cattle, and seem to have kept up a stock farm at Old Ebenezer long after their removal to the new settlement. They also had a bell-foundry, and in those days the fame of the sweet-toned Salzburger bell went far and wide, and, for aught we know, some of them are still heard in the pine groves of Georgia.

abandoned the silk industry. But the Salzburgers persevered, and in 1751 they sent over to England one thousand pounds of cocoons and seventy-four pounds of raw silk, which brought them a return of one hundred and ten pounds sterling. The Trustees of the province encouraged the industry by giving to each female who should learn the art of spinning a reeling-machine and two pounds sterling in money.

shared in this general enthusiasm, and encouraged the industry among the colonists. As far back as 1733 the Trustees of the province induced Nicolas Amatis, of Piedmont, to remove to Georgia. Besides his family, Amatis took with him his servant, Jaques Camuse, for the special purpose of rearing silk-worms and manufacturing silk. In 1736 the Salzburger pastor, the Rev. Mr. Bolzius, led in introducing the industry among his people. In 1742 five hundred mulberry-trees were sent to Ebenezer, and a machine was erected for preparing the silk. the year 1750 nearly all the English had

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no doubt the neglected descendants of the original planting a century and a half ago. Indeed, the present Salzburgers have not quite given up the working in silk. I stopped at the home of a venerable couple where I saw the plain and well-worn spinning - reels used for this purpose. There is, however, no longer any weaving of silk in all the region. The only article manufactured is fishinglines. These are of the finest and strongest quality, and are in great demand in Savannah.

Some of the silk goods manufactured by Oglethorpe's colonists commanded a

high price in the markets of the Old World. The Queen of England on one occasion surprised her guests by wearing a dress made entirely of the silk woven by the Georgia weavers.

The colonists developed steadily. Their pastors were active in promoting both spiritual and temporal interests, and were the real leaders in all things. They had places of worship and separate societies in Savannah, Ebenezer, Zion, Bethany, and Goshen. They paid strict attention to establishing schools. Their life was in almost every respect a separate

gusta to Savannah, and was frequently a stopping-place for marauders and regular troops. The British, apparently fully aware of the adverse sentiments of the people, spared nothing. The Salzburger church was at first used as a hospital, but was for a time converted into a stable. During the whole war the Salzburgers were in a condition of great distress. The settlement was threatened with total extinction. But with the achievement of national independence the people again gave proof of their original vitality, and organized their industries and their state

ly little institutions with all the old fervor and persistence. With the beginning of the present century we find them still adhering to their severe morality and their industrious habits. In 1824 they ceased to hold worship in the German language, and adopted the English. About the same time the financial support which had come from Germany and England was entirely cut off, and the Salzburgers were left to support their schools and worship entirely by their own contributions. Their pastors were as remarkable for their longevity as for their devotion to the spiritual and material interests of the people. Bolzius served thirty-two years, Rabenhorst twenty years, and the elder Bergmann thirty-six years.

one from that of the English colonists, but on all public questions there was perfect harmony. When the disturbances occurred which led to the Revolution, it was not long a question on which side the Salzburgers would cast their lot. They espoused the cause of independence with great fervor. The few who adhered to the royal standard lost the sympathy of the great body of the community. In the Provincial Congress held at Savannah, July 4, 1774, to take measures for supporting the people of Boston in their opposition to the Stamp Act and other causes of offence, there were many Salzburger delegates. Among them were John Sterk, John A. Truetlen, Jacob Waldhaur, John Floerel, and Christopher Craemer.

This early devotion to the cause of independence brought its severe penalty. Ebenezer lay on the highroad from Au

One of the most curious parts of the life of the Salzburger colony during its entire history was the literary means employed to make known its fortunes to friends and lookers-on in Europe. The Rev. Samuel Urlsperger, pastor of St. Ann's Lutheran Church in Augsburg, continued his interest in them long after he had bidden farewell to them while on their foot journey from Salzburg to the sea. He arranged that correspondence be kept up with him after the arrival of the exiles in America. The principal correspondent was Pastor Bolzius. He kept a minute journal of the daily life of the community, and this. with all public matters relating to the English and the Indians, he reported regularly to his friend

in Augsburg. Urlsperger edited this vast mass of information with great care, and issued it from the Orphan-house Press of Halle, Germany. With the exception of Stevens's Journal, the Ausführliche Nachrichten is the most valuable storehouse of facts during this period of the history of the colony of Georgia. It was published in parts as they arrived from Georgia. The first part is ornamented with a map of Georgia and a portrait of Tomo Chachi Mico, the friendly Indian chief who gave Oglethorpe a cordial welcome, and afterward made a journey to England. The Nachrichten is now a very rare book. While the copy in my possession comprises over four thousand pages, small folio, it is far from complete.

The celebrated Hallische Nachrichten, while not dealing with the Salzburgers, is of equal importance with the Urlsperger Nachrichten, because of its minute treatment of the settlement and historical development of the Evangelical Lutherans of Pennsylvania. The correspondent was Muhlenburg, and his communications were received at Halle, and were published by the press of the celebrated Orphanhouse of Francke. The Hallische Nachrichten is about as rare as the Urlsperger Nachrichten, but this want is now supplied by a new edition, which is now appearing in this country.

These two detailed reports of Germans in this country to their friends in the Old World occupy a unique place in the literature of the colonies. The disposition of the Puritans to sustain close relations with their brethren in England was manifested by separate treatises on church government, monographs on the Indians, and brief historical and biographical accounts. The Swedes, settling on the Delaware, reported descriptive accounts, such as the excellent works of Acrelius and Campanius. The Salzburgers, however, while one of the smallest of all the fugitive societies from Europe, stand before the world as the authors of the most circumstantial report ever sent from a Protestant religious body in colonial America to their helpful and loving co-religionists in Europe. It must not be forgotten, however, that for minute reporting to the authorities in Europe, the Relations of

the Jesuit fathers from France excel all other accounts of missionary laborers in the New World.

Within the last half-century there has been no material increase in the Salz

SECTIONAL VIEW OF A SALZBURGER HOUSE, SHOWING MANNER OF DOVETAILING.

burger community. The mission of these humble people has not been to be ministered unto, but to minister. Their religious life has been an important factor in the development of Georgia, not alone as a colony, but as a State. Their spirit has penetrated all communions. Especially the Baptists and the Methodists have been strengthened by the accession of members from the Salzburger societies. Among the Methodists in Effingham County today are the Hineleys, Sherrans, Bergsteiners, Neidlingers, Zittraners, and Zettlers; while among the Baptists are the Rohns, Dashers, Waldhaurs, Wisen bakers, Bergsteiners, and others. The constant tendency on the part of the young is to affiliate with the churches distinctively American. I learned in Savannah that many of the most thriving citizens are direct descendants of the original Salzburgers. Their ancestry has been of such honorable character that it is not surprising that the present Salzburger generation should be held in especial esteem.

The Salzburgers took great care to pro

vide themselves with books. The present pastor, Austin, invited me to examine a box and a barrel, both of which were filled with remnants of books used by the exiles. Huge folio copies of Bibles had become dilapidated by much use, and later by neglect resulting from the use of more convenient copies. Arndt's True Christianity was a permanent book, and, indeed, is still in use by the Germans of America, as by their brethren in the fatherland. I saw a copy of Spener's Selections from the Holy Scriptures, published in Frankfurt-on-Main in 1713; Madai's Brief Information on the Utility and Use of Medicines, prepared in the Francke Orphan-house, published in Halle in 1779; Luther's Smaller Catechism, published by Carl Cist in Philadelphia in 1795; Reading-book for Small Children, also published by Cist in 1795; and Bachmair's Complete German Grammar, published by Henry Miller in Philadelphia in 1772. The most unaccountable of all the dead books in this mass of printed matter in Pastor Austin's barn was a fiery work in German bearing the title of A Meditation on the Crime of Drunkenness, published "in the year 1741." Neither place nor author is given. From the presence of many anglicized German words, and from the excellent paper, less flexible than the German printing-paper of the last century, I was of the opinion that the pamphlet was printed in this country, and was not without suspicion that it had come from the press of Benjamin Franklin. On consulting Mr. Charles R. Hildeburn, of Philadelphia, the author of A Century of Printing: the Issues of the Press in Pennsylvania, 1685-1748, he replied that he had little doubt that it was issued from the press of Christopher Saur. If this be the case it must be admitted that it is not found in Mr. Charles G. Sower's list of the Publications of Christopher Sower. Whoever was the publisher of this little work, it gives ample proof that while spirituous liquors were at that early date prohibited in the province of Georgia, the Salzburger exiles were so well satisfied with the regulation that they were determined that no change should be made in it.

The land of the Salzburgers is now most easily reached by taking the railroad from Savannah for the little station of Guyton. This rural village is in Ef fingham County, which takes its name

from Lord Effingham, who was associated with Pitt, Burke, and others of the day in befriending the oppressed American colonies. I had telegraphed for a conveyance, and found one ready on my arrival. But the driver had little acquaintance with the territory, and no sympathy with its charming historical associations. So we soon parted. Mr. Mannette, a shopkeeper of Guyton, was good enough to serve me as both driver and guide for the long day through the calm pine forests. His French name awakened my curiosity, and I found him to be a descendant of both Huguenot and Salzburger ancestry. He knew every path over all the country, and was well acquainted with the humble and honest folk scattered here and there in the woods.

The

It is difficult to imagine a more weird and suggestive scene than is presented by a ride in early spring through the country made memorable by the exiles. silence is almost painful. After leaving Guyton, I had not ridden a mile in our primitive wagon before the wilderness began. Now and then we passed a house which bore the unmistakable traces of the early period, or was modelled after the original houses. The mode of construction was various enough. The weather-boarding consisted of sawn logs, which were dovetailed at the corners of the house. A hole was bored through the logs at these corners, and a long wooden pin was driven through from top to bottom. For long stretches the pine forest cannot show a clearing. In one case a little school-house, quite dilapidated, relieves the monotony. But the wonder is where the children lived who ever attended it. The pines stand up in straight and tall shafts. They bear a large amount of wounding. To extract the turpentine, the axeman boxes them. His process is to make a deep incision, which is so shaped as to serve as a cup or box for receiving the turpentine. Hundreds of boxed pines are constantly in sight. The tree is afterward cut down if it is at all an advantage to convert it into lumber and haul it to market. There are large sections of burnt pines, which have been caught in a woods fire, and are charred and dead from trunk to the

utmost branch. The road winds gracefully through this great forest, with no sound but that of the insects.

After going many miles through the

forest, in an atmosphere densely laden with the perfume of the pines, we turned abruptly to the left. Here we drove over an old road, now overgrown with shrubbery almost strong enough to arrest our progress. I was now on the site of Old Ebenezer, the first restingplace of the Salzburgers, whence they removed to the present settlement, or New Ebenezer. A careful examination resulted in finding no trace whatever of a building, or even of a place where it could be seen that one had stood. That historical sawmill, the first in all the region to convert the primeval pines into lumber, and which had cost fifteen hundred pounds sterling to establish, had entirely disappeared. Talifer says that it was already a ruin in 1740,* and it is not surprising that my hope to discover at least the place where it had stood and done its good work was without proper warrant. But the dull and narrow little creek was still there. This was the river on whose banks the exiles first settled, and where they remained until their removal to New Ebenezer.

We now returned to the main road, and proceeded on our way through the forest in a general course toward the permanent settlement on the Savannah River. The forest becomes less dense. Now and then a cottage comes into view, where a Salzburger family lives. We draw up before the home of the present senior pastor of the district, the Rev. *Narrative of the Colony of Georgia in America, London, 1740, p.102.

M

Jacob Austin. He has an assistant, and these two perform the pastoral work for the four Salzburger churches of the entire region. Pastor Austin accompanied me to the present Ebenezer, and gave me much interesting information concerning his parishioners and their beautiful and simple life. On reaching the Savannah, I was for the first time in the presence of memorials of the first generation of the exiles. The most important of all is the church. It is a large structure, and bears evidence of long and faithful service. The present seats, although not over-comfortable, are newer than the building proper.

Along the river near the church one can easily see the fragments of rude masonry, now covered with luxuriant growths of underwood and creepers, which the British erected for protection during the Revolutionary war. The grounds about the church are ample. The graveyard is the same as was used in the early days, but has been enlarged and beautified in the later years. The graves of the pastors, who served the flock with great fidelity, are marked with appropriate stones. The inscriptions on the graves deal but little in praise, and are mostly confined to dates of birth and death. This whole God's-acre is a beautiful picture of simplicity, and is thoroughly German. As one strolls along its walks, and lingers beneath its trees, and reads the touching memorials to the beloved dead, he can easily imagine himself back in little Tyrolese Tieffereck, the cradle of the Salzburg exiles in Georgia.

VOL. LXXXV.-No. 507.-40