I.N.I.A.¹ Daily Reports Of the Year 1749

JANUARY

Sunday, the 1st of January. May the name of the Lord be praised for all spiritual and physical benefactions which He has so generously shown not only in previous years but also for those which He has once again begun to show us on this New Year’s day. Yesterday during the evening prayer meeting, He bestowed on us a new awakening to faith and evangelical Christianity through His words, “And of his fullness have all we received, and grace for grace.”¹ On this day during Holy Communion and in prayer, we felt His merciful presence deeply. It has been, to be sure, very cold today as in previous days. But this kept no one from the sermons and evening prayer meeting. My dear colleague, Mr. Lemke, preached in Savannah and administered Holy Communion to the Germans there, while I performed the official duties here. At the beginning of the service, after the prayer, we sang the inspiring and rousing Ach möchte ich meinen Jesum sehen, der meine Seele so herzlich liebt which I gave as a New Year’s gift to my dear congregation. I also wished them true desire, honest intention, and the Christian attitude of a believing soul that are so excellently expressed in it.

Tuesday, the 4th of January. This morning we consecrated Michael Rieser’s new house with song, God’s word, and prayer. A few pious women from the city also attended. The head of the house, a young and once capricious man, finds himself currently in a serious struggle for penitence and is in need of instruction from the gospels to awaken and strengthen his belief. Therefore, the passage Luke 19:1 ff. is appropriate not only for the present time and the matters we have preached publicly in the past but also for the spiritual well-being of this man, especially because it concerns not only the sinner but also the Healer of sinners. In contemplating this gospel story, it correctly states: “Here the heart of Jesus openeth for all them which recognize their loss in pain and penitence.”

Wednesday, the 5th of January. Because the three families who live on Ebenezer Creek can only rarely attend the evening prayer meetings on account of their household chores and the long way they must travel, I have begun to hold a Bible study this week at their request from eleven to twelve o’clock. Henceforth, with the help of the Lord, this will take place twice a week if no more important business prevents me.²

Thursday, the 13th of January. Since the beginning of the new year we have had continued cold winter weather, frost, ice, and snow. No one can remember ever having experienced it’s like in this country.

Sunday, the 15th of January. The weather has become bearable on this second Sunday after the celebration of the epiphany of the Lord. An Englishman was traveling from the Ogeechee River to Old Ebenezer with his wife and children, and he came to our town because there was no food in Old Ebenezer. Because he had no money he wanted to trade clothing to buy supplies for himself and his children. We gave him some supplies out of sympathy. He couldn’t describe the poverty which drove him away from the Ogeechee River, where many slave owners are already settled.³ Now he is going to Augusta. Nothing can be earned there; and his crops in the lowland were spoiled by water. This is new evidence that wherever there are blacks, white people who can’t afford them find it difficult to get along. However, many are so blind that they insist on having black slaves whether they can afford them or not. Since S. B. and H. have gone to Carolina, they have fared worse rather than better (even if one just looks at the material aspect).⁴ The eyes of many people of our town have been opened, and they are beginning to recognize their advantages more so than before. It is no small blessing that they always have the opportunity to work for an hourly wage or earn money with their crafts in Ebenezer.

Monday, the 17th of January. The majority among us have gotten very well settled in on their plantations; and it seems they lack nothing in a material way but good servants, with whom they would be able to feed themselves better than with Negroes.

Tuesday, the 18th of January. Mrs Riedelsberger became seriously ill, which is why she summoned me. She is experiencing the same things as other honest souls under the similar circumstances. The sins of her youth occur to her and become magnified, and when she does not feel the faith and comfort of the Holy Ghost from the gospels, she becomes humble and subject to the law.⁵ What I read to her yesterday and today from the gospel appears to have made a salutary impression on her troubled, burdened soul.

After the unusually cold weather, some people have now come down with fever, stitches in their sides, colds, and sore throats. I am also experiencing this; however, thank God, it is bearable. Mrs. Kalcher had another serious onset of her old sickness and predicted her own death last evening. Indubitably, she is, just like Mrs. Riedelsberger, a precious jewel in the eyes of God. At times she has very serious pangs of conscience. It serves, however, for her better purification and earnest penetration into Christ, the only Savior from sin.

Wednesday, the 19th of January. General Oglethorpe’s company captain, George Cadogan, spent several hours in our town on his way to Augusta to inspect his soldiers. He told me that Major Horton had become seriously ill with fever in Savannah. He also told me that the officers and other men who own land and slaves near Frederica and the Ogeechee River have collected a sum of money through subscription in order to construct a roadway and footpath from the Ogeechee to Savannah through a long swamp so that one can travel to Savannah comfortably in three hours to bring their produce to market. Savannah will remain the capital of this colony.⁶ We have it easier in that we can take our things down river in small and large boats. A small boat carrying four hundredweight or a little over can be taken down the river and back by one man. The roads in this land have been poorly made until now. This will improve in due time as the population, trade, and commerce increase. Because Negroes are already as good as permitted, there is no doubt that the colony will be filled with people.

Two weeks ago, the pious Mrs. Kornberg had a miscarriage, in addition to her many domestic troubles. When I visited her yesterday, I found that she was in good health, thanks to the good care of her Christian friends. She was in a fearful state of mind especially because of the following verses: “Your iniquities have separated between you and your God,” etc. Likewise, “Ye know that no murderer hath eternal life abiding in him.”⁷ I opened the Bible to the chapter about the cities of refuge for the unintentional manslaughterer and suggested she appropriate this prefiguration in our Little Treasure Chest.⁸ For this she was very eager.

Friday, the 21st of January. God has visited N. N. /Bacher/ with various physical trials to humble and cleanse him of his sins and imperfections. He has a truly pious wife, who, indeed, has her tribulations but is very patient and allows everything to turn out for her good. What will become of him remains to be seen. He has many very good natural gifts and could be of good use for many things in our town if his disposition were only more reserved, humble, and gentle.

The pious Mr. Glaner is still a widower; he holds his pious and now deceased housekeeper and wife in devoted remembrance and makes an effort to follow in her footsteps. He appreciates the advantages given us here by a merciful God, who has given the Salzburgers more here than they had hoped for in their homeland. He told me about his landlord’s son in Salzburg, who wished many times to be able to be in a situation where he could put his Bible in his knapsack and travel wherever he would like to. God granted him his wish. About one of his other friends he said that he would steal away from the other boys and take his Bible into a barn, bury himself in the hay near a wall where the sun shone through an opening, and read his fill of the holy word without being caught. He could not even trust his brothers about his recognition of the truth; but God in His wisdom gave him two brothers similarly disposed, so that they are now one heart and soul.

Saturday, the 22nd of January. I received a letter yesterday dated the 31st of October from our dear brother, Pastor Brunnholtz, from Philadelphia; it was a pleasure to receive it after having to wait for such a long time. I answered it immediately. His correspondence is a blessing. He has again had a high fever which brought him close to death; but our merciful God has brought about his recovery, even though he was weak while writing the letter. To the great sorrow of God’s servants in Philadelphia, a pious, agreeable, and learned Swedish provost who arrived there a short time ago died recently. And a young preacher from St. Gall, just arrived and eager to travel to his parish, had the misfortune to shoot himself in the chest with his own flintlock as a result of carelessness, and this caused a lot of dismay. At the solemn consecration of St. Michael’s Lutheran Church in Philadelphia the righteous and industrious catechist, Mr. Kurtz, was ordained as a teacher and preacher by several assembled preachers; and the ceremony was attended by the aforementioned Swedish provost. The other servants of god, such as Mr. Mühlenberg and Mr. Handschuh, are still healthy and are in harmony with helping Mr. Brunnholtz and are in blessed harmony. This we like to hear.

Sunday, the 23rd of January. After I had been with dear Glaner the day before yesterday, he became suddenly so sick with fever that he did not expect to survive the next day. I was called to him yesterday evening shortly before the repetition hour. My dear colleague took over for me so that this necessary and useful hour would not be canceled. He lay on his bed in great pain and sickness. He had a dangerous and unusual attack, but his heart was happy in the Savior. He longed to be freed and to be with the Lord and his deceased wife. This morning he was a little better; and he said to me: “Our dear savior does not want to take me yet. I would gladly have died.” Yesterday he showed me as well as he could how he wanted his worldly possessions distributed since he had forgotten something; and he arranged it today. Because he has neither children nor relatives, he thought generously of widows and orphans, and the rest he left up to my discretion.

Thursday, the 27th of January. On the 24th of this month an express messenger came on horseback from Savannah bringing the sad news that our great friend and benefactor Major Horton died at two o’clock in the afternoon of a dangerous fever. With moving and emphatic words, I was asked to come immediately, without delay, and hold the burial in the English fashion because their regular preacher is away and because they find the preacher from Frederica, currently in Savannah with his Indian family, disgusting and objectionable.⁹ This is also why he has not received permission to preach in Savannah on Sundays. Gratitude and respect for the deceased benefactor and obligation to the authorities required me to ride down there and endure the uncomfortable cold and stormy night rather than miss the prearranged burial time. It was not my intention to replace the English pastor, but merely to show final honors to the deceased like others attending the burial. However, my reasons for not being able to serve the Englishmen in an official capacity were refuted by counter arguments and the agreeable way they implored me; therefore, I had to acquiesce to their wishes.

Mr. Stephens, the president and colonel, an eighty year old gentleman, provided the greatest impetus to the matter by not only persuading me verbally but also with a little letter with which I can sufficiently protect myself from any accusations and judgments of the preacher from Frederica. God has granted me his merciful support in this matter. Through this, also others who looked askance at me without cause were placated. I was able to recognize this through their words and behavior toward me after the burial.

The funeral was held in accordance with the social standing of the major and was probably not inexpensive. It proceeded very orderly and piously, both in regard to the procession of the wealthy and those of lesser social position following the coffin into the church, as also in the churchyard and back to the house of Mr. Habersham, the merchant, the place from which the body was carried. When I last dined with the major on the 10th of this month, he recalled several different, witty epitaphs, which he had collected in England, in Latin and English, in prose and verse. As well, he led a philosophical discourse concerning clear conscience and joyful death. Who would then have thought that, of all those gathered at the table, indeed in the entire land, he would be the first to exchange time for eternity. He did not think he would die, but he fought with death for almost two days, and he did not die easily.

Major Horton was only forty-two years old and his premature death was greatly mourned by all who knew him. He resolved to support Ebenezer’s best intentions in London as best he could. He planned to travel there at the beginning of April. He admonished me several times to remind him in writing of many things because he wanted to repeat everything in our favor. He wanted to meet the court chaplain Mr. Ziegenhagen, whom he holds in high esteem; and he wanted me to help arrange a meeting between the two of them. It was to have been to our advantage. Therefore, on the twelfth of this month I wrote to our worthy court chaplain and sent him a copy of the restrictions on slavery that were prepared here. But now I have to write again to tell him that death has disrupted the major’s plans. My moral in this stands in Psalms 146: 3-6.

The 29th of January. This year we have had continually the kind of weather which is to be expected in winter. The wind blows mostly from the west and east and occasionally from the north. It is mostly dry and cool during the day and cold and chilly, but bearable, during the night. It appears that our merciful God wants to give us a fruitful year. The water in the river is not too high and not too low. Therefore, all our mills are running at full capacity and as desired, bringing profit to our inhabitants as well as to those of Purysburg, Savannah, and Frederica.

From Pennsylvania we have received the news that last fall’s crops were very damaged, and almost ruined, by excessive rain. Therefore, the price of wheat flour which is sent from there and New York to our colony and Carolina has risen greatly; one hundred pounds costs us twenty-six shillings Sterling, and we aren’t even able to get enough to fill our needs. Our nice Indian cornmeal is now in great demand, and that is a blessing for us. Not even the poorest among us lack bread and other healthy foods, which perhaps others in the land do not have. A good amount is being exported from here. Our miraculous God, who afflicted us with work and suffering after our fall from grace, has visited us with good measure; however, He gives us much edification, comfort, and blessing from His words and providence, so that we are sincerely content with His merciful guidance. We praise him publicly and privately for the many spiritual and physical advantages He has given us.

Especially on Sunday does God let His kindness become great by letting us consider His holy word in great quietude, in unity of spirit, and in great edification in our two comfortable houses of worship; and He has also shown noticeable blessing in our common prayer and song. The devotion and edification are furthered by the fact that all our dear members are supplied with Bibles and hymnals. We are waiting with longing for the crates of books and medicines from Halle, in which there are some Bibles and hymnbooks, which we need for the grown children, of whom some have graduated from school. May our dear God awaken one or another benefactor, who will help us procure a good number of Bibles and Halle hymnbooks.

Sunday, the 30th of January. Glaner, a righteous Israelite, has been seriously ill. But God blessed the use of medication for his recovery, for which he is very thankful to Him, even though he had wished to die. He also told me of the many physical kindnesses shown him by God on both healthy and sick days in his own home. In addition, he recalled the speech of his deceased wife, in which she heartily mourned those who have passed on previously. He was told by our herdsman that a short time ago an Englishman from Pennsylvania came on horseback with wife and children to our cowpen dreadfully in need of food and clothing and then proceeded to Savannah.

This same man was at our mill last week and told us that Pennsylvania is overrun with people and that there is a food shortage. He thought the people of this colony were better off than they. We are not in need of anything except loyal servants, whom God will bestow upon us in His time. Since then a well-to-do German from Savannah, whose son and cousin left their service in this colony to go to Pennsylvania with the permission of his master, inquired into the conditions there with regard to both religious and economic matters. He brought back a bad report. This discouraged those vacillating about moving there. In the past, it was always described as a true paradise.¹⁰

Tuesday, the 31st of January. Praise be to God for having helped bring another month to its conclusion. The pious Mrs. Riedelsberger, who went out today for the first time after her serious illness, said “Blessed be the Lord, who daily loadeth us with benefits, and the God of our salvation.” Many of us can now say that. There are many among the men and women who have been dangerously sick this month with side-stitches and fever; God has helped so much that all seem to be out of peril now. This time, too, He has blessed the sickness so that His word has awakened their hearts, melted away evil, and brought forth a new resolution to live for the Lord alone. Today we had nice weather, as agreeable as usual in the spring. We could not have foreseen this from yesterday because it rained heavily for an hour, accompanied by a violent storm wind, which continued through the night. Yesterday, shortly before evening, we saw from the northeast to the northwest a rainbow, twice as beautiful as any I have ever seen. God remember us and bless us.

FEBRUARY

Wednesday, the 1st of February. The widow /Ursula/ Meyer, a Swiss, moved a short time ago with her daughter /Magdelena/ to a plantation below the mill, which her son-in-law bought from the wicked Michael R. /Rieser/, who moved away a year ago. The young man, also Swiss, is working for an Englishman in Mount Pleasant and is applying the money he earns to build this plantation. The daughter and mother are putting a lot of effort into raising cattle and planting crops. I saw their industriousness and good arrangements, but I fear they will lose more than they will gain because the husband, who is often not there, does not understand field work and husbandry and because the day laborers demand too great a wage, as is normal for this area. It is a quarter greater than the value of their work.

There is no easier way for a man to get into debt than to have to use day laborers on his plantation for building fences, cultivating, plowing, and other field and house chores because the wages are much too high. That is the reason why we don’t have fields or plantations or even a productive garden.¹ Otherwise my colleague, like me, would be inclined to experiment with this and that thing, both necessary and curious, and to help our friends with the resulting experience. It is otherwise excellent and fruitful land. A man who has a little knowledge, industriousness, and experience could probably raise almost everything he plants.

I heard once from an intelligent English doctor that everything grows in this climate that grows in the West Indies. European plants grow better here than in the West Indies. The only resource missing is people. The Swiss woman mentioned above was sick, and she and her daughter were glad that I came to visit them and prayed and talked to them of God’s word. What especially pleased me about the elderly mother is that she pitied and took in—for a small amount of money—the poor child of a soldier, whose mother died between Savannah and Ebenezer and whose father brought it here to be baptized.

Thursday, the 2nd of February. It is a pleasure for me to hold the edification hours on the few plantations along Ebenezer Creek; and I expect great use from this for eternity. Two men had things to attend to in the forest and could therefore not attend the lesson. Shortly before evening they told me they regretted this and promised not to let this hinder them in the future. I am preaching to them the same things we have heard in the prayer meetings and weekly sermons from the Old Testament, and now from the exemplary and instructive story of King Solomon.

Lechner,² the locksmith, was formerly an indolent man in mind and body and unknowledgeable in divine truths; but, since his serious and lengthy illness, he has become an entirely different man through the grace of God. He is resolved to save his soul; he shows great desire for God’s word and complains bitterly that because of his weakness he is unable to retain as much as he would like. Despite his poor ability to read, he practices to learn the verses of the exordium which he often repeats when he sees me. He also experiences many difficult temptations³ which lead him to prayer, from which he sometimes receives relief; however, sometimes he is praying to an iron wall. He said among other things: “When I am working alone in the forest, I often fall on my knees and complain to God of my hardship; sometimes afterwards my heart is relieved. When someone is working with me, however, I am too embarrassed.”

Saturday, the 4th of February. Strong storm winds and cold temperatures followed the extraordinarily large and beautiful rainbow of the thirty-first. It seems we are getting one winter after another this year. This has kept the plum and peach blossoms from flowering as usual; otherwise, they would have been damaged by such weather as we have now.

Sunday, the 5th of February. Through the mercy of the Lord, this Esto mihi Sunday has been a blessed day. He has sent our souls much edification and happiness through the teaching of the cross and the ministration of Holy Communion, in which sixty-three people participated. We dealt with the regular gospel of the great blessing of the meritorious passion and death of Christ not only in the morning; we also dealt with it in the afternoon. My colleague began a contemplation of the Passion story from the gospel of St. Mark. This time is always very important and noteworthy; and we ask our true and exalted Holy Redeemer to preserve the pleasant stillness and send us many blessings for eternity from the story of all stories, from His passion and death and also from the edifying passion hymns.

Tuesday, the 7th of February. Last night the recently mentioned soldier’s child, who was taken in to be raised by the widow Meyer, died and was buried this afternoon as is our custom in accordance with the wishes of the father. This time many members of our congregation are afflicted by a kind of chest disorder and side stitches, which also afflict the children. Our dear Lord has heard our pleading and blessed the diligence of Mr. Thilo and Mr. Meyer so that all appear to be recovering. May He make them, and all of us, thankful for the extended period of grace. It is no small blessing (this I often point out to our inhabitants) that we have two ministers, two school masters, two doctors, and two churches as well as complete freedom in religious and secular affairs, nourishment for body and soul in sickness and in health, and support from near and far in every possible way. How bad off are others in America in regard to the ministry, means of grace, doctors, and medicines. As a result, not a few people are demoralized in spiritual or secular matters, or they demoralize themselves!

Wednesday, the 8th of February. I have heard from Halle that the conferences held in the blessed orphanage, which began and ended with heartfelt prayer, were a blessed means of uniting in brotherhood and encouragement to a wise and loyal administration of the respective offices and stations, where also many misunderstandings were prevented. Therefore, we found it necessary, after the appointment of Mr. Meyer as justice of the peace and superior in Ebenezer, to start a like conference to be held weekly by Mr. Lemke, me, and Mr. Meyer. We beseech the Lord to bless this new arrangement and grant us the Holy Spirit to pray for our congregation, our authorities, and our benefactors and take measures to enrich the spiritual and physical well-being of our dear inhabitants. Amen, so let it be.

I had sent a knowledgeable and Christian-thinking Reformed man⁴ the Penitence Prayers by the late Dr. Johann Schmid of Strassburg; and today he wrote me among other things this answer:

Mr. Schmid is a very good writer but not quite as good as the late Professor Franke and Pastor Schubart, whom I esteem more than gold. Because I did not yet have the sermons of his which I have just received, I would—with heartfelt gratitude—like to keep them. If you could spare some more, I would like to pay for them, like all works of this very edifying preacher. More than two years have passed since I wrote to Hamburg about the works of Schubart. I also requested Francke’s repentance sermons, and Freylinghausen’s epistolary sermons; but, as yet I have received no answer.

Friday, the 10th of February. Our friend, Mr. Habersham, told me that Mr. Whitefield’s wife has become seriously ill. He is very worried about her recovery. She is a godly and understanding woman who has a great love for the children and servants of God. It was reported from Savannah that the body of Major Horton was exhumed and reburied by the new, not yet completed church in town. Doubtless people wished to do more honor to the already deteriorating body rather than let it decompose in a common church yard.

Mr. Habersham sent me a letter from a merchant from Port Royal who would like to buy a quantity of lumber from us at a fairly low price; and another captain in Savannah, who travels to the West Indies, is doing the same. As they are cut now, our boards are not known outside of Savannah and Purysburg; yet those who know them prefer them to the best boards sawn in Carolina and say they are so valuable they should be sent to England. They are not only composed of the best heartwood, they also have the most accurate as well as the cleanest cuts. They probably know in Savannah, however, that we have no one to take care of the sales for the boards. That’s why they offer us the lowest price possible. If the boards became well known in Charleston, it would be easy for us in these peaceful times to get a merchant who would send new wares for lumber and other wood products.

The last two years of the flour and butter trade have brought great profit to Riedelsberger and the others who participated (almost the entire town). And what a fine profit our flour mills have enjoyed from it! We lend him our boat for a small interest charge for upkeep. He can take to Savannah in one trip at least 2400 pounds of flour, in addition to butter and live calves. Sometimes he brings back a cargo for his own small business or corn to mill for the inhabitants of Savannah. We usually have several thousand feet of lumber stored in Savannah and, when these are sold, we send more down. By doing this, those who operate the rafts easily and without danger are able to earn a lot. Because they must carry the boards up the steep sandy bluff at Savannah, which is very difficult work, the lumber is more expensive. The sawmill brings our poor people the most income.

Monday, the 13th of February. Our mills are special evidence of God’s fatherly care over our congregation. Through them they are able to grind their grain, to sell some of their flour, and to earn a good bit of money at the mill. The sawmill requires a miller, an apprentice, and servant, two carters with two wagons and four horses, two men to cut the long logs in the forest, and some men to put the lumber into rafts and take them to Savannah. Also one occasionally needs men at the saw mill to stack the lumber and other wood products and to clean up. And how often something breaks or is lacking in such large waterworks, by which something can always be earned. Thank God, who until now has bestowed on us the means to give our people the opportunity to earn a living and give them cash for their work, which contributes greatly to their support and establishment.

We leaders of the congregation must pay cash for wood, wheat, meat, and other necessities, i. e. whatever we need in our household and for our livestock. We also have our houses repaired for cash because our poor people have not been well off enough yet to do something for nothing. God has bestowed on us some funds from our benefactors in Europe, so that we are able to acquire all the necessities that congregations are accustomed to contribute and to distribute the money among the members of the congregation. Otherwise, our salaries would not be enough. Our desire to improve our community, even in worldly goods, is so great that we like to spend our total wealth to further them, if we only had as much money as our desire is great.

Tuesday, the 14th of February. Today after the catechism class at the plantation, I had planned to go visit Mr. Brandner’s oldest daughter,⁵ who has become seriously ill with side stitches. I was, however, overjoyed to see her coming unexpectedly to school, even though she was still a little weak. With the other school children and her, I encouraged myself to praise God, who does great things everywhere, for the great and the small, both in body and in spirit. She is a fine, Christian, and diligent little girl, who serves her frail parents in many ways. She was born in Old Ebenezer and is, along with Kalcher’s oldest daughter and Johann Martin Rheinländer (an orphan), one of the remaining children who were born there. What a goodly number of young people we would have if all, or only half, were still living. They were sent early to heaven and are better taken care of there than here.

Wednesday the 15th of February. At midday there arose a strong thunderstorm with much rain, which passed quickly. The wind came initially from the southeast; but, as it rained, it changed direction to the exact opposite, the northwest. At noon after the rain, the wind shifted its direction back and forth. Then more rain followed and another thunderstorm with lightning.

Friday the 17th of February. The old widow N.N. is losing a lot of strength now that she is already in her sixties. I advised her earnestly many times today to prepare for a blessed death through the grace of God more intensely by praying seriously and contemplating the divine word in order to be able to say as did the devout Simeon: “Lord, now dost thou let thy servant...” But beforehand one must truly be a servant of the Lord and in peace. To be sure, she acknowledges her mistakes and spiritual frailty, but I do not detect the care and dedication to reject these through the power of Christ. She lets herself be disquieted greatly by her own willfulness, is impatient about trifles, and does not take reprimands with love. She is attached to her two youngest children with too much love and causes herself much useless unrest. Among other things, I told her about the wish of Christ through Paul, Romans 16: 20.

Saturday, the 18th of February. Young N. has recovered from his serious sickness, and I instructed him and his wife through the word of God how best to use this new blessing of God’s and the new period of grace in the most Christian way. He considers his repentance during the sickness to have been sincere. It will be shown in his life whether it is true. Many times I related to him the verse: “Behold thou art made whole: sin no more, lest a worse thing come unto thee.” I have more hope for his wife than for him, that she will become a righteous person. Until now he has been like the son that said to his father: “Yes Lord,” but did not go.

It has been almost a year since a German man named Straube from Vernonburg moved here with his wife and six small children.⁶ They have established themselves here rather well during this time even though they arrived here with almost no food and clothing for the children. I didn’t have a good feeling about these people, yet I helped them get shelter as best I could, and God blessed everything to their spiritual and physical benefit. They thank God warmly for His merciful guidance; they love His word, Holy Communion, public worship, and all good institutions. They also appreciate the advantages, spiritual and physical, in Ebenezer after experiencing the misery and tribulations of their previous home. We are hopeful that their children will turn out well.

Sunday, the 19th of February. In just a few days the Savannah River rose unexpectedly so high that it flowed over its banks and stopped the mills. We had never before noticed such a sudden rise in the river. It cannot be entirely a result of the last rainfall but also the result of the heavy rainfall we had eight to ten days ago as well as the melting of the snow.⁷ The river also had the color of melted snow. Germans from Vernonburg came to our mill with a great amount of corn, but they were forced to leave it with us and return home without flour. We were sorry about that. I gave them a few books. A short while ago, before the water rose over the banks and by the mills, two Salzburgers took five thousand feet of lumber to Savannah. Last evening they returned safely. A knowledgeable merchant wrote me the following about our lumber: “the lumber brought down is overall as good as any I have ever seen.” If only our inhabitants would reduce their daily wage in the mills somewhat so they could be sold more cheaply, we would get a crowd of buyers. We will see what we can do with them with admonitions.

Monday, the 20th of February. Last night we again had an unexpected sudden, passing thunderstorm with rain. We are having warm, spring weather. The peach trees are in full bloom and the blossoms of the white mulberry trees are also already bursting forth. From a man from Purysburg I heard that they have had a lot of rain in their region every week. Here the rain has been sparser. Nevertheless, the European crops such as corn, rye, barley, and peas are already standing so beautiful in the fields that we could not wish for anything better.

Tuesday, the 21st of February. While working in the house, the righteous widow Zant was suddenly overcome with a severe fever. For a long time she was out of her mind and unable to see and hear. Today to my joy I found her a little better, and I hope God allows her to remain with us and her two dear, gentle children a little longer. She belongs to the wise virgins who prepared well for the arrival of the Bridegroom. Her heart is full of recognition of divine blessings and praise of God’s name. In her little room I felt at home during the discussions and prayer with her and her children. The merciful Lord let me feel especially His merciful presence and led me to a newer, stronger awakening.

Wednesday, the 22nd of February. With the return of our boat, Mr. Meyer received the news that the President of the Council and his Assistants are planning a large assembly at the end of the week. We have waited a long time for this. It was necessary for Mr. Meyer, as the representative of our community, to travel there already this evening to present the Council a few important matters about which I have written in a letter. We ask 1: that careful plans be made to exterminate the wild cattle near our cowpen as soon as possible according to the Trustees’ urgent orders before greater harm comes to our poor people. When our domesticated cattle come in contact with the wild cattle, as often happens, we consider them as good as lost.

2: We have heard that a man from Carolina, or Virginia, has bought land in Abercorn and the surrounding region and would like to bring in a lot of cattle; this would obviously harm our poor people and other inhabitants of the region. Therefore, we ask the gentlemen to prevent this harmful matter according to their wisdom and power.

3: Not long before his death, Major Horton was helping us to get the entire stretch of land between Abercorn and Mount Pleasant at Palachocolas and from our settlement to the Ogeechee River. At the time and at my request, he obtained it at the Council assembly. Because he died, however, and we never received an actual assurance, I am now asking that we be able to occupy gradually part of the aforementioned with our older inhabitants, who are settled too closely together because of the lack of good land on this side of Abercorn Creek, and that we be able to inform our patrons and friends about this large and beautiful district that belongs to Ebenezer. Perhaps it would be pleasing for other Christian compatriots to move here and live with our congregation separated from other people in the country.

This district is to a certain extent the heart of the colony because it lies between Carolina, Savannah, and the plantations on the other side of the Ogeechee river. Those coming from Augusta or Carolina by land to Savannah or Frederica have to make their way through this district of ours, not to mention that we have desirable communication by water on all sides. If this district is given to us, we can prevent the slave owners from settling in this region with their cattle. They have ruined the land and pastures in other places; and they would do it here also. The Uchee Indians, who have barely thirty men left in their tribe, have not yet yielded a large section of this land because the gentlemen here, unmindful of the Trustees’ express order, have made no effort. Therefore, we ask that this be quickly remedied.

4: A young man from the last German servants⁸ has honestly served his time and would like to settle in our village, but he heard from his brothers that because of the the councilmen I would exclude him from all benefactions that are given to others at the command of the Lord Trustees. I assure the leaders in my letter that we gladly submit ourselves to their will and decree, even regarding the settlement of our village. Therefore, we are requesting that they advise us of their wish. The aforementioned young man would rather renounce all the Trustees’ and Councilmen’s benefits than leave Ebenezer. God has drawn him to Him here.

5: We would like to know whether the inhabitants may spin their silk for the Trustees or whether they must send it to Savannah. Likewise, whether they would receive their payment shortly after the delivery of the silk to encourage their industriousness and the continuation of their economy.⁹ I have gotten into such a fix in the last years that I had to borrow money with bills of exchange to placate those who gave me the money in advance to pay for the silk for the Trustees. I would not get myself into such a complicated situation again, but I fear that the production of silk will come to a standstill if the people are not paid promptly.

6: Our people suffer for want of shelter when they go to Savannah. Their health suffers especially when it is cold because they cannot afford to stay at an inn. Firewood and warm places to stay are rare and expensive in Savannah. Therefore, we have resolved to build a firm, well protected hut with a kitchen on the bank of the Savannah River near Savannah, if the council will grant us a convenient place where we can easily land. I requested this in my letter. We could probably get an old house in Savannah, but it is cumbersome to carry the oars and supplies a long distance from the boat. Besides this, rents and weekly rates are demanded from the houses, which come to thirty shillings Sterling yearly. It is also more difficult to get wood the further one is from the landing.

We would bring the wood from Ebenezer. We will not be able to deliver the seven thousand feet of lumber which is being urgently requested by a captain because the river is too high and has overrun its banks. Presently there are five thousand feet of lumber sitting in Savannah, which cannot be sold cheaply because they were carried with great effort up the sandy bluff. On the other hand, the amount desired should be delivered into a ship lying before Savannah. If we had a convenient and secure wharf to store our lumber in Savannah, we would be able to serve the wishes of the captain and our own mills as well.

Monday, the 27th of February. On the 24th I went to Savannah in an official capacity to preach to the Germans and administer Holy Communion. In doing so, I felt God’s assistance strongly. They came diligently on Friday and Saturday to the assembly to hear the words of preparation and they listened just as attentively to the word of the Lord which was preached to them three times on Sunday. May it grow roots below and bear fruit above.

MARCH

Wednesday, the 1st of March. The pious widow Bacher is often afflicted by God with sicknesses, which she counts among the Lord’s many great blessings and for which she praises him childlike and humbly. She desires anxiously to be at home with the Lord, yet she does not hold this sickness from which she has begun to improve to be the last. Her heart is full of peace, comfort, and heavenly refreshment, which has taken over the old, fearful person she once was. Among the married women here, she is a very useful and almost indispensable person. We would have many reasons to thank God if He let her remain with us a little longer. Our wondrous God visits her younger daughter in her marriage with physical afflictions, which are medicine for her soul. My conversation and prayer with her made a great impression because her spirit was already prepared for the cross.

A good friend from Charleston wrote me among other things that the measles are raging and that many people have died. People are worried about a rebellion of the Negroes, which he described in the following manner: “There was a great excitement here because of a feared rebellion by the slaves, but I speculate that everything will be put to rest.” This friend does not think much of the conditions and restrictions on the introduction of Negroes, which have been made by and are under the direction of the deceased Major Horton, because he knows from experience how badly the people in this colony have kept the decrees of the Trustees and the laws in Carolina which concern the Negroes. Those who should enforce and uphold these laws have a great number of Negroes themselves and transgress these laws in any way that promotes their self-interests. He added that, even if the aforementioned restrictions, limitations, and decrees of the Trustees are upheld in the future better than before, he cannot understand how poor white workers would benefit, which one could call bonum positivum. If we could really hope that something good could come of these restrictions on slaves, it would only be a bonum negativum for the poor Protestant workers. It would help them if the Trustees would find some privileges and immunities for the poor people who support themselves without Negroes.

Thursday, the 2nd of March. It has rained a lot for three days in a row; and, because of this, the water has risen in the river and into some settlements in the country. Last night a strong wind arose which continued through the next day and eventually settled in the west. After this, the weather cleared and became cool. The white mulberry trees are now starting to sprout leaves, and our inhabitants are getting ready to make silk. The silkworms are hatching without difficulty from the seeds or small eggs if one exposes the box or cloth to warm air. We have tried to delay the hatching of the eggs as long as possible because in this month we still tend to get severe frosts, which harm the delicate mulberry leaves (the only healthy food for the worms).

Completely unexpectedly the widow Bacher was afflicted by a new paroxysm of her sickness so violently that she herself as well as her family thought it would result in her departure from this world. Our dear God looked mercifully upon our pleading, and right noticeably blessed the medicine, especially the essentia dulcis. For this she, along with us, earnestly and humbly praised His sweet goodness. Her soul was full of impassioned desire for her Savior, and the powerful verse: “Who is he that condemneth? It is Christ that died”¹ was more precious than the most precious of life’s ointments. We sang for her the beautiful song Liebster Jesu in den Tagen dieser Niedrigkeit from which God sent her edification and renewed strength.

Friday, the 3rd of March. Mr. Meyer received a good opportunity to travel with Christian people from our place to Charleston to solicit a merchant who might let us have the necessary supplies at a low price for our boards. For this purpose he took along also a sample of our boards, which are also valuable in the eyes of those who envy us, to send to England. Even though this opportunity came completely unexpectedly, I wrote a letter hurriedly to our dear friend, the court chaplain Ziegenhagen, and sent him our journals from the middle of January to the end of February so that our dear Fathers and friends may know how we are spiritually and physically. We are hoping for the crate from Halle and Augsburg and also for letters which we would answer immediately.

Sunday, the 5th of March. Yesterday in the late evening there was a lot of lightning in the west even though the sky was clear and full of stars. During the night a very strong wind arose which remained strong today. It was so cold that we anticipated frost or hoarfrost. We were pleased by this physical benefaction in no small way. The leaves on the mulberry trees and the vegetables in the garden are very delicate and would have been ruined by the frost, to the detriment of the silk production and the poor people. It appears as if this year we will have a lot of mulberry leaves and from them a good harvest for the poor and the sick. They view successfully produced silk as their harvest.

Monday, the 6th of March. Some of the soldiers who were in our village previously came in a large boat from Frederica to pay cash for corn, flour, meat, and other groceries they could get. They also brought used clothing to sell to the people at a passably low price. If they are successful this time, as I hope, they will return many times, which I view as a good beginning to a long-desired, small commerce; and I am pleased with God’s merciful guidance. Our gristmills are also to be seen as an earthly jewel amidst the desert not only because they entice many strangers from this and the neighboring colony with its fruits but also because it provides a means for turning our grain crops advantageously to money. And along with the flour, which is often sent to Savannah, also other things for sale can be sent in the same boat at the same cost.

If we did not have a mill, it would be difficult for our inhabitants to sell their Indian corn because the same corn is brought from Carolina and Augusta to Savannah for sale. Because the flour sells well, corn is bought with cash from the house, taken to the mill, and shipped to Savannah and farther down to Frederica. From this the mills as well as the people on the boats make a good profit. The man who sells the flour and other things pays for the use of the boats so they can be repaired and kept in good condition. In Europe they do not make as big a deal of the mills as we rightly do with our two courses, the rice stamps, and the sawmill. They are gifts of God and a blessed means to let our people subsist more easily. Many here and in other places would give up their planting and farming and fall into an anxious way of life if they could not make their European and Indian corn into flour easily. Without mills, wheat and rye would more or less disappear.

Wednesday, the 8th of March. The pious widow /Maria/ Lemmenhofer still lives in the house of her deceased husband /Veit/ alone without children or anyone else around her. She would rather suffer with her housekeeping and this and that hardship than exchange her isolation for comfort. She receives some support to ease her economic situation, as do other widows from the benefactions which God lets come from Europe for the needy members of the congregation. It is well spent on her. She is a good housekeeper, she is still not that old and she would still be a good help meet in marriage, yet she prefers to live alone. Following the example of her pious husband and his pious sister, Mrs. /Gertraut/ Glaner, she is preparing for a blessed death. She let me read to her a letter again, which was written many years ago by the aforementioned Mrs. Glaner from Memmingen (at that time Gertraud Lemmenhof) to her deceased brother. From this God also bestowed a blessing on me. Just such a blessing happended to me today in a very edifying and congenial letter, which Mr. Michaelis wrote to me from the office of the esteemed court chaplain Ziegenhagen at the end of 1741. What a wonderful letter to read again. May the Lord annoint him with His spirit and make him a blessing for his church.

Thursday, the 9th of March. Today, which according to the old style is the spring equinox,² we had a lot of rain again and a strong wind during the night. The weather is very beneficial and the European crops are beginning to come forth, whose growth was stifled by the long hard winter. Because they have not been able to grow high, they have been less damaged by the severe frosts. The deer and hares have done a lot of damage especially now and again to the European peas. Also, in the well-protected herb garden we would have been able to keep only little, were we not able to catch them³ with a certain, easily constructed machine. The hares are smaller than those in Europe and do not taste as good.

Friday, the 10th of March. A year ago the pious Ruprecht Steiner’s wife became seriously ill. Even though an herbal remedy helped her a little, the cause of the disease was not eradicated. As a result she looks more dead than alive. She has three children and a difficult household to maintain and cannot take her medicine as she should. Therefore, it is no wonder that it has not taken effect. She is an honest woman, who lives in poverty of spirit and longs for her Savior.

Saturday, the 11th of March. A young, pious housewife told me, praise God, that her husband has recently begun to straighten up. However, one thing still hurts her greatly: from Germany he brought the bad habit, which he occasionally gives in to, of going away from his family and being with others, where he spends his precious time talking about unnecessary temporal things. I directed her to faithful and continuous prayer. God, who has already answered many of her prayers, can also grant her that which she would like changed in her husband. I also offered her and her husband alike, who usually likes to read, some edifying books. There are a few others among us who have the same bad habit of getting together evenings to talk extensively about such useless things. In doing this, they neglect the diligent practice of home worship. For a long time I have wished to have enough copies of the Glaucha House-Church Order so that I could give the father of every household a copy.⁴ We have some copies of this little book in the congregation, which we justly deem as valuable.

Sunday, the 12th of March. It has again rained consecutively for several days and has intermittently stormed a lot. During the night, the wind changed from the south to the west, bringing us a severe storm and cold dry weather. We have not let ourselves be kept from public worship of God’s word, prayer, and song either on this Sunday Judica or on days past by the cold weather, which our loyal God blessed for our preparation for eternal life and tomorrow’s day of remembrance and thanksgiving.⁵ To date, during the evening prayer meetings and weekend sermons, we have contemplated in sequence the edifying and mysterious subject matter of the Old Testament’s public religious celebrations and Solomon’s zeal in worshiping God. This has fit well into our intentions and present situation.

Monday, the 13th of March. Fifteen years ago, after we had survived a dangerous and troubled journey, God brought us to this colony and Old Ebenezer, where we lived as pilgrims and strangers for two years in great isolation, not without troubles, for the salvation of our souls. Two years later, our dear God directed the hearts of the Trustees and Mr. Oglethorpe to let us move from this inconvenient and barren place to a better place, namely the present place of our pilgrimage, where our merciful Father in heaven has shown us immeasurable goodness in spiritual and physical ways. Therefore, it is meet and right for us to celebrate every year at this time a festival of remembrance and thanks, to the glory of God and the edification of adults and children, as we again did today in peace, health, and good weather. After the prayer and the reading of a chapter in the Bible, we sang again at the beginning of the service the beautiful song written around the 107th Psalm and our situation: Auf, Ebenezer! werde heut zu Gottes Lob erwecket. The texts from which I preached this morning and afternoon were taken from The Book of Psalms 22: 4-6 and John 10: 27-30.

Wednesday, the 15th of March. Paul Müller’s wife recently spoke to me in passing and asked me if I would not visit her and her family on the family’s plantation. I had the time today for this, and the opportunity. To be sure, her husband had to do some necessary work in the fields, but with her and her children I was able to talk about that which served to instruct and edify them. After I reminded the child of the verses to be learned in the ABC Primer, she brought her catechism and asked me to listen to her repeat the first two sections by heart. This I did willingly, and I received edification myself from her edified recitation. The dear Lord has made the sick and very dear and helpful Mrs. Bacher well again so that she was able to celebrate the festival of remembrance and thanks. This meant a lot to her. She is now occupied with putting her house spiritually and physically in order as dictated by God’s will and word because she suspects she will not live long and soon will die. It is easy to get along with her. She has a very honest, God-devoted nature, which is why everyone finds her dear and worthy.

Friday, the 17th of March. Our soldiers heard from those who were at our mill that it is time for the day of the Irish patron saint, which they celebrate in Frederica in a bacchanalian fashion.⁶ They let themselves be induced to drink more rum and brandy than is permitted within the limits of moderation, even though they forced themselves not to make excessive shouting for fear that I would find out about it. However, I did find out about this disorderly conduct; and I spoke about it with the corporal, who promised not to let anything of the like happen again, in default of which I would write to their captain in Augusta. They like being in our settlement and do not want to give occasion for me to complain about them. I have lent them some good English books, from which the corporal should read them something.

The widow Graniwetter had the opportunity to marry here, but decided not to, for which she had good cause. She is content to be a widow, and she knows how to cite many refreshing examples of God the Father’s care for her and her two small children. On her plantation she plants all kinds of produce as well as cotton and flax; she buys wool and makes clothing for herself and her family. With God’s blessing she is able to get along easily. In Germany spinning and knitting were her profession, in which she is very skilled. For our widows and weak people, making silk is an easy and profitable activity this year since they collected more mulberry leaves than in previous years. I heard complaints that the silkworm eggs are not hatching and will not produce new worms. They do not know the cause of this. I do not know where to get help, unless perhaps such a thing can be got in Purysburg for money. This is a trial for our good people. A year ago they had enough worms but not enough leaves because the trees were either frozen to death or damaged.

Saturday, the 18th of March. Two well-mannered youths among us, who no longer have any parents, let themselves be persuaded to engage themselves to the Trustees’ harmful cowpen in Old Ebenezer for six months in order to earn some good money quickly. Because this service was coupled with apparent danger for the soul and Christianity and more is to be lost than gained, I advised them against this change and made other better suggestions. It appears they will remain here. For young people this country is very dangerous because there is great freedom, and the inducement to sin and vanity is manifold. Most craftsmen one finds in Europe are of no value here. Youths are taken in by the false freedom so that they are not able to endure the many consecutive years with a master needed to learn something useful. Therefore, it so happens that we are in need of many necessary tradesmen. And, because these young fellows do not like to do field work and farming, they grasp at all sorts of means for earning their clothes and living. Those kinds of work with the least amount of effort and the highest pay are the most dangerous in this country.

Sunday, the 19th of March. In both the Jerusalem Church and the Zion Church the Passion of Christ will be contemplated mornings and afternoons and repeated catechistically. In this activity Christ lets us feel His support and blessing generously, for which we humbly praise Him in the congregation and at home. After such instruction, he who still has a callous, unbelieving heart and still continues his sinful life, for which Christ atoned so dearly, hardens himself more and more and makes himself more incapable of repentence and faith. Unfortunately, we are not devoid of such people, whom we tolerate and view with pity.

Monday, the 20th of March. Our merciful God has allowed me to know through many people that yesterday’s proclamation of Christ’s disgrace and suffering in and outside of Jerusalem was a holy blessing to many people for their souls. One told me as he was working that he was among the soldiers (because something was mentioned about Christ’s atonement for society and for the sins of soldiers) and had sinned greatly. He has it now in mind “Ye must be born again.” His wife is working on him according to her recognition, which he recognizes as a blessing.

Tuesday, the 21st of March. Yesterday evening during the prayer hour, two Germans came up from Savannah to fetch one of us ministers to baptize two children and to marry a young couple. Even though we would rather be spared from travel because this is the week to prepare for the last supper and the Easter celebration, we were not able to refuse the wishes of these people or postpone the trip. So, my dear colleague went down there with them this morning because I had business to do with some disorderly people, who had registered for Holy Communion, and other necessary business. One serves everyone in the country with one’s office, with good books, and in other ways when opportune or inopportune, even if one does not notice much success. This should not tire us of doing good because there is still time.

With these men I received the written plenipotentiary power from Council in Savannah to exterminate the wild cattle. No other people have permission to do this except those who have lost cattle and have cattle in the same regions where there are wild cattle. The hides must be sent to Savannah, or to a justice of the peace, to determine whether wild or tame cattle have been shot. If by accident it happens that a branded cow is shot (because many tame and wild oxen and cows joined the wild ones some years ago), the owner must be compensated. The meat of the slaughtered animal can be used as our people wish. As it was this spring with our silk, in whose production our inhabitants are very diligent, it should be decided if our women will be paid promptly, no matter whether they spin it here, or whether the cocoons must be brought to Savannah. The gentlemen wish to give no answer, rather there is deep silence. In a letter sent to Savannah I asked Mr. Meyer to speak with the president and clear this matter up after his return from Charleston.

Wednesday, the 22nd of March. During the holidays the locksmith S. /Schrempf/ came from Carolina again to hear God’s word and take Holy Communion. He is very serious about spending time with his own kind in our settlement. It would be a great act of God’s grace were he able to be with those of his confession and compatriots again. We would like to take him in. The other two people, H. /Held/ and B. /Bishop/, who had also moved to Carolina, have asked through S. in a letter to be taken in by our congregation. They will be content with the very least after comparing the advantages here and having sufficiently witnessed what advantages Ebenezer has for spirit and body. It is a special divine dispensation that these three families became aware of the great detriment caused by their moving away. This made a deep impression on those who had a mind to move away because of other’s lightmindedness and ingratitude, and it both shamed and strengthened them.

Thursday, the 23rd of March. Mr. Meyer returned yesterday before evening from Charleston and was unable to find a merchant for the benefit of the sawmill. I hope that the trip was not entirely for nothing. At least it was useful in letting us find out the price of boards in Charleston, and enabling us to price ours accordingly in Savannah.

Friday, the 24th of March. Today we celebrated Good Friday, the greatest day of reconciliation in the New Testament. We were edified greatly by the important and marvelous story of the death and burial of our mediator Christ through God’s grace. We also held Holy Communion for sixty-six people, of whom five were of our confession in Carolina. Yesterday we had a half holiday because the usual sermon for Holy Communion, along with its preparation and the confession, was preached then. A man who needs to come around seriously to God missed this sermon unwittingly to work in the woods. He regretted it sincerely though, with tears in his eyes. It would have been easier for him to lose the money he earned that week than to sin by missing the sermon and confession by working at an inopportune time. I tried to comfort his downcast soul.

Sunday, the 25th of March. God has ended Lent in quietude and with His blessing. He did not allow Satan to enter and inflict trouble upon us internally or externally. I was informed about two couples who were living in discord. This caused some neighbors and kinsman to be offended and saddened. However, today this has been resolved, for which I praise God. A pious, sickly woman told me, to the praise of God, that she received a beautiful treasure during Passion week from the sermons, hymns, and readings of her husband. She thinks she will probably die soon; and she is looking forward to it more than to a regal life of pleasure. She has two still unreared children; she is not worried about them though. Another woman came depressed to me and could barely talk because she was crying so. God recently reawakened her again during a prayer hour, and touched on her own conscience during the sermon on good and bad consciences. She complained bitterly about the callousness in her heart, which would not become softer through either prayer or tears. I advised her to endure with God’s word and prayer and warned her against being unfaithful to the seeking mercy of God. I also gave her the verse: “Truly God is good to Israel, even to such as are of clean heart.”⁷

Monday, the 27th of March. Yesterday and today we celebrated Easter in good health, in good weather, in peace, and to the edification of our souls. In prayer we often presented the proclaimed word to our living Savior and hope by His goodness that He let us see some fruits in this period of grace.

Tuesday, the 28th of March. In more than fourteen days it has not rained. To be sure, it looked like rain today and a few times before, but the rain clouds gradually dispersed. The earth is very dry. Because the water has been too high on the river, the sawmill has been unable to cut wood for a few weeks. Today, however, it was working again. Mr. Lemke received the Carolina newspapers from a good friend in Charleston, in one of which for the current month we found this month’s prices for boards which are sold to the ships headed to the West Indies. It is usually said that the boards in Carolina are cheaper than those which can be bought from our mills, but from this newspaper as well as from previous ones it seems to be the other way around. Our congregation would profit greatly if we were able to get such a good price for our boards, which according to knowledgeable people are better because of the quality of the wood and the cut. We are only lacking a clever, willing man from our congregation to strike up trade. It would improve conditions here in many ways. They know in Savannah that we do not know what to do with our boards. Therefore, they pay for them only as much as they want.

they want.

Wednesday, the 29th of March. God blessed me today with heartfelt joy with the children at the plantation school as I filled in for the schoolmaster. This I would like to do more often if my office, and the time set aside for other duties, would permit it. As I came back from the school and other business, I found a saddened woman waiting for me whose conscience had been wounded by the arrow of the Lord Jesus and who found herself burdened by her many sins. She said that she had no rest day and night and could not get any comfort from God’s word. In her eyes, her ingratitude toward God and Christ, who had loved her unto death, was great and frightening. I gave her instruction, and I promised to visit her diligently. She and her family have been at our place about a year, and she has proven diligent with God’s word and prayer. She appreciates greatly the good which God shows in our settlement.

This afternoon three male children were baptized in Jerusalem Church. One of them belonged to Balthasar Bacher, whose wife gave birth last night. The other two belonged to an Englishman who was traveling upriver to Savannah Town, and later on to North Carolina with his wife and a Negro boy. One of the children was one year old and the other was two and a half. After the only preacher in North Carolina died, an honest man who travelled around the country like Mr. Whitefield, the state was left without a preacher or someone to care for their salvation. While traveling to the new territory on the Ogeechee River, he would have liked to have his children baptized. But he did not meet up with any preachers.

Because he does not like the land on the Ogeechee, where for years many have settled from Carolina and Virginia, he is moving back, despite the cost and difficulty to North Carolina, where he has better land and pastures. Supplies were in abundance there because almost everything grew one could desire. It was only problematic that one was not able to turn produce and work readily into money because the ships only come as far as Virginia. The inhabitants of North Carolina had to be happy when the gentlemen from Virginia bought their produce and goods. He told me that the people around Frederica and on the new plantations and on the Ogeechee River almost starved because of a great lack of food and because they could get neither Indian corn, nor flour, bread nor meat for money. The land and the pastures were good, but they were lacking a pine forest. As a result they had few summer pastures because the cattle will eat the cane, which comprises great portions of the surrounding areas, only out of necessity. He liked our region and the diligence of our inhabitants a lot. May God let us acknowledge the exemplary spiritual and physical advantages we enjoy here, which one can recognize through God’s dispensation and the example of this man and his believable tale (because similar conditions were known before).

I was amazed when, a few weeks ago, a boat from Frederica came to the mill and bought one hundred bushels of corn and had some ground. I did not know that the shortage in those areas was so great. Also, one cannot find much in Carolina because the last ships took so much away. Our pine forest has been scorned by some ignorant people among us as well as other places. What a great blessing it is to us has become evident over a period of time. When it has been plowed and fertilized in the third year, the earth produces not only agricultural crops and healthy trees but it also provides the horses and cattle with pleasant grass during the summer, and beautiful, straight-growing, long timber from which we can cut boards, other wood for building purposes, and masts for ships.

We admonished our people, on the advice given us by Mr. N.N. and General Oglethorpe, to spare as much construction wood and other useful wood as possible because the wood they find no use for now will surely be used by those who follow. In Charleston they would hardly believe that all the boards were cut from the same beautiful pine as the sample of wood we sent. It has very delicate annual rings or veins and is very durable. If enough people were here, we could make turpentine from the rich trees in the pine forest; and from the resinous pinewood and the old trees lying around we could make pitch and tar.

Friday, the 31st of March. After waiting for such a long time, our dear God blessed us with a wonderfully fruitful rain accompanied by some large, but sparse, hail. It thundered a lot as it rained, and we received the first thunderstorm of the spring. The European crops, the wheat, rye, barley, and peas needed the moisture urgently; also we hope it will promote the growth of the leaves on the mulberry trees, which have not filled out and made such a good appearance as they did two years ago. These trees were damaged a year ago by the late frost and they have still not been able to recover. Some of the trees’ growth has been stunted. Today we had a strong westerly wind that is drying things out. Our people have noticed that, during this season, when the silkworms are being raised, a kind of black worm similar to the caterpillars are eating away a great portion of the young corn, cabbage, lettuce, cotton etc. With the silkworms these will also take their end.

APRIL

Saturday, the 1st of April. N.N. seems to have injured his lung by getting overheated and then cooling off too quickly, from which he has become seriously ill. He has a righteous wife; but even in healthy days he, to be sure, was a diligent reader of the Bible and a good churchgoer but at the same time a very indolent Christian. Now God has awakened him, and he has proven himself to be devoted and interested in the things which I told him and in the things we prayed today.

Sunday, the 2nd of April. Yesterday evening I received a nice and edifying letter from Pastor Brunnholtz in Philadelphia, in which he wrote many good things about God’s servants, that they are not only healthy but also are working with His blessing and are standing as one with the Lord. The two former catechists, Mr. Schaum and Mr. Kurtz, who were recently ordained as ministers, are taking their positions seriously. Dear Mr. Handschuh is still clearing up the confusion in Lancaster, in which the Herrenhüter have made all kinds of dissensions. He is still able to do some good, even if he had not imagined so many difficulties. Some distinguished merchants have not only realized the necessity of a true conversion to God’s word with increased conviction, they are also starting, more so than previously, to reconcile themselves to the order of grace. Mr. Vigera resides with Mr. Brunnholtz now and is teaching school to a fairly large number of pupils. He also wrote me a few lines, from which I recognize his poverty of spirit and the fruit of the office and example set by Pastor Brunnholtz. He sent us spelt as seeds, which never arrived.

Monday, the 3rd of April. Yesterday after the midday service a man from our congregation came to me with his wife. In previous days and on Saturday during the night she has been restless because her conscience has been awakened. She spends her time in crying and prayer but refrained from going to the public service because she did not want her profuse crying to burden anyone. If her husband had not persuaded her to attend the midday service, she would not have attended this service either. I prayed with both of them and admonished them to use God’s word and prayer diligently. I also consoled her with the gospel. She was then able to recognize the friendly heart of the Lord Jesus toward his crying, suffering disciples in the exordium verses of John 14:19, as well as the catechismal repetition, and the sermon was about the gospel for that time, Quasimodo Sunday, which was contemplated this morning and afternoon.¹.

Wednesday, the 5th of April. What we were unable to secure from the President and the Council in Savannah in regard to getting a convenient place for us to ship or sell our lumber and other products on the bluff near Savannah, our friend Mr. Habersham was able to secure for himself. He is allowed to build such a facility on the bank near Savannah at a convenient location. He writes me that he will construct the building large enough so that there is enough room for our people to store their boards and woodwork securely. He will order a ship from London in less than a year with all sorts of wares to bring him trade with the Indian merchants (which one calls Indian Trade in English and which has been done solely by the people of Charleston), which also is easy to start up if he gets cheap products first hand. We will be able to have our beautiful boards ready for loading, if not to England, then certainly to the West Indies.

It will be a great advantage to the entire northwest region of this colony when we get shipping trade in Savannah because the inhabitants will be able to bring and sell their products, even if they are just small things such as garden produce and edibles. If one did not know what trading in this country can earn when done cleverly, prudently, and happily, one could learn this by the example set by the two young business partners Habersham and Harris. A few years ago they had nothing of their own but began with borrowed money. Now they have not only built a great deal and respectably, they can also order their own ship from London. On one of the ships now in Savannah they are loading ten thousand feet of lumber from our sawmill and shingles which are made in Savannah.

This I see as a grave mistake and the main reason why it is not easy to populate this colony with whites, because the merchants sell their wares at too high a price and demand the greatest profit at once. On the other hand, they pay the whites as little as possible for their work. Because there are few whites and many jobs in the country, the daily wage is high. The merchants, however, add more to the price of the wares and are not affected by the high wages. On the other hand, those who are not merchants and need labor feel the high wages all the more and are not able to hold their own very long.

Thursday, the 6th of April. Yesterday and the night before it rained, and since then it has become very cold as if it were late fall again. This wet weather came with the new moon; therefore, it is assumed that we will get a lot of rain this month. Our inhabitants’ silkworms have developed for the most part to where they will start spinning their cocoons and making their silk. And, because they eat more at this time in one day than in the entire first four weeks, this wet weather, although normally fruitful, is very inconvenient for the gathering of leaves, which should be given the worms dry, with as little moisture as possible. Those who have many worms hardly know what they should do.

As far as I see and hear, the production of silk is not only very useful but also easy and pleasant if the people have enough white mulberry trees near by and have clean, spacious chambers or rooms. It is not as demanding or nerve-racking or burdensome a process as is claimed in some books and written reports we have received. If at the time when they are still dormant and have shed their brown skins it rains a few days, or if it is too hot the day and night before they spin their cocoons, they cause a lot of trouble and often die. It also appears as if they cannot take severe thunderstorms.

Because I know that some of our worthy patrons and friends are served by news about our external and physical circumstances, I have had no reservation thus far to incorporate the same in our journal as they come up. What appears to be superfluous and minimal to one person is perhaps not so to another man.

Friday, the 7th of April. Young Meyer’s wife /Elizabeth/ is very joyous that our dear Lord has freed her and her husband from the temptation to leave Ebenezer and has bestowed on her, since he has moved into town, the great benefaction of the daily evening prayer meeting. She boasted that she received blessing and edification from the 17th chapter of St. John. To maintain and promote this edification, I lent her the explanation of the High Priest’s prayer to Christ, which was written by the same Pastor Freylinghausen.²

Saturday, the 8th of April. The widow Ursula Meyer has become seriously ill, of which I learned only today. For her sake I traveled to her plantation, which is a good distance; and I found that God blessed this illness because of her atonement and strict adherence to Christianity. This brought her tears of joy, and she was greatly pleased by my encouragement and prayer. She received much edification and spiritual use from the biography of a pious child. Among us she is a very helpful woman, serving the people in the congregation in many different ways.

The assumption that we would have a lot of wet weather with the changing of the moon had no foundation. Yesterday the rain tapered off; and yesterday and today we have had dry, pleasant weather. Only in the evenings is it cold, but it is bearable and healthy. Since the new moon the wind has been blowing from the northwest. The silkworms’ growth has been hindered in cold rooms.

Sunday, the 9th of April. In one of his previous letters to me, a pious German man from Carolina asked to have either the late Professor Francke’s Penitential Sermons or Pastor Freylinghausen’s Epistle Sermons for his neighbor’s and his own edification.³ Because I promised to lend him the Penitential Sermons for a while, his latest letter evidences his great pleasure and uses the following expressions:

If God is willing and I am still alive, I would like to send it back as quickly as possible with thanks; but I fear it may not happen so quickly. Because I cannot bring it upon myself to read such an edifying piece of literature just for my own sake, I would like to read it aloud in public, may it please the Almighty.

I had lent him the Penitential Sermons of Dr. Johann Schmid,⁴ the theologian from Strassburg, which he has returned with the following comment:

I have often found that the erudite Pastors are not always the most edifying preachers. They are so rich in explications of the Holy Scripture that the best is given the least space (I think application is the soul of the sermon). I love sermons which strongly penetrate one’s innermost Christianity so that almost the entire sermon is almost like application, or at least a great part of it. It is more important for a sinner who is desirous of being healed to hear edifying teachings and applications rather than extensive explanations, the different opinions of the scholars, and quotations from the original texts.

Monday, the 10th of April. The diligent and pious widow Graniwetter has been seized every year by spiritiual confusion and depression. Once again she is in this condition. The cause was her servant boy, who ran away yesterday with his two brothers to Carolina during divine services. She greatly needed him to take care of household matters, and up until now has always served her well. That is why the news of his unexpectedly running away affected her deeply. These three boys served among us in good places and with Christian people.⁵ The parents, who have long been freed from the Trustees’ servitude in Savannah, are moving, as did the runaway oldest son, to Carolina. They instigated, for certain, the running away of their children. The majority of the German servants are unscrupulous people who are ungrateful for the goodness they enjoy from this land and from our office. Even though, as is to be expected, Mrs. Graniwetter’s spirit is still in disorder, she still works industriously and fairly well, while quoting pure, edifying things, among which sometimes there are silly, absurd questions.

Tuesday, the 11th of April. Three days ago we sent an urgent message to Savannah with a letter to the President, Colonel Stephens. In it was asked in the name of the inhabitants to permit the spinning of silk on the two machines given us by the Trustees. Mr. Meyer and I have obligated ourselves to have everything under our supervision so that the silk bought by the Trustees will not be damaged in any way. Today we finally received permission from the Council, which will please our people, who would otherwise have had to send their cocoons down to Savannah with expense and difficulty and probably with loss and consequent diminution of their industry. Now it is not as it was a few years ago when the boats left empty for Savannah when they could easily have taken the silk along. Now they are loaded with wheat and other things to sell in Savannah or Frederica. Therefore, every week around this time, express boats must be rented, as the silk is gradually completed, to send the silk. Thanks to God, who has granted us this wish.

Friday, the 14th of April. I received word from Savannah that General Oglethorpe’s regiment was disbanded and that only three companies were kept on, partially in Frederica and partially in Charleston. On the other hand, the soldiers in Charleston should be dismissed. Therefore, the garrison in our village will also be terminated. The soldiers would probably like to stay with us; however, they do not serve us very well because they are not as orderly as the last soldiers were. With the death of Major Horton, those who support slavery have lost a large part of their hope and comfort. And now they have also lost the comfort of the hope that Oglethorpe’s troops would prevent their slaves from going over to the Spaniards. Only one company will remain in Frederica; the other two will go to Carolina. These soldiers will probably not prevent it if the blacks want, as they do in Carolina, to go to Augusta⁶ or want to run over to the French.

Sunday, the 16th of April. The wife of the German who moved up here from Vernonburg a year ago⁷ is taking her conversion very seriously. And she likes it when I visit her on her plantation regularly, instruct her in God’s word, and pray with her. God has already drawn her to Him, as she tells me, through the work of my deceased colleague /Gronau/ in Savannah. And even though He continued His act of merciful work thereafter, a true conversion never took place. Now she is serious about it. She uses the means of salvation and a good opportunity for illumination and conversion, on both Sundays and weekdays, diligently and with benefit. She sees it as a special benefaction of God that she has come here to God’s word and ministry because others in this land must do without this. She has six small, well-mannered and industrious children, yet some are sickly and the oldest daughter is somewhat weakminded.

Monday, the 17th of April. A rich and well-known planter near Charleston heard from someone that we have a costly eye lotion, namely essentia dulcis ad oculos.⁸ He hoped to use this on his eyes, which have been blind for two years. Therefore, he let the captain at Palachocolas ask me for a small vial. Because he has now regained the use of one eye by using this medication, he sent a slave on horse via Palachocolas to me with the request that I provide him once again with this eye lotion. This I could not do for certain reasons. I have already written recently and again pointed out that there are a doctor and a surgeon in our settlement, two skilled and careful men, to whom he should go regarding his illness.

Tuesday, the 18th of April. Yesterday afternoon we had a heavy rain accompanied by a thunderstorm with lightning and hail which lasted late into the night, longer than is usual for this time of year. The hailstones we have had thus far are occasionally large, but widely scattered, and do little damage. Heavy cloudbursts flatten the long grains more than the hail. In summer we usually have many thunderstorms and short rains which end when the thunderstorms pass. This morning it was cold after the rain. The weather this spring has been fertile, for which we hear Christians praise and thank God. The damage which has been caused to the Indian corn by caterpillar-like worms is tolerable. Also field mice have damaged sweet potatoes and seed corn in the ground on some plantations.

After our people were granted permission to wind their silk, they have been very busy preparing the silk machine’s old masonry.⁹ The second machine, which I had manufactured like the model we received from London, was set up in the same kitchen next to a beautiful copper boiler in order to help facilitate the spinning of the silk. Yesterday afternoon Mr. Meyer’s first bit of silk was weighed, and with it we made a start at silk spinning. The young women are gaining great proficiency in spinning silk; and, because of their great diligence in this useful and important activity, they deserve more encouragement than they have received thus far. The reward which the Trustees ordered for them is not yet paid. It will probably be the case with the current silk.

Thursday, the 20th of April. Some of our residents have business to take care of for a few days at our communal cowpen; and they brought back the news that on the evening of the 17th during the heavy rain and thunderstorms, there was hail almost the size of chicken eggs. Some of the cattle which were hit received large contusions on their hides. We thank God that our fields have been missed by such a hail storm; otherwise, the rye, wheat, and barley would look sad. Most of the rye finished blooming, and the wheat is beginning to produce ears. Since then it has been so cold both by day and by night the likes of which have not been felt since the end of February. The wind comes one moment from the northeast, and the next it blows from the east southeast. A knowledgeable mathematician,¹⁰ who prepares calendars, imparted to me the following observations about the weather in this country.

Concerning the weather in general, the sky is usually clear, especially in summer. In fall, spring, and winter it vacilates quickly between warm and cold. Consequently in spring, summer, and fall, but rarely in winter, there are fairly strong thunderstorms; yet they are no stronger than those in Canton Appenzel in Switzerland, where I lived. Hail storms are rare, and in the last twelve years in this region I have not experienced one yet that has caused great damage, though I have heard about the large hail stones which have fallen in this country.

The winds are inconsistent in this country, not only in their direction but also in their strength and weakness. For example, it may blow more or less strongly for an hour and shortly thereafter it is calm again. When the west wind blows, it is mostly clear and nice, but in winter cold. The south- and northeast winds are almost the same, but these winds are unable to sustain good weather for long. If we have bad weather and the wind changes to the west, the weather will clear. The windier it is, the less rain can be expected. And if a wind arises while it is raining, the rain’s duration is shortened. When it rains, it is usually very heavy but it never lasts long except in winter when it can rain for more than a day so that the water of the main river rises so high that it overflows the banks and greatly harms the cattle and horses which feed both in summer and winter in the low lands next to the river.

Seldom do we have snow, and even more rarely does the snow remain on the ground longer than twenty-four hours. Up in the mountains where the Savannah River originates, there is a lot of snow and when it melts it causes high water and flooding. My plantation lies on the Savannah River one hundred hours away from the sea. About three hours upstream is a waterfall caused by high cliffs, and boats can only go this far. From this point the Savannah River goes up for another one hundred hours inland. Last winter was the coldest that I have experienced in this country. It seldom happens that the earth remains frozen for an entire day where the sun shines on it.

Friday, the 21st of April. The woman who was unsettled and fearful a while ago because of her sins and requested my consolation and help through prayer told me today along the way how much mercy the Lord showed her last Monday. He assured her heart of His forgiving her sins and He sent her a genuine emotional spiritual peace. Her fear and unrest increased anew on Sunday after the evening prayer meeting and stayed with her through the night. She and her family continually sought the heart and countenance of God in Christ, our mediator, which she finally found to the great joy of her heart. Our dear Lord especially blessed her in her fear with the 3rd chapter of Zephaniah.

Saturday, the 22nd of April. Our dear God has afflicted the pious and diligent Brandner with physical frailty for a long time. To be sure, he is not bedridden; but his strength has been so reduced that he can barely manage his work and the difficult housekeeping.¹¹ In the congregation he is a helpful and useful man, who is well established on his plantation near Zion Church. He takes medication, but it has had little or no effect as of yet. Some illnesses appear wondrous and are perhaps not as usual in Europe. Regarding this, a doctor would have a good opportunity to reflect, do experiments, and in the interest of sound medical advice, start corresponding and discussing with other experienced men, if not in America, then in Europe.

Sunday, the 23rd of April. Yesterday late in the evening I received a friendly letter dated November of last year from Mr. Whitefield in London. He took it badly that I had sent him a long letter to London three years ago discussing the harmfulness of the slave import, defending the actions of the Trustees, and refuting his arguments in favor of importing slaves.¹² He also adds that it is forgiven and forgotten. He is still of the opinion that Georgia cannot develop without Negroes; and he said that, right while writing the letter, he had heard that slaves were allowed in Georgia. I was not happy to hear this and neither were the Salzburgers. It would have been better to hear that the Trustees with God’s help had been able to make it possible to settle this country with white Protestant people, for it lies between the Spanish and the three colonies of South Carolina, North Carolina, and Virginia which are full of slaves.

Tuesday, the 25th of April. Yesterday it rained mildly several times; and in the evening a severe thunderstorm arose with heavy rains, which, however, only lasted a few hours into the evening. The wind changed direction from the southeast to the exact opposite northwest; notwithstanding this, it became very hot around noon. The weather is very beneficial; and the European crops such as the wheat, rye, and barley are growing well. They are already sprouting ears on which kernels are starting to form. The wheat has the appearance again as if the stalks wish to turn brown, as it happened a few years ago to the detriment of our people. We must commend this to God, who does nothing without reason. Some attribute this harmful rust to the heavy night dew and the ensuing heat during the day; but others attribute it to the short, light rains, after which the sun shines strongly after the clouds disperse. Still others believe the nearby swamps or low lying rice paddies and the harmful fog cause it. This malady seldom strikes all the fields and only a few districts. Our good people are often tested in many ways and have difficult moments with their farming. They often need to be called out to from God’s word: “Cast not away therefore your confidence, which hath great recompence of reward.”

Wednesday, the 26th of April. Last week during a certain rather difficult task at which a number of men had to be present a certain disorderliness took place which had to be investigated and settled today by Mr. Meyer, the justiciary.¹³ I was present but only to give this judicial investigation and settlement greater esteem and to promote with my warnings and admonitions both true confession and Christian cautiousness and to encourage them to realize the men’s behavior towards their superiors and each other and finally to pour out my heart to God alongside them. As far as I can tell at present everything went well. Hopefully this investigation will make a good impression on the future behavior and cautiousness of the men, who run riot when given the opportunity or when they come together. I do not doubt that, in this way, all the bitterness against me will be prevented, if the justiciary treats the issue in accordance with his secular offices; while I remain within the bounds of my ecclesiastical office. The guilty will be treated less severely, and they will be easily convinced that their salvation is the purpose for observing external public order. This may also be one of the reasons why the priests and levites in the Jewish community had to run the judicial offices.

As long as the honorable, elderly Thomas Jones was the storehouse supervisor and member of the Council in this country, we enjoyed his great love and friendship. He also thought of us fondly in London after his departure. However, it has amazed me that he has not written us for such a long time, and others of his friends can hardly understand this. That notwithstanding, he is held in blessed remembrance on account of his fear of God, righteousness, and kindness towards me, my late colleague, and the congregation. From the bottom of my heart I wish him spiritual and physical well-being. Just as I used to write him occasionally and give him news about our circumstances, I began again today to write in order to renew our mutual remembrance and friendship. His speeches and conversations were always so edifying and impressive that I shall never forget this dear man. It makes heaven attractive to think that it is the general gathering place of all God’s children and that nothing there can disturb their joy and their blessed communion.

Thursday, the 27th of April. It was not pleasant news for our soldiers that General Oglethorpe’s regiment was disbanded and that not more than a single company will be left in this colony. They must prepare themselves to move away from here at any minute. They would have liked to stay here, and therefore they have bought land and planted several acres with Indian corn, squash, and melons, and set up an orderly household. Now they are busy getting buyers for that which they have cultivated and plowed so that they may be able to get some benefit from their efforts. Soldier’s wives are usually of the worst kind; however, it must be that the English women are better, or there is another reason that they have shown themselves respectable among us and hard-working. They all show me much love and would not do anything that could cause me sadness or unrest. We had to let them have their days of celebration, such as St. George’s Day, St. Patrick’s Day, and St. David’s Day, which were celebrated without excess.

The widow Graniwetter, who was recently in a confused state of mind, is feeling better today. But she feels strongly the difficulties of her husbandry because her servant /Lorentz Richard/ ran away, a happy child of thirteen who was well taken care of and very useful to her.

Friday, the 28th of April. Shortly before the weekly sermon on the plantations, five honorable Salzburgers came to me, namely Leimberger, Ruprecht Steiner, Matthias Brandner, Simon Reuter, and Thomas Gschwandl and expressed with words and gestures their worry, sadness, and apprehension about the arrival of news that the Lord Trustees have finally been persuaded to approve the introduction and use of Negroes. They testified together that they have only now begun to regret having moved to this faraway land and believed that their brothers in Prussia were happier than they are, even though they live next to a popish land,¹⁴ for they do not have to live among thieving and cunning Negro heathens but among whites. They feared the introduction of slaves would cost them not only their grazing pastures, physical subsistance, and temporal possessions but also the well-being of their children, whose salvation is more important than all physical advantages.

Where Negroes take over,¹⁵ there is an increase in the repression of the poor, the difficulty of earning a living, the insecurity of the belongings in the homes and the produce in their fields; and there is an increase of vexations and the shameful mixing of blacks and whites, not to mention the danger of the French, Spanish, and Indians. If they knew of a place within the King’s territory which had a provision against the introduction of slaves, and they were allowed to move there without opposition, and if they were given some help toward their new and difficult beginning, they would not hesitate for the sake of their children and other important reasons to emigrate again rather than live among Negroes. If they had been told this in Germany, no one could have persuaded them to move here. Should the Salzburgers’ worthy benefactors know what the Negro problem is in this country, they would not hold this worry and resolution against them.

If nothing else could be done to protect them, I would like to request that the Lord Trustees grant our congregation the entire stretch of land from Abercorn to Mount Pleasant and from Ebenezer to the Ogeechee River and not allow any slave owners to settle in this district for fear of openly damaging people, cattle, and crops. They could not buy any Negro slaves and they could not treat them in the way that necessity and convention appear to require because of their lazy, thieving, rebellious manner. If others in their neighborhood had Negro slaves, then they too would go to ruin and see their children and possessions placed in danger. This is not solely their opinion but also the opinion and the will of many of their brethren in the congregation.

It would be a great favor to them if I were to report their request, which they would gladly sign, to Senior Urlsberger and the Trustees. In answer I told them that I believe their complaint and worry are well founded, also that I had tried to present as clearly as possible to the Trustees, Fathers, and benefactors the great harm which poor whites would suffer through the introduction of slaves. I said not only that little had been done but that I had also incurred the wrath of many people in this land and perhaps in England because the young Stephens and the merchant, Robert Williams, who now resides at Port Royal, blamed me before Parliament that I am turning the inhabitants against using black slaves and I had my evil purpose in this. I do not want to get myself more involved. Therefore, I said, I have given the task of representing their wishes to the justiciary Meyer and my colleague, both of whom realize, discover, and oppose the harmfulness of the Negroes as well as I. They will write a petition in the name of the Salzburgers on the basis of the aforementioned matter. I have promised to make known their aversion against using Negroes and the reasons for this to our kindly and sympathetic Court Chaplain Ziegenhagen, which is accomplished with this entry.

I must praise the goodness of God, who has given me ample time and strength so far to catechize the children in the school on the plantations with the beautiful booklet printed in Wernigerode The Dogma of Penitence and the Forgiveness of Sins, which we finished today.¹⁶ I was especially aiming at the adults, who should be preparing to take Holy Communion. Yet even the little children were able to understand something of it for their own edification. May our merciful God give His gracious prosperity to that which has been sown and nurtured until now, so that all our beloved children may become and conduct themselves as the possibility and necessity was convincingly presented to them from this book and God’s word. I am now planing to make this Catechism the basis of our catechizing despite its being preached by my colleague Lemke in church as a catechism for the congregation.

I hear and see with joy that the production of silk in our settlement has happily gotten under way, even though the mulberry trees have not completely recovered from the severe, late frost a year ago and fewer than usual leaves have come forth. Mr. Meyer has already weighed more than four hundred and fifty pounds of silk produced by our own inhabitants, and there is still a good quantity expected. Three young women, along with some helpers who run the machines, spin the silk with such agility and accuracy that one is unable to watch without being amazed and joyful. In the last two years they have brought this to perfection. I hope that the Lord Trustees will not let me suffer deep sorrow for having encouraged these industrious and skillful people to this work in their name and having them receive no compensation for it. The ten pounds Sterling given two of these women a year ago by the Lord Trustees have still not been paid.

MAY

Monday, the 1st of May. At the end of last month my office required me to travel to Savannah to preach the gospel to the German people of both confessions and to administer Holy Communion to our co-religionists.¹ From this I returned toward noon happy and healthy. To be sure, I was sick when I went down there; but, as I worked, our dear Lord gave me special strength and bestowed upon me great joy and comfort through His word and the pious behavior of my congregation. On Saturday, the 29th of April, to my surprise, I was unexpectedly handed a friendly letter from General Oglethorpe from which I could still richly recognize his continuing love and concern for our congregation. He was displeased the Regiment posted for the protection of Frederica and other towns was disbanded.

Tuesday, the 2nd of May. Yesterday during the night it thundered loudly but it did not rain. Yet this afternoon it thundered, lightninged, and rained as hard as it has ever done so in the past. At the same time there were very high winds, and we are worried that the heavy rain will beat down the long wheat and rye. Some of the barley is ripe and is being harvested, and such is the case also with some peas. It is a great pleasure for me to watch the industriousness of our people, which God has crowned with His prosperity. If they only had a little more help. For example, if every one had an honest servant or maid, how much good they would accomplish and how little they would complain about the intense heat. Today it was exceptionally hot, however, later we had a thunderstorm which cooled things off. These changes often come about during the heat of summer. Now that the days are beginning to turn hot and there is much work in the fields, the production of silk is at an end. One harvest occurs after the other: in fall turnips, squash, Indian corn, beans and rice; in the spring, silk; in May, barley and peas; and soon thereafter, rye and wheat and simultaneously peaches, which God will give us this year in great quantities.

Here in this country there is not only excellent fruit to eat (or fruits, since there are many different kinds); one can also distill brandy for which purpose some residents have made stills. They want to support themselves in every way possible. What I wonder about the most is this: that in this colony so few attempts have been made to plant vineyards. It must be good for growing wine because grapes grow wild on dry as well as the wet soil. The wild grapes are so sweet and good tasting that one must marvel. A Portuguese Jew, who seems to be a swindler, made a good start a few years ago planting a vineyard at the Trustee’s expense. However, he ran away, and then everything was destroyed. After that, Germans and Swiss have planted vineyards. Because they planted them, cut them, and did other things as in Germany, nothing came of it.

I had neither the people nor the money to continue my vineyard, and I also had to let it die. One cannot even get workers for money, and daily wages are so high that one cannot experiment or even flirt with the idea. The planting of vineyards here has been just like building mills: some did not have the money to continue the building already started, and others were ruined by later construction workers because the workers here are very uncertain.

A Swiss near Savannah recently requested me to help him get some mill stones because he wants to build a mill. If the good people only knew, not only what the construction but also the upkeep of a mill costs they would not let themselves get so deep into debt that there is no way out. First of all, it is impossible in this flat, low land to have the mill run the whole year round. Sometimes there is so little water in the river that it hardly flows, and we also get high tide and low tide, but much more so near Savannah and Purysburg. Secondly, there are too few inhabitants and consequently not enough to grind. Few put much stock in the European seeds, whose growth is uncertain; and the slave owners let their Negroes crush, pick, and grind as much corn as they need on their iron and stone mills. Their staple food is crushed or broken corn, rice, and potatoes. When the German grains are gathered and threshed, we have the most work for our mills; at other times, however, they are inactive. The planned change in Frederica, the dismissal of the regiment, is also detrimental to our people because they will now have less opportunity to sell their corn and flour. Our beautiful sawmill is starting to make money, which is helping maintain the other mills. We are content if this preserves there two things; namely that our residents are able to earn money from it and that they will be able to keep the mills in order from their earnings.

Wednesday, the 3rd of May. The wife of our town’s schoolmaster is an honest soul who carries the cross for her Savior, willingly and in many honorable ways. Today she complained to me that she has been plagued with difficult temptations and that many times while working and in prayer terrible, sinful ideas pierce her heart like arrows. This causes her to fear and cower because she has earned God’s wrath and hell. Nothing could have been more beneficial for her than to be delivered from this suffering by a holy death, which would also rid her completely of these temptations.

A short while ago, God sent her such joy through the gospel in the Holy Spirit that it was indescribable how well she felt; now she is unable to explain in words the suffering she feels internally to anyone. Still our heavenly Father treats her very mercifully in that He comforts and inspires her with gospel verses, some of which she recited for me. I prayed with her, instructed her in God’s word, and directed her to chapters 52 and 53 in Johannes Arnd’s True Christianity.² She is also physically weak and can barely manage her work. It is a merciful work of God that her husband, who is also too weak for field work, receives a salary as schoolmaster.

This evening before the prayer meeting we received two packets with letters from Europe, from which we were able to praise God and strengthen our faith. May He be praised heartily for preserving the life and health of the Fathers, benefactors, and friends of His church as well as our well-being, and for strengthening their faltering health. May he also be praised that the hearts of the Lord Trustees continue to be mercifully inclined toward us, as has been mercifully shown in a letter from the Secretary, Mr. Martyn, as well as toward the esteemed court chaplain Mr. Ziegenhagen, who promises to do the best for us in every way possible, even if Negroes are imported.

We are hopeful about the loyal servants requested a while ago. It appears that in Germany there is no shortage of those who would allow themselves to be sent to us here under good conditions. If they are honorable and cheerful, they will not regret this. From a catalogue of an esteemed friend, Mr. Albinus, I see that two of our packets, one from February and one from June of 1748, were lost at sea. I checked and the loss is bearable. It concerns only the short journals of those months mentioned and the copies of some letters sent previously, which happily have already arrived. What was written us by our friends and Fathers has always arrived.

Thursday, the 4th of May. Today we celebrated the ascension of Christ. On this day our dear God has sent us great goodness through His word and through prayer. During the evening prayer meeting we praised our heavenly Father in the name of Jesus Christ for the spiritual and physical benefactions which He has shown us so generously so far and again recently through the letters we received. We requested God’s rich blessing for the esteemed Fathers and benefactors in return for their love and beneficence.

The visit and comfort of a woman, who was mightily awakened by our dear God through the Holy Ghost to earnestly achieve her salvation, was a great blessing to me. God disclosed the spiritual enemies, which until now have done so much harm; and, because she did not treat honestly the great mercy she received in the past, about which she was deeply saddened and feared that he may abandon her as a lost soul and show her no more mercy, which is why she greatly lamented the condition of her soul. She has a great love of God’s word and work and diligently practices her prayer.

Friday, the 5th of May. Since the 2nd of this month we have had cool weather and a lot of rain. Especially yesterday before sundown, it rained harder than it usually does into the night. The strength of the downpour has let up, but not the rain. A light wind arose around noon and lasted until evening. Through all the rain there were no thunderstorms. The crops on the wet low land may suffer damage, if not prevented by our wondrous and kindly God. Most people find the low land good and choose it, if they can, for their plantations. Based on experience, however, I am not of this opinion. The high land, although not as rich, yields very well if one fertilizes or improves it in the third year. And even if the year is wet or dry, the harvest is not affected.

Saturday, the 6th of May. Last evening and last night it rained considerably after which the wind changed to the west, bringing us clear, dry weather again. Our soldiers have their orders now to go to Frederica on the boat from Augusta. One of the soldiers had settled separately on a piece of land near the town because he was willing to lead an orderly, withdrawn, and diligent life. He also asked me to help him get permission to take land after they are discharged. He likes our people, our way of life, and our arrangements. His neighbors have liked him as well. I told him he should consider well that he will have to adopt our way of life. If that is his intention I would promote his cause rather than hinder it. There is no doubt that he will get his discharge and permission to settle among us because the Secretary of the Lord Trustees has written me that those soldiers who want to acquire land and farm it will receive five pounds Sterling as an encouragement as well as provisions for a year.

Two men from the Council in Savannah have orders to be present when the soldiers are discharged to provide as many as are willing to remain in the country under the aforementioned condition. The King and the Lord Trustees intend not only to give these people an orderly way of life and through this to direct their livelihood but also, in their scheme of things, to settle this colony with whites.

Monday, the 8th of May. Certain things regarding the best interests of our congregation require Mr. Meyer and me to travel to Savannah. I also intend to recover my strength because I have felt weak these past few days. The weather is good for traveling because it is dry and cool. The Europeans would not imagine it to be as cool and fresh as we are experiencing it this time of year —since the last heavy rain—especially in the evenings from nine or ten o’clock to the next morning. The wind is blowing out of the northwest. Heavy dew forms during the nights as though it had rained. Some believe this combination of hot dew and cold sun are the cause of the browning of the wheat, which is ruining the wheat in the fields. At this time the rye is also suffering.

Among other news from the Lord Trustees we also heard that our friend Mr. Habersham has become a member of the Council in Savannah, from this we hope for good things. His intentions are sincere and he has the best interests of our congregation at heart. Mr. Habersham has not only great skill and experience but also energy and courage. He will suppress his opinions to neither his fellow councilmen nor the Lord Trustees regarding the welfare of this country. Also it is good news to hear from the Lord Trustees that they will not relinquish their governorship over this colony. Instead, they were unanimous in renewing their royal privileges. They are showing a great satisfaction at our people’s production of raw silk, and they promise to show us all possible encouragement. What this will entail I do not know, but I hope to find out in Savannah.

They have sent the decree to the Council that we should be free to spin off the finished silk. This would save our residents a lot of effort and expense, which they would have had in sending their silk down river. If we only had allotted the diligent spinners of silk something for their efforts. I am also sad that they did not give me the complete authority to cash enough bills of exchange to pay for the silk already completed. The delinquent payment is hindering their diligence.

Wednesday, the 10th of May. In Savannah I asked the President and his assistants about the boxes with the books and medical supplies, which we have been expecting for some time and whose shipment Mr. Albinus mentions in his letter which arrived on the 27th of October. I asked the President and his assistants; but, they know nothing about it. Mr. Verelst did not address this in the least in his letter to the Council; therefore I assume it has been forgotten in the customs house in London, for which we are sorry. I had them read to me what the Lord Trustees had written to the gentlemen in Savannah. They attest to their satisfaction at the Salzburgers’ obedience to their decree concerning the production of silk.

They also desire the gentlemen of the Council not only to allow us to spin off the finished silk but also to give us support in every possible way. They would not like to limit the spin off of the silk only to Savannah or to one person; instead, they would like to make it equally beneficial to the colonists and England, as far as possible. Therefore, they would like it made known to the residents: whosoever wants to enjoy the favor of the Lord Trustees in the future should apply all possible diligence to the production of silk. There will be no lack of all possible encouragement and support.

Regarding the silk, they intend to send us in the next packet their thoughts and intentions which are along the lines that every family should have their cocoons spun here into silk by our skilled and experienced young women, which then should be sent to Savannah to be sold. Soon they would like to write to the Council the prices of the silk to the advantage of the colonists and thereby to absorb all expenses. Neither I nor the members of the Council understand this last point. We assume they would like to cover the expenses of spinning off the silk.

They agreed with my suggestion in one of my letters to Mr. Verelst, namely, that the wall on which the silk machine stands should have a chimney to lead the smoke out through the roof. Otherwise, the kitchen or place where the spinning off takes place will be full of impurities, which lowers the price of the silk on the reel. Because we noticed this mistake two years ago, last year we prepared to make arrangements to lead the smoke out a compendious chimney through the roof. And this is just the way we set up the second machine and wall this year, even though we were unable to set it up as we wished because of a lack of resources. It is the order of the Lord Trustees that such necessary things to enhance our silk production should be made at their expense both in Savannah and here.

The lack of skilled labor, especially carpenters, hinders us almost as much as a lack of cash payments. Therefore, many things must remain undone this summer, things which I wanted to have built near the mill and in the town for cash. For many reasons I do not let myself get involved with strangers. I hope it will improve in this regard when we receive servants. I forgot to mention one other thing in the letters from the Lord Trustees to the Council and to me. The most famous and most experienced silk merchant in London, Mr. Loyd had a piece of damask made from the silk prepared by us. It came out as well as could be desired in the opinion of the weavers and the merchants so that not only was our colony’s silk not inferior to the Piedmont silk, which is deemed the best, but it was also judged to be preferable by a group of knowledgeable and impartial people. Because of this there is a lot of talk in London about the silk manufacture in Georgia. For the enjoyment of our friends in Germany, I would like to quote a passage from the last letter of Mr. Albinus, dated the 29th of December, last year. He writes:

Especially in regard to Ebenezer, the Lord Trustees have given the Court Chaplain (who himself was present at one of their meetings) the solemn promise that they themselves will give special attention to this matter. The first thing they will concern themselves with is that indentured German men and women be sent. At their first meeting they will deliberate how they can be sent most cheaply and as early as possible. They shall also write Senior Urlsperger in Augsburg that in case Negroes must be imported, they will list all the conditions for Ebenezer, which you and my friends will suggest.

A very sick lying-in woman of our congregation in Savannah sent her husband to Ebenezer in a row boat, the same day I traveled to Savannah to baptize and administer a private communion. He missed me on the river, and I was in Savannah before he reached Ebenezer. God blessed my prayer and comfort of this otherwise ill-behaved woman the last time, and this time I have felt the same blessing. She herself has said that, in response to the prayer I made, our dear God blessed her in her difficult physical condition the previous time with the desired night’s sleep, and now there is a noticeable remission of her sickness and an increase in her strength, for which we praised God’s goodness.

Her husband is very ignorant and as a result insolent. Because I would not allow him to take Holy Communion and demanded he learn the first basic truths of the Christian Evangelical religion and offered to teach him myself in Ebenezer or Savannah and to give him the Small Catechism and Wirth’s Communion Book.³ But he did not come around. Instead, he helped himself through diligent reading and pitiful excuses, which his wife found not only unfounded but also vexing. I postponed the baptism until his return from Ebenezer, which happened last night. In his wife’s presence, and along with the knowledgeable and evangelically minded sponsors, we talked to him sincerely and got a solemn promise from him to gradually learn the few passages in the Catechism which he had given up on, and to resign himself with heartfelt prayer to that order that is required for taking Communion in a worthy manner.

Friday, the 12th of May. The diligence of our dear inhabitants in their field work all year is so great it could not be greater. It appeared this spring as if they would be repaid with a good crop of European grains. However, it again pleased wondrous God to condemn our beautiful wheat fields with blight, through which almost our entire hope for a wheat harvest has been dashed. When one goes through the green wheat, which is still quite green, one’s shoes become covered with rust as if it were scraped off old iron. In the rye one can see traces of mildew, but the harm here should be bearable. At our assemblies, our merciful God has granted us many blessings today and yesterday from the 65th Psalm, which was used last summer as the basis of the jubilee sermon in celebration of the Orphanage’s jubilee day in Halle. We hope from God’s goodness that He, in His time, will also visit our land graciously as expressed in this passage. His wealth and power are so great that no one is lacking.

Saturday, the 13th of May. During this evening’s prayer meeting our dear God sent us a blessed preparation for the Whitsuntide, through the dear promise, Isaiah 44: 3-5 “for I will pour water on him that is thirsty.” We were encouraged to new evangelical earnestness in desiring, accepting, and applying God’s grace.

Sunday, Monday the 14th and 15th of May. We have celebrated Whitsuntide these last few days in physical quietude, Christian charity, and diligent use of the means of salvation; and a few people from Carolina and a young man from Abercorn turned up. The weather was very pleasant and this made the public church service all the more enjoyable for the adults and children who all like to come hither. We felt the assistance of the Holy Ghost noticeably during the preaching of God’s word. We do not doubt that God will bless His Holy gospel abundantly in us as well as in our listeners and that He will hear the communal prayer in the name of Christ and for the sake of his intercession. May he continue to help us.

B. and S.⁴ have written me again from Carolina and are happy that they should again be taken in as members of our congregation in our settlement. In order to further their physical and spiritual well-being, I will continue to do anything for them within my humble means. I also hope that everything is of more avail with them this time than in the past, after they learned first hand that Ebenezer has advantages over other settlements. The third man who moved with them to Carolina has already gone off further into the world and cannot be persuaded to turn back again by the pleading and remonstrance of his wife, who was raised in our orphanage.

Tuesday, the 16th of May. Today in the Zion Church there was a large assembly held by Mr. Meyer and me. At this meeting three elders and community leaders were elected to help Mr. Meyer take care of external business. First I made known to them the contents of the lovely letters from England concerning our external circumstances and their betterment, as is recorded on the 10th of this month in this daily register. I asked their opinion about the Trustees’ intended new arrangements regarding the silk; namely, whether it is better for the Trustees to continue buying the cocoons for cash or to make the spinning off of silk general and to put a good price (called a bounty) on the spun silk for encouragement, and to pay a reasonable wage to the spinner. The government in Carolina pays thirty shillings Sterling for one pound of good spun off silk, upon which there is also a good bounty.

I was glad to see that the people realized it would be better to turn over the spun silk rather than the cocoons to the Trustees because in this manner a lot of loss is avoided in making the silk. This is a way to encourage the children and women to be diligent in this endeavor and to let everyone spin off the silk. I thought it preferable to write the Trustees soon about this before they make their intended new decree permanent and send it to the members of the Council because then our humble reminders and desires might come too late. Therefore, I am asking the Lord Trustees in my current letters to give our congregation ten vats and as many machines for spinning off the silk. Some neighbors want to team up and set up these machines in their houses so that the women and girls can learn to spin. I also pleaded with the Lord Trustees not to rescind or lessen the bounty because that would depress their spirits and put an end to the inchoate silk production, for which I also listed the causes. Furthermore, I informed them in humble terms that three spinners have displayed uncommon diligence in their work by neglecting their own household chores and have incurred expenses with wood and by taking on help during the spinning. They have achieved such skill in this activity that they are marveled at by knowledgeable people. Therefore, it is only equitable that those who have broken the ice receive a just reward. I have made them hopeful of this because the Lord Trustees promised not to fail them in all possible encouragements.

A year ago, they granted each of the first silk spinners five pounds Sterling; to this day the members of the Council still owe it to them. A just compensation would make them willing to teach other women and grown girls the art of spinning silk, which the parents would like to see. I remember that the Lord Trustees not only promised the deceased Italian woman⁵ a respectable compensation (in addition to her yearly salary of one hundred pounds Sterling) for her efforts in teaching other women her art, but also fixed her salary so that she could live on it in her old age. In this country, where the weather is hot, making silk is a hot and difficult job, by which one cannot drink just water or eat the usual poor food. Since they have found a just compensation for the Italian woman even though their goal was not reached by this woman because of her amazing willfulness and self-interest, I comfort myself and the others with the hope that they will not leave those unrewarded by whom and through whom they have reached their goal.

II. The silk produced up until now is stored in a clean room next to my study and has been spun off on two machines in a spacious kitchen next to my house. Because my work is prevented through the commotion and because the house is often inconvenienced by the smell of the bakeovens or the smell of the dead worms in their cocoons in the heat of the sun as well as by foul water and worms discarded after the spinning off (not to mention other causes), I am asking them to have a separate house built for this purpose like the one in Savannah, which would not cost a lot. The ovens and chimneys to the vats, of which three should be set up, would cost the most, which they have already offered to give us.

III. The lack of good huts or houses which can be heated and cooled and aired out at the appropriate time has been a great hindrance to our poor people in the manufacture of silk. And, because some are not well enough off to build something special that is clear and warm and can be aired out, I have asked that the poor be given something for this, or that our congregation should be lent a sum without interest for a few years, which could be repaid year by year from the finished silk. Through this more than good advantage will be promoted in the silk manufacture in accordance with the wishes of the Lord Trustees. If our people had the resources to build with our cheap lumber houses with open rooms, many high windows and doors, and an attic of boards above and a clay floor below with an oven of tiles or clay, we could keep the delicate worms warm enough and the larger ones cool enough on hot days. This would protect them from sickness and death, save us a lot of mulch, and promote their growth.

I know from experience that people who are equipped with good rooms or chambers see their beautiful, well grown worms spinning themselves a cocoon within four weeks, which allows them to complete their work within five weeks. On the other hand, others spend about fourteen days longer. As a result, time is lost, mulch is lost, and silk is lost, which I cannot explain here. The aforementioned houses also have the advantage of not letting the worms hatch too early as they do in fear of warm or hot weather, which penetrates the poorly built huts so easily. This way they can wait until enough leaves are on the trees. Because of the cold earth and the cold nights, the trees are not filled with leaves before the middle of April. If by this time the worms are so large that they eat in three or four days the amount they would normally consume in four weeks, then there are too few leaves, and not as much silk can be made as if they had delayed the hatching of the eggs until the middle or even past the middle of March.

It has already happened that the late frosts have frozen the young leaves on the mulberry trees. This caused the worms which hatched too early to die or else, to their harm, the worms had to be fed on salad or other unsuitable leaves. If we had a building like the one mentioned and made of our lumber, costing not more than three pounds Sterling, it would make the production of silk much easier; giving our people more and more encouragement. The worms not only reproduce at different times, depending also on age, warmth, and cold, but this is also dependent on cleanliness, which they do not have in houses where the people have their beds and take care of someone who is sick, keep their wet and dry provisions, and prepare their daily warm meals. I have gone into such detail in these matters because I want our patrons and friends to see that, if the silk production should come to a standstill, it should not be blamed on me or the poor members of the congregation.

IV. Cash money is the best and strongest inducement for the silk. They are poor and need the money immediately for their finished work just as is God’s urgent decree for the good of the poor laborer. In accordance with the wish of the Lord Trustees, I have encouraged the production of silk by promising them cash payment. However, because I was unable to get this money from the Council in Savannah a year ago, I had to cash a bill of exchange, contrary to my intention, to pay the borrowed money on time. In the mean time I have let Mr. Meyer buy course linen in Savannah and other necessary things to make clothing. The widows and other needy persons bought theirs by using an advance given for their silk. I will wait as long a I can.

Wednesday, the 17th of May. Yesterday we made new arrangements with the plantation school, which were approved by all. A father brought his little son to me partially to request permission to send him to school and partially to have me pray over him. The boy repeated the verse which I assigned him recently: “The child Samuel grew before the Lord and was pleasing to the Lord and to men.” I hope the parents on the plantations will also send their little children to school because they do not have to give more than six pence or a bushel of corn as a school fee every quarter of a year. Previously they needed to contribute much more to keep the last schoolmaster. The town schoolmaster is paid a salary by the highly praiseworthy Society.⁶

Thursday, the 18th of May. I find it miraculous that only part of the wheat in our fields is completely blighted whereas in other fields the wheat is still fairly good. Indeed, in some fields blighted and healthy wheat grow side by side. From this one can conclude that neither the land nor the dew is to blame for the blight, nor the fog. We have had no lack of rain this spring either. The Sicilian wheat and another variety which we got from Purysburg are still unharmed, and from this I conclude that the blight is caused somewhat by the mixing of the grains and the early planting. They should sow their winter crops already in the fall, but they usually do it just before or immediately after Christmas. As long as they have no servants to help, they are unable to get to it earlier because of other matters. In Carolina they have to change the rice seeds every third year; otherwise it becomes red and loses its value. Our herdsmen have lost their German crops completely out by the cowpen because a few weeks ago they had quite a bit of extremely large hail stones, which were as large as chicken eggs and crushed the crops and ruined the pastures. A hen which was unable to get in quickly enough was killed, and the cattle received bruises as large as eggs on their hide. God has many ways and means to chasten mankind, yet He still treats us with great mercy. With sadness I read in a newspaper that God afflicted my hometown Forsta in Lower Lusatia last summer with a terrible fire with which there were miraculous circumstances which were of use to me and my congregation one evening during the evening prayer meeting. May God stand by the poor in this hardship, and also my siblings, as well as my in-laws and their children.

Friday, the 19th of May. After our dear God blessed me with time and strength to answer the last important letters of General Oglethorpe, the Lord Trustees, and other beloved benefactors in Europe, I sent the letters along yesterday with the daily register containing part of this month with a good opportunity to our friend Mr. Habersham in Savannah, to be forwarded from there. May God accompany them. May He let many good things be accomplished through the letters for the betterment of our congregation by the Lord Trustees and Mr. Vernon, to whom I wrote extensively about our situation. The detailed content of the letters is located at the end of the daily register we have just sent off.

In writing letters my thoughts are always so full of God’s goodness, trials, the congregation’s current state, and suggestions for the betterment of the congregation that I am unable to keep my letters to the Trustees brief, especially because I no longer keep a journal for them. I have no indication that my prolixity is displeasing; rather, they have attested many times to the contrary. He who accuses me as a minister of reporting about external, worldly matters too much in the daily register and the letters does not know about my instructions. Were someone else here, I would gladly be silent about such matters if it could be done without my neglecting my duties. I will most likely always be responsible during my lifetime for taking care of the congregation’s external matters.

This morning, just as I wanted to travel to the plantation church and school, three large boats full of soldiers from Fort Augusta arrived to take our soldiers and their baggage to Frederica, where they must hurry to be discharged on July 1st. Their captain, Mr. Cadogan, visited me along with a cadet as is usually the case when people of importance come to our settlement. They always behave so that we cannot complain or be annoyed at their presence. For their needs and refreshment, we gladly give them what we have; and we allow ourselves to be drawn into a useful conversation with them. The soldiers were not harmful to us; they were useful, and we are sad that the regiment (with the exception of about seventy men) is leaving this colony. Their leaving worries me, not without reason; and I fear it may have bad consequences. At the end of last month I wrote about this not only to the commander in Frederica, Colonel Heron, but also in the previously mentioned letters to the Lord Trustees, General Oglethorpe, and especially to Mr. Vernon, with reference to the letters written to the Lord Trustees. I did not think it was necessary to report this in the daily registers we sent (namely concerning this point and another point about the Uchee land and in our vicinity).

Sunday, the 21st of May. For a long time now, we have had intense heat and a continuous dry spell. The mountains must be experiencing the same sort of weather because the water in the river is receding more and more. For harvesting the European crops (wheat, rye, and barely) now ready for harvest, this weather is very convenient. If the rain does not stay away too long, the Indian corn will not be harmed because it can withstand hot weather. I was amazed that one of our Salzburgers was able to distill a strong brandy from the stalks of the Indian corn, which has not yet reached a height of two feet, just like the brandy made in the West Indies of sugar cane. People are also using the yellow and the red plums in their stills for this purpose. They are able to produce this liquor cheaply (because they have their own plums, peaches, etc.), and it does them good when they work hard because drinking only water in this country can be very harmful.

Beer is brought from New York occasionally, but it is fairly expensive. They are not permitted by their poor earnings to buy wine and rum. On the old trees damaged by the late frost last winter, there are not many peaches; however, the younger trees are all the fuller. We do not have other trees because our residents have not had the time to spend on them. They are content to earn enough through their manual labor for the necessary food and clothing and to remain without debts.

A planter from Savannah Town (not far from Fort Augusta) sent me a letter through his son in which he wrote that he had a lot of wheat this year which he would like to grind at our mill and sell in Savannah. The aforementioned German man, who wants to build a ship mill for grinding and a sawmill near Purysburg at the expense of Mr. David Zübli, had built a mill near Augusta. However, a flood demolished the dam and caused the mill to overturn. As I spoke to our pious miller today, he said that our mill would not have fared any better if we had not prayed for it. Our mill has remained intact through prayer, and not through our skill or foresight. This Christian talk left a good impression on me.

Mr. David Zübli from St. Gall, who is still probably known to the Senior Urlsperger, had a lot of loss from the aforementioned building of the ship mill, for which he should be pitied.⁷ We would have sold all the cut lumber if we had not used our better judgment.

Tuesday, the 23rd of May. Yesterday N.’s sister came crying to me and complaining about her husband’s harshness against her. She also said she could not help but repay him in words with the same. Because I arrived this morning at her plantation, which lies furthest away, I found that she was more wicked than her husband about this angry dispute. She was so offensive that I was amazed at her husband’s leniency. I reproached them with God’s word for their sins, especially the offenses to their children and other people; and at the same time I told them of their duty and the manner in which their offenses and travail can be repented. Then I prayed with them. I hope this is helpful. Both of them are diligent workers and diligent churchgoers. However, they are not yet truly converted. From such a state can only come sin and vexation, which causes us no small sadness.

Thursday, the 25th of May. Today Mr. Meyer is traveling to Savannah to the Council. He and Mr. Vigera, whom he expects to meet here, want to acquire a good location for a plantation between our mill and Abercorn. Concerning this matter I wrote emphatically and in the best way to the President of the Council, Col. Stephens. At the same time I informed him that our silk has been reeled and is being safely stored with Mr. Meyer until it can be sent to the Lord Trustees along with the silk from Savannah. The cocoons weigh seven hundred and sixty-two pounds and five ounces all together. From this amount fifty-one pounds and five ounces are spun, of which the esteemed Mr. von M. /Münch/ will receive one and a half pounds of spun silk in accordance with his wishes along with the pertinent fleuret silk which Mr. Stephens promised to send to Mr. Verelst.

While the fine lovely spun silk was being weighed yesterday in the orphanage, a pious woman remembered the encouraging words of the esteemed Senior Urlsperger plus ultra, continue on! which he proclaimed in a fatherly letter upon completion of the first silk in Ebenezer, which weighed only a few pounds. If the Lord Trustees lend an ear to the reasonable suggestions I recently made, then the manufacture of silk could reach near perfection. After the boy servant ran away from the widow Granewetter, keeping up with the household chores became more difficult, which she especially feels during the wheat harvest.

Today she was happy and comforted as she did her field work. Sometimes, however, she gets anxious and fearful because she feels that God has burdened her too greatly and that she will not be able to endure much longer. The word of God is her comfort and refreshment, and she holds the Christian encouragement of a good friend for a precious blessing. She cited the story of the Syrian captain Naaman who received a great blessing from the friendly encouragement and advice of his servants to bathe in the Jordon according to the command of the prophet. We would like to help make her household chores easier, if only we were able to get her a servant or a maid. One cannot even get day laborers and other workers for cash this time of year. It is good that the final work in manufacturing the silk is ending just as the harvesting of the Indian corn, wheat, rye and barley is beginning so that one can take place after the other.

Friday, the 26th of May. Jesus is fulfilling His exquisite promise in Mrs. Riedelsberger daily and plentifully. I will love Him and reveal myself to Him. She especially enjoys the love and grace of her Savior. Through this her fear of death, which often plagued her, has disappeared completely. Today she would deem it a great blessing to be soon dissolved and together with Christ even though she is still young and happy beside her pious, diligent, and blessed husband. Her oldest daughter, a child of five years, is always sickly; yet, she loves her Savior, prays to Him, and yearns to die so as to be with Him soon in heaven. She is always so well behaved that she has never had to be disciplined to refrain from evil and be kept on the path of good.

Saturday, the 27th of May. For some weeks, we have had hot, dry weather. To be sure, this somewhat hindered the growth of some field and garden produce, yet it greatly promoted the wheat harvest and the other agricultural crops. Yesterday the wind came mostly from the north. As a result, it was cool and cloudy the whole day. In the evening a strong, cold wind arose, which brought us a cold but beneficial rain the entire night, during which a strong northwest wind blew. The air is very cool. We must keep ourselves warm during the night with good blankets and during the day with good clothing if one wants to avoid getting a fever or bodily pains

Sunday, the 28th of May. Mr. Meyer has only just arrived today because the strong northwest wind did not allow them to depart until late last night. He accomplished little because some members of the Council were absent and some had traveled to Frederica in order to receive in the name of the Lord Trustees the cashiered soldiers who are becoming colonists and want to receive fifty acres of land for planting. To benefit them in setting up their plantations, the following was done: each new colonist was given five pounds Sterling and a year’s provisions or food. Mr. Meyer brought me a little letter from a German man in Savannah. He complained that his daughter wants to marry a young man in Abercorn against his will. She has already gone to him even though they are not married.

He asks me to marry them to avoid scandal. But I cannot do this until I have published their banns in Savannah where they are known. To do it here would only be a deception; this I will not do. I tried to persuade this young man to free himself of this scandal and meet with the parents of his bride in such a way that the marriage can receive their blessing. The third commandment is so important and so little known, and just that is a clear indication that God and His word are worth nothing to the blind and malicious.

Monday, the 29th of May. A while ago a pious and sickly woman complained to me about the gravity of the temptation and blasphemous thoughts which fall like arrows into her soul, against her will and to her great sadness. Accordingly I instructed her from God’s word and prayed with her. This condition lasted (as she told me) until Exaudi Sunday. Our merciful God had so blessed the verses of the exordium which we had contemplated, Romans 8, (the same spirit bears witness to our spirit) that all temptations⁸ and sadness disappeared, and her heart was filled with peace and happiness. After this she went with blessing to Holy Communion. God is still keeping her under the chastening rod of the cross, and this she realizes to be healing and beneficial.

She praises God for all His wonderful and merciful guidance. When praying, I agree with her concerning the beautiful verse: “God is faithful who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able,” etc.; this strengthens one’s belief many times. God will reveal Himself to be a true God also to the rest of the congregation because they now have recently become increasingly weaker of body and poorer of worldly goods. Many spirits have been cast down anew through the great damage to the wheat and rye. Flour in Savannah costs twenty-five shillings Sterling for one hundred pounds.

Wednesday, the 31st of May. Now we are starting to get more thunderstorms because we received so few during the spring. It must have rained more up near the source of the Savannah River than it did in our region before and after Whitsuntide because the Savannah has begun to rise noticeably by the last few days. The snow usually melts early in spring and causes the river to rise. This cannot be the cause of the river’s rising now. In previous years at this time the river has been so low that our low lying mill was hardly able to turn. But now everything is working. It is only a shame that there has been so little to mill these last two months.

We are starting to get a little more now after the people have begun threshing their German grains. They are speeding up the threshing because the price of flour is so high in Savannah. God permitted them something extra of their wheat and rye, that was not ruined by the blight and mildew. This they are joyous about, and for this they praise dear God. A German orphan girl whose mother died at our settlement has served out her time in Savannah and is coming here in accordance with her mother’s wishes to be taught God’s word and be prepared for Holy Communion. Many young people of both sexes are being corrupted in this wild and liberal land. If they are in other people’s service, especially the English and the French, they have no time to learn something of God’s word and the catechism, and they are seldom permitted to go to church and listen to God’s word. If they are left free and on their own, one notices little serious intention to catch up on that which was neglected. They consider themselves ready for Holy Communion when they have learned their catechism and a few biblical quotes. So they remain grossly ignorant and in conformity with the world.

If we present them in a pleading and friendly manner what is appropriate to a worthy use of Holy Communion and how they should not for His sake go with others but hasten with their diligent learning and conversion, then they keep away or turn to others. Some threaten to move away and think they will find a minister to give them Holy Communion. It is most dangerous for children: 1), if their parents die prematurely; 2), when the girls marry into other denominations because then many receive a Deist, an Arian, a Cynic, or an Epicurean.

JUNE

Thursday, the 1st of June. This afternoon we again had a severe thunderstorm with hail and rain; and towards evening, shortly before sunset, we saw a rather indistinct rainbow between east and south. For us it is no small wonder that there can be such large hail stones during this heat at this time of year. Perhaps to our friends in Europe who are familiar with our climate it is just as amazing as it is to us. We would really like to have an accurate thermometer and barometer to be able to eventually report the hot and cold temperatures to our in friends in Europe who have an interest in it. The sun rises now at one minute before five o’clock and sets at one minute after seven o’clock.

Friday, the 2nd of June. Because I hold school at the plantations from 8:30 a.m. to 9:30, I have until 11 o’clock to relax a little until people gather for the weekly sermon. If I am not needed or do not visit someone in the neighborhood, I read the blessed and edifying reports from East India concerning the start and progress of the institutions there for converting the heathens.¹ What today was, among other things, impressive and edifying, which I think I will also use for the benefit of the children and adults, is the following report on the heathen school children there:

“We have a lot of hope for the children who are being raised by us in the Christian way. Even though they are heathen children, after being taught for a time, they are of a right fine spirit. They are diligent, hard-working, obedient, capable of learning, and content. In truth one does not see as much mischievousness, maliciousness, obstinacy, stubbornness, or irresponsibility as one must experience and see in most European children.”

Today at 12 o’clock a thunderstorm arose out of the northwest, bringing a long, heavy rain. The wind came from the south and before that from the southeast. After the rain it was cool toward evening and during the night.

Saturday, the 3rd of June. This morning it was fearfully hot, and there was a thunderstorm in the afternoon, which was gentle and lasted until evening without much rain. Many people have left their European grains, especially wheat, in shocks or standing in the fields. Therefore, they wish that God would bestow upon them some days of dry weather again to bring in that which is unaffected by mildew and blight.

Sunday, the 4th of June. Today’s Sunday has once again been cheerful and blessed through the merciful reign of our faithful God, and on it He has sent us much edification through the reading of the Holy Scriptures, song, prayer, and the preaching of His word. The young Mrs. N. gave birth to a baby boy, which, because of its weakness, was given an emergency baptism. The mother may be at fault for the great weakness of her child because she worked along with her husband more than was necessary, which did her little good, as this tends to be the way of the avaricious.

I think I will travel out there tomorrow, God willing, to pray over the child and to speak with the parents about what is necessary. She is usually very reasonable and follows a literal recognition of the Christian teachings: the love of worldly possessions is very strong in both her and her husband. This is a hindrance to the kingdom of heaven as is with the burdened in today’s gospel. Oh, the misery. There it is said: “For what is a man profited, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul? or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul?” They know the saying well (Matthew 16:26).

Tuesday, the 6th of June. On Sunday I made it known publicly that I will begin the preparatory lessons again for the older children of both sexes toward a worthy use of Holy Communion. And my congregation have been asked to remember this pleasant work in prayer before the Lord so that it will not be lost on any child but be a blessing to each of them. There are now seven children, with one boy still expected, whose father has promised to send him in two weeks. In the first hour I enjoined upon them the word of the Lord Jesus: “Blessed are they that hear the word of God and keep it” and the three points of the catechism: 1), concerning the word of God; 2), the judicious proper use of God’s word; 3), the great benefit arising from the judicious and proper use of His word. After this I will establish our dear and precious Catechism as the basis of the catechistic lectures which I also use on the plantation for young and old alike and from which our kindhearted God sends refreshment to the heart.

Wednesday, the 7th of June. Yesterday shortly before evening, a pious man was with me and told me with pleasure that God had revealed to his wife her previous sins and previous inability to repent and brought her to confess. Among the sins which oppressed her was her derision of good. This he had to endure from her and he endured this gladly. However, he is even happier now that God has led her to confess through the riches of His goodness, and forbearance and long-suffering. She sent for me to come to her, which I did today. She had no little pangs of conscience here and in Germany, both in and out of marriage. Now, she bears witness in tears, gestures, and words to a great fear, regret, and shame about her actions such as I have seen in few instances. I presented her with sin as sin from God’s word and the suffering of Christ, and I warned her of comfort which comes too quickly and premature as well as warning her of Cain’s disbelief: “My sins are greater than, etc.”

All the time I said many things to comfort her that there is still mercy for her and her weighty sins, and she has no reason to despair. I led her to the 15th chapter of St. Luke, from which next week’s beautiful sermon is taken. The flour, fruit, and wood she stole from her employer by persuading other women, she would like to replace with crops if God would bless her. In the meantime she will invoke God to replace everything with His wisdom, omnipotence, and goodness. She also intends to exercise her Christian responsibility toward a certain person among us, which can serve him as an opportunity to convert.

Friday, the 9th of June. The weather has begun now to become dry after a period in which we had rain and thunderstorms almost daily. A scarce amount of European grain has been gathered, and now the principal work is with the Indian corn and rice, for which we have the most comfortable weather. Today I received a letter from Savannah in which not only Indian cornmeal but also a large amount of boards for shipment are requested. It is only fortunate that we have enough water to run the mill and send the lumber down river. Usually at this time only the lowest water course is operative. There are many soldiers in Savannah who were discharged in Frederica and shall be sent to England. Wheat flour is very expensive and one cannot get enough of it. However, our cornmeal is cheap, even though it is not as good to use as the European flour, especially in the summertime.

We have God to thank for not allowing our inhabitants to want for income or food. Even though their work and lifestyle usually involve great hardships because of the lack of servants. Since our inexpensive boards—made from good lasting wood—have begun to become known, our sawmiller is unable to cut as much as could be sold. We are lacking people, and the wages are too high. So the mill is unable to create the benefit to the congregation which we would expect if God were to change our situation. Yet the use we have from it for the good of our dear inhabitants is not to be underestimated.

Saturday, the 10th of June. The recently mentioned woman who was called upon to confess is treating the mercy she received for conversion faithfully. Now she uses the Hymns of penitence and of the Passion as well as the story of Christ’s suffering and death to help her get to know the deep corruption in her heart more and more. She wants to have remorse and tears because she regards herself as a great sinner, who has long gone her way in security and disobedience. The beautiful sermon The Heart of the Resurrected Jesus unexpectedly fell into my hands the other day and from it I took something appropriate to her spiritual condition.² I read it in the presence of her husband and left it with her for further reference. With such souls I usually entreat them with the Lord Jesus’s words: “He digged deep,” to warn them of premature comfort, which is like mildew.

Sunday, the 11th of June. Yesterday afternoon we again had a strong thunderstorm with heavy downpours. This filled the paths, low-lying areas, and small rivers with water. It thundered late into the night. It may have rained heavily continuing into the evening almost through to midnight (this can be gathered from the dark rain clouds). Here, however, it did not rain much during the night. Today it was very hot; as hot as it usually is in summer. The wind blew from the south. Compared with the heat which the missionaries have experienced and reported in Trankebar the summer heat in this country is slight and bearable.³ Also, it lasts no longer than two months, during which we still have a few cool and comfortable days and cool nights. It is a very good country; if only the inhabitants were better. Yesterday was the longest day of the year. May God help us from season to season until finally the day of judgment arrives.

Tuesday, the 13th of June. A little over three weeks ago a planter living near Savannah Town asked through his son whether he could have the nice and plentiful grain which he expected to harvest soon ground here. The son at that time was already seventeen days away from home, and he brought me this request on his return journey from Carolina. Therefore, he did not know, as I knew from our sad experience, that the father wrote to me through the same son that the wheat there did not turn out that well. As a result, he is sending nothing to the mill because he intended to send a lot (Haggai 2: 17-18). He expressed himself in the following manner:

“Winter was cold, and the spring cold and dry, after which the weather became fruitful so that the wheat became better than it had appeared. In many places not much was produced because it became brown instead of yellow and consequently developed no grain. I myself had a half acre of the same blighted grain.”

Our inhabitants are fairly convinced that the blight is caused by a late planting. Gschwandel always plants his wheat at Michaelmas, and his crops always turn out nicely. On the other hand, others do it just before Christmas and have sustained damage. There is so much work that they are almost unable to plant earlier. This would probably change if God would bestow us with servants.

Wednesday, the 14th of June. The widow Granewetter was married yesterday to a widower, one of the last German servants,⁴ who appears to be a knowledgeable and well-intentioned man. She has a well-equipped plantation. She hopes her husband will have no cause to move to another settlement taking her and her two children from God’s word and good care into the wilderness and danger. This is my concern and the reason why I could not deem this marriage well-advised.

Friday, the 16th of June. The soldiers who were here before the previous group came here and brought old and new uniforms to sell. The same clothing was sold to them in Savannah at a cheap price by the soldiers returning to England. All at once they have received three times as much clothing because this clothing was in arrears to them for three years. I hear that only a few have accepted land to colonize. The remaining, who were not placed in any of the three troops which marched to Carolina, are waiting in Savannah for two merchant ships to take them to London. Few of them have the desire to work; otherwise, they would not have become soldiers. As day laborers they would have enough work; but we cannot get anyone. I know of no other year in which the fieldwork became so difficult and burdensome to our overworked inhabitants as it did this summer.

We have received the request of a pious and faithful Salzburger, or Austrian, Schmidt, to let him build a house near the mill. He would like to give up his extremely laborious farming, move here, serve as a host to strangers coming to our mill and in our stead take care of all the things at the grain- and sawmill which until now have been time consuming for us. We sang today during the weekly sermon: Warum sollt ich mich denn grämen. For me and mine I let something be read from the living footsteps of God during the meal through which my belief was strengthened many times in a living God, capable of everything. Perhaps this help for Ebenezer is closer than we think. “Quicker than we can think, God can guide our hardship for the best. Soul, why art thou daunted? Dear Lord God is still living!”⁵

Sunday, the 18th of June. Today, the Fourth Sunday after Trinity, was blessed by the heartfelt mercy of our God. He has provided us with both strength of spirit and strength of body to preach His message to old and young, indigenous and foreign, who have come here from other neighboring regions. And He let some goodness be felt among our own congregation. Today seventy people attended the Communion, among whom six were strangers who usually support our community. At the time of the repetition hour, a few hours before evening, we performed a burial. Riedelsberger’s oldest daughter, five years of age, died this morning at 2 a.m.

Because in the good effects of the Holy Ghost she was fairly similar to the eight year old daughter of Mr. Stöller in Cöthen whose edifying life was written about in one of the Contributions to the Kingdom of God,⁶ I read the first part of this moving biography this morning with some remembrance of our children and adults through which our dear Savior sent both pious parents and all the mourners present a lot of comfort and rich edification. It also gave me the opportunity to make known the recognizable work of God in the soul of the deceased child. It was a truly pious and obedient child, who never caused her parents sadness but only made them joyous with her Christian behavior in both sickness and health.

She was not pleased by other children’s lack of discipline. She liked to learn her biblical verses and pray; and during her long suffering she displayed great patience, letting her mother do with her as she pleased. She liked to hear about death. And she sincerely desired to be with her dear Savior. The last little saying which her mother tried to teach her by rote was : “My desire is to arise and dwell in heaven,”⁷ etc. Yesterday morning she asked her mother several times to send for me so that I could pray with her, and this took place in the afternoon. Then I gave her the last rites in the name of God’s Holy Trinity. God heard our prayer for a blessed and prompt dissolution and deliverance from her pains.

Tuesday, the 20th of June. The German man Straube, who came to us from Savannah, works very diligently because he gets little help with his work from his sick wife and six children, some of them small and some sickly. So he remains in very poor circumstances despite the help sent from us and others. He is a righteous man, and she has converted honestly to God too. Therefore, they know how to put up with their poverty and miserable circumstances, and they are displaying great patience. The oldest son is a good and pious child who brings us great joy in the school, the church, and the community.

Wednesday, the 21st of June. I see it as a special merciful providence of God that the merchant from Port Royal /Robert Williams/ was able to take the boards which he bought from us, to Savannah before the water level in the river dropped. Yesterday four men left the mill with the last eight rafts, which are carrying nearly ten thousand feet of lumber. With the water continually dropping, this would have been too late a few days later. Our Mill River is not yet cleared of the many fallen trees and old wood (we do not have the means to do this). Therefore, it is difficult for a loaded boat to get through at low water.⁸

Thursday, the 22nd of June. A pious woman rejoiced at the word which God spoke to his people; namely, He had given them good land. She applied this then to us and our land, and she knew how to state all the good which the Lord has done with and in this land. She also led me around her plantation and showed me her fruit-bearing trees and especially the fig trees that were filled with fruit and the beehives, and other physical blessings. It is indeed a blessed land. If only more pious people and honest workers were in it. This woman has been sick for a long time and is unsuited for field work. This year God has strengthened her body and mind so much that she is able to lighten her husband’s very difficult profession, as she tells humbly with joy at God’s wondrous goodness and with praise of His great name. She gave me the beautiful verse to take along for another pious soul: “Praised be God who,” etc. “who according to his great mercy,” etc. Peter 1:1 and placed the emphasis on the word “great.”

Friday, the 23rd of June. The day after tomorrow the Germans of our confession are gathering again in Savannah to hear God’s word and receive Holy Communion, which is why I am traveling there tomorrow under God’s direction. May God be with my heart and tongue.

Tuesday, the 24th of June. Once again our merciful God blessed me in Savannah and on the trip down and back, for which His name should be praised and magnified. The weather was for the most part cool; and, as a result, carrying out my official duties was not in the least difficult, even though I preached twice, repeated the sermon once, and baptized a child. Yesterday four couples (some English, some German) were married, after which I departed from Savannah in God’s name. For the marriage of the Germans I performed the ceremony as I do amidst our congregation: I make their banns public and sing and pray during the ceremony and give a sermon about a select passage from the Bible. This time it was the first Psalm.

During the English marriage ceremonies, which I do not perform differently from the so-called license issued by the authorities, I must do it according to the form set forth in their so-called Prayerbook. They all want to be distinguished people so they perform it like the people in England who let themselves be married in private without public notice after having received a license, and the regular minister makes no scruple of this. I do not let myself get involved with such licenses and marriages of the English and the French if there is a preacher in the country or in Savannah. Mr. Zuberbiller is still in England.⁹

Letters have arrived for us in Savannah from London and Germany, which contain pleasing news for the most part. May God be praised that our Fathers and benefactors are still alive, in passable health, and all blessed and that they have shown us great goodness through their blessed support. We received no letters from our esteemed Senior Urlsperger, Mr. D. F. and Mr. von M.¹⁰ However, we read in the very pleasant letter of Mr. Albinus, and the same in the edifying letter from Mr. L., that they are well and kindly disposed towards us in a fatherly manner. The Lord Trustees let us feel many signs of their kindly disposition in the long letter written by their secretary, Mr. Martyn. With their new arrangement concerning the manufacture of silk, we hope it shall proceed better.

Thursday, the 29th of June. The Lutherans in Congrees, or Sachs-Gotha (a newly started settlement in South Carolina, one hundred and fifty miles northwest of Charleston), sent a joint letter to me in which they described to me movingly their need and their miserable condition, especially in regard to their spiritual life. They can never have an evangelical sermon, send their children to catechism, or partake in Holy Communion. This causes them great pain, and they have a great desire to obtain good evangelical books. They would deem it as a great benefit if one of us could come to them. It may be a desolate and inappropriate place to which many run from both Carolinas, Virginia, and Pennsylvania who do not like to remain in one place because of debts or are unable to remain for other evil causes.

Two German families from our settlement have moved there, who were well established here. Now they know what they had here and what they found there. The three pious German boys who ran away a few months ago at the bequest of their parents have settled there with their unscrupulous parents.¹¹ Previously their oldest brother had already run away there from his servitude. I have answered their letter: in it I gave them all the healing remembrances of God’s word and advised them of the difficulties which prevent me from promising to travel to them. We will pray about it, and they should pray that God convince us whether one of us can go to them. In the meantime I am sending them good edifying books to be used at their meetings and in their homes. I do not have much trust in these people because I know from much experience that they talk a lot about religion and serving God; and then, when they have it, pay little attention to it.

Friday, the 30th of June. Today I was called from the plantation school unexpectedly to go to Mrs. Steiner, who has been seriously ill since yesterday evening and is no longer of sound mind. We kneeled down and brought her in the poverty of our prayer to the Lord Jesus, as I read this morning of the palsied man in Matthew 9. She has been sick for a long time and recently very near death. Afterward she recovered again through the use of medication so that she walked around the house and was able to do her household chores reasonably well. Because of the lack of servants, the women have to do a lot of hard labor sometime in dry weather and sometime in wet weather, which is not as sufferable in this hot climate as in the German climate. We regret greatly that it will be so difficult until we are able to get some servants. Still more we regret that we must burden our patrons and friends with such matters.

JULY

Monday, the 3rd of July. Last Friday (it was the 30th of last month) our boat came up from Savannah and brought me an invitation from Capt. Dunbar, an intimate friend of General Oglethorpe,¹ who wished to see me before returning to London. Shortness of time and necessary business prevented him from coming up to us. However, he would gladly have come up with some other officers if I had been unable to go down. I preferred to do that in order to avoid complications and expenses for our place.

On Sunday (it was the Sixth Sunday after Trinity) I preached to the German people about the way to salvation through the gospel; and in the exordium we contemplated the beautiful words from Psalms 139:23-24. The sermon was repeated and further explicated in the evening. I also had to baptize the child of a German Reformed man and had to attend to some other useful business.

Col. Heron, who is sending the cashiered soldiers to England in two ships that have arrived, has promised me to look out the best he can for our place if there is any danger from the Indians.

Mrs. /Maria/ Steiner died on the first of this month and was buried the following Sunday. May God now care for the dear feeble Steiner and his three still unreared children, two of whom are also sickly! His housekeeping² is very difficult, which would soon be lightened for him if he could only get a loyal servant or maid; but this is not possible at present.

Friday, the 7th of July. It rained again yesterday and today; but here with us it was not very much. Both by day and by night the air is so cool that we must marvel.

We had to settle a coarse and vexing discord between two married people, in which God noticeably dignified us with His help. The wife fears God with her heart but understands housekeeping too little; and this sometimes gives her husband the occasion to sin no little against his wife and in other ways. No matter how angry and mean he otherwise is, he still came in great sorrow and bitter tears when I admonished him. The reconciliation of the two married people followed very soon thereafter.

Sunday, the 8th of July. Two soldiers have petitioned to take up and cultivate land at our place. They understand the German language and can therefore make use of our office, like the others. One of the wives is from Wurttemberg and appears to have a good disposition and love for God’s word; and it is for this reason hat she has actually chosen our place above others. Both have a high regard for the late Mr. Driesler, who was godfather to their only little son.³

Sunday, the 9th of July. Today during the afternoon service the messenger from Savannah came here by horse and brought me for my signature the petition from the Council and the most prominent inhabitants of this colony to the Lord Trustees. It is very well arranged; and they request that the Lord Trustees might advance 1) the unification of our colony with Carolina, and 2) the restoration of Oglethorpe’s regiment. With this messenger I also sent our letter packet, which was addressed to the Trustees’ secretary, Mr. Martyn, to Capt. Dunbar for fowarding to London. Early tomorrow morning the ship will set sail from the Savannah River, and therefore I dispatched the messenger quickly. We plan to write again as soon as the chests arrive here.

Wednesday, the 12th of July. The dog days are beginning today; and we must marvel that we have had such very cool weather for some time. It has rained every day since the new moon; and especially this morning we had a very heavy rain. Therefore it has been a very wet summer. Up by Augusta and in the mountains it must have rained very much, too; for the river is rising again; and this is very good for our mills. There is now much European grain to grind,⁴ which does not last long either in the straw or in sacks, but is soon hollowed out by worms. Therefore, the people hurry with it to the mill as soon as possible.

For several years our inhabitants’ cattle have increased considerably. They are a large part of their sustenance and they advance agriculture no little bit on land such as ours is. However, because we lack herdsmen, they have not had the profit from them that they should have been able to have with God’s blessing. Rather, some of them have harmed their health by having to seek their cattle daily themselves and to drive them home. Because servants have been lacking for so long, I have offered to contribute a considerable amount of money from the physical blessings which God has granted from Europe, if they wish to make good arrangements for facilitating cattle-raising at the cowpen and on the plantations and for that purpose to engage loyal herdsmen from the community (for nothing can be accomplished with strange people) both at the cowpen and at home. This will be a great relief especially for widows and weak people who cannot seek their cattle themselves, and it will prevent great loss of time. It appears that some men will be found willing to plant less on their land and to serve the community as herdsmen until we can get servants.

Thursday, the 13th of July. A boy from among the town children, who is now in the preparation hour, has been sick with fever for several weeks; and during this time he has proved himself very Christian, as I heard today from his pious mother. He loves God and his Savior heartily; therefore he also loves His word and prayer. Consequently, he is especially distressed that he cannot come to the preparation hour with the other children. During his sickness he wished to know the Bible verses that I was accustomed to give to the children to take home for later reading and for memorizing. They are always the most important texts through which the articles of Christian dogma are clearly proved. Those children who have grown up and been trained with us already know all the basic and pithy verses by heart and have a great treasure in them. However, those who have come to us from other places are incited by their example to learn them gradually also. The above-mentioned child yearned for me for a long time and asked his parents to tell me of his longing. When I came today uncalled, it was very pleasing to him and to his parents, and they expressed more gratitude than one could wish for. They do not live in town but on a plantation in a somewhat remote corner. All sorts of obstacles keep us from visiting the good people.

Saturday, the 15th of July. This afternoon we had the pleasure of receiving and unpacking the gifts from Halle and Augsburg, consisting of books for us and the congregation and medications and various pieces of clothing and pertinent things. After the three chests had been opened, we knelt down before God, the Giver of all good and perfect gifts. We thanked Him communally for everything and called on Him to give us wisdom in applying these benefactions and to graciously reward all of our most worthy benefactors in Halle, Augsburg, Stuttgart, and wherever they are with spiritual and physical blessings in His mercy. A chest in which there were some quilts had broken and the beds and a piece of course linen were very much damaged and almost spoiled by the rain that may have entered on the journey from Charleston to Savannah. However, the books and the medicines from Halle and the books, Schauer’s balm, linen, and woolen cloth from Augsburg in the large chest had not the least damage. Goods come easily as far as Charleston undamaged; but until they are brought to Savannah we always worry that they may be damaged through the negligence of the boatmen. We lost scarcely a moment in fetching them from Savannah after receiving news of their arrival.

Sunday, the 16th of July. On the Eighth Sunday after Trinity our host and constable /Bichler/ again suffered a great misfortune, through which he suffered worse than through all the tribulations that have previously occurred to him in physical matters. His only son, a well-behaved child of four and a half years was kicked so hard in the abdomen by his own horse in his father’s presence that surely nothing but a premature temporal death can follow. The father trusted the horse too much and wished to give the little child the pleasure of giving the horse a basket of barley as fodder, but the horse got on top of the dear child, got it under its feet, and finally gave it a violent kick. So far our holy God has sent one misfortune after the other into this man’s home. May God grant that he will humble himself under the hand of the Lord amidst such onerus events. With this horse he formerly sinned by conforming grievously to the world and thus saddened and vexed other people. And, afterwards, precisely this very useful horse was the cause of several serious accidents. May God bring him to contemplation and penitence! He has a very good understanding and other good talents so that he could become a very useful tool in the community if only he would let himself be drawn to God.

Monday, the 17th of July. A house has been built by the mill for Schmidt, the righteous Austrian. He moved into it last week, and today it was consecrated with the word of God and prayer. As a basis for the sermon I laid the salutary rules of life that were forwarded to us this time from Memmingen and which are of great importance and are very appropriate for my purpose in consecrating such a house. For this, Schmidt will not only be an overseer and worker in the mill-works but will also play host for the sake of strangers who have business there and shelter them and sell them necessary food and drink. For this purpose, at Mr. Meyer’s recommendation, he has received permission in Savannah. He will be a very useful man at the mills in various ways and greatly ease things for me and Mr. Lemke.

This afternoon, when I returned home from the consecration, I learned to my sorrow that Bichler’s little boy had died from the horse’s kick. I visited him this morning, prayed with him and others who were present, and blessed the child. The parents had not expected it to die so quickly. Since yesterday the child was more often unconscious than conscious and therefore perhaps felt little pain. What he spoke in his fantasy were things that he had learned such as short verses and from his ABC book. He was a very happy and well behaved child, in whom we had our joy. Now he is in a blessed place, to which his mother, a little brother, and a stepsister preceded him some years ago.

Wednesday, the 19th of July. A few days ago, during the regular gospel Matthew 7, we contemplated the great blessing of the discovery of the false teachers and the defense against their false teachings; and at the same time in the exordium I went through the words of St. Paul in Acts 20:29-31. When, on the following Monday, I looked through the many and useful books we had received from Halle, I also caught sight of a report of the Salzburgers from Prussia which, to be sure, was not pleasant; yet is very profitable for my use in the congregation. The report treats of the confusions that the Herrnhuters, according to their wont, have begun to stir up among the Salzburgers in matters of religion and faith.⁵ Our wise and merciful God has not only revealed their impurities and poisonous intentions in time but has also put it into their (the Salzburgers’) minds, in apprehension of further temptations from these sneaking people, to appeal in a humble narrative petition to the consistory at Königsberg and indirectly to their most gracious King, whose heart, we hope, our dear God will incline to the protection of his little flock against the spreading, dangerous seductions under the name of Christ.

This news in our worthy Pastor Frensen’s reports of the Herrnhuter affairs seemed very apropos to me because of the previously mentioned material we had contemplated.⁶ Therefore at the next assembly I shall read aloud the letter to the consistorium and to the King, which was undersigned by very many Salzburgers. We must consider it a very noticeable disposition of God, for which the trusting intercession of His servants and children can do much to protect us from this crew that likes so much to get mixed up in things. While they were in the country they made not the least attempt at our congregation. They were well aware that I knew them. May our merciful God deign to continue to hold His hand above us, grant us trust in His word, and so to steep all our parishioners in the recognition of the ways to salvation that even the gates of hell cannot overcome us.

Sunday, the 23rd of July. This afternoon in a letter from Pastor /Johann Joachim/ Zübli⁷ I received no good reports from Congarees or Saxe-Gotha in South Carolina, where all sorts of German people have settled who could not get along in other provinces or who did not wish to do the right things. Those are the people who recently wrote me a long letter in which they earnestly requested me to come to them sometime and to supply them with good books, which at last has taken place. The pastor writes me that they live together swinishly, filthily, and disorderly and that their Reformed minister (who is also said to be a very bad man) treats him worse than the worst in the congregation. They themselves wrote to me that there was great discord among them all. Whenever I hear reports of other communities in America where Germans have settled, my eyes again see the great advantages that God has granted to our dear parishioners and to other Germans around Savannah.

Tuesday, the 25th of July. Yesterday and today the President of the Council and his Assistants have had a session, to which I, too, had to go. I received from all the gentlemen the assurance that Mr. Meyer may take up and use as he wishes the two hundred acres of good land on the bank of Parker’s collapsed saw mill between our plantations and Abercorn.⁸ This land is not only one of the most fertile but also better situated for trade with boards, meal, and other things than almost any other in our whole district; and therefore we heartily hope that we will be able to achieve the purpose that I actually have in entrusting it to Mr. Meyer. Otherwise, according to the will of Lord Trustees and the opinion of the Council and authorities in Savannah, it should have been given to me as my own property.

In our own district, which is large enough, there is no more so-called good land left, rather all the good spots have been taken up and occupied by our people. To be sure, there is nothing but good land on the large low island across the Mill River; but our worn-out parishioners are now unable, and will remain unable as long as they have no servants, to develop this island, which is overgrown with very thick trees and with much brush and reeds. No one may venture on the so-called Uchee land because it has not yet been bought from these Indians.⁹ Also, it is actually intended for a new transport; and therefore they do not wish to take from it the few plantation of the old inhabitants of our place.

Until now we ministers have always rightly granted our dear parishoners the preference and choice of settling that land on which they could first and best earn their livelihood under God’s blessing. Although, except for the low land lying across the Mill River and the Uchee land, there is no more land now vacant and unoccupied in our entire region that is actually called good land, and really is, because of its natural and excellent fertility (for the entire pine forest is called infertile), there is no lack of right good fertile soil behind Abercorn and in the region of our cowpen where our last German servants have settled.¹⁰

The Lord Trustees have allowed us ministers, like other ministers in the land, to take up a certain piece of land of three hundred acres, which, for the said reason, we have not yet done. Now I have submitted a petition to the assembled Council for a fertile piece of land between the said German people (who, as our coreligionists, use our office) and our very necessary and useful cowpen. In it I requested not only six hundred acres for myself and Mr. Lemke but also three hundred more to be saved for a future minister who might be requested and sent after our district and neighborhood have been occupied by German people. However, I myself must obtain the approbation of the Lord Trustees.

Our inhabitants, who have often walked or ridden through this region, assure us that there is very good land and the most beautiful pasture in the region in which we wish to take up the ministers’ land, although it is rather remote from any navigable stream. To be sure, we do not need it at the present time because we have no servants. However, were we to postpone claiming it until the servants arrive, then it would be occupied by other, strange people to the great detriment of our cowpen or cattle ranch. It would also be to the harm of the German people of our confession who are now settled here and who in time will be able to enjoy the blessing of a ministry in their neighborhood. Around there (somewhat further in the direction of Savannah) lies still more good land; and a beautiful congregation could be settled there in little villages not far from each other, whom one minister and schoolmaster could serve. If God should grant us loyal servants and if through their industry we could cultivate a part of this beautiful land, it would serve greatly to alleviate our domestic situation. But we leave this, too, up to the Lord, who best knows what is good for us.

Wednesday, the 26th of July. Yesterday my dear colleague conducted the distribution of the charitable gifts of cloth, linen, and yarn, which our merciful God has recently granted from our dear Stuttgart, Biberach, Augsburg, and Memmingen. This was done in Jerusalem Church with contemplation of the divine word, song, and prayer. This time I could not be present because of my necessary departure for Savannah. At the conclusion of the preface of the 13th Continuation of the Ebenezer Reports,¹¹ our worthy father in Christ, Senior Urlsperger, called to us from an old and well known song the words, “Trust ye our Lord God, who hath created all things. He neither can nor will abandon you, He knoweth well what ye lack. Both heaven and earth are His, my Father and my Lord God, who stands by me in all need.”¹² Written on the 15th Sunday after Trinity, 1747. There resounded publicly: “Fear not!” These beautiful words impressed not only me but also my dear colleague. Therefore, he laid them as a basis for the sermon he held at the distribution. May God strengthen us in our faith! Then we shall never lack God’s providence and comfort. And may He, for the sake of Christ, abundantly and graciously reward our dearest known and unknown benefactors for these and other charititable gifts of goods and money, for which we have prayed to Him both publicly and privately up to now.

Yesterday in Savannah there was a great deal to do, for which God graciously strengthened me. In addition to baptizing a German and an English child and edifying myself concerning the Second Commandment at a meeting together with Lutheran and Reformed German people, I had an opportunity to write a few lines to the secretary of the Society /Vernon/ and some letters to our worthy brother Pastor Brunnholtz in Philadelphia and to the former preacher in Savannah, Mr. Wesley, who has had a congregation for some time in London. The latter has commissioned a man in Savannah to send him a report about the present status of this colony, and especially of Ebenezer, which he still remmbers fondly. I thought I would be able to do it better myself than an inhabitant of Savannah, who, because of age and feebleness, cannot leave the city. For that reason I sent him a rather long letter. At first he hung closely to the Herrnhuters; but he discovered their errors and left them already a long time ago.

Thursday, the 27th of July. In this year the grapes on the wild vines in the forests have turned out very well; and the blue grapes can be gathered in great quantity in a short time, as I myself have seen today. The blue grapes have sometimes a sweet and pleasant, and sometimes a sour, taste; and they look like the grapes in Europe. The vines run up to the top of both low and tall trees; and one must marvel that, although they stand right in between the tree leaves and other plants, they still bear so abundantly and have such good fruit that in many places in Germany the grapes from the domestic vines do not taste as good. The low areas, which bore crops a few years ago but are now grown wild, have a multitude of such grapes and an unusual number of vines of various kinds. Because there are so many of them everywhere, the birds cannot devour them so quickly, but some are left for the people. This year our mulberry trees, peaches, and corn have also had peace from the large birds, which usually do great damage to the said fruit and other fruits. Now they have enough food from the wild grapes and other wild fruits.

Knowledgeable people rightfully draw this well based conclusion: that our colony is very convenient for viticulture, even if there are no mountains but only hills. Because the wild grapes like to grow in low areas and along the large and small rivers and climb up onto the highest trees, one should set out the vines according to their nature. This has not yet been done, and therefore nothing has come of it. All sorts of beautiful fruits grow in the country, especially apples; and one can enjoy fruit from the grafted apple trees already in the fourth year, and, indeed, gradually so abundantly and beautifully as one could wish for. It is the same with figs. People have claimed that pears will not prosper in this climate; but a month ago I saw beautiful pear trees with much fruit in a garden in Savannah, which were not yet ripe.

Friday, the 28th of July. Among the blessings that our dear God has shown us this summer we rightfully count His gracious protection against the Indians. Otherwise, when the fruit in the gardens and the watermelons and sugar melons in the fields are ripe, they are accustomed to come to our place and to the plantations and not only to eat what they wish (which we gladly allow them) but also to load their horses with them; and then they spare no trees. They know that the soldiers have left; yet they remain away, and this must needs be a sign of God’s protective kindness. The former preacher in Frederica, Mr. Bosomworth, who married Musgrove’s widow (a half Indian woman, i.e., a female person begotten by a white man and an Indian woman) and plays the part of a trader among the Indians, is a problem for this colony.¹³

Saturday, the 29th of July. While we were returning home late today from the confessional, Adam Straube’s wife,¹⁴ who has moved to us from Vernonburg with all her family through God’s gracious miraculous dispensation, asked to speak with me. Some time ago after long struggle and imploring, God sent her grace to be rejoiced and comforted in Christ and His merits through faith. However, when she wishes to go to Holy Communion, she again has new and very great disquiet and anxiety, as she told me with plaintive words and sighs. I spoke with her about the beautiful words of Jesus: “They that be whole need not a physician, . . .” also “Come unto me all ye that labour and are heavy laden,” and I suggested to her for devout reading later on the Communion hymns Jesus Christus, unser Heyland, der von uns etc.

Also, some people from the neighborhood in Carolina came to us in order, God willing, to attend divine services tomorrow or to take Holy Communion with the congregation. We hear that recently it not only rained unusually but that it was also so stormy that the fences were torn down and that the Indian corn was beaten to the ground. God has preserved us from such storms and damage. Some days ago we had good weather for hay, for which reason our people were very industrious in this kind of work; but today at noon we again received a very strong and cold rain with violent thunder, which lasted gently till evening. So far God has preserved us from lightning and fires.

Sunday, the 30th of July. After the thunder ceased yesterday evening, it rained violently deep into the night; but today we have had the kind of weather we have wished, as if it were autumn. Because various people from Carolina were with us and we held Holy Communion with seventy-one people, we had a very large attendance today, to whom the word of the Lord was proclaimed in the morning and afternoon loyally and emphatically. We hear that in other places many people are lying sick with fever, and very many German people in Acton and Vernonburg near Savannah. On the other hand, our dear God has spared our people from such and other sicknesses this summer or else has let them pass quickly, even though they have had more work with their Indian corn in this summer than ever in previous years because it has always been rainy and the chopped-out grass has soon grown back again.

AUGUST

Tuesday, the 1st of August. For some weeks in the prayer meetings and weekday sermons we have contemplated the important, edifying, and exemplary story of the Queen of Sheba in 1 Kings 10:1 ff., which Christ himself presented as a remarkable story in Matthew 12. From it we got to know, and took to heart, the most important teachings that are hidden in it. Today in both churches, to awaken our hearts, I presented from this lovely story and other verses of Holy Scripture the great blessedness of those who come to Christ, who is more than Solomon. Then I explained to our dear parishioners from scripture and from our dear catechism the coming to Christ and also the great bliss of being with and in Him. Oh, what a blessing our merciful God shows us through His holy word, which we can treat in great tranquility, freedom, and Christian unity in the two weekday sermons on the plantations and every evening after work with song and prayer.

As we frequently hear from other places in Carolina and in this colony, a great many of our German compatriots must lack the good things that our kind God has shown us in spiritual and physical matters. There is surely no one among us, not even the weakest widow, who is as poor as most of the Germans in this country are. Some of them use our mills and complain pitiably of their poverty and are now happy to receive a little help from us; and they regret not having settled at our place with their families. Wicked Germans who have been in the land for a long time have filled up their minds with many ungrounded accusations against our land and its arrangements. To their harm they believed these more than the late Pastor Driesler, me, and other upright people.¹

Thursday, the 3rd of August. For several months Mrs. Lechner has been much concerned with the salvation of her soul, and this has influenced her external life, such as her marriage and business affairs. She is now much more industrious, peaceful, and content with everything and more obedient than in former years to her upright and industrious, albeit simple, husband. Her former misbehavior and naughtiness are now causing her great pangs and often such unrest that she needs admonishment and comfort from God’s word. She considers herself highly deserving of all God’s chastisements, and she marvels that our just God has been able to put up with such a sinner for so long, to show her much good, and to offer her His inestimable grace.

She loves her two delicate children tenderly and is afraid God will punish them because of her, the mother’s, wickedness, as it stands at the conclusion of the Ten Commandments. However, I guided her to the promise in it: “He will show mercy to the pious unto the thousandth generation,” likewise, “The son shall not bear the iniquity of the father,” etc. I also gave her instruction according to her present spiritual circumstance concerning some Bible verses such as “Give me, my son, thy heart and let,” etc., “the Son of man is come to seek and save” and also about the story of the serpent lifted up in the desert and mentioned in John 3.² She was able to comprehend all this very well. Since he became pious, her husband has been a right useful and industrious man, whereas formerly, for various reasons, he did not have a good name. He came to a true conversion during a very dangerous sickness; and so far he has remained in it loyally and has increased in recognition and in other Christian matters. He was so consumed by his sickness and had become so miserable that I consider his recovery a miracle of God, as he and his wife also do.

Friday, the 4th of August. Among other beautiful books and tractates from Halle and Augsburg we were also sent the epicedia³ of the old deceased Inspector Freyer, from which our dear God has granted me a new blessing. When I hear or read something about the departure of friends, Fathers, and patrons I know, it makes a deeper impression on my spirit than when I read and hear the same about other people. May my Savior, through His merits and the Holy Ghost, make me ready to follow them blessedly to the place where all pious people have been going for many thousands of years!

The good odor that the servants and the children of God leave behind them in the world after their departure does not only attest their faith but is also a great blessing for the friends left behind and others who like to edify themselves from other examples. Therefore it is a praiseworthy undertaking to print modest funeral orations and biographies, as well as epicedia, which also serve those who are absent. From the hymns printed with it I see that various servants of God whom I knew in the Orphanage in Halle⁴ and greatly esteemed because of their righteous nature are still alive. Some of them already belong among the old disciples of Christ and might well take their departure soon. May the Lord anoint the younger workers with the same spirit with which the old ones were anointed, and may He never let His work there (for which the love in my heart is growing more and more ardent) never lack righteous leaders and workers.

Sunday, the 5th of August. Yesterday evening I received from Abercorn a letter in which the surveyor announces that at the command of the Council in Savannah he has surveyed a part of the land for the Ebenezer ministers. He could not continue with the remainder until he knew whether I was pleased with this and what I further wished. This morning I went to see the entire land together with a knowledgeable Salzburger, who had to be with the surveyor from the beginning of the surveying until the end; and I must admit that its likes are not to be found in the entire district that has been surveyed for our Ebenezer, except for the large island across the Mill River, where, however, no one can actually settle because it is flooded from time time. This new land, on which we wish to take up our long-since mentioned glebe land, lies near Abercorn and the beautiful land that the last German indentured servants have received as their property.⁵ To be sure, it is somewhat remote from Ebenezer, but therefore all the closer to our cowpen; and, since the surrounding land belongs to Ebenezer, it also serves it as a protection so that no one will be able to disturb us in our possession of this so necessary and useful cowpen. Three hundred acres have been surveyed for each minister, and three hundred acres are reserved for a third minister, who will be necessary in time in this area when the entire district is occupied, as is beginning to occur now because of its great fertility.

Here there is not only the most beautiful land for all sorts of crops but also very good wood for building and for trade with barrel staves and such things; also there is such beautiful cattle pasture in both winter and summer that I doubt that there are many such areas in the country. There is also enough water there for men and cattle at all times of the year so that nothing else is lacking but people who can be settled there and who can cultivate the beautiful soil. We do not know whether we will ever receive the means to begin anything there in order to improve our domestic situation, yet it is our duty also to provide for our successors in office and to take up land before it is taken up by others.

No one doubts any longer that the Lord Trustees will permit Negroes, and therefore the best land is being taken up here and there. We are still hoping for servants, since some of them could perform a very useful work here. We did not insist upon this land, rather, contrary to our thoughts and expectations, the providence of God has ordained for us to receive our glebe land in this region. The gentlemen of the Council say that they had no plenipotentiary power to give more than three hundred acres to any one town; yet they are leaving an entire stretch of nine hundred acres together for three ministers until they hear the opinion and will of the Lord Trustees.

Monday, the 7th of August. Just as God granted me a new awakening a few days ago from the biographies and epicidia of the late Inspector Freyer, He has now let me experience the same blessing from the two edifying curricula, namely, of the native preacher, Mr. Aaron, and of the missionary Obuchs (who is still well known to me) in the continuation we have just received of the East Indian Reports;⁶ and for this I heartily praise His goodness. Just as I was partly shamed and partly awakened by the excellent example of the Queen of Sheba, which we contemplated in the prayer meetings and weekday sermons as a trusting soul and valuable tool from heathendom, I must also acknowledge that of the beautiful example of the late Pastor Aaron, whom I had never imagined as I recognize him now from this his curriculum as composed by the worthy missionary. God be praised for the blessing He has granted this blessed man and through him many of his compatriots, as also many Europeans!

Wednesday, the 9th of August. Some time ago I had given a little boy a small gift to encourage him to diligence in learning and to obedience toward his parents. Today I discovered that he had, to be sure, improved in learning but that his obstinacy and disobdience, especially toward his mother, was not yet broken. The worst thing was that the two parents are not of one mind in raising children. Rather, the mother, who is actually a righteous woman, prevents rather than advances disciplining the child with the rod; and therefore a sinful exchange of words has taken place between the formerly contented and compatible parents. I was very well pleased with the husband’s manner of drawing the self-willed boy from the bad and toward the good; whereas I let the wife recognize her mistakes and instructed her how to do better.

So far we have always had much rainy weather. This has, to be sure, done the crops no harm, but it has somewhat delayed the haymaking. Also, the many beautiful peaches like the rainy weather; but many have rotted on the tree before they could be used by drying and by being distilled into brandy. Now they are all past. The beautiful tasty watermelons are sweeter and more delectable in dry and hot summers than in wet and cool ones such as we have had so far. One must marvel how cool it has been this summer and in the preceding dog days not only at night but also by day. Today we have again received dry and warm, yet very bearable weather. It started out as if the water in the river would become as low as in other summers when something had to be repaired on the mills. However, it has begun to rise again and we will have to wait patiently with the intended repairs. There is agreat quantity of eels in our Mill River that bore large holes in the clay of the mill dam and thus make openings for the water that then eats further. We have no sand and stones here but must use earth and clay.

Thursday, the 10th of August. Last night a woman sent to me and said that she would like to complain of her spiritual sorrow to me but that she did not know whether she would live till the next day. Therefore, it would please her if I would come to her. I did so without delay and found her not physicaly, but spiritually, sick; and our dear God gave me wisdom and strength to speak to her from His word as required by her spiritual condition. For some time, especially since her sister’s departure from this world, she has been earnestly concerned with her salvation. However, because she has suffered much weakness and because her conscience uses that as a reason for all sorts of reproaches and not only denies her the grace of God but even a new access to it, she has come into great disquiet and anxiety. It is good that she has not dragged that around with her long but revealed it to her ministers, and from this she has profited through divine mercy. During the prayer my dear Savior strengthened me noticeably so that I received a new awakening and encouragement from these nocturnally requested ministerial duties to perform my office and Christianity with renewed seriousness and loyalty through the grace of God. To be sure, there is a great responsibility in the evangelical ministry; but for various reasons it is also a valuable spiritual blessing for every righteous minister, which should encourage us to true loyalty.

Friday, the 11th of August. Our friend Mr. Habersham wrote me from Savannah that he had received a letter from Mr. White-field in which he has been given joyful news about the great blessing that God has granted him in his office from people of rank and ministers in London. In it he mentioned me, my colleague, and our congregation in a friendly manner. I was afraid, to be sure, that N.’s lack of caution and the calumny of another man in London might have turned the heart of this Mr. White-field from me. Mr. Habersham had written to him about my fear and thrown a better light on the evilly interpreted matter. Yet he explained himself so well in the letter that has just arrived that I can be very well satisfied.

Monday, the 14th of August. We hear from Savannah that very many Indians have come to Savannah under the guidance of an English minister, Bosomworth, to fetch their gifts.⁷ On this occasion they are acting very defiantly and shamelessly and putting the inhabitants in worry and fear. They would have received their gifts at their own place, and the purpose of the gifts would have been better achieved if the said man had not caused this disturbance. Parliament has ordered three thousand pounds Sterling annually for gifts for the Indians in Georgia and South Carolina; but one has noticed that the kinder the English nation has shown itself to the Indians, the wilder and more spiteful they have become; and they claim from the inhabitants of this colony things that cannot be conceded to them. The said man has done great harm among these people, and he is blamed for all the misfortune that is feared.

Tuesday, the 15th of August. Yesterday evening my dear colleague brought me the sad news that Paul Müller’s wife/Apollonia/ had been bitten by a poisonous snake, which people here call a rattlesnake, and that she has come into mortal danger. Her husband immediately opened the snake, which she herself had killed, and put its lung and liver on the wound, from which bright blood was running; and he also laid the posteriors of living chickens warm on the wound and gave the weak patient theriac with brandy. It appears that God blessed these means so that she seems to be out of danger provided she follows the advice she was given to keep herself in a gentle perspiration. To be sure, her foot and half of her leg are inflamed and swollen; but the pains in her breast, to which the poison had climbed, have subsided. Just as we prayed for her publicly and privately, we also praised our dear God, who doeth great things at all ends of the earth, for this new proof of His miraculous goodness. This I also did with her and her children in their house (for the father was not at home).

I also told her from God’s word how she should properly apply this danger and her great rescue from it; and during this I told her the exemplary story in Numbers 21. She is an industrious and honest woman, and she suffered this unexpected incident while mowing grass. The bite of the rattlesnake is usually always fatal, and its poison is supposed to have the most violent and swift effect. It is even said that when a piece of of its exceptionally sharp teeth gets stuck in a shoe, boot, etc. and afterwards touches the limb of a man or animal, the limb will swell up and draw death after it. As the best remedy against the bite of this and other snakes it is recommended that the bitten person hold his foot up quickly because the poison does not descend but rises upwards. Also the leg must be bound tightly above the wound, and common kitchen salt must be placed on the wound.

Thursday, the 17th of August. The weather is continuing to be more wet and cool than dry and warm. If we had a thermometer to measure and determine the degree of cold or warmth, our friends in Europe would be amazed how cool it can be in this climate at this season. Here one must change clothes and blankets in summer as well as in winter and use now lighter ones and now cooler ones. Whoever keeps himself too cool in the evening, night, or morning will soon contract difficulties in his health. The sudden changes in weather, likewise the heating and chilling of the body, seem to me to be the chief cause of the many fevers and other bodily weaknesses.⁸ Those who eat the local grapes very frequently complain of diarrhea and say that they are not as healthy as they are in Europe. Now the so-called fox grapes are becoming ripe which are large black grapes, the size of which we have never seen in Europe (as far as the individual grapes are concerned). They grow in large numbers on the banks of the rivers and in other low areas, some on low and some on very high vines; they have a thick skin and taste sweet and pleasant. There is also a very small grapevine in the dry forests, which only runs along the ground and bears similar grapes.

Sunday, the 19th of August. Yesterday evening I again received news in a letter about the great disturbance that the Indians are making at the instigation of N. and his wife.⁹ She is a half Indian, and her brother is a wild and impudent chief among the Indians; and therefore she has a large following among them. If they are so wild and malicious at this time that such imposing gifts are being distributed to them, how much we will have to fear afterwards if God does not hold His hand over us and our land? As soon as I heard a few months ago that General Oglethorpe’s regiment was going to be cashiered, I wrote to the commandant at Frederica, Col. Heron, and announced to him among other things that, with regard to the Indians, I feared that the gifts that had come for them from England would not accomplish as much among them as the presence of the regiment, and I have now been confirmed in this belief by a new example.

This evening one of our inhabitants told me that various Indians had passed by our cowpen on horseback, and one was also seen on horseback on the plantations. Therefore I hope they will finally be satisfied and be sent back to their homes. They should not have received their gifts in Savannah but rather at the place of their residence; but the frequently mentioned N. and his half-Indian wife are to blame for this and similar disorders. They both wish to travel to England; perhaps they will not be allowed to return, which would be for the best.

Sunday, the 20th of August. This 13th Sunday after Trinity has been a pleasant and joyful day for us for various important reasons, but especially because it was the birthday of our dearest and highly esteemed Senior Urlsperger, the day on which he first saw the light of day sixty-four years ago. I already looked forward to this day several days ago to praise the Lord, our everlasting Savior, with our dear parishioners for the goodness He has shown to this our worthy father and benefactor and to petition our heavenly Father to give him new strength of mind and body for this sixty-fifth year that he has entered. This I also did today in the public Sunday prayer meeting. Beforehand we sang from the little hymnal Selected Hymns¹⁰ (which we have again been using temporarily for several weeks in the evening prayer meetings for repeating the newly learned hymns) the beautiful hymn Auf, o Seele, preise deines Schöpfers Güte, etc. and after the prayer, intercession, and thanksgiving the three last verses of the hymn Lobe meine Seele! deines Jesu Thaten, etc. But beforehand we announced to those who were singing and praying that today was the birthday of our dearest Senior, whom we, above all others, had reason to celebrate with praise, thanks, and prayer.

Tuesday, the 22nd of August. A young person from Purysburg who has sojourned around our place for some time as a day laborer was bitten on his thumb yesterday by a rattlesnake, and from that his hand and arm are very swollen and the poison has penetrated a bit to his heart; yet with God’s blessing he has been helped so far that he can go around again even if he cannot yet use his hand. Thanks be to God who can still always avert a misfortune. May He give grace so that the purpose of this chastisement will be achieved both in this person, who is not yet in a good condition, and also in others of the congregation.

When I was writing the former at four o’clock this afternoon I received the sad news that Mrs. /Elisabetha/ Meyer, the wife of our very useful surgeon and justiciar, had died. I had been with her shortly before and had had a very pleasant conversation with her and her husband from the gospel about Christ, the friend of sinners, and about the glory of eternal life, at which her mind was entirely aimed. Then, on our knees, we presented in prayer our and our patient’s circumstances to our dear Savior. During this we profited especially from His noteworthy love for poor sinners according to the content of the 7th chapter of Luke and thus strengthened ourselves in our faith in His name. I had scarcely taken leave and had not yet reached my house before she had another hemorrhage as she did yesterday and in the previous night. When Mr. Meyer wished to hold her head and raise her up, she suddenly died. Now he is experiencing what I guided her to shortly before and also last night: “The lamb that is in the midst of the throne shall feed them, and shall lead them unto living fountains of water”¹¹

Her entire life with us was a constant cross, during which she had not a single truly healthy day; and it is said that it was that way with her in Memmingen. Through the grace of God she bore her external and internal cross willingly and patiently; and, when it would sometimes seem too long or too hard in her very great pain, she greatly humbled herself before her Savior because of such disorderly emotions of impatience and implored Him for forgiveness. Her heart was always full of her Savior and of chosen Bible verses, and through them I was abundantly edified as often as I visited her. Yesterday she had me called unexpectedly to give her instruction, counsel, and comfort from the living word of God in her weakness; and this occurred through the grace of my Savior. Shortly before, my heart had been awakened through His spirit from reading Senior Heinold’s little book The Necessary Combination of the Law and the Gospel and had been prepared for this ministerial duty of mine.¹²

Wednesday, the 23rd of August. Mrs. Meyer was buried this afternoon and God showed much good to my body and soul. For He armed me in my weakness with strength and joy to hold the funeral oration concerning the beautiful funeral text, which the deceased herself had chosen from Psalms 61:2-3 and written down along with some lovely hymns. Just as my dear Savior filled my heart then with peace and joy, I hope He will also have raised up our dear Mr. Meyer through this dear word of the blessedness of true Christians in time and eternity and will have encouraged him to a new seriousness in his Christianity. In spiritual matters he owes many thanks to his pious wife, so experienced in her Christianity, just as he praises the grace of God that he was saved from conformity to the world by her merits and was brought to the way of life.

Yesterday and today there was very violent weather, but at the funeral it was quite bearable; therefore we thank God for letting us hit the right time. Since Monday we have had constant rain and very cool weather both day and night.

Friday, the 25th of August. Not only did it rain heavily off and on last week, but the rain also continued this week from Monday to Friday both day and night and filled all places with much water. At times we also had great storm winds from the northwest; and, because the rain clouds were coming from there, we may well fear that it has rained as much up there in the mountains as down here; and therefore we can fear a great flood and inundation in the low areas along the river and therefore at our mills. If, as it appears, the Savannah River should suddenly overflow at this time and rise out of its banks, then not only many cattle will perish but also much Indian corn and rice will spoil. The wheat harvest was greatly damaged, and now if the hand of God were also to destroy the corn, beans, squash, and rice, it would be hard on the poor (since white flour and other breadstuffs are very expensive); yet it would not be more than a merited punishment for our sins.

Saturday, the 26th of August. Someone wrote to me from Savannah that the disturbance from the Indians is completly over and that nothing is to be feared from them now. They have moved back to their homes.

Today the sky cleared again and it appears that we will again have dry weather after the much rain because the wind has shifted directly to the west. It rained in Savannah as violently as here, the water in the rivers has risen so high in twenty-four hours that all the mills have stopped. We still expect a great flood from upstream.

Monday, the 28th of August. We are convinced more and more that the low rich land is, to be sure, very fertile, but not the best for that reason. Rather, those who have their plantations on high, even if somewhat poorer land, have the advantage, as can easily be seen now when there has been so much rain. On the said low rich soil everything is so saturated that the corn has fallen and is either being brought in half ripened or must spoil in the mud. On the other hand, on the high ground, even in the so-called pine woods, the corn, beans, squash, etc. are standing so beautifully that it could hardly be any more beautiful.

A man planted rice on a low wet spot right in the middle of the pine forest, which is now standing as abundantly as if it had been planted on the actually rich low riceland. It again seems to me that those who have bad land on their plantations have received the most corn, beans, and other crops. It depends more upon industry and the grace of God than on the soil; and I believe that, if the colonists here did not lack the two, they would have no reason to complain so much about the lack of good land. The land behind Abercorn, and not far from our cowpen, pleases us best; it is not too high and not too low, and it is uncommonly convenient for planting and cattle raising. Perhaps God will bless our efforts with the Council in Savannah so that, just as we have received the three imposing tracts of land of nine hundred acres in the neighborhood of Abercorn for our three preachers, we will also acquire a good district for the benefit of our cowpen and congregation.

Tuesday, the 29th of August. A young single woman has had to be kept from Holy Communion because of her wickedness and obstinacy, but she did not pay much attention to it, rather she continued in her frivolous and disobedient way, even though we worked on her in great love and with the word and by showing her physical benefactions. Finally it became unbearable for her master that she was making no effort to prepare herself worthily for the Lord’s Table. He therefore announced to her that, if she would not conform to order, he would no longer suffer her in his house. She was, to be sure, defiant and looked around for another shelter; but, when I received news of this, I took her to task in the presence of her master and his wife and told her, according to the introduction of Dr. Luther’s small catechism, how miserable and perilous her spiritual condition was and what punishment would be undertaken to break her defiance and disobedience and, if possible, to save her soul. I also told her of what great spiritual and physical blessings she would rob herself if she did not accept good advice soon and conform to Christian order. Since then I have noticed that she wishes to turn over a new leaf. Today she came to me and announced that God had awakened her heart to a new seriousness to save her soul; and she asked me to admit her once again to the Lord’s Table.

Wednesday, the 30th of August. Since the last great rain we have had right warm summer days, which is very good for ripening the grain and for making hay. The water in the river has again fallen a few inches and our mills are all in full operation, which is a great blessing for both the inhabitants and for strangers. Perhaps it will fall so far that the necessary repairs we recently mentioned can be made. For at high water the base of the dam cannot be repaired.

Our worthy Mr. von M. /Münch/ has done us a very pleasant favor by sending us Mr. Sturm’s beautiful tractate on mill-construction.¹³ A correction has been made in one of the mill courses according to its directions, and, to be sure, with very good success and little expense. Now with low water twice as much can be ground as previously with much water. If we let as much water fall on it as we used to use, the mill would go too fast and the meal would burn between the heated stones. Now we can grind sixteen to twenty bushels in fourteen hours; and I find it incomprehensible when it is said that as much, or almost the same quantity, can be ground in one hour in some mills (even if not in most) in Europe. The Salzburgers have not experienced this in their country. If we let this one and the other low course run as fast as they could according to the force of the water, especially after the new changes, many pieces would be broken by the power of the water; and, as previously mentioned, the flour would burn and become brown and bad-tasting. If the stones have become hot from the continuous grinding, the miller must stop the mill from time to time to cool them off.

We must acknowledge with thanks that on both mills we can grind thirty-two London bushels or more in a day and night or twenty-four hours. Every bushel is poured on and sent through three times, or four at the desire of some people. If we were to have a builder versed in mills for even a short time, much could be improved in our mills with little cost, as I now see from this example. My dear colleague has a good insight into mechanical things and is making Mr. Sturm’s previously mentioned book useful to our mills, but we are lacking skillful and experienced carpenters among us. The two who possess good ability, namely Kogler and Rottenberger, have so much to do with their households, farming, cattle raising, and other things that we cannot get them for the necessary work. They cannot be persuaded to lay aside all other things and work only with their handicraft. They would have more work all year long than they could tend to; and they would become rich, if they were economical. Our other carpenters understand little or nothing and are not disposed to learn anything. Perhaps God will grant us some good carpenters from Germany, who would find work and rich support here.¹⁴ We hoped to receive letters from Europe with the last opportunity from Charleston in order to learn whether or not we are to have servants; we received nothing, nor did the Councilmen.

Thursday, the 31st of August. The righteous and very skillful Brandner has been so weak for the past year that he has been entirely incapable of any work. He has the pale color of death on his face, he has no strength in his limbs, and he becomes tired from walking or doing the least work. A couple of other men seem to have his same sickness, which I consider a hectica. To be sure, they have used much medicine from Mr. Thilo and Mr. Meyer but have detected no good from it. A short time ago Brandner was told by Mr. David Zübli of Purysburg and some other people that a certain Swiss there knew of a good medication against this sickness and had already helped some people. To be sure, I could not advise him to use a medication that we did not know; however, since he cannot find any counsel here and the medicines he has taken have had no effect, I could not advise him against the trip to this otherwise very Christian and knowledgeable man. Today he had an opportunity to go down there; may God let it turn out well and may He, according to His gracious will, grant this pious Salzburger his health again, to the joy of his wife and three children. If it were my office and I could discover the statum morbi¹⁵ of these and those unusual patients, I would gladly request counsel from the physicians in Germany, who are our patrons.

SEPTEMBER

Friday, the 1st of September. This afternoon Mr. Lemke traveled to Savannah in order to preach to the German people the day after tomorrow, the Fifteenth Sunday after Trinity, to hold Holy Communion with some of them, and to baptize some children. Mr. Meyer accompanied him because he had some business with the authorities. May God let both of them accomplish much good! Things are rather hard and difficult for the German people both in Savannah and in Abercorn, where at present very few families are settled on the new and very fertile land. However, we little note that they humble themselves before God and regret, among others, the sins that they have committed through all sorts of disloyalty in their short years of service in this country. Some, perhaps even most of them, secretly hate our place and its arrangements, even if they have received many kinds of spiritual and physical blessings from here. They begrudge our people the advantages that our merciful God has granted them in many ways over other inhabitants of this country. Many of these German indentured servants could have come to our place during their service if they had not let themselves be prejudiced against us by the other German people in and near Savannah and had not believed their lies and calumnies more than what was told them about us by our worthy Court Chaplain Ziegenhagen, Pastor Driesler, and others.¹

Saturday, the 2nd of September. Riedelsperger’s smallest child, four months old, died and was blessedly buried this afternoon. God granted both the adults and the children at the funeral a new awakening for an evangelical preparation for blessed eternity, as we could clearly perceive from their gestures and tears. At every burial we hold a funeral oration, during which we do not look to the praise of the deceased but to the edification of the living. In cases of death, people’s minds are usually awakened and observant; and therefore the word that is preached surely makes a deeper impression. This child’s parents are both heartily pious; and they praise God for the departure of this delicate and physically very miserable child, and I found this Christian attitude very impressive and pleasing when I visited them today after school (without knowing that it had already died).

Sunday, the 3rd of September. Since the last heavy rain we have had eight days of dry weather and a couple of days of right pleasant weather; and from Savannah we have received news that no flood or inundation is to be feared, since the river upstream was not raised more than three feet by the last rain. Praise be to God, who has graciously averted from our region that which we had feared. Toward Charleston it is said to have rained most unusually and the ricefields are under water. To be sure, rice can bear the water, but not over the tips of the ears; if it goes above them, then the rice spoils quickly. This crop is now very expensive and hardly to be had. The same is true of wheat flour, a hundred pounds of which costs twenty-five shillings Sterling.

Tuesday, the 5th of September. Today my dear colleague returned safe and sound from Savannah. He not only had to preach in Savannah and hold Holy Communion for some people of our confession, but also, at the request of the weak people of Acton and Abercorn, he had to preach at their place and baptize two children. On the way home to Ebenezer he was fetched from Abercorn to the few German people who have settled behind Abercorn in order to baptize a child. God strengthened him noticeably in all these activities; but during his absence God let me become sick with tertian fever. I have already begun to recover, for which I rightfully praise His goodness. On Sunday morning I preached here concerning the words of Job 10:12, “Thou hast granted me life and favor, and thy visitation hath preserved my spirit”; and from this our good God showed me much good. In the afternoon I treated, from the regular gospel for the Fifteenth Sunday after Trinity, a part of the important dogma of divine providence and care.

Thursday, the 7th of September. The younger /Martin/ Lackner and his wife are both sickly people, she is in childbed and can spare herself little because she has no servant in the house and there is much work with three small children. They are patient and content and gratefully accept help in physical things and encouragement in spritual ones. The children are being prepared in town for Holy Communion, and he told me that after the lesson he had found one of them kneeling under a tree and praying heartily. This had both shamed and awakened him. He had to admit that until now he had preferred to read and hear than to pray and that he had therefore not progressed properly in his Christianity. I heartily wished that he would show more seriousness both in his Christianity and also in his external business affairs.

Saturday, the 9th of September. After the heavy rain we had about eight days of right desirable dry and warm weather, which is much needed for making hay and harvesting the crops, also for the ripening of some of them; but for the past two days wet weather has begun again, and it also seems to cause the cold fever of which we are again hearing now and then. The water in the river has again become so low that we must marvel, but it will probably not remain that way for long.

The German people in Congarees (a newly settled place in South Carolina, a hundred and fifty miles upcountry from Charleston) requested me some time ago in a letter to visit them and put them aright. Now a good friend has written me from Charleston that he is advising me to this trip because on it I would see various useful kinds of agriculture in Carolina and at the said place to the benefit of our inhabitants and also make other good observations. At the same time I would have an opportunity to recover the three serving boys who ran away from us and, along with their parents, ran to the said Congarees and wish to settle there.² He said the governor would help me in this. However well this friend means it and however useful the suggested things appear, I cannot resolve to undertake such a long, expensive, and time-consuming trip, partly because of my weak physical constitution, partly because of my actual professional duties at home, and partly because of the hardships of traveling in this country. The mentioned external matters actually belong to the office of our agent and justiciar, Mr. Meyer. How little might I accomplish with these people in spiritual matters I can learn from the example of their compatriots in and around Savannah. Congarees is a Colluuies prauorum hominum.³

Sunday, the 10th of September. On this Sixteenth Sunday after Trinity we held Holy Communion with seventy people, among them two from Purysburg and two who have just come to the congregation. May God let it redound to their salvation!

The locksmith /Schrempf/, who unnecessarily moved to Carolina some time ago, has a great desire to return here with his family; but returning will not be as easy as leaving because: 1) He sold his house and farm and what God had granted him here, and now he must first buy himself another house and build a forge. 2) Because there is very little money in Carolina, he had to do most of his work for credit, and now he will have much trouble and loss in collecting his debts. 3) He burned his feet in a charcoal heap, and his wife has become mortally sick, and their child has scarcely shown any improvement. He sent a messenger here today to fetch medicine.

Thursday, the 14th of September. I have been weakly for several days; and, because changes of air have been beneficial to my health at other times, I undertook a complete change four days ago and went down to Savannah with a good opportunity, from where, God be praised, I returned safe and sound today at midday. But I had more to do there than I had expected, for, in addition to having some business with the President and the other gentlemen of the Council, I had to baptize four children, partly of English and partly of German parents. A pious woman had some scruples about some expressions in the English baptismal formula, of which I freed her to her complete satisfaction; and afterwards the baptismal service was performed in the presence of her righteous husband and some Christian friends with mutual edification.

Some good news has reached Savannah: Parliament is said to have given the Lord Trustees 1500 pounds Sterling for the good of our colony. Two shiploads of German people are said to be underway to this colony either as free people or as indentured servants, likewise, in place of Oglethorpe’s regiment another complete regiment is coming to protect this colony. To be sure, we have no written assurance of these new reports, since no letters have arrived, yet they are not doubted because the captain and several passengers, who arrived recently at Charleston in a ship, brought them. There is much dangerous fever in Carolina.

Friday, the 15th of September. Because of the plentiful rain we can well call this year a wet year, which, however, is a fruitful year through divine blessing. Even if the wheat and rye did not turn out well on all plantations, they still turned out all right on some of our plantations and at other places; and the Indian corn and beans, like the remaining crops, have a very nice appearance in the fields. Last night we had an unexpected severe thunderstorm with very heavy rain, and after that there arose wind and cool weather. In the past summer the storms have been few and not so violent as in other years.

Saturday, the 16th of September. For some time our dear God has been visiting the righteous Hans Flerl’s righteous wife with many physical trials, especially with painful illnesses, in which she, as a Christian, has shown herself as a true Christian. Today she told me that it made a deep impression on her heart that the pious widow Zant, who is poor and has to support two children and a serving girl, had brought her some butter as a gift. She herself, she said, has a husband and a serving boy and has been able to do little or nothing for this pious widow. This Mrs. Flerl stands in great poverty of spirit, in which she considers the good works of other Christians better than her own.

Wednesday, the 20th of September. N.N. told me with joy that he now has hopes that his wife will truly devote her heart to the Lord Jesus. He said that, because of her love of the world, he had formerly doubted that she would ever be won. When I came to her on their plantation she told me that for some time she had had a strange feeling but did not know how to adapt herself to it. She still feels, she said, great joy in her dear Savior and has such a desire for His kind words that she would like to concern herself with them always. However, she said, she did not trust herself because she had formerly been full of hypocrisy and did not rightly regret her many sins that she has committed since childhood. Nevertheless, it pains her greatly to have insulted such a good Lord; also, she still feels very weak and is easily overwhelmed by frivolity and other spiritual enemies so that she is about to lose all comfort in Christ. And it seems to her that everything she feels in her heart about Christ and His word is nothing but her imagination. I recited for her the verse 1 Peter 12⁴ “As newborn babes, desire the sincere milk of the word,” . . .” If so be ye have tasted,” etc.; and I gave her other instruction and admonition in keeping with her circumstances.

Sunday, the 23rd of September. Not very long ago N. from N. lived in great disunity with his wife, and they had to be heard by Mr. Meyer and me. When I heard not long ago that they were getting along well together and that the good admonitions they had received at the time from God’s word had not remained fruitless, I gave her some money to use in her coming childbed, and thus I showed my pleasure in her Christian behavior. Today I heard the sad news that she had borne a dead child, which had died in the womb some days earlier, and was therefore in dangerous and distressing circumstances. We are asking God to let this severe and distressing event redound to the spiritual good of these people and graciously to avert such a thing from our other married couples. Perhaps another incident contributed to this present one, which recently happened to the pregnant woman. She had collected a kind of chestnut from a tree in the forest and inadvertently touched a certain worm, which was about one and a fifth inches long and as rough as a young hedgehog, which suddenly caused such pain as if she had been bitten by a poisonous snake. That has already occurred to several people among us in former years, including my wife, from which they were almost in mortal danger. The rough worm hangs very still on a leaf or twig; if a person just touches a hair with his limb, an almost unbearable pain starts immediately in the same limb and goes right to the heart and causes the person mortal fear just as a snakebite does. Today I let my children show me such a worm. It neither flies nor runs away but just pulls itself together like a hedgehog and is not easily killed because of its hairy skin.

Sunday, the 24th of September. In this autumn God has visited various of our dear inhabitants with fevers; therefore it has occurred that our assembly in the church this Sunday was not as large as it is usually accustomed to be. Our two schoolmasters are also sick, and things seem to be perilous for Köcher, the schoolmaster on the plantations.

Tuesday, the 26th of September. In the daytime we are now having right desirable dry and warm weather, which is very good for making hay and ripening the crops. On the other hand, it is severely cold. The water in the river has fallen so much that in some places the boat can hardly get across the sand. It has not been so low for a long time; but it serves us, too, since our mill dam can be repaired all the better without hindrance.

News has come to our place that five ships full of German people, among them also Salzburgers, are said to be underway, who are being sent here by the Lord Trustees.⁵

Thursday, the 28th of September. The locksmith N. /Schrempf/and his honest wife no longer wish to remain in Carolina. He has scarcely recovered from a dangerous sickness, and he came to us by land to make his removal to here certain. In his sickness God let him feel in his conscience the great sin of moving away from Ebenezer and the great spiritual and physical harm that he caused himself and his family. He wishes to thank God if he again has the good fortune to be a member of our congregation. He has bought a house here and will move here shortly. His example has made a deep impression on those of us who have desired to make a change. He is an industrious and skillful worker, and we can well use him.

The crops have turned out very well this year; and, because the birds are finding enough nourishment in the forest from grapes and other berries and also from little nuts and other plants, they are sparing the ricefields and cornfields. As soon as we have harvested the corn and beans and whatever else God has granted, we will hold our harvest and thanksgiving celebration, as is properly done each year. If our inhabitants had been able to plant more, they would have profited more abundantly during this fruitful year; but they were lacking strength and hired hands, still they are getting all they need.

OCTOBER

Sunday, the first of October. On this Sunday, the Nineteenth Sunday after Trinity, our merciful God has let us live a new month in rest, health, and blessing; and for this it is mete and right that we give Him humble praise. Last month He did, to be sure, send many kinds of fever and weakness among us after the many rains we had in the summer and the beginning of fall; yet in comparison with others in Carolina, it has still been quite bearable. We are now having a very dry period that is very good for the harvest. It must be the same way among the Indians up in the mountains because the Savannah River has become so low that the ebb and flood can be detected at our place and even up in Ebenezer Creek, and this has seldom happened.¹ The flood tide usually comes up to the milldam unless the water in the main river is so high and strong that it does not allow the flood to come up. The Mill River is very convenient for us for going between here to Savannah by boat, and it is a great blessing.²

None of the mills can operate now, but the water needs to rise only a little and then we will be able to use the lower course again. The mills are such a great blessing for us that no one who has a Christian spirit can think of them without praising God.

Monday, the 2nd of October. A friend communicated a couple of letters to me which Mr. Zouberbuhler (the Anglican preacher in Savannah) had sent from London to a friend in Savannah, and which give this reliable news: 1) that the Lord Trustees will send a transport of poor German people here to Georgia at their own humble request, with whom he himself (Mr. Zouberbuhler) will return to his former post after having achieved what he wished, a salary of fifty pounds Sterling annually. 2) that the Lord Trustees have received from Parliament for this colony not the £15,000 Sterling (as it was spread around here) but only £5304. This sum will hardly suffice to pay the many debts in this country, therefore we can hardly presume that they will send our inhabitants such loyal and industrious servants as we have requested. Furthermore, the secretary of the Lord Trustees has now written the same thing to the President and Council. When hearing such reports, my heart always says, “May He do with us and this land as it well pleases Him!”

Tuesday, the 10th of October. At the beginning of last week I had necessary business with the Council in Savannah; and, because our German servants also arrived there, I had to remain there for eight full days. I will summarize the main events that have occurred during my sojourn in Savannah and most concern our congregation in the following points: 1) God has so blessed my presentations, which were supported by Mr. Habersham (a member of the Council), that the gentlemen of the Council have granted our community all the good land behind Abercorn and up to our cowpen; and this will be surveyed for those who have have been provided with no land so far or only with very bad land. It is an excellent stretch of land, of which kind little is to be found. We have also had our glebe land surveyed in the same district, all told 600 acres, and an additional 300 acres for a minister who might come to a future congregation in this area.

Because Negroes or Moorish slaves are permitted now under certain conditions, good land will become scarce. Should the 300 acres for a third minister not be necessary, it can be used for the good of the young people among us when they come of age. On the other hand, the so-called Uchee land near us on the Savannah River will be reserved for some of our older inhabitants and workers, but especially for the loyal servants whom we are now getting and shall get in the future.

2) Sixty-three German people arrived fresh and sound in Savannah on the 3rd and 4th of this month, who were very well cared for by a good-natured captain named Peter Bogg. Only one single little boy died on the sea; on the other hand one was born at sea and still another soon after the arrival in Savannah. All of them were brought to a spacious house that belongs to our old friend in England, Mr. Jones,³ and were maintained there at the cost of the Lord Trustees. Here I had an opportunity to preach the word of God to them in the evening prayer meetings and also in church on the Twentieth Sunday after Trinity, and in them I had right attentive and desirous hearers. For some time, whenever I have come to Savannah, I have been accustomed to lay the Ten Commandments as a basis of my sermon; and for this I have made use of the very thorough and important examinations of the heart from the late Ambrosius Wirth’s Confession and Holy Communion Booklet.⁴ Now I was ordained to explain and inculcate into the hearts of the newcomers and others the content of the Fourth Commandment, which follows in the order of contemplation; and God granted me much help in this.

On Sunday I treated the regular gospel Matthew 22 concerning the wrath of our holy and just God at the scorners of His grace. In the exordium we contemplated the words from Psalms 90:11, “Who knoweth the power of thine anger?,” etc. After one of the prayer meetings some young people came to me and said that, to be sure, it had not gone well with them on the sea voyage but rather some of them had behaved very badly, but the fault for that lay in that they had no word of God on the whole journey.

3) The authorities in Savannah and also other inhabitants there have, to be sure, attested enough that they would rather have Negroes than white people as servants, as the Lord Trustees well enough know. Nevertheless, they have selected twenty-one people from this transport, for some they have paid six pounds Sterling and some they have charged to the Trustees. These are mostly useful craftsmen like carpenters, wheelwrights, cabinetmakers, etc. and the most useful people. I have now brought to our place five families with children, two single little girls whose parents are serving one of the Councilmen, and fifteen single men who are mostly bakers, millers, tailors, and shoemakers. These were distributed in good order today by lot to our dear worn-out inhabitants as far as they would go, but the remainder got none.

Some servants from this transport have the promise from the gentlemen in Savannah that they will not have to serve more than one or two years; and it seems hard on those who were left for us to have to serve three years and five months. Because I was afraid of disorder and annoyance from this at our place, I had all our servants assembled and told them that I did not wish to take any to our place under compulsion. Therefore every man should tell me whether he would rather remain in Savannah and buy himself free in about three months (as the Trustees’ permission reads) or go with me to Ebenezer where there were, to be sure, good foodstuffs but no work for them other than farming and cattle raising. They chose the latter and promised to follow their calling loyally. Otherwise I was resolved to follow the example of other people in Savannah and choose the best and to leave the others for the Lord Trustees and their agents in Savannah.

Two large families, who have very small children, could not be sheltered here by any householder; and therefore they fell through necessity to me and my dear colleague. We are engaging a pious Salzburger to instruct them in their work on a piece of land on the Mill River. I hope that the Lord Trustees will allow us something for their maintenance, as they are doing for the minister in Savannah with his big salary, who is receiving £24 Sterling annually to support his two servants. 5) The Lord Trustees have now allowed the introduction of Negroes, and the stipulations for that are not only fitting but pleasing. We will now see whether the colony will flourish from it.

Wednesday, the 11th of October. After the arrival of these servants a heavier burden has fallen on me than I have had in previous years. God, who has helped me numerous times in my whole life in miraculous ways, will mercifully help me further in everything and through everything that He lays on me so that I will be able to praise His name here and there.

Thursday, the 12th of October. One of our servants drawn by lots, a shoemaker by trade, was redeemed yesterday for £6 Sterling; and by this our honest and sickly Brandner was robbed of his servant, for which he had waited for several years. This anomaly can not be prevented because, according to their contract with the Lord Trustees, all these servants have three months grace to redeem themselves by anyone they wish and however they can. If this disadvantageous point were not in the contract, it would be better for us and for these servants.

Saturday, the 14th of October. During this dry autumn the Savannah River has become so small that the trees and trunks that have fallen into it stick up at many places or are covered with only a little water. That caused a boat that was coming down from Augusta loaded high with 1,200 pounds of deer hides to be capsized and the leather, that had to lie in the water for twelve days, to be totally spoiled. On both sides of the river stand a multitude of high and thick trees that sometimes fall into the river in heavy wind and rain, by which the earth is greatly softened. Indeed, many people who have their plantations along the river have the bad habit of felling the trees into the river and thus making the journey inconvenient and unsafe. In coming upstream, the boats must always keep close to shore where the current is weakest and the rowing easiest. The river has many bends; and therefore, when it comes around the corners, it rushes along with unusual violence. Because it is so crooked and has high trees on both sides, one can hardly use the wind and a sail as far as Purysburg.

When our servants arrived at Savannah, I sighed to God that, according to His gracious will, He might grant as much water as is needed for a mill course, because I well knew how necessary the use of the mill was at this time, when there is no flour or bread, rice, or anything else (with the exception of meat) in Savannah. On the same evening that I was planning to depart from Savannah with our newcomers, a small boat came from our place and brought me the joyful news that the lower mill course had unexpectedly received water again and that it could grind a rather large quantity by day and night. Thus God appears with His help at a time that we need it most. For a short time the low water has been a great blessing, because our milldam could be repaired as desired.

Monday, the 16th of October. Today I heard complaints from two householders about their servants, who acted restless because they had to serve longer than some in Savannah and threatened to run away. Their behavior moved me to call them all to me this afternoon with their masters so that I might speak with them about what was necessary for our and their good. First I let them show me the recommendations they had brought from Germany, from which Mr. Meyer wrote down their baptismal and family names, their homeland, and the place of their birth. Then I told them that an unpleasant report of unrest and evil intentions of some young people had caused me to hold this meeting. I told them that already for some years we had desired servants from Germany who had learned only farming and field work and who, we thought, would fit here best. We had also hoped to receive them. However, because they (our present servants) had offered themselves to the Lord Trustees to be sent to this colony as hired hands and serving girls, then the servants we had actually desired had had to remain behind. For the Lord Trustees had expressly written that Senior Urlsperger should not deal with any others, because it was not in the Trustees’ means to do more for us than to send the present servants.

Now, before they were sent here, it had been told them often enough in London in the name of the Trustees that their tradesmen, such as bakers (which most in their transport are), millers, weavers, etc. had no value in this country, rather the most usual and frequent business was agriculture, and those who did not wish it should remain behind. In spite of that, they had chosen to come here. After many of these servants had been taken away from me in Savannah and I had noticed some unrest and disinclination to serve in Ebenezer, I had resolved to take with me only those who were willing to serve and to leave the unwilling ones there, but none of them who are here wished to remain behind, rather they promised to serve loyally. Now they should consider how improperly and unChristianly they were behaving when they were restless and glum about working or even wished to run away. For then they would disgracefully and irresponsibly break the contract that they had solemnly made with the Lord Trustees and now with the Council and of which they had a copy with them. In it they had promised with their mouths and with their signatures and their seals to serve for four years as serving men and women.

This breach of contract would bring them no blessing because it would be connected with a great loss on the part of our worn-out inhabitants. For, if they had not let themselves be sent here, then we would have received our real servants from Germany; and after their running away much time would pass before we could acquire the loyal servants we desired. This is not to mention that through the payment of the great sum for their passage the Lord Trustees were made unable to send servants for us now. Now, to deprive such prominent and beneficent gentlemen as the Lord Trustees of their money and our poor inhabitants such great loss in their support was surely no small sin and would bring them much dishonor if we should report their behavior to the Trustees and even to their fatherland. The Lord Trustees, I said, were prominent and very influential people who would report it to the King, who is also the Prince Elector of Hanover, so that such renegades and deceivers would be punished here in America or in their homeland if they returned home. Moreover, in the Empire, in Wurttemberg and other places, we had prominent benefactors who would easily find them out as cheats.

If their families knew to what place divine providence had led them, where they have the pure word of God and the Holy Sacraments and abundant opportunity for edification and godliness, then they would doubtless be much more satisfied by that than if they had come to Carolina, Cape Fear, Virginia, or Nova Scotia (where many Germans are now going), where Evangelical ministers and Christian order are wholly lacking. If they should prove themselves among us as Christian and industrious, then God would bless them and I would do my best to look out for their spiritual and physical welfare. Indeed, it might be so arranged that some of the loyal and industrious people would have their years of service somewhat shortened, for which the Lord Trustees would give their consent at my request. In conclusion I directed them to the words of Christ, “What I do thou knowest not now; but thou shalt know hereafter”⁵ and to the story of Joseph and the little book of Tobias, which I recommended to them and their masters for later devout reading. I also promised to help them get good books; and right after the conclusion of the meeting I gave each of them a New Testament with the Psalter bound with it, which they were to bring along regularly to church for looking things up. Finally, the meeting was closed with prayer, and we parted from one another in good order and peace.

Wednesday, the 18th of October. The carpenter Krause worked hard while feverish and became dangerously sick as a result. He asked me to come to him to serve him with encouragement and prayer. He told me that it occurred to him, too, that hell is paved with good resolutions. The period of grace is a very noble thing; but, when it is past and has been evilly applied, it is a dreadful thing. I spoke with him according to his condition and recommended that he hasten and save his soul. Our locksmith, Bruckner, appears to be in mortal danger. He has again contracted his old deeply-rooted malheure, namely, internal convulsions with vomiting and dysentary, with which he has been afflicted for some years. His soul has peace in and with God, and therefore he is certain of his salvation in Christ and is not afraid of death. The best medicines we have at our place are being used with trust in divine help. He is an honest and useful man whom we would gladly keep longer with us if it were the divine will. The medical student Mr. N. /Seelmann/, who came with the servants, lives in his house with him and also helps him out, even if I do not know whether he understands his art.

Friday, the 20th of October. A man who is seriously concerned with his salvation told me with tears that he had read, “Two will lie upon a bed”⁶ . . . “Two shall be grinding at the mill, the one shall be taken, and the other left.” He also cited with tears the words, “There will scarcely be a house, where none are damned.”⁷ He added that it always seemed to him that he belongs to those who will be forsaken and damned. However, from the nature of his penitent condition and from some verses such as “To this man I will look, even to him that is poor,” etc., “Come unto me all ye that labor and are heavy laden,” “The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit,” “The Son of man is come to seek and to save,”⁸ etc. I showed him that he was applying this to himself wrongly; Christ loved sinners such as he is and he should leave no room for a sorrowful spirit and the belief that he is damned because of his many former sins, rather he should hold to those verses and the words of Christ: “shall not perish but have eternal life.”⁹

Today before the weekday sermon a pious inhabitant from here brought us the news that six of the servants in Savannah who have to serve, some one, some two, and some somewhat over three years had fled with two children and an unscrupulous instigator but had been found again. Among them are two brothers who had brought a good testimonial from the ship and had therefore been chosen by the minister /Zouberbuhler/ who had come over with them. This news distressed me for several reasons: 1) the bad name of the Germans here and in England will stink even more, 2) the people in the colony will be strengthened in their belief that nothing can be done with white servants, 3) the Lord Trustees are losing a large sum of money through the disloyalty of such people, since they have paid £6 Sterling per person in addition to other expenses they have already had with these people. 4) I have instructed them in Savannah daily and several times on Sunday from God’s word and warned them loyally against disobedience against their parents and other superiors of all ranks according to the Fifth Commandment¹⁰ and against scorn against the grace of God offered in the gospel for the Twentieth Sunday after Trinity. That is all in vain with such poor people and causes much blasphemy.

In the weekday sermon I had a good occasion to mention this disorder for the conversion and preservation of our servants, for I am now showing the reasons that our wise God has let be put in the Bible the sad story of Solomon’s grave sinfullness in 1 Kings 2 and other similar incidents, which in themselves are just as edifying. This was not for their misuse, but for their right use as a mirror of the deep perdition of our hearts, for avoiding evil opportunities and bad company, and for recognizing from them that sin is the people’s perdition, also that whoever stands there should well see that he not fall. I told them clearly that, if any of them let himself wish to follow in the footsteps of the renegades, he would commit the sin of the servant Onesimus, whose story I told them from the epistle of Philemon; and I showed how St. Paul not only sent him back to his place but also offered to pay the harm he had done. No servant who had betrayed the Lord Trustees so shamefully and had harmed their householders by running away could, according to Ezekiel 33:13, obtain forgiveness of sins but would drag a guilty conscience around with him, which, when once awakened by God’s judgment, would be a true pergatory.

I also told them something about the locksmith from Wurttemberg who had passed through various grades of sin and had finally come to the gallows in Savannah a year ago. I added that, if my admonitions and promises did not have the desired results, this much would at least arise on my and their side, that I had performed my office on them and that they would have no justification on that day.¹¹ The Lord Trustees could not have been kinder to them as they were in accepting them at their request and sending them here and giving them a three-month period of grace to redeem or free themselves by repaying the £6 Sterling passage money. Also, I could not have treated them better or more cautiously then I did when I gave them a choice of whether they would prefer to remain in Savannah or to come with me to Ebenezer where, to be sure, there was plenty of work, but also, God be praised, enough foodstuffs. I did not wish to have any of them at our place against his will because I knew that compulsion only breeds anger and sullenness. Now, since all of them were willing to come along, it would distress me all the more if some were restless or even wished to run away because they lacked nothing and had to admit themselves that they had many advantages in spiritual and physical matters over those in Savannah.

I have heard from a couple of knowledgeable householders that the public admonition and warning given on Monday made a deep impression on the minds of these our servants, for which may God be praised! I hope the ones today will not be in vain. Last Sunday they all registered themselves among the communicants, but in the previously mentioned meeting on Monday I had said that I did not wish to repel anyone from Holy Communion by force but that for several cited reasons I would like for them to wait until the First Sunday of Advent, when we go to Communion again and hold a confirmation service with some children. They all accepted my advice and would rather wait than act too hastily. May God Himself prepare them and bless the law and the gospel for it.

Saturday, the 21st of October. Some of our young people as well as our present servants would be happy if we could distribute some Bibles and hymnals to them. I hesitate to trouble our dear Orphanage at Halle¹² with this especially because we have already received many of them and other good books and tractates from there. I would rather announce our lack of Can-stein Bibles, extracts of the Freylinghausen hymnal,¹³ and the catechismal books printed in Halle here rather than in a letter to one or the other of our worthy benefactors to get help in acquiring the said necessary books. There are still always requests for Arndt’s books of True Christianity;¹⁴ however, because there are already many in the congregation, we can do without them for a while longer if only we can get as quickly as possible the said books that we need in church and school. God will be Compensator for them.

Because in this country we must deal with people of all sorts of religions and sects, I would consider it a great benefaction if some dear well-to-do benefactors would donate to our church library Dr. Walch’s Introduction to the Religious Struggles in and outside of the Lutheran Church.¹⁵ These volumes would, to be sure, cost considerable money but also be of great use to us. With the last ship a great quantity of Latin and English, and a few Greek, books were sent to the library in Savannah, which a certain minister in London is said to have bequeathed.

Sunday, the 22nd of October. On this Twenty-second Sunday after Trinity fifty-seven people were at our Holy Communion. Our servants were all present; and therefore they were able to see and hear in what manner this holy sacrament is held among us, even though they did not commune with us. We pray with the congregation before and after the Communion, and during it we sing in a soft voice one or more devout hymns. Today I preached to them about the beautiful words of Psalms 37:37, “Remain pious and keep thee right, for such . . .”¹⁶ and thereby led them to the important parable in the gospel. In the afternoon my dear colleague treated the keys to the kingdom from the catechism. There were some strangers here.

Monday, the 30th of October. I have again had to remain for a whole week in Savannah, partly to attend the deliberations concerning the safe introduction of Negro slaves into this colony and partly to preach to the German people there and to hold Holy Communion. I had, to be sure, business there every day, yet I yearned from one day to the next for my regular duties at home that are so pleasant for me. I particularly dislike missing the blessed lessons that are held both in town and on the plantations for preparing some children for Holy Communion, especially since I am intending, with God, to admit some of the older children to confirmation and Holy Communion on the First Sunday of Advent.

I would like to have a copy of the now stipulated restrictions under which the Negroes are to be brought to the country and used here in order to send it by the next opportunity to our Fathers and friends. However, the time was too short and the councilmen were so busy that I could not realize my wish this time. The restrictions are of such a nature that in this way the Negroes could be not harmful for the land but useful because of the lack of white servants, if only they are honored. When I reached home I heard doubly distressing news: 1) that two of our new servants had made their way secretly to Carolina in a canoe. They had no lack of provisions with their householders, and they had light work and therefore no justifiable right to run away. Some servants in Savannah have very poor and not even enough food, which they use as an excuse that six of them ran away and have plunged themselves into mortal danger. 2) that on his return from our mill a young man from Purysburg had capsized in his boat, in which he had meal and butter, at a dangerous place and drowned. Many whole trees have floated there together, whose branches are partly below and partly above the water, and here the current is so strong that one can easily suffer damage if one is not cautious. One could take another very safe way; but, because it is rather roundabout, most large and small boats choose this shorter, even though dangerous, way.

At this time a great cold has begun, which has not yet hurt my health. The people are complaining here and there of cold fever; but they do not seem to be in danger. Our locksmith, Bruckner, who was gravely sick before my trip to Savannah, seems to be recovering again. He is one of those who have suffered loss through the runaway servants. Such running away is very common in the English colonies here in America. The locksmith Schrempf, who moved to Carolina a couple of years ago for worldly reasons, has now returned with wife and child. Now that he has bought an expensive house he wishes to settle down here again and guard himself from any changes. Our servants, too, are imagining pure splendor and good days in Carolina; but they would find it quite different if they had come there as servants.

Tuesday, the 31st of October. A medical student, thirty-four years old, also came to this country among our German servants, and he asked me in Savannah to bring him to our place and use him as a schoolmaster or however I could until he becomes known in the country and can serve his neighbor with his profession. He affected a good appearance and claimed to me that he had served the office of Pastor Struensee in Halle, which I later found to be entirely false. According to his own admission, he is inclined to Dippel’s teachings and is therefore an enemy of the Lutheran religion and ministerial office.¹⁷ In such a situation he could not be used among us, rather I took him back to Savannah last week, where he found an opportunity to travel via Purysburg to Charleston and presumably on to Pennsylvania.

The two men who chased after our two runaway servants learned in Purysburg that this medical student had asked about these servants and that, after he had gone on to Charleston, he had sent them orders to follow after him quickly. From that we could clearly see that he had incited these servants to run away and wishes to help them further on. He is, therefore, a hypocritical and ungrateful person; for not only has he received much good from Court Chaplain Albinus in London and from the Lord Trustees and from us here, but he is now seducing our servants. There is usually something basically bad about those who come to this country without being called; therefore I do not easily trust anyone now that I have been deceived several times. We are now applying all possible means to recover these two servants.

Among the servants who have remained in Savannah there is also a Salzburger woman who married a Catholic stocking weaver and worked as a canteen woman among the soldiers. She brought no good recommendation with her. She and her husband are now serving the minister /Zouberbuhler/ in Savannah. Those Salzburgers who have been scattered here and there in Germany might well have been led into much temptation; and therefore our people should thank God that they are so well led and cared for. We diligently remind them of the blessings of the Lord that they receive so excellently here both spiritually and physically.

We must wait to see how will it go with our servants. Some of them are still restless because they cannot practice their trades as apprentices and journeymen but must work as farm hands. I pity the Lord Trustees for having spent so much money for these people yet have not achieved their purpose. It is a great harm for us and the whole country that we have not received the kind of servants we described, those who have been nothing but farmers. We could then have convinced everyone that more could be accomplished with such servants than with Negroes. We would rather pay such servants than have the one we have received gratis.

NOVEMBER

Wednesday, the 1st of November. After my return from Savannah I began to impart something from the recently received letters for our communal edification. They gave very much material for recognizing humbly and with praise of God the good that God has shown us in this strange country and for praying right heartily for our worthy Fathers, benefactors, and friends who pray and care for us so lovingly, especially since it pleases the Lord to lay upon them so many kinds of internal and external tribulations for His and His kingdom’s sake. These letters also give us a good opportunity to prepare ourselves before the Lord for the coming harvest and thanksgiving sermon.

Thursday, the 2nd of November. Today we held our annual harvest and thanksgiving sermon in town from the beautiful text Psalms 72: 18-19, and this is to be held tomorrow, God willing, in Zion Church on the plantations. We have very good reason to praise the Lord God with hearts, mouths, and Christian behavior for the miracles of His grace and goodness He has shown us so far in the realm of nature and grace. A year ago we had the thanksgiving sermon for the harvest and for peace at the same time; since then we have received a pleasant period of peace and, among other blessings, a good harvest and desirable weather for bringing in all the crops. May the Lord fulfil in us the beautiful promise: “Whoso offereth praise glorifieth me: and to him that ordereth his conversation aright will I shew the salvation of God.”¹

Sunday, the 5th of November. Because of our servants there is still much unrest, which falls mostly on me. They have all sorts of unfounded complaints; and those who are bakers, shoemakers, millers, etc. claim that they were promised in London to be able to work in this colony not as farmhands but in their trades. They also imagine that those Germans who recently arrived at Charleston in two ships are all treated as free men and will be settled directly on their own land and will receive a good support in cattle and provisions, all of which is a poem. Those among us who have received farmhands are best off, and all our inhabitants would like to have such servants. Still, we are not yet losing our courage, rather we hope that God will let this matter with the servants serve to our advantage.

Monday, the 6th of November. Even though it is the duty of the parishioners according to James 5:14 (which humble and grace-hungry little lambs of Christ consider a blessing) to call their ministers in their sickness, this duty is neglected by many among us; but they do not all have the same reason for this. Yesterday I learned that N.N. was dangerously sick: when I came to him I learned that he would not allow his wife to call me to him because his conscience told him that I would ask him about his previous domestic life and that there would be cause for much vexation. In this miserable man I have a good example of how firmly Satan holds his slaves and what strong and dangerous snares customary sins are. Physical anger, reviling, scolding, etc. have become second nature to him during his military life; therefore he commits great excesses at the least irritation; and his wife has a very hard life with him. I have shown him his danger but have not detected that he wishes to accept good advice. Yesterday a pious married woman was with me and complained with many tears against her husband’s rough treatment of her and her children. Even though I do not know how to help her in this and directed her to prayer, patience, and Christian conduct toward her husband, it was still an alleviation for her that she had complained to me of her trouble and had received instruction from God’s word. The children are from her first husband; and, because, among other things, this stepfather is restless about the small tuition, which for a quarter year per child is only six pence and, consequently, only a halfpenny per week, I paid the tuition for all three children.

Wednesday, the 8th of November. We have news that German people in Purysburg, even those who have received help from us, helped our runaway servants on their way to Charleston. If we did not have to fear evil consequences among our servants remaining in Ebenezer, then we would let these ungrateful and wicked people run off, who are, to be sure, doing harm to the Lord Trustees and to our inhabitants through this disorder, but above all to themselves. In order to do my duty and to avert more and greater disorders, I had a copy of their contract with the Lord Trustees made in Savannah, which I will send to a friend in Charleston, from which it can be clearly proved that these and other servants and maids had obligated themselves to four years of service by signing and putting their seals to the contract and are therefore punishable because of their breach of contract. I have written today to the governor in Charleston and also to our patron, Col. Heron, who stands high with the governor, and reported the loss that some of our housholders have suffered because of these runaway servants; and I asked them to help us extradite them. Approximately a year ago three German serving boys were also seduced, who are likewise residing in Carolina.² I hope we will recover them all again. If my letter has the desired effect with the said gentlemen, then others will lose their desire to follow the footsteps of such renegades.

Since Köcher gave up the school, I perform this pleasant work in the afternoons and have much pleasure in the diligence and good behavior of the children. In the last few days some very small children have joined us who were formerly frightened away from the school by the schoolmaster’s severity and looked upon the school as a penal institution. I wish that my time and strength would allow me to continue this work every day. A capable schoolmaster is hard to find because he cannnot live on the small salary. In Savannah the Lord Trustees give 20 pounds Sterling; if we had such a sum we could almost employ two schoolmasters. For the said money they cannot find a schoolmaster in Savannah.

Friday, the 10th of November. So far the weather has, to be sure, been somewhat cold, especially at night, but also dry and pleasant, which I look upon as an especial blessing of God for me and my family. Because the buildings in this country, being made of wood, are quickly dilapidated, my house, too, needs a repair. Since the roof must be torn off and a new one prepared, we, our books, and our things would suffer if it rained. God be praised for having let us choose a good time to complete this necessary construction. The kind of weather we had last summer and autumn one can read in the following description of a very knowledgeable man in our neighborhood, who is accustomed to prepare a very useful calendar every year:³

This summer has been one of the coolest and wettest that I have experienced in this country. Its likes are unknown to people who have already lived here for forty years. And, because the winter was cold along with the spring, the wheat has not turned out for the best. The cold winter made it thin; and in the spring toward summer the rust spoiled it greatly. Otherwise the summer crops have thriven rather well, provided the water did no damage. The month of August, which is mostly warm and dry, has been cold and wet this time so that the crops were almost as ripe at the beginning as at the end. And, if September had not had some fair and warm days at the very beginning, which lasted on into October, then the late planted rice and other crops would not have ripened. Because the weather has been so unusual, many, indeed, almost all people have become sick in September and October; yet very few of them have died. Generally the people are attacked by a fever, which changes from heat to chills. Such fevers are still lasting into November.

Sunday, the 12th of November. The locksmith Schrempfs wife was mortally sick in Carolina and came to our place very weak. Even before her husband had arranged their new household, she came to childbed; and in it she experienced a new and special help of the Lord. This young couple drew to themselves much disquiet and trouble by moving away to Carolina, which, however, has served them for much good through the grace of God. Their example also serves to let other inhabitants recognize better how much good the Lord shows here. What a great blessing it is among others that we have church and school and, in physical things, the mills, which double blessing many thousands of people, also many Germans in America, must do without.

Monday, the 13th of November. Old /Theobald/ Kiefer of Purysburg has sent his youngest boy to our place so that he can be instructed and prepared for a worthy participation in Holy Communion. Because of his great frivolity he is among the worst of the children in the preparation, even though he does not lack literal recognition. Nevertheless, his parents insist that I bring him soon to confirmation and Holy Communion. He has three well instructed and Christian-minded sisters and an honest brother here in our congregation, who are working on him with words, intercession, and example; and he is kept closely in school like the other children. May God save him from the dangerous snares of frivolity and change his heart! Otherwise I have some very fine children among the children being prepared, who uprightly love their Savior and His word.

For some time now Eigel has also sent his oldest son to the preparation hour on the plantations, but he was not consistent in this. He never let his children, including this boy, go to school; so now the boy can scarcely read a few words. Because he guards the parents’ cattle, he seldom comes to church and he does not have a very retentive head. Therefore, he is greatly lacking in instruction and literal recognition. Nevertheless, the father has proclaimed that, if I do not soon allow him to Holy Communion, he will no longer send him to the preparation hour (which is held on the plantations only twice a week, namely, on Tuesday and Friday before the weekday sermon) because he cannot spare him from his work. Eigel and his wife take no care of their children’s souls, just as they do not respect their own souls and neglect the means of salvation.

Wednesday, the 15th of November. We have news from Savannah that a rather large number of Indians have again gathered there to receive their gifts. I hope things will be more orderly this time than the last time. It surely comes from our dear God that we have been settled at a place that is quite remote and out of the way of the Indians and their vagrancies; and therefore we are somewhat spared from their visits. What a great blessing it is to have external quiet and good order at our divine services and official duties! Our dear God has continued the previously mentioned blessing of dry weather until now, even though it threatened rain on some days, therefore my house could be newly roofed and repaired while entirely dry. This repair will cost at least £12 Sterling. How happy I would be if the Lord Trustees paid it!

Thursday, the 16th of November. For some time, as far as business and my strength would allow, I have been reading in Dr. Antonius’ Collegium Antitheticum⁴ for my instruction and edification. In my previous years I have, to be sure, heard of this thorough and modest book, so necessary for a teacher; but I have had little opportunity to read in it. Now that the providence of God has brought me to and into it, I am finding so much of importance in it that I can hardly read enough; and I wish from my heart that others could be led to a reading and correct use of it sooner than I was. There is a greater treasure in it than one can so easily find in any polemical book of this nature. What astonishes me most is that some have had the heart to contradict such a thorough, experienced, wise, and cautious academic teacher in public writings. I consider it the happiest period of my life, when God brought me to Halle at the time that the three theologians were still living and teaching as the chosen tools of God; and therefore I have also heard our dear Paul Antonius, which greatly serves me while reading his writings.

Friday, the 17th of November. Among the servants who have arrived we have unexpectedly found a knowlegeable, skillful, and well-behaved young person, to whom we have given charge of the school on the plantations in God’s name.⁵ In his case it is too bad that he did not remain with his studies, for he went so far in school that he could soon have gone to the university. But he became a baker and miller and has completed four years as a journeyman and has forgotten much of his schooling. He has a quiet and docile spirit; and we are asking God to prepare him through His spirit to His glory and to the service of his neighbor and of our children. To be sure, he considered himself to be too young and incapable to direct the plantation school; yet he was willing to try it for a month. He not only saw and heard the method and order in which our children are informed but also received from me a written instruction and directions. I hold the catechismal lesson, this schoolmaster only has to instruct the children in reading and writing and to teach them the catechism and Bible verses and also to drill them, also to lead them to the right way. He instructs only three hours every day, and the rest of the time he tends to household and farming chores.

Saturday, the 18th of November. One of our inhabitants was in Savannah and had to see with his own eyes and hear with his own ears what godless goings on are there both day and night. A large party of Indians came down to receive their gifts. On this occasion the English, French, Germans, and Jews must stand in arms to arouse a fear in the Indians. Herewith they give out and pour out as much as anyone wants, and from such carousing arise the most dreadful sins and vexations, indeed, often danger and trouble for the neighbors. I plan to inquire carefully whether the Germans of our confession have also acted so sinfully and thereby vexed pious souls and annoyed heathens, Indians, and Negroes so that I can conduct myself accordingly in my future sermons and prayer hours and also holding Holy Communion. Things still look rather pitiable in this colony so that the inhabitants have more cause to weep than to laugh, more to fast and pray than to indulge themselves and to commit such disorder that vexes even the heathens and should not be heard among Christians. If Jerusalem does not improve, then the heart of God will turn fully from her; and He will make her into a desert in which no one dwells.

Monday, the 20th of November. Today a man coming from Carolina brought me the news that a ship with four hundred German people had gone aground on a dangerous sandbank and, after a strong wind arose, was entirely destroyed so that no more than two sailors survived. One can see the flotsam of the ship and its cargo floating around. Without doubt these people wanted to go to Carolina, because the government and merchants there are now again concerning themselves with settling their province with Europeans, especially with German people, whom they let enjoy all sorts of advantages. Yet they also have great difficulties, especially those who come as indentured servants. Generally they are not kept much better than the Negroes.

Wednesday, the 22nd of November. The widow Graniwetter, who recently married a German widower, told me that her former mistress in Augsburg, Mrs. Heinzelmann, had sent her an edifying letter with a gift, by which she was again reminded, to a new awakening, of the great spiritual good that she had enjoyed, seen, and heard as a maid in her house. It is also a good odor for me, indeed a strengthening of my heart, when something edifying is told about such people who are also our benefactors. With their good example they are now working on our Salzburgers who were perhaps once in their service or instructed by them in some other way and have experienced what stands in the Epistle of John 5:8. This Mrs. Graniwetter and her little children also thank our dear God diligently for the good she had received from Him through the service of her first husband, the pious and very industrious Graniwetter. In addition to that is the orderly establishment of a good plantation, the construction of a house and a warm chamber, which is exceedingly good for her children in cold wintertime. His memory and example are a blessing for her and for all who have known him, even though he ended his daily work some years ago.

Thursday, the 23rd of November. For the last two days a severe cold has begun, which would have hindered the carpenters on the construction if it had not been entirely completed yesterday. They assembled yesterday evening in my study and thanked our merciful Father in heaven with me for all His blessings as well as for the successful renovation of my house, which is more useful now in many ways than it was in the beginning. It is also so well protected in the attic and elsewhere that it will need little repair during my lifetime. The expenses were, to be sure, quite high, namely, £25 Sterling, because construction is very expensive here since the workmen’s wages run very high because of the high cost of merchandise. However, the greatest necessity demanded that the house be repaired; and therefore I trust the goodness of God that He will see in His good time to the payment of these expenses.⁶

Sunday, the 25th of November. It will soon be four years since God made the pious Mrs. Zant a widow and her two little children orphans, during which time He has always given her a Christianly contented spirit. If anyone knows how to praise divine providence, it is this widow. With His generous fatherly hand He has let so much good fall to her, even in physical things, that she has never suffered want and has not experienced the need that some families have sometimes suffered. Her neighbor, the righteous Glaner. shows her many Christian deeds of love, which our merciful God apparently repays. She has always hoped that her brother in Augsburg, Bacher, would let himself be persuaded by her frequent letters to come to her in Ebenezer. However, he wrote to her recently that he has married and that he will remain at his place, where God is also providing for him.

Sunday, the 26th of November. Our merciful God has now helped us so far that with this day we have survived this Twenty-seventh Sunday after Trinity and are spending it with blessing. In the evening prayer meeting we have communally praised a very undeserved kindness according to which He has averted during this entire church year all harm, serious commission of sin and vexation, also disquiet and obstacles to divine service and has turned His spiritual and physical blessings to us abundantly in many ways. May He also graciously hear our poor prayer for His blessings on the church year that is now beginning and to help us all to come through the effect of the Holy spirit to such a blessed condition as was presented to us today both from the image of the wise virgins as also from the beautiful verses of the exordium, 2 Peter 1:10-11.

On all Sundays and holy days of this almost-ended church year we have preached from gospel verses of Holy Writ as well as from the regular gospel the great blessings of God that Jesus so willingly and dearly merited for us and which He heartily wishes to grant us in the order of salvation (which is itself a very great blessing). Afterwards this was further inculcated catechismally; and, because an instructive verse has almost always been contemplated in the exordium, both the children and the adults have again garnered a fine treasure of chosen Bible verses in their minds and memories. There will be few of us who have not learned the exordium verses that have been so diligently inculcated and who will not have taught them to their little children. In school, in town, and on the plantations the verses of this and the previous church years are repeated along with the catechism; and that also occurs in the afternoons in the churches between the first and second hymns. Every verse is recited loudly and clearly three times for the sake of both children and adults.

What sometimes troubles me no little bit is that the catechism books in the Evangelical Lutheran Church do not exactly concur but have been produced in various places in Germany with additions and new explanations, since, according to my humble opinion, we should everywhere preserve exactly the words of Luther’s Small Catechism as they are found in our symbolic books of our Evangelical Church. This would be of no little usefulness. I have sworn by the symbolic books, therefore by the catechism; and I hold it as a matter of conscience not to deviate in the least from the words as they stand in the said books of faith. Also, it is not necessary, because as much is written in the Biblical texts and in the short pithy explications concerning the articles of faith and the duties of life as is needed by simple and weak minds; and a minister has enough material in them to preach to his children and other listeners the articles of faith and rules of life of the Christian Evangelical Religion, as I, God be praised, have experienced so far in the preparation lessons with the older children. When young people come here from other places, our catechism generally seems strange to them because they have studied another, and it is sometimes difficult to convince them that ours is as good as theirs even if it seems that theirs has been enlarged and improved. Such dissimilarity causes much inconvenience.

Monday, the 27th of November. Now that the few frosty days have again passed, we have had right pleasant spring weather since Saturday. The rain has been absent for a long time this fall; but it must have rained further upstream because the Savannah River has been rising for the last eight days, even if not very strongly. Just as God has abundantly blessed the fields and gardens this year with all sorts of crops, He has also let the acorns flourish very well, some kinds of them are of marvelous size.⁷

Jacob Mohr, a young man of Reformed parents in Purysburg, has resided at our place for some years and has also attended our preparation lesson from time to time, even if he has not learned much because of his inconstancy and disloyalty. He has also not let himself be brought into any correct external order; and, now that he is with orderly people, he is beginning to notice the spiritual and physical harm from it. He would like to come to Holy Communion, and I have given him hope for that if he will accept with hearty prayer the good advice that I and his householder give him. There are very many young people in this country who ask for neither instruction from God’s word nor for Holy Communion, and Satan gets the best of them.

Tuesday, the 28th of November. A young Swiss, whose mother and sister live on a plantation lying in our area, had me marry him today in the Zion Church with a young French woman who was in school with us some years ago and afterwards moved away again with her mother. Because in the weekday sermon I had just preached from the story of Solomon some very important things about the deceit of sin and the causes of an unhappy married life, I see it as a divine dispensation that I had this young bridal couple and some other young German people, whom they brought here with them, as hearers. They will now have all the less excuse if they do not obey the words and the warnings and admonitions found in them. Generally I do not like to have anything to do with marrying strangers; but, when I must do so, I do not see it as if by chance, because such people, who otherwise live quite wildly from day to day, hear something from God’s word and receive a spur in their conscience. This person published his banns three times in the English church in Savannah and brought me a written testimony and permission from the minister there that he could be married here with his people. Otherwise I would not have done it.

Wednesday, the 29th of November. It is no little harm to our inhabitants that, instead of farmhands and maids, they have received lads who do not understand farming and do not wish to learn it. The single fellows are finally adapting to work and order, but we are still having annoyance and trouble. Their work is poor, yet they demand much in clothing and provisions, so it is very hard for a poor householder to provide for a husband and wife and also for a small child. If they cannot get along with them or if they are afraid to get in debt because of them, then they push such married couples on me and I must provide for them and use them in any way I can. If we liberated them then they would either leave the country to beg or otherwise suffer great hardship; and it would have dire consequences among other servants among us, as one can easily guess.

Some of them are behaving well, which will be profitable to them; for we will try to give assistance to such honest people at the end of their years of service if they wish to remain at our place. Many seem to be keeping the attitude of journeymen and wish to return to Germany at the expiration of their service. If they do not convert, then they will become blasphemers of this country and perhaps of our congregation, even though they have received more spiritual and physical good than other servants in this and the neighboring colony of Carolina. As I hear, they have no pleasure, to be sure, from prayer and other edifying household exercises but remain with their customs, which, to a large extent, amount to the so-called opus operatum⁸. However, I am pleased that they diligently visit the public divine services in both churches, the weekday sermons, and the evening prayer hours with their masters. Who knows whether perhaps it was for the sake of their souls that they were sent into this quietude, which is too quiet for many of them.

Thursday, the 30th of November. The wheat flour that is brought here from New York and Pennsylvania is still excessively expensive and hardly to be had. Therefore our Indian cornmeal is still very acceptable in Savannah. Our inhabitants have not planted as much corn as is required for sale as meal in Savannah. Therefore Riedelsperger, who began a trade in meal some years ago, journeyed yesterday to Carolina with some other men to buy rice and corn. Because of the lack of servants very little rice was planted here, even though it is the real crop of this country. It was so cheap during the wartime that they preferred to devote their weak efforts to other things than planting rice. However, in the past year it has become so expensive that one has had to pay 12 shillings Sterling for 100 pounds, and it was still hard to find, because during the war people in Carolina applied themselves more to indigo than to rice. In this year it has, to be sure, turned out very well; however, because it is being exported heavily, it will not become much cheaper. This has now moved our inhabitants to prepare rice fields, especially those who have received servants.

By means of our very useful rice stamp our inhabitants can prepare their rice and make it saleable much sooner than can be done in Carolina with Negroes. For on our rice stamp’s seven mortars they can prepare a thousand pounds of rice in twenty-four hours as beautifully as it is in Carolina. For fifty pounds of rice a mill fee of about three pence is paid; and the owner has no other trouble with it than to bring the rice to the mill and to fetch it again after it has been stamped. There is still one difficulty with rough rice, namely, that, before it is stamped, every householder must first shell it on his wooden handmill, which consists of two wooden blocks instead of two stones. But even this difficulty could be alleviated if our people were really serious about planting rice. For we have a beautiful opportunity to build a rice-shelling mill on the grinding mill or rice-stamp at very small cost, on which many thousands of bushels of rice could be shelled in a short time with little effort.

If, however, such a mill were little used (as has been the case so far with the rice-stamp), then there would be little income to cover the building expenses and to maintain the machine itself. For wood rots here very quickly, especially since the internal millworks must sometimes remain under water in great inundations. Therefore we must have steady income to keep the works in operation. For some time our mills have reached such perfection (God be praised!) that they are supporting themselves and, in addition, contributing something toward public expenses in the community. Therefore I was greatly disappointed in my hope that I would receive a skillful carpenter among the last servants. There was only one, to be sure, orderly and well intended carpenter (which is something rare because usually there are tipsters among them), who was taken from me by the minister in Savannah, who with other gentlemen there had the choice. Through a lack of capable carpenters little can be built among us properly and for a reasonable price.

DECEMBER

Friday, the 1st of December. Until now Paul Zittrauer’s wife /Anna Maria/ has been visited with physical weaknesses and many other tribulations, and through them she has proved and strengthened her Christianity. Her heavenly outlook and her desire to be with Christ soon shine clearly from her gestures, words, and works; and her memories of her four tender children, who have gone ahead of her into blessed eternity, are a blessed help for her to hurry toward everlasting rest. Nine years ago she came into great uncertainty, superstition, and bad habits at our place with her sisters;¹ and, because God made it her spiritual birthplace, she hardly knows how to praise Him enough for His wise guidance and great mercy. She had not expected my visit; and, because she had yearned for it a long time in her present circumstances, it was all the more pleasant for her. Her serving girl, who had fallen to her from the transport of servants without her asking, is very well provided for by her and shows great desire for God’s word, prayer, amd other practices; and she recognizes, with very beautiful expressions, the great spiritual advantages that our merciful God is showing to our children above many others.

Sunday, the 3rd of December. In these first Sundays of Advent we have had a good penetrating rain, for which we and our wheatfields have waited for a long time. Despite the rain we had a rather numerous assemblage in Jerusalem Church, and ninety-eight of them were at the Table of the Lord. Most of our servants were found among these communicants, who had wished to go to Holy Communion already six weeks ago. They had, however, accepted advice and waited until now for better preparation and have meanwhile heard from God’s word in all sermons and prayer meetings what is required for godpleasing Christianity, a worthy participation in Holy Communion, and achieving salvation. Just yesterday, in the morning preparation hour at Jerusalem Church and in the afternoon in Zion Church, they were presented clearly and emphatically from Acts 2:17-18 the example of righteous and godpleasing parishioners to imitate so that, if some of them had come without penitence and faith, and therefore unworthily, they would have no one to blame but themselves.

So far God has blessed the late Ambrosius Wirth’s little booklet on Confession and Holy Communion² in many of our parishioners, in which is given very clear instructions for true penitence and conversion, for sincere prayer and godly life. In it there are also right powerful prayers and hymns with the confession to be prayed and sung before and after the taking of Holy Communion. I have directed the servants in both the weekday sermon and in the confession service to this little book, which is in all hands among us; indeed, I laid it on the consciences of their masters to go through these beautiful directions with them gradually to prepare themselves worthily for Holy Communion.

I also announced that I am planning in the future in our confession service to lay this little book as the basis of the preparation service so that ignorant and weak people will be convinced that we are not preaching them a new dogma here, but rather precisely what is preached at other places of the Lutheran Church and in Nurnberg, where the said Communion booklet was printed, after being composed by the late Pastor Wirth from God’s word and according to the content of our Evangelical articles of faith.³ Today our merciful God has again granted us much good in the public divine service through the means of salvation. I preached from the gospel for the First Sunday of Advent concerning the mercy of our Lord Christ, for which dear material the comforting final words of the Bible in Revelations 22:21 gave me an opportunity.

My dear colleague, who in the previous church year had laid the Small Catechism of our blessed Luther as a basis for the afternoon catechisation, has resolved in God’s name to contemplate in this church year those basic and pithy verses⁴ that our children have memorized in the preceding period. This time it was the beautiful words from Philippians 3:7-11 concerning the priceless recognition of Jesus Christ our Lord. Yet, because our parishioners have the praiseworthy habit of reading the gospels or the epistles with their families before or on Sundays and holy days, this year they will not read them between the first and second hymn in the morning, rather they will apply them some minutes after the repetition of the verses learned and contemplated during the previous church year; and my dear colleague will probably do this every two weeks at Zion Church.

In the afternoon, year after year, we repeat between the first and second hymn either the catechism or Bible verses. Today I sincerely admonished our dear parishioners, among them our young servants, for the sake of the worthiness of the divine word and also for their own sakes, to become very familiar with the two Sunday verses contemplated each time by memorizing them. For this they have enough time at our place on Sundays and holidays, as also in the morning, at noon, and in the evening. Many mothers among us are right sincerely desirous of teaching their tender little children, as well as their somewhat larger ones, the exordium verses and the beautiful short texts and to repeat them. They often complain to me, however, that they gradually forget the verses if there are many of them. Because they can neither write nor read, they do not know what to do in reciting them, meanwhile their children forget some of the verses they have diligently learned. I underlined some of them with red ink, but this is rather inconvenient.

It would be best, easiest, and most useful if we had the opportunity and means to print on a couple of folios in octavo format all the verses we have contemplated publicly and have memorized in the last six or seven years. It would not cost much; yet it would be of great use among our young people, indeed, also among the adults. Otherwise we do not martyr our children with memorization but teach them Christian dogma catechismally, as is customary today in all well-run Christian schools. For that reason the sermons and prayer meetings are carefully repeated with the children at church school through questions. In addition, we see to it that they diligently learn Luther’s Small Catechism and the Bible verses.

Because we sing a great deal, many beautiful hymns and verses are learned and remembered by heart. I had planned and also given the children hope that some of the older children who have so far attended the preparation lesson diligently to their noticeable growth and development in the Evangelical teachings would be allowed to Holy Communion this Sunday with the congregation and that I would hold the confirmation service for them beforehand. However, important reasons move me to change my plans for the children’s benefit and to postpone their confirmation until after the new year (if God grants me health and life). This I announced today to the congregation, and I commended these children and their important intentions to their intercession. I hope that the parents will be satisfied with that. Old Kiefer of Purysburg and the ill-behaved N. insist on my accepting the children for the sake of their work.⁵

Monday, the 4th of December. The rain lasted almost all last night; but in the morning the sky cleared up again. It also belongs to the merciful providence of God over us that the rain stopped for a couple of hours in the morning, even if it rained heavily shortly thereafter and especially during the afternoon divine service. Still, it let up completely after the end of church and until evening so that our dear parishioners could come to church dry and return to their plantations rather dry. Elsewhere it is written, Deus in minimis maximus est; i.e., “God is greatest in little things.” Therefore it is meet and right to recognize the footsteps of His providence in the so-called little things: otherwise one is an atheist, or like the heathens who know nothing of God.

This morning private Communion was given to the very frail orphan child Gertraut Kurtz, who is cared for in my house. She has, to be sure, her weaknesses; and sometimes her obstinacy, impatience, and even arrogance arise because of her natural simplicity, yet in truth she is a believer and lover of her Savior. She likes to pray and read and hear the word of God, and she learns the Bible verses diligently. She is so lame that she can neither stand nor lie but must sit day and night on her little bed. Because she cannot go to church to hear the word of God, for which she ardently yearns, I am holding for her a preparation lesson for Holy Communion with our larger children in the same room where she performs her light work of sewing. Our family prayer hours are also held here on Sundays after the morning service with those people who come to our house from their plantations so that she has opportunity enough to exercise herself in goodness and to prepare for a better life.

This afternoon I received an answer from Charleston concerning the two runaway servants,⁶ of which I find it necessary to report the following: 1) Col. Heron, the former commandant at Frederica, who is now in Charleston with his company, has, together with our friend Mr. Dobel,⁷ made much effort to persuade the governor to have the renegades arrested and sent back again. Also, the governor had proved willing to help in this even though he said that some Negroes had run from Carolina to Georgia and had not been extradited at his request. This success showed that it was better that we did not write the governor anything about the first or the last renegades or request his help in that, and this was also the opinion of our friends in Charleston. For it appears that people accomplish more directly through the use of English law than by seeking the governor’s favor and authority. He is no friend of the Lord Trustees, General Oglethorpe, and this colony. He paid his compliments nicely and evinced great willingness to help us to our rights. But in reality he did nothing; indeed, he did not even wish to give back the first indenture or contract of the first servants of four years ago, which had been sent to him several months ago because of three runaway serving boys so that by means of it our friends in Charleston could proceed against them according to law. These boys are with their renegade brother at Congarees, 150 miles from Charleston, and our poor people have had to do without them for so long.

2) Col. Heron has finally obtained a warrant and plenipotentiary power for the judge and constable at Congarees, which Mr. Dart, a prominent merchant and good friend of this colony, gladly sent off with a letter to one of his friends; and we do not doubt that the two runaway servants, who have just traveled to the said Congarees, will be arrested, delivered to Charleston, and sent on to us here. But, as far as the three boys are concerned,⁸ a copy of the indenture or contract must be made here in Savannah and attested as a true copy by the magistry in Savannah, for which reason I must travel without delay to Savannah with Mr. Meyer. Since we have had so much trouble and expense with the runaway servants, then we would like to get the other ones, too. For, if the last renegades succeed, then we must worry that others in this colony will follow in their footsteps and cause loss both to the Lord Trustees and to their masters.

This time I am sending to Court Chaplain Albinus the copies of my letters to the governor in Carolina and to Col. Heron, which I sent to Charleston through an express because of these runaway servants. I am relating this matter here in such detail so that our friends will know the status of our colony, the attitude of the rulers in Carolina towards it, and our difficulties with our servants and with foodstuffs. Thereby I am putting into the hand of our worthy Court Chaplain material to further our and the colony’s good with the Lord Trustees.

The poor subjects in this colony are in a bind in more than one way. If this colony should remain under the government of the Trustees or receive a governor of its own or be incorporated under the government of the province of Carolina (which the people in Carolina would like most to see), then it will always remain the maxim of the Carolinians to prevent the flourishing of this colony as much as they can, as in the case of Port Royal. This is because the entry of ships into Port Royal and into our harbor is much easier and safer than into Charleston. Consequently, if this colony flourished, then the trade and navigation would in time turn from there to here. Yet, God is still the Lord on earth, He sitteth in the highest city. No matter how wisely they undertake it, God will go a different path, etc.⁹ Among the human means to bring this colony into good harmony with the neighboring one, one of the most important would be to place a governor in Carolina who is a friend of the Trustees and their Georgia.

This afternoon a very strong wind arose that finally veered to the west. Yesterday there was thunder in the distance, which is customarily a sign of great cold or heavy rain; and it became very cold during and after the wind.

Tuesday, the 5th of December. Our messenger, who returned yesterday from Charleston, was in mortal danger on his way there; yet God saved him from it in a miraculous way, even with the loss of some of his little money. In Carolina there are many runaway Negroes, who often remain in the woods for a long time and go robbing. Two such black youths jumped out of the bushes and gave him such a blow on his head that he fell to the ground unconscious, whereupon they took his little money out of his pocket and took his knapsack. However, because they saw a gentleman on horseback coming with his servant on this road, they ran again into the thick forest. There are more such highwaymen in Carolina, therefore it is very unsafe to travel there on foot and alone. Two such robbers are sitting in jail in Charleston, who will probably have to pay for their crime with their lives. We, thank God, know nothing yet about Negroes and therefore nothing about lack of safety at home or on trips.

Wednesday, the 6th of December. Our long bridge has needed repair for a long time; but because of a lack of workers we have had to do with patchwork, which has caused vain expenses. Now thick planks are being split in the woods near the bridge with which to cover the bridge. For that they use thick poplar trees, chop the soft outside wood away, and keep only the heart. The soft wood around the heart amounts to about four or five inches; on the other hand, the heart of trunks of the two trees that I saw today are almost five feet in diameter. Such trees are of marvelous length and useful almost to the top; they also split easily and are of long duration. There are many of them on low rich land.

Our new schoolmaster on the plantations /Wertsch/ fits well into the position given him and is showing good diligence. If he continues thus, then our children will be much better cared for by him than by the former one. Since the latter’s resignation, the number of children has increased, and now the littlest come, too, who had a great anxious fear of the school and the severe schoolmaster or jailor. What a good thing a good fatherly schoolmaster is. People should not let such a one suffer want but sharpen his industry in every possible way. This we would gladly do, if only we had the means.

With the present schoolmaster we have the following arrangement: he fell by lot as a servant to a pious Salzburger, whom he also helps with his work outside of school hours. For that he receives food, drink, shelter, and care; but he must pay for his own clothes and laundry, for which purpose he receives L 4 Sterling annually from us. He does not use all this for clothing but can lay aside some for his future household. However, because his master must do without his servant in his work for three hours during the day, we give him L 2 Sterling as compensation for his loss. And, since he does not have to give his servant any clothes, he can keep him all the better in his other support. Through this arrangement both the master and the servant are benefitted. The former schoolmaster, Köcher, received somewhat more annually, which this teacher will enjoy after he has served for some years.

Friday, the 8th of December. After a long wait I have finally received a letter from our worthy Pastor Brunnholtz, which was already dated at the beginning of October. In it he refers to a previously written letter, which, however, has not yet arrived. This dear Brunnholtz has been sick again for several months and had just recovered from a hot fever and scarlet fever at the time that he wrote the letter, and he was still so weak that he could not yet preach. Because the two catechists, Mr. Schaum and Mr. Kurtz, have been ordained to the holy ministry, they give him some help in preaching, even though they already have their own congregations. Mr. Vigera has married and settled in Philadelphia, and therefore he will probably remain there. Mr. Meyer wrote concerning him and hoped that he could be persuaded to come here again and let himself be used as a merchant. I have heard nothing about Pastor Muhlenberg even in this letter, but I hope to hear something pleasant from him shortly. The dear brothers are at an important post there, not only because it is a very free land but also because all sects have the same privileges there.

In my present letter I have warned Mr. Brunnholtz against a Dipplian¹⁰ medical student /Seelmann/, and I have warned Mr. Vigera against a like-minded merchant’s assistant from Strassburg, who both revealed themselves here and set their minds on going, presumably, via Charleston to Philadelphia. In this part of the world one must keep one’s eyes open especially well and examine people carefully if one does not wish to be tricked and led to loss. The presently contemplated story of King Solomon’s fall also gives us many salutary teachings and warnings in this matter. It is a Machiavellian maxim in these colonies that, if one wished to settle a country or a region with people, one usually writes a long letter, as stands in Zechariah 5.

In such new settled lands, anyone who has incurred debts or committed a crime is free in monetary matters if he merely swears a certain pro forma oath. In religious matters one may believe and confess anything one wishes everywhere in America; there is also dreadful de facto license in marriage matters. Such a place where all sorts of people flow together is Congarees in Carolina, which the governor wishes to occupy strongly against the Indians, and, to be sure, with German people. Therefore they have been given great license; and, because of this gentleman’s all-too-great favor toward this new place, it is difficult for people to recover runaway servants. If it depended upon him alone, and if we could not make use of the English law for the recovery of renegade servants through good and influential friends in Charleston, we would be turned away with only empty words and compliments and would be held up in vain from one time to the next.

Sunday, the 10th of December. Among the last transport of servants¹¹ a couple have come who have been raised up to farm work and are used to it; and their masters are very pleased with them and have very good help from them in farming and housekeeping. And they are also so well content that they are now having a detailed letter written to their well-inclined governor in Wurttemberg and to their families, in which they honestly report how they have fared so far on the journey through the care of the Lord Trustees and now in Ebenezer. Because it pleases them, they are not only requesting their families to follow them but are also attesting their desire for some skillful and industrious workers whom they know, who would find work and good earnings here. I plan to send this letter to Senior Urlsperger, because it will reach its right destination most safely through his hands.

If the workers named in this letter wish to come here voluntarily, we will be very pleased. We would advance their passage money until they could pay it back through their service, provided they wished to settle at our place. If they did not wish to agree to that, then it would be better for our friends in Europe not to get involved with them at all. If they had freedom to remain in Savannah or to move to Carolina, how would that help our efforts to get capable helpers? The kind that we want, such as carpenters, wheelwrights, coopers, sawmillers, and tanners, are very rare in the whole country and are easily persuaded to settle where it appears that they will earn the most money. If they would engage themselves in England as our servants in an indenture, or the kind of contract usual in this country, we would be most certain to get them. Here, if we found them to be orderly people, we could free them soon, to wit, under these conditions 1) that they settle at our place and help our community with their profession, and 2) that they repay in some years the money we have advanced. In this way both they and we can be helped. I wish that all our present servants were of such a kind as the two previously mentioned farmers are; yet some others are starting out well even if they have not learned farm work.

Tuesday, the 12th of December. For some days it has again been rather cold, yet the sun is shining and the air is temperate. Mr. Meyer and Mr. Lemke went to Savannah this morning to do some business, partly for themselves and partly for the community. For this purpose our Mill River is a great blessing, because with a moderate current we can go down to Savannah in seven hours and can come back to the mill in the same number of hours.¹² We like to keep our boat there to lighten the trip, which is otherwise rather difficult via Purysburg.

For already fourteen years the Lord Trustees have had an extensive and expensive cattle ranch and studfarm in Old Ebenezer; and it was then General Oglethorpe’s intention to develop this place, which is lacking good land for cultivation, through this cattle ranch and also through the establishment of a sawmill; but both of them failed.

Wednesday, the 13th of December. The carpenter Zittrauer has built himself a new house, which was consecrated this afternoon at his and his pious wife’s request in the presence of their neighbors, as has been customary among us since the beginning, with Christian simplicity and without circumstance or special ceremonies. An edifying hymn is sung, we pray, and something is preached from God’s word; and at the end we pray on bended knee and conclude with a little verse from a hymn. Just as we recently began to lay the heart examinations according to the Ten Commandments from the late Ambrosius Wirth’s Confessional and Communion Booklet¹³, which is in the hands of all the parishioners, as a basis for the preparation sermon, we have made a beginning at this house consecration to acquaint the people with the beautiful rules of life along with the attached selected Bible verses, which stand at the end of this beautiful little book, and to explicate and instill in them. I plan, God willing, to continue with this in the future on such occasions. God let us feel His gracious presence keenly today.

Thursday, the 14th of December. I visited the servant of our pious miller, Zimmerebner, who has had cold fever for some time. Like many of the servants who have come here, he had many prejudices against true Christianity, which have, however, gradually fallen away. At first these young people were ashamed to bend their knees in prayer with their householders and housemates. However, because they have always seen that the entire community say their prayers in this humble way at public divine services both before and after the sermon, likewise in the evening prayer meeting, they have now begun to be ashamed of their obstinacy. I diligently admonish our people in private to show these strangers great patience in all things and to overlook secondary matters and weaknesses that come from ignorance and long habit. Once they have been better instructed from God’s word and clear examples in Holy Scripture, much of their misbehavior will cease. The often-mentioned confessional and Communion booklet, which is read in pious families at my repeated recommendation, can be a good means to open their eyes through the grace of God.

The previously mentioned mill servant has become humble in his sickness, he is recognizing the grace of God in his master; and he greatly regrets that he cannot help him in the mill, since there is now very much to grind there. He arose from his prayer with weeping eyes. May our dear God keep our righteous and industrious miller, Zimmerebner, for many more years! He is known near and far as a just man, for whom not even wicked people betray the least suspicion that he will not give them what is theirs.¹⁴ Where possible, he does not let the smallest grain go to waste. Physically, to be sure, he has an unimpressive appearance and speaks few words; but no one among the strangers has the heart to cause him worry or trouble or to cause any mischief at the mill. If one or the other of them wishes to misbehave, then he is chastised and corrected by his own comrades. That is another proof of the merciful and wise providence of God over us! On a board in the mill hang certain just rules in the English and German languages, according to which the local people and strangers must conduct themselves.

Saturday, the 16th of December. Yesterday, after the previous cold days, we had a rain, which became stronger last night. A strong wind arose, which again veered to the west; and therefore it again became bright, dry, and cold toward morning. This winter is dry and healthy.

This morning we buried Hessler’s only little son, a child of two and a half years, who liked to pray in his short life and proved himself as patient and quiet in his very painful sickness. At almost the same time as this little boy died, Paul Zittrauer’s little boy was born. Shortly before that his house had been consecrated with God’s word, song, and prayer; and this brought his salvation-hungry wife a blessed preparation for her following childbed. For this she heartily rejoiced and praised God, who is dealing with her in pure mercy. For some time she has become very serious in her Christianity. To preserve and daily awaken this necessary and blessed seriousness in herself and family, she named her little child Ernst Christian in holy baptism. If all her children were still alive, she would have six sons together in ten years, but four of them are in eternal rest.

Monday, the 18th of December. The biting cold is still continuing; and, because with it the sky is sometimes overcast, it appears that further in the mountains there is snow, which is said to fall often at this time above Augusta. The water in the river has fallen just as fast as it rose. Because our inhabitants can bear the cold winter days in this country less than in their fatherland, they have arranged themselves according to their former local customs and put stoves in their chambers, whereby they and their children enjoy temperate warmth both day and night. This greatly helps those who, because of their poverty, cannot buy warm quilts. Other people in the country, such as Englishmen and Frenchmen, do not like stoves like the Germans, but make do with fireplaces, which, for various reasons, do not suit our people.

To be sure, wood is not lacking here, especially pine and fir; but good wood, such as oak and nut trees, is becoming rarer here and there because part of the good land on which such trees stand has been prepared already for several years for gardens and fields. As a result, the felled wood has been burned or has rotted. Also, every year more land of that kind is cleared of oak and other deciduous trees and made available for planting. If that continues for several years as the community increases, there will be nothing to find nearby but fir or pine trees. Of them there are large forests everywhere, which, however, are used only for lumber and boards. For a long time all the good firewood has been cut down around the town, and now it must be fetched with horse and wagon at considerable expense from far away. This costs us quite much every year, since we do not wish to burden our parishioners with chopping wood or any other work.

Tuesday, the 19th of December. It is surely not to be looked upon as if by chance, or to be ascribed to a person, that our pious widows are so well provided for physically and have it better here than many householders and their wives. Old Mrs. Schweighoffer sometimes experiences somewhat harder tribulations, for which she herself is to blame because of her all-too-great love for her children and her considerable obstinacy. Otherwise she could live better and more comfortably than anyone else in our place. She is already more than sixty years old. Fourteen years ago her right side was paralyzed by a stroke, and she has many other physical infirmities so that we must have much patience and put up with her. Her spiritual condition was better previously, as she herself recognizes; and she laments and deplores her fall. However, because she so clings to her children, who are not the best, she receives no little harm from that even though she is using the means of salvation diligently. She has been living for some time alone with her two children.

Wednesday, the 20th of December. Six German men from Vernonburg near Savannah have come to our mill. Because they have brought crops for almost all their neighbors to have it ground, they must wait for several days. This will serve them in that they will hear the word of God in Zion Church to prepare them for Holy Communion and for blessed eternity. They have little chance in Vernonburg to hear the counsel of God concerning their salvation, except for every two months, when one of us goes down to preach to the people of our confession and to adminster Holy Communion, during which some Reformed people from Vernonburg and Acton are accustomed to join us. From time to time God ordains for foreign German people who have secular business at the mill or elsewhere to hear a sermon in the evening prayer hour, even though they are often not lovers of God’s word, the church, and the ministerial office. We also preach to them simply and seriously, as we do with all our parishioners, about God’s counsel concerning their salvation, and we instill it in their hearts. But they will not accept the counsel of God concerning their salvation that is preached simply and sincerely and impressed on their hearts. Yet they should know that the kingdom of God with its treasures and order have been offered to them, and therefore they will have no excuse on that day.¹⁵

On the 26th Sunday after Trinity it was ordained that an old sinner who lives on General Oglethorpe’s barony at Palachocolas came here with his boat and could hear a sermon on 2 Peter 1:10—11, “Brethren, give diligence to make . . .” He was very devout during it, and God granted me much joy during the sermon. When I saw this man across from me, I heartily wished that God would also seize his heart and bring him to the enjoyment of His grace. A few weeks later some of our people traveled to his plantation on business and heard that this man had presumably died, and therefore this was his last sermon. There is surely not a single sermon here among us that does not show the parishioners from God’s word what God demands from them according to the content of the law and the gospel if they wish to escape future wrath and be restful here and blessed there.¹⁶

I had heard that young Lackner had had a stove placed in his previously cold dwelling in order to make the cold winter bearable for his weakly wife and three small children. For that reason I went to his plantation to praise God with him and his family and to pray to Him. However, I found the mother and the children at the fire in the kitchen, and I heard from her that she had enjoyed her heated chamber for only a few days. If at night God had not revealed a fire hidden in the boards and beams under the stove in time, they would have lost all their belongings in this conflagration, if not their life or health. Despite the fact that this Mrs. Lackner has had to suffer much sickness, poverty, and other kinds of tribulation, she still thanks our dear God heartily that she and her family are in quiet solitude and can prepare themselves unhindered for blessed eternity. Also, it is no small blessing that among us there is no noise before the holy days or misery in preparing for it physically, as is customary in both large and small cities. Those who have been in service with fashionable people know the difference especially.

After I had returned from Lackner’s plantation, I called on Schoolmaster /Georg/ Meyer and his salvation-hungry wife /Magdalena/ at their request to consecrate their little living room, which they have only recently had prepared, with prayer and the word of God. I prepared myself according to the present time and laid as the basis of our awakening the basic and strength-giving verses¹⁷, “This is a faithful saying; and worthy of all acceptation,” etc. 1 Timothy 1;¹⁸ and with it I made useful to me and them the beautiful examples that stand in the Treasure Chest¹⁹, pp. 32 ff. along with the beautiful verse, “That is a dear word,” etc. God let our hearts feel that He was present among us according to His promise. The poor people are so happy when God grants them a warm kitchen or chamber, while His Son, through whom He does everything, had to make do with a stable. When our miraculous God sends us young and wild lads, as our young Meyer used to be, I often think of the verse, “What I do thou knowest not now; but thou shalt know hereafter.” I think the same thing with regard to our servants.

Thursday, the 21st of December. In our beautiful supply of books there are many edifying preparations for the holy Christmas celebration that have been held in Halle; and with them I have given pleasure to the dear children who come to me in the preparation lesson. I have given every boy and girl such a book to take home and also a brief instruction how to make their content profitable to themselves and their families before the holy celebration. We know that today, Thursday, is New Years Day in Germany according to the new calendar;²⁰ and this caused us already yesterday evening in the prayer meeting to praise our dear God for His goodness which He will have shown our dear German fatherland and our dear benefactors there and to invoke Him for mercy and blessing for them. On the occasion of the planned material concerning the means of grace and especially the word of God, I reminded my children in the preparation hour of the many spiritual and physical benefactions that have flowed to us from Europe so far in so many ways and how today many dear souls in Germany are doubtless praying for us to God in heaven and wishing us well and that it is much more our duty to do it for them. Thereupon we knelt down and prayed for us and our known and unknown benefactors. I also admonished them to continue doing the same at home.

Friday, the 22nd of December. After the last rain a most unusual cold began, yet without much wind. It seems to us that we have almost never felt the cold so cutting as at this time; and may God avert all harm from our planted wheat, which previously experienced a heavy rain and now a very severe frost and still is not covered with snow as in Germany. A man who came from the region of Augusta in his boat told me that it had snowed heavily up there, from which we can expect much water in warm weather.

Saturday, the 23rd of December. The wind has shifted from the east to the north and then further to the northwest, and therefore very rough and stormy weather has arisen with much cold rain. Toward morning it thundered very violently and rained from time to time, yet the severe cold has broken a little. This is the pleasant period of preparation for the holy Christmas celebration, when we can allow ourselves less than at other times to be kept by the bad weather from visiting the hours devoted to it in the public assembly. Jerusalem Church is small and well protected so that the cold hurts us but little.

Sunday, the 24th of December. Yesterday after the evening prayer meeting a housewife had something to report to me so that I might not have unnecessary worry before and during the holy celebration because of an incorrectly understood matter. I happened to speak with her about her children, and I heard from her that her oldest boy had a better head for learning, but not such a good attitude or so many signs of God’s grace living in him as her oldest girl had, even though she was only a child of something more than six years. She loves her Savior dearly, and through ardent love for Him she would rather die than live longer in the world. She also likes to pray, and she gives her mother much joy. She has such a pale color in her face and so many kinds of physical weakness that it well appears that she will not live long.

After the afternoon divine service another pious mother reported to me that her sick girl had already requested her several time to ask me to visit her. She, too, has a heavenly disposition and a true desire to die. She has much joy in two pious little girls who are already before the throne of the Lamb in heaven. She edifies herself in her patience in suffering and wishes to be with them and her dear Savior soon. In healthy days she had so willingly learned such a beautiful supply of Bible verses that we had contemplated in the exordiums of the sermons that she would not let her father rest, even in the midst of his work, until he had taught her the verse to be learned by reciting it for her. This child, of something more than six years like the previously mentioned one, serves her parents for much awakening with her marvelous and edifying speeches and Christian behavior. They would gladly give her to their dear Savior if He wished to take her through temporal death, since they are becoming aware of such clear signs of baptismal grace in her. She is a clever child by nature. She said to me to my comfort and awakening among other things the beautiful words, “The just shall live eternally, and the Lord is their reward and the Highest shall keep them.”²¹

For that reason they shall receive a splendid kingdom and a beautiful crown from the hand of the Lord. These two pious girls have dear substantial parents with whom they are very well provided for physically; and, since they have a disgust in the world and a yearning for blessed death, their attitude seems all the purer to me.

Monday, the 25th of December. Yesterday evening God gave us grace to prepare ourselves before His countenance through communal prayer in church for the holy birthday festival of Christ our Savior; and to this our parishioners, both old and young, assembled in large numbers. Our dear Savior granted me time and strength before the holy days to be able to read with my family some edifying preparations for Christmas that had been held in Halle. Through His grace He so blessed these in me that the blessing from them flowed not only into the conduct of my Christianity but also into my important office. In many places in our German fatherland certain rousing preparation sermons are held before the holy feast days and other good exercises are practiced with song and prayer to encourage the people’s spirits; and this is a very praiseworthy and necessary arrangement. Without it little blessing can be hoped for from the holy day sermons, especially among such people who, instead of preparing for the celebration, burden their hearts with worries about subsistence and good living in this world. Many people grow up in such blindness that they know little about the purpose and importance of the holy days; and they learn nothing about it if they are not guided to it by word and example in the preparations. In addition to what we contemplated for this purpose in the prayer meetings and the weekday sermons from God’s word, the sermon of yesterday, the Fourth Sunday of Advent, was also aimed at it. Namely, with the gospel we treated the worthy preparation of our hearts for the advent of Christ our Savior, during which we contemplated the beautiful words from Psalms 68:5, “Sing unto God, sing praises to his name,” etc.

On this first day of Christmas the entire congregation was together in the town church; and they were so numerous that it served us to no little joy and encouragement to sow the imperishable seed of the gospel into the hearts of so many devout listeners. In the morning, with the help of the Holy Ghost, I held a sermon about our dearest and most esteemed Immanuel, of which my heart was right full from reading in previous days Dr. Francke’s exceedingly thorough and edifying preparation sermon concerning the words, “Here is Immanuel.” In the afternoon my dear colleague preached and catechized on the beautiful text Zephania 3:14 ff., from which one can see what, in the time of the New Testament, should be the chief thing in the Christian Church according to the will of God, namely, that people should rightly enjoy the good of Christianity and find joy and comfort in their Savior. Our servants are causing us joy by visiting in an orderly and constant way the public divine service and the good opportunities for instruction, prayer, and edification and by being attentive from beginning to end. In external ways they have already changed greatly and put aside their fresh and impudent ways, and they are no longer ashamed to pray on their knees. They had an ugly, screeching, and very dragging way of singing that disturbed the sweetness, good harmony, and edification of our song; but now they are listening to advice.

Tuesday, the 26th of December. Our merciful God has also let us pass this second day of Christmas in health and blessing. However stormy it was before the celebration, God has granted us pleasant weather during the holy days and with it good rest, silence, and external good order. This evening a very stormy wind arose and there was also some lightning, even though we did not hear any thunder. No strange German people appeared this time at our place, except for a man and woman who came today from Abercorn. Likewise, none of us went away, but we had all of our parishioners together. Also, no one was kept away from the public service by sickness (except “ “ “ ).²² We know of no patients now among our parishioners. A severe catarrh has been around for several weeks; and some who did not guard themselves against the great cold before the celebration have begun to cough.

We would have liked to hold a prayer meeting in the church this evening, but the violent storm prevented us from doing so. Singing and praying rightfully make up a major part of our divine service. We lack hymnals and also Bibles; all members of the congregation are provided with New Testaments, even the children and servants. At the beginning and at the close of public divine services on Sundays and holy days a chapter from Holy Scripture is read loudly, slowly, and clearly; and every adult and child reads along after it. However, because the servants and some of the children have no Bibles, we cannot continue reading the Old Testament, in which we now stand, so we began reading the New Testament during the holy days in order that everyone would be kept from vainly gazing around, which we consider to be a sign of a frivolous and disorderly mind.

Friday, the 29th of December. A short time ago a fine youth from Purysburg was drowned in the water, and no one had thought that he has so many debts as has now been discovered after his death.

Saturday, the 30th of December. Yesterday, while I was still with the sick Sanftleben, I found him in a very bad physical condition. The sickness had suddenly become so severe that we could not expect any good outcome. This morning I received the news that he died yesterday evening; and therefore I had my last prayer with him and his family. In it I called upon our dear God in the name of His Son, our Immanuel, for the sake of Christ’s merits, not to blame this Sanftleben for having brought upon himself this sickness itself and all the miserable conditions in which he and his family found themselves, as he and his wife well known. He was formerly an honest man who prayed diligently and loved God’s word and good opportunity for edification. On the first day of Christmas he was in church, on the second he got side-stiches with unusual chills and fever. Because he did not take any medicine soon and could not keep himself warm in his miserable dwelling in this present cold weather, he naturally suffered very evil attacks that ended with a quick death. He is leaving a widow and two small children.

Sunday, the 31st of December. Sanftleben was brought from the plantations to town yesterday before evening and buried with the company of many people. Some time ago, for general edification, I began in the funeral sermons at the burial of children to run through edifying examples of pious children who died blessedly; and at this funeral I have begun to impart to the pallbearers something from the edifying biography of the late Pastor Mischke, who in my time was the meritorious inspector of the schools at the Orphanage at Halle, I had formerly laid another beautiful example of a pious shoemaker in Naumberg in the funeral sermons of grown people as a basis of edification. Although such a type of funeral sermon might not be approved of by everyone who does not know our arrangements, it is enough for me that I know that God is granting me and my dear listeners much blessing through it for their edification and preparation for a blessed death. Such curricula or accounts of the last hours of the servants and children of God are not just read as they happen to be written, but I have an opportunity to lead the listeners into God’s word and to instill in them very important dogma and duties of life.