsewhere, the mills have almost always been in operation, and many benefactions have flowed from Europe. A rice-shelling mill has been built, and now a tanning mill is being built for the recently arrived tanner, etc. But I will leave off with this evidence of divine goodness, wisdom, and omnipotence and will close with “Hallelujah”!