life, was instrumental in establishing a mission in Ohio, and in later years became widely known as a useful envoy of the United States to the Indian tribes, and as the author of several works of much historical value.

No less prominent in the history of the Moravian mission in Ohio-indeed, its effectual founder-was the Rev. David Zeisberger. This devoted missionary, encountering many discouragements at the missionary stations founded on the Alleghany, or Upper Ohio, in 1768, and on the Beaver in 1770, was agreeably surprised, in the spring of 1771, to receive an invitation from a council of Delaware Indians on the Muskingum, to remove a colony of missionaries and Christian Indians to that river. Next year, the invitation was with much earnestness renewed, the Wyandots joining in it. Zeisberger was encouraged to make a journey of exploration, accompanied by a few Indian brethren, and on the 16th of March, 1772, (according to Loskiel,) discovered a large tract of land, situated not far from the banks of the Muskingum, with a good spring, a small lake, good planting grounds, much game, and every other convenience for the support of an Indian colony. This place was about seventy miles from Lake Erie, and thirty miles from Gekelemukpechink, where resided the Delaware chiefs, upon whose invitation the Moravians had come. Thither Zeisberger repaired, and informed the council that the converted Indians had thankfully accepted of their invitation, desiring that the tract of land he had just now discovered might be given to them. In answer to this request, he heard with great pleasure that this was the very spot of ground destined by the chiefs in council for them. They also determined, in a solemn manner, that all the lands from the entrance of the Gekelemukpechink creek into the river Muskingum to Tuscarora, should belong to the converted

Indians, and that no other Indians should be permitted to settle upon them further that all Indians dwelling on the borders of this country, should be directed to behave peaceably towards them and their teachers, and neither disturb their worship, nor prevent people from going to them to hear the word of God.

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'Zeisberger," adds Loskiel, "praised the Lord for his gracious help in the execution of this important commission, and having again visited the above mentioned country, took possession of it in the name of the Christian Indians, who were uncommonly rejoiced by the account of his success given on his return to Friedenstadt.

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'Five families, consisting in all of twenty-eight persons, were now appointed to begin the new settlement, and were willing to undertake it. Brother Zeisberger set out with them on the 14th of April, and after a safe but tedious journey, arrived May 3d at the new land on the Muskingum. The day following they marked out their plantations, erected field huts, and were all diligently employed in clearing land and planting.

"Brother Zeisberger began immediately to preach the Gospel in this new settlement, to which he gave the name of Schoen-brunn, (the Beautiful Spring.)”3

Our present purpose simply is to record the general fact of the settlement on the Muskingum in 1772-3, by the Moravians and their Indian disciples-hoping, however, that the brief narrative has already enlisted the sympathy of the reader with these unselfish colonists. Having thus introduced them, we propose to enlarge upon the previous history of this remarkable sect, whose labors of love have been attested in the darkest recesses of the pagan world. The Moravian

3) Loskiel's History of the Moravian Missions in North America; London translation, 1794; part iii., p. 74.

missionaries were more successful than any other class in subduing the intractable soul of the American savage to the Gospel. Indeed, their aptitude for these beneficent toils has been illustrated with equal distinctness wherever their missions have extended.

Our notice of their movements in Ohio would perhaps be more cursory, if they had been confined to the southeastern section of the State, but as, ten years afterwards, the Cuyahoga and Huron Rivers were the scene of temporary settlements, it seems to be requisite that the character of this extraordinary brotherhood, and their exertions among the North American Indians should constitute the theme of another chapter.

CHAPTER XV.

THE SOCIETY OF UNITED BRETHREN.

THE Christian society, generally called Moravians, which has since extended its branches to so many nations and supplied at once the most industrious citizens to civilized communities, and the most diligent and successful missionaries to heathen and savage hordes, has been described by different writers under the various denominations of Moravians, from the district of Moravia,' in Germany, which they once inhabited; of Herrnhutters, from Herrnhutt, in Saxony, where in 1722, they found a refuge from persecution within the domains of the celebrated Court Zinzendorf, who became their bishop; and of The United Brethren of the Protestant Episcopal Church, which is the title recognized by themselves.

According to the society's own account, however, they derive their origin from the Greek Church, in the ninth century, when by the instrumentality of Methodius and Cyrillus, two Greek monks, the kings of Bulgaria and Moravia, being converted to the faith, were, together with their subjects, united in communion with the Greek Church.2 Methodius was their

1) The ancient province of Moravia adjoined Hungary on the northwest, and was surrounded by that country, Bohemia and Austria. It lies northwest from Vienna; and Olmutz, the prison of Lafayette, is its principal

town.

2) Another version is, that in the ninth century a sister of the King of Bulgaria being carried a prisoner to Constantinople, became a Christian; and through her means, on her return to her native land, a Christian church was established in her country, of which the King of Moravia and the Duke of Bohemia became members.

first bishop, and for their use Cyrillus translated the Scriptures into the Sclavonian language.

The antipathy of the Greek and Roman Churches is well known, and by much the greater part of the brethren were in process of time compelled, after many struggles, to submit to the see of Rome. A few, however, adhering to the rites of their mother Church, united themselves, in 1470, to the Waldenses and sent missionaries into many countries. In 1547 they were called Fratres Legis Christi, or Brethren of the Law of Christ: because, about that period, they had thrown off all reverence for human compilations of the faith, professing simply to follow the doctrines and precepts contained in the Word of God.

There being at this time no bishops in the Bohemian Church, who had not conformed to the Church of Rome, three preachers of the United Brethren were, about the year 1467, ordained by Stephen, a bishop of the Waldenses in Austria; and these, on their return to their own country, ordained ten bishops or seniors, from among the rest. In 1523, the United Brethren commenced a friendly correspondence, first with Luther, and afterwards with Calvin, and other leaders among the reformers. A persecution which was brought upon them on this account, and some religious disputes which took place among themselves, threatened for awhile the society with ruin; but the disputes were, 1570, put an end to, by a synod, which decreed that differences about non-essentials should not destroy their union; and the persecution ceased in 1557, when the United Brethren obtained an edict for the public exercise of their religion. This toleration was renewed in 1609, and liberty granted them to erect new churches. But a civil war, which, in 1612, broke out in Bohemia, and a violent persecution which followed it in 1621, occasioned the disper