XVI.

DAVID ZEISBERGER AND HIS DELAWARE INDIANS.

BY REV. JOHN Morrison, Sarnia

To be born in one nation; at five years of age, because of religious persecution toward his people, to be carried like the Christ-child into another nation; to be left there at fifteen to complete his education, when, his parents seeking greater liberty in worship, emigrated to America; to live under a false accusation of thefts, growing out of a gift of gold bestowed by a wealthy man to whom he had rendered a helpful service; to run away with another youthful companion from the school, at seventeen years of age; make his way across Europe, cross the mighty Atlantic; find his parents in the new world; in young manhood to give himself to the church of his fathers; to carry the gospel to no less than thirteen of the great Indian tribes of the American continent, covering seven of the great states, or territories, including Canada; to see all the horrorsincluding Indians scalping innocent white people, and white soldiers, unworthy of the name, ruthlessly butchering innocent Indians-men, women and children; to spend more than sixty years in such arduous missionary labors; to have established the first Protestant mission, and to have administered the first Protestant baptism, west of the Alleghanies; to have hung the first Protestant church-bell and preached the first Protestant sermon in what is now the State of Ohio; to have founded no less than thirteen towns, some at least of which grew into places of importance and hold a prominent place to-day on the map-surely such a list of activities is enough to lift any life from the dead level of mediocrity and also place it on a mountain top of honor before an admiring world. Such was the life of the subject of this sketch.

David Zeisberger was born at Zauchtenthal, Moravia, Good Friday, 11th of April, 1721; at five taken to Herrnhut, Saxony, Luther's land; at seventeen, followed his parents to Georgia. At the age of 87 years ceased at once to work and live, crowned with the glory of God and the praises and honor of men, at Goshen, Tuscarawas County, Ohio, where his body was buried and his grave still is.

A marble slab, simple and unostentatious, as was his life, bears the following inscription:

David Zeisberger,

who was born 11th April, 1721,

in Moravia, and departed this life 17 Nov., 1808,
aged 87 years, 7 m. and 6 days.

This faithful servant of the Lord laboured among the
American Indians as a Missionary during the
last 60 years of his life.

This wonderful man, spending most of his life in the forest wilderness of the heart of this American continent, surrounded by savage beasts and yet more savage men, turned the wilderness in many places to smiling farms and gardens, and the untutored Indian in large numbers into Christian, civilized life.

The ancient nation of the Delawares had for him special attraction, and to their Christianization he devoted the greater portion of his long and richly eventful life, proving himself as great in missionary zeal and enterprise in the eighteenth century as David Livingstone, who was born nearly five years after his death, in the nineteenth.

True to the red cross flag of England, under the protecting folds of which he found an asylum when he landed on the American shore, he inculcated the same loyalty very largely into his Delaware Indians, leading his people, his "Brown Brethren," as he affectionately called them, from Ohio, when danger, under the newly flung to the breezes stars and stripes beset their pathway, on the request of the British commandant at Detroit-Major de Peyster-into the state of Michigan. After four years resident there on the banks of the Clinton (then called Huron) River, about three miles from where Mt. Clemens now stands, made to believe all danger past, and hoping to do a yet greater work among the Indian tribes, he led his people back to Ohio, only to discover a danger cloud constantly hanging over their heads. He then, after negotiations with the British authorities, led his band of Delaware Indians into Canada, in 1791, spending one year on the bank of the Detroit River, where Fort Malden was afterwards built. Then a grant of land being made by the authorities, in the County of Kent, in 1792, the year before MacKenzie made his discovery by land of the Pacific, Zeisberger, with his devoted helpers of the Moravian Church-Gottlob Senseman, William Edwards, and Michael Jung-led his "Brown Brethren," part by canoe and part by land, by the route of Detroit River, Lake St. Clair, and the Thames, building a new town-Fairfield-in the unbroken forest.

Here was as true a band of U. E. Loyalists, whether officially given that name or not, as any who crossed at Niagara, Bay of Quinte, or the lower provinces. These men of the ancient race of this continent sacrificed their homes and lands to live under the protection of the British flag, and carve out new homes on the land given them there; and their descendants are with us to this day, at Moraviantown.

In his report of Nov. 8, 1791, Thos. Jefferson, Secretary of State, noted the transfer as follows: "The Indians, however, for whom the reservation was made, have chosen to emigrate beyond the limits of the United States, so that the lands reserved for them still remain in the United States." That is to say, as in the case of the white U. E. Loyalists, their lands were confiscated, without recompense.

For six years did Zeisberger remain at Fairfield, then the mission being well established and his assistants quite capable of full management, his love for souls, greater than his love for the old flag, led him back to Ohio, where he decided he was more largely needed, and there died, as already stated.

Zeisberger was a man small in stature, but big in intellect and soul. He was not missionary only, but a great explorer and pioneer of civilization, and also a voluminous writer, his published works constituting an almost perfect resume of all that entered into the period covered by his missionary life; and what further the thousands of pages of his writings, yet unpublished, may add to our historical knowledge of that period, we cannot tell. This we deeply feel-that what is now Western Ontario was highly favored and honored in having, for full seven years, been the dwelling place of this remarkable, and now almost unknown and forgotten man. We will go so far as to confidently assert that he was one of the greatest men who ever spent that many years in this western part of our Province.

We have carefully read his published diaries; we have read a number of works written by strong men dealing with this wonderful missionary and pioneer explorer; we have searched for, found and photographed the site of New Gnadenhutten (Tents of Grace) on the bank of the Clinton River, Mich.; we have gone over the old ground of Fairfield, photographed important bits of the present life, also the past; we have secured official and authentic maps from original surveys of the town of New Gnadenhutten, showing the exact location of houses, and of old Fairfield on the Thames, afterwards burned to the ground in bitter hatred by the American soldiers after the Battle of the Thames; we have copied from the baptismal register of this, the oldest Protestant cause in

western Ontario, seventy years' record of the one hundred and twelve, beginning with January, 1800, and we have found it a most fascinating study.

We have decided that the best way to let you see this remarkable man, his assistants and Indians, following this introduction, is to give you carefully selected items verbatim from his journals, and in which you will see how truly he entered into every detail of life pertaining to his chosen work. In so doing we will confine ourselves to that portion in time beginning when he and his Indians fled from Ohio to Michigan, still under the British flag, in 1782, and closing with his departure from Fairfield, on the Thames, Aug. 15, 1798.

Extracts from Journals.

Jan. 10, 1782—At Upper Sandusky. Nearly all the brethren went out to dig wild potatoes, on which to live. We have no corn.

Feb. 7-In the Shawanese towns they bought about a bushel of corn for which they paid five dollars. Wild Indians as well as Americans were exceedingly hostile.

March 15-A few of us left today by order from the commandant for Detroit to consult with him.

April 13-Two vessels with a sergeant and fourteen rangers, from the British commandant, to take us to Detroit.

Apl. 20-Arrived safely at Detroit. Major de Peyster told us he called us to save our lives. Detroit is like Sodom, where all sins are committed. There is a R. Catholic church on each side of the Detroit River, but the English and Protestant people have neither church nor preacher, and wish for neither.

July 20-Today David Zeisberger and John George Jungmann, with their wives, Wm. Edwards and Michael Jung, two unmarried missionaries, accompanied by nineteen Delawares, men, women and children, by boat started for the Huron River. Boats lashed together for safety crossing L. St. Clair, in charge of two pilots. Found the Huron River deep, with little current. After several unsatisfactory landings, we, on the 22nd, further up, found on the south side of the river a fine place to lay out a town on a height. On the N. East, between the river and the height, are many springs which flow into the river. Soil is sandy with heavy hardwood timber; splendid cherry, of which in Detroit the most The Ohio Archaeological and Historical Society, Columbus, O., bas been active in the publication of Leisberger's memoirs. These are of so much interest in the early history of southwestern Ontario that numerous extracts are reprinted here.

beautiful cabinet work is made, and sassafras so large, boards two feet wide can be cut therefrom.

Pitched our tents. The scripture verse for the day-"For ye shall go out with joy and be led forth with peace."

Location data. He speaks of "the fork a half-mile higher up than we are, to which the water is deep."

July 23-Having brought plants with us, we set them out, sowed turnips and lettuce, planted beans and some garden stuff. We found traces of an old Indian town on the site we had chosen, and holes that had been storehouses, also hills where corn had been grown; now it is a dense wood of trees two to six feet in diameter.

Sat., July 27-We marked out our town, in the first place only where two rows of houses shall be built, and the street four full rods wide, but each lot has three rods in front.

Mon., July 29-We began to fell the trees on our town site, so as to build our houses. No animals to draw them, so we had to carry them.

Friday, Aug. 2-Began to block out our first house (evidently not superstitious).

Friday, Aug. 16-We roofed our first house, and have the timber for a second already on hand.

Aug. 22-At Detroit, the Commandant read us a letter from Gen'l Haldimand rec'd two days before from Quebec, that we might see what he did was done with Haldimand's approbation.

Sat., Sept. 21-We had a love feast and holy communion, the first time in this place.

Six more of our Indians arrived from Sandusky. (Pays tribute to British protection.) Our Indian enemies took all conceivable pains to prevent our Indians coming here, and lied to them on every hand, that they were no longer safer with the English than with the Americans.

Thursday, Oct. 3-Today the first death, Elizabeth, daughter of Ignatius and Christina, two years, ten months and one day old. She was buried on the 4th, the first seed in our "God's Acre," which was thus dedicated, a beautiful, even place on a height, the finest we have anywhere had.

Sun., Oct. 6—A little daughter of the same parents, born in June, was baptized-name Naomi. Our first baptism.