BLACK-ROBES, 
 
 OR 
 
 SKETCHES 
 
 OF 
 
 MISSIONS AND MINISTERS 
 
 IN THE WILDERNESS AND ON THE BORDER. 
 
 BY VJLX 
 
 J 
 
 ROBERT P:*NEVIN. 
 
 PHILADELPHIA: 
 
 J. B. LIPPINCOTT & CO. 
 
 1872. 
 
Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1872, by 
 
 J. B. LIPPJNCOTT & CO., 
 In the Office of the Librarian of Congress at Washington. 
 
fLacroft 
 
 Library 
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 THE JESUIT. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 I. The Priest and the Parson of Two Hundred Years Ago . 7 
 
 II. The Missionary among the Savages of Superior . . 16 
 HI. Marquette, his Cotemporaries and Successors, and what 
 
 they accomplished ....... 33 
 
 IV. The Legend of the Defeat of the Eries . . . -53 
 V. The Faith on the Pennsylvania Border and in the Valleys 
 
 of La Belle Riviere . 66 
 
 THE MORAVIAN. 
 
 I. The Moravians in Eastern Pennsylvania . . . .87 
 
 II. The " Place of Hogs" on the Upper Alleghany . . 98 
 III. The " Village of Peace" on the Beaver . . . .109 
 
 IV. The Journey through the Wilderness .... 123 
 
 V. Trouble at Work in the Tents on the Muskingum . . 136 
 VI. Captain Pipe plans New Mischief, and what came of his 
 
 Schemes ......... 151 
 
 VII. The Dispersion of the Congregation ; its Restoration, and 
 
 its Return to the Muskingum . . . . . 171 
 
 THE METHODIST. 
 
 I. The Methodist Preacher of the Border Nascitur, non fit . 185 
 II. The Arrest, Awakening, Conviction, Conversion, and the 
 
 Call of the Preacher 198 
 
 III. The Preacher in the Pulpit 210 
 
 IV. In the Saddle and on the Circuit ..... 230 
 
 V. The Cane-Ridge Revival . 248 
 
 VI. Mentionable Men among the Preachers of the Border . 265 
 
 (iii) 
 
iv CONTENTS. 
 
 THE PRESBYTERIAN. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 I. Old Redstone its People and its Presbytery . . .281 
 
 II. The Parson of Seventy-five Years Ago .... 299 
 
 III. The Sabbath-day, and how it was sanctified , s . . 314 
 
 IV. The Long Sabbath, and the Great Buffalo Sacrament . 334 
 
 V. The Early Laborers in the Border Vineyard . . .348 
 
THE JESUIT. 
 
 (5) 
 
THE JESUIT. 
 
 
 THE PRIEST AND THE PARSON OF TWO HUNDRED 
 YEARS AGO. 
 
 A TTRIBUTE the fact to whatever motive we 
 *^X please, accord to it whatever degree of de 
 serving, one way and the other, our several preju 
 dices may incline to, it is nevertheless indisputable 
 that the Roman Catholic Church has always moved 
 far in advance of all other Christian denominations 
 in missionary enterprise. Inspired by a sublime 
 devotion, the self-denying priest has never hesitated 
 to respond to a conviction of duty, nor paused to 
 consider the hinderances in the way of its discharge. 
 No'field of labor has been so remote, no interven 
 ing stretch of wilderness and solitude so vast, but 
 that to attain the one, he has bade willing defiance 
 to the toils, the trials, and the perils of the other. 
 Pestilence has not stayed him, famine has not re 
 strained him, fire and sword have not dismayed him. 
 Outstripping the march of civilization, distancing 
 even the enterprise of the few, made famous by the 
 
 (7) ' 
 
8 BLACK-ROBES. 
 
 feat, who, led by desire of traffic, or the love of 
 wild adventure, have accomplished their bolder 
 advances, penetrating far, over long-extending 
 leagues of pathless way, into the heart of savage 
 wastes, he has assumed the more marvelous 
 achievement, nor rested content until, traversing 
 the weary reaches between, of forest, plain, desert, 
 and mountain, he has journeyed from sea to sea, 
 and made the passage of a continent. 
 
 In 1626, Jean de Brebeuf, of the order of Jesus, 
 starting from Quebec, entered upon his first mis 
 sionary labor, fixing his station among the Huron 
 Indians, on the Canada shore of the lake of that 
 name, nearly a thousand miles from the point of 
 his embarkation on the St. Lawrence River. Ten 
 years later, the exiled preacher, Roger Williams, 
 the foremost venturer among his Puritan brethren, 
 sought out a scene for his personal toils and for 
 a new settlement among the Narragansetts in 
 Rhode Island, but the enterprise took him scarcely 
 beyond sound of the axe of the pioneer in the clear 
 ings on the frontier of the Plymouth settlements. 
 In 1648, John Eliot, the most noted of evangelical 
 apostles among the Indians, officiating on a salary 
 of fifty pounds per annum, had extended his labors 
 into the backwoods, perhaps half a dozen miles 
 outside of Boston harbor. Seven years before, the 
 canoe that bore them landed Fathers Jogues and 
 Raymbault among the Ojibwas, or Chippewas, on 
 the banks of the Saut Ste. Marie, close upon the 
 
THE JESUIT. 9 
 
 waters of Lake Superior, midway almost between 
 shore and shore of the opposite oceans. Whole 
 generations later, and within memory of living 
 men, when ministers, under auspice of the domestic 
 missionary societies, first went out to serve among 
 the mixed populations, native and imported, of 
 Western (peninsular) Michigan, they found the 
 orchards, grown old and crumbled from decay, 
 which were planted by the Jesuit fathers nearly a 
 century and a half before. 
 
 If a comparison be instituted between the teach 
 ings and the preachings of the Papist and the Puri 
 tan, in the time of which we treat, the contrast will 
 be marked, and strikingly at variance with a pre 
 vailing conviction respecting the fact. The instruc 
 tions under which the follower of Loyola entered 
 upon his work demanded an exclusive devotion to 
 the one specific object of his errand, to proclaim 
 Christ and his Cross to the benighted savages of 
 the New World. The Christian virtues were to be 
 held in strict observance. He was to be meek, 
 patient, forgiving, temperate, charitable, and of un 
 tiring affection. He was to conform, as nearly as 
 possible, to the manners and customs of the tribes 
 among which he might be thrown; loving them as 
 brothers ; tendering a cheerful proffer of all cour 
 tesies and civilities, even the most trifling; par 
 taking with them of their fare, a hard task for 
 graceful performance, but one claimed as a sacred 
 due of hospitality, no matter how rude or how re- 
 
I0 BLACK-ROBES. 
 
 pulsive it might be ; all, that identifying himself with 
 them thus intimately, he might the more readily 
 win them over to the embrace of the Faith which 
 it was his mission to preach. 
 
 The Puritan, on the other hand, took upon him 
 his office independently, and in boasted contempt 
 of higher human authority. With the Bible for 
 his rule and conscience for his guide, only to God 
 would he hold himself accountable. His peculiar 
 dogmas regarding forms of belief and of worship, 
 of government ecclesiastical and civil, and of indi 
 vidual conduct, made up mainly his religion. In his 
 preaching he preferred to discourse upon points of 
 doctrine; to denounce the Divine Right of Bishops; 
 to discuss the question whether Sanctity of Life is 
 Evidence of Justification, or to deliver a solemn 
 protest against the Eating of Mince-pies on Christ 
 mas. Thus it happened that while Roger Williams 
 was proclaiming vehemently against the cross in 
 the English standard, to the spiritual edification 
 of his hearers, and while, with his ready right 
 hand, Endicott was defiantly cutting it out, Father 
 Jogues, a tortured, mutilated prisoner, far away in 
 a camp of the Iroquois, in the fullness of a more 
 amiable zeal, was carving the same sacred symbol, 
 and with it tracing out the adorable name of IESUS 
 in the bark of the trees. And so it was, that while 
 the "Apostle of the Indians" found topics quite up 
 to his taste, for pulpit deliveries, in such themes as 
 " The Wearing of Wigs and Long Hair," and " The 
 
THE JESUIT. II 
 
 Use of Tobacco," Charles Gamier, the gentle disci 
 ple of Ignatius, was proclaiming the compassionate 
 lessons of his divine Master in his own inspired 
 utterances ; preaching repentance and faith to the 
 Huron and the Iroquois, and administering the 
 saving sacrament of baptism to his converts, all 
 the while, and everywhere, steadily pursuing, 
 through hazard and through hardship, his ap 
 pointed task ; that task which was to find its re 
 quital at last in the crown of martyrdom, for 
 which, in his moods of ecstasy, he was used to 
 petition so fervently. 
 
 The religion of the Puritan may be said to have 
 been a religion of the head, characteristically cold, 
 rigid, and vindictive. Charity with him was an un 
 familiar virtue. His ministry was devoted to the 
 rooting out of heresies, and to the instillation of 
 "wholesome spiritual doctrine." The Law fur 
 nished him with his texts and his proofs, rather 
 than the Gospel, as Moses was his master of inspi 
 ration rather than the Messiah. To keep a salutary 
 espionage over the consciences of his fellow-com 
 municants, to disfranchise Wheelright, and to 
 banish Mrs. Hutchinson, for the very fault (none 
 else than non-conformity) which had made him 
 self an exile from his native land, was a more 
 praiseworthy service than would have been the 
 conversion of a Mohican or a Wampanoag. He 
 seemed to act upon the presumption that the truth 
 could make its own way among the Gentiles, and 
 
12 BLACK-ROBES. 
 
 that the exclusive office of the teacher or pastor 
 was to see that the "professor" lived up to the 
 line of Congregational orthodoxy. His function 
 was to call the righteous, not sinners, to repent 
 ance. It was nothing out of the way that Parris 
 should take it as worthy a heavenly benediction 
 when he "preached and prayed" against deaf Re 
 becca Nurse, and had her hanged by the neck, one 
 summer's day, till she was dead. Cotton Mather 
 thought that he was winning a peculiar claim to 
 celestial favor when he harangued the crowd 
 whose unsahctified instincts threatened to tempt 
 them to the rescue of the condemned preacher, 
 Burroughs, as he stood on the scaffold, and with 
 a comfortable conscience could thank God "for 
 justice, being so far executed among us," the 
 governor and the president of Harvard College 
 responding " Amen" to it, as his miserable victim 
 was launched, strangled, into eternity. 
 
 The religion of the Jesuit, on the other hand, 
 was eminently a religion of the heart. Love was 
 the cardinal element of his faith. Christ, with him, 
 was all and in all. Calvary was the sacred mount 
 ain to which he turned for his oracles, rather than 
 Sinai. The injunction of his adorable Lord he put 
 literally in practice, taking up his cross and fol 
 lowing him. He never tarried to discuss mooteJ 
 questions in theological science, receiving the dog 
 mas of his church without cavil, and confessing to 
 its mysteries dutifully, satisfied, as he was, in the 
 
THE JESUIT. 13 
 
 terms of old and approved acceptance, to under 
 stand as he believed, and not to fetter and imperil 
 himself by assuming only to believe as he under 
 stood. Freed thus from the necessity of lingering 
 at home to watch against the upgrowth of schism, 
 lie was at liberty to take up the more benevolent 
 and consistent offices of his vocation, and where- 
 ever souls were to be snatched from perdition, 
 the more distant and dangerous, the more inviting 
 the mission, thither to force his way, or for with 
 his face once set upon an errand he never turned 
 back to perish in the attempt. 
 
 "O my Jesus," said the pious Gabriel Lalle- 
 mand, "it is necessary that Thy blood, shed for the 
 savages as well as for us, should be efficaciously ap 
 plied to their salvation. It is on this account that 
 I desire to co-operate with Thy grace, and to im 
 molate myself for Thee." "What shall I render to 
 Thee, O my Lord Jesus," reads the vow of the 
 noble Jean de Brebeuf, "for all that I have received 
 from Thee? I will accept Thy chalice; I will call 
 upon Thy name. And now I vow, in presence of 
 Thine eternal Father, and of the Holy Ghost, 
 before the angels, the apostles, and the martyrs, 
 that if, in Thy mercy, Thou shalt ever offer unto 
 me, Thy unworthy servant, the grace of martyrdom, 
 I will not refuse it. From this hour I offer unto 
 Thee, with all my will, O Thou my Jesus, my body, 
 my blood, my soul, so that, by Thy permission, I 
 may die for Thee who hast deigned to die for me. 
 
1 4 BLACK-ROBES. 
 
 So, Lord, will I" accept Thy chalice and invoke 
 Thy name, O Jesus, Jesus, Jesus !'' 
 
 This was the spirit of the Jesuit's devotion, and 
 these types of the illustrious company of those 
 who, like Rene Menard, Chabanel, Garreau, Le 
 Maistre, Du Poisson, Antoine Daniel, and their 
 fellows, dedicated themselves to martyrdom, that 
 the faith to which they were plighted, with its 
 saving grace, might be implanted in the hearts of 
 the heathen. 
 
 As to the merits of the one order of these eccle 
 siastical functionaries, and of the other, it may 
 readily be conceived that a decided opinion pre 
 vailed in the minds of the savages. "You saw 
 me," said one of them, representing his people 
 before the Governor of Massachusetts, " long before 
 the French did; yet neither you nor your ministers 
 ever spoke to me of prayer or of the Great Spirit. 
 They saw my furs and my beaver-skins, and they 
 thought of them only. These were what they 
 sought. When I brought them many I was their 
 great friend. That was all. On the contrary, one 
 day I lost my way in my canoe, and arrived at last 
 at an Algonquin village, where the Black-Robes 
 taught. I had hardly arrived when a Black-Robe 
 came to see me. I was loaded with peltries. The 
 French Black-Robe disdained even to look at them. 
 He spoke to me at once of the Great Spirit, of 
 Paradise, of Hell, and of the Prayer which is the 
 only path to heaven. I heard him with pleasure. 
 
THE JESUIT. 15 
 
 At length prayer was pleasing to me. I asked for 
 baptism, and I received it. Then I returned to my 
 own country, and told what had happened to me. 
 They envied my happiness, and set out to find 
 the Black-Robe, and asked him to baptize them. 
 If, when you first saw me, you had spoken to me 
 of prayer, I should have had the misfortune to 
 learn to pray like you, for I was not able then to 
 find out if your prayer was good. But I have 
 learned the prayer of the French. I love it, and 
 will follow it till the earth is consumed." 
 
 While the labors of the early Catholic mission 
 aries were devoted chiefly to the natives inhabiting 
 the wildernesses of Canada, they were not so to 
 the exclusion of a more extended exercise. Their 
 enterprise led them beyond the boundaries of that 
 province, and brought them within borders of a 
 strange land, which, lying south of the chain of 
 lakes, away in the rear of the Plymouth settlements, 
 reached, with its broad ranges of forest and prairie, 
 from the Alleghany Mountains to the Mississippi 
 River. It is of their attempts, as the pioneers of 
 Christianity in these regions, the regions of "the 
 West," as the term had its application and limita 
 tion down to within a score or two of years ago, 
 that this sketch proposes to treat. 
 
II. 
 
 THE MISSIONARY AMONG THE SAVAGES OF SUPERIOR. 
 
 THE Ottawa, Menomonee, Chippewa, Illinois, 
 and other Indian nations inhabiting the regions 
 bordering upon the waters of Superior and Michi 
 gan, formed part of the great Algonquin family, 
 which, having its connecting links through other 
 intermediate tribes, extended along the line of lakes 
 to the eastern seaboard, including and terminating 
 with the powerful clans of the Abenakis in Maine. 
 Within this belt of territory, and edging upon the 
 lake which bears their name, lay the possessions 
 of the Hurons or Wyandots, a people deriving 
 their lineage and language from the Iroquois, but 
 bound to the Algonquins, as was inevitable from 
 their geographical position, by the more reliable 
 ties of sympathy and interest. 
 
 Voyages for the purposes of trade were common 
 between the Ottawas and the other kindred tribes 
 of the West, and their allies, the Hurons, of the 
 East. Straggling parties would make the excur 
 sion at almost any season of the year, except, 
 perhaps, in the dead of winter; but the great tours 
 happened more rarely, and were undertaken when 
 the months were propitious, offering fain skies, a 
 (16) 
 
THE JESUIT. 17 
 
 genial atmosphere, open water, and the promise of 
 supplies, in the game and the growth of the woods, 
 for subsistence on the way. From sixty to a hun 
 dred or more canoes would gather at some con 
 venient harbor on Green Bay, or on the Saut Ste. 
 Marie, into which would be packed the cargoes of 
 peltries and copper, their chief articles of export, 
 when the flotilla, manned with some five persons 
 to each bark, forming altogether quite a numer 
 ous party, would start upon their voyage. After 
 the Old World had sent over its colonies to the 
 New, and the settlements that sprang up on the 
 seacoast and along the rivers began to exhibit their 
 superior attractions, these voyages were continued 
 farther down the St. Lawrence, until at length 
 Quebec, the frontier town of the French, became 
 the terminus of the trade. Here the native foresters 
 could supply themselves at a cheap rate, according 
 to their estimate of values, with the foreign com 
 modities that suited their simple tastes, beads, bits 
 of glass, ribbons, rings, and the like, while the 
 barterers with whom they dealt were disposed to 
 believe that they had not been outbargained in the 
 furs and skins received in exchange. 
 
 While tarrying at port, social intercourse was 
 not neglected between dealers and customers, and 
 while the Frenchman excited the admiration and 
 taxed the credulity of his visitor with descriptions 
 of the marvels of his native land, the Indian, am 
 bitious to maintain his national importance as well, 
 
1 8 BLACK-ROBES. 
 
 would reciprocate with stories of the wonders of 
 the distant interior where he inhabited, of its 
 mighty rivers and fresh-water seas, of its illimitable 
 prairies, and of the populous tribes that filled the 
 region. Tempted by these representations, Nicolet, 
 one of the earliest and most adventurous pioneers 
 of New France, determined upon a voyage of ex 
 ploration. A ready familiarity with the Algonquin 
 tongue qualified him peculiarly for the undertaking. 
 He made the expedition, visiting the "Sea Tribe," 
 in the neighborhood of Green Bay, and having 
 returned, offered his own testimony in confirmation 
 of the statements made by the native traders. 
 
 Among the national festivals of the Algonquins 
 was one of peculiar solemnity, entitled the Feast 
 of the Dead, recurring, periodically, every tenth 
 year, and held at some chosen locality in the 
 country of the Hurons. On these events, delega 
 tions from all the tribes, far and near, were accus 
 tomed to assemble, bearing with them the bones 
 of their dead of the last decade, dug from their 
 graves, and brought for final sepulture in the one 
 common depository consecrated to that use, but 
 more particularly attracted, no doubt, by the feasts, 
 the songs and dances, the games, and the torch 
 light processions which were the ceremonial accom 
 paniments of the occasion. The period for a 
 return of this festival happened in 1641, and was 
 attended, among the rest, by a representation of 
 Chippewas from the Saut Ste. Marie. 
 
THE JESUIT. I 9 
 
 The Jesuit missionaries were not slow to take 
 advantage of so promising an opportunity to urge 
 the claims of the Faith upon these strange barba 
 rians. So eloquently did they press their appeals, 
 and such was their gentle and winning manner, that 
 they found favor in the eyes of the savages, who 
 made earnest entreaty that some of their number 
 should accompany them in the backward voyage 
 to their lodges in the far land. Ever since the re 
 turn of Nicolet, several years previously, the good 
 fathers had contemplated the establishment of a 
 mission in that quarter, and now that Providence 
 had opened a way, they promptly and thankfully 
 accepted the invitation. Preliminarily to a positive 
 occupation of the ground, Fathers Jogues and 
 Raymbault were appointed to undertake the jour 
 ney, explore the country, and fix upon a station. 
 Coasting Lake Huron in their canoes, after a voyage 
 of seventeen days, made peculiarly pleasurable by 
 the charming scenery that skirted their progress, 
 and the genial summer atmosphere, redolent with 
 the rich balm of pines, through which they floated, 
 they arrived on the 4th of July at the Saut, to be 
 met with the hearty welcome of two thousand 
 Indians. 
 
 The wonders narrated by the old traders at 
 Quebec were repeated. The missionaries were 
 told of the great plains that stretched south and 
 west, away from the lakes, and of the populous 
 tribes the Miamis, the Sacs and Foxes, the 
 
20 BLACK-ROBES. 
 
 Kickapoos, and the Pottawotamies by which 
 they were inhabited. Rumors, too, were rehearsed 
 of vaster regions lying still farther beyond; of the 
 river of rivers, the MESIPI they called it, that 
 had its broad course there, and of the Nadowessi, 
 mighty and terrible, a nation of hunters and of a 
 thousand warriors, that occupied the land. The 
 missionaries were rilled with wonder at the recital. 
 Their hearts overflowed with compassion for the 
 multitudes living and perishing thus in ignorance, 
 and instantly would they have committed them 
 selves to the work of their enlightenment, only 
 that, as yet, the laborers were too few in the field 
 of the Hurons, and the successes established there, 
 through so much toil, too precious, to allow of the 
 risk to the spiritual perseverance of the newly elect, 
 that might ensue upon their withdrawal. But there 
 was to be no final abandonment of the ground. 
 They tarried for some days, sharing the hospitali 
 ties of their Chippewa friends, planted a cross on 
 the site near the river where now stands the Cathe 
 dral of St. Mary, as the distinguishing emblem of 
 their creed, and for evidence to such as might 
 follow that they had been before, and were entitled 
 to come again, to hold and to possess for the 
 French and for the Faith, and then, launching their 
 canoes, they glided out into the rapids of the Ste. 
 Marie and floated away on their homeward-bound 
 voyage. They never returned. Raymbault died, 
 perishing from exposure. Jogues followed ulti- 
 
THE JESUIT. 21 
 
 mately, hurried to his reward by the murderous 
 blow of an Iroquois assassin. 
 
 A party of Ottowas, under guidance of a pair of 
 wandering traders, who, in pursuit of their calling, 
 some two years before had strayed upon them, 
 visited the Hurons in 1656, and made request fora 
 Black-Robe to join them on their return. Two of 
 the fathers, Leonard Garreau and Gabriel Druil- 
 letes, that man of " incomparable charity," were 
 accordingly commissioned for that purpose. Upon 
 starting they took with them a company of French 
 men, with the view of planting a white settlement 
 among the natives at the Saut. The attending 
 Frenchmen, soon wearying of the society of their 
 savage co-voyageurs, and perhaps not uninfluenced 
 by a regard for their personal safety, withdrew in 
 a body from the enterprise. The missionaries were 
 not to be deterred by the spiritless example of the 
 deserters, but manfully continued their advance. 
 Paddling their way against the tide of the river, 
 they had proceeded as far as the island of Mon 
 treal, when they were suddenly attacked by a party 
 of Iroquois, lurking secretly in await for them. 
 Garreau fell fatally wounded under the first fire. 
 The Ottowas deserted their canoes and took to the 
 shore. Here, gathering behind defenses hastily 
 thrown up, they sheltered themselves until escape 
 was practicable, when they stole away, abandoning 
 Druilletes, whom they would not allow to go 
 with them, to whatever fate might overtake him. 
 
22 BLACK-ROBES. 
 
 But when the Jesuit resolved he accomplished. 
 In his lexicon there was no such word as fail. 
 Did persecution, armed with tortures, interpose to 
 prevent him ? He might writhe under its inflictions, 
 but he would not be hindered. Did certain death 
 lie visibly before him in the way ? No matter to 
 the devotee whose daily invocation was that he 
 might be found worthy, if the reward were not 
 beyond his desert, to win the crown of martyrdom. 
 
 The establishment of the Saut Ste. Marie mis 
 sion was deferred, but not abandoned, because of 
 the disaster at Montreal Island. In 1660 another 
 trading fleet of sixty canoes, laden with the ordi 
 nary freightage, arrived from Superior at Quebec. 
 Three hundred Ottowas manned the expedition. 
 They reiterated the request which had been urged 
 by their brethren four years before, that a servant 
 of the " God of the Prayer" should go back with 
 them on their return. The Superior, Father Lalle- 
 mand, listened to their prayer, and cast his eyes 
 around to find the fitting candidate for the em 
 bassy. Among the enlisted in the sacerdotal ser 
 vice was a veteran, who, in earlier years, had toiled 
 with Brebeuf, Jo*gues, Gamier, and Bressani, of 
 saintly remembrance, and participated in all their 
 trying experiences, save only the last, by which 
 their earthly connection had been severed. ' Hard 
 service had done its equal share with the frosts of 
 fifty-six winters to whiten his hair, and the keen- 
 edged weapons of his enemies had left their deeper 
 
THE JESUIT. 23 
 
 grooves than the well-marked furrows of time, on 
 his cheek. Sixteen years' devotion to it had not 
 diminished his ardor in the cause to which he was 
 plighted. His physical frame, constitutionally 
 delicate, would have rendered him incompetent for 
 missionary duty, save that its energies, through a 
 severe and uninterrupted process of discipline, had 
 been trained to extraordinary endurance. His man 
 ners were those of a rarely accomplished, highly 
 polished Christian gentleman. He was zealous in 
 his Master's cause, but his zeal was of a temperate 
 type, kept evenly quick and warm by the ""live 
 coals," rather than stimulatively ardent by the fitful- 
 flashes from off the altar. 
 
 Rene Menard was the man for the post. If the 
 Superior, after having indicated his choice, hesitated 
 on account of the age and infirmities of the priest 
 to confirm it, "Fear not," said the worthy asso 
 ciate of the old martyrs. " He who feeds the young 
 raven, and clothes the lily of the field, will take 
 care of his servants." The venerable father was 
 nominated, and forthwith started upon the mission. 
 
 The savage traders had been liberal in their 
 offers of kind treatment. No sooner had they got 
 fairly under way with their fleet, however, than the 
 native treachery of their hearts began to betray 
 itself. Indignities were heaped upon the gray- 
 headed priest, especially by Le Brochet, a principal 
 chief of the party, whose example failed not to 
 provoke a like behavior on the part of his inferiors. 
 
24 BLACK-ROBES 
 
 He was made to perform their most menial services. 
 He was compelled to toil at the oar from dawn till 
 dark, and to contribute his more than equal share 
 in the transportation of their burdens at the port 
 ages. He was forbidden-his accustomed devotions ; 
 made the object of mockery and derision; robbed 
 of his breviary, which the ruffianly wretches hurled 
 into the water; yet patiently he endured it all, "and 
 like a lamb dumb before his shearer, so opened he 
 not his mouth." Famine overtook the party on 
 its way, when all were reduced to the extremity 
 of subsisting on berries, barks, roots, acorns, and 
 the tripe de roche, a woodland moss, gathered as 
 they might find it, here and there, on the rocks. 
 
 Arrived at the Saut at last, the Indians cast the 
 unhappy missionary ashore, and left him provision- 
 less, shelterless, barefooted, and with only the tat 
 ters of his threadbare robe for protection against 
 the weather. Yet the soul of the heroic old man 
 did not fail him. As of wont, his daily orisons 
 ascended to heaven. As of wont, his lips gave 
 breath to praise, the recesses of the woods waken 
 ing as they had never wakened before, to the 
 strange song of the New Adoration, the Salve 
 Regina, and the floods clapping their hands to 
 the glad music of the Ave Mans Stella. For 
 several days he was reduced for sustenance to 
 the use of dry bones . crushed to a coarse powder 
 between stones and thus made edible. Some of 
 his red-skin companions at length relented, sought 
 
THE JESUIT. 25 
 
 him out, and conducted him to where their wig 
 wams were pitched, miles away at Keweenaw Bay. 
 Upon their extermination as a tribe, in 1649, by 
 the Iroquois, a crippled remnant of the Hurons 
 took refuge with the Ottowas. Ten years' exposure 
 to the old superstitions may have dimmed, but had 
 not obliterated, the religious impressions of these 
 unfortunate exiles. As soon as Father Rene ap 
 peared among them, these sheep of the old flock 
 gathered fondly about him, and with the stray 
 wanderers of the scattered cote of St. Mary's on 
 the Wye, he formed the nucleus of a new fold at 
 St. Theresa's Bay, as designated by him, on 
 Lake Superior. Such was the establishment of 
 the first permanent mission in the Far West. Me- 
 nard was not to be allowed, without dispute, to 
 administer to the spiritual wants of his flock. The 
 Ottowa people, under unworthy example of their 
 chiefs, who were violent in their opposition to the 
 faith of "the Prayer," drove the pious father from 
 their cabins. He constructed for himself a rude 
 shelter of fir-branches, through which the winds 
 had almost unobstructed passage, and this was his 
 lodge through the long, bitter months of a north 
 ern winter, this his only protection against its 
 storms, and snows, and cold. His labors were 
 limited to the sick and equally suffering with him 
 self among the unfriendly tribe, but were not 
 without their recompense. Several baptisms are 
 mentioned among the fruits of his efforts. 
 
26 BLACK-ROBES. 
 
 In the spring, having learned of a group of 
 refugee VVyandots, inhabiting an island in Green 
 Bay, he determined upon a visit to that quarter. 
 The route was ascertained to be an exceedingly 
 difficult and dangerous one. His friends advised 
 him against the undertaking. "God calls me 
 thither," he replied. " I must go if it cost me my 
 life." Embarking in a canoe accordingly, attended 
 by his proved friend the Donne, John Guerin, 
 together with a small party of Hurons, he started 
 upon the hazardous voyage. The way was long, 
 following the devious current of the Menomonee, 
 and laborious from the many crossings overland 
 necessary, in order to avoid the various rapids in 
 the river. Before having proceeded very far, the 
 Indians, with accustomed infidelity, deserted the 
 missionaries, who with wonted perseverance, how 
 ever, continued to press on. At one of the portages, 
 Guerin started in advance of his aged companion. 
 The latter, with a dubious trail to follow, drifted 
 out of the true course and lost his way. Guerin, 
 more fortunate, made the crossing successfully, and 
 awaited anxiously the arrival of the priest. He 
 never appeared. Diligent search was made for 
 him. The bag he' carried, his breviary, and por 
 tions of his apparel were found long afterwards in 
 the huts of some of the savages, but never a trace 
 of the body of the missionary. Rene Menard, the 
 last surviving of the Fathers in the Faith who had 
 been first to bear the tidings of Redemption to the 
 
THE JESUIT. 27 
 
 barbarians of the New World, had followed, by the 
 same path whither they had gone, and the com 
 pany of apostles on earth stood again complete as 
 the circle of martyrs in Paradise. 
 
 But the Cross had been planted in the soil of the 
 tribes on the Great Lake, and it was not to be 
 abandoned. Claudius Allouez was appointed to 
 fill the place made vacant by the loss of the ven 
 erable Rene. He accepted the commission cheer 
 fully, joined the Ottowa flotilla at Montreal, in the 
 summer of 1665, and by the month of September 
 was in his allotted field of labor. His first tarry- 
 ing-point was at the bay of St. Theresa, where he 
 was met and welcomed by some of the native con 
 verts of Menard. Thence he coasted along the 
 lake, until, early in October, he had reached the 
 charming bay of Chegoimegon. Here he encoun 
 tered an assemblage of savages, representing the 
 various clans of Algonquins, gathered in from their 
 several cantons along the coast, and wrought up to a 
 high pitch of enthusiasm, in view of a contemplated 
 descent upon the encampments of their common 
 enemy, the Sioux. The priest looked on with 
 feelings of painful regret. It was a matter of prime 
 importance for his purpose that the martial fever 
 should be quieted, and, if possible, the threatened 
 warfare obviated. While the more youthful war 
 riors, therefore, with their battle-songs and dances, 
 were busy adding fuel to the fire of excitement, 
 the prudent missionary invited their elders apart, 
 
2 8 BLACK-ROBES. 
 
 the sachems and experienced veterans of the 
 clans, and labored to convince them of the inex 
 pediency of the proposed adventure. His counsels 
 prevailed, and the undertaking was abandoned. 
 
 Allouez then built a chapel, on a spot which he 
 designated as La Pointe du Saint Esprit, and thus 
 prepared himself for the opening of his work among 
 the tribes. 
 
 The difficulties which he had to encounter were 
 many, and hard to overcome. The superstitions 
 of the Indian dear to him as the traditional in 
 heritance of his fathers were most to his choice, 
 moreover, because their mysteries, of a type in 
 their sublimation with the real circumstances of 
 his life, lay within the range and aptitude of his 
 unsophisticated habits of thinking. His objects 
 of worship had to be plainly visible somehow, in 
 the shadow at least, if not in the substance. The 
 idea of a spirit imperceptible to sense, and uniden 
 tified with some special feature or other of nature, 
 such as the sun, the winds, the water, the woods, 
 was one beyond his grasp of comprehension. 
 When the missionary, therefore, undertook to tear 
 to pieces the structure of the old religion, he had 
 the prejudices, firmly rooted as the growth of ages 
 in a congenial soil could make them, to contend 
 against; while when, on the other hand, he sought 
 to substitute a knowledge of the faith of his Mas 
 ter, he encountered the harder task of attempting 
 to build up without the material for reconstruction, 
 
THE JESUIT. 29 
 
 the language of the savage being destitute of 
 terms to represent the abstractions of his creed. 
 
 Then there were the social and domestic usages 
 to correct; favorite practices not inconsistent with 
 the native conception of morality, but scarcely 
 comporting with the ethics of the new doctrine. 
 Marriage, in its sacramental sense, was an unknown 
 institution among the people, Man and woman, 
 with perhaps a gift of wampum passed between 
 them, as a "consideration" for the longer or 
 shorter term of accommodation that might follow, 
 rather than as the pledge of a permanent compact, 
 would take to the same wigwam, but the relation 
 thus contracted might be dissolved at any time as 
 caprice decided, and either, or both, of the parties 
 remain at liberty to enter into new alliances upon 
 the same convenient terms. When the pair thus 
 associating happened to have outlived the ardencies 
 of youth, they usually kept up the companionship 
 for years, perhaps for life; but this fidelity was 
 maintained from motives of convenience commonly 
 rather than from tenderness of attachment, the 
 woman acting pretty much in the capacity of slave, 
 hoeing the corn, cracking the hominy, and attend 
 ing generally to the domestic drudgery, while the 
 man, making his amusements his occupation, pro 
 vided the luxuries of the chase for the larder, or 
 "filled his red-stone pipe for smoking," and took 
 his ease in his cabin. 
 
 Polygamy, besides, was prevalent. Indeed, their 
 3* 
 
3 o BLACK-ROBES. 
 
 customs and their customs were their law al 
 lowed the almost unrestricted indulgence of desire, 
 and their grossness in this respect was so open, so 
 shameless, so abominable, that the very brutes that 
 roamed their forests were paragons of decency in 
 comparison. 
 
 But Father Allouez did not despair of his mission. 
 The chapel which he had erected, the novel ap 
 pointments of its interior, the unaccustomed ser 
 vices, and the strange doctrines of the new religion, 
 all combined to excite the curiosity of the natives; 
 and from far and near, Nepissings and Kikapoos, 
 Saulteurs and Pottawottamies, they gathered in to 
 see the Black-Robe, and to listen to the marvelous 
 tidings which he proclaimed. His attention being 
 invited to these various tribes, he undertook a pil 
 grimage through their several territories, distribut 
 ing his lessons of counsel and instruction in all 
 their villages. As the fruit of his first winter's 
 labor he was able to report the baptism of eighty- 
 four subjects, principally children, but including 
 several adults. Having continued at his work 
 through two years, he returned to Quebec, tarried 
 for two days, reported to his Superior, laid in a 
 small stock of such supplies as were more press- 
 ingly needed at his Western post, engaged the 
 services of an assistant, Father Louis Nicholas, and 
 turned his face again towards Chegoimegon. 
 
 In his old field once more, Allouez applied him 
 self with new industry to his labors. Missions 
 
THE JESUIT. 31 
 
 were permanently established among the Ottowas, 
 Chippewas, and Nepissings. But his efforts were 
 not restricted to these tribes. He established his 
 posts in the communities of the Miamis ; built his 
 oratories of mats and bark among 4:he Sacs and 
 Winnebagoes ; and thus, season by season, migrated 
 from scene to scene, until the news of redemption 
 had been declared to twenty-five tribes, and eighty 
 souls had been gathered by baptism into the fold 
 of Christ. The Kiskakons, as a nation, under his 
 preaching, adopted the faith of the Cross. From 
 Lapointe Allouez proceeded to Green Bay, and his 
 first mass being celebrated on the festival of St. 
 Francis Xavier, the post was designated by that 
 title. From that point as a centre he kept up an 
 active intercourse with the various tribes of the 
 region, explained the mysteries of the Prayer, 
 opened chapels for instruction, waited upon the 
 sick, and discharged the practical duties of his 
 office in such a manner as secured the confidence 
 of the natives, gave force to his influence, and 
 aided him materially in the profitable prosecution 
 of his labors. Hundreds were baptized, including 
 chiefs and others of the distinguished among the 
 people, some of whom, like Kekakoung, a con 
 verted Kiskakon, became preachers themselves of 
 the creed of their adoption. Our Father, translated 
 into their tongue, grew to be the familiar prayer 
 of the wigwam, and Kyrie Eleison the accustomed 
 chant at their devotions. Schools were instituted, 
 
32 BLACK-ROBES. 
 
 where the children were taught the form of worship, 
 and indoctrinated in the rudimentary elements of 
 the Christian confession. 
 
 After the death of Marquette, Allouez, in 1676, 
 went, under commission, to the Illinois tribe, to 
 fill the place of that deceased missionary. He 
 reached their territory in April, and at once took 
 possession of the quarters which had been occupied 
 by his illustrious predecessor. Since Marquette's 
 time the population, gathered in from their tempo 
 rary migrations, had multiplied materially, so that 
 where he had found but one race and seventy-four 
 cabins, his successor discovered three hundred and 
 fifty-one lodges, accommodating eight tribes. On 
 the day of the Feast of the Invention of the Holy 
 Cross, the missionary planted a model of the em 
 blem appropriate to the day, twenty-five feet high, 
 which continued to stand long years afterwards as 
 a monument to his zeal and enterprise. With oc 
 casional intervals, Allouez remained with this people 
 till 1679, when, relinquishing the charge, he re 
 turned to Mascoutens. 
 
III. 
 
 MARQUETTE, HIS COTEMPORARIES AND SUCCESSORS, 
 AND WHAT THEY ACCOMPLISHED. 
 
 IN the spring of 1668, James Marquette, accom 
 panied by Le Boesme, a worthy brother of the 
 Order of Jesus, took boat at Quebec and launched 
 out upon the long journey to the Northwest. 
 After the usual voyage along the romantic coast 
 of Lake Huron, accomplished without incident 
 worthy of mention, the reverend adventurers, en 
 tering the Saut Ste. Marie, and winding their course 
 amid the isles that gem its channel, reached their 
 point of destination, and disembarked on its 
 southern shore, at the foot of the rapids. Here 
 they erected a station, and, without delay, Mar 
 quette commenced the exercise of his priestly 
 functions. His fame had preceded him in that 
 distant wilderness, so that the savages poured in 
 from every quarter to hear him. The assemblies 
 that gathered at the summons for services were 
 large, attentive, and apparently interested, so that 
 sanguine expectations were entertained of fruitful 
 results to his labor. But his hopes were not to be 
 realized. Curiosity their chief attracting motive 
 once gratified, his hearers gradually dropped off", 
 
 (33) 
 
34 
 
 BLACK-ROBES. 
 
 or, if they lingered, betrayed no evidence of any 
 impression that might be regarded as profitable or 
 hopeful. Despairing of success, he determined to 
 change his scene of operations, and accordingly, in 
 the early autumn of the year following, removed to 
 the mission opened by Allouez, at Lapointe, after a 
 weary and try ing passage of thirty days' continuance, 
 made through desolate reaches of snow and ice. 
 The inhabitants of two of the villages which were 
 planted in the neighborhood, old converts of the 
 Hurons in exile, received him kindly. Long 
 estrangement from the influence of enlightened 
 teachers had caused the decay of religion among 
 them, and a partial relapse into the old supersti 
 tions ; but, although not without opposition, es 
 pecially from the tribes of adjoining settlements, 
 the lost ground was speedily recovered. 
 
 Marquette had listened to the legends that were 
 told of the river of incgmparable magnitude that 
 rolled away to the west, and of the formidable 
 nation the Dacotahs that swarmed the vast 
 lands beyond. The spirit of adventure stirred 
 sympathetically in his bosom with the zeal of the 
 religieuse, and he resolved that, so soon as oppor 
 tunity pointed the way, he would meet its hazards 
 and put the rumor to the proof. The Winnebagoes, 
 P *ribe of the Dacotahs, and the only one east of the 
 Mississippi, occupied the region bordering on the 
 western extremity of Lake Superior. As a helpful 
 preliminary to the grand project held in view, the 
 
THE JESUIT. 35 
 
 missionary was anxious to secure the friendly favor 
 of this people, and opened up negotiations which 
 he hoped would result in an invitation to visit 
 them; but, when on the eve of accomplishment, his 
 plans were suddenly foiled. Some treachery of the 
 Hurons offended their neighbors, and gave rise to a 
 war which eventuated in their forced retreat to the 
 quarter formerly occupied by them at Mackinaw. 
 Marquette was compelled to retire with his friends. 
 Here, amid the group of cabins in the new settle 
 ment, he erected a chapel and established the 
 mission of St. Ignatius. But the spot was a dreary, 
 inhospitable one, and offered indifferent prospect 
 of good to be accomplished. 
 
 While yet at Lapointe, the eminent father had 
 taken advantage of the presence of a prisoner from 
 that tribe to have himself instructed in the dialect 
 of the Illinois. That nation, an extensive and 
 powerful one, occupied the country lying between 
 Lake Michigan and the Mississippi River, contigu 
 ous to the territory of the Dacotahs on the west, 
 and, save by the partial interposition of the Miami 
 district, reaching between the southern limit of 
 Lake Michigan and Lake Erie, by the Iroquois on 
 the east, both dreaded enemies, between the oppo 
 site pressure of which they were doomed to be 
 finally crushed out of existence. Defeated in his 
 original plan of opening up a way of approach to 
 the Dacotahs, or Sioux, through the Winnebagoes, 
 Marqu ?tte determined to make the trial by a more 
 
36 BLA CK-R OBES. 
 
 southerly route through the territory of the Illinois. 
 Accordingly, as early as was practicable in the 
 spring of 1673, armed for his only defense with 
 cross, beads, and breviary, he turned his face 
 towards the setting sun, and started forth upon his 
 enterprise. Mascoutens was the first point of attain 
 ment fixed upon, but finding the place deserted, he 
 resumed his course, pushing westwardly until 
 striking the Wisconsin, he embarked upon its 
 waters in a canoe, and committing himself to the 
 protection of the Blessed Virgin Immaculate, com 
 menced his voyage. Day after day his frail craft 
 glided on with the flow, of the current ; distance 
 after distance, traced lingeringly along the winding 
 channel of the stream, was measured, until, after a 
 week of time and one hundred and twenty miles 
 of progress, on the memorable i/th of June the 
 mouth of the tributary was reached, and the suc 
 cessful explorer found himself afloat on the broad 
 bosom of the Mississippi. 
 
 Upon his return from that distinguished adven 
 ture, instead of retracing his course by the Wis 
 consin, he struck into the Illinois, and ascended 
 that river until having reached a settlement of the 
 Peorias he decided, at their earnest solicitation, to 
 tarry a few days in their town. He next pro 
 ceeded to the Kaskaskias, another clan of the Illi 
 nois, who received him with a welcome so cordial 
 that he promised, as soon as possible, to revisit 
 their village and establish a mission there. After 
 
THE JESUIT. 37 
 
 a brief stay with this hospitable people, amply re 
 warded by the privilege of conferring the rite of 
 baptism upon a dying child, he bade them an 
 affectionate adieu, and having crossed the inter 
 vening prairie, returned by lake to Mackinaw. 
 
 The severe exposures to which he had been sub 
 jected in this expedition told seriously upon the 
 health of the enterprising missionary. He had been 
 attacked with dysentery in his travels. Resisting 
 the remedies applied for its correction, the disease 
 assumed a chronic type, and was rapidly wearing 
 away his strength. That his end was approaching 
 was painfully evident. But the purpose upon which 
 he was bent was not to be thwarted by any hinder- 
 ance short of death. Had he not pledged himself 
 to the benighted Kaskaskian savages that he would 
 return to declare to them the glad news of Re 
 demption? Let consequences happen as they 
 might, the promise must be made good. 
 
 Thirteen months after his arrival at Mackinaw, 
 in the month of October, suffering painfully still 
 from his malady, but with a spirit active and 
 unyielding as ever, he set out upon the arduous 
 undertaking. Winter overtook him on the way, 
 and impeded by the ice which had closed up the 
 Chicago River, he was compelled to suspend 
 progress, comforting himself as he best could with 
 such protection as a rude hut, put up by his own 
 hands, might afford against the inclemencies of the 
 season. With the opening of the river in the early 
 
 4 
 
38 BLACK-ROBES. 
 
 spring he resumed his way, reaching his destina 
 tion at length on the 8th of April. After having 
 spent some time in passing from lodge to lodge, 
 instructing the inmates separately in the Faith, he 
 invited them to assemble in a body at an appointed 
 place, near at hand, on the prairie. Here he 
 erected an altar to the "Unknown God," and 
 before an eager audience of over two thousand 
 hearers, "declared Him unto them." 
 
 At this newly-established mission Marquette 
 continued his labors for some two weeks, when, 
 with his health utterly shattered, and under a self- 
 conviction now that " the time of his departure 
 was at hand," he decided to return to Mackinaw, 
 that he might die there, cheered in the " putting 
 on of immortality" by the familiar presence of his 
 brethren. Many of the Indians, to whom he had 
 endeared himself by his amiable and unselfish ex 
 ample, accompanied him on the way, bidding him 
 adieu, reluctantly and with their warmest expres 
 sions of sympathy, as, with his pair of associates, 
 he took his canoe, launched from the beach, and 
 glided away along the eastern and hitherto un- 
 traversed coast of Lake Michigan. As they made 
 advance by day, he reclined painfully, but uncom 
 plainingly, in the narrow confinement of his frail 
 vessel. At night he was carried ashore and laid 
 to rest on the ground, with the moss, gathered from 
 the decaying forest-wood, for his couch, and the 
 leaves of the living trees for his covering. And so 
 
THE JESUIT. 39 
 
 they journeyed on. As near high noon of a beau 
 tiful day in May they approached a river, which 
 empties about midway of its length into Lake 
 Michigan, he ordered his oarsmen to pause, and 
 indicating an elevated spot on the river-shore, he 
 said that there was to be his grave. His com 
 panions urged him to let them take advantage of 
 the .propitious weather and row on, but he refused, 
 and was carried to the land. " Say adieu to my 
 Superiors," he whispered, as they laid him gently 
 on the ground, the dews of death settling on his 
 brow the while. " Bid farewell to my fellow-dis 
 ciples of the Faith. As for yourselves, you are 
 weary rest; I shall never forget you." Then 
 lifting his eyes to heaven, he murmured, devoutly, 
 " Sustinuit anima mea in verba ejus, Mater Dei, 
 memento meiT After an hour of silent commu 
 nion with God, he solemnly repeated the Creed, 
 thanked the Almighty that he was permitted to die 
 in that distant solitude, a brother of the Order of 
 Jesus, and a victim of his devotion to the Cross. 
 Then, with the name of his Redeemer on his lips, 
 he bowed his head and gave up the ghost. His 
 body was buried as he directed, on the bluff by 
 the shore of the river that is known by his name. 
 His companions erected a rude cross over the spot 
 of his interment, where, after a fervent appeal for 
 his saintly intercession with God in their behalf, 
 they left him to his rest. 
 
 Two years later a party of Kiskakons, members 
 
40 BLACK-ROBES. 
 
 of his old charge, dug up the missionary's bones, 
 and, joined on the way by canoe-loads of Iroquois, 
 bore them with religious care to the station at 
 Mackinaw. Here they were met by the villagers 
 of the place, led in a body by the priests Pierson 
 and Nouvel, who, to the chant of De Profundis, 
 landed the remains, and with becoming ceremony 
 bore them to the chapel for final burial. Gabriel 
 Richard, a Sulpitian, stationed long years after 
 wards at Detroit, who was a deputy to Congress, 
 and who enjoys the higher reputation of having 
 established the first printing-press in Michigan, 
 visiting the locality where Marquette had died, and 
 where he presumed his relics still to be, raised on 
 the spot a wooden cross, and with his penknife 
 carved upon it the inscription, 
 
 "FR. JH. MARQUET 
 Died here 9th May, 1675." 
 
 This is the only monument which has ever been 
 reared to his memory; but the fame of his name 
 cannot perish from history, nor the renown of his 
 sanctity from the traditions of the faith which he 
 so nobly exemplified and so brilliantly adorned. 
 
 Father Druilletes, a veteran apostle of the Jesu 
 its, stands conspicuous among the distinguished 
 missionaries of the Northwest. He enjoyed a 
 special reputation because of the marked sanctity 
 of his life. During the prevalence of an epidemic 
 among the Indians, miraculous cures were accred- 
 
THE JESUIT. 4I 
 
 ited to him, which at once established for him a 
 name and an authority highly potent and influen 
 tial. Under his administration the Indians of the 
 Ste. Marie were, as a nation, converted to Chris 
 tianity. The decree enunciatory of this revolution 
 in their form of faith was issued on the nth of 
 October, 1670. "The God of the Prayer," said 
 the declaration, "is the Master of life;" and the 
 young men, walking the streets of the village, pro 
 claimed, "The Saut prays; the Saut is Christian." 
 A twelvemonth's service was rewarded with the 
 baptism of three hundred subjects. His miracu 
 lous power operated materially in his favor. Very 
 many, influenced by that distinguishing proof of 
 more than common virtue, were led to conviction. 
 Polygamy was renounced ; other depraved vices 
 were abandoned; the medicine-men were repudi 
 ated; the children were, brought to receive the 
 benediction of the priests; the first fruits of their 
 gathering were laid at the altar of the New God ; 
 and when starting upon the war-path, that emer 
 gency which, in view of its hazardous contingencies, 
 is the best test of true religious conviction, their 
 prayers were now addressed to the Divinity of the 
 Black-Robe. 
 
 A party of Sioux came to the Saut, in 1674, to 
 negotiate a peace with the Algonquins at that 
 place. At a council held at the mission-house to 
 discuss the measures in dispute between the tribes, 
 a member of the conference, becoming excited, 
 4* 
 
42 BLACK-ROBES. 
 
 sprang up, drew his knife, and brandished it defi 
 antly in the face of a Dacotah. Angered at the 
 outrage, the Sioux leaped to his feet, drew a blade 
 from his hair, the usual place of carrying that 
 weapon, shouted his war-cry, which immediately 
 called his clansmen about him, rushed upon the 
 Algonquins and drove them from the house. The 
 expelled party retaliated by setting the building 
 on fire. The Sioux ambassadors were all burned 
 to death. This was a severe blow to the missionary. 
 His chapel and his home were reduced to ashes. 
 The Dacotahs were enraged, the Algonquins ex 
 posed to continual chastisements from their ene 
 mies, so that betwixt the aggressions of the one 
 and the reprisals of the other there was little space 
 left for the cultivation of spiritual grace. But 
 Druilletes continued at his work, not without profit, 
 until, after a long and faithful service, "broken by 
 age, hardship, and infirmity," he returned to Que 
 bec, where a few months afterwards he died. 
 
 During a suspension of the labors of Allouez 
 among the Illinois, brought about by the visit of 
 La Salle, who entertained little regard for his order, 
 and less for this particular brother of the Jesuits, 
 Fathers Gabriel de la Ribourde, Zenobfus Membre, 
 and Louis Hen-nepin of the Recollects, who had 
 accompanied the celebrated explorer on his expe 
 dition, opened a mission, in 1679, at Peoria. They 
 vvere anxious to acquire the language of the natives, 
 and, at the same time, as far as possible, to pro- 
 
THE JESUIT. 43 
 
 mote the spiritual aim of their mission. For both 
 these purposes, having been adopted into the fami 
 lies of two of the chiefs, they had every facility ; but, 
 greatly to their discouragement, the dialect was 
 beyond their skill of acquisition, and the people 
 seemed to be wedded to their idols irreclaimably. 
 Baptism was administered to a dying warrior, but 
 almost before the priest had retired from the per 
 formance of the rite, the old superstition resumed its 
 sway, and the chieftain expired an apostate amid 
 the incantations of his own medicine-men. Father 
 Membre despaired utterly. In hope of accomplish 
 ing some good, he shifted the scene of his opera 
 tions to another neighborhood, only to meet with 
 like disappointment. Still, he and his colaborers 
 toiled on, however, until hostilities broke out be 
 tween the Illinois and the Iroquois, which resulted 
 in the dispersion of the former. The missionaries, 
 left without protection, decided to return to Green 
 Bay. On the way, encountering an accident as they 
 floated along the Illinois River, they got ashore, 
 two of the party tarrying to repair a damage to their 
 canoe, while the other, old Father Gabriel, walked 
 some distance apart to repeat his breviary. While 
 thus engaged, he was surprised by a raiding band 
 of Kikapoos, and mercilessly murdered. After a 
 fruitless search for him, his associates resumed 
 their voyage, and finally reached Green Bay in 
 safety. Thus began, and so disastrously ended, 
 the Mission of the Recollects among the Illinois. 
 
44 BLACK-ROBES. 
 
 The Jesuits determined to reoccupy the field from 
 which they had retired in favor of the Recollects, 
 and accordingly, in the spring of 1692, and in the 
 person of Sebastien Rale, the mission at Peoria 
 was reopened. Upon his arrival the excellent 
 father was greeted cordially by the Indians of the 
 various villages. They attended worship respect 
 fully; they sent their children to receive instruc 
 tion; the Prayer found favor in their eyes, and the 
 morals taught in the articles of the new creed met 
 with undivided approval, all save the doctrine, so 
 universally distasteful, that the man must be the 
 husband of but one wife. They would not repudi 
 ate polygamy. Two years' toil was productive of 
 little profit, and Rale, abandoning the field, with 
 drew to his original charge among the Abenakis 
 in Main?. 
 
 James Gravier, who had previously made a pass 
 ing visit to the post, returned to supply the vacancy 
 created by the retirement of Rale. The labors of 
 his predecessors, although unsuccessful on the 
 whole, had not b&~n expended entirely in vain. 
 About fifty Peorians and Kaskaskias were either 
 converts or favorably inclined towards Christianity, 
 but the large majority were devoted to the super 
 stitions of their fathers. The forms of chapel- 
 service had been maintained by the faithful with 
 due observance since the departure of Rale, a 
 venerable chief assuming the priestly vicarship for 
 the time, himself making the tour of the village, 
 
THE JESUIT. 45 
 
 morning and evening, to invite the attendance of 
 worshipers. Deprived of a competent spiritual 
 leader, however, and exposed to the active an 
 tagonism of the medicine-men, there was imminent 
 risk of an early relapse into heathenism. This 
 native school of prophets had witnessed with alarm 
 the progress of a confession which, once accepted, 
 must prove ruinous to their occupation, and, un 
 happily countenanced by the licentious soldiery of 
 the French fort close by, were using their best 
 endeavors to arrest its further advance. It was, 
 therefore, with feeling of joyful gratitude that the 
 handful of persevering neophytes hailed the arrival 
 of the missionary. The prophets immediately 
 organized in array against this their new and for 
 midable adversary. They assailed him with mis 
 representation, mockery, and maltreatment. They 
 ridiculed the ceremonies of his office; they charged 
 that his charities were but mischiefs in disguise; 
 that his rosaries were charms for pernicious prac 
 tices; that the baptismal water was a distillation 
 of venom, which it was death to be bedewed with, 
 and an epidemic having begun to prevail among 
 them that he had created the infection, relief 
 from which could only be had through his expul 
 sion from their village. Nevertheless, the patient 
 but fearless father continued to labor on, sustained 
 by the consciousness of fulfilling his duty, if not 
 comforted by the results attending his efforts But 
 the day of recompense was at hand. 
 
46 BLACK-ROBES. 
 
 Michael Ako, a Frenchman, who had served 
 with Hennepin in his Upper Mississippi voyage of 
 exploration, withdrew from his comrades on their 
 return, and retired to Peoria, where he remained, 
 conducting a small but lucrative trade at that 
 settlement. He was a man of unquestionable 
 energy, but notoriously profligate in his habits. 
 Among his associates at the fort he enjoyed the 
 distinction of an intimacy with the chief of the 
 Kaskaskias. This chief had a daughter, most at 
 tractive, as attraction ran among the dusky maidens 
 of the villages, who, having been reared under 
 training of the priests, and in the clearer illumina 
 tion of the True Light than was vouchsafed to her 
 sisterhood of the clans, had knelt at the Cross and 
 offered her vows at the shrine of the Beautiful 
 Devotion. The libertine Ako met the lovely 
 Kaskaskian, was captivated by her charms, and 
 solicited her hand in marriage of her father. The 
 sachem, gratified with the proposal, promptly in 
 dicated his approval; but Mary, when the suit of 
 her lover was preferred, declined the overture. She 
 had heard how the virgins of the French, who 
 were ardent in the faith, were wont to renounce all 
 meaner attachments, and banded together in seclu 
 sion from the world, to expend their lives, for 
 Christ's sake and that of the Blessed Mother of 
 Purity, in works of charity and mercy. Stirred by 
 their generous example, she had determined upon 
 a like dedication of herself. The father, angered 
 
THE JESUIT. 47 
 
 at her refusal, tore the clothing from her person, 
 and drove her naked from his lodge into the street. 
 Then convoking a council of the chiefs, he made 
 known his grievance, charged the responsibility of 
 it on the French missionary, and asked, and 
 obtained, an order prohibiting attendance at his 
 services. But the priest fearlessly threw open the 
 doors of his chapel, and the few whose fealty had 
 stood the test of similar proscriptions before, and 
 who were not to be intimidated now, followed to 
 the sanctuary according to custom, in defiance of 
 the prohibition. The disaffected then attempted 
 to blockade the approaches to the chapel; and 
 finally, finding even that expedient ineffectual, one 
 of the leaders rushed into the building, brandishing 
 his tomahawk, and threatening death to all unless 
 they instantly withdrew. Gravier stood firmly at 
 his post; not one of his flock manifesting the 
 slightest disposition to desert him, until abashed 
 by their behavior, the intruder had withdrawn. 
 The garrison at the fort, instead of offering that 
 protection to the missionary which the common 
 sympathies of race and religion ought to have 
 commanded, joined with the savages in their abuse 
 and violence. 
 
 While the feud was still raging, the chief's 
 daughter herself interposed, waited upon Father 
 Gravier, and offered that if the surrender might 
 quiet the disturbance of the people, she was willing, 
 with his permission, to forego her choice and sub- 
 
4 8 BLACK-ROBES. 
 
 mit to the proposed sacrifice. " If I consent to the 
 marriage," said she, " my father will listen to you, 
 and induce the rest to do so. I desire to please 
 God, and will yield for love of Him." The mis 
 sionary gave his approval, and, " more a victim 
 than a bride," Ako led the Kaskaskian maiden to 
 the altar. 
 
 This episode in the domestic life of the chief, 
 which threatened while it lasted the very exist 
 ence of the mission, proved, in the end, the most 
 fortunate incident that could have happened. The 
 bride of Ako, a young woman of more than ordi 
 nary force of character, was conscientious and 
 earnest in her convictions. The impressions which 
 had resulted in her conversion, while keenly defined 
 on the sensitive surface, were deeply stamped as 
 well into the very substance of her heart ; so that 
 with more than the enthusiasm, as was natural, of 
 her priestly teachers, she had all of their depth and 
 determination of feeling. What was denied to her 
 as a novice in a convent, she undertook as a wife 
 in a wigwam, enforcing persuasively the claims of 
 religion as she had opportunity. Ako was the 
 first to succumb to her influence, and, from the 
 profligate that he had been, was reformed into a 
 model of piety. Her father followed next, and the 
 bitter agent of persecution became, like Saul of 
 Tarsus, the vigorous champion of the faith. 
 
 A great feast was prepared, to which the leading 
 men of the villages of the clan were invited. The 
 
THE JESUIT. 49 
 
 chief arose in their midst, and, expressing contri 
 tion for past offenses, declared openly his renun 
 ciation of heathenism, calling upon his guests to 
 go and do likewise. While the chief counseled 
 the men, the young wife exhorted the women. 
 The force of their leader's example, and of his 
 daughter's eloquence, did not fail of effect. Gravier 
 devoted himself to the instruction of his now willing 
 hearers. Mary, taking for her themes the pictures 
 which the priests had provided, and by which she 
 had been taught herself, pictures illustrative of 
 interesting passages in the life of Jesus, told over 
 the touching stories which they represented, the 
 story of the birth in the manger at Bethlehem, 
 of the opening of the eyes of the Blind Beggar of 
 Jericho, of the raising of the Dead Man of Bethany, 
 of the Cross, and of the Resurrection. Her clan- 
 folk listened, wondered, and relented. Men and 
 women began to pray ; children laid aside their 
 implements of play, and, wandering by in groups, 
 sang the hymns which the missionary composed 
 for them, in the streets of the village, so that within 
 the space of eight months this gracious awakening 
 resulted in the baptism of two hundred and six souls. 
 Gravier remained at, and in the neighborhood 
 of, Peoria until 1699, when he was recalled to 
 Mackfnaw. The next year he made the voyage 
 of the Mississippi, following it to its mouth. 
 Thence he returned to his station on the Illinois, 
 resumed his labors, roused again, unluckily, the 
 
 5 
 
50 BLACK-ROBES. 
 
 hostility of the medicine-men, and in a fray excited 
 by these antagonists, received a severe wound, from 
 the effects of which he died. 
 
 The first attempts at the erection of a mission in 
 Southern Michigan, according to the testimony of 
 the few of the tribe of the Pottawottamies still to 
 be found on the spot, was made, perhaps, as early 
 as 1675. The successful achievement of the pro 
 ject was accomplished in 1680. Father Allouez, 
 in that year, attended by Dablon, after having 
 coasted Lake Michigan from Green Bay, entered 
 the St. Joseph River, so called in honor of the 
 patron saint of Canada, and making advance against 
 its tide, proceeded until, some twenty-five miles 
 (fifty by the river) from its mouth, he reached the 
 locality now the seat of the inviting town of Niles. 
 About half a mile up-stream from the heart of the 
 town a narrow belt of boggy lowland lying be 
 tween it and the river rises a semicircular bluff, 
 at the base of which, and through the soil of the 
 marshy level, runs a brook which empties its slen 
 der contribution of supply into the St. Joseph. On 
 this bluff, up till within twenty-five years since, if 
 not now, the traces were plainly distinguishable of 
 a fortification, the cross planted at the time of its 
 construction, and still to be seen, in the rear of it, 
 indicating by whom, and for what use, it waS built. 
 Here, conveniently established between an encamp 
 ment of Miamis on one side of the river, and three 
 several settlements one at Pokegan, a second on 
 
THE JESUIT. 51 
 
 the shores of what are now known as the Notre 
 Dame Lakes, and the third and principal one, close 
 by the fort of the Pottawottamies on the other, 
 Allouez built a chapel (a brewery occupies the site 
 now), and near by, a log cabin for his own accommo 
 dation. His labors were carried on successfully, and 
 without the occurrence of any extraordinary event 
 to invest them with special interest. After a faith 
 ful service of several years, he died in the summer 
 of 1690. His ashes repose in the graveyard of the 
 Catholic mission at Niles. The establishment was 
 kept up, part of the time under the ministry of 
 Chardon, " a man wonderful, in the gift of tongues, 
 speaking fluently nearly all the Indian languages 
 of the Northwest," until 1759. In that year the 
 French 'garrison of Fort St. Joseph was attacked 
 by a party of English soldiers, the engagement re 
 sulting, after a fierce contest, in the defeat of the 
 French. The survivors of the garrison, including 
 the priests, were carried away, prisoners, to Quebec. 
 The mission, thus violently dissolved, was not re 
 organized for nearly a hundred years. In 1830, 
 Father Stephen Badin pitched his tent in the 
 vicinity, revived the faith among the Pottawotta 
 mies, built a chapel on the little St. Mary's Lake, 
 near South Bend, bought a section of land, which, 
 conveyed to the Bishop of Vincennes, through him 
 was dedicated, in the interests of education, to the 
 church, and is now the seat of that notable institu 
 tion of learning the University of Notre Dame. 
 
52 BLACK-ROBES. 
 
 We have noticed the labors of the earliest, and 
 most prominent, of the Jesuit fathers concerned in 
 the leading missionary movements of the North 
 west. These distinguished pioneers were not left 
 to struggle alone. As the exigencies of service 
 called, willing hearts were ready to respond, and 
 recruit after recruit followed until the Black-Robe 
 became a presence common and familiar among 
 the tribes of the region. While Marest and Gui- 
 gnas penetrated the vast wastes west of Lake Supe 
 rior, and bordering on the Mississippi, proclaiming 
 redemption to the Sioux, Mermet made his pil 
 grimage across the intervening prairies, and planted 
 the standard of faith, where a colony of Mascoutens 
 had formed a lodgment, on the banks of the Ohio. 
 While Louis Andre made his canoe his habitation, 
 and visited, one by one in regular circuit, the vil 
 lages clustering around Green Bay, Aubert toiled 
 amid the snow-fields bordering upon the bound 
 aries of the Far Northwest, how faithfully, and 
 at what sacrifice, the Indians tarrying there to-day 
 attest, as they lead the visitor to an island in the 
 Lake of the Woods, and, repeating the melancholy 
 story of his end, point out the blood-stained rock 
 on which he was slaughtered. 
 
 Thus by the feet, the beautiful feet of them that 
 bring glad tidings of good things, were borne the 
 messages of the gospel. Thus did the energetic 
 Jesuit press his ministry, till not a village, not a 
 camp, on plain or water-course, where flitting clans- 
 

 THE JESUIT. 53 
 
 men pitched their tents, while through a summer's 
 noon, or a winter's, they followed the chase or 
 dipped their nets in quest of food, not a wigwam 
 in all the wilderness was left in which his presence 
 was not known, and where his spiritual counsels 
 were not heard. 
 
 IV. 
 
 THE LEGEND OF THE DEFEAT OF THE ERIES. 
 
 THAT portion of the West, including the 
 meadows and uplands watered and drained 
 by the upper Ohio and its tributaries, seems, down 
 to a comparatively recent date, to have been, almost 
 entirely, an uninhabited waste, ranged over, no 
 doubt, in their hunting tours, by bands of Indians 
 from the north, but without a fixed population of 
 its own. Of these game-seeking adventurers, those 
 that frequented the valleys and hills of the Alle- 
 ghany River were likely of the Iroquois tribe, while 
 the wider extent of territory lying to the west, most 
 probably, constituted the sporting-ground of the 
 Eries. The settlements of the Iroquois clustered 
 along the Mohawk Valley and about the several 
 lakes, Oneida, Onondaga, Cayuga, and Seneca, in 
 New York, while those of the Eries, beginning 
 5* 
 
54 BLACK-ROBES. 
 
 with Tu-shu-wa, which occupied the site of the 
 present city of Buffalo, extended westward along 
 the whole length of the southern shore of the lake 
 that bears their name. The Eries were a strong, 
 proud, and warlike people, ambitious to preserve 
 that eminence among the tribes which their valor 
 had won, and which their vigilance thus far in their 
 history had protected. 
 
 There is a story told as to how, at their own 
 seeking, the prowess of which they boasted was 
 put to the test, followed with the detail of the 
 catastrophe, fearful and fatal, which attended the 
 experiment, and thus runs the legend : 
 
 Daganoweda, a wise man of the Onondaga na 
 tion, aroused to the conviction that the practice of 
 secession so common among the tribes, where, at 
 pleasure, whole clans were wont to detach them 
 selves and seek out new settlements for the plant 
 ing of new organizations, was the secret of the 
 weakness of a people, set himself at work not 
 merely to correct the custom, but to carry out the 
 opposite theory naturally suggested, and effect, if 
 possible, a general consolidation of the several 
 neighboring tribes of his region. He laid his 
 scheme, carefully and shrewdly prepared to its 
 minutest details, both as touching the form of 
 union, and the laws by which its affairs should be 
 regulated, before some of the leading minds of 
 the respective nations ; brought about a conven- 
 
THE JESUIT. 55 
 
 tion, on the banks of the Ga-nun-ta-a, or Onondaga 
 Lake, of the prominent sages of each ; carried 
 through the project successfully, and effected the 
 erection of the formidable Confederacy of the Ho- 
 de-rro-sau-nee, or Five Nations. 
 
 When the tidings of this coalition was carried to 
 their towns, the Eries, or Sag-a-neh-gi, became 
 alarmed. Right confidently, nay eagerly, would 
 they have taken to the war-path against Seneca 
 singly, or Cayuga, Onondaga, Oneida, or Mohawk, 
 but the forces united of the five, numbered an array 
 too commanding in its proportions to be regarded 
 with feelings of indifference. The object of the 
 combination was readily conjectured; but, new 
 bond and all, were not the Sag-a-neh-gi, even 
 though numerically inferior, still, in activity, skill, 
 bravery, all the elements, indeed, that go to make 
 up the finished warrior, their more than peers? 
 As a matter of prudent precaution for where were 
 they left with their proud prestige as Lords of the 
 Lake departed ? they decided to put the question 
 to the test. 
 
 A runner was dispatched to the Ho-nan-ne-ho- 
 onts, or Senecas, the border tribe of the confeder 
 ates, with a friendly challenge to meet them at 
 Tu-shu-wa in a friendly game of ball a hundred 
 chosen men against a hundred for a wager of 
 such value as might be mutually agreed upon. 
 The messenger was honorably received by the 
 Senecas; the proposition laid before the council, 
 
56 BLACK-ROBES. 
 
 discussed, voted upon, and rejected. The Eries, 
 elated with this implied admission, as they chose 
 to interpret the answer, of their superior prowess, 
 renewed the challenge. It was again considered 
 by their neighbors, and again declined. When the 
 defi was delivered for the third time, the older 
 heads of the council would have given a final re 
 fusal, but the younger warriors began to murmur 
 at the action of their elders. Who were these vain 
 braggarts, these burrowers in the banks of the 
 Great Lake, that they should creep from their 
 holes to fling insolence in the faces of the Warders 
 of the Threshold of the Long House ? The de 
 liberate judgment of the counselors gave' way to 
 the pressure. The challenge was accepted. 
 
 A hundred athletes, of faultless proportion, and 
 approved in wind and limb, were selected for the 
 contest. Armed, each one, with his implement of 
 play, a slender hickory sapling, cut of suitable 
 length, bowed at one end like a battledoor, and 
 having the .hoop stoutly laced athwart-wise with 
 the dried and twisted sinews of the deer, they 
 formed into file, took up their march, and cheered 
 by the wild applause of their clansmen as they left, 
 were soon lost to view in the shadows of the forest. 
 A fleet-footed messenger was sent in advance to 
 notify the Sag-a-neh-gis of their coming. Arrived 
 at the spot, an open space put carefully in order 
 for the occasion, close by the village, and near the 
 lake, the Seneca champions produced their val- 
 
THE JESUIT. 57 
 
 uablos belts of finely-carved and polished wam 
 pum, bracelets and rings of silver and copper, 
 moccasins trimmed with crimsoned moose hair, 
 and embroidered with painted quills of the porcu 
 pine, shells of purple and gold, with pearls of the 
 purest water and assorted them in heaps upon 
 the ground. The Eries produced their trinkets 
 of greatest rarity, beauty, and value, and placed 
 them in corresponding piles, side by side with 
 the others. 
 
 The hour of contest arrived. The game opened 
 briskly, and was conducted with great skill by both 
 parties, but resulted in the triumph of the Senecas. 
 The victors behaved with a modest propriety 
 scarcely to be expected under the circumstances ; 
 indulging in no parade of exultation, but quietly 
 collecting the trophies won in the strife, and pro 
 ceeding to re-invest themselves in their loose robes, 
 laid aside while at exercise, preparatory to their 
 departure. Nettled at the issue, and anxious to 
 win a revenge for their discomfiture, the Sag-a- 
 neh-gis invited their competitors to tarry over 
 another day and have a new trial of merit at a foot 
 race. The invitation was accepted. Ten men 
 were selected from each of the parties by their 
 respective chieftains, and next morning were led to 
 the course appointed for the contest. Again were 
 the Eries defeated. The chagrin which they natu 
 rally felt at the result was materially heightened 
 from the fact that the Kaukwas, a neighboring 
 
58 BLACK-ROBES. 
 
 clan present as invited guests, were witnesses of 
 the failure. 
 
 To redeem, if possible, their lost honors, a 
 wrestling match was proposed, and agreed to, upon 
 the terms that the successful champion in each 
 trial should cleave the skull of his fallen adversary, 
 and carry away his scalp, to be worn in his belt as 
 a trophy of the victory. The savage stipulation 
 was distasteful to the Senecas, but to take excep 
 tion to it would be to expose themselves to the 
 charge of cowardice, a charge which native pride 
 could never brook ; they, therefore, interposed no 
 objection, but, after consultation, decided that in 
 case of success on their side, they would retire from 
 the field without inflicting the murderous penalty. 
 The day following was the time appointed, and, at 
 their invitation, the village of the Kaukwas, some 
 eighteen miles distant, the place for the contest. 
 When the parties had assembled and the signal 
 was given, a Seneca stepped promptly into the 
 ring. He was as promptly met by a champion of 
 the Eries. After a short struggle the Sag-a-neh-gi 
 was brought to the ground, but the victorious Ho- 
 nan-ne-ho-ont, refusing to inflict the mortal penalty 
 upon his prostrate competitor, turned on his heel, 
 and, amid their hearty applause, retired to the 
 circle of his friends. The chief of the Eries no 
 sooner witnessed the movement than, with a 
 bound, he leaped to the side of his fallen clans 
 man, and with a blow of the tomahawk that buried 
 
THE JESUIT. 59 
 
 the blade of the weapon to its haft in his head, left 
 him dead on the spot where he had fallen. 
 
 A second and a third encounter followed with a 
 like result, each defeated champion being brained 
 in turn, and his lifeless remains dragged from the 
 arena, to clear the space for a new contestant and 
 a fresh victim of sacrifice. Excitement, intense at 
 first among the Sag-a-neh-gi, grew wilder and 
 fiercer with each succeeding catastrophe. Fearful 
 of still more fatal consequences if the dueling were 
 kept up, the leader of the Senecas, after the third 
 engagement, called his partisans around him, stated 
 his apprehensions, and advised an immediate re 
 tirement from the field. Acting upon the sugges 
 tion, the force of which was fully appreciated, they 
 quietly fell back from their position, till, without 
 awakening suspicion as to their intent, they had 
 gotten beyond arrow-flight of pursuit, when, taking 
 to the cover of the woods, they were off at a leap, 
 and presently far away on the trails that led to 
 their native lodges. Taken by surprise at the 
 unexpected manoeuvre, and perhaps restrained by 
 the reflection that, as invited guests, the Senecas 
 were honorably entitled to safe departure, the Sag- 
 a-neh-gis did not attempt to follow, but gathering 
 up the bodies of their slain, returned crestfallen 
 and dejected to their wigwams at Tu-shu-wa. 
 
 The result of the contest was well calculated to 
 create uneasiness in the minds of the Eries. They 
 had failed, signally failed, in all the exercises 
 
60 BLACK-ROBES. 
 
 exercises of their own choosing in which they 
 had been engaged. Their adversaries had proved 
 themselves not only men of nerve and substance, 
 but schooled, moreover, to dexterous and vigorous 
 action. On the war-path it would be no holiday 
 pastime to come to clubs against them. If so 
 much might be argued of a single member, what 
 was not to be apprehended of the united house of 
 the new confederacy? That hostile designs were 
 in reserve, sooner or later, to be put in force against 
 the outside, unaffiliated nations by the league, was 
 a settled conviction, for upon no other argument, 
 according to savage ratiocination, could the novel 
 and extraordinary compact be accounted for. The 
 wise men of the tribe took the question into con 
 sideration. After due deliberation it was resolved 
 that to guard against the contingencies likely to 
 arise, it became them to adopt decisive measures, 
 and that rather than await an invasion of the 
 enemy, it was their surer policy themselves to 
 assume the aggressive. The plan agreed upon was 
 to bring out their whole force, make a sudden de 
 scent upon the Senecas, then, if successful in their 
 surprise-assault, to advance against the Cayugas, 
 and so successively against the Onondagas, Onei- 
 das, and Mohawks, until all were annihilated. The 
 scheme was bold, but if secretly and expeditiously 
 dispatched, entirely practicable. 
 
 Among the women of the tribe was one, a 
 childless widow, by parentage and early belonging 
 
THE JESUIT. 6 1 
 
 a Seneca, but who, in one of their former forays, 
 had been captured by a party of Eries,' with whom 
 she had since dwelt as the wife, while he lived, and 
 afterwards as the widow, of one of their warriors!" 
 New associations and attachments had left her 
 content with her captivity, but not to the forgetful- 
 ness of the old home on the slopes of the Nun- 
 da-war-o-noh-gi or of her kindred. When the 
 decision of the council had transpired, unde'r a 
 quick realization of the fearful calamity in store 
 for her people, she determined to interfere for its 
 prevention. When the darkness of night had 
 fairly settled over the village, and its inhabitants 
 were wrapped in slumber, she stole cautiously 
 from her lodge, and wending her way along the 
 irregular avenues of the town, soon found herself 
 beyond its limits. Following the course of the 
 Niagara River, she hurried on through the gloom 
 of. the forests, with only such light to guide her 
 steps as falling from the stars dropped winkingly 
 through the thick leaves overarching her path, 
 until, as the dawn peeped over the waters, she 
 found herself on the shore of Lake Ontario. Some 
 wanderer early abroad, or perhaps a benighted 
 hunter in the woods, had left his canoe, tied to a 
 tree, on the margin of the lake. She undid the 
 astening, leaped into the vessel, and shoved out 
 into the water. Coasting the lake she plied her 
 oar with unflagging energy, and by nightfall 
 reached a settlement of the Senecas at the mouth 
 6 
 
62 BLACK-ROBES. 
 
 of the Oswego River. She hastened to the wig 
 wam of one of the principal chiefs, and there 
 unfolded the scheme of treachery which-had been 
 "plotted in the councils of the Sag-a-neh-gis. 
 
 Swift-footed messengers were dispatched, with 
 out delay, to carry the intelligence to the tribes of 
 the confederacy. Speedily, as if borne on the 
 wings of a bird, was the news communicated 
 through the length and breadth of the land. The 
 fire was kindled on the shore of the Onondaga, 
 the great League-Fire of the Ho-de-san-no-ge-ta, 
 the Custodians of the Council Brand, and at the 
 summons gathered in from their remotest settle 
 ments from the meadows of the Mohawk, from 
 the sylvan abodes on the Oneida and Cayuga the 
 wise men and the warriors of the Nation. The 
 conference was brief. With the prompt action 
 characteristic of the confederates, it was decided 
 to instantly marshal their forces, move into the 
 menaced territory of the Senecas, and there await 
 the invasion of the enemy. The march, five thou 
 sand men in file, began. At Canandaigua Lake 
 report was had, through their runners, that the 
 Eries had crossed the Genesee, and were rapidly 
 moving eastward. Unconscious of the betrayal 
 of their plans, they were pressing on, briskly and 
 eagerly, in full confidence of success. 
 
 The armies met at Honeoye, a little lake at half 
 distance between Canandaigua and the Genesee, 
 separated only by a narrow sluice, the bed of the 
 
THE JESUIT. 63 
 
 streamlet through which the surplus water of the 
 lake was discharged. No sooner did the Sag-a- 
 neh-gis discover the presence of their foe than, 
 with a yell that pierced the forest to its remotest 
 solitude, they sprang to the conflict. The shock 
 of the onset was terrific. Midway in the channel 
 of the stream they came together. Knife met 
 knife in the hand-to-hand grapple; their blades, 
 now lifted for the stroke flashed in the light, now 
 descended after the fatal blow, dripping with crim 
 son. The brook ran red with blood. The con 
 federates could not resist the impetuous headway 
 of the attack. Inch by inch, until they were forced 
 back some distance from the bed of the rivulet, 
 did they retreat; the Eries, encouraged by success, 
 pushing forward with redoubled spirit, ad filling 
 the air with whoops of triumph. Victory seemed 
 within grasp of the assailants when the complexion 
 of affairs experienced a change. 
 
 In arranging their plan of assault, the confeder 
 ates had detached from their main body a company 
 of a thousand youths, neophytes as yet in warlike 
 service, who were ordered to make a detour 
 through the woods, and, throwing themselves be 
 hind the enemy, to open an attack on their rear. 
 The movement was accomplished, and just in time 
 far opportune relief at the critical juncture referred 
 to. The customary yell attending the charge into 
 action was the first indication had of their presence 
 and purpose. The Eries were taken greatly by 
 
64 BLACK-ROBES. 
 
 surprise; nevertheless, although the circumstance 
 served to chill the ardor of their hopes materially, 
 they recoiled not from the odds, but battled on 
 with unabated energy. But the fiery zeal of the 
 youths, who had their virgin laurels to win, as well 
 as the honor and integrity of the Long House to 
 strike for, was an added element in the contest, 
 which even the most stubborn resistance was not 
 equal to. The valiant Sag-a-neh-gis maintained 
 their high reputation well. They fought, they fell, 
 they died, but they would not yield; and it was 
 only: over the strewn carcasses of the slain, and 
 through a way hewn wearily out by stroke of 
 tomahawk and knife, that the confederates were 
 able to gain back, foot by foot, the ground which 
 they had4ost. 
 
 The result of a conflict where personal fortitude, 
 address, and power of endurance were evenly 
 balanced, and where superiority in numerical 
 strength must determine the issue, may be antici 
 pated. When the clash of battle ceased at last, 
 and the wild acclaims of victory pealed from the 
 lips of the exultant Ho de-no-sau-nee, it was the 
 outburst of a jubilation that could provoke no 
 response; for of all the gallant array that had 
 striven so valiantly for honor and conquest, save 
 here and there a solitary craven who, during the 
 fray, had taken to flight, not a living warrior was 
 left to be moved lo mortification or resentment, or 
 to breathe defiance against the conquerors. The 
 
THE JESUIT. 65 
 
 Sag-a-neh-gi, as a name among the nations, was 
 blotted out forever. 
 
 As the ancients of the tribes the broken remnant 
 of the old nation of renown sit in the sunshine 
 at their cabin-doors, stringing their beads or plait 
 ing their braids for the tawdry trinkets in which 
 they traffic, in these latter degenerate days, such 
 is the tale with which they talk away a summer's 
 hour for the entertainment of idlers that choose to 
 loiter and listen. Let the preliminary details of 
 the tradition meet with what acceptance they may, 
 the crowning fact of the catastrophe is undeniably 
 authentic. The battle between the Eries and the 
 Iroquois took place in or about the year 1654, and 
 resulted, as the narrative sets forth, in the com 
 plete extermination of the former. Their broad 
 lands became a possession of the confederates, 
 the first of a series of acquisitions that were to go 
 on until the empire of the Ho-de-no-sau-nee reached 
 from Carolina to Canada, and from the seashore to 
 the Mississippi. 
 
V. 
 
 THE FAITH ON THE PENNSYLVANIA BORDER AND IN 
 THE VALLEYS OF LA BELLE RIVIERE. 
 
 ALTHOUGH the annihilation of the Eries left 
 the Iroquois in undisputed ownership of the 
 territory, there was no permanent occupation of 
 the upper Ohio valley region for many years after 
 wards. The labors of the early Jesuit missionaries, 
 therefore, among this people, were limited to their 
 original settlements on the lakes. Twelve years 
 before the date of the defeat of the Eries that 
 event so remote as to be without a positive history, 
 mummied, as it were, amid the obscurities of tra 
 ditional times the Black-Robe had crossed the 
 St. Lawrence, and planted the Cross in the wilds 
 of Western New York. In the summer of that 
 year Father Jogues, together with Rene Goupel 
 the " Good Rene," and Ahistari, a converted chief 
 of the Hurons, were captured by a party of Mo 
 hawks, on their return from a successful raid 
 into the Canada country. Jogues, after having 
 his finger-nails torn out, his fingers gnawed to the 
 bone, and been forced to run the " narrow path to 
 Paradise," as he terms the gauntlet, was hurried 
 along to one of the nearest villages of his captors. 
 Here he found a scaffold erected, on which were 
 placed a number of Hurons, prisoners like himself, 
 (66) 
 
THE JESUIT. 67 
 
 destined apparently for instant execution. Several 
 of these were catechumens, who, in happier days, 
 had received instruction from his lips in the lodges 
 on their native lakes. 
 
 Forgetful of his own afflictions, the generous 
 father at once entered upon his priestly duty, 
 offering whatever of spiritual consolation he could 
 impart to the captives, enlightening the ignorant, 
 confessing the faithful, and qualifying the convert 
 for the redeeming rite of baptism. There were 
 those among the doomed on the scaffold who were 
 anxious to undergo this sacramental ceremony, but 
 there was no water at command to meet the want 
 of the occasion. It so happened, fortunately, 
 providentially, rather, the zealous believer would 
 regard it, that a savage passing by flung a stalk 
 of green corn on the platform. It was in the morn 
 ing. The distillations of the night had not wasted 
 as yet under the temperate warmth of the hour, 
 and from the dews that clung to the long blades of 
 the maize the eager servant of Jesus gathered the 
 precious drops that served his purpose, and the 
 saving rite was accomplished. The prisoners, for 
 the time being, however, were reprieved, all ex 
 cept the natives Ahasistari, Paul, and Stephen, who, 
 with the cruelties common in such cases, were put 
 to death, one in each of the three towns of the tribe 
 through which they passed. Rene Goupel, who, 
 at liberty or in bonds, never failed in God's service 
 when opportunity offered, for having attempted to 
 
68 BLACK-ROBES. 
 
 make the sign of a cross on the brow of a child, 
 was cleft through the skull with a tomahawk, near 
 the village of Andagoran. Jogues himself, although 
 through repeated miraculous escapes, and at the 
 cost of cruel suffering, escaped the fate of his com 
 panions. Kept under strict surveillance as a pris 
 oner, he was nevertheless, after awhile, allowed 
 the freedom of the villages, where he employed 
 himself contributing to the spiritual comfort of the 
 Huron captives, and the instruction, where it was 
 tolerated, of their savage masters. As the fruits 
 of his labor during the few months of his forced 
 sojourn among the Mohawks, he reckons in his 
 record of the service "about seventy baptisms, be 
 sides many confessions." Having received friendly 
 warning, at length, that the Mohawks, exasperated 
 by a late defeat before Fort Richelieu, had deter 
 mined to revenge themselves by the sacrifice of 
 his life, he managed to effect his escape into the 
 Dutch settlements on the Hudson. 
 
 In 164.6, having in the mean time sailed for Eu 
 rope, visited Rome, and been honored by Pope 
 Innocent XL, because of the tortures he had un 
 dergone, with the title of Martyr, Jogues was ap 
 pointed by the Superior to revisit the scene of his 
 captivity and establish a mission there among the 
 Mohawks. To cross the St. Lawrence, then, was to 
 venture into the jaws of death. But he upon whom 
 the agents of hell had done their cruelest already 
 the single living Martyr of all the dead was 
 
THE* JESUIT. 69 
 
 not to be deterred from the mission. "Ibo" said 
 he, as he wrapped his dark gown about him, kissed 
 his crucifix, and started on his journey, " Ibo et 
 non redibo /" He went, and he never returned. 
 
 John Lalande, a Frenchman, attended the doomed 
 father when he started. After having proceeded 
 some distance on their way, they encountered a 
 band of savages, painted and clad in the colors 
 and costume of war, by whom they were seized, 
 bound, and conducted to Gandawague, a Mohawk 
 village on the Caughnawaga. In a conference 
 which was held, after their arrival there, a division 
 arose as to the disposition that should be made of 
 the prisoners, some of the clans advising their 
 release, the rest insisting upon their execution. 
 While the council deliberated it was in the even 
 ing one of its members withdrew, and, under 
 pretense of hospitality, invited the prisoners to his 
 cabin. As they were about to enter, a savage, con 
 cealed behind the door, sprang out, and, with his 
 tomahawk, cleft the skull of the missionary. La 
 lande shared the fate of his distinguished companion. 
 
 Seven years after the unhappy adventure of 
 Jogues, John Le Moyne took up the cross, and, 
 undismayed by the cruel fate of his predecessor, 
 followed into the field left unoccupied by the death 
 of the Martyr. Arrived at Onondaga, he consented, 
 at the invitation of some of the Iroquois, backed 
 by the entreaties of the Huron captives detained 
 there, to open a mission at that town. This settle- 
 
;o BLACK-ROBES. 
 
 ment was discovered to be peculiarly desirable, as 
 it afforded a larger scope to his influence than 
 could be commanded at any other point, in that it 
 was discovered to be the central capital of the Long 
 House, where the representatives of the Nations 
 were accustomed to assemble in their annual coun 
 cils, and whence, consequently, radiated, to a con 
 trolling extent, the influences, moral and political, 
 which moulded the convictions and fashioned the 
 character of the common population of the con 
 federacy. 
 
 The early labors of Le Moyne were promisingly 
 successful, especially among the Hurons, who, as 
 sociating the rites of worship with the memories 
 of the homes from which they had been torn, were 
 all the more favorably inclined to its observances 
 in their captivity. Nor was their example lost 
 upon the Iroquois. 
 
 The good priest had served but a few months at 
 his post when the news the great news, heralded, 
 according to the legend, by the captive Seneca 
 woman of the advance of the Eries was blazed 
 abroad from fire to fire throughout the tribes of 
 the Nation. Of the warriors who gathered at the 
 call of the council to meet the invasion, was one, 
 an Onondaga chief, Achiongeras, a man excellent 
 in reputation among the captains of the clans. On 
 the eve of his departure he called on the Black- 
 Robe, pictured to him the perils he was about to 
 encounter, declared that his courage must fail him 
 
THE JESUIT. 71 
 
 if not inspired by brighter assurances for the future 
 than the superstitions of heathenism afforded, and 
 implored that he might be received into the con 
 fession and under the protection of the faith of the 
 Prayer. Persuaded, after due investigation, that 
 his convictions were genuine and sincere, Le 
 Moyne led him to the water, and, by the mystical 
 rite of the church, admitted him into its commu 
 nion. The converted chief, with the dews of bap 
 tism yet damp on his brow, then started on his 
 march, and, at the head of his savage legion, was 
 soon forth from the village and away on the war 
 path. 
 
 The opposing forces came together. The battle 
 waged long and fiercely, and the lines of the Iro- 
 quois were slowly but steadily giving way before 
 the enemy, when Achiongeras, whose intrepid 
 bearing had made him conspicuous in the fight, 
 suddenly paused and beckoned to the braves who 
 supported him. They gathered about him at the 
 signal. Dropping upon his knee, the Christian 
 chief lifted his crimsoned hands towards heaven, 
 the group of assembled clansmen imitating the 
 action, when with a solemn vow they unitedly 
 plighted their faith, and that of their people, to the 
 God of the Prayer would He vouchsafe them rescue 
 in this* crisis of their peril. The vow was honored. 
 Animated afresh, as by a divine inspiration, the 
 wavering band regained its footing, won back its 
 lost advantage, and, profiting by the recovery, 
 
72 BLACK-ROBES. 
 
 paused not until the strife was over, and the field 
 triumphantly, overwhelmingly won. 
 
 Achiongeras and his companions were true to 
 their pledge. After the return of the victorious 
 army, a general council was called, when, by 
 solemn decree, Christianity was established in the 
 capital of the confederacy. The French were in 
 vited over to plant a settlement. Fathers Menard, 
 Dablon, Broar, and Boursier, under lead of the Su 
 perior of the mission, assumed the direction of the 
 enterprise. The party, attended by a numerous 
 escort of savages, launched their fleet of canoes 
 at Quebec, ascended the St. Lawrence, with the 
 banner of the Cross waving its silken folds in the 
 gentle May-breeze at its head, and amid the roar 
 of cannon, and the ringing cheers of waiting multi 
 tudes, landed, after a tedious but prosperous voyage, 
 on the shores of Onondaga, where, after consum 
 mating the trifling arrangements necessary for 
 their own temporary shelter, they proceeded di 
 rectly to the erection of a house of worship. And 
 so arose the great central Mission of St. Mary's of 
 Ga-nun-ta-a. 
 
 Among the branches of this chief station, estab 
 lished as they were in each of the tribal districts 
 of the Ho-de-no-sau-nee, and through which the 
 Sacred Mysteries, to the enlightenment of all, and 
 the happy conversion of thousands, were made to 
 reach the ears of the people, was the one organized 
 by Father Chaumonot, at Gandagare, among the 
 
THE JESUIT. 73 
 
 Senecas. This worthy pioneer labored diligently 
 at his post, and was permitted to rejoice, as one of 
 the first fruits of his toil, in the conversion of An- 
 nontenritaoui, the head chief of his tribe. Frenin, 
 Allouez, Raffeix, Pierron, Gamier, and others, fol 
 lowed soon after, all exerting themselves in the 
 duties of their office so profitably, that when, some 
 years after, the English asserted their claim to the 
 region, and the Jesuits were forced to abandon the 
 ground, they left upwards of five hundred baptized 
 natives, as conservators of the Faith, behind them. 
 
 When the Senecas, therefore, began to occupy 
 the lands along the western valleys left vacant by 
 the expulsion of their enemies, although unat 
 tended by the Black-Robes, they went not out in 
 ignorance of the saving belief of the Prayer. They 
 carried the Cross with them, and the name of Jesus 
 was not strange in the ears of the people whose 
 wigwams soon dotted the valley of the Alleghany, 
 and whose tents were pitched down by the shores 
 of the Beautiful River. The old chief Shekellamy, 
 of the Cayugas, father of Tah-gah-jute, renowned 
 under the more familiar name of Logan, had knelt 
 in confession, and taken his vows, at the altar of 
 God. Anastasius was in the communion of the 
 church, he, the chieftain of Loretto, who led the 
 Indians from the fort at De-un-da-ga, old Fort 
 Duquesne, and was mainly instrumental in the 
 defeat of Braddock on the Monongahela. 
 
 By the middle of the eighteenth century, when 
 7 
 
74 BLACK-ROBES. 
 
 the early white traders began to extend their com 
 merce beyond the mountains, numerous settle 
 ments were found at different localities on the 
 Ohio, composed, besides the Iroquois, but subject 
 to them, of the Shawanese from Florida, and Dela- 
 wares immigrated from Eastern Pennsylvania. The 
 first prophet from abroad to lift up his voice in this 
 new wilderness was Denis Baron, a Recollect, who 
 had come to serve as chaplain to the French soldiery 
 at the occupation of Fort Duquesne, or the " Fort 
 of the Assumption," by which title it appears to have 
 been dedicated on the first recurrence of the festi 
 val of that name after the arrival of the troops. 
 The services of Father Baron were not limited to 
 the garrison. Free intercourse was allowed with 
 the natives, the soldiers, excepting such as were on 
 duty, passing the greater portion of their time in 
 and about the bark cabins which they had built for 
 themselves outside the fortification. By this means 
 the good priest was enabled to mingle with the 
 savages of the neighborhood ; as the result of 
 which quite a number of conversions, not only 
 among the Indians, but of the whites, seized in their 
 wars and held as captives, are reported in his Re 
 gister, forwarded to the Superior at Quebec. But 
 the operations of the chaplain, and the projects 
 which may have been entertained with regard to a 
 special spiritual occupation of the ground, were 
 cut short through the abandonment, by the French, 
 of the fort in 1758, .their surrender of the Ohio 
 
THE JESUIT. 75 
 
 valley possessions in dispute, and retirement back 
 into their own proper provinces beyond the St. 
 Lawrence. For nearly thirty years subsequently 
 the Faith was left without an advocate on the 
 frontier. 
 
 The Abbe Benedict Joseph Flaget was the 
 earliest apostle, afterwards, to unfurl the standard 
 of the Cross *in Western Pennsylvania. He spent 
 several months, in 1792, at Pittsburg, administer 
 ing to the spiritual necessities of the settlers, and 
 of the soldiers, collected there under General 
 Wayne, just then on the eve of his memorable 
 march against the Indians. But he who was des 
 tined to be the Pioneer of the Faith in this newly- 
 developing quarter of American civilization, had 
 not yet quite appeared. 
 
 Demetrius Augustine Gallitzin, begotten in a 
 line of noble descent, was borne at the Hague, on 
 the 22d of December, 1770. His father was the 
 ambassador representing Russia in Holland: his 
 mother, Amelia, Countess of Schmettan, a Ger 
 man family of high distinction. The young prince 
 received his training under the tutelage of Voltaire, 
 an intimate personal friend of his father's ; a train 
 ing conformable, of course, to the skeptical creed 
 of that eminent philosopher. But maturer reflec 
 tion brought with it purer convictions : the heresies 
 of deism were discarded, and the youthful pupil in 
 unbelief became the convert of Christianity. When 
 seventeen years of age, he connected himself with 
 
7 6 BLACK-ROBES. 
 
 the Catholic Church. In 1792, accompanied by 
 his tutor, the Rev. Mr. Brosius, he came to Ame 
 rica, entered the Sulpitian Seminary at Baltimore, 
 completed his studies at that institution, and three 
 years afterwards was admitted into the priesthood, 
 the second theological student of his faith to 
 undergo ordination in the United States. For a few 
 years subsequently, after he had taken orders, his 
 labors were confined to Cumberland, Hagerstown, 
 Chambersburg, Path Valley, and other points in 
 Pennsylvania. At length he conceived the project 
 of penetrating farther towards the border, and 
 choosing out a suitable locality, with a view to 
 establishing- a colony, and through this means, of 
 giving rise to a hallowed influence whose benefi 
 cial force might be felt in the modeling of society 
 out of the heterogeneous population newly planted 
 in the young settlements of the West. Accord 
 ingly he selected a site, in an uninhabited waste 
 on the Alleghany Mountains, erected a rude cabin 
 for his own shelter, and a log chapel for the accom 
 modation of such straggling worshipers as Provi 
 dence might throw in his way. He then purchased 
 large tracts of land, which he divided into farms, 
 and sold at nominal rates, or gave gratuitously to 
 settlers willing to share the chances of the future 
 with him, and so began his work. 
 
 By his adoption of the Catholic faith the young 
 priest had forfeited all title to his father's property. 
 His sister, the Princess Anne Gallitzin, who, after 
 
THE JESUIT. 77 
 
 his disfranchisement, became sole inheritress of the 
 estate, lent a partial aid to her brother, by which 
 he was enabled to meet, to some extent, the ex 
 penses of his enterprise; but her contributions 
 ceased, presently, upon her marriage, and Deme 
 trius was, thenceforward, left to his own resources. 
 But his misfortunes were not permitted to cripple 
 his industry. Forests were felled, lands were 
 cleared, acres were tilled, cottages were built, and 
 soon the mountain wilderness, stripped of its savage 
 features, began to display the cheerier view of field 
 upon field greenly grown, or goldenly ripened, 
 beautiful in promise and rich in reward, to crown 
 the labor of the husbandmen. Meanwhile the 
 indefatigable missionary neglected not the more 
 important obligations of his office. From home 
 to home did he journey, from neighborhood to 
 neighborhood, exercising his deeds of chanty, 
 imparting his lessons of religious instruction, until 
 the name of Father Smith the humble title which, 
 in lieu of the more illustrious designation, he saw 
 fit to assume was known, respected, and revered 
 in every household on the border. 
 
 Gallitzin began his mission in 1799, with, per 
 haps, a dozen men of his faith scattered about 
 through the mountain, and no other sanctuary, 
 save the little oratory of Father Flaget, in all the 
 West, than the one of logs thirty feet long, which 
 he himself had reared. He lived to see the village 
 of Loretto, which he had founded, grow into a 
 7* 
 
78 BLACK-ROBES. 
 
 populous and flourishing town; to find the Faith, 
 whose standard he had been the first to restore 
 since its going down amid the ruins of Fort Du- 
 quesne, established upon a footing from which no 
 revolution of time or circumstance was ever after 
 wards to displace it; to witness new chapels spring 
 up, one by one, till every hamlet almost, dotting 
 the lowlands down upon which he looked, had its 
 spire; to behold his mission prevail, until the 
 apostolic number of his original followers had 
 increased and multiplied a thousandfold ; till 
 hospitals and houses of industry, by the liberal 
 charities of his people, were erected; and till 
 boarding-schools, free-schools, orphan asylums, 
 and theological colleges were institutions common 
 throughout the land, as were the necessities which 
 called them into existence. He died at Loretto in 
 1840. 
 
 Such were the early missionaries, by whose in 
 strumentality the light of Revelation was made to 
 shed its first glories in the wilderness and on the 
 border. Should it be charged, as illiberal antago 
 nists have charged, that the labors which were 
 spent were productive of but temporary and 
 doubtful results, and that relapses into their origi 
 nal superstitions were apt to overtake the converts 
 as soon as relieved of the protecting presence of 
 their teachers, it ought to be borne in mind that 
 the material to be operated upon was crude as 
 
THE JESUIT. 79 
 
 savage imperfection could make it, incapable of 
 the impressions possible to a condition of higher 
 sensibility and refinement, and that the misfortune 
 was not a fault inherent in the creed, or chargeable 
 against the ministers, and their modes of its inter 
 pretation. But the imputation is not admitted by 
 the religionists against whom it is leveled. They 
 not only deny the apostacy alleged, but claim for 
 their proselytes a distinguishing superiority over 
 all the native populations, pagan or heretical, 
 besides. If challenged to the proof, they refer to 
 the evidence of Protestant witnesses, men and 
 women of popular note, and competent from per 
 sonal observation to testify, of the facts. They 
 point to Bishop Fenwick, who, of later date, found 
 a whole tribe of Passamaquoddies true to their 
 Christian allegiance, and whom he commendingly 
 notes as "a living monument of the apostolic 
 labors of the Jesuits." They allude to Sir George 
 Simpson, who relates how the Chippewas preserved 
 their faith, unsustained by the aid of a priest, 
 through the years of half a century. They quote 
 from Mr. Buckingham, who, speaking of the Hu- 
 rons, says: "They are faithful Catholics, and are 
 said to fulfill their religious duties in the most ex 
 emplary manner, being much more improved by 
 their commerce with the whites than the Indian 
 tribes who have first come into contact with Prot 
 estants usually are." They repeat the Rev. Dr. 
 Morse, who writes of the Indians in Western 
 
80 BLACK-ROBES. 
 
 Michigan, at lArbre Croche, "the seat for sixty 
 years or more of a Jesuit mission," that they "are 
 much in advance, in point of improvement, in ap 
 pearance, and in manners, of all the Indians whom 
 I visited." They cite the observation of Mrs. 
 Jameson, who, in the way of a contrast not flatter 
 ing to creedists of different denomination, speaks 
 of the people of a tribe whom she visited, as 
 having "heard them sing Mass with every demon 
 stration of decency and piety;" and the corrobora- 
 tion of Harriet Martineau, expressed generally 
 with regard to the nations of the Northwest, that 
 "one thing is most visible, certain, and undeniable, 
 that the Roman Catholic converts are in appear 
 ance, dress, intelligence, industry, and general 
 civilization, superior to all others." But there is a 
 more striking, because more recent, instance of the 
 indisputable blessings accruing from the labors of 
 the Black-Robes among the savages, to which 
 they refer with special satisfaction, because so 
 well attested by clouds of living witnesses. The 
 Chopunnish, or Nez-Perces, noted, long ago, as 
 a selfish, avaricious, miserly, root-eating tribe, in 
 habiting the distant regions of Oregon and Idaho, 
 were visited many years since by the Catholic 
 missionary, who has maintained a permanent oc 
 cupation of the ground ever since, uninterfcred 
 with, of course, in a quarter, until within a twelve 
 month or so ago,* so remote and isolated from 
 
 * This article was written in 1868. 
 
THE JESUIT. 8 1 
 
 civilized life, by ministers of any other persuasion. 
 This nation has been brought under the control 
 of Christian influence, has made rapid progress 
 towards refinement, is active in the peaceful pur 
 suits of industry, and, in marked contrast with 
 surrounding tribes, stands noted for the orderly 
 behavior, sobriety, purity, and intelligence of its 
 people. 
 
 To whom it is due let honor be accredited, not 
 grudgingly and reluctantly, but with a hearty will, 
 and abundantly. If the Jesuit, defiant of perils, 
 seen and unseen, perils that threatened death, 
 and visited it, in every imaginable form of terror, 
 and through every conceivable shape of torture, 
 dared to prosecute the errand appointed for him, 
 over immeasurable leagues of dreary, desolate dis 
 tance, and by pathless ways, through solitudes, 
 vast, waste, and x wild, as solitudes might only be 
 that had been left untenanted and untraversed, 
 save by roving beasts and crawling reptiles, since 
 God spoke them into being; if he followed his 
 pilgrimage patiently and hardily, in despite of 
 summer's heat, of winter's cold, of storm, of night, 
 through sickness as it fell, and want, and famine; 
 and all, Heaven's pity on him ! all alone ; is he 
 to be denied of his glory on the uncharitable plea 
 that he was driven to the task under sentence of 
 his Superior, and as constrained by the obligation 
 of the oath of his office; or that he was tempted 
 to the sacrifice by a mad zeal for the extension 
 
82 BLACK-ROBES. 
 
 of the temporal authority of the church, and for 
 the aggrandizement, especially, of his own eccle 
 siastical order? If the formulary of his profession 
 not his creed, because the creed of all Christ's 
 followers is one sanctions a scheme of views and 
 practices not in accordance with the notions and 
 customs of the sects which repudiate him, must 
 the disciple of Loyola, therefore, be esteemed as a 
 vessel of dishonor, and disowned as a false prophet 
 among God's people? 
 
 Old Menard hazards his life for the love of Jesus, 
 traveling and tarrying, as duty bids, on the water 
 and on the land; yet, in his frail canoe, amid the 
 tempests of the one, or under his arbor of fir- 
 branches, exposed to the bitterest of midwinter 
 severities, on the other, he is to be found, at the 
 dawn and decline of each day, bent in devotion, 
 repeating " Our Father which art in heaven," and 
 closing the invocation with the supplicatory chant 
 to the Virgin, "Mater amata intemerata, Om y ora 
 pro nobis!" Is the hymn a sacrilege? 
 
 Marquette lies, throbbing his life away, on the 
 shore of Lake Michigan. He addresses his inter 
 cessory prayer to the Mother of his Master, and 
 then, as the last act of his life, raises the Cross to 
 his lips and kisses it, in sweet regard for Him 
 whose sacrifice it typifies. Was that an idolatry 
 for the soul to shudder at ? 
 
 A poor Huron captive is burning to death at the 
 stake, when Father Jogues, himself a prisoner, 
 
THE JESUIT. 83 
 
 under the pretended purpose of proffering the 
 victim a taste of water to cool his parched tongue, 
 rushes into the flames, and administers to him, 
 covertly, the sacrament of baptism. Did the Re 
 cording Angel write down the false pretense as a 
 sin of special enormity, one that, measured by 
 the standard of a strict morality, should appear in 
 startling judgment against the offender in the last 
 day? 
 
 He who has laid to heart, dutifully, the admoni 
 tions of inspiration, seeks not to examine too 
 inquiringly into the faults of a brother. He re 
 members the lesson of the Mote and the Beam ; 
 and, above all, forgets not that the graces which 
 constitute the glory of Christian character are 
 Faith, Hope, and Charity, and that "the greatest 
 of these is Charity." 
 
THE MORAVIAN. 
 
 (85) 
 
THE MORAVIAN. 
 
 I. 
 
 THE MORAVIANS IN EASTERN PENNSYLVANIA. 
 
 DRIVEN from his dominions by the Elector 
 of Saxony, a community of Moravians or, 
 as they distinguish themselves, Unitas Fmtrum, or 
 United Brethren, residing in Berthelsdorf, a village 
 of Upper Lusatia, under the patronage of Count 
 Zinzendorf, and to carry out a project which they 
 had already contemplated, emigrated, in 1734, to 
 America. They reached their destination, after a 
 prosperous voyage, in the spring of the year fol 
 lowing, settling themselves in Savannah, in the 
 State of Georgia. The object of their undertaking 
 was to introduce the gospel to the Indians of the 
 New World. About five miles from Savannah, in 
 the river of that name, is an island, which, at the 
 time, was occupied by quite a-community of Creek 
 Indians. Among these they established them 
 selves, opening schools for the children, and pro 
 claiming the " Great Word," day after day, to the 
 people. They were not allowed, however, to pro 
 secute their labors long enough to reap any sub- 
 
 (87) 
 
88 BLACK-ROBES. 
 
 stantial reward. In consequence of a disagreement 
 with the provincial government, growing out of a 
 refusal to take up arms against the Spaniards in 
 their attempts to expel the English from Georgia, 
 the Brethren left the region, looking towards the 
 north for the seat of a new settlement. 
 
 Induced by favorable representations, they 
 moved into Pennsylvania, where, attracted by the 
 inviting meadows which border its rivers, they 
 planted the little colonies grown into pleasant 
 and prosperous towns since of Bethlehem and 
 Nazareth. These towns were made the central 
 seat of the Brotherhood, where, dwelling together 
 in amiable companionship, its members could 
 carry out among themselves the usages, economi 
 cal and social, as well as religious, peculiar to 
 their creed, and whence they could, at the same 
 time, send forth their evangelists to " testify the 
 gospel of the grace of God" to the unenlight 
 ened natives. The resident members of the So 
 ciety, towards this grand aim, were covenanted 
 through their charities, their contributions, and by 
 every means which arising exigencies might invite, 
 and which it was possible to command, to lend 
 themselves to the support of the missionaries. 
 The missionaries, on their part, were to conform to 
 certain rules which had been suggested by Count 
 Zinzendorf and approved by common concurrence 
 of the Brotherhood, rules, by the way, very nearly 
 of a type with those to which the Jesuits had been 
 
THE MORAVIAN. 89 
 
 pledged, and conformably with which they had 
 served in their earlier operations among the tribes. 
 They were to submit themselves to the wise direc 
 tion and guidance of God in all circumstances ; to 
 seek to preserve liberty of conscience ; to avoid all 
 religious disputes ; to preach the gospel of Jesus 
 Christ, and to endeavor as much as possible to 
 earn their own bread. In a strange land, with the 
 Puritan to beard them on the Border, and the Pa 
 gan to persecute them in the Wilderness, and with 
 uncultivated wastes to serve in, where sustenance 
 was meagre and hard to come by, the task de 
 manded and the terms imposed were of no con 
 temptible consideration. But they were men willing 
 always, and bold, to meet their responsibilities. 
 
 Under the enterprise of Brother Christian Henry 
 Rauch, a mission was opened and a community 
 established in Shekomeko, a Mohican village, 
 twenty-five miles east o the Hudson River and 
 near the Connecticut border. Through his instru 
 mentality, three of the natives, Shabash, Seim,and 
 Kiop,were converted and baptized, under the names 
 respectively of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, into 
 the church, the three "firstlings" of the Faith 
 in America. Rauch was joined afterwards by Mar 
 tin Mack, Gottlob Buettner, Frederick Post and 
 others, whose common field of operations, with 
 Shekomeko as the centre, extended from Pachgat- 
 goch in Connecticut, to Albany, New York, on the 
 north, and Shomokin and Wajomick on the Sus- 
 8* 
 
9 o 
 
 BLACK-ROBES. 
 
 quehanna, in the west, embracing various villages 
 of the Mohican, Shawanese, and Delaware Indians. 
 The missionaries encountered serious opposition in 
 their work. Post, in company with David Zeis- 
 berger, made a tour through Northern New York 
 among the Iroquois. As the Six Nations were 
 suspected of cherishing a sympathy for the French, 
 the object of Post and his associate's visit was set 
 down as a political one, and on the charge that 
 they were secretly co-operating with the confed 
 eracy to bring about an alliance with the enemy, 
 they were arrested at Albany, brought to New 
 York and cast into prison. Although discharged, 
 after a confinement of six weeks, by an act of As 
 sembly, they were prohibited from preaching, and 
 ordered to leave the State. In Connecticut they 
 were accused of papistical proclivities, and had to 
 encounter such a pressure of Puritanic resistance 
 on the ridiculous change, that they were con 
 strained to desist from their labors. After an 
 existence of some four years, the mission of She- 
 komeko was abandoned, the few Christian Mohi 
 cans composing its congregation retiring with their 
 teachers to the friendly shelters of the Moravians 
 at Bethlehem. Here, a short distance from the 
 town, for their temporary accommodation, the 
 modest hamlet of Friedenshutten, or the Tents of 
 Peace, was built on the Susquehanna River. 
 
 Thus far the operations of the Brethren had been 
 moderately, but promisingly, successful. Bands of 
 
THE MORAVIAN. 9 1 
 
 converts were to be found, here and there, through 
 out the entire range over which the journeyings 
 of the missionaries had extended. To bring these 
 scattered groups together, the more effectually 
 thereby to extend a salutary supervision over their 
 spiritual as well as worldly interests, lands were 
 bought on the Mahanoy, to which they were in 
 vited, and whither they repaired. The fertile acres 
 of the purchase were fenced off into fields for cul 
 tivation, all except a small portion, which was set 
 apart as a seat for the dwellings of the settlers. A 
 church was built in the heart of this reserve. 
 Clusters of cottages were planted along the rising 
 grounds on one side adjoining, and the homestead 
 of the missionary, and the consecrated plot, with 
 its narrower abodes for those who, once housed, 
 were to know thereafter no change of habitation, 
 on the other. And so arose, in the valley of the 
 river, the settlement of Gnadenhiitten, the happy 
 village of the Tents of Grace. 
 
 The converts gathered at Gnadenhiitten, besides 
 the Mohican families flitted from Shekomeko, were 
 chiefly Delawares. With the abandonment of the 
 superstitions of their fathers, they had quit their 
 vagrant courses and were settled into a community 
 soon noted for the thrift, the exemplary habits, 
 and the well-regulated behavior of its people. 
 With the dawn of each day, before assuming their 
 allotted labors, and at its decline, when toils were 
 ended, they might have been seen tracing their 
 
92 BLA CK-R OSES. 
 
 way to the sanctuary of the village, there to pre 
 sent their stated offerings of worship at its altar. 
 Psalms of praise saluted the morning ; hymns of 
 thanksgiving ascended in the evening; voices were 
 lifted in prayer, and lessons of instruction declared, 
 Christian Rauch officiating, or Martin Mack, the 
 first commissioned to administer the Word and the 
 Sacraments among the converts. But the peace 
 of the settlement* propitiously as it opened, was 
 not to remain long undisturbed. 
 
 In the active hostilities which opened in 1755 
 between the French and English, although they de 
 clined taking any part, the Moravians had to bear 
 their full share of the resulting distresses. Many of 
 the converts, too easily seduced from the paths of 
 peace when the war-trail offered its more congenial 
 attractions, deserted the Tents of Grace and betook 
 them to the camp9 of the unbaptized insurgents, 
 who, espousing the cause of the former of the 
 belligerents, had taken up arms against the latter. 
 The rising of the savages created intense alarm 
 throughout the settlements. After the first act of 
 barbarous warfare, which consisted in the burning 
 of several houses not far from Shomokin, and the 
 massacre of their inmates, the threatened popula 
 tion took to flight, scattering in the deeper wilder 
 nesses towards the mountains on the one hand, 
 and with their* faces seaward on the other, wher 
 ever a way of escape seemed to offer from the 
 perils by which they were surrounded. The 
 
THE MORAVIAN. 93 
 
 Brethren in Bethlehem and Gnadenhiitten alone, 
 of all whose safety was menaced, refused to forsake 
 their homes. " The peace of God comforted them, 
 and preserved their hearts from fear and despair." 
 The pagan Shawanese much the larger portion 
 of the tribe employed every inducement to win 
 over the residue of their clansmen, who still main 
 tained a fidelity to the Moravians, but without 
 success. Death was threatened if refusal were 
 persisted in, but the loyal adherents were not to be 
 moved. The mission-house on the Mahanoy was 
 attacked and set on fire, eleven of the Brethren and 
 Sisters perishing in the flames. The visitation was 
 borne by the sufferers with a spirit of martyrly for 
 titude. Steadfastly they maintained their place, 
 comforting and sustaining each other as they 
 might, and looking to God as their refuge in the 
 dark times of their affliction. " O Lord, we be 
 seech Thee," was the burden of their daily prayer, 
 "save Thou us, that all may know that Thou art 
 the Lord, even Thou only." 
 
 Through four years, down to the time of the aban 
 donment of FortDuquesne and the retirement of the 
 French, to their own provinces, were these faithful 
 saints forced to endure the persecutions of their re 
 lentless enemies. Meanwhile the task to which they 
 were dedicated was not forgotten, nor the zeal di 
 minished with which it was pursued. The Indian 
 villages along the waters of the Delaware, the Le- 
 high, and the Susquehanna were visited. The mis- 
 
94 BLA CK-R OBES. 
 
 sions of Friedenshiitten and Tschechschequannink 
 on the last-mentioned river were established, while 
 ministers, such as Grube, and Mack, and Roesler, 
 and Kiefer, were sent abroad among the settle 
 ments to declare the Word, wherever Christians 
 were to be comforted, or heathen to hear and be 
 reclaimed ; and the work of the Lord went on and 
 prospered in their hands. The emigration of the 
 main body of the Delawares and Shawanese to the 
 West, shortly before, and during the war, and the 
 reports of the region which found their way back to 
 Bethlehem, led the Brethren to look with special 
 interest in that direction. 
 
 Christian Frederick Post has been mentioned in 
 connection with the operations of the Moravians in 
 Eastern Pennsylvania. He was a joiner by trade, 
 but a man of more than ordinary intelligence, and, 
 being animated with a lively religious zeal, soon 
 abandoned his humble calling, and, qualifying 
 himself for the office, became a minister of the 
 Faith, one of the most enterprising and efficient 
 among his co-laborers of the Brotherhood. By 
 reason of his marriage to a native, although an ex 
 cellent Christian woman, he was deprived of his 
 right to be regarded as a missionary of the Society. 
 Yet the disfranchisement was rather technical than 
 real, for, while not officially acknowledged, his 
 priestly services were neither forbidden nor dis 
 owned by his associates. In 1758, by appointment 
 of the Governor of Pennsylvania, he visited, on two 
 
THE MORAVIAN. 95 
 
 occasions, the tribes settled in the Ohio Valley ; the 
 object of the undertaking being to counteract the 
 mischievous influence of the French, and to insure, 
 if possible, the establishment of amicable relations 
 between that doubtful people and the English. 
 Success attended his embassy. The savages re 
 fused to rally to their support, and the consequence 
 was that, as General Forbes approached soon after 
 with his army, the garrison of Fort Duquesne de 
 serted their stronghold without the offer of a blow 
 in its defense. Again, in 1761, Post repeated his 
 visit ; not, on this occasion, in the capacity of a 
 political envoy, but as an ambassador of the gospel. 
 He prosecuted his journey into the interior until he 
 reached the wigwams of the Shawanese and Hu- 
 rons on the Muskingum River. 
 
 These adventures of the distinguished Moravian 
 were not achieved without their attending risks and 
 trials. His route led through an unexplored wil 
 derness. Bands of savages infested the woods, and 
 the red stakes, used to fasten prisoners to for secu 
 rity during the halts of a march, found here and 
 there driven into the ground, and the fresh scalps 
 stretched on hoops and hung on bushes by the 
 wayside to dry, plainly indicated that they were 
 abroad with no innocent intention. His food con 
 sisted of such provision as the chances of each day, 
 out of the spare resources of the forest, afforded ; 
 while as to shelter, for thirty-one nights, as the jour 
 nal of one of his expeditions intimates, he lay in 
 
g6 BLACK-ROBES. 
 
 the woods with the heavens for his covering, and 
 the dew settling so penetratingly on him that it 
 ' pinched close to the skin." But " the Lord pre 
 served him through all the dangers and difficulties " 
 of the way, and brought him, " under a thick, 
 heavy, and- dark cloud," safely to its termination. 
 Foremost of "evangelical" apostles in those dis 
 tant wilds, he nevertheless discovered that he had 
 been anticipated, and that the tidings of the Cross 
 were not unknown on the Muskingum, although 
 the Jesuit fathers, Jogues, perhaps, or Gravier, 
 or Mermet, to whom the enlightened were in 
 debted for the story, were dust and ashes genera 
 tions ago. 
 
 Post requested, and obtained, permission of the 
 Indians to establish a mission among them ; built 
 a house, the first one erected in the State of 
 Ohio, went back to Bethlehem for an assistant, 
 and early in the year following returned with John 
 Heckewelder, and commenced his religious labors 
 at the new station. Before his plans were fairly 
 entered upon, dissatisfactions sprang up, which 
 were to culminate in the war of 1763 ; the Indians 
 began to show violence, and the post was aban 
 doned. 
 
 But the experiment of the Christian pioneer, if a 
 failure in itself, was not without its beneficial re 
 sults. His explorations satisfied the Brethren that 
 an inviting field offered beyond the Alleghanies for 
 the display of missionary enterprise. Mingos and 
 
THE MORAVIAN. 97 
 
 Shawanese, Tuscaroras and Hurons, had their vil 
 lages or scattered lodges dotting the plains and 
 water -courses from Alleghene for so the country 
 up towards its source, and bordering on the stream 
 of that name, then known as the Ohio, was desig 
 nated to the levels of Sandusky, and from the 
 Onenge River, or Venango, to the Muskingum. 
 There, too, were to be found the towns of the emi 
 grated Delawares, the tribe nearest their hearts 
 as the one among whose people they had dwelt, 
 and out of which the principal fruits of their labor 
 had been gathered. The remnant of that nation, 
 still lingering in the original neighborhood, was 
 rapidly diminishing. English settlers were intrud 
 ing with fast strides on their patrimonies. The 
 Iroquois, proud and unfeeling masters, had found 
 it serviceable to their own aims to aid in these 
 aggressions, which they did with a no doubtful or 
 hesitating interference. " We conquered you/' 
 they had arrogantly said through their messenger, 
 Paxnous, an old chief of the Shawanese, " and 
 made women of you. Therefore we charge you to 
 fall back immediately. Don't deliberate, but re 
 move away, or the Great Council will come and 
 clean your ears with a red-hot iron." The unhappy 
 Lenni-Lenapes had not dared to dispute the order^ 
 and soon the places that knew them were to know 
 them no more. The Moravians \vould not desert 
 them. The Tents of Grace must be pitched anew 
 so they determined in the far wilderness whither 
 
 9 
 
98 BLACK-ROBES. 
 
 the exiles had wandered, and the messages of 
 Peace must be borne to the shores of the rivers 
 where their cabins were planted. 
 
 II. i*g 
 THE "PLACE OF HOGS" ON THE UPPER ALLEGHANY. 
 
 THE morning service had been held in the 
 chapel at Friedenshiitten. The prayers of 
 the congregation had been offered with unusual so 
 lemnity ; the voices of the worshipers had mingled 
 in hymns of adoration with more than common 
 fervor, and with the sentence of the benediction 
 still lingering in their ears, the Brethren were 
 gathered in the open space that lay under the 
 shadow of their sanctuary, to bid God-speed to 
 one of their number about to leave them on a 
 distant, arduous, and perilous journey. David 
 Zeisberger had been a conspicuous actor in all the 
 leading enterprises of the Society since the date 
 of its organization at Bethlehem. He had pene 
 trated the territories of the tribes of the East, even 
 to the cabins of the Iroquois at Onondaga. He 
 had prayed in their wigwams; he had preached in 
 their villages. He had organized new circles of 
 believers, gathered in to strengthen the bands of 
 
THE MORAVIAN. 
 
 99 
 
 the old, or associated apart and made the centres 
 of new settlements. Enterprising, intrepid, inde 
 fatigable, zealous, the Paul among the Apostles 
 of the Unity, if the Good Cause cal-led for extraor 
 dinary undertaking in any newly-chosen line of 
 action, he was looked to by the congregation as 
 the champion for the duty. When the project of 
 a mission in the West was resolved upon, there 
 fore, his appointment to see it carried into effect 
 followed as a matter of course ; and on the 3Oth 
 of September, 1767, amid the solemn ceremo 
 nials of worship, the blessings and the sad fare 
 wells of his people, accompanied by two native 
 converts, Anthony, and John Papunhank, he took 
 his departure from Friedenshtitten. 
 
 The familiar scenes of the Susquehanna were 
 soon lost to the view of the Moravian, as he pene 
 trated the forests through which his tortuous and 
 difficult way conducted. There was no defined 
 route to guide his progress. The paths which led 
 through the wilds, traced there by the herds that 
 roamed their recesses and the tawny hunters that 
 made prey of them, were devious and uncertain. 
 Obstacles, seemingly insurmountable, interposed 
 to impede his advance. Rivers intercepted his 
 course ; marshes lay before him, whose miry soil 
 at every step sank under his feet ; dense thickets 
 had to be pierced, and great plains to be traversed, 
 thick with rank grasses that lifted their closely- 
 clustering spears high above his head. Day after 
 
100 BLACK-ROBES. 
 
 day he toiled laboriously on, to be rewarded at 
 night with such rest as, stretched on the bare 
 ground and wrapped in his blanket, he might best 
 secure, under the pouring rain that fell almost in 
 cessantly during the weeks of his travel. But the 
 indomitable missionary persevered. On the i6th 
 of October he reached the Alleghany. The vil 
 lages of Goschgoschuenk were before him ; the 
 Beautiful Valley was under his feet, and his jour 
 ney was ended. 
 
 Zeisberger found the Indians at the Place of 
 Hogs, as the true interpretation of the name 
 makes it, not inappropriately, ignorant, depraved, 
 and heathenish ; utterly given over to shameful and 
 diabolical superstitions. " Satan," he says, in his 
 report, "has here his great power; he even seems 
 to have established his throne in this place." The 
 novelty of the Moravian worship, however, proved 
 attractive, and the religious exercises held at his 
 lodge were largely attended. The first, and, in 
 deed, the only one of his hearers, during this pre 
 paratory visit, to become " powerfully awakened," 
 was a blind old chief, Allemewi, of the Delawares, 
 who from the day of his arrival had manifested a 
 friendly interest in the missionary and in his work. 
 Zeisberger, after a short stay, went back to Bethle 
 hem, but, in May of the next year, returned again, 
 bringing with him an assistant brother, Gottlob 
 Senseman, together with three families of native 
 converts from Friedenshiitten, and, building a log 
 
THE MORAVIAN. IOI 
 
 cabin at the outskirts of the central village of the 
 three which constituted the town of Goschgosch- 
 uenk, established himself in the place. Fairly 
 domiciled in his new home, the missionary entered, 
 without delay, on his work. Chapel services were 
 instituted, and observed daily. "Preaching" was 
 held at noon; morning and evening meetings were 
 assembled, where prayers were offered, and hymns, 
 the composition of the Brother himself, sung in 
 their own language to his Delaware hearers. The 
 savages, in their best of holiday finery, with their 
 faces freshly painted in black and vermilion, and 
 their heads garnished with fox-tails and tufts of 
 feathers, attended in crowds and participated in the 
 exercises with gravity and decorum. For some 
 time these services were allowed to go on with 
 out interruption or hinderance. Interest began 
 to awaken in the hearts of the people, and the 
 Brethren were comforted with the prospect of 
 profitable results soon to be realized from their 
 efforts. But bitter disappointments were in re 
 serve for them. 
 
 The captains of the tribe, a cabalistic order, in 
 one sense, professing the knowledge of certain 
 secret, supernatural arts, arts by which the popu 
 lace were persuaded that waters were poisoned and 
 sickness engendered in the camps of their enemies, 
 and to which the initiated were indebted for their 
 eminent influence, apprehensive that the conver 
 sion of any one of their class to the new doctrine 
 9* 
 
102 BLACK-ROBES. 
 
 would lead to a confession of the deceit by which 
 their practices were accomplished, began, upon the 
 first symptoms of success, to open their batteries 
 of attack against the missionaries. Converts, it 
 was charged, were enticed into the communion to 
 be made slaves of, and the deceived would learn, 
 to their grief, that baptism was the seal of perpetual 
 bondage. The King of England, it was declared, 
 had written letters, warning against the Brethren 
 as emissaries of the devil, who would lead their 
 dupes straight to hell. The inspired teachers, the 
 sorcerers, and the medicine- men were called to the 
 rescue. 
 
 " Come to Jesus, who bled and died for you," 
 Zeisberger would affectionately exhort. " Call on 
 Him for mercy, that He may deliver you from the 
 power of Satan." 
 
 " I have been intimately acquainted with Jesus 
 for some time," Wangomen, a defender of his faith, 
 would rejoin ; " I have enjoyed a familiar inter 
 course, indeed, with Him these many years, and He 
 never told me that He had become a man, or that 
 He had shed any of his blood." 
 
 Faith and repentance, as specifics for spiritual 
 purification, were ridiculed as chimerical and pre 
 posterous If the formule of the Psalmist "Purge 
 me with hyssop" had been recommended, cavil 
 might have been hushed, because the practice of 
 their own doctors of divinity could not consistently 
 have repudiated that herb, when themselves were 
 
THE MORAVIAN. 103 
 
 accustomed to prescribe jalap and ipecacuanha for 
 the same purpose. 
 
 The old women of the villages were incited to 
 join in the general outcry. Because of the strange 
 doctrines, they said, the worms were destroying 
 the corn in the fields ; the deer were retreating 
 affrighted from the woods ; the trees were refusing 
 their fruits, and henceforth they might look for 
 chestnuts and bilberries in vain. Orators from 
 other towns came in, offering their eloquence on 
 behalf of the opposition. " Cousins," said one of 
 them, a Seneca chief of Zoneschio, " I perceive 
 that a Black-Robe has come among you. This 
 man will seduce you, and make you forsake your 
 old customs and manner of living, if you attend to 
 him. I advise you not to hear him, but to send 
 him away. If you do not, you may find him, some 
 day, lying dead by the wayside." The converts 
 were called, contemptuously, Sunday Indians, and 
 insulted with the degrading epithet of Shwonnaks, 
 or White-folks. As of their own race, and apos 
 tates besides from the faith of their fathers, these 
 unhappy ones were made the special objects of the 
 malice of their enemies. The abuse with which 
 they were visited was soon followed by violence, 
 till at length, driven forcibly from their cabins, they 
 were compelled to fly for protection to the lodge 
 of the missionaries. 
 
 The blind chief, Allemewi, was the only friend 
 the Brethren could rely on, outside of their com- 
 
1 04 BLA CK-R OSES. 
 
 munion. He shared with them in their care of the 
 persecuted, and, at the same time, exerted himself 
 to appease the excitement of the populace. But his 
 efforts were unavailing. The lives of the ministers 
 were threatened. It was proposed that they should 
 be stoned, or murdered, and cast into the river. 
 Two of the savages were covenanted to see to the 
 execution of the design, but, perhaps restrained by 
 superstitious dread, when the hour came to admin 
 ister the stroke, their hearts failed them, and they 
 retired abashed from the presence of their intended 
 victims. Other conspiracies were formed to carry 
 out the same murderous intention, so that, to guard 
 against assassination, an armed watch had to be 
 kept up nightly about the house of the Moravians. 
 It was finally deemed expedient to abandon the 
 station. Accordingly,' Zeisberger and his colleague, 
 with their handful of adherents, withdrew, retiring 
 to the town of Lawunakhannek, some fifteen miles 
 below, and on the opposite side of the river. 
 
 This forced desertion of Goschgoschuenk was a 
 grand achievement for the captains, the sorcerers, 
 and the women. Wangomen, inflated with the 
 idea that he had been a conspicuous instrument in 
 the affair, was particularly jubilant. As it was in 
 the line of his profession, he took to the vacated 
 pulpit of the chapel himself at once, but having 
 unfortunately yielded to a besetting weakness, 
 and giving drunken utterance to doctrine so vile 
 and abominable as even to offend the ears of his 
 
THE MORA VIAN. 
 
 105 
 
 not ever-fastidious congregation, he was dragged 
 from his place and summarily cast out of the sanc 
 tuary. Glikkikan, captain, warrior, counselor, and 
 speaker of Pakanke, the Delaware chief resident in 
 Kaskaskunk, seems to have conceived that a mis 
 take was made in the management of matters, and 
 that the case of the missionaries might have been 
 settled up by force of argument far more satisfac 
 torily than by process of violence. He had finished 
 the business for the Black-Robes in Canada in that 
 way, and did not presume that the little man from 
 Bethlehem was ribbed with tougher metal, that he 
 could long resist the penetration of his logic and 
 eloquence. He decided, even yet, to make the 
 attempt, and invited quite a party of his townsmen 
 to accompany him to Lawunakhannek and witness 
 the controversy. Conscious though he was of his 
 own power, he did not think it prudent to under 
 value that of his antagonist, and prepared himself 
 accordingly ; well considering beforehand what to 
 say, in order the more pointedly and effectually 
 to confound the Moravian. But the counselor had 
 undertaken more than he could manage. The 
 evidence of the Truth, through the lips of the 
 Brethren, fell on him with irresistible persuasion. 
 He acknowledged the weakness of his cause, ad 
 mitted its errors, and on his return to Kaskaskunk 
 not only confessed his discomfiture, but nobly in 
 dorsed the new Faith, and urged the acceptance of 
 the gospel on the people. 
 
106 BLACK-ROBES. 
 
 Affairs began to wear a more promising aspect. 
 The uncomplaining temper of the missionaries, 
 their never-failing patience under whatever visita 
 tion of wrong or violence, commanded, at length, 
 the forbearance of the savages, and they were per 
 mitted the undisturbed enjoyment of all desirable 
 social and religious privileges. Comfortable houses 
 were built in lieu of the rude hunting-huts which 
 had first afforded them shelter. A chapel was 
 erected, graced with the extraordinary and attract 
 ive appendage of a bell, the gift of the friends at 
 Bethlehem. Presently the cheerful evidences of 
 well-applied industry began to appear. Grounds 
 were cleared, gardens were planted, and fields of 
 corn grew and ripened in the sun. Here, too, 
 under the dews of divine influence, began to spring 
 up the seed of a more precious sowing. The liv 
 ing knowledge of the Faith took root, at length, 
 in the hearts of the people. On the 3d of Decem 
 ber, three penitents, a father, mother, and child, 
 were admitted, through the solemn ritual of bap 
 tism, into the church, in the presence of a large 
 concourse of witnesses, all of whom were deeply 
 impressed with the ceremony. The occasion was 
 honored with the attendance of quite a company 
 of the villagers of Goschgoschuenk, who entered 
 into the spirit of the prevailing excitement very 
 enthusiastically, but, perhaps, with more zeal than 
 knowledge. So earnest were they in their ardor 
 that they gravely proposed to lay the question 
 
THE MORAVIAN. IO/ 
 
 before the town council, and have themselves and 
 their fellow-citizens legislated into the communion, 
 without delay; but the missionaries interposed, 
 letting them know that conversion must come by 
 the grace of God, and not by act of Assembly. 
 But the most interesting event of this delightful 
 season was the conversion of the generous-hearted, 
 stanch old friend of the Moravians, blind Alle- 
 mewi. " Brethren," said he, as at his own request 
 he was carried to the lodge of the missionaries, 
 "I can bear it no longer; I must open my mind 
 to you. I am convinced that I am a lost sinner, 
 and unless my heart shall soon receive comfort I 
 must die." " Come to Jesus," was the responsive 
 invitation ; " weary and heavy-laden as you are, 
 there you will find rest for your soul." His wife 
 and friends tried to dissuade him, but he had re 
 solved on his course, and on Christmas-day the 
 believing chief was sacramentally sealed into the 
 fellowship of the Unity. So were gilded the closing 
 hours of a year obscured with clouds and dark 
 ness through nearly the full measure of its circle ; 
 so, though the watches were long and weary, the 
 night of sorrows was told at last, and joy came in 
 the morning. 
 
 While yet congratulating themselves on their 
 successes, the Brethren were called on to undergo 
 new tribulations. Unfriendly relations had for some 
 time existed between ^the Seneca Indians and the 
 Cherokees. Late events had not mitigated the 
 
1 08 BLA CK-R OSES. 
 
 traces of estrangement, and it scarcely needed a 
 petty act of outrage, which was perpetrated by the 
 latter, to bring the quarrel to a crisis, and precipi 
 tate the parties into active hostilities. Lawunak- 
 hannek lying in an exposed position between these 
 rival tribes, the Christians were left in a predica 
 ment of great insecurity. The excitements of war, 
 besides, not only precluded the possibility of ex 
 tending the conquests of the Faith, but were a 
 temptation too strong, oftentimes, for even the per 
 severance of the saints. When blue, typical of 
 peace, was the color of the day, the gospel had its 
 chances, but its power was paralyzed when the 
 hatchet was red, and warriors were abroad in black 
 and vermilion. In view of these facts, the Brethren 
 began to discuss the expediency of continuing the 
 mission at that place. Repeated requests to settle 
 in their region had been made by the prominent 
 men of the Delawares on the Big Beaver, seconded 
 warmly by Glikkikan, the captain and controver 
 sialist of one of their villages. Next to the settle 
 ments on the Muskingum, those on the Beaver 
 were the most populous of any within the territo 
 rial bounds of the Delaware Nation. The wider 
 sphere of usefulness presented in this field, and the 
 ostensible readiness of the people to receive the 
 Truth, were additional considerations to be taken 
 into account in the estimate of the question of duty. 
 After due deliberation it wa decided to make the 
 change. On the i/th of April, 1770,3 fleet of six- 
 
MORAVIAN. 
 
 109 
 
 teen canoes shoved off from the river-shore ; the 
 little band of Moravian disciples were launched 
 upon their long voyage, and the mission of Lawu- 
 nakhannek was abandoned. 
 
 III. 
 THE "VILLAGE OF PEACE" ON THE BEAVER. 
 
 T)AKANKE, the chief, had summoned his sages, 
 JL and conference was held in the council-hall of 
 the Delawares on the Big Beaver. Kaskaskunk was 
 all astir with excitement consequent upon the arri 
 val of the Black-Robe of Alleghene, and his band 
 of emigrants, from Lawunakhannek. The wise 
 men were assembled to greet the strangers with a 
 formal reception ; a civility to which they were 
 hospitably entitled as invited guests, and which 
 was offered with more than usual ceremony because 
 of their distinguished quality. Zeisberger was 
 before the Session, attended by a few deputies, to 
 represent his people on the occasion. Speeches 
 were made and responded to ; pipes were passed in 
 ratification of sentiments expressed, and strings of 
 wampum interchanged as records, for future refer 
 ence, of the proceedings. The invitation to estab- 
 10 
 
1 10 BLACK-ROBES. 
 
 lish a community in the neighborhood was then 
 officially reiterated, and a spot of ground desig 
 nated and dedicated to the missionaries for their 
 exclusive occupation. 
 
 Entered upon their new possessions, the Chris 
 tians began the work of improvement without 
 delay, and with their accustomed vigor. Fields 
 were cleared and planted ; huts were built, hastily 
 and rudely, for present occupation, and a house 
 completed for purposes of worship, all for tempo 
 rary use, and constructed of bark. The usual rou 
 tine of duties was at once resumed; hours of toil, 
 of rest, and of worship succeeding each other, and 
 commanding their appropriate observances regu 
 larly and duly, As time wore on and the more 
 urgent demands of agriculture were satisfied, the 
 settlers turned their attention to the improvement 
 of their domestic accommodations. A neat and 
 orderly array of dwellings soon offered more com 
 fortable shelter to the families, and on the site and 
 over the ruins of the abandoned bark cabins were 
 planted the more permanent foundations of Lan- 
 guntoutenuenk, or Friedenstadt, the Village of 
 Peace. 
 
 Pakanke, as has been seen, had spoken his 
 welcome. The terms of his address were liberal 
 enough, but the spirit lacked the ring of genuine cor 
 diality. As of the household of the Lenni-Lenape, 
 he inclined favorably to the Red-folk of the emigra 
 tion ; because of the political distinction which his 
 
THE MORAVIAN. Ill 
 
 patronage of the Black-Robes would reflect upon 
 his clan, he could tolerate, nay, he might congrat 
 ulate himself on their presence ; but the instincts 
 of the savage Adam the easily ascendant pro 
 pensities of ab-original sin in the man were all 
 against the religion of their importation. When, 
 on the 1 2th of June, the example of her husband 
 wrought redeemingly, at length, on the rebellious 
 conscience of the wife of Allemewi, and she was 
 baptized into the communion, the chief of Kaskas- 
 kunk witnessed the novel ceremony with ill-con 
 cealed disapprobation. But when Glikkikan, his 
 lieutenant, brought down by conviction, craved per 
 mission to transfer his lodge to Friedenstadt, that 
 he might dwell there as one of the Congregation, 
 Pakanke did not hesitate to avow his displeasure. 
 " You," he exclaimed, " a brave and honored man, 
 sitting next me in council when we spread the 
 blanket and considered the belts of wampum, even 
 you would go over and forsake us j" " I would go 
 over to them," said the determined prime minister, 
 " and with them I would live and die." Then the 
 chief, when he found that reproach fell without 
 effect, and that expostulation was fruitless, began 
 to ply severer censures. The captain was charged 
 with sorcery ; he was stigmatized as a Shwonnak, 
 and pointed at scornfully as a recreant to the ven 
 erable traditions of his people. Nevertheless, with a 
 constancy more creditable to the orator than charac 
 teristic of him, he continued steadfast in his resolu- 
 
 9 
 
112 BLACK-ROBES. 
 
 tion. The Brethren came in, as well, for their share 
 of the outpourings of savage wrath. Pakanke with 
 drew from them the protection of his countenance, 
 impudently denying that he had ever approved of 
 their emigration, or that they were settled on the 
 Beaver by his authority. 
 
 At this crisis, while opposition was in a fair way 
 to ripen soon into positive resistance, its develop 
 ment was unexpectedly and effectually arrested. 
 
 Col. George Croghan, delegated in 1755 by Sir 
 Wm. Johnston to visit the West, in order to coun 
 teract the hostile operations of the French and 
 maintain amicable relations with the Indians of 
 the border, had, in the sagacious discharge of his 
 mission, acquired a commanding influence among 
 the tribes. Their own amiable character, coupled 
 with the devotion of the Moravians to the pacific 
 measures which it was his policy to promote, com 
 mended the Society to his favorable notice, and 
 from the time of their first settlement on the Alle- 
 ghany, shortly after which he had been visited at 
 Fort Pitt by Zeisberger and Senseman, he had 
 always contributed, as occasion offered, to their 
 welfare. When information reached him of the 
 disturbances which had been excited at Frieden- 
 stadt, he promptly interposed in their behalf. With 
 much earnestness he exhorted the offended Kaskas- 
 kunkian to cease controversy with the Christians, 
 assuring him that their intentions were honor 
 able, and not by any means adverse to the inter- 
 
THE MORA VIAN. 1 1 3 
 
 ests of his people. The advice of the English com 
 missioner caused the chief to waver in his purpose. 
 It so happened that just then a fatal disease raged 
 with great violence in the Delaware villages. The 
 prevalence of this epidemic was attributed to the 
 workings of magic, and the populace, very pliable 
 under a panic, were easily induced to believe that 
 the fatal visitation was chargeable to their rejection 
 of the religion of the Black-Robes. A special 
 meeting of the counselors of the tribe at Gekele- 
 mukpechuenk, or Still-Water, on the Muskingum, 
 was called, and, as the result of its deliberations, an 
 envoy was sent with a black belt of wampum of 
 a fathom's length, to Pakanke, and an order de 
 manded for a convocation of the Council. " There 
 is a contagion among us;" such was the purport 
 of the message. " Many Indians die. We shall 
 all die unless we have help. Convene a Council 
 on this belt. Whoever does not receive this belt 
 shall be considered as an enemy and murderer of 
 his people, and must be treated according to his 
 deserts." Pakanke was wise enough to accept the 
 precaution obscurely conveyed in this communica 
 tion. A prudent respect for consequences decided 
 the course for which the advice of Col. Croghan 
 had prepared the way. Hostilities against the 
 Christians ceased, and peace prevailed in Frieden- 
 stadt. 
 
 The career of the community was now, for some 
 time, one of almost uninterrupted prosperity. The 
 10* 
 
II 4 BLACK-ROBES. 
 
 possessions of the Brethren embraced several hun 
 dred acres of land, a large portion of which, lying 
 along the rich bottoms of the Mahoning, the She- 
 nango, and the Beaver, was brought under culti 
 vation, yielding to its industrious owners broad 
 and bountiful harvests. The surrounding woods 
 abounded in game, while the rivers furnished in 
 full supply their daintier tribute of pickerel, bass, 
 and salmon to lend a savory variety to the tables 
 of the households. Schools for the education of 
 the children were established both at Friedenstadt 
 and at Kaskaskunk. Workshops were set up, where 
 the mechanical arts were taught and put into suc 
 cessful practice. The raiment in which the asso 
 ciates clad themselves was woven in hand-looms 
 of their own contriving, from yarns of their own 
 spinning. Axe, mattock, spade, plow, all the 
 utensils used in the clearing, the field, and the 
 garden, were wrought at their own fires and on 
 their own anvils. Debarred of its luxuries, the 
 substantial provisions of life were theirs in adequate 
 plenty, and the former deprivation was more than 
 compensated in the healthy relish with which the 
 invigorating tasks of acquisition enabled them to 
 enjoy the latter. 
 
 Meanwhile the spiritual interests of the mission 
 were not neglected. The only damaging accusa 
 tion which remained unsatisfied against the Chris 
 tians was that their converts, by the terms of 
 communion, were to be relieved from the payment 
 
THE MORA VI AN. 1 1 5 
 
 of their proportion of the national taxes, and from 
 rendering the customary tribute of wampum to the 
 chiefs. To quiet the apprehensions of the parties 
 particularly concerned, a formal declaration was 
 issued by the Brethren, to the effect that while they 
 would not interfere with affairs of state, nor par 
 ticipate in the wars that might arise, yet they were 
 willing to bear their share of responsibility in all 
 matters affecting the public welfare, save in any 
 case where it was contemplated to disturb the 
 peace of the white people or of other Indian na 
 tions. This announcement met with approval. 
 The Caesars of the tribe were satisfied, and the 
 missionaries had an open field for the exercise of 
 their labors. And now " the peace of God, brotherly 
 love, and a desire to cleave to and love God, our 
 Saviour, began to prevail most powerfully in the 
 Congregation." Glikkikan was moved to tears by 
 a discourse delivered at a daily prayer-meeting, 
 greatly to the disgust of the heathen, who mar 
 veled that a captain so valiant and so noted should 
 allow himself by such a display of weakness to sink 
 so low beneath the level of professional dignity. 
 But the captain clave to his conviction, and to 
 gether with another convert, the chieftain Genas- 
 kund, was admitted shortly after into the commu 
 nion. One after another, a son of Pakanke's among 
 the rest, the unregenerate were " led to accept the 
 gracious invitation given to all that labor and are 
 heavy laden." Visitors were attracted from She- 
 
II 6 BLACK-ROBES. 
 
 nenge and other distant villages to hear the won 
 derful tidings in the chapel of Friedenstadt. A 
 wicked sorcerer from abroad, as he stood listening 
 to the testimony of an Indian sister, said he had a 
 great mind to try a few experiments of native leger 
 demain on her to her personal prejudice. " I do 
 not fear his threats," said the sister; "for if my life 
 were taken by such practices, I should but go home 
 to my Saviour." The awakening was specially 
 marked among the unbaptized, the catechumens, 
 and the children; all making confession of the 
 abominations of heathenism, and uniting in 
 earnest entreaty to God for mercy and pardon. 
 Another visitor, an anxious inquirer, sought to 
 learn which was the true way to happiness. "The 
 Quakers/' said he, " maintain that their doctrine is 
 true ; the English Church asserts the same; and the 
 Brethren say that theirs is the Word of God." The 
 reply was, Come to Jesus ; learn to love Him, and 
 that will show the way. Last of all, the chief of 
 sinners, as well as of his tribe, Pakanke, that 
 sturdy adversary of the gospel, resolved to visit 
 Friedenstadt. He did so, tarrying there for several 
 days. The truth took effect upon his stubborn 
 conscience, and when he went back to Kaskaskunk 
 it was to exhort his children to do as he had done, 
 go to the missionaries, listen to their words, and 
 learn to love Jesus. 
 
 The Moravians, however, seemed to be predes 
 tined victims of misfortune. They might enjoy 
 
fHE MORAVIAN. nj 
 
 seasons of repose, when, exempt from molestation, 
 they could pursue their work and worship accord 
 ing to ordinance, but if frustrated in one scheme of 
 annoyance, the devil would fall back upon some 
 new device, so that these intervals of tranquillity 
 were seldom of long-uninterrupted continuance. 
 For pushing enterprise the whisky- trader enjoyed 
 a reputation second only to the trapper and the 
 hunter, upon whose heels, as they penetrated the 
 wilderness, he was sure to follow, close as their 
 own hounds that were trained to the attendance. 
 Whence his supplies of the commodity in which 
 he dealt were procured, and by what means trans 
 ported from point to point, were problems often to 
 puzzle the curious, but so it was that seldom a tent * 
 was pitched in the forest, and never a cabin reared 
 in the clearing, but that the keg and the cup or 
 the rye straw were conspicuously at hand to in 
 dicate his presence and to advertise his profession. 
 Zeisberger, mourning over the deplorable results 
 of the trade in the Susquehanna settlements, flat 
 tered himself that he was beyond the range of its 
 commercial traveler when he found himself at the 
 head-waters of the Alleghany, where the face of a 
 white man was so rare a sight that on his arrival 
 a courier was dispatched to the chief of the tribe, 
 thirty miles away, to notify him of the extraordi 
 nary visitation. But the peddler had preceded him. 
 Petroleum at four guineas a quart was a commodity 
 worth coveting, and the fame of the fountains at 
 
Il8 BLACK-ROBES. 
 
 Venango was not likely to fail of being blown 
 abroad, and of attracting the notice of the gain- 
 seeking adventurer. He had ferreted out the spot. 
 The principal statesmen of that branch of the Dela 
 ware dynasty were no strangers to him, nor to his 
 liquor. The sachems knew a keg when they saw 
 it; the captains might have stood as tasters at the 
 tables of the connoisseurs; and so habituated to the 
 use of the straw were the rank and file of the 
 people, that prohibitory legislation was found 
 necessary for the maintenance of the public peace. 
 Savage ingenuity was quite as expert at evasions 
 of unpalatable laws as the wit of the keenest of 
 pale-faced dodgers. The chiefs, however far they 
 might extend their authority in secular affairs, 
 dared not interfere with the commons in their re 
 ligious ceremonies and observances. Under cover 
 of this right the latter took shelter, established the 
 Festival of Rum, and in the celebration of it got 
 religiously drunk, as often as they pleased, with 
 impunity. As might be expected, this became at 
 once the favorite red-letter day- of the native calen 
 dar, and was in the full tide of popularity, greatly 
 to his surprise, when Zeisberger first appeared at 
 Goschgoschuenk. 
 
 The Moravians were the earliest advocates of 
 temperance in America. While whisky was ac 
 cepted as the good creature of God, and taken 
 to, lovingly, in all circles besides, it was denounced 
 by the Brethren as the chief of evils, the prolific 
 
THE MORAVIAN. 119 
 
 parent of vices and immoralities, and placed under 
 ban of the community accordingly. As censurers 
 of his calling, and, more especially, as stumbling- 
 blocks in the way of his custom, the missionaries 
 were peculiarly odious in the eyes of the trader. 
 He traduced their religion ; he vilified their per 
 sonal characters; he misrepresented their motives; 
 he seconded the native sorcerers in their ridicu 
 lous, but dangerous, charges ; and, to quicken at 
 any time a spirit of mutiny against them, never 
 hesitated at the gratuitous distribution of the craz 
 ing element in which he dealt among the disaf 
 fected. But for his agency, directly and indirectly 
 felt, it is doubtful whether the state of affairs would 
 have arisen which rendered necessary the abandon 
 ment of the station on the Alleghany. The same 
 line of opposition was followed up at Friedenstadt. 
 Liquor was freely circulated among the populace. 
 The savages were incited to acts of lawlessness. 
 Death to the missionaries was threatened, and, on 
 more than one occasion, attempted. The settle 
 ment was invaded, now and again the intoxicated 
 mob assailing the houses of the inhabitants, forcing 
 their doors, breaking their windows, and com )e - 
 ling the affrighted inmates to take to the woods for 
 safety. The continued forbearance of the Brethren 
 only tempted to new aggressions, until, in the end, 
 riot enjoyed unbridled license, and the Village of 
 Peace became the scene for the sport, at pleasure, 
 of tumult and disorder. 
 
120 BLACK-ROBES. 
 
 An additional grievance was in reserve for the 
 community. Kaskaskunk was a village of marked 
 importance among the Indians as a war-post, 
 where centered all the principal war-paths from the 
 North, and whence, by one common trail, passing 
 through Friedenstadt, communication was had with 
 Fort Pitt Near to the latter-mentioned town was 
 the Scalp Spring, a fountain famous far and near 
 as the place of rendezvous commonly appointed 
 for the gathering of the clans when the red hatchet 
 was abroad and strife was in the wind. In the 
 spring of 1771, certain of the vindictive among the 
 white settlers about Fort Pitt, whose taste for car 
 nage seems to have been sharpened rather than 
 sated by former indulgence, banded together, and, 
 taking to the shelters along the Ohio, on the plea 
 of revenge for past injuries, began an inhuman 
 slaughter among the unoffending Indians inhabit 
 ing the valley. To escape the cruelties of these 
 rude border-men, the terrified natives deserted their 
 homes on the river, and fled for protection to the 
 interior. Their stories told of the barbarous con 
 duct of the pale-faces created intense excitement 
 among the various clansmen, who determined upon 
 swift and severe retaliation. A call to arms was 
 proclaimed among the tribes, and soon the painted 
 warriors began to assemble at Scalp Spring. As 
 of kindred color with the perpetrators of their 
 wrongs, the Brethren were included in the same 
 doom of meditated vengeance, and it was only by 
 
THE MORAVIAN. 121 
 
 reason of strict vigilance a constant guard of com- 
 .petent force being maintained about their -houses 
 that they were able to protect themselves against 
 attempted violence. This state of affairs continu 
 ing, the missionaries became disheartened at their 
 prospects. Without peace, that cardinal principle 
 of their religion, of which there seemed faint pro 
 mise now, they could not look for prosperity. The 
 circumstances of their position led them to reflect 
 gravely upon a step which, in view of other con 
 siderations, they had already contemplated with 
 favor. The tribe of the Delaware nation settled 
 on the Muskingum had, for some time, been in 
 sisting upon the establishment of a mission within 
 their boundaries on that river. As afield of labor 
 this region had been held in high estimation since 
 its first visitation by Post. The natives professed 
 a warm regard for the Brethren ; the valleys were 
 fertile, and the locality, so many leagues distant 
 from the frontier, was, presumably, out of reach of 
 the bprder marauder and the whisky-trader. The 
 project was broached, and, after a full consultation 
 of its members, ultimately resolved upon by the 
 Congregation. 
 
 Meanwhile correspondence was held with the 
 Brethren in Friedenshiitten and Tschechschequan- 
 nink, the two settlements on the Susquehanna. 
 The predicament of these associations of native 
 Christians was similar to that of the converts of 
 Gnadenhiitten. They had no valid title to the lands 
 
122 BLACK-ROBES. 
 
 they occupied, the ownership having passed, by 
 conveyance of their masters, the Iroquois, to the 
 English, who in their eagerness after the bargain 
 did not stop to inquire into the honesty of its 
 transaction. Besides, their situation was precarious 
 from the fact that, lying in the debatable territory 
 dividing the contestants, they were exposed to the 
 ravages of both parties in the skirmishes that were 
 continually springing up between the whites and 
 the savages. To tarry where they were, with a 
 way of escape open, was to resist a plain indication 
 of duty. When, therefore, the invitation from the 
 Muskingum, which had been extended to them 
 through their friends on the Beaver, was received, 
 they accepted it without hesitation " as proceeding 
 from a gracious direction of the providence of 
 God." 
 
 And now were to sink into final extinguishment 
 the fires on the hearths of the native converts in 
 the valleys, where so long they had lived, and 
 toiled, and worshiped together. Their cottages 
 were to be forsaken, their fields abandoned, their 
 sanctuaries left desolate; and for the protection 
 the forbearance, rather which the invaders of 
 their soil, disciples avowedly of the same faith with 
 themselves, were not willing to lend, were they to 
 be indebted to the charity of unbelieving barbarians. 
 
THE MORAVIAN. 123 
 
 IV. 
 
 THE JOURNEY THROUGH THE WILDERNESS. 
 
 THE sacrament of the Lord's Supper was cele 
 brated with unusual solemnity at Friedens- 
 hiitten, on the 6th of June, 1772. Nine years 
 before, John Papunhank, the first native convert 
 on the Susquehanna, had been baptized into the 
 death of Jesus. This last Sabbath of the occupa 
 tion of the village was to be made equally memo 
 rable by the admission of his daughter, through 
 the same rite, into the communion of the church. 
 By the following Friday the preparations of the 
 people were completed, and after religious services 
 in the chapel, where praise and thanksgiving were 
 offered to God for past favors and blessings, and 
 his protecting presence implored to attend them 
 on the journey, they started upon their distant 
 pilgrimage. 
 
 The emigrants, two hundred and forty-one in 
 number, were divided into two companies ; one, 
 led by the Rev. John Ettwein, to proceed by 
 land, the other, under direction of the missionary 
 John Rothe, by water. The clothing and lighter 
 household furniture were carried, chiefly, on pack- 
 horses ; but when these animals, with which they 
 were inadequately provided, were fully loaded, 
 
1 24 BLA CK-R OBES. 
 
 stores of valuables remained, too precious to be 
 left. These were gathered into bundles and borne 
 upon the shoulders of the men and women. Among 
 the rest thus burdened was one; a mother, who 
 carried her crippled son, a helpless child of eight 
 or ten years of age, in a basket strapped on her 
 back. Seventy head of cattle brought up the rear 
 of the procession. The more cumbrous articles 
 of value, such as plowshares, harrow-teeth, mat 
 tocks, axes, and the like, together with pots and 
 kettles of brass and iron for domestic uses, with 
 others of larger capacity for sugar-making pur 
 poses, were stowed in boats, to accompany the 
 party that was to go by water, under charge of 
 Brother Rothe. 
 
 The navigation of the Susquehanna was difficult 
 and dangerous. The restless current of the river, 
 now tumbling in cascades, now tossing in wild 
 floods along the rugged slopes of its channel, 
 seriously interrupted their passage. To stem its 
 tide required the steady aid of oar, and pole, and 
 line, and to avoid the attending risks to the keels 
 of the vessels, unceasing vigilance. Progress could 
 be attempted only by day. At twilight the flotilla 
 would seek the shore, where, with such shelter from 
 the inclement weather as the chances of the scene 
 of bivouac afforded, the weary crews would retire 
 for rest and cover through the night. To add to 
 their trials, the measles broke out among them ; 
 many, especially of the children, suffering severely 
 
THE MORAVIAN. 
 
 125 
 
 from the malady. So they advanced until, on the 
 29th of June, after a voyage of nearly three weeks, 
 they reached Great Island, in the West Branch 
 of the Susquehanna. Here they were met by the 
 band under conduct of Brother Ettwein, and hence 
 the united company resumed its march by land. 
 
 The trail which they followed, scarcely distin 
 guishable at times, led through forests that seemed 
 interminable, through thickets that could scarcely 
 be penetrated, and over streams that were crossed 
 with great labor, while during the greater part of the 
 journey the rains fell almost incessantly. Venom 
 ous reptiles infested the way. Several of the horses 
 were lost at different times from the bite of rattle 
 snakes, Brother Ettwein himself narrowly escaping 
 the same fate, having accidentally trodden upon 
 one with fifteen rattles that lay coiled among the 
 bushes. Much annoyance was experienced from 
 the vicious assaults of certain small insects called 
 Ponks, or Living Ashes, by the Indians. In one 
 locality especially, known as Ponks-uteney, or the 
 Habitation of the Sand-fly, they abounded, so that 
 the air was filled by them as with a mist. They 
 were particularly tormenting to the horses and 
 cattle, who, when the evening fires were lighted, 
 would rush toward the flames and stand amid the 
 smoke for protection against their attacks. The 
 native legend accounting for the origin of this insect 
 states that, once upon a time, a wicked hermit, who 
 was a magician, made his abiding-place amid the 
 ii* 
 
126 BLACK-ROBES. 
 
 rocks there, and spent his days in alarming, and 
 occasionally murdering, unsuspecting travelers who 
 happened to pass that way. A certain warrior 
 undertook to rid the region of the mischievous re 
 cluse, sought him out, and, having dispatched him, 
 burnt his bones and scattered their dust in the air. 
 But though the magician was disposed of, the curse 
 was scarcely abated, for of all the ashes sown to the 
 wind, each separate particle became a thing of life, 
 winged and fanged, to hover around and visit re 
 venge, through time to come, upon the race of his 
 destroyer. Several of the emigrants died during 
 the journey. The crippled boy who had been car 
 ried on his mother's back, after having long borne 
 up under the fatigue of the march, sickened at last 
 and began to sink rapidly. Conscious that his end 
 was at hand, the child asked to be baptized. His 
 request was granted, and none 'too soon ; for within 
 a few hours subsequently his spirit was caught away, 
 and its wasted frame committed to the mould. 
 
 Throughout their dreary pilgrimage the re 
 ligious duties to which they were accustomed 
 were never forgotten or neglected. Morning and 
 evening their wonted social devotions were duly 
 observed. Prayers were said, praises sung, and 
 words of exhortation delivered with constant regu 
 larity. Nor did they fail to invite those among 
 whom they fell along their route to participate in 
 their services. "They had no greater satisfaction 
 than to tell their fellow-men, from the experience 
 
THE MORAVIAN. 127 
 
 of their own hearts, how happy that man is who 
 believes in Jesus." 
 
 On the 2Qth of July they reached the Alleghany 
 River. Canoes were here prepared, in which the 
 heavier goods, together with the aged and infirm 
 of their number, were placed for easier conveyance 
 to their destination. Near this point they were met 
 by Brother Heckewelder, with men and horses from 
 the Beaver, under whose escort they proceeded 
 now, until, on the 5th of August, they were saluted 
 with the greetings of the Brethren at Friedenstadt. 
 
 Arrived among their friends, the emigrants tar 
 ried while a deputation, headed by Papunhank, 
 started for Gekelemukpechuenk to complete ar 
 rangements preparatory to the general movement 
 of the body to the Muskingum. Matters having 
 been satisfactorily adjusted, the march was soon 
 resumed, and continued until, in due time and 
 without interruption, its point of destination was 
 reached. A few months later, in April of the 
 succeeding year, they were followed by the Con 
 gregation at Friedenstadt. Two settlements were 
 made on the Muskingum, Schonbrunn, the Beau 
 tiful Spring, two hundred miles from its mouth, and 
 Gnadenhiitten, composed of the Mohicans among 
 the emigrants, ten miles lower down the river. 
 
 The communities, with accustomed energy, fell 
 to work without delay to establish themselves 
 comfortably in their new homes. Their villages 
 were carefully and regularly laid out ; wide streets 
 
128 BLACK-ROBES. 
 
 were opened, with fences thrown across at either 
 end, so that the cattle might be excluded and per 
 fect cleanliness secured in these public thorough 
 fares. Chapels were erected, imposing edifices 
 in the eyes of the people, with their solid walls 
 of square-hewn logs, their shingled roofs, their 
 belfries, and their bells! School-houses were 
 built. Fields, inclosed with rail fences, were made 
 ready for the plow, and gardens, surrounded with 
 palings, for the spade. Fruit-trees were planted, 
 and ornamental shrubbery set out about the 
 houses. The results of their industry were soon 
 the wonder and admiration of their ignorant and 
 thriftless neighbors, as the cultivated soil shot up its 
 growth of corn, and the pasture-lands filled with 
 increasing herds of cattle, of horses, and of hogs. 
 
 Rules were adopted by the Congregations for 
 the maintenance among them of fitting discipline. 
 They were to know no other God than He who 
 created and redeemed them ; to rest from all labors 
 on Sunday, and punctually attend its stated ser 
 vices of worship ; to honor their parents and sup 
 port them in their old age ; and to be obedient to 
 their teachers, industrious, truthful, and peaceable. 
 They were to renounce all juggles, lies, and de 
 ceits of the devil ; not to use Trchappicli, that is 
 witchcraft, in hunting ; nor to attend dances, sacri 
 fices, or heathenish festivals. No thieves, murder 
 ers, drunkards, adulterers, or whoremongers were 
 to be allowed fellowship with them. They were 
 
THE MORAVIAN. 129 
 
 each to have but one wife, who was to be obedient 
 to her husband, take care of the children, and be 
 cleanly in all things. The use of rum was pro 
 hibited. They were not to run in debt, nor to 
 purchase goods knowing them to be stolen ; and, 
 finally, no man inclining to go to war which is 
 the shedding of blood could remain among them. 
 These rules were regularly read before the churches 
 at the commencement of each year, and no one 
 refusing assent to them could be received into the 
 brotherhood. 
 
 The labors of the missionaries were not restricted 
 to the new Christian settlements. Zeisberger made 
 a tour among the Shawanese, who, contrary to 
 his expectations, bearing in mind their illiberal 
 behavior on the other side of the mountains, re 
 ceived him with much kindness. At Waketameki, 
 fifty miles below Schonbrunn, on the river, he met 
 with a son of the old chief Paxnous, the bearer of 
 the threatening message of the Iroquois to the 
 Brethren at Gnadenhiitten on the Mahanoy, who 
 entertained him generously, and inclined a com 
 plaisant ear to his spiritual counsel. His recom 
 mendation secured the missionary a friendly re 
 ception from the heathen teacher of the principal 
 town of the tribe to which he next directed his 
 steps. A room was fitted up specially for his use, 
 where he daily unfolded the mystery of godliness 
 to large and attentive audiences. Nor were the 
 words of inspiration presented in vain. " I believe," 
 
'130 BLA CK-R OSES. 
 
 testified the teacher, touched by his eloquence, 
 " that all you preach is truth. A year ago I be 
 came convinced that we were altogether sinful 
 creatures, but we did not know what to do to gain 
 eternal salvation. Now you are come, and I verily 
 believe that God has sent you to make his word 
 known to us." 
 
 As their reverend visitor was about leaving, the 
 chiefs and council, through the lips of the teacher, 
 delivered a parting message. They rejoiced that 
 he had come among them, bringing the word of 
 God, which they had heard with pleasure. They 
 had convened together, and after full deliberation 
 had passed a resolution unanimously. True, the 
 women were not present, being engaged at the 
 time in gathering in the crops ; but that did not 
 signify, for what the men agreed upon they would 
 undoubtedly assent to. They had resolved to re 
 ceive the word of God, and desired that a Black- 
 Robe would come and dwell with them, and teach 
 them how they might be saved. An official decla 
 ration of such a spirit from the council of a tribe 
 whose sympathies had all along been regarded as 
 irreclaimably at variance with the spirit of the 
 gospel, particularly as interpreted by the Mora 
 vians, was as unexpected as it was gratifying to 
 Zeisberger. His visits were repeated, and precious 
 results might have ensued but for the public ex 
 citements which presently arose to unsettle the 
 repose of the people, and to bar the way thus aus- 
 
THE MORAVIAN. 131 
 
 piciously opened for the introduction of the faith 
 among this gentile nation. 
 
 The missionary next directed his attention to 
 Gekelemukpechuenk, the Delaware capital ori 
 the Muskingum. His preaching there told with 
 effective power on many of its inhabitants. Ech- 
 palawehund, an eminent chief, was among the con 
 verts. His renunciation of heathenism produced 
 quite a stir in the town. The enemies of Chris 
 tianity cried out vehemently against the act, and 
 were for banishing the Brother, as the cause of it, 
 from the country. Why, said they, should this 
 pale-faced palaverer be allowed to come and un 
 settle the peace of the people ? They had lived 
 contentedly enough while they had clung to their 
 inherited belief and followed the good old Indian 
 customs, and now they were told that these cus 
 toms were sinful, and that their sacrifices were an 
 abomination in the sight of God. Were they to 
 submit to the innovation to allow their rites to be 
 openly scorned, the religion of their fathers to be 
 slandered, and their captains to be bewitched 
 without resistance or protest ? 
 
 A council was called, which continued in session 
 over the question for three days. The friends of 
 the Moravians were found to outnumber their ad 
 versaries, and it was finally resolved, that while the 
 natives of Still-Water were not willing to adopt or 
 approve of all the usages peculiar to the Unity, 
 they would, nevertheless, change their manner of 
 
1 32 BLACK-ROBES. 
 
 living ; prohibit drunkenness, abandon their other 
 vices, and not allow whisky-traders, who were the 
 authors of all wickedness, to enter their town. In 
 proof of their sincerity in the matter involved in 
 the last item of their resolution, they seized upon 
 the stock of a traveling dealer who happened to be 
 in the place, broke open the casks, and emptied 
 their contents into the street. The work of reforma 
 tion was complete while it lasted ; but such a 
 wholesale waste of good liquor was a trial that 
 savage virtue could not stand the test of more than 
 once. The sacrifice was never repeated. Other 
 traders, ignorant, or careless, of the unfortunate ex 
 ample of him who had fared so haplessly, entered 
 again the forbidden limits, and the beverage soon 
 offered as freely and was as popular as ever. 
 
 One of his old adversaries at this crisis turned up 
 again to oppose his work and offer annoyance to 
 Zeisberger, Wangomen, the prophet of Gosch- 
 goschuenk. Wangomen was good on the stump, 
 a fluent talker, a finished hyperbolist, of bold elo 
 quence, and apt at the tricks of his profession ; but 
 the orator had a penchant for liquor, and under its 
 stimulus was, too often for his reputation, tempted 
 in his declamation to overleap the bounds of dis 
 cretion, as on this occasion. His language was 
 lofty, his argument was bold. Was this an emer 
 gency calling for a sound defense of the religion of 
 their ancestors ? The Place of Hogs had provided 
 them with the champion for the task. Common 
 
THE MORAVIAN. 133 
 
 prophets there were, who had been near enough 
 to heaven to hear the cocks crow, and to see the 
 smoke of the chimneys of the celestial cabins, but 
 he had his home in the side of the Deity, where 
 he was accustomed to walk in and out at pleasure. 
 What he had to say, therefore, might be regarded 
 as authoritatively spoken. Zeisberger's God had 
 become a man, and died. This could not be the 
 true God, or he, the orator, would have been ac 
 quainted with the circumstance, as he had never 
 been away from paradise long enough, at any time, 
 not to have noticed so extended an absence. How 
 would the Black-Robe have them seek for salva 
 tion ? Faith, as a means, might do for the pale 
 face; ipecac was the medicine for the red man. 
 The former was too mysterious in its use to be 
 relied on ; they could have an active consciousness 
 one that ought to satisfy of its efficacy in the 
 workings of the other. 
 
 Zeisberger replied that the God whom Wango- 
 men preached, and whose servant he was, was no 
 other than the devil, the father of lies; that his con 
 ception of the Great Spirit was a contemptible one, 
 and that his views of the disease of sin were as ridic 
 ulous as the nostrum proposed for its eradication. 
 
 A Mohican hearer arose to testify in the mis 
 sionary's behalf. He had been afflicted to that de 
 gree that nothing could comfort him. He had no 
 rest day or night, and, driven by distraction, had 
 left his wigwam and taken to the woods. His 
 
 12 
 
134 
 
 BLACK-ROBES. 
 
 friends suggested ipecac, as Wangomen had done. 
 He had given the emetic an honest trial. It had 
 dispossessed him of his dinner, but not of his 
 despondency. Then, giving heed to the advice 
 of the Black-Robe, he had lifted up his voice to 
 the newly-revealed Divinity, imploring, "O God! 
 who madest all things, I know not where Thou 
 art, but I have heard that Thou dwellest in heaven : 
 take my sorrow and grief from me !" His prayer 
 was heard ; the burden was lifted from his heart, 
 and he was comforted. The controversy resulted 
 in the palpable defeat of the heathen orator. 
 
 Notwithstanding the resistance of the native 
 teachers, and the more bitter opposition of the 
 whisky-traders, who, venturously penetrating the 
 waste places beyond the border, had not allowed 
 themselves to be distanced, as has been seen, by 
 the enterprise of the Brethren, the work to which 
 the missionaries had consecrated themselves went 
 steadily on. Villages, near and remote, among 
 the Shawanese as well as the Delawares, were 
 visited; many of the prominent men, especially of 
 the latter tribe, were converted ; the gospel was 
 preached in the Great Council of trfe capital ; 
 White-Eye, the historically-famous chief captain 
 of the tribe, with his staff-officers, Netawatwees 
 and Gelelemend, or Killbuck, the appellation by 
 which he is locally remembered, became advo 
 cates of the faith ; heathen usages dropped into 
 disrepute; equal rights and privileges with those 
 
THE MORAVIAN. 135 
 
 enjoyed by the rest of the people were accorded 
 the Christians, and the missionaries were granted 
 full liberty to exercise the functions of their office, 
 without molestation or interference. To crown 
 the happy achievements of this reformatory move 
 ment, the nation, by the act of council assembled 
 at Goschachguenk, the new capital, Gekelemuk- 
 pechuenk having been abandoned (1774), formally 
 resolved to receive the gospel. An embassy was 
 dispatched to Schonbrunn, bearing an address in 
 which this determination was set forth, and pray 
 ing the missionaries that they might have a new 
 town built, "that those of their people who be 
 lieved might have a place of refuge ;" not a town 
 for the aged and grown folk only, but chiefly, rather, 
 for the young people and children ; for it was their 
 intention "that this establishment should last as 
 long as Indians exist." A suitable spot was chosen 
 on the east side of the Muskingum, three miles 
 below the capital, and the new settlement of Lich- 
 tenau (1775) was established. 
 
 The mission was now in the full noon of pros 
 perity. Although, from the unwholesome expo 
 sures attending the opening up of their settlements 
 out of the rank wilderness, many of the faithful had 
 sickened and died, yet, at the occupation of Lich- 
 tenau, their membership amounted to four hundred 
 and fourteen souls. Schools, provided with books 
 translated into the Delaware tongue, by Zeisberger, 
 for the use of the children, were maintained in each 
 
1 36 BLA CK-R OBES. 
 
 of their towns. The public preaching of the gospel 
 was regularly observed. The warriors of the tribes 
 gathered in throngs at the chapels. The sick, the 
 bedridden, women in dolore laboris, and travelers 
 arrested on their way by sudden illness, begged to 
 be carried to the missionaries, that they might be 
 comforted'in their extremity by the hopeful assur 
 ances of inspiration. The future presented a pros 
 pect luminous with promise, and the hearts of the 
 Brethren were glad as they looked to the seem 
 ingly near fulfillment of their fondest anticipations. 
 But these anticipations were not to be realized. 
 
 V. 
 
 TROUBLE AT WORK IN THE TENTS ON THE MUS- 
 KINGUM. 
 
 IN the month of May, 1774, a hunting-party of 
 Indians, with their wives and children, planted 
 their temporary lodges at the mouth of Yellow 
 Creek, opposite Baker's Bottom, on the Ohio. A 
 backwoodsman of the name of Greathouse visited 
 the encampment in an ostensibly friendly manner, 
 and invited the party to join him in a drink. They 
 retired, for this purpose, to the cabin of an acquaint 
 ance of Greathouse's, of the name of Baker. Here 
 they were plied with liquor until brought help- 
 
THE MORAVIAN. 137 
 
 lessly under its influence, when they were set upon 
 by their host and treacherously massacred. 
 
 The sister and other relatives of Tah-ga-jute, a 
 Mingo, more commonly known, in connection with 
 a famous speech of very doubtful authenticity, as 
 Logan, were among the victims of this outrage. 
 Intelligence of the calamity having reached the ears 
 of the Mingo, who, at the time, was on his way to 
 Pittsburg to " brighten" his friendship with the offi 
 cers of the garrison there, his feelings were excited 
 to an intense degree. He had hitherto been the 
 friend of the white man. The door of his cabin 
 had been always open to receive him, and shelter, 
 food, and drink freely offered for his entertainment. 
 This act of viperous ingratitude was his reward ! 
 Stung to the quick at a requital so cruel, he dis 
 carded from his bosom the last sentiment of com 
 passion, and pledged himself to revenge. 
 
 As the story of the massacre was carried abroad 
 and told in the villages of the tribes, a correspond 
 ing fury inflamed the hearts of the natives. The 
 Shawanese and Mingos organized into companies, 
 and, making for the Virginia border, began to deal 
 bloody retribution on the isolated white inhabitants 
 of that newly-occupied region. The successful 
 issue of one adventure whetted the appetite for 
 another, and so, with fresh eagerness and increas 
 ing activity, the incursions continued. 
 
 The Delawares were strongly urged to join in 
 the rising. Means, open and secret, were employed 
 12* 
 
1 3 8 BLA CK-R OBES. 
 
 to force them into co-operation. Entreaty, menace, 
 derision, were resorted to in turn, and with a de 
 cided prospect of success. The younger warriors, 
 when their manhood was appealed to, when they 
 were threatened to be branded as cowards and 
 repudiated as Shwonnaks, became restive, and de 
 manded of their elders that they should be per 
 mitted to take up arms. The chiefs and captains 
 resisted the pressure- as best they could, compromis 
 ing the demand, which they dared not deny and 
 would not grant, by postponing action upon it from 
 day to day, and maintaining meanwhile a position 
 of neutrality. This indecisive policy of the council 
 was attributed to the influence of the missionaries, 
 against whom the enraged insurgents began to 
 direct their attacks. Armed bands on their way 
 to and from the border would parade the streets 
 of Schonbrunn and Gnadenhiitten, exciting the 
 alarm of the inhabitants by demonstrations of 
 violence as they went, or filling them with horror 
 at the ghastly display of the bleeding proofs of 
 achievement on their return. Fire and slaughter 
 were threatened against the Congregations. An 
 army of a thousand men, it was said, was organ 
 ized among the Shawanese, who were presently to 
 march down on the Muskingum towns, and if the 
 Christians refused to enter their ranks the lives 
 of all were to be forfeited, and the places of their 
 habitation made waste and desolate. Again, it was 
 reported that the Virginians, supported by a strong 
 
THE MORAVIAN. 139 
 
 body of troops, sent out by the governor of that 
 province, were under way, and that they had sig 
 nified their intention to destroy all the villages, 
 beginning with those of the converts on the " Elk- 
 Eye," between the river and the lakes. 
 
 By the advice of his colleagues, Brother Rothe, 
 with his wife and two children, retiring from the 
 scene of disturbance, withdrew to Pittsburg, and 
 thence, shortly afterwards, -to Bethlehem. The 
 rest of the missionaries tarried resolutely at their 
 posts. Precarious as was their predicament in the 
 passage of these events, manifold and imminent as 
 were the perils to which they were exposed, the 
 Congregations were mercifully preserved the while, 
 without the loss of a life. The rising was sup 
 pressed early in the ensuing autumn, and quiet 
 once again restored, through the valor of the Vir 
 ginia troops, in an action on, or near, the Kanawha. 
 
 Disabled by defeat, the savages retired from the 
 contest, but not with a mind to rest tamely under 
 the surrender. Though overcome, they were not 
 subdued, and the terms of submission to which 
 they ass nted, it was mentally reserved, should be 
 respected just as far as must be, and no further. 
 Let a fair prospect of success open anew, and they 
 were ready to lift the hatchet and take to the war 
 path at a moment's warning. They had not long 
 to wait. 
 
 Although distantly removed from the scenes of 
 its principal military operations, the yeomanry of 
 
140 
 
 BLACK-ROBES. 
 
 the border were none the less enthusiastically 
 aroused, nor a whit more dilatory in their resolve 
 to take up the rifle for the national defense in the 
 great Revolutionary struggle, than, within the more 
 immediate line of action, were the patriotic colo 
 nists inhabiting the older, settlements along the 
 sea-shore. Aware of the vast importance of the 
 acquisition, both parties in the contest were alike 
 anxious to command the good will if possible, 
 the co-operation of the Indians, and for this pur 
 pose had their emissaries early abroad and actively 
 at work. The result was as might have been an 
 ticipated. Cherishing the recollection of their 
 wrongs, and eager in the hope, under the proposed 
 alliance, of a more prosperous faring in a new 
 attempt at retaliation, the Shawanese were won, 
 with scarce a wooing, to the side of the British. 
 Similar motives had their weight in bringing about 
 a like decision on the part of the Iroquois and 
 Hurons. 
 
 The concurrence of the Delawares was all that 
 was needed to complete a general confederacy, and 
 place the tribes of the wilderness, as an undivided 
 body, in hostile attitude against the colonies. All 
 the arts and devices which "untutored" ingenuity 
 could invent were employed to invite to entrap 
 to force them into the combination. Their patriot 
 ism was appealed to, their pride, their fiercer pas 
 sions, and particularly, as the most feasible point 
 of approach, their fears. " Keep your shoes in 
 
THE MORAVIAN. 141 
 
 readiness," came a warning message from the Hu- 
 rons, " to join the warriors." Following the herald 
 that bore it arrived an embassy of twenty deputies, 
 who, with a thrice-repeated offer of the war-belt, 
 demanded their assistance, declaring that all the 
 nations besides, below and beyond Lake Erie, were 
 united as one man for the fight. Again, the action 
 of a general council held in Detroit was published 
 throughout their towns, where, without a dissent 
 ing voice, it had been resolved that the hatchet 
 should fall on the head of every one who refused 
 to take it up. No neutrals were to be tolerated. 
 To intimidate them further, reports were circulated 
 that a general had arrived in Pittsburg, on his 
 way to the Muskingum, who was resolved to 
 destroy the whole race, without quarter to any 
 red man, friend or foe, heathen or Christian. A 
 trio of white renegades, notorious in border his 
 tory, Simon Girty, Alexander McKee,and Matthew 
 Elliott, visited the villages, and, repeating the lying 
 rumors which had already been put afloat, stated 
 that it was the fixed intention of the Virginians, 
 after having first persuaded the Indians, by false 
 but fine-sounding representations, into a sense of 
 security, to take advantage of their confidence and 
 commit wholesale slaughter upon them all. The 
 traitors then exhorted them to rise, and turn out to 
 a man against the intruders ; not to suffer them to 
 cross the Ohio, but to fall upon them wherever 
 they should be found, or their country would be 
 
1 42 BLACK-ROBES. 
 
 lost to its legitimate owners forever. The state 
 ments thus propagated had their effect. 
 
 Captain Pipe, a Delaware hatchet-bearer of in 
 fluence, had all along bitterly contended against 
 the introduction of Christianity into his tribe. His 
 wife, a prophetess of the Wangomen school, for 
 some time shared with him in his opposition, 
 openly protesting that the missionaries were de 
 ceivers, and that their religion was false, as she 
 ought to know, who had been in the mansions 
 of the Spirits and seen the strawberries and the 
 bilberries, as large as apples and in great plenty, 
 that flourished in the Elysian gardens ; but being 
 present, on a certain occasion, at the baptism of a 
 child, "the Holy Ghost labored powerfully on her 
 conscience," and she was converted. Her change 
 of heart, instead of appeasing the malevolence of 
 her husband, only confirmed him the more in his 
 hostility. He conspired with the mischief-mongers 
 of the Shawanese to breed disaffection among the 
 young men of the nation. He obtained a supre 
 macy over the Monseys, a discontented and trou 
 blesome tribe of his own people, a party of whom, 
 at his instigation, visited Schonbrunn and attempted 
 to sow the seed of dissension among its inhabitants. 
 He visited the converts in person, and by continued 
 endeavors tried as he could to unsettle their con 
 victions and bring them back to their old supersti 
 tions. Unhappily, his labors were too successful. 
 Newallike, a chief who had come from the Susque- 
 
THE MORA VI AN. 143 
 
 hanna to join the Brotherhood, yielding to the 
 tempter, relapsed into heathenism, followed in his 
 apostasy by quite a band of seceders from among 
 the believers. So great, indeed, was the defection, 
 and so unmistakable were the demonstrations of 
 violence growing out of it, that Brother Hecke- 
 welder, who had charge of the Congregation, with 
 the faithful few left of his flock, abandoned the 
 town, after having torn down the chapel to prevent 
 its desecration, and retired to Lichtenau. 
 
 But, adroitly as the plans of Captain Pipe were 
 managed, the interests of peace and good order, on 
 the other hand, were not left to languish for lack 
 of good championship. Netawatwees, the head 
 chief of the nation, wielded steadily the high influ 
 ence at his control in that direction while he lived, 
 and it was while on a mission, in pursuance of the 
 same policy, to Tamanend (Col. George Morgan, 
 the excellent Indian agent), at Pittsburg, that he 
 unfortunately died. The vacancy which he left in 
 the council of his people, however, was equally well 
 supplied, at least, by Coquehagechton, or White- 
 Eye, the chief of the captains, than whom there was 
 not a man among the rulers of the Lenni-Lenape 
 of more commanding authority. Indeed, it was to 
 his interference, pressed with uncompromising de 
 termination, that the Christians were indebted for 
 the restoration of the favor of the head chief, which 
 at one time, through the machinations of their ene- 
 
 o 
 
 mies, he had been induced to withdraw. At the 
 
144 BLACK-ROBES. 
 
 present crisis White-Eye not only declared against 
 intermeddling at all, as a nation, in the quarrels 
 prevailing, but insisted that the Christian Indians 
 and their teachers, against whom the ill will of the 
 war-party was especially directed, should be 'guar 
 anteed full safety and protection. While he was 
 willing to bear the opprobrium of being considered 
 weak-kneed as regarded troublous complications 
 outside, he at the same time let it be clearly un 
 derstood that he would not be slow to draw his 
 knife in defense of the just privileges of his people, 
 without regard to creed, among themselves. Ri 
 valry, as a consequence, grew hot and high between 
 the contending parties. 
 
 Wars are always popular in their kindling pro 
 cess ; during the period of new buttons and fresh 
 paint, of foils and blank cartridges, and while the 
 rule of misrule is tolerated (the better to entice re 
 cruits) at mustering-stations, along thoroughfares, 
 and in camps. The savage, neither more nor less 
 human, or inhuman, than his pale-faced brother, 
 is captivated as readily by the pomp and cir 
 cumstance of military preparation as the most 
 exemplary Christian that ever put on cockade, 
 or paraded a highway, or drained a tankard, on 
 the eve of a crusade. Captain Pipe, hence, as 
 the leading spirit of the belligerent interest, was 
 the popular favorite; but White-Eye possessed 
 the counter-advantage of an all-prevailing in 
 fluence among the men of chosen character who 
 
THE MORAVIAN. 145 
 
 i 
 
 directed the counsels and shaped the policy of 
 the tribes. 
 
 The arrival of Girty was a godsend to Pipe. His 
 declarations as to the hostile intentions of the Vir 
 ginians were taken as confirmatory of what had 
 been urged all along by the captain, but which, 
 from a well-known proclivity of the witness, had 
 been received with some degree of allowance, and, 
 to that extent, failed in the desired effect. The 
 people were exasperated, and grew clamorous for 
 war. Guerrilla bands were organized; plundering 
 excursions undertaken ; retreats of hunters, and 
 trappers, and traders sought out, despoiled, and 
 devastated ; and death by rifle-shot and blow of 
 tomahawk dealt upon more than one among the 
 surprised border-men. 
 
 Affairs were on the verge of irretrievable dis 
 order, when White-Eye called a general council 
 of the nation. The wise men of the tribes assem 
 bled, and before them the chief of the captains 
 arose, and pleaded eloquently in the behalf of 
 peace. His hearers would not be entirely per 
 suaded. Finding that, for the present, nothing 
 better could be accomplished, he earnestly advised 
 against undue haste ; urging, before resolving on 
 a final decision, for a delay of ten days, that so 
 much time at least might be allowed for further in 
 formation from Tamanend at Pittsburg, possibly ; 
 at all events, irom some source more worthy of 
 confidence than Girty or either of his fellows. 
 
146 BLACK-ROBES. 
 
 The captain charged, in reply, that White-Eye 
 was in secret league with the Virginians, and that 
 it was in the interest of these his friends enabling 
 them thereby the less hurriedly and more effect 
 ually to complete their plans that the postpone 
 ment of action was proposed. He closed his speech 
 with the offer of a resolution to the effect " that 
 every man should be declared an enemy to the 
 nation who should throw an obstacle in the way 
 that might tend to prevent the taking up arms 
 immediately." 
 
 So pointed an impeachment of his loyalty for 
 it was evidently aimed at him provoked an impas 
 sioned rejoinder from White-Eye. " If you mean to 
 go out in earnest," said he, " you shall not go with 
 out me. I have advocated peace measures to save 
 the nation from destruction; but if you believe me 
 wrong, and are determined to give more credit to 
 vagabond fugitives, whom you know to be such, 
 then your decision is mine; I shall be with you not 
 like the bear-hunter," with a scornful glance at Cap 
 tain Pipe, " who sets the dogs on the animal to be 
 beaten about with his paws, while he keeps at a safe 
 distance. No; I will myself lead you on, place 
 me in the front, and be the first to fall in the fight. 
 You have only to determine on whatj^sw will do," 
 he concluded. " My mind is made up not to sur 
 vive my nation ; for I would not spend the remainder 
 of a miserable life in bewailing the total destruction 
 of a brave people who deserve a better fate." 
 
THE MORAVIAN. 147 
 
 The orator gained his point ; Pipe's resolution 
 failed ; the ten days' delay was granted. And now 
 the opposing parties, in tremulous suspense, as in 
 consistent rumor from time to time gave tongue 
 to dubious tidings, awaited the issue of the truce. 
 Again and again the sun rose and set ; again and 
 again morning brightened into noon, noon deep 
 ened into dark ; night and light followed in their 
 order, until the skies of the east were goldening 
 in the dawn of the ninth day, and still no message 
 from Tamanend, no assurances, for better or for 
 worse, from their white friends at Pittsburg. The 
 war-faction was jubilant. The encampments in the 
 neighborhood of the towns grew hideous with the 
 noise of revelry ; the rattle of drums and the storm 
 of voices mingled discordantly in the chant of their 
 battle-songs. The Feast of Dogs a repast sacred 
 to the savage Mars, and only partaken of on the 
 eve of a campaign was prepared. The heads of 
 the warriors were shaved afresh, their faces be 
 smeared with red and black, their scalp -locks 
 anointed with tallow and tipped with the white 
 plumage from the crest of the eagle, while all 
 about the dusky masses thronged and pressed and 
 roared, active in the busy, boisterous engagements 
 of ready-making for the war-path. 
 
 It so happened that the Brethren at Bethlehem, 
 anxious about the missionaries, from whom for 
 several months they had received no intelligence, 
 had commissioned two of their number Hecke- 
 
I 4 8 BLACK-ROBES. 
 
 welder, with them on a visit, and John Shabosh 
 t:> proceed, if possible, to the Muskingum, but, at 
 all events, as far as Pittsburg, ascertain their situa 
 tion, and, as circumstances indicated the need, to 
 provide for their relief. Arriving at Pittsburg, they 
 were first informed of the critical state of affairs in 
 the Indian country; how that Girty had fled there, 
 and was striving by false representations to incite 
 the savages to insurrection, and how Colonel Mor 
 gan, and the officers with him, had tried to send 
 messages of peace to the Delawares, but inef 
 fectually, the runners whom they would have 
 employed declining the service, through fear of 
 roving gangs of insurgents that infested the wil 
 derness. Heckewelder was advised against pur 
 suing his journey; but in view of the consequence 
 of his mission, deemed all the more important 
 because of the very reasons pressed against its 
 prosecution, he decided, with his colleague, upon 
 the venture. 
 
 At eleven o'clock at night on the third day after 
 bidding adieu to their friends at Pittsburg, merci 
 fully conducted by the hand of Providence through 
 the perilous exigencies of the way, the reverend 
 envoys reached Gnadenhiitten in safety. Being 
 informed of the proceedings of council, and that 
 to-morrow only intervened before the final day of 
 the term of suspension agreed upon, after a brief rest 
 they arose at three o'clock next morning, mounted 
 fresh horses, swam the Muskingum, and, pushing 
 
THE MORAVIAN. 
 
 149 
 
 speedily forward, in the course of a few hours 
 halted within view of Goschachguenk. 
 
 Great was the chagrin, not to say mortification, 
 of Captain Pipe at this inopportune arrival. He 
 could readily calculate, without waiting for its de 
 velopment, upon the result, defeat to his plans, 
 demolishment to his expectations, shame and ca 
 lamity to himself. The reaction would be sudden 
 and not agreeable to contemplate when the war 
 riors found that they had been duped by his repre 
 sentations ; that their revelries were premature, 
 their recourse to paint and tallow precipitate, and 
 their immolation of victims a superfluous waste of 
 dogs; in short, that they had made themselves 
 ridiculous. 
 
 The people soon gathered about the missiona 
 ries, anxious to hear what they might have to say. 
 Heckewelder, after White-Eye had notified him of 
 the charges made by Pipe, invited a meeting of the 
 council, and briefly laid before them the news of 
 which he was the messenger. He told them of the 
 achievements of the colonial troops; of the surren 
 der of General Burgoyne; of the despondency of 
 the British ; of the confidence of Congress in the 
 success of the Revolution ; and, as more nearly 
 affecting the interests of his hearers, of the most 
 friendly assurances which, on behalf of the Amer 
 ican people, he was delegated to deliver by Tama- 
 nend. White-Eye followed the missionary in a 
 speech of some length, and with the effect that 
 13* 
 
150 BLACK-ROBES. 
 
 might have been expected from so popular and 
 eloquent an orator. Pipe attempted no reply, but 
 quietly withdrew from the assembly, and presently 
 from the town. His scheme had miscarried. To 
 prevent an attempt at its repetition elsewhere, the 
 chief captain prepared a message, which was dis 
 patched, by runners, to the Shawanese villages oa 
 the Scioto : " Grandchildren ! Ye Shawanese ! 
 Some days ago a flock of birds, that had come on 
 from the east, lit at Goschachguenk, imposing a 
 song of theirs upon us, which song had wellnigh 
 proved our ruin ! Should these birds, which on 
 leaving us took their flight towards Scioto, en 
 deavor to impose a song on you likewise, do not 
 listen to them, for they lie !" 
 
 For a season following the failure of this insur 
 rectionary experiment, the peace of the settlements 
 remained undisturbed. Gnadenhutten and Schon- 
 brunn, abandoned during the troublous time, were 
 reoccupied. The new town of Salem, five miles 
 below Gnadenhutten, was built (1780). Many of 
 the converts who had been carried away by the 
 defection at Schonbrunn repented of their apostasy 
 and were restored to the communion. The mis 
 sionaries and teachers, conspicuous among whom 
 was Glikkikan, the convert of Kaskaskunk, dili 
 gently and profitably strove in their labors of love 
 among the unbelievers. Numbers were awakened, 
 "overpowered by the grace of God," and made 
 subjects of baptism. White-Eye was brought 
 
THE MORAVIAN. 151 
 
 under conviction, but excused himself from join 
 ing the church, on the ground that the act would 
 be inconsistent with his profession. When he could 
 cease to be a politician he would be a Christian. 
 He proposed to disembarrass himself of the hinder- 
 ance 6y retiring from public service as soon as 
 possible; but the praiseworthy intention failed in 
 the postponement. Shortly after, on the march 
 with General Mclntosh's army to erect a fort at 
 Tuscarawas for 'the protection of the peaceable 
 Indians, he was seized with the smallpox and 
 died. His death was an irreparable loss to the 
 Moravians, and a calamitous one, as events deter 
 mined, to the nation whose affairs, amid its tur 
 moils, he had administered with so much prudence 
 and sagacity. 
 
 VI. 
 
 CAPTAIN PIPE PLANS NEW MISCHIEF, AND WHAT CAME 
 OF HIS SCHEMES. 
 
 WITH the ever-lively recollection to stimu 
 late him of his mortifying discomfiture in 
 council by White-Eye, the intelligence of the death 
 of that renowned chief no sooner reached the ears 
 of Captain Pipe than, relieved by the circumstance 
 of the fears which, in spite of the opposite prompt 
 ing's of a more intense but irresolute sense of 
 
1 52 BLACK-ROBES. 
 
 wounded pride, had held him back, he set himself 
 with ready alacrity to redeem his fame, recover his 
 influence, and restore into pattern again the broken 
 threads of the old conspiracy. "Behold !" he ex 
 claimed, exultantly, as he reappeared in the circles 
 from which he had been ejected ; " Coquehagech- 
 ton is gone! The Great Spirit has put him out of 
 the way that the nation may be saved !" 
 
 Gelelemend, or Killbuck, who with two coh 
 leagues, upon the decease of vVhite-Eye, was 
 placed at the head of public affairs, to serve during 
 the minority of the legitimate heir to the head- 
 chiefship, although a man of irreproachable worth, 
 was far from equal to the responsibilities of his new 
 position. He was not to be deceived by the rhet 
 oric, nor tempted by the corrupt approaches, of the 
 insurrectionary leader, but he had not the courage 
 to face him on the challenge and meet menace 
 with defiance. Under pressure of that argument 
 he yielded, deserting his people, and retiring with 
 his colleagues upon the protection of the white 
 friends at Pittsburg, But one obstacle remained 
 as an interference to the complete accomplish 
 ment of the captain's designs. If the missionaries 
 could be induced to follow the example of Gelele 
 mend, then the field would be left open, and little 
 doubt remained but that, aided by his staff of coun 
 selors, Girty, Elliott, and McKee, and supported 
 by his cut-throat body-guard of Monseys, he could 
 force the neutral party to terms, and have the Dela- 
 
THE MORA VIAN. 1 5 3 
 
 wares, as a nation, committed to the war. The 
 missionaries, however, had made up their minds to 
 stay by their Congregations, and were not to be 
 persuaded or intimidated. Attempts were made 
 upon their lives. Senseman was attacked, but 
 fortunately rescued by the timely arrival of two of 
 his neighbors, while out gathering greens, one day, 
 in a field near Schonbrunn. Edwards and Young 
 narrowly escaped being shot while planting pota 
 toes at Gnadenhiitten ; while Heckewelder was 
 waylaid on different occasions, and only preserved 
 by special interposition of Providence. 
 
 Finding his efforts ineffectual to either win over 
 the converts or compel the voluntary withdrawal 
 of their teachers, Pipe resolved upon a new course 
 of procedure. He visited the English governor, 
 Arend Schuyler de Peyster, at Detroit, and in an 
 interview with him represented the Christians as 
 partisans in the American cause, who were acting 
 as spies, and through their missionaries carrying on 
 a secret correspondence with the enemy, to the 
 serious detriment of the English interest. He then 
 suggested that an order should be issued for their 
 removal from the Muskingum to some quarter 
 farther north, more nearly within scope of loyal 
 oversight, and beyond convenient reach of com 
 munication with the Yankees. The governor 
 approved of the proposition, and sent a commis 
 sioner to Niagara to lay the matter before a council 
 of the Iroquois, then and there in session, and to 
 
154 BLACK- ROBES. 
 
 secure their agency in its execution. The Iroquois 
 were willing that the refractory Congregations 
 "should be made soup of," and so resolved, but 
 devolved the brewing of the broth on their neigh 
 bors the Chippewas and Ottowas. These tribes 
 declined the task. The half-king of the Hurons 
 was then appealed to, and, from motives of compas 
 sion, as he declared, "to save the believing Indians 
 from total destruction," accepted the service. 
 
 The force organized for the enterprise assembled 
 at Sandusky, where they were joined by Pipe and 
 his party. A war-feast was held preparatory to 
 action, a roasted ox forming the repast ; and when 
 the revelries appropriate to the occasion were 
 ended, ammunition was served out to the men by 
 Elliott, and the band, divided into companies, began 
 its march. 
 
 In the afternoon of August the loth (1781), the 
 force, numbering one hundred and forty, but soon 
 recruited to over three hundred men, with Pipe 
 and the half- king at its head, and bearing the 
 British flag, was seen, to the consternation of its in 
 habitants, approaching the town of Salem. A mes 
 sage was sent, conveying assurances of safety, and 
 requesting the Christians to appoint a place con 
 venient to the three settlements where a conference 
 could be held. Gnadenhiitten was designated, on an 
 accommodating plateau, in the vicinity of which, on 
 the day following, the half-king ordered the pitch 
 ing of his tents. The formal interview between the 
 
THE MORAVIAN. 155 
 
 parties took place on the 2Oth. The half-king 
 delivered the opening speech of the occasion: 
 
 " Cousins ! Ye believing Indians in Gnaden- 
 hiitten, Schonbrunn, and Salem ! I am much con 
 cerned on your account, perceiving that you live 
 in a very dangerous spot. Two powerful, angry, 
 and merciless Gods stand ready, opening their jaws 
 wide against each other: you are sitting down 
 between both, and are thus in danger of being de 
 voured and ground to powder by the teeth of either 
 one or the other, or of both. It is therefore not 
 advisable for you to stay here any longer. Con 
 sider your young people, your wives and your 
 children, and preserve their lives, for here they 
 must all perish. I therefore take you by the hand, 
 lift you up, and place you in, or near, my dwelling, 
 where you will be safe and dwell in peace. Do 
 not stand looking at your plantations and houses, 
 but arise and follow me ! Take also your teachers 
 with you, and worship God in the place to which I 
 shall lead you, as you have been accustomed to do. 
 You shall likewise find provisions, and our father 
 beyond the lake [the governor at Detroit] will care 
 for you. This is my message, and I am come 
 hither purposely to deliver it." 
 
 The orator, having ended, presented a string of 
 wampum as a minute of the delivery. The mis 
 sionaries requested twenty-four hours for reflection, 
 and, having considered the proposition, offered, 
 next day, their reply: 
 
156 BLACK-ROBES. 
 
 "Uncle! Ye captains of the Delawares and 
 Monseys, our friends and countrymen ! Ye Shaw- 
 anese, our nephews, and all ye other people here 
 assembled ! We have heard your words, but have 
 not yet seen the danger so great that we might 
 not stay here. We keep peace with all men, and 
 have nothing to do with the war, nor do we wish 
 or desire anything but to be permitted to enjoy 
 peace and rest. You see yourselves that we cannot 
 rise immediately and go with you, for we are heavy, 
 and time is required to prepare for it. But we will 
 keep and consider your words, and let you, Uncle, 
 know our answer next winter after harvest. Upon 
 this you may rely." 
 
 The reply was not at all satisfactory to Captain 
 Pipe, who insisted with the half-king that he should 
 cease further attempts at persuasion and resort to 
 compulsory measures. A council of war was called. 
 As the result of its deliberations, the direct ques 
 tion was put to the Christians : " Will you go with 
 us, or not ?" They repeated the answer they had 
 already given, and added that they intended to 
 abide by it. 
 
 A few days afterwards, Zeisberger, Senseman, 
 and Heckewelder were walking together through 
 one of their gardens, along a way that led to the 
 burying-ground of the town, when a party of Wy- 
 andots, who were concealed behind a fence, sprang 
 up, seized upon them, and dragged them as pris 
 oners into the camp, where they were met with 
 
THE MORAVIAN. 157 
 
 derisive greetings, and hailed with the chant of 
 the death-song. They were then brought before 
 the half-king and his chiefs, when the proposition 
 was again made, "Would they go to Sandusky, 
 encourage their converts to go along, and not at 
 tempt to run away from their escort on the route ?" 
 With no alternative at choice, they promised, and 
 were set at liberty. 
 
 Short space was granted in which to make prep 
 aration for the journey, but such arrangements as 
 could be effected were undertaken without delay. 
 Under cover of the night, the implements of labor 
 most valuable to them plow-irons, harrow-teeth, 
 hoes, saws, and culinary-ware were carried se 
 cretly to the woods and buried. Having thus dis 
 posed of the articles most valuable to them, but 
 not conveniently portable, they loaded their canoes 
 with provisions, and packed their horses with such 
 lighter goods as were indispensable, especially for 
 the comfort of the women and children, on the 
 way. On the morning of the nth of September 
 the flitting Congregations turned their backs upon 
 the Muskingum villages, Gnadenhutten, Schon- 
 brunn, and Salem, endeared to them by so many 
 blessed associations, and began their weary march 
 to the far-away scene allotted for their abode on the 
 marshy lowlands of the lake-shore. Quite all the 
 possessions which they had accumulated by years 
 of patient industry and thrift the greater portion 
 of their cattle, their herds of swine, their broad 
 14 
 
158 
 
 BLACK-ROBES. 
 
 acres of maize, ripe but ungathered in the fields of 
 the valleys which they had brought under culture, 
 the gardens with their yield of fruits and vegetables, 
 and, equally regretted, and more in the end to be 
 deplored, because never recovered, books and man 
 uscripts of the missionaries were left behind at 
 the mercy of the ruthless horde of plunderers, who, 
 ere the exiles were fairly out of view, had begun 
 their work of destruction, tearing down the fences 
 of the inclosures, and turning their horses in upon 
 the corn. 
 
 On the nth of October they reached the San- 
 dusky. Their first care was to erect cabins for their 
 protection through the winter, a bitter foretaste 
 of which they already experienced in the chilling 
 blasts that swept the naked wastes in midst of 
 which lay their appointed quarters. These shelters, 
 because of the scarcity of timber, and the distance 
 across the marshes from which the nearest avail 
 able supplies had to be brought, were very small, 
 poorly heated, from lack of space for fireplaces, 
 and entirely without flooring, the water flooding 
 the interior as the recurring thaws of the season 
 cracked the frozen soil and opened up sluices under 
 the foundation-logs of the walls for the inundation. 
 As the weeks glided by, their limited stores of pro 
 vision became exhausted. The few cows which 
 they had been allowed to bring with them, with 
 out food, failed to yield milk, and began to die of 
 hunger. To support life, recourse was had to the 
 
THE MORA VIAN. 1 59 
 
 carcasses of the starved cattle, or to roots and ber 
 ries, gathered, all shriveled as they were, from the 
 bushes, or painfully dug out of the hard ground. 
 It was a time of terrible trial to the poor Mora 
 vians. The strong among them found their ener 
 gies rapidly giving way; famished children wept 
 and prayed and raved for bread ; while nursing 
 mothers, scarce able to maintain a wretched being 
 of their own, could afford no nourishment for the 
 helpless starvelings at their bosoms, lying there 
 wailing and dying in their arms. It became pain 
 fully evident that immediate action must be taken 
 for the relief of the suffering community. A gen 
 eral consultation was held, the result of which was 
 the appointment of a deputation consisting of about 
 one hundred and fifty men, women, and children, 
 to return to the Muskingum and procure supplies 
 out of what might remain of the unharvested crops 
 on the abandoned plantations of that river. The 
 party was organized, and, after an affectionate in 
 terchange of adieus with the friends that were to 
 remain behind, started upon its errand. 
 
 Meanwhile, upon a citation from De Peyster, 
 Zeisberger, Senseman, Heckewelder, and Edwards, 
 led by the half-king, Girty, who was to have as 
 sisted him, being fortunately absent, with a band 
 of Wyandots, on a raid along the Ohio bottoms, 
 had repaired to Detroit. The commandant received 
 them kindly, lodged them and provided for their 
 wants with praiseworthy liberality. On the appear- 
 
1 60 BLA CK-ROBES. 
 
 ance of their accuser, Captain Pipe, they were sum 
 moned before De Peyster for examination. The 
 captain failing in his anticipated proofs of the trea 
 sonable correspondence complained of, and, in fact, 
 after some hesitation, making a complete retraction 
 of his charges, public declaration was made of their 
 innocence, and the missionaries were not only set 
 at liberty, but commended for their fearless devo 
 tion to the noble and disinterested work to which 
 they had dedicated their lives. 
 
 Sad as was the trial of separation that day when 
 the relief-party, appointed to go to the old settle 
 ments for food, started on their journey, it was not 
 what it would have been could a suspicion have 
 arisen of the consequences merely as a possible 
 contingency that were to follow the enterprise. 
 Prowling bands of savages on the one hand, and 
 gangs of rude border-men on the other, were known 
 to be abroad, but it was not anticipated that they 
 would be encountered in any force, or, if they 
 should be, that violence was necessarily to be ap 
 prehended from either. Their friendly understand 
 ing with the American officers at Pittsburg had not 
 been disturbed, and it was hardly to be looked for 
 that the heathen clans mostly tribesmen of their 
 own would deal more cruelly with them, at worst, 
 than they had already done, the risk of which, to 
 that extent, they were willing, for the end in view, 
 to hazard. Proper caution, nevertheless, was to 
 
THE MORAVIAN. 161 
 
 be observed, and they decided, upon reaching the 
 Muskingum, not to visit the towns, but to encamp 
 in the woods. They were making their arrange 
 ments accordingly, when two or three of their fel- 
 low-communionists, happening in upon them from 
 Pittsburg, gave such assurances of non-interference 
 from that quarter, that, for the greater convenience 
 of their business, they concluded to change their 
 plans and occupy the villages. 
 
 For several weeks, toiling night and day, they 
 pursued their labors, plucking the ears from the 
 stalks, stripping off the husks, and carrying great 
 loads of the corn away to carefully-prepared hiding- 
 places in the woods ; whence, from time to time, 
 and with ease and dispatch, future supplies might 
 be obtained, as the wants of the Congregation de 
 manded. One evening, when their task was nearly 
 completed, four Sandusky warriors appeared among 
 them on their way back from an expedition down 
 among the white settlements on the Ohio. They 
 had captured a woman and a child in the valley, 
 while wandering, so they said, both of whom they 
 had killed and impaled on the river-shore. The 
 victims, it was added, would be discovered, with 
 out doubt were already discovered, pursuit would 
 certainly follow, and unless the Brethren, who, if 
 not set down as its actual perpetrators, would be 
 charged with having connived at the deed, made 
 instant retreat towards the lake, they would, in all 
 likelihood, be overtaken and murdered. Relying- 
 
1 62 BLACK-ROBES. 
 
 upon their well-known reputation as a society re 
 ligiously averse to bloodshed, and satisfied, against 
 whatever treacherous suggestion, with the pledges 
 of friendship so recently renewed at Pittsburg, they 
 declined, after consultation, to act upon the advice 
 of the warriors. 
 
 By this time, however, they had laid up as large 
 a stock of provision as was desired, and notice was 
 accordingly served throughout the villages for all 
 to put themselves in readiness for returning to 
 Sandusky. On the day previous to the one fixed 
 for their departure, Jacob, one of the converts, 
 stood on the river-bank, a short distance from 
 Gnadenhiitten, and, while engaged in tying a corn- 
 sack, saw a body of from one to two hundred white 
 men approaching the town. He was on the point 
 of saluting the company, when to his consterna 
 tion a shot was fired from its ranks at one of the 
 Christian Indians, who, at the moment, was cross 
 ing the river in a canoe. The shot seemed to tell 
 with mortal effect, the man dropping from his seat 
 at the Discharge, into the bottom of his vessel. 
 Jacob fled affrighted, but, instead of escaping to one 
 or other of the villages and giving the alarm, he ran 
 to the woods, where he lay hidden for twenty-four 
 hours. There was no other witness of the occur 
 rence, the rest of the Brethren being scattered, 
 beyond view, here and there in the cornfields. 
 
 The company of border-men continued their 
 march, without any further act of hostility, until 
 
THE MORAVIAN. 163 
 
 they had approached the fields where the Indians 
 were at work. On meeting with them they mani 
 fested great cordiality; expressing themselves as 
 entertaining an ardent sympathy for the Brother 
 hood ; referring to their handsome chapel in rather 
 extravagant terms of admiration, and discoursing, 
 with a zeal that was very captivating, as indica 
 tive of a highly-sanctified temper of heart, upon 
 religious topics. They then declared the object 
 of their visit. They were there "as friends and 
 brothers, who had purposely come out to relieve 
 them from the distresses brought on by the enemy 
 on account of their being friends to the Ameri 
 can people," and formally proposed to conduct 
 them to Pittsburg, where their wants would all be 
 satisfied. The Christians, unsuspicious of evil, 
 reciprocated their greetings with unaffected warmth, 
 and expressed a cheerful willingness to follow them 
 as proposed. "God has ordained it," they ex 
 claimed, in their gratitude, " that relief should 
 reach us, and that we should not perish in the 
 barrens of Sandusky." 
 
 Having all gathered in at Gnadenhiitten, worJ 
 was sent to Salem of the arrival of the whites 
 quite a detachment of the latter accompanying the 
 messengers appointed to convey the intelligence ' 
 and of their charitable intentions, inviting the 
 Brethren there to come over and join in the pro 
 posed movement. They gladly acquiesced in the 
 arrangement. The simple preparations .1 cessary 
 
!64 BLACK-ROBES. 
 
 or possible were soon made. Out of con 
 sideration for their greater comfort in journeying, 
 urged tenderly, but so tenaciously as to have jus 
 tified a suspicion of some unfair intention, if the 
 honest Moravians had been given to doubting, the 
 whites proposed, and were permitted, to take in 
 charge all their guns, axes, and knives, with the 
 promise that they should be restored upon their 
 arrival at Pittsburg. 
 
 The party reached Gnadenhiitten. Assembled 
 all in the village, a change, marvelous as sudden, 
 took place in the conduct of the border-men. No 
 longer needed now in the further prosecution of 
 their plans, disguise was cast aside, and the de 
 ceivers presented themselves in their genuine char 
 acter. They charged upon the Moravians, inso 
 lently and unblushingly, although they knew the 
 allegation to be false, that they were not what they 
 claimed to be ; that their professions were hypo 
 critical, their practices dishonest; that their horses 
 had been stolen from the white settlers, as was in 
 dicated by the letters for what knowledge had 
 they of letters ? with which they were branded ; 
 that their axes, stamped with white men's names, 
 had been procured in the same way, as were also 
 'their wooden bowls, their spoons, their teakettles, 
 pots, cups, and other utensils of the sort ; in short, 
 that they were warriors and enemies, and that they 
 must make up their minds to meet the treatment 
 due them as such. 
 
THE MORAVIAN. l6| 
 
 In vain the unhappy creatures whom they had 
 entrapped protested their innocence. They could 
 account for the lawful arid honest acquisition of 
 every article of property in their possession. The 
 irons for the brands were made by the smiths 
 on their own order, to mark their own horses 
 for identification among themselves. With their 
 habits refined under training of the missiona 
 ries, and enabled thereto out of the abundance 
 rewarding their industry, they were qualified to 
 live, and did live, like Christian people, and had 
 long owned, and had in use, the cooking and other 
 domestic implements peculiar to civilized life. That 
 they were not heathen Indians, or of those that were 
 at strife with the Americans, might be seen from 
 the fact that they did hot appear in the savage cos 
 tume ; nor were their faces painted, nor did they 
 wear the feathers, nor the scalp-locks, which dis 
 tinguished the warriors. Some few of the border- 
 men were inclined to deal leniently with them, and 
 indeed refused to participate in the after-proceed 
 ings, but the majority were not to be moved. Their 
 fate was sealed. 
 
 Two adjoining buildings were selected as places 
 of confinement, into one of which the men were 
 thrust, and the women and children into the other. 
 A council of the whites was hastily held, after 
 which the formal announcement was made to the 
 prisoners that they must die. With folded hands, 
 imploring piteously, they prayed for life. The ears 
 
1 66 BLACK-ROBES. 
 
 of their captors were deaf to entreaty, and if 
 they yielded so far, at length, as to postpone the 
 execution of their resolve until next day, it is more 
 than likely that the respite was granted, not from 
 motives of compassion, but that, like tigers, they 
 might enjoy the tortures of their prey, and from 
 their agonies derive a keener relish for to-morrow's 
 feast of blood. Convinced at length that the con 
 sciences with which they had to do were proof 
 against appeal, they ceased the effort. " We can 
 call God to witness," said they, " that we are per 
 fectly innocent; yet we are prepared and willing 
 to suffer death." 
 
 No symptom of weakness betrayed itself there 
 after. They had made their plea, earnestly but 
 not cravenly, as true men may. It had failed. 
 They accepted the failure, and with unfaltering 
 composure awaited what was to come. Hero 
 ism had never a nobler illustration than was ex 
 emplified in their cases at that most trying crisis. 
 All through the night devotional services were 
 kept up ; words of exhortation were interchanged, 
 mutual confessions made, and prayers and praises 
 offered at the throne of Grace. " I have been an 
 untoward child," said Brother Abraham, "and 
 have grieved the Lord by my disobedience, not 
 walking as I ought to have done, yet will I 
 cleave to my Saviour with my last breath. I 
 know assuredly that He will forgive me all my 
 sins and not cast me out." While still religiously 
 
THE MORAVIAN. 167 
 
 engaged, singing together a hymn at the moment, 
 the impatient ruffians who had voluntarily assumed 
 the task, entered the rooms, and, harshly interrupt 
 ing the proceedings, asked the prisoners if they 
 were ready. They had committed their immortal 
 souls to God, they said, and were ready. One of 
 the border-men took hold of a cooper's mallet that 
 lay on the floor, observing, as he did so, "How ex 
 actly this will answer for the purpose!" and with a 
 heavily-wielded blow at the head of Brother Abra 
 ham brought him to the floor. Plying the weapon 
 right and left, he did not pause until fourteen of the 
 Christians were prostrate, struggling in the agonies 
 of death. He then delivered the mallet to one of 
 his fellows, remarking, " My arm fails me ! Go 
 you on in the same way !" And so, while a victim 
 remained, the work of butchery continued. 
 
 Sixty-two men and women and thirty-four 
 children were stricken down, scalped, and left 
 crushed and bleeding on the floors of these 
 slaughter-pens. Two only escaped ; one, who by 
 adroit management had extricated himself from 
 the cords with which he had been bound, crawled 
 through a window and secreted himself in the 
 cellar of the house in which the Sisters were con 
 fined, their blood streaming down upon him 
 through the seams in the floor as he crouched 
 there ; and another, who, felled, scalped, and left for 
 dead like the rest, had nevertheless revived after 
 wards ; betraying the fact, however, by no sign, but 
 
1 68 BLACK-ROBES. 
 
 lying where he had fallen among the slain, with 
 out motion or groan, although suffering indescrib 
 able torture. In this predicament he lingered while 
 the light lasted, and as long as there was danger 
 of discovery. Under cover of the darkness both 
 managed to retreat undetected from the building 
 and gain the woods, whence, as the night deepened, 
 they resumed their flight, and after a painful jour 
 ney succeeded, at length, in reaching Sandusky in 
 safety. But ere yet beyond view of the village, as 
 they were able to relate to the horrified Congrega 
 tion on the lake-shore, they had seen the torches 
 applied to the slaughter-pens ; they had seen the 
 flames leap up and reach and spread, until the 
 buildings were all enveloped in the blaze ; and, in 
 the glare of the fire, they had witnessed the dark 
 forms of the border-men group and mingle, and in 
 grim pantomime make display of their exultation 
 at sight of this closing act of the hideous tragedy. 
 Among the victims of the massacre was Glikkikan, 
 the Delaware captain, who from the date of his con 
 version had continued, through all its vicissitudes 
 of fortune, with the Congregation, loyal to the Faith, 
 and true in his attachment to the missionaries. 
 
 Early in the morning of the day following the 
 fatal one at Gnadenhutten, the band of assassins 
 mounted their horses and started for Schonbrunn, 
 to enact similar violence against the Christians 
 who had taken shelter in that settlement. For 
 tunately, two Brethren from that locality, walking 
 
THE MORA VIAN. 
 
 169 
 
 towards Gnadenhiitten, encountered accidentally 
 the dead body of one of their number, a young 
 convert called Joseph Shabosh, who had been se 
 cretly murdered, like the boatman, while out alone, 
 and about a mile apart from the rest of his people. 
 Noticing the tracks of shod hoofs in the soil, they 
 suspected danger, hastened back and alarmed their 
 neighbors. When the border-men reached the 
 village they found it deserted; and although the 
 Indians who had fled were retired so short a 
 distance up the river that they could see the 
 movements of their pursuers, they remained un 
 discovered. After robbing the houses and stables 
 of whatever properties of value they could lay 
 hands upon, the plunderers, without choosing to 
 resume pursuit, turned about and took up their 
 route for home. Arrived at Pittsburg, the effects 
 which they had stolen were offered for sale at 
 public auction ; on which occasion the scalps 
 taken were brought out and proudly exposed, as 
 trophies of heroic achievement, before the gaze of 
 admiring bidders and beholders. 
 
 To COLONEL DAVID WILLIAMSON belongs the 
 distinction of having led, as ruffian-in-chief, in this 
 memorable adventure. If he is to be accredited with 
 the account of the expedition, as published at the 
 time in the Pennsylvania Gazette, wherein it is said, 
 " We arrived at the town (Gnadenhiitten) in the 
 night, undiscovered ; attacked the Indians in their 
 cabins, and so completely surprised them that we 
 
1 70 BLA CK-R OSES. 
 
 killed and scalped upwards of ninety, but a few 
 making their escape, and returned to the Ohio 
 without the loss of a man," then was he contemp 
 tible as a mendacious braggart. " Did you not 
 hail and welcome the believing Indians," was the 
 more truthful charge uttered against him and his 
 gang by the savages, alluding to this occasion, 
 shortly after, "as friends? You assured them of 
 your friendship. You told them that they need 
 not fear any harm from you. Did they run from 
 you when they saw you coming ? Did they fire a 
 single shot at you ? No. We warriors warned 
 them to beware of you arid your pretended friend 
 ship; but they would not believe, and for this they 
 paid with their lives." If when, two months after 
 wards, a second expedition was undertaken to finish 
 the work at Sandusky so prosperously begun on 
 the Muskingum, and when in turn the border-men 
 were surprised, the projector of the movement was 
 the first man to take advantage of chance, desert his 
 comrades and seek safety in flight; and if in that 
 same adventure the more honorable but less for 
 tunate Colonel Crawford, who would not abandon 
 his followers, was captured, most cruelly tortured, 
 and murdered, in retaliation for the crime in which 
 he had not participated, then was the denunciation 
 of the civilized world well bestowed, and the judg 
 ment of the savages well awarded, when they 
 pronounced the leader in both enterprises a black 
 hearted assassin, a betrayer, and a coward. 
 
THE MORA VIA N. \ ; i 
 
 VII. 
 
 THE DISPERSION OF THE CONGREGATION; ITS RESTO 
 RATION, AND ITS RETURN TO THE MUSKINGUM. 
 
 THE condition of the Brethren on the San- 
 dusky was melancholy in the extreme. 
 Their place of habitation amid the soggy flats of 
 that half-deluged region was inhospitable, com 
 fortless, and of such dismal associations that they 
 would not give it name, but left it as a blot or a 
 blank to fill its place in the record of their wander 
 ings. The lancjs around them were rich enough 
 in the production of rank and unwholesome vege 
 tation, such as found indigenous growth in the 
 contaminate soil; but no effort of industry could 
 overcome their stubborn resistance to every at 
 tempt at better culture. The winter climate was 
 cruel beyond endurance. In months of milder 
 temperature the air was charged with pestilence. 
 Men pined miserably from disease and want. 
 Fevers racked their bodies. The proper prey of 
 vultures cattle fallen dead by the wayside, of 
 famine was a last resort for sustenance, upon 
 which they fed hungrily. Persecutions assailed 
 them from every quarter. They found themselves 
 betrayed by friends in whom they had trusted ; and 
 the hands which they had clasped in pledge of that 
 
172 BLACK-ROBES. 
 
 confidence, lifted treacherously against them, were 
 red with the blood of their martyred kindred. 
 They were despised and rejected of the tribes of 
 their own race ; and how could they hope, and for 
 what could they hope, from the people that recog 
 nized Pipe as a partisan, and Girty and McKee 
 and Elliott as allies ? Their missionaries, towards 
 whom, in the cares of life, they had been used to look 
 for guidance and support, had been forced away 
 and kept in banishment God seemed to have for 
 gotten to be merciful ; to have disowned their de 
 votion, mocked at their calamities, and given them 
 over utterly to helpless, hopeless abandonment. 
 
 Some of the better qualified by grace and faith 
 among the converts, who had been accustomed to 
 serve as assistants to the missionaries, maintained 
 the forms of worship in the community, the exer 
 cises peculiar to which were for some time marked 
 by affecting displays of interest; but the artful con 
 spirators- who had successfully engineered the re 
 moval of the shepherds were not to be easily foiled 
 in their experiments upon the flock. They pois 
 oned the ears of the people with baneful accusa 
 tions against their white leaders. The Muskingum 
 massacre, they alleged, was planned with their 
 knowledge; else why, instead of waiting with their 
 followers to share the disaster that was to happen, 
 had they allowed themselves to be carried off to a 
 place of safety beyond the water? Murmurs of 
 discontent at length began to prevail. Here and 
 
THE MORA VIAN. 
 
 173 
 
 there a discipje of weak faith gave way. Soon 
 backsliders made open confession of relapse, and 
 boldly advocated apostasy to the rest. To com 
 plete the array of adversities hemming the unfor 
 tunates about, and closing in upon them irresistibly, 
 the arm of civil authority was interposed. The 
 half-king of the Hurons, " so incessantly tormented 
 by his evil conscience that he could not rest as 
 long as any Christian Indians were in his neigh 
 borhood to remind him of his treacherous and 
 cruel behavior," commanded them peremptorily to 
 disband and leave the country. The order was not 
 to be disputed. Heavy at heart for the separations 
 that were to take place, but without a sigh of re 
 gret at parting from the huts of logs and bark in 
 which a wretched tarrying of six months had been 
 endured, and that were never sanctified by a single 
 endearing home association, on an April day (1782) 
 they gathered up the ragged remains of their pos 
 sessions, took their various courses and wandered 
 off, some to the country of the Shawanese, and 
 some to the Miami River. And so the community 
 was broken in. pieces; and so the nameless settle 
 ment on the Sand u sky was abandoned forever. 
 
 The missionaries had scarcely retired from De 
 troit, after their acquittal in the trial to which refer 
 ence has been made, when, upon additional charges 
 preferred by the same parties, they were again 
 brought before the commandant. On this occa 
 sion, however, they were not subjected to even the 
 
 is* 
 
1 74 BLA CK-R OBES. 
 
 form of an examination. The commandant was 
 satisfied of their innocence, and assured them that 
 it was only with a view to their welfare that he 
 had ordered their appearance at Detroit, being 
 convinced, from reliable information, that if they 
 remained at Sandusky it would be at the imminent 
 hazard of their lives. He gave them permission to 
 tarry under his protection at Detroit, or return to 
 Bethlehem, as they chose. Duty and affection for 
 bade their assent to either arrangement. It would 
 be inhuman, it would be unchristian, in the hour 
 of trial to forsake their scattered flock entirely. 
 Their first wish was to establish a settlement in 
 some new and safe locality, where they could gather 
 around them their dispersed people, contribute to 
 their comfort, and preserve them in the faith of 
 the gospel. Learning their project, De Peyster 
 approved of it, and, exerting his influence with the 
 Chippewas, secured a grant from that tribe of a 
 portion of their territory on the Huron River, 
 thirty miles above Detroit, for their use. The mis 
 sionaries took possession of the little domain, 
 measured off fields, laid out gard ns, built cabins 
 of bark, and sent messages to the wandered exiles 
 of the Congregation, inviting them to repair to the 
 NEW-GNADENHUTTEN reared for their reception. 
 Abraham, the old Mohican captain and early con 
 vert, was one of the first to respond. Others 
 followed, and soon again others, singly and in 
 families, until quite a community was gathered in, 
 
THE MORAVIAN. 175 
 
 V 
 
 and the new village began to wear an inhabited 
 air and assume something of that homelike aspect 
 which had so endeared their former settlements to 
 the hearts of the Christians. 
 
 Before winter set in, the temporary bark huts 
 were torn away and comfortable log cabins put up 
 in their stead. The ground was cleared of under 
 wood, in readiness for the plow and spade, when the 
 coming of seed-time should call'Tor their employ 
 ment Colonel De Peyster generously furnished 
 supplies of garden and farming tools, a boat, a pair 
 of cows, and some horses ; his wife, at the same 
 time, offering, as her contribution, an assortment 
 of seeds, roots, and plants. To meet the wants of 
 the people through the winter, hunting and trap 
 ping were resorted to ; what flesh they had to spare, 
 together with the hides and furs of the captured 
 game, being taken to Detroit and there exchanged 
 for meal and wearing-apparel. The women, and 
 men inexpert at the use of the rifle or the snare, 
 remained at home, improving their leisure in the 
 manufacture of canoes, baskets, bowls, ladles, and 
 brooms, or, further on in the season, tapping the 
 maples in the neighboring groves and distilling 
 their juices into sugar. With these articles quite a 
 traffic was carried on with the white population in 
 and about the British fort. 
 
 Thus the first winter, and so year after year, 
 passed by. Busy hands did what was possible to 
 improve the lands, and make more and more com- 
 
1 76 BLA CK-R OSES. 
 
 fortable the dwellings and neat and ornamental the 
 thoroughfares. The rough features of the native 
 wil'ds of the vicinity were made smooth ; meadows 
 lay green and smiling on the water-shores where 
 thickets of stunted oak-saplings, densely grown, 
 had flourished ; and cattle browsed on open ranges 
 pastures teeming with verdure where, in the 
 copses, foxes erewhile had made their hiding- 
 places, and the cleer had taken for refuge when 
 pursued by the hunter. 
 
 The religion of the Moravian meant work as well 
 as worship. While demanding strictly its tithes 
 of devotional offering, it exacted no less rigidly its 
 equal measure of muscular'tribute. A system of 
 belief thus severe in its requirements was as little 
 to the relish of the savage as could it be less than ? 
 it would have been to the mass of paler-com- 
 plexioned and more orthodox creedists. It called 
 for long years of patient labor among the folk of 
 their chosen nation, to win over to the Unity the 
 converts of which its small flock was composed. 
 The flesh more powerfully than the devil was up 
 in arms against the attempted innovation. Under 
 God, Zeisberger and his colleagues, with the Dela- 
 wares to deal with, were more than a match for 
 their antagonists, and out of that people were able 
 to attract followers, and hold them fast and faith 
 ful, through whatever vicissitude of trial, to the new 
 profession. But the Lenni-Lenapes were a race 
 among whom virtue was not altogether effete, nor 
 
THE MORAVIAN. 177 
 
 life in its diviner instincts without an aspiration. 
 The Chippewas, on the other hand, were a misera 
 bly degraded tribe, sunk so low as over the purely 
 animal scarcely to have maintained a rational level 
 in the scale of being. Indolent knaves were they, 
 who derived their chief subsistence from hunting 
 and fishing, or, when these resources failed, who 
 found a satisfactory substitute in frogs, dogs, 
 muskrats, and dead horses. Wedded to their 
 groveling ways, they saw nothing to captivate 
 them in the toilsome pursuits and compulsory 
 observances of the Christians. 
 
 The missionaries labored long to educate these 
 savages to a loftier conception of life and its duties, 
 but their efforts were futile. Between societies 
 whose materials were of such incongruous compo 
 sition, there could exist no common element of 
 attraction. They might exercise a mutual forbear 
 ance for awhile ; but that virtue is of a precarious 
 temper, and, if it does not ripen ere long into a feel 
 ing of more generous cast, is apt to degenerate into 
 a sentiment of aversion. Four years of residence 
 were spent at the settlement on the Huron. In the 
 beginning the heathen had received the Congrega 
 tion of exiles kindly. The novelty of the Chris 
 tian usages having worn off, indifference followed, 
 then distrust, then dissatisfaction. Complaints 
 began to be made. Their hospitality was being 
 unreasonably taxed. They wanted their own lands 
 for their d\vn purposes. The country thereabouts 
 
1 78 BLACK-ROBES. 
 
 constituted their choicest hunting-grounds. The 
 Moravians were clearing out their woods, killing 
 their game, and soon, unless rid of their guests, 
 they would be left destitute. Moreover, the causes 
 no longer existed which had induced the offer of 
 accommodation to the Society. The war had 
 ended; peace was restored, and they were at 
 liberty to go where they would, with none to 
 molest them or make them afraid. 
 
 Although their occupation of New-Gnadenhut- 
 ten had been one of uninterrupted repose; although 
 Providence, rewarding their toils, had given them 
 to enjoy plentifully of the means promotive of ease 
 and comfort, yet the attachments of the Brethren 
 to the place were not so many, nor so strong, but 
 that they could be broken without insupportable 
 regret. There were no endearing associations 
 connected with the spot. The marked events of 
 their experience their struggles, their successes, 
 their joys, and their griefs all dated back in the 
 past, and were linked with other scenes and other 
 times. Lichtenau and Salem, the Beautiful Spring 
 and the Tents of Grace, were the Zion to which their 
 thoughts reverted. There had they witnessed their 
 triumphs and been used to join their thousand 
 voices in glad psalms of rejoicing. There had they 
 suffered together when overtaken by calamity, and 
 there the bones of their dead lay buried. 
 
 The missionaries had been defeated in the grand 
 project which they had undertaken. On the eve 
 
THE MORAVIAN. 
 
 of success, when their chapels were filled with 
 attentive hearers; when chieftains, warriors, and 
 counselors thronged with the multitude to listen to 
 the messages of inspiration ; and when the belief, 
 which they had labored for forty years to establish 
 as the national faith of the Delawares, seemed 
 about to displace the ancient superstition, they 
 found their plans thwarted, their work wrecked, 
 their brotherhood banished, broken and scattered, 
 and the expectations upon which they had reck 
 oned so fondly blighted forever. In the choice 
 of this their latest tarrying-place they had scarcely 
 looked for more than to gather in, and maintain in 
 the Unity, such scattered remnants as they might 
 of their dispersed people. This done, they could 
 entertain no dearer desire than, when the door of 
 deliverance opened, to take up again their pilgrim 
 age, retrace the ways of their wandering, and, as the 
 day of their prosperity declined, to spend serenely 
 its closing hours amid the scenes where they had 
 enjoyed the full lustre of its noon, on the old 
 familiar shores of the Muskingum. 
 
 When, therefore, the Chippewas intimated a de 
 sire for their removal, the Congregation, ministers 
 and members, assented to the suggestion without 
 a complaint. On the 2Oth of April, 1786, they as 
 sembled for the last time in their chapel ; presented 
 their oblation of prayer and praise, thanking the 
 Lord for his mercies and commending themselves 
 to his protection; then, embarking in their canoes, 
 
1 80 BLA CK-R OBES. 
 
 twenty-two in number, they bade adieu to the 
 friends collected to witness their departure, shoved 
 the vessels from the shore, and were gone. 
 
 It does not fall within the design of this sketch 
 to follow further in detail the progress of the wan 
 derers ; to describe the alarms that caused a delay of 
 a year at Pilgerruh, the Pilgrims' Rest ; to speak 
 of the longer sojourn at Pettquotting, where Gillele- 
 mend, or Killbuck, embraced the gospel and was 
 baptized; nor of their return to Michigan, and of 
 their temporary settlement at Fairfield. The oppor 
 tunity tocarry out theircherished intention occurred 
 at length, and on the 4th of October, 1798, seven 
 teen years after their expulsion, the Congregation 
 of exiles were back again on the banks of the Elk- 
 Eye. They found their lands overgrown with tall, 
 coarse grass, and infested with serpents. Briers 
 and bushes, the harbor of wild beasts, thicketed 
 the site of Gnadenhiitten ; all traces of which were 
 lost except the ruins of a house or two, and, there 
 where the slaughter-pens had stood, a heap of 
 ashes, with here and there a bone not altogether 
 consumed, indicating with melancholy certainty 
 the scene of that awful visitation, never to be 
 forgotten, of violence and fire, of treachery and 
 assassination. 
 
 With the retirement of the Brethren from New- 
 Gnadenhutten the mission in the wilderness may 
 be said to have terminated. The new settlement 
 of Goshen, erected eight miles from the spot where 
 
THE MORA VIAN. 1 8 1 
 
 Gnadenhutten had stood, on the Muskingum, was 
 planted at a time when the region round about was 
 rapidly filling up with white settlers. Axes were 
 laid at the roots of the trees ; clearings were made ; 
 the scared game was deserting the woods ; squat 
 ters, tomahawk in hand to notch the corner hicko 
 ries, were marking off their claims ; log cabins 
 were springing up, and the valley of the Mus 
 kingum was within the line of the border. The re 
 sistance of the savage to the encroachments of the 
 pioneer only lacked the spasmodic attempt made 
 shortly after by Tecumseh, to be abandoned in 
 despair. Their disintegration and dispersion soon 
 followed. With the tide of emigration flocked in 
 other interpreters of inspiration, stout defenders 
 of the Faith, but whose zeal in the service never 
 led them to tempt the perils and privations of a 
 life beyond the advance posts of civilization. A 
 new theatre for denominational .rivalry a supple 
 mentary stage for church extension was found. 
 The old field of Christian occupation, as among 
 the Gentiles, was lost. The work of the Moravian 
 was ended. 
 
 16 
 
THE METHODIST. 
 
THE METHODIST. 
 
 I. 
 
 THE METHODIST PREACHER OF THE BORDER NASCI- 
 
 TUR, NON FIT. 
 
 AS with the Jesuit began, so with the Moravian 
 ended the missionary enterprises of the wil 
 derness. While the Indian tribes peopled the land, 
 and, as national communities, claimed and held the 
 exclusive ownership of the soil ; while a trespass 
 upon their domain, or an offense against their cus 
 toms, involved the risk of calamitous consequences; 
 and while to be among them was to be shut out, 
 utterly, from all fellowship with civilized society, 
 the follower of Loyola and the disciple of Huss 
 were permitted to enjoy undisputed possession of 
 the field. " Evangelical" competitors stood aloof. 
 It was their business to keep pace with the prog 
 ress of light ; not to invade the kingdom of dark 
 ness. Their boldest advances never reached be 
 yond the clearings. Did Brainerd " undertake the 
 arduous work of a missionary to wild barbarians" ? 
 The work was a few months' toil at the Forks of 
 the Delaware, and the wild barbarians were Irish- 
 16* ( 185 ) 
 
1 86 BLACK-ROBES. 
 
 men as well as aborigines. John Stewart, the mu 
 latto Methodist exhorter, in 1816, "located" tem 
 porarily among a band of Hurons at Sandusky, but 
 it was thirteen years after Ohio had been admitted 
 as a State into the Union. Isaac McCoy, a very 
 worthy Baptist divine, established the Carey Mis 
 sion among the Pottawottamies on the St. Joseph's 
 River, in Michigan, but it was in 1822, when the 
 Territory had already been represented for three 
 years in Congress. Indeed, even though a self- 
 denying spirit equal to the undertaking had not 
 been wanting, more adventurous enterprise could 
 scarcely have been expected, when the esteem is 
 considered in which the savages were held by the 
 sects of the day. They were imps of hell's beget 
 ting, whom it was religious duty to exterminate, 
 the predestined victims of perdition, whom it was 
 contempt of God's decrees to try to bring under 
 sanctifying influence, Hittites an 1 Girgashites 
 possessing the land, whom it was the bounden 
 duty of the Lord's elect, rather, to smite and 
 utterly destroy, to make no covenant with, and in 
 whose favor to show no mercy : all consistently 
 with the gospel according to Moses. Entertaining 
 such views of the present status and future pros 
 pects of the race, to have attempted their refor 
 mation would have been more than a work of 
 supererogation : it would have been to dispute the 
 designs of Providence, to squander the time of his 
 servants, and rashly and imprudently to expose the 
 
THE METHODIST. 187 
 
 safety of their persons. They declined the ven 
 ture. As others of their own people led, they might 
 dare to folk w, but discreetly, within bounds, and 
 never beyond where the surveyor and the squatter, 
 at least, had been before, to prepare the way and 
 make straight the paths for the succession. 
 
 The cession to the British, by the Iroquois, of the 
 country south of the Alleghany and Ohio Rivers, 
 i.i 1768, opened up the extensive regions of that 
 portion of Pennsylvania drained by the Mononga- 
 hela, Western Virginia, and Kentucky to the occu 
 pation of the whites. Explorers penetrated the 
 wilderness, speedily followed by traders, who com 
 menced a lucrative business in furs and skins with 
 the Indians. These, in their turn, were succeeded 
 by adventurers of more reputable vocation ; men 
 who, with their rifles on their shoulders and their 
 dogs at their heels, preferred to win by skill and 
 daring the valuable spoils which had been the ob 
 jects of barter to their predecessors. The favorable 
 report given upon their return, of the countries 
 which they visited, aroused attention. Listeners 
 to their narratives, told in social circles or at do 
 mestic firesides, especially the young who had yet 
 their fortunes to carve out, and who wanted neither 
 the vigor nor the will to do it, were easily tempted 
 to make trial on their own account ; and so, from 
 the old settlements of Eastern Virginia and North 
 Carolina, started that tide of emigration which was 
 soon to make populous all the new border, from 
 
1 88 BLACK-ROBES. 
 
 the valley of the Monongahela to the far hunting- 
 grounds of the Cherokees on the Kentucky. Per 
 manent settlers occupied the lands. Surveys were 
 made, cabins were built, acres were cleared, the 
 soil was tilled, farm was added to farm, villages 
 sprang up, and all abroad the inflowing popula 
 tions were spreading, mooring, improving, and 
 multiplying. As the process of importation went 
 on, speculators joined in it, helping to swell the 
 moving current and add to the list of their des 
 tined victims. Extensive tracts were bought, or 
 laid claim to, by these professional sharpers, which 
 were sold in parcels to newly-arriving emigrants, 
 who seldom paused to inquire into the validity of 
 titles, and were made the subjects of gross imposi 
 tion. They frequently paid the price of their pur 
 chases two or three times over, to find that even 
 then their claims were utterly invalid. The country 
 beyond the Ohio attracted their attention. Its lands 
 were not in the market, and therefore lay out of 
 the reach of the avaricious operator. The shores 
 wore a fruitful and inviting aspect. Easily induced 
 to run the risk of annoyance from the savages, the 
 settlers, many of them, resolved upon a change, 
 and, crossing the river, began to take possession of 
 the new territory, establishing their settlements in 
 the regions watered by the Muskingum, the Scioto, 
 and the Miami. 
 
 But the provinces of the lower coast were not to 
 enjoy a monopoly of the new field of occupation. 
 
THE METHODIST. 189 
 
 Massachusetts, some twenty years subsequently to 
 the movement of her more enterprising sisters, put 
 in her claim. A party of emigrants under the 
 auspices of the " Ohio Company" crossed the 
 mountains, reached the Youghiogheny, built a 
 vessel, which, in honor of the memorable craft that 
 had borne their fathers on a still more ..daring 
 voyage, they called the " Mayflower," and, pursuing 
 the remainder of their journey by water, tarried not 
 until they had attained their point of destination, 
 at the mouth of the Muskingum. The tract in 
 cluded in the grant of the company covered a large 
 portion of the eastern section of what was after 
 wards the State of Ohio, and was not of the 
 choicest part of its territory; but the "Huckle 
 berry Knobs " were a vast improvement on the 
 sterile patches of New England, and the new 
 comers were delighted with the change. Glowing 
 accounts were sent back of the country. It was a 
 land flowing, literally, with milk and honey. Its 
 meadows, without cultivation, were equal to the 
 support of millions of cattle, winter and summer. 
 Sicily could not afford finer wheat-lands. There 
 were bogs producing cranberries enough to supply 
 tarts for all New England ; while the legs of the 
 horses roving the plains were dyed to the knees 
 with the juice of the wild strawberry. Fresh re 
 cruits poured rapidly and continuously in. Mari 
 etta sprang at once into importance as a town. The 
 neighboring country filled up, the axe laying bare 
 
1 90 BLA CK-R OBES. 
 
 new openings for homesteads farther and farther 
 back into the woods. School-houses were built, 
 teachers employed, and, in a short time, all the 
 machinery by which well-regulated Yankee com 
 munities at home are governed, set swimmingly 
 in motion. 
 
 Thus were the nearer quarters of the Northwest 
 Territory invaded at the south and at the east, 
 and thus were brought together in the same Com 
 monwealth two various classes, which were ulti 
 mately to blend together, and out of their united 
 thrift and enterprise to build up one of the most 
 prosperous and populous republics in the whole 
 of the confederate group. 
 
 As between these classes, there were striking 
 points of contrast. The Down-Easter, in his trans 
 plantation, lost none of his distinguishing charac 
 teristics. He was his identical self on the border 
 as in the Bay State. His institutions he had brought 
 with him as part and parcel of the miscella 
 neous stock of "notions" that constituted his 
 baggage, his Bible and his ballot-box, his spell 
 ing- and his statute-book (is it superfluous to add, 
 his jack-knife and his dialect ?), all that could be 
 made available " to secure civil rights, establish 
 law and order, introduce a pure religion, and pro 
 vide for universal education." True to the habits 
 in which he had been trained : of thinking, and 
 he was shrewd at it ; of doing, and he never 
 wearied of it ; of appearing, and, down to his 
 
THE METHODIST. 191 
 
 cloth, its cut and its brass buttons, he never varied 
 in it, he underwent no change ; dealing with his 
 neighbor, serving God and himself as he had 
 always done, as his fathers before him had done, 
 and as his children after him would continue to do. 
 Not so with the Virginian. Cut loose from his 
 anchorage on the Chesapeake, he left all behind 
 him, as he went on his wanderings, save a stout 
 heart throbbing for adventure, and a stanch arm 
 nerved to achieve it. The old ways of life, the 
 influences of home and of society, except as they 
 may have operated to induce a general tendency 
 of character, were discarded and abandoned. He 
 threw them off, as unsuited to the uses and the 
 fashions of the woods. Accoutred in his hunting- 
 shirt of linsey-woolsey, his buckskin breeches, fox- 
 skin cap, and easily-fitting moccasins, and with his 
 rifle, his pouch, and the knife at h s belt as his only 
 impedimenta, he launched out, freighted to his full 
 desire, upon his voyage. At his journey's end 
 he could find him the means to satisfy his wants 
 as their cravings demanded. Hungry, the forest 
 abounded with every variety of game from which 
 to choose his fare. Overtaken by nightfall, and 
 anxious for repose after the toils of a day, the 
 shadow of a rock, a shelter of boughs thrown 
 loosely together, or a bed of leaves with the broad 
 oak-branches overhead for cover, lent ample accom 
 modation for his comfort. In unrestricted freedom 
 he roamed the forest, knowing no law save the law 
 
1 92 BLACK-ROBES. 
 
 of right between man and man, which he was 
 scrupulous to respect himself, and for which, in his 
 own behalf, he would have contended to the death. 
 Uneducated, and without opportunity of instruc 
 tion other than such as his own experience offered, 
 the sciences of the schools were sealed mysteries 
 to him, but his understanding was not wanting in 
 the "gifts" well cultivated that suited much 
 better the exigencies of his case. He had his 
 religion. If, in the practical working, it partook 
 of the severe type of the older dispensation, when 
 retaliation was a virtue, and " a tooth for a tooth " 
 an accepted maxim among the faithful, it was 
 because the flesh is weak, and temptation, with 
 treachery and cruelty to contend against, is strong; 
 and because man, until sanctified by the purer in 
 fluences of the gospel, is of the earth, earthy, frail, 
 fallible, and inflammable. 
 
 The example of the adventurer was not lost upon 
 the squatter, nor that of the squatter upon the set 
 tlers; so that when, in a short time, the region was 
 filled with a more numerous population, its con 
 stituents came in for a share of the inheritance ; the 
 original leaven in the little was still perceptible in 
 the lump. In selecting lands for improvement, the 
 party intending to " locate" would choose out of 
 the unoccupied woods a desirable spot, with his 
 tomahawk hack off a chip from the corner trees 
 of his claim, and thus, without any of the formal 
 processes by which properties customarily fall into 
 
THE METHODIST. 193 
 
 ownership, would take possession and proceed to 
 business. This novel style of indenture answered 
 every purpose, and was respected, between neigh 
 bor and neighbor, as inviolably as though executed 
 in parchment and sanctioned by affixture of wax 
 and seal, after the more legitimate fashion. First 
 having gave first right, a right which, if possibly 
 any may have lacked the conscience, certainly 
 none had the hardihood to dispute. As the people 
 multiplied, and customs more in accordance with 
 civilized practice began to prevail, they were sub 
 mitted to as unavoidable necessities of the new 
 situation ; but in no case were they allowed to the 
 interference with ownerships, whether in properties 
 or privileges, acquired under the former usages. 
 The compass and the chain might mark out the 
 boundaries of new claims, but never cross the lines 
 already defined by the tomahawk. A title with a 
 deed was good, certainly, but equally so was one 
 without it, probably better, as there was plausible 
 argument to offer, in time, when so many were 
 defrauded through the double-dealing of the land- 
 trader. 
 
 So with regard to the civil regulations of the 
 day. The borderer, although content to be a 
 nomos unto himself, was not averse to the intro 
 duction of " professional" law, and was content to 
 abide by its decrees ; provided, always, that they 
 were in accordance with his own individual notions 
 of justice. He would not divest himself of the 
 
1 94 BLA CK-R OSES. 
 
 right to hang a highwayman or a horse-thief on 
 the nearest tree, in order that punishment (with 
 the intervening possibility of a flaw in the writ 
 or the jail, to favor an escape) might be brought 
 about, more formally, through the verdict of a jury 
 and the sentence of a court. Neither would he 
 brook interference if, when wronged by the savage, 
 he chose, at his own time and in his own way, to 
 recover full satisfaction for the injury; and Mingo 
 and Delaware could well attest how severe was the 
 wrath of the Long-Knife, as by way of distinction 
 1 the Virginian was called, and how terrible his 
 revenge, when recompense was due for provoca 
 tion. 
 
 With the Ohio Company it was part of their 
 scheme of colonization to send out with the emi 
 grants men qualified to discharge the various min 
 istries of responsibility in the settlement. Marietta 
 was to be kept under guardianship until she be 
 came of age. For the management of her schools 
 teachers were provided. She had a superintendent 
 to regulate her public affairs. Magistrates were 
 appointed to administer justice ; physicians to wait 
 upon the sick ; while to look after her spiritual in 
 terests the services were engaged of the Rev. Daniel 
 Story, the "first regularly ordained Congregational 
 minister" in the Northwest Territory (1788). 
 
 The Virginians, on the other hand, could not 
 indeed, did not care to look for men to fill their 
 offices. As a want was felt and an opening for 
 
THE METHODIST. 
 
 195 
 
 supply advertised itself, the candidate for the posi 
 tion, one of themselves, and not from solicitation, but 
 on his own motion and at his own venture, put in an 
 appearance. The country was not exempt from dis 
 eases. The Esculapian aspirant saw that infirmities 
 might be put to profit; noticed symptoms; made 
 himself acquainted with the remedies in vogue 
 among Indians and old women; gathered in supplies 
 of pink-root, sarsaparilla, ginseng, jalap, and ipecac ; 
 offered his services, and medicine became a profes 
 sion. Education was not in eminent favor along 
 the frontier. Boone, and Stewart, and Finley, and 
 Hoi den were not remembered as having been 
 patrons of learning ; and if they, the illustrious in 
 border history, were content to dispense with let 
 ters, might not their successors be satisfied ? But 
 there began to be those of more liberal views, 
 who were not disinclined to admit the advantages 
 of instruction : the Master was found to take ad 
 vantage of the concession, and schools were started, 
 backed by sufficient support to keep them in living 
 condition for two or three months, in the winter 
 time, out of the twelve. 
 
 People who have once enjoyed the opportunities 
 of Christian worship are seldom entirely weaned 
 from their attachment to its observances. The 
 dwellers on the frontier, partly through choice, 
 but mainly from necessity, may have neglected the 
 duties to which they had formerly been accustomed, 
 but their respect for the word, its ordinances, and its 
 
1 96 BLA CK-R OBES. 
 
 ministers, had never failed. The pioneer may have 
 left his Bible back among the forsaken properties 
 of home, but the lessons gathered from its pages 
 were not forgotten. As the floating elements of 
 which it was composed settled down, and society 
 began to assume orderly shape, the church was 
 felt to be a prime desideratum. But how was its 
 establishment to be brought about? Domestic 
 missionary societies were not in existence. La 
 borers, except of unevangelical order, would not 
 volunteer without hire ; and silver and gold had 
 they none to offer. As in the case of the other 
 professions, if they were to be served they must 
 serve themselves. Out of their own Galilee must 
 arise their own prophets. There were men among 
 them willing for the office; but to be fitted for it, 
 according to orthodox rule, would require years of 
 preparatory training in schools far removed and 
 difficult of access. 
 
 But a new order of the priesthood had lately 
 arisen. Rev. John Wesley, of the Church of Eng 
 land, impressed with the conviction that he was 
 divinely appointed for some extraordinary work, 
 carried his enthusiasm so far as to run into certain 
 irregularities, on account of which he was debarred 
 the privilege of the pulpit. Not to be silenced, he 
 invited hearers, and in the open air at Moorfields 
 addressed the multitude. So great was the success 
 of the experiment that he was induced to persevere 
 in it, making frequent journeys abroad through the 
 
THE METHODIST. 
 
 197 
 
 country, and preaching daily in the streets, fields, 
 and cemeteries, before large and admiring assem 
 blies. Although he himself maintained to the end 
 his connection with the Episcopal Church, his 
 labors resulted in the establishment of a separate 
 ecclesiastical organization, which spread rapidly at 
 home, and in due time extended beyond the ocean. 
 To look after the spiritual interests of the classes 
 which were formed in different localities, "leaders" 
 were appointed from among the laity, who were 
 authorized to exercise all the ordinary functions of 
 the preacher. A "call" to that post, without re 
 gard to intellectual fitness, was the single qualifica 
 tion required. It was the style of institution that 
 suited the wants of the frontier precisely. The 
 young forester, abandoning his axe and rifle at the 
 cabin door as the disciples their nets by the sea, 
 took up his easy license and started abroad, the 
 duly commissioned standard-bearer of the Faith. 
 Its solitary places awakened at the sound of his 
 voice crying in the wilderness. His labors pros 
 pered, his circuits widened, and soon, throughout 
 the length and the breadth of the land, the Meth 
 odist was known, famously and familiarly, as, par 
 eminence, the Minister of the West, the Black- 
 Rob oft! e Border. 
 
198 BLACK-ROBES. 
 
 II. 
 
 THE ARREST, AWAKENING, CONVICTION, CONVERSION, 
 AND THE CALL OF THE PREACHER. 
 
 A GLANCE at his earlier life, his adventures, 
 and his experiences, will be appropriate as 
 serving to illustrate the character of the Methodist 
 preacher of the border. Abundant facilities for 
 this purpose' are offered in the autobiographies 
 which he has contributed for the popular edifica 
 tion and entertainment. Their details present him 
 in the various circumstances and vicissitudes of his 
 career : as a thoughtless worldling, weoMed to un 
 hallowed pursuits and amusements ; as a volup 
 tuary, tempted and fallen into sin ; as an alarmed 
 offender led to penitence; and as the humbled 
 creature of conviction made the hopeful subject 
 of conversion. The portrayal is thorough and 
 complete. 
 
 He is generally born of poor but respectable 
 parents. More or less religious influence has 
 been brought to bear upon him in his childhood ; 
 usually although his father has not always 
 proved delinquent through the instrumentality of 
 his mother ; herself an old Virginia Presbyterian 
 most likely, unless, under the eloquence of White- 
 field, made a convert to the creed of the Moor- 
 
THE METHODIST. 199 
 
 fields Reformer. His Christian education, like his 
 secular, however, has been, at best, a limited one, 
 not often extending beyond a knowledge of the 
 Lord's Prayer, the Ten Commandments, and a 
 lesson or two out of the Mother's Catechism. Yet 
 is he not unaccustomed to the forms of religious 
 observance. He has seen church service, has knelt 
 at evening worship in the family, and been used to 
 the "Now I lay me down to sleep" of his own 
 private devotions. Thus far experience has gone; 
 giving its dash of color to his life, its faint outline 
 of impression to his character, to die out utterly, 
 or attain a ripe finish of shape and complexion, 
 as future contingencies may determine, thus far, 
 and no farther. 
 
 In his youth we find him, if not born on Western 
 soil, drifted thither with the tide of emigration, one 
 of a still unbroken household group, gone in quest 
 of better faring to the border. The old home-altar 
 is re-established, and its ceremonies attempted 
 anew, but the experiment staggers ; with the 
 public administration of the ordinances neglected, 
 example decays at the fireside; the zeal of the 
 votary languishes, and anon the form even of 
 the simple domestic ritual drops into desuetude. 
 The reins of discipline relax ; the disembarrassed 
 boy, eager to profit by the release, throws himself 
 with entire abandonment, like an impatient hound 
 freed from his leash, or a colt from its tether, into 
 whatever scheme of pleasure first offers or best 
 
200 BLA CK- ROBES. 
 
 attracts. He has an ear for music, an eye for 
 motion; a fiddle and a ball-room, the "Arkansas 
 Traveler" and a Virginia hoe-down, are irresisti 
 ble allurements. He hears, sees, engages a 
 partner for the next set, and the text of the Ten 
 Commandments begins to fade ; when he most 
 needs to remember, he first forgets his " Lead us 
 not into temptation." Or he has a taste for play, 
 enters the card-room, soon learns to hold his 
 hand, and pockets his hazards, too ; has his steady 
 hours at the table, and is presently the devoted 
 servant of seven-up, old sledge, and poker. Or the 
 easily besetting sin of the love of horse-flesh over 
 reaches him, and he takes to the race-course, backs 
 his charger, leaps to the contest, and over a broader 
 way and with other goal and guerdon ahead than 
 he entered for, rides to win and to lose. Fairly 
 enlisted in the devil's service, his progress does not 
 halt. He scoffs at morality ; he swears; he drinks; 
 he frolics ; he fights, and is soon proficient in all 
 the gentlemanly vices of the backwoods. 
 
 It is entertaining to notice with what a flavor of 
 fondness the reverend autobiographer looks back 
 from his later lenten standpoint and lingers over 
 this wild, licentious carnival-period in his life ! how 
 his appetite seems to whet; and his chaps to melt, 
 at the mere recollection of the savory flesh-pots of 
 the demoralized, discarded, dear old Egypt ! Nor 
 is he, indeed, ever entirely liberated from the 
 tyranny of the passions to which he then sue- 
 
THE METHODIST. 2 OI 
 
 cumbed. Jacob Young, the reverend, had always 
 a fancier's eye for a steed, and boasts of the fine 
 Arabian horse on which he threaded the morasses 
 and swam the streams in his circuit-ridings. His 
 original relish for the ring which Peter the Sinner 
 had cultivated was not totally lost to Peter the 
 Saint, in Cartwright's conversion; and the gusto is 
 eminently professional with which he tells, through 
 all the particulars, of a personal rencounter with a 
 certain disturber of the peace at a camp-meeting, 
 in which, after a solid round or two, he came off 
 victorious ; and how, on another occasion, he took 
 an attitude and pluckily called out, " Don't you 
 attempt to strike me," to a certain Major L., who 
 had " clinched his fists" with that ostensible pur 
 pose in view, " for if you do, and the devil gets out 
 of you into me, I shall give you the worst whip 
 ping you ever got in all your life." 
 
 But the carnal diversions of society by free in 
 dulgence lose, at length, their attraction, and then 
 the satiate profligate, perhaps, takes a fancy, like 
 Finley, for roving, straps his blanket on his back, 
 shoulders his rifle, and is off for the woods. The 
 life has its trials, but is one of ever-varying adven 
 ture, the excitements of which afford abundant 
 recompense for whatever of danger or discomfort 
 may attend its pursuit. It is not necessarily a 
 wicked one. To shoot a bear, and make a break 
 fast next morning on the rare delicacy of his paw, 
 baked slowly overnight in the hot ashes of the 
 
202 BLA CK-R OBES. 
 
 camp-fire ; to bag a wild turkey and dine upon it 
 at mid-day; or to dispatch, by good luck, a buffalo 
 and partake of his tongue with one's tea (whatever 
 the decoction may be) in the evening ; to bring 
 down a raccoon or a wild-cat, and, in a strait, make 
 a meal upon either, when roasts that might be 
 preferable are not procurable; or to make merchan 
 dise of the hides and furs of all of them, ought 
 scarcely to occasion pangs of remorse, and, indeed, 
 do not ; but the Sabbath has been desecrated, the 
 crack of the rifle has disturbed its hallowed rest, 
 and the inheritance of a guilty, self-accusing con 
 science, which shall find a discovery one day, is 
 entailed upon the profaner. 
 
 As poison is administered to purge from poison, 
 so the very excess of indulgence often leads to the 
 correction of the habit. The sports to which the 
 young devotee is addicted have found him, season 
 in and season out, a faithful patron. The appointed 
 time has always seen him at the appointed place. 
 He has sustained his part well, taken to it heartily, 
 enjoyed it lustily, and left it at last without a feel 
 ing of disquietude, unless it might be one of regret 
 that the hours of delight should have proved so 
 evanescent. And yet once, in the order of Provi 
 dence, it happens, after a run of luck high in his 
 favor at the card-table, perhaps, or at the close of 
 a more than ordinarily brilliant scene of festivity, as 
 on his favorite racer he rides towards home in the 
 night, he is suddenly arrested on the way by the 
 
THE METHODIST. 
 
 203 
 
 miraculous shining of a great light, such as chal 
 lenged the awe of Saul of Tarsus on his way to 
 Damascus. The sight staggers him. He begins 
 to reflect. He feels guilty and condemned. Of a 
 sudden the blood rushes to his head. His heart 
 palpitates. In a few minutes he turns blind. An 
 awful impression rests on his mind that death has 
 come, and that he is unprepared to die, when much 
 alarmed he lifts his voice to heaven and asks God to 
 have mercy on him. Reaching home, he retires to 
 bed, but finds little rest, and rises in the morning 
 feeling wretched beyond expression. He tries to 
 read the. Testament, requests his father to sell his 
 race-horse for him, and hands over his pack of 
 cards to his mother, who throws them into the fire. 
 It is the dawn of a new and momentous era in 
 his life. Conviction has overtaken him. Like an 
 attack of the bowel-complaint or the measles, and 
 with symptoms as clearly marked through the 
 various stages of progress, it lays hold of him, 
 vexes him, and brings him down. He complains 
 of broken sleep ; of a fevered, irregular pulse ; loss 
 of appetite ; dismal apprehensions ; ghastly visions 
 and nightmares. To shake ofF the disease he re 
 sorts to remedies, the accustomed ones, first, of a 
 glass of whisky, or a turn on the turf, or a set-to 
 at seven-up. These only aggravate the trouble, 
 and are dismissed for other and better expedients. 
 Retiring to a solitary grove, he spends hours in 
 meditation, moaning like a dove that has lost his 
 
204 BLACK-ROBES. 
 
 mate, and crying like the crane in the desert ; but 
 his distress does not abate. Returning to society 
 again, a sympathizing sister, likely, suggests sing 
 ing and prayer, which, when had, afford some re 
 lief. An effect of this treatment is weeping, and a 
 plentiful flow of tears is comforting. Dreams are 
 found to be refreshing ; active exercise in the open 
 air serves a good purpose, and repeating the nar 
 rative of his experience in the presence of atten 
 tive listeners at the prayer-meeting is peculiarly 
 soothing. 
 
 At length, after a longer or shorter siege of trial, 
 his griefs suddenly disappear. A flash of light, 
 "shining from the south part of heaven," gleams in 
 upon his soul : he is translated into the kingdom, 
 born into a new sphere of glorious existence, 
 and finds peace ecstatic peace in believing. As 
 he imagines ; but prematurely, as it turns out, for 
 anon he discovers that the deliverance upon which 
 he has congratulated himself is a delusion, the 
 translation a mistake, -the new birth a miscarriage. 
 A lapse from grace, either to magnify the virtue, 
 or to exemplify a dogma, would seem to be an ab 
 solute necessity as a precedent to its perfect attain 
 ment ; and he lapses. Still, though fallen, he is 
 not lost. 
 
 A second awakening takes place, attended by 
 similar phenomena with the first, and working 
 towards the same salutary end ; but the progress 
 is blocked by serious obstacles which were not 
 
THE METHODIST. 2O$ 
 
 encountered before. Then, oppressed with a sense 
 of sinfulness, and anxious only on the score of for 
 giveness, he had addressed himself accordingly; 
 content to implore, " God be merciful to me, a 
 sinner !" and satisfied, as the ground of his hope in 
 Jesus, with a faith whose only and all-sufficient 
 article was the unwritten one inexpressible, but 
 fathomable easily and infallible of the poor 
 woman of Capernaum, a lifted finger, and a touch 
 of the hem of his garment. But his theological 
 studies for he has read, since conviction, the 
 New Testament to some extent have made him 
 an "inquirer" in a new sense. Now, he cannot 
 accept grace unless he understands precisely how 
 he gets it, on what terms, at whose cost, and 
 whether he holds it inalienably, or at the option, 
 liable to be revoked, of the donor. He hesitates 
 to reach at the purifying garment until he masters 
 the mystery of its manufacture; how it is woven, 
 after what pattern, and of what thread, particularly 
 the hem of it. The church (as comprehended in 
 his notion of that institution) has become his 
 object of interest instead of Christ. He must find 
 a way to follow the Way already provided. To 
 win the crown he must run the gauntlet of the 
 creeds. Of Presbyterian parentage, quite likely, he 
 has naturally a preference for that persuasion. " If 
 I could only convince myself that Calvinism is 
 true," he says, "I would be satisfied." But he 
 trips at the horrid idea of the doctrine of Particular 
 18 
 
206 BLA CK-R OSES. 
 
 Election and Reprobation, and stumbles against 
 numerous other heresies, until finally he sees, " as 
 clearly as that two and two make four, that if the 
 Bible is true the Old Confession is false." The 
 converse of the proposition holds good, of course ; 
 and, as he does not care yet to relinquish the 
 Bible, further passage by the Westminster route is 
 given up, and search made for another. He is 
 attracted by the New Lights ; but " when he hears 
 their doctrine on the Supreme Divinity of Jesus 
 Christ, he will not go with them," impressed as he 
 is "with a clear and powerful demonstration of the 
 truth, that if Christ is not God He is powerless to 
 save." He tries the Shaking Quakers ; but their 
 worship is so ridiculous that the bare thought of 
 following up on that line is preposterous. The 
 Seceders invite attention ; but the professors of 
 that school are too scandalously immoral, being 
 addicted to intoxication, and having scarcely the 
 form of godliness about them. Communion with 
 such a circle is out of the question. Then he tries 
 to carve out a way of his own, along which to travel 
 to heaven alone ; but, as one astray in the wilder 
 ness, without star or compass to guide him, is apt 
 to wander back circuitously to his starting-point, 
 he shortly~finds himself bringing up at the old 
 booth on the race-course, and that scheme is 
 abandoned. 
 
 At this juncture it so happens that a challenge 
 salutes the inquirer from a new quarter entirely. 
 
THE METHODIST. 2O/ 
 
 Wesleyanism, surely established now in the East, 
 has reached the West. Brother Hickman, on a 
 tour of observation (1776), and Lewis Lunford, the 
 Patrick Henry of the pulpit (1779), first of their 
 sect to penetrate the wilderness, are assembling 
 the backwoodsmen in the cabins, barns, or open 
 woods, and addressing them with an eloquence 
 which is irresistible and convincing. He joins the 
 throng in attendance at their meetings, hears, is 
 enraptured, and exults at the thought that at last 
 he has hit upon the manifest highway to glory. 
 He first appears at these assemblages, which are 
 kept up daily, and is thoroughly awakened, per 
 haps on a Monday. On Tuesday he is brought 
 under profound conviction, and is so distressingly 
 affected that when he flees to the woods for relief 
 " he does not dare to take his gun with him, for 
 fear he should, in the hour of the power of dark 
 ness, commit suicide." The dawn of Wednesday 
 finds him praying and wrestling, which exercise, 
 with fasting and humiliation, is maintained through 
 the day and all the night following. On Thursday 
 he is about to resume his devotions, when sud 
 denly, at say twenty-two minutes before six in 
 the morning, " the light pours upon him in such 
 a manner, and in such a measure," that he falls to 
 the earth, shouting and praising God, so as to be 
 heard over the neighborhood, and is converted. 
 He has entered the second time into the womb, and 
 is born again. 
 
208 BLACK-ROBES. 
 
 In the working out of the reformatory process 
 which the " seeker " undergoes, each new phase of 
 development is signalized by its attending super 
 natural manifestation. God specially interposes 
 and is present in every act of his grace, not spirit 
 ually and metaphorically, but really and sensibly ; 
 as does, and is also, on the other hand, the Prince 
 of Darkness, when alarmed for his interests at the 
 detected disloyalty of a subject. At his awakening, 
 sudden blindness (each step in the proceeding is 
 always noted as "sudden," "instant," "like an 
 electric flash ") seizes the sinner. Under convic 
 tion, he hears a voice speaking out of heaven in 
 syllables of censure or of admonition, and quotes 
 its utterance ; or a celestial messenger visits and 
 counsels him in vision, while he sleeps; or the 
 devil meets him in a cavern in the woods, whither 
 he has retired to pray, in such unquestionable 
 guise, and with so unmistakable an intent " to seize 
 and drag him down to hell, soul and body," that he 
 starts to his feet affrighted, takes to his heels, and 
 runs, full speed, to his mother, knitting at home 
 in her cabin, for protection. Conversion comes, 
 attended with a literal display of light ineffable and 
 full of glory : the subject of it distinctly hears a 
 voice announce, "Thy sins are all forgiven thee !" 
 gives attention with ear and eye, and really wit 
 nesses the mountains and the hills break forth into 
 singing, and all the trees of the fields clap their 
 hands, in irrepressible ecstasy at the event. 
 
THE METHODIST. 209 
 
 After conversion comes the Call. The "convict" 
 spends an hour following the crisis of his rescue, 
 in a delirium of rapture, catching, peradventure, 
 his wife in his arms, running round the house, and 
 shouting, "Salvation ! salvation!" so that his neigh 
 bors think him drunk or crazy. While thus exer 
 cised, a voice falls " like a falling star" from heaven, 
 saying, " Go, preach my gospel !" upon which he 
 immediately responds, "Yes, Lord, if thou wilt go 
 with me." Forthwith, not tarrying to confer with 
 flesh and blood, but hurrying out as fast as he can to 
 the nearest cabin, he calls its inmates together and 
 begins to proclaim a risen Saviour who has power 
 on earth to forgive sins. Or perchance he may 
 hesitate at the divinely indicated line of duty ; he 
 may, with modest emphasis, deny his fitness for the 
 priestly office, may withdraw to the woods and tell 
 his Maker that if it is pressed to the alternative that 
 he must preach the gospel or go to. hell, he must go 
 to hell, for he has not the least qualification for the 
 work. As results of this resistance to the designs of 
 Providence, he loses all comfort, becomes gloomy^ 
 and despondent, and from a state of robust health 
 is reduced almost to a walking skeleton. But the 
 invisible, mighty pressure continues. There is no 
 mistaking, nor indeed any thought of questioning, 
 its source. At length he ceases to oppose, with 
 becoming humility acquiesces in the appointment, 
 puts on the harness, and, to his speedy convales 
 cence, and the healthy restoration of his dwindled 
 18* 
 
2 1 o BLA CK-R OBES. 
 
 flesh and depressed spirits, enters the lists and takes 
 the field. Saul of Tarsus at sunrise is Paul the 
 Apostle at noon, and appoints to meet and address 
 his impenitent friends at Mars' Hill by early candle 
 light in the evening. 
 
 III. 
 
 THE PREACHER IN THE PULPIT. 
 
 THE idea of "preparation" for the ministry was 
 one that never found favor for a moment in the 
 Methodist mind. Learning was regarded as not 
 only unnecessary, but actually objectionable, in the 
 Black-Robe; who was. presumed to be chosen of 
 God as his officer, either by act of foreordination, 
 opposed though such a view was to a favorite de 
 nominational tenet, or by special election, just as he 
 was ; and for whom, in such a case, to try to improve 
 upon his qualifications, would be to doubt the wis 
 dom and defeat an evident design of the Almighty. 
 The blind, notwithstanding the proverb, were the 
 true leaders of the blind. Rev. Jacob Young, at one 
 time, thought to try the experiment of a literary, 
 scientific, and theological course, but soon found 
 that it would not work. God, in token of disap 
 proval, hid his countenance from him; the Bible 
 became a sealed book; he lost his comfort, was 
 
THE METHODIST. 211 
 
 attacked with a violent fever, and severe pain in his 
 head, and only got well when he abandoned letters 
 and fell back on inspiration. One of his cotempora- 
 ries testifies that he would rather have the gift of a 
 devil-dislodging power than all the college lore or 
 biblical-institute knowledge that could be obtained 
 from mortal man ; and gives it as his opinion that 
 the best course of preparation for the pulpit is to 
 take your sinner, shake him awhile over hell, then 
 knock the scales from his eyes, and, without any 
 previous theological training, send him out straight 
 way to preach Jesus and the Resurrection. A 
 writer, while he records it, boasts of the fact that, 
 among the thousands of traveling and local preach 
 ers in his church, there were not more than fifty 
 that had anything more than a common English 
 education, and scores of them not that ; and that 
 not one of them was ever trained in a theological 
 school, yet hundreds of them had more seals to 
 their ministry than all the sapient, downy D.D.'s 
 in modern times, presiding in the various institu 
 tions throughout the land. These plainly-spoken 
 views were not entertained by the commoners 
 merely of the profession, but had the concurrence 
 of the chief dignitaries as well, Bishop Asbury 
 among the rest. 
 
 The study of men was recommended as the solely 
 profitable one ; that of books, condemned as super 
 fluous. Christ had no literary college or university, 
 no theological school or biblical institute, to train 
 
212 BLACK-ROBES. 
 
 his disciples in. On the contrary, He showed his 
 contempt for all such establishments by selecting 
 his followers from the lowest and least-enlightened 
 classes of society. True, the Black-Robe of the 
 better-informed minority, as we have seen, was not 
 utterly and absolutely unskilled in letters. With 
 the print in clear, round type, under a favorable 
 light, and with careful attention, having previously 
 conned the lesson, he could read a chapter tolerably 
 intelligibly from the New Testament, or the lines of 
 a stanza from the hymn-book. As a somewhat com 
 mon, although not invariable, rule, he could also 
 write. On one recorded occasion he was requested 
 by a lady, under whose roof he was tarrying for a 
 night, while on the tour of his circuit, to act as her 
 amanuensis in a trifling matter of correspondence. 
 Blushingly, and with unfeigned diffidence, he as 
 sumed the task, and it is with a pardonable air of 
 proud satisfaction that he relates to the narrator 
 of the incident the success rather, it would seem, 
 to the surprise of both parties attending the ex 
 periment. The Presbyterian preacher who had 
 served the apprenticeship required by the school 
 to which he belonged, who was manufactured 
 like a head of lettuce in a hot-house, and who was 
 wont to sermonize from manuscripts, was an object 
 of mingled pity and disdain. His messages, like 
 cold meats, carved no matter how neatly, were 
 stale, flat, and unpalatable, which the border sinner 
 might taste once in awhile, perhaps, but, used 
 
THE METHODIST. 213 
 
 to hot and savory indulgences, could never be 
 tempted to accept as a standing diet. The Method 
 ist would set the world on fire while the Presby 
 terian formal, precise, and measured as to his 
 deliveries was lighting his matches. 
 
 Sir Geoffrey Hudson could wield a sword and 
 join as valiantly as Prince Rupert in a sally against 
 the train-bands of London, and with as full a 
 trust in the efficiency of the blade he flourished, 
 although there were but twenty inches of him, all 
 told, to show in comparison with the full stature 
 of his illustrious fellow-martialist. The Methodist 
 Black-Robe was not of inferior virtue to the pygmy 
 knight in one striking particular at least. Re 
 posing a confidence in his own power of achieve 
 ment that was never shaken by disaster, he not only 
 felt himself the peer of any ecclesiastical Rupert, 
 the princeliest that ever handled spiritual iron, but 
 would volunteer a charge, unsupported and alone, 
 against all the- train-bands of Christendom com 
 bined. There was no question within the range 
 of theological inquiry which he did not hold him 
 self reaSy, at a moment's notice, to solve to the 
 entire satisfaction of any audience. He unolerstood 
 all mysteries and all knowledge : points of doctrine, 
 made the lifetime subjects of investigation by less 
 enlightened students of the word, and perhaps not 
 clearly settled then, he was ready to pronounce 
 upon off-hand, and with an air of decision that 
 would have done credit to an Ecumenical Council. 
 
2i 4 BLACK-ROBES. 
 
 It was difficult, if not impossible, to match him at 
 a controversy. He could settle the business of a 
 Calvinistic professor on the subject of Election, 
 handsomely and conclusively, at a single tilt, and 
 within the space of two minutes. " A few ques 
 tions," says Finley, "would invariably silence him." 
 The Baptist he found rather a tough customer, but 
 in ordinary cases he could floor his antagonist of 
 that cloth in half a dozen rounds at furthest. He 
 could ring the changes on Bapto with a facility that 
 was marvelous in the ears of the multitude, who 
 were not always aware of the extent of his acquire 
 ments, and who did not know that from his one 
 acquaintance with the original texts in both cases 
 he might, with the same skill precisely, have gone 
 into the discussion of a disputed hieroglyph on an 
 Egyptian obelisk. 
 
 In the matter of pronunciation he was somewhat 
 irregular, not conforming exactly to the rules in 
 request among acknowledged authorities. His 
 accents, dropped pretty much at random, were apt 
 to fall where they were not designed to fit; his 
 vowels were not invariably true to their" colors ; 
 not a few of the consonants used to double duty 
 would strike out in one capacity when they should 
 have served in another ; while syllables, especially 
 the inferior ones of the heavier combinations, were 
 sadly slighted, and, indeed, sometimes ignored 
 altogether. Words were liable to similar discour 
 tesy, being frequently introduced, under perverted 
 
THE METHODIST. 215 
 
 names, into strange company, and made not only 
 to suffer themselves, on the suspicion of false 
 pretense, by the association, but now and then to 
 implicate their new neighbors as conniving at the 
 imposition. As for language, his vocabulary was 
 not very extensive, but its resources were suffi 
 ciently abundant for his purpose. What he knew, 
 he knew all the more intimately for not knowing 
 more. The telling, trenchant, hell-fire-and-damna- 
 tion dialect of the turf, the bar, and the ball-room 
 he had carried over with him in his "brimstone 
 wallet," as he facetiously terms it, at his conver 
 sion, and since kept in readiness to shake over the 
 heads of insulting and profane sinners among his 
 hearers. 
 
 In the pulpit the Methodist Black-Robe was in 
 his element. The unembarrassed step with which 
 he mounted the platform ; his seemingly half-uncon 
 sciousness of the act, as with a glance of customary 
 so he would have it appear rather than curious 
 observation he lifted his eyes and swept the space 
 filled by his hearers, as a chess-player does his board, 
 ere the game quite opens, to see that the pieces are 
 complete and properly adjusted in their places ; the 
 showy carelessness with which he extracted his 
 folios from his person it was his boast that he 
 carried all his library, Testament, hymn-book, and 
 " Discipline" composing the catalogue, in his 
 pocket and laid them down, with much delibera 
 tion, volume by volume, on the desk; and the 
 
2 1 6 BLA CK-R OBES. 
 
 gratifying complacency with which, flourishing 
 his handkerchief, he proceeded to clear his throat, 
 and his nose, violently, of such imaginary or real 
 obstruction to clear speech as might lodge, or be 
 supposed to lodge, in either, all were admirably 
 calculated, and intended, as so many advertise 
 ments to the people that, in the speaker about to 
 address them, they beheld the right man in the 
 right place, and no mistake, one who was per 
 fectly at home in it, and thorough master of the 
 situation. 
 
 His sermons were originals ; not borrowed or 
 copied from the standard styles of the time, but 
 fashioned after a pattern peculiarly their own. In 
 their composition he did not allow himself to be 
 hampered by the restrictions ordinarily regarded as 
 indispensable to excellence in the art. He did not 
 adhere with undeviating fidelity to the straight 
 forward pursuit of an argument, preferring to 
 loiter by the way, as attractive fancies now and 
 again sprang in his path to invite to dalliance ; 
 or, tempted by a suggestion, butterfly-like darted 
 up to divert him, to follow the lure in its excur 
 sive flight, to the relinquishment of the line of his 
 main purpose altogether. His texts or mottoes, 
 to speak more accurately, because they rather in 
 dicated than really formed his subjects of decla 
 mation were selections from the Scriptures of 
 such passages or phrases as might be introduced 
 with effect to swell a sentence or round a period, 
 
THE METHODIST. 2 1/ 
 
 which, with wonderful facility, he could contrive 
 to do, let the tone of the topic vary as it might, 
 "for he played on a harp of a thousand strings /" 
 His treatment of a subject varied according to 
 the circumstances attending its delivery. The 
 several styles from which he had to choose were 
 " the argumentative, the dogmatic, the postidary, 
 the persuasive, the punitive, the combative,, the 
 logical, and the poetic." As affording a broader 
 field for the exercise of his talents, and as, indeed, 
 capable, in his hands, of embodying all the effective 
 force without the heaviness of the others, the 
 " poetic" stood in chief favor. The preliminary 
 details of his discourses were managed with a tone 
 and action remarkable for moderation, and the 
 steady, stately tenor of their rendering. Here it 
 was he exhibited himself in his more solid, "argu 
 mentative " mood ; seizing the occasion, as the 
 most opportune, for a specimen-display of his 
 qualities in reserve, and to furnish a hint of the 
 wind and bottom to be depended upon when, pres 
 ently, both should be put to the trial. So, on the 
 turf in his sporting-days, he may have walked his 
 courser round and about the starting-post, to show 
 his parts, set forth his points, and prove his train 
 ing, before the eyes of admiring beholders, ere 
 opening upon the proper career, where the glory 
 came in, for which he was entered. But no sooner 
 was this ceremony ended and the moment for 
 " business " arrived, than a striking change became 
 19 
 
2 1 8 BLA CK-R OBES. 
 
 apparent. The face of the orator flushed, his eye 
 brightened like the eyelids of the morning, the 
 sonorous voice for which he was famous let out 
 its power, and " his gestures grew animated as the 
 waftures of a fiery torch." Poetry, madly broke 
 loose, took to wild flight, and, cleaving space, went 
 whirling through the distances without regard to 
 laws of limitation: ascending up to heaven, de 
 scending into hell, taking the wings of the morning 
 and speeding to the uttermost parts of the sea; 
 plucking bright honors from the moon, sun, stars, 
 weaving to itself garlands from the lightning's 
 wings, toying with tempests, and grasping infernal 
 thunder, black fire, and horror from the nether 
 abysses. 
 
 This particular style, however, was not sus 
 tained uninterruptedly through the performance, 
 but was relieved at appropriate intervals by such in 
 tercalary passages of pleasantry, sarcasm, ridicule, 
 or rebuke, as ordinarily, having a direct personal 
 application, could not fail to elicit interest and 
 keep wide awake the attention of an audience. 
 Some indiscreet or disorderly sinner would violate 
 a custom, or otherwise offend against decorum, 
 during service. The preacher, perhaps in the 
 midst of one of his sublimest soarings, would 
 pause, point a lifted finger at the offender, whose 
 misdemeanor may have been, suppose, that he 
 had appropriated accommodation to himself, and 
 made a conspicuous show of it, among the females 
 
THE METHODIST. 219 
 
 on their exclusive side of the house, let his voice 
 drop from its strained pitch in alt, to the deep bari 
 tone level most effective for conveyance of reproof, 
 and, after stating in measured terms his charge, to 
 identify the culprit beyond mistake, would say, 
 " I mean that young man there, standing on the 
 seats of the ladies, with a ruffled shirt on, and I 
 doubt not that the ruffled shirt was borrowed." 
 In such-like quaint and pleasing episodes the 
 orator could indulge at his pleasure, and with 
 none the less freedom, that under protection of 
 his cloth he knew he was safely sheltered against 
 retaliation. And yet it sometimes happened, as 
 with the Rev. C. in the instance quoted, that the 
 party denounced would kick against the grievance. 
 With a respect for propriety which the clerical 
 brother might have imitated to advantage, the 
 ruffled shirt waited until the congregation was dis 
 missed, and then quietly informed the divine that 
 he proposed to whip him. C. accepted the chal 
 lenge, suggesting that they should retire to the 
 woods " to fight it out." A fence lay in their 
 way; jumping over it, C. sprained his ankle, and 
 put his hand to his side. " Damn you," said he 
 of the ruffles, suspicious of concealed weapons, 
 " you're feeling for a dirk, are you ?" " Yes," re 
 plied the reverend, which was not strictly true, and 
 indeed, although C., in the narration, would make 
 it appear as an innocent bit of facetiousness, in the 
 fact was manifestly intended to deceive and intimi- 
 
220 BLACK-ROBES. 
 
 date, " yes, and I will give you the benefit of all 
 I have," charging at once on the enemy's works 
 as he said it. The ruffled shirt, unarmed as he was, 
 made a leap and put the fence between himself and 
 his opponent. A party of "rowdies," friends and 
 backers of the priestly pugilist, joined in; the 
 offender was surrounded, bound with hickory-bark 
 to a pole, taken to a pond not far from the camp 
 ground, and " ducked nearly to death." Mr. C, 
 meanwhile, stood by and consented, like Paul on 
 a somewhat similar occasion, although that was 
 before the apostle's conversion. He refers to the 
 whole transaction as one of a highly amusing 
 character. 
 
 Comprehensively, the wit of the preacher may 
 be described as of that purely Shakspearean order 
 which, in a different sphere, and more recently, has 
 given his classical reputation to a conspicuous 
 fancier of the immortal text, and who stands con 
 nected, in the popular mind, with associations of 
 the tented arena, motley tights and tan-bark. In 
 this connection, by the way, and as a coincidence 
 perhaps deserving notice, a characteristic fact is 
 on record, which, as it has been made, personally, 
 matter of special parade, each in his own ring, by 
 both circuit- and circus-rider, should be mentioned; 
 namely, that while one, as a strong feature for his 
 bills, has made a boast of his "one-horse show," 
 so has the other, with an equal flourish on the 
 autobiographical page, of his " one-man congre- 
 
THE METHODIST. 221 
 
 gation." Scrupulous moralists and men of fas 
 tidious taste might take exception, now and then, 
 to the sayings of such Christian orators as the 
 " Pulpit-Thumper," the " Bull-Dog," the " New 
 Market Devil," and the "Sinai Thunderer" in 
 their humorous moods, when " Mather in his best 
 comedy" and "Sheridan in his funniest farce" 
 showed not 'half their mirth-provoking power, 
 and yet why should they, when prime ministers 
 of the communion, grave and reverend annalists 
 of the times, have not hesitated to excuse and 
 to approve ? Under which canvas could it have 
 been that Mr. Merryman called out, " Pray on, 
 Brother Walker, and if he [an obstreperous inter- 
 ferer] cuts up any capers, I'll down him and hold 
 him till you're done, for the kingdom of heaven suf 
 fer eth violence, and the violent take it by force" ? Is 
 it hippodrome or house-of-God vernacularism that 
 the performer employs when he exclaims, ''Watch 
 and pray, friends ; don't let the devil get among you 
 on the sly, before candle-light"? Which humorist 
 was it that relates how on a certain occasion, in a 
 dispute with one of his own cloth, he "blowed 
 this proselyting, sheep-stealing preacher to Never, 
 where another Baptist preacher that he once 
 heard of, would have gone if he had jumped off" ? 
 The prayer of the service was of like composi 
 tion, both in matter and manner, with the sermon. 
 It was entered upon calmly, and with some regard 
 to order in the conception and delivery. The voice, 
 19* 
 
222 BLACK-ROBES. 
 
 keyed to a natural tone, syllabled itself articulately 
 and deliberately, moving not unstatelily as to the 
 Dorian mood of flutes and soft recorders ; while 
 the action was just and in appropriate harmony 
 with the speech. But, as the petitioner proceeded, 
 the sober method soon, and by rapid develop 
 ment, began to manifest symptoms of derangement. 
 Accelerating in pace and strengthening in power, 
 his utterance ran the ascending intervals of the 
 scale, until the height was won and the intensity 
 reached, beyond which the capacities of the organ, 
 in spite of superhuman effort, could not attain. 
 To sustain the lofty elevation imposed a hard strain 
 upon his energies, but the ordeal was gallantly met, 
 and pluckily endured, although the severity of the 
 labor told with torturing effect upon the machinery 
 of the man. The veins upon his neck and forehead 
 stood out full and round, like cords ; great drops 
 of sweat hung on his brow ; the red tinging his 
 cheeks darkened to purple ; his lips grew livid ; 
 the motion of his jaws churned the secretions of 
 their engendering, and the foam as it accumulated 
 oozed clammily out at the corners of his mouth, 
 thence darting in spumy flecks away upon the cur 
 rent of his breath over the heads of the people, or 
 settling back, checked ever and anon by long- 
 drawn inspirations sharply hissing through the 
 half-closed teeth, into its proper reservoir. 
 
 At such a pitch of soaring, while lungs and mus 
 cles failed not, it was possible to keep sound and 
 
THE METHODIST. 
 
 223 
 
 fury afloat, but not with other ballast than the 
 proverb allows them. The atmosphere was too 
 thin for reason to breathe in. Up in a balloon, the 
 scared sense lost its sanity and went a-raving. All 
 was disorder, all confusion. Still, through the tur 
 moil and the tangle, the busy tongue tripped on ; 
 saying the more, more vehemently, the less it had 
 to say ; quoting and misquoting scraps of Scrip 
 ture ; addressing the Almighty by his most awful 
 titles in rounds of endless repetition; vociferous 
 with exclamations; full of strange oh's ; and all with 
 such an accompaniment of yells, and shrieks, and 
 groans, and " windy suspirations of forced breath," 
 and clapping of hands, and shouts of glory, as, 
 almost excusably, to tempt the uninitiated to 
 suspect of the Deity appealed to, that " either 
 He was talking, or He was pursuing, or He was 
 in a journey, or peradventure He slept and must 
 be awakened." 
 
 For the few minutes customarily allotted to this 
 exercise, and until near its close, the style intense 
 was kept in play, all the while, with unflagging 
 activity. Suddenly, then, as by some trick of 
 magic, arrested in mid-career, it paused. The rigor 
 and tension of the countenance relaxed; the veiny 
 currents resumed their natural flow, the cheeks 
 and lips their wonted color. The storm was over, 
 ceased on the instant; and out of the great calm 
 that ensued, fallen at a drop to the gentle tone and 
 attunement of its opening, briefly the voice gave 
 
224 BLACK-ROBES. 
 
 the rounding clause to its orison, and the prayer 
 was ended. 
 
 The singing of the service was, perhaps, its most 
 attractive feature. The hymns before sermon were 
 generally selections from the book, read out couplet 
 by couplet, for the accommodation of the congre 
 gation, among whom copies of the text, and not to 
 put the case too pointedly spectacles, were much 
 wanting. The preacher acted as his own clerk and 
 chorister, choosing for his "tune" Dundee's wild, 
 warbling strain, or plaintive Martyrs, or some other 
 of the standard chants common to all the various 
 denominations of the border. These compositions 
 were of too staid a character to elicit that degree of 
 enthusiasm to which the Methodist mind was par 
 tial, but, nevertheless, were rendered with no little 
 spirit. The voices all, male and female, sang in 
 unison. Music had not risen to the dignity of a 
 profession in the wilderness as yet, and it was not 
 to be expected that its rules were to govern strictly 
 in the performances. Time, as an element in the 
 movement, was regulated by chance, and chance 
 by the loudest pair of lungs. As Stentor led the 
 way, the inferior organs followed, catching, by 
 quick imitation, his style, and conforming to his 
 paces with a remarkable felicity of adaptation. 
 
 But the hymns of the people the characteristic 
 ones which reached to the heart and provoked the 
 liveliest response were those of native invention, 
 not put down in the book, and therefore, vastly to 
 
THE METHODIST. 2 2$ 
 
 the popular preference, not necessitating the ser 
 vices of the prompter at the desk. The compo 
 sition of these hymns was peculiar. They were 
 characterized by extreme simplicity, not always 
 accurate, by any means, in their rhythmical ar 
 rangement, but perhaps for even faults will have 
 their fascination borrowing a feature of attraction 
 from that very fact. As to their probable origin, 
 if, in the pursuit of his solitary route, the circuit- 
 rider should at any time have had his attention 
 arrested, while passing near some corn-field in a 
 clearing, by a sound of voices singing, in plaintive 
 remembrance of former times and scenes, to the 
 play of hoes among the growing stalks, 
 
 " Whar, oh, whar is my good ole fader, 
 Whar, oh, whar is my good ole fader, 
 Whar, oh, whar is my good ole fader? ' 
 'Way down in de Car'lina State. 
 
 By-an'-by we do hope to meet 'im, 
 By-an'-by we do hope to meet Mm, 
 By-an'-by we do hope to meet 'im, 
 'Way down in de Car'lina State," 
 
 nothing could be more natural than that, struck 
 alike by the pleasing mood of the melody and the 
 simple art of the stanzas, he should have thought 
 of the fine adaptability of both, with certain easy 
 and obvious modifications of sentiment in the latter, 
 for devotional purposes. His next appointment 
 sees the experiment made. It proves a success ; 
 and the secular ditty, converted so as to read, 
 
226 BLA CK-R OBES. 
 
 " Where, oh, where, now, is good old Isaac," or 
 "Jacob," or " Elijah," or "the Hebrew Children," or 
 any other saintly nominee, with the refrain spiritual 
 ized into, " Away down in the Promised Land," 
 has its new, gospel destiny, and will keep it, to 
 animate the ardor and gladden the hearts of wor 
 shipers, for many and many a year to come. 
 
 Upon such terms of construction it was not diffi 
 cult to frame verses. Melodies, as involving the 
 exercise of invention, were the main want, a want, 
 however, conveniently satisfied, when it was dis 
 covered that a change of art was as possible as 
 a change of heart, and that profane music could 
 be brought under sanctifying influence as well as 
 ungodly minds. Soon, therefore, this source of 
 supply laid under contribution, quite a collection 
 of airs was amassed ; sufficient to keep up the due 
 proportion of praise through the closing devotional 
 services, let the interest of the occasion protract 
 them as it might. Of these melodies, some con 
 tinue, not unworthily, to hold a place, even as yet, 
 in the local popular favor. If discarded almost en 
 tirely from the camp, for instance, that plaintive 
 air is not <. forgotten thing of beauty in the cot 
 tages that dot the scenes of its ancient popularity, 
 which there are those who will readily recall in 
 association with the lines, 
 
 " There is rest for the weary, 
 
 There is rest for the weary, 
 
 There is rest for the weary, 
 
 And we'll rest there too : 
 
THE METHODIST. 
 
 227 
 
 On the other side of Jordan, 
 In the sweet fields of Eden, 
 Where the tree of life is blooming, 
 And we'll rest there too." 
 
 Others there are which are almost lost, lingering 
 only in the recollection of the few here and there 
 of a fast-wasting generation who, as children, sat 
 and in still wonder listened and learned, as, at the 
 gatherings in the groves, their fathers and mothers 
 sang them long ago, like this, caught one day, 
 and made a note of, as it fell quaveringly from the 
 lips not reluctant to gratify a curious hearer of 
 one of their number: 
 
 Ye sis-ters in the Lord, Come rise and go with me, And 
 
 i*E??=r3 
 
 leave this sin - ful world, And " all things be - low 
 
 ==i=gL^__ 
 
 ^ 
 
 Come learn to watch and pray, As ye journey on the way, And you'll 
 
 I I 
 
 X k P -p f p 1 
 
 BE =^=9= 3! 
 
 soon climb the banks of Cal va ry. 
 
 This hymn was particularly designed for the altar, 
 or " Glory Pen," and could be continued ad libi- 
 
228 BLACK-ROBES. 
 
 tit in by the simple substitution of "brothers," or 
 "fathers," or "mothers," or what not, for "sisters" 
 in the first line. While it was being sung, the custom 
 was for the preachers and leaders to move freely 
 about within the inclosure, exchanging greetings 
 among themselves and shaking hands with the 
 "mourners." 
 
 The music, that is the own peculiar music of 
 the Methodist, was always spirited. Sentiment was 
 not fastidious as to its style of conveyance, save in 
 this respect only, it never chose a slow coach. 
 Grave or light, sombre or joyous, the airy-paced 
 vehicle was the one for its burden. The " minor" 
 airs in use to a limited extent, such as the one 
 usually sung to "When I can read my title clear," 
 with the accompanying chorus of " Oh, the Lamb, 
 the loving Lamb, the Lamb of Calvary," etc., 
 formed no exception to the rule. Expression de 
 pended upon degrees of intensity the piano and 
 the forte rather than upon variety in mode, for 
 effect. The worshiping assembly was a great 
 organ, as it were, many-piped, yet with but one 
 stop, the swell besides, and the bellows. Never 
 theless the instrument was capable of wonderful 
 diversity in its emotional range and force. Who 
 ever may have had the opportunity of hearing, 
 long ago, the famous old revival hymn, will well 
 remember with what a dread-inspiring power the 
 opening verse (and others succeeding of like dole 
 ful tenor) fell upon his ears: 
 
THE METHODIST. 229 
 
 " Oh, there will be mourning, mourning, mourning, mourning, 
 Oh, there will be mourning at the judgment-seat of Christ! 
 Brothers and sisters there will part, [twice repeated,] 
 Will part to meet no more !" 
 
 and how sudden and complete, how thrilling 
 and rapturous, the changed experience, as the 
 chorus of voices, true still to time and tune, but 
 bursting into a tone of vehement intensity like that 
 which gives noise to the huzza, of an army at the 
 moment of victory, rung to the significance of the 
 closing stanza: 
 
 "Oh, there will be shouting, shouting, shouting, shouting, 
 Oh, there will be shouting at the judgment-seat of Christ! 
 Saints and angels there will meet, [repeated as before,] 
 Will meet to part no m re !" 
 
 The closing refrain of one or another of the 
 hymns of this class brought the worship to an end. 
 The preacher arose in his place, lifted his hands, 
 pronounced the benediction, and his duties were 
 done. Soberly the people deserted their seats, and 
 calmly, as though the storm through which they 
 were just passed had never been, withdrew from 
 the house and retired to their homes. 
 
 20 
 
230 BLACK-ROBES. 
 
 IV. 
 IN THE SADDLE AND ON THE CIRCUIT. 
 
 Methodist Black-Robe had his local fields 
 X of labor, but the sphere more peculiarly pro 
 fessional to him was of wider embrace, reaching 
 in grand range over miles of territory, from station 
 to station in which he journeyed, making his stages 
 and his stoppages according to schedule previously 
 timed, and completing the round in a month or 
 months, to resume and pursue it over and over 
 again as often as was practicable during the term 
 of his appointment. The newer circuits those 
 extending into the thinly populated districts of 
 the remoter frontier, where the preacher ran the 
 risk of passing a night once in awhile without the 
 shelter of a roof constituted the " Missionary" 
 ground of the church. Ample arrangements were 
 made, in such a case, for the comfortable protection 
 of the "itinerant" against the roughnesses and pri 
 vations to which he might be exposed by the way. 
 Besides the Arab steed for his own riding, of which 
 he wa justly proud, he started out provided with 
 a pack-horse to carry the few stores that were 
 needed for his frugal sustenance, at such times as 
 he might be compelled to camp it and do his own 
 cooking on the route. These stores consisted of 
 
THE METHODIST. 231 
 
 ground coffee, parched corn run through a mill 
 and mixed with sugar, beef-tongues, cold meats, 
 and sea-biscuits; a coffee-pot, britannia tumblers 
 and spoons, steel knives, wooden forks, and, to 
 complete the whole, a water-proof linen tent, large 
 enough, if necessary, to accommodate nine men 
 conveniently. But the missionary had counted 
 the cost of his office before assuming its responsi 
 bilities, so that, although he may have had reason 
 to groan under crosses, to lament over hard lodg 
 ing, and to complain of picnic provender, yet did 
 he find grace sufficient to meet each tribulation as 
 it came, and bravely to worry it through. 
 
 Once he was under the necessity of spending a 
 night in the log cabin of a backwoodsman on the 
 far border. His experience on the occasion is cir 
 cumstantially sketched, by his own hand, in illus 
 tration of the dire extremities to which the pioneer 
 preachers were driven, now and then, in the prose 
 cution of their work. There was no floor in the 
 house, the bare ground, leveled off and smoothed 
 down, being made to answer instead. Hickory 
 poles were laid across at the angles of the -roof 
 where it rested upon the walls, to serve as joists, 
 which with an over-spread of clapboards formed 
 the upper floor. The house had neither bedstead, 
 chair, nor table. To supply the want of the first- 
 mentioned article of furniture, for his own and his 
 wife's accommodation, forked sticks had bee:i 
 driven into the ground at one corner of the cabin 
 
232 BLACK-ROBES. 
 
 as supports for poles, across which clapboards 
 were laid, and these "covered with some bedding, 
 such as it was." The little negro boy of the estab 
 lishment slept, wrapt in a deer-skin, on the ground. 
 So did the missionary, between two blankets, with 
 his saddle-bags for a pillow. "Surrounded by 
 these gloomy circumstances," he "felt rather mel 
 ancholy," and his mind began to run back to 
 former days of "ease and plenty" (he had been 
 raised, according to a previous chapter of his auto 
 biography, in a "log cabin," with "no floor" to it, 
 and the "wolves howling around it at night"); but 
 when he thought within himself that he was better 
 off than his Saviour was, for He "had not where 
 to lay his head," he became more contented, and 
 had a tolerably comfortable night of it. He made 
 his breakfast, on a board bench, of corn-bread and 
 milk, no spoons. One can scarcely refrain from 
 wondering, with some view as to whom the sym 
 pathy should apply, if so miserable was the ex 
 perience to the preacher for a night, what must it 
 have been to the parishioner as the habit, without 
 change or relief, of his life ? 
 
 In his more customary ridings, however, the 
 itinerant was not liable to risks of inconvenience, 
 nor under the necessity of providing against the 
 contingencies of a ground-floor, corn-bread and 
 milk, and no spoons. A pair of saddle-bags, 
 packed with his little all requisite of linen and 
 library, was his only equipage. Good houses, 
 
THE METHODIST. 
 
 233 
 
 public and private, were not so few or far between 
 along the way but that the hospitalities of one or 
 the other could be claimed, at noontide for dinner, 
 or for bed and board, wherever overtaken by its 
 approach, at night. Householder and hostler, saint 
 and son of Belial, with the courtesy characteristic 
 of all classes alike, received him at his coming, 
 and civilly entertained him; even the publican 
 rarely demanding, and less often receiving, a fee 
 for the accommodation. The attention which was 
 at first viewed rather in the light of a charity by 
 the host, soon came to be regarded as a due by 
 the customer, who, in the end, established a habit 
 of claiming what he desired with an independence 
 that was imposing to behold. Was not the laborer 
 worthy of his hire ? 
 
 And it was paid liberally. In the private estab 
 lishment its choicest resources were offered for 
 his distinguished delectation. Closet and pantry 
 were distrained of their rarest delicacies, and the 
 poultry-yard of its fattest broodlings, to furnish 
 a palatable variety for his table. The air and 
 the exercise of the road wefe favorable to diges 
 tion; they stimulated healthily the inner man of 
 the reverend traveler, and bred an appetite the 
 consumptive capacity of which got to be so gen 
 erally understood and appreciated as to become 
 proverbial. He relished a turkey, and yet objected 
 to it (or his own people have persistently slandered 
 him) that while it was, perhaps, a little too much, 
 20* 
 
234 BLACK-ROBES. 
 
 as a rqast, for one, it was certainly not enough for 
 two. At the inn, where discrimination among 
 guests, eating unavoidably at the same board, could 
 not well be made, he had to forego the privilege 
 of preferred meats, and fare like the rest of its 
 patrons; but a "square meal" could always be de 
 pended upon ; for there was no stint of provision 
 ever to complain of as tables stood among the 
 taverns of those times. 
 
 His personal wants having been satisfied, the 
 foremost business afterwards of the Black-Robe 
 was to make the accident of his presence an agree 
 able and professionally profitable one to his enter 
 tainer. Perhaps his host of the private lodge was 
 a hunter, the warm side of whose heart he intui 
 tively knew was to be approached through his 
 rifle, like the Arkansas squatter's, of legendary 
 renown, through his fiddle. To prove his skill at 
 the craft, he would propose a mark and a crack at 
 a hundred yards, beat the woodman, of course, 
 over and over again, and then, commending the 
 gun and complimenting the owner, would follow 
 up the last fire with a few practical observations on 
 the subject of religion. If the hunter's sound con 
 version did not occur on the spot, another round 
 of shot, had next " riding" of the circuit, was never 
 known to fail. 
 
 Nor did he any the less dutifully neglect his 
 mission at the tavern. Whatever the chances or 
 the circumstances attending his stay, in season or 
 
THE METHODIST. 
 
 235 
 
 out of season, he would find, or make, an oppor 
 tunity for discovering himself in his ministerial 
 character. Probably, on entering the house of an 
 evening, he would find the young people of the 
 neighborhood assembled, a fiddler at play, and 
 couples arranging themselves for a dance. A 
 "beautiful, ruddy young lady" would walk very 
 gracefully up to him, dropping a handsome cour 
 tesy, and pleasantly, with winning smiles, invite 
 him out to the floor. He would rise "as gracefully 
 as he could," move to the beautiful lady's left side, 
 and grasp her right hand with his, while with her left 
 wrist she would lean on his arm. In this manner 
 they would walk to their position. The whole 
 company would seem pleased "at this act of polite 
 ness in the beautiful young lady shown to the 
 stranger." The negro fiddler would begin to put 
 his fiddle in the best order. The preacher would 
 then tell the fiddler to hold a minute, and would 
 go on to say that for several years he had not under 
 taken any matter of importance without first asking 
 the blessing of God upon it, and he now desired to 
 ask the blessing of God on the beautiful young 
 lady and the company who had shown so much 
 politeness to a stranger. Here he would grasp the 
 beautiful young lady's hand and say, "Let us all 
 kneel down and pray;" and then instantly drop 
 on his knees and commence praying with all the 
 power of "soul and body" that he could command. 
 The beautiful young lady would try to get loose 
 
236 BLACK-ROBES. 
 
 from him, but he would hold her tight. The 
 company would look curious. The fiddler would 
 run for the kitchen, exclaiming, " Lord a marcy, 
 what de matter? What dat mean?" The prayer 
 would be followed by singing, the singing by ex 
 hortation, and the whole, kept up for hours, would 
 result in the " powerful conversion" of the beautiful 
 young lady and fourteen others, all before break 
 fast-time next morning. 
 
 But the circuit-rider did not confine himself to 
 occasional opportunities, such as these, for doing 
 good. Indeed, they were merely incidental to the 
 main business; sowing seed by the wayside, as it 
 were, on the tramp between fields surveyed and 
 located for particular tilling. His regular stations 
 were chosen at convenient intervals along the 
 route, ordinarily an easy day's journey apart, so 
 that not unfrequently every evening of the week 
 had its appointment for preaching. He was not 
 particular in his choice of accommodation for this 
 purpose. The best that offered was thankfully 
 taken and put to use, private dwellings, bar 
 rooms, tavern-porches, court-houses, barns, sheds, 
 wagons even, and as a yet other alternative, the 
 woods out-of-doors; any spot, anywhere; for the 
 Black-Robe felt that when duty called he must 
 obey at all hazards. "As the gospel was to be 
 preached to every creature, his mission extended 
 to every place this side of hell." Happily for the 
 cause, Providence so ordered it that the least hos- 
 
THE METHODIST. 237 
 
 pitable shift should prove the most desirable. 
 Under the trees became the favorite assembly- 
 room. The people were attracted to it at first 
 by the novelty of the thing; then because of the 
 excellent adaptation, as they soon found, of the 
 forest, with its grand appointments, its arches 
 and columns, its naves and transepts, and its dim 
 religious light, so impressive of effect, for a sanc 
 tuary. True, the choice might seem to imply that 
 the prejudice was not well founded which, with the 
 ceremonies of the Catholic Church, had led the dis 
 senter to abjure its cathedrals, and to reckon respect 
 for the Beautiful as among the deadly heresies; but 
 one was the handicraft of the Master Architect, 
 the other was apprentice-work; the original, as of 
 God, might be admirable, but did it follow that 
 the imitation, of carnal device, was not damnable? 
 
 As these open-air gatherings were seen to be 
 popular ; as hearers in still multiplying numbers 
 continued to flock in, and as sinners began to show 
 lively signs of awakening, it was thought expedient, 
 the better to afford space for conversion to work its 
 perfect work, that the meetings should be protracted 
 beyond the limit of a single night. Hence arose 
 that institution peculiar to the sect and to the sec 
 tion, the CAMP-MEETING. 
 
 This spiritual saturnalia, occurring statedly and 
 running through a week or a fortnight, was called 
 (in its grand annual observance, for it also had its 
 " quarterly") late in the summer-time, or early in 
 
238 BLACK-ROBES. 
 
 the autumn, after the harvests had been gathered 
 and before the setting-in of seed-time, the season 
 for out-of-doors at this period being propitious, 
 and the agricultural population then enjoying their 
 chief term of leisure. For the scene of its orgies, 
 a space large enough for the purpose was selected 
 from some romantic nook of woods, thinned, if 
 necessary, of its trees and cleared of whatever 
 debris might encumber the ground. Around this 
 area the believers pitched their tents, of canvas 
 it might be or of bark, or having their wagons 
 backed into place in lieu of either, the whole some 
 times fenced about with a barricade of bushes, to 
 keep out the allies of their adversary the devil. 
 At each corner of the inclosure a sort of rude altar 
 built of logs, unless the large stump of a tree might 
 be had as a substitute, was erected, upon which 
 fires were kindled to illumine the darkness and 
 keep off the mosquitoes. Lamps also were hung 
 out at the tent-fronts and suspended from the 
 branches of the trees. A platform was built at one 
 side of the area, with a plank placed bench-high 
 along its rear for a seat, and another elevated at 
 the front, designed to serve as a breastwork for the 
 preacher and a place of deposit for his " library." 
 Under the platform a plot of ground was railed in 
 for the exclusive use of mourners, and was known 
 as the Altar, or Glory Pen. Back of this, seats 
 boards, that is, resting at either end on billets of 
 wood or stones were ranged for the accommoda- 
 
THE METHODIST. 
 
 239 
 
 lion of all who chose to occupy them during ser 
 vice. Rules for the preservation of order in the 
 camp were posted up conspicuously in the imme 
 diate neighborhood, as well as on the fences and 
 trees along the different roads leading to the 
 ground, in case of a violation of which the execu 
 tive committee was never wanting the Black- 
 Robe himself its most efficient member to see to 
 the sufficient chastisement of the aggressor. 
 
 Outside the tents the woods were filled round 
 and about, wherever vacant space could be found, 
 with wagons, carts, bales of hay, broken boxes, 
 and other promiscuous litter, only room enough 
 being reserved besides not taking into account 
 the ways opened, and with diligent care kept 
 open, for access to, and egress from, the camp for 
 the accommodation of the horses of attendants ; 
 with here and there, in by-places, a booth, a bar 
 between two trees; and a bush-tent. The border- 
 man had his ruling passions: he loved his liquor; 
 he was choice in his breed of colts, and alas ! men 
 are weak, and women are willing, and both will 
 err, in the bush as well as on Broadway. Within 
 this precinct, of purer promise surely, the vender 
 of beverages had fixed his place, and whisky 
 was dispensed to those that thirsted among the 
 congregation, freely and openly: here, too, was 
 quartered the proprietor with his property of 
 that elegant, full-blooded, eight-year-old Arabian, 
 whose portrait and pedigree, in printer's ink, con- 
 
240 BLA CK-R OBES. 
 
 fronted the gaze on every walk and at every turn, 
 publicly placarded on the same oak or hickory, 
 likely, with the Rules of the Meeting, and whose 
 rampant self, jauntily bedecked with ribbons and 
 rosettes, and tightly postured with belt and bridle, 
 was daily led out before interested groups of be 
 holders, for parade, and other purposes ; and here 
 the unreclaimed Magdalen made her haunt, in 
 the twilight, and in the evening, and in the black 
 and dark night, mingling among the strollers of 
 the hour, displaying her charms, and with fair 
 speech and flattering lips tempting whom she 
 might, and, under the very nose of the executive 
 committee, leading her captive down to the cham 
 ber of death. 
 
 Meetings in the camp were held morning, after 
 noon, and night, to which the people were sum 
 moned with the blowing of a trumpet, or rather 
 of a tin horn. The daylight sessions were, com 
 paratively speaking, tame affairs. Grace, as it was 
 found among the tents, did not seem to flourish in 
 the sun. Like the sorrowful tree or the Indian 
 isle, it bloomed only in the night, too delicate and 
 phantomy to abide the test of a more searching 
 exposure. The opening exercises were undemon 
 strative. With the advancing hour interest height 
 ened the fervors of devotion, like the glow of the 
 fireflies, showing brighter and brighter as thick 
 ened the dark until, night fairly set in, illumination 
 was at its height and enthusiasm at its liveliest 
 
THE METHODIST. 241 
 
 To hasten this moment of blissful realization was 
 the foremost aim, always, of the exhorter. His 
 plans (for he had his plans) were all laid with a view 
 to it. 
 
 " Brother," he would say, aside, to his assisting 
 preacher, " have you any faith ?" 
 
 " Some," the assistant would respond. 
 
 " And so have I ; a little. Now, I am to preach 
 first. If I strike fire, I will immediately call for 
 mourners, and you must go in and exhort in every 
 direction, and I will manage the altar. But if I 
 fail to strike fire, you must preach; and if you strike 
 fire, call the mourners and manage the altar. I 
 meanwhile will go through the congregation and 
 exhort with all the power God gives me." 
 
 Doing his part in carrying out the scheme, the 
 first brother (who doesn't relate the circumstance) 
 might fall short, except perhaps in producing a 
 few promising sparks, but the second (who tells 
 the story) is more successful, strikes fire that 
 catches, flames, blazes, spreads, and wraps the 
 camp in a general conflagration. His eloquence 
 is irresistible. Careless hearers become attentive 
 and concerned ; sinners, conscience-smitten, grow 
 pale and tremulous with terror ; sons of Belial fall 
 to the ground in an agony of awakening ; and even 
 the Baptists, who would seem to be the most in 
 corrigible among the unrighteous, are startled by 
 conviction, and begin to cry out, " Oh, pray for us, 
 or we are lost and damned forever !" 
 
 21 
 
242 BLACK-ROBES. 
 
 The work, once under headway, advances with 
 astonishing progress. If the spiritual frame were 
 liable to like infirmities with the physical, the in 
 ference would seem natural and reasonable that 
 some colicky distemper of soul had suddenly 
 broken out, racking the patient with ache and 
 pang and spasm, and that, after all, the conclu 
 sions of Wangomen the Delaware were not wholly 
 whimsical, nor jalap and ipecac to be despised as 
 a physic for the disorder. Men steady veterans 
 of the border, who had wrestled with bears in their 
 day, and could have bearded lions in their dens 
 without an emotion are seized with the weakness 
 and quake and quail under its influence. Example 
 breeds example : victim after victim is attacked, 
 and the distemper becomes general and rages un- 
 controlledly. Bodies writhe and strive as in the 
 throes of convulsion ; arms fling wildly in the air; 
 down on his knees the infected subject falls in 
 attitude of prayer, his head forced back upon its 
 column of support, until the tight cordage of the 
 neck seems ready to crack under the strain; faces, 
 picturing, in sharp relief, each one its own pecu 
 liar presentment of the passion at play within, look 
 fixedly up and staringly, through dry, hot, blood 
 shot eyes, towards heaven ; hair, tossed and tangled, 
 stands all affright on end, or, broken loose from its 
 folds, on the part of the women, streams in dishev 
 eled tresses to the earth, and is trampled, trailing 
 in the dust, under feet of the shifting multitude. 
 
THE METHODIST. 243 
 
 Convicts foam at the mouth, gnash their teeth, and 
 gasp like drowning or dying ones for breath ; or 
 with less frenzied demonstration, swaying their 
 bodies to and fro the while, now wring their hands, 
 now clap them, clap them with a will, the sharp 
 concussion producing reports like pistol-shots. 
 Sighs and sobs distress the air. Groanings and 
 meanings, wails, and shrieks, and howls, and 
 shouts of anguish, fear, despair, exultation, burst 
 ing full vent from a hundred a thousand thrice 
 a thousand throats, rise, and rolling in tumultuous 
 tide, away and away, flood the solitudes with a 
 torrent of uproar. The horses at their troughs in 
 the woods pause over their oats, and, pricking their 
 ears, stand still-bound in listening wonder; the 
 trader in Bourbon, confounded, suspends his traffic; 
 while they of the Scarlet Letter, the fair unfortunate, 
 shuddering as they hear, to shun the notice which 
 they just now courted, steal shrinkingly aside and 
 hide them in the dark. 
 
 Meanwhile the preacher, having wrought his 
 material up to the proper pitch of frenzy, changes 
 his base of operations from the pulpit to the Glory 
 Pen, crowded now to its utmost capacity with 
 seekers and mourners. He is still in the fire 
 works line, but, instead of throwing his matches 
 promiscuously at the heads of hearers, as from his 
 former position, he singles out his subjects and 
 applies to each one separately his own particular 
 lucifer. There is a distiller of the name of H . 
 
BLA CK-R OSES. 
 
 say, in the crowd, a green-timbered fellow, coarse 
 in the fibre and full of the sap of sin, whom he 
 takes hold of. He is an uninflammable customer, 
 hard to heat, but finally warms by friction, ignites, 
 and is brought under in a blaze of blue light. 
 The exhorter announces the victory with a shout, 
 " Glory to God ! H - is down ! H - is down ! 
 Glory to God!" A Frenchman who had fought 
 under Napoleon, next operated upon, perhaps, takes 
 spark more promptly, and exclaiming, as he surren 
 ders, true to his soldierly training, " Vive Empereur 
 Jesus!" is off like a rocket, " a case of conversion 
 so clear and powerful that infidelity itself is abashed 
 and confounded." A practical joker of the Belial 
 family, who has come with a batch of frogs strung 
 together to slip over the head of the exhorter while 
 stooping and praying for the mourners, is then en 
 countered, maybe ; finds to his astonishment that 
 he is made a Chinese cracker of, and explodes 
 ere well aware of it, while waiting an opportunity 
 for his proposed diversion. Among the women 
 success is easier than with the men, and more cer 
 tain : they seldom miss fire, but* kindling readily, 
 flare up and go off gloriously, coruscating in well- 
 sustained style, like Roman candles. It is a sin 
 gular circumstance, which lookers-on are not slow 
 to notice, that the cases calling for much the 
 greater share of attention are from among the 
 ladies ; that the handsomest girls are always the 
 wickedest ; have to be approached the nearest ; 
 
THE METHODIST. 24$ 
 
 need the closest exhorting ; must be entreated the 
 most lovingly, and are the most apt to give way 
 physically; to faint and to fall as seems inevitable 
 generally, except as the ministerial arm with 
 round embrace interposes to prevent the catas 
 trophe; Bishop Asbury expresses his fear some 
 where " that the women and the devil will get all 
 his preachers." 
 
 When not engaged in what may be styled con 
 fidential conferences, or private ministries exer 
 cised in exclusive behalf of individuals, the preacher 
 moves about, picking a passage with careful steps, 
 among the mourners, and casts his exhortations, 
 as he goes, in sententious discharges, right and 
 left among them. "Don't be composed," he says 
 to one of the kneelers, who scarcely seems to need 
 the admonition, " don't be composed, but pray on, 
 brother; pray on; there's no composure in hell or 
 damnation." Another is blandly smiled upon, and 
 encouraged with gratifying assurances that he is 
 clearly on the highway to glory, the convincing evi 
 dence of which is, that bobbing up and down on his 
 knees, and going through the motions of washing his 
 hands in the air, he gives shout to the original, ex 
 pressive, and highly devotional sentiment of " Hell ! 
 hell ! hell ! hell !" The " fine, beautiful " daughter 
 of a father almost irredeemably lost, as she is 
 taught to believe, in Presbyterianism, is assured, 
 when she affectionately suggests him as a subject 
 of exhortation, that his case, though critical in the 
 21* 
 
246 BLA CK-R OBES. 
 
 extreme, is not absolutely hopeless, the vilest Cal- 
 vinist may return : " Pray on," he says, " and the 
 work will be done. It is not the old big devil that 
 is in your father, but a little, weakly, sickly devil, 
 and it won't be a hard job to cast him out. If God 
 takes hold of your father and shakes him over hell 
 a little while, and he smells brimstone right strong, 
 if there was a ship-load of these little, sickly devils 
 in him, they would be driven out just as easy as 
 a tornado would drive a regiment of mosquitoes 
 from a stagnant pond." "Sister," he inquires, cheer 
 fully, of a young woman, "have you found your 
 ransom yet ?" The sister is surprised to learn that 
 her engagement with Mr. Ransom, which she had 
 supposed to be entirely a secret between that gen 
 tleman and herself, is known to the itinerant, but 
 does not deny the situation, and blushingly re 
 sponds that she is looking for him back next 
 
 Friday evening. " And Brother G ," he goes 
 
 on to query of a next " exercised" subject, " how 
 do you feel in the spirit to-night ?" "Bully!" says 
 
 Brother G . 
 
 To heat the blood of his subjects up to the grace- 
 enabling mark 173 of the spiritual Fahrenheit 
 was what the profane would call the "dodge" 
 always of the exhorter. He seemed to act upon the 
 presumption that souls feverishly sin -sick must 
 be made Mightily worse before there was any 
 hope of their growing better; like the physician 
 who made it his standing rule of practice, in all 
 
THE METHODIST. 
 
 247 
 
 cases, to first throw his patients into convulsions : 
 there he had them where he wanted them exactly, 
 for that was his specialty, he was " * * * * on fits." 
 
 Midnight usually brought the performances to 
 an end. The last hymn was sung, the last prayer 
 said ; the multitudinous noise of worship rolling off 
 in one stormy, final discharge, swept in fast-bearing 
 reverberations afar, lessening as it sped, fainting, 
 fading, dying, dead in the distance; quiet ruled in 
 the camp, save as disturbed by the occasional burst 
 of a sob, or groan, or shout of " Glory !" from some 
 not entirely-subsided enthusiast; lights were extin 
 guished ; worshipers retired to their tents. The 
 curtain had dropped on the closing scene, and the 
 drama was ended. 
 
 Journeying thus from post to post, the itinerant 
 pursued his mission, erecting new stations, plant 
 ing new societies, creating new classes, and en 
 larging generally the borders of the Methodist 
 Zion. Repeated riding of his circuit made its 
 course a familiar one. His own presence, and that 
 of his horse, became accustomed ones to the peo 
 ple. He formed acquaintance with man, woman, 
 and child at every cabin. He won upon their con 
 fidence by conforming to their ways and partici 
 pating in their social usages, ready ever for any 
 reasonable frolic : to take a hand at a husking, lend 
 a lift at a raising, be about at a log-rolling, stir his 
 turn at an apple-butter boiling, or handle a cleaver 
 at sausage-chopping on a butchering-day. Nor 
 
248 BLACK-ROBES. 
 
 would he frown upon the harmless enjoyments of 
 the young men and maidens at their festivities of 
 a winter evening ; as, indeed, why should he ? for 
 "Peeling the willow" was not proscribed by the 
 Book of Discipline, nor promiscuous kissing in 
 " Come, Philander, let's be marching," nor " hold 
 ing" in "Tired of my company," nor "bundling" 
 as an institution by itself. By secular conformities 
 and indulgences such as these, the preacher estab 
 lished himself in the popular liking. For patron 
 age bestowed, he enjoyed it, reciprocally, at his 
 own soirees ; and improved it, with what result, 
 arithmetically considered, was made largely to 
 figure on the records of the next annual conference, 
 where it stands yet in authentic confirmation of 
 the marvelous doings of those Pentecostal days. 
 
 V. 
 
 THE CANE-RIDGE REVIVAL. 
 
 /"^AMP-MEETINGS had their origin, as de- 
 * ' scribed, in the year 1800. The first experi 
 ments met with such extraordinary success that 
 they were rapidly followed up by others, and with 
 a continually growing patronage, so that attend 
 ants, counted in the beginning by scores, multiplied 
 
METHODIST. 
 
 249 
 
 into fifties, from fifties increased into hundreds, and 
 presently were reckoned by thousands. The first 
 of the more imposing series that figure so promi 
 nently on the autobiographical page, happened at 
 Cabin Creek, Kentucky, in the spring of 1801. 
 This was succeeded, with brief intervals of time 
 and accommodating ones of distance, by others at 
 Concord, Point Pleasant, and Indian Creek. But 
 the illustrious one, where occurred the famous 
 Cumberland Revival, and which the few, the very 
 few gray-bearded fathers still living who were wit 
 nesses of it, always refer to with proudest satisfac 
 tion, took place in August, and was held at Cane 
 Ridge. 
 
 The Rev. Robert W. Finley, a Presbyterian 
 minister originally from Pennsylvania, had re 
 moved to Kentucky, and, in 1790, fixed his resi 
 dence in Bourbon County, where, clearing a spot 
 out of the canebrakes, which grew all over the 
 broad acres there for miles, he built a log cabin, 
 opened a farm, and erected a church. The scene 
 of the great revival in question lay within the lines 
 of his parish. The miraculous manifestations, as 
 they were regarded, of the divine presence at the 
 previous meetings, had long been the topic of talk 
 abroad, and the settlers, all on the tiptoe of ex 
 pectation, were ready to take advantage of the 
 leisure which the season offered, attend at the ap 
 pointed place, and put to the proof of their own 
 eyes' witness the marvels of which they had been 
 
250 
 
 BLACK-ROBES. 
 
 told. Multitudes that might not be numbered 
 began to assemble. From the remotest corners 
 of the border, thirty, forty, fifty miles away, they 
 gathered in. All day long, and through the night, 
 crowds were to be seen pressing eagerly, earnestly 
 on, their faces set Zionward, in wagons, on sleds, 
 afoot, " upon norses, and in chariots, and in litters, 
 and upon mules, and upon swift beasts." Roads, 
 lanes, trails, all passable ways of approach, swarmed 
 with train following train of pilgrims; the tramp 
 of their progress uprooting the sod, which hoof 
 and wheel, till then, of customary travel had 
 scarcely scarred, and grinding the clodded surface 
 of the soil to powder. Whole communities, in 
 cluding not merely the men, women, and children, 
 but slaves and dogs even, gathered in compa 
 nies and joined the general procession, leaving 
 only an obliging neighbor, here and there, to keep 
 watch in the depopulated settlements during their 
 absence. When all were congregated, it is esti 
 mated that there were from twenty to twenty- 
 five thousand people on the ground. The usual 
 accommodations in the way of huts and tents 
 were erected on the premises, together with a 
 large shed capable of affording shelter, in case 
 of unfavorable weather, to five thousand persons. 
 Shanties were constructed for use of such as chose 
 to turn an honest penny by offering entertainment, 
 at so much a head, to casual visitors; and booths 
 "for them that sold doves," each with its counter 
 
THE METHODIST. 
 
 251 
 
 or table, knocked rudely but substantially together, 
 of boards, whereupon were arranged platters, 
 spoons, knives and forks, unctuous from much 
 handling, and supply-dishes, which, replenished 
 whenever emptied with steaming meats and vege 
 tables, proved temptingly provocative of appetite, 
 and seldom grew cold for want of consumers. 
 
 Outside the sanctum of the encampment, but 
 closely crowding on it, were pitched the tents of 
 the unbelievers a promiscuous class consisting 
 largely of horse-thieves, gamblers, blasphemers, 
 drunkards, adulterers, and "partakers in all manner 
 of wickedness." Associated with the vicious and 
 lawless, but not, as yet, utterly contaminated by 
 the contact, were to be found the classes addicted 
 to simply mischievous exploits, and technically 
 known as the careless, " men of awful depravity, 
 that would sport while the very fires of perdition 
 were kindling around them." A favorite amuse 
 ment with these sons of Belial was to play prac 
 tical jokes on the preachers and mourners. They 
 were also given to cropping the manes and shaving 
 the tails of horses ; to tarring the seats and taking 
 linchpins out of wagons; to detaching girths from 
 saddles, and pilfering halters, whips, and bridles. 
 
 Of such huge and heterogeneous composition 
 as was the meeting, without power, and, indeed, 
 without the disposition, to enforce order; where 
 rather, on the contrary, lawlessness seemed to be 
 the accepted law of the hour, it is in no wise sur- 
 
252 
 
 BLACK-ROBES. 
 
 prising that "nothing was exhibited to the specta 
 tor but a scene of confusion, such as scarcely could 
 be put into human language." As many as seven 
 preachers, out of some thirty or forty present, 
 were to be heard declaiming at the same time; one 
 posted on the platform, another mounted in a 
 wagon, others pulpited on stumps, and still others 
 perched on the trunks of fallen trees. The noise 
 of their eloquence "was like the roar of Niagara." 
 Sermon, or exhortation, prepared the way for 
 the more striking proceedings. At its close the 
 pent up enthusiasm of the audience began to 
 discharge. A universal cry for mercy arose. As 
 hearts were hopeful or despondent, their corre 
 sponding demonstrations followed. The terror- 
 stricken and despairing maddened the air with 
 ravings of anguish. Those whose eyes caught 
 glimpses of the dawn of redemption were in rap 
 tures of ecstasy. Every variety of emotion, in 
 every form of expression, found vent at the same 
 time. Sharply piercing up through the heavy 
 under-swell of sound that rolled and roared, and 
 without break or pause kept steadily surging on, 
 wild exclamations in horrible commingling were 
 to be heard, shrieks of "hell! hell-fire! damna 
 tion!" blending with screams of "glory! glory to 
 God! hallelujah !" The people had come prepared 
 for the infection, expecting it, with their hearts 
 set on it, their nerves strung for it; and they 
 caught it readily. As with a battalion in a battle- 
 
THE METHODIST. 
 
 253 
 
 field or a bevy of misses in a boarding-school but an 
 example is needed to bring about a general preva 
 lence of panic or hysterics, so a first outbreak of 
 disorder was all that was wanting all that was 
 waited for to involve the whole camp in derange 
 ment. Each following moment added fresh 'im 
 pulse and new variety to the excitement. Sinners 
 were arrested, became wrestling Jacobs, pre 
 vailed, and were happy, all ere the echoes, order 
 by order, had well died away of the vociferations 
 which indicated the various stages of the proceed 
 ing. Penitents, passing at a step from darkness 
 into light, became "experienced." The exhorted 
 at one moment were the exhorters at the next, 
 flying to their unregenerate friends and entreating 
 them with powerful persuasion and tears of com 
 passion to fly to Christ for mercy. Some, under 
 conviction and impelled by terror, tore themselves 
 from the embraces of anxious relatives and strug 
 gled hard to escape from the ground. Others wept 
 and groaned, and piteously appealed to Heaven for 
 consolation; while others still fell to the earth and 
 swooned away, "till every appearance of life was 
 gone, and the extremities of the body assumed the 
 coldness of death." 
 
 A boy, ten years of age, who for some time had 
 stood as a listener near a platform occupied by 
 one of the declaimers, felt himself suddenly pos 
 sessed of "very strong impressions." Starting 
 from his place, he hurried a short distance apart, 
 22 
 
254 BLACK-ROBES. 
 
 mounted a log, and, lifting up his voice in a most 
 affecting manner, began to prophesy before the 
 congregation. " On the last day of the feast," he 
 exclaimed, " Jesus stood and cried, If any man 
 thirst, let him come unto me and drink." The 
 people turned at the sound of his voice, and, 
 attracted by the novelty of the incident, gathered 
 in a great crowd about the juvenile orator. He 
 was evidently an acute observer, had watched the 
 arts of his clerical elders, and copied them well. 
 Amid profuse tears he directed his appeal to sin 
 ners ; pictured, in a professional way that indicated 
 a remarkable memory, the terrible destiny reserved 
 for the unrighteous, and then, by way of enticing 
 contrast, the golden rewards that awaited the 
 penitent in the Beautiful Land reserved for their 
 inheritance. His audience pressed closer and 
 closer about him, until soon his voice was smoth 
 ered and his person lost sight of amid the throng. 
 He. was on the point, apparently, of being com 
 pletely extinguished, when two strong men of the 
 inner circle, seizing him in their arms, lifted him up 
 above the heads of the rest, and held him there, 
 while for nearly an hour he exhorted " with that 
 convincing eloquence that could be inspired only 
 from heaven." When exhausted, at last, of strength 
 and of language, he took out his handkerchief, 
 and, letting it fall from his hand, brought his re 
 marks to a close by a happy practical application 
 of the device : " Thus, O sinner," said he, " will 
 
THE METHODIST. 2 $$ 
 
 you drop into hell unless you forsake your sins 
 and turn to God !" With the descent of the hand 
 kerchief, descended the power of God upon the 
 assembly. Sinners fell as men slain in mighty 
 battle. Cries for mercy rent the heavens, "and 
 the work spread in a manner which human lan 
 guage cannot describe." 
 
 The falling feature was the striking one of the 
 Cane-Ridge meeting. It had been witnessed be 
 fore, but not, till then, to any remarkable extent. 
 The manifestations attending it were peculiar and 
 really surprising, although not unaccountable. The 
 subject, after having, under the stimulating influ 
 ence of the unaccustomed atmosphere of the camp, 
 been medicined up to a fitting state of susceptibility, 
 found himself, suddenly and without the slightest 
 premonition, beset with a nervous affection, the 
 action of which was, out of the order of all pre 
 cedent, capricious and uncontrollable. Certain 
 members of the body would cease in their office, 
 as though numbed by paralysis, while others, as 
 if to compensate for the delinquency, would run 
 into extravagant excesses of action. Legs would 
 fail and sink helplessly under their proper burden, 
 while arms would flourish wildly against the will 
 and with unnatural energy. Some among the 
 seized were struck dumb; others preserved control 
 of their voices, but used them in a very ridiculous 
 manner, laughing, barking like dogs, howling like 
 wolves, bellowing, bleating, and caterwauling; at 
 
256 BLA CK-R OBES. 
 
 the same time leaping and dancing like dervishes 
 or rolling on the ground and wriggling like Obi- 
 men at a pow-wow. Frequently cases happened 
 where all the symptoms attending dissolution ap 
 peared. The pulse gradually faded, the breath 
 came and went in sobs and gasps, with longer and 
 longer intervals of suspended respiration, until it 
 ceased altogether, and the body lay as dead, still, 
 staring, and cold, for hours. While the catalepsy 
 lasted, the patient retained full possession of his con 
 sciousness, nor, through it all, was there (although 
 the authorities here are somewhat contradictory) 
 the slightest experience of physical discomfort. 
 
 The jerks, as the phenomenon got to be popu 
 larly called, were not confined to the camp-inclosure 
 exclusively, neither were their attacks limited to 
 seekers and mourners. The thoughtless and care 
 less among sinners outside were visited as well, 
 one and another being brought down "suddenly, 
 as if struck by lightning." Professed infidels and 
 scoffers were leveled, with the language of blas 
 phemy on their lips. Ladies were attacked at 
 breakfast over their toast and tea. Tossing their 
 cups and saucers to the ceiling, they would dash 
 from the table in great haste, " their long suits of 
 braided hair hanging down their backs at times 
 cracking like a whip." A converted dancing- 
 master, witnessing the behavior of the possessed, 
 declared that the devil was at the bottom of it, 
 and he was determined "to preach it out of the 
 
THE METHODIST. 257 
 
 Methodist Church." He ran to a stand, took his 
 text, and tried it ; but, before fairly aware of it, his 
 subject got the better of him, and he was himself 
 helplessly under its influence. His tongue became 
 entangled in its thread of discourse. Falling into 
 a silly repetition of "Ah, yes! Oh, no!" terms 
 thrust irrelevantly into his harangue, and on which 
 he stumbled, the jingle of the syllables, iterated 
 over and over again, became forcibly suggestive 
 of music and motion. Only the hint was needed 
 to call into action the old professional habit, and 
 the dancing-master, himself again, armed in ima 
 gination with the implements of his art, was in 
 stantly absorbed in the execution of a jig, fingers 
 and elbow furiously at play, while toe and heel 
 tapped, sounding time to the dumb performance, 
 on the bare boards of the floor. He had over 
 estimated his strength: still, vanquished, inglo- 
 riously vanquished as he was, "his proud heart 
 would not submit. He gave up the circuit and 
 retired, and his sun went down under a cloud." 
 
 A certain young man, "tall" and terrible, an 
 Arba among the Anakim of the outer precinct, 
 who sat mounted on a fine, large white horse, 
 forming one of a party of scoffers near by, being 
 instigated by the prime Planner of all Mischief, put 
 spurs to his steed, and, breaking from his comrades, 
 dashed at full gallop through the line of tents into 
 the inclosure and among the worshipers, uttering 
 horrible imprecations as he made the charge. Still 
 22* 
 
2 5 8 
 
 BLACK-ROBES. 
 
 plunging on, he forced his way, until, coming 
 abreast of a kneeling band of seekers, his course 
 was arrested. The mysterious Agency of the Air, 
 the Angel of Conviction, waiting its opportunity, 
 had met it then and there: instantly, as though 
 an arrow sped from its bow had pierced his heart, 
 the reins dropped from his grasp, he reeled in his 
 saddle, and tumbled lifeless to the ground; the 
 religious multitude testifying their exultation at 
 the coup de grace in bursts of applause addressed 
 to the Deity, and with songs of praise and shouts 
 of hallelujah! For thirty hours the young man 
 lay apparently dead. Symptoms of returning 
 animation then began to appear, rapidly eventu 
 ating, through a series of convulsions attended by 
 fearful groans, in complete recovery. But that 
 was not all. His newly -aroused self was no 
 longer the Heaven-defiant self of the past. Out 
 of that Lethean sleep he awoke a new being. 
 " The fiendlike scowl that had overspread his 
 features gave way to a happy smile, and, springing 
 to his feet, the accents of anguish were changed 
 into the loud and joyous shouts of praise." 
 
 One Dr. P. and an interesting young lady of 
 Lexington, both " inexperienced," visited the camp 
 from motives of curiosity, mutually agreeing before 
 hand that, if either of. them should happen to be 
 jerked, the other would stand by and have a care 
 over the victim until he or she, as the case might 
 be, recovered from the attack. The lady, in all 
 
THE METHODIST. 259 
 
 her pride, as the narrative relates, was soon pros 
 trated. The physician laid his finger on her wrist, 
 found her pulse gone, became agitated, turned 
 pale, and, staggering a step or two, sunk down, 
 inanimate as she, in the dust beside her. After 
 remaining for some time in this state, they both 
 obtained pardon and peace, and went home re 
 joicing. Persons were seized on the road going 
 to, and returning from, the camp; at taverns where 
 they halted as they went, frequently in the act of 
 taking the favorite tonic of the day, at the bar, by 
 way of prevention; at their plows in the field, at 
 their drudgeries in the kitchen, and at their family 
 and closet devotions. Sinners wondered at it, 
 affected to laugh at it, feared it, were fascinated by 
 it, flocked to the scene the central scene of its 
 operations, and straightway were down under the 
 invisible stroke of its dealing. Like bullocks under 
 blow of the axe in a slaughter-pen when execu 
 tioners are busiest in packing-time, they dropped, 
 hundreds upon hundreds, nay, thousands, falling 
 of a night. Intense excitement, accompanied with 
 fearful forebodings of calamity, prevailed among 
 the people. Many thought, with the dancing- 
 master, that Satan with his imps had been let 
 loose, and suffered, for a purpose, to enter into the 
 hearts of men, as they were of old into the swine, 
 what time the herd ran violently down a steep 
 place into the sea and perished in the waters. 
 Some imagined that because the land abounded in 
 
2 6o BLACK-ROBES. 
 
 wickedness, a visitation of divine judgment was 
 decreed against the nation ; while others, filled 
 with alarm, supposed that the Day of Wrath was 
 at hand, and that the elements were about to melt 
 with fervent heat, and the earth to be consumed. 
 
 To quiet the apprehensions of the timid and to 
 silence the misgivings of the skeptical, certain of 
 the wise among the churchmen applied themselves 
 to the task of a rational solution of the mystery. 
 The work was satisfactorily achieved; the nar 
 rative of it, as historically transmitted to posterity, 
 running substantially thus : 
 
 It is well known that the Baptists embrace in 
 their communion a large proportion of the popu 
 lation of Kentucky, and that they rigidly adhere 
 to the doctrines of unconditional election and 
 reprobation, as well as to the pernicious heresy 
 of the final and unconditional perseverance of the 
 saints. It is equally well kr^own that the same 
 mischievous dogmas are held and taught by the 
 Presbyterians. Indeed, so generally have these 
 errors been preached by these denominations 
 that no one entertaining genuine scriptural views 
 has heretofore been found fearless and independ 
 ent enough to call them in question. The con 
 sequence is that they have taken deeper and 
 deeper root, and continued to spread, until it may 
 be said that the doctrines of Calvin have filled the 
 whole country. Under the prevalence of such 
 teachings, supported as they are by polemical 
 
THE METHODIST. 26 1 
 
 divines, whose religion consists almost entirely in 
 a most dogged and pertinacious adherence to the 
 creeds and confessions of faith handed down from 
 orthodox Puritan fathers, it is not surprising that 
 professors of religion have fallen insensibly into 
 Antinomianisrn. The inconsistencies of Calvin 
 have become the subject of the sarcastic sneers of 
 infidels, and the inability of his followers to recon 
 cile their doctrines "with the justice of God and 
 the present order of things " is making fearful 
 inroads on the faith, and strengthening the hands 
 of the wicked. The friends of the truth have been 
 few, comparatively uninfluential, and exposed to 
 much persecution. At this juncture it has pleased 
 the Lord to look down upon the people of this 
 Western country. Man's extremity is God's 
 opportunity, and these wonderful manifestations 
 which are witnessed are assuredly of Heaven, 
 given in evidence, so startling as not to be mis 
 taken, that the Almighty means to sweep away 
 Baptist-ism, and Presbyterianism, and every other 
 refuge of lies ; to confound infidelity and vice, 
 " and bring numbers beyond calculation under the 
 influence of experimental religion and practical 
 piety." 
 
 No exact record of the saving results of the 
 Cane-Ridge meeting has been preserved ; but if an 
 estimate may be inferred from the statement of one 
 of the chroniclers, that he saw as many as "at 
 least five hundred swept down in a moment," the 
 
262 BLA CK-R OSES. 
 
 cases of conversion must have been exceedingly 
 numerous. But the revival bore other fruits, which 
 were more decided in character, more lasting, and 
 much less gratifying. While the orthodox laborers 
 were planting the seed, and from the budding pros 
 pects of the field were rejoicing in the hope of an 
 abundant harvest, the enemy came in and began to 
 sow tares broadcast among the grain. Gross errors 
 and heresies sprang up and spread among the 
 faithful. The belief fundamental to Methodism, 
 that Heaven made choice of its gospelers by special 
 election, and that the gift of preaching came by in 
 spiration, that its exhorters, in other words, like 
 the anointed of old, were "holy men of God, who 
 spake as they were moved by the Holy Spirit," was 
 one which was well calculated to tempt the enthu 
 siast, especially under extraordinary excitements, 
 widely and wildly astray. What were Books of Dis 
 cipline, what were creeds concocted at conferences 
 and promulgated by human authorities, to him, 
 what would they have been to Isaiah, or to Paul, or 
 to Wesley, singled out, himself and all alike, as pro 
 phets of the Lord, that the supremely illuminated 
 and impliedly infallible judgment of either should 
 be hemmed in by their limitations or embarrassed 
 by their restraints ? The result may be antici 
 pated. Old confessions were repudiated ; the Bible 
 was pronounced the only rule of faith ; each man 
 became his own interpreter, no two interpreting 
 alike ; and soon the region swarmed with saintly 
 
THE METHODIST. 263 
 
 adventurers, who scoured the country, scattering 
 wide the brands of schism and making grievous 
 havoc among the churches. 
 
 Enticed by the example of half a dozen illiterate 
 Presbyterians who had been irregularly admitted 
 into the ministerial office, and who had likewise be 
 come tainted with the prevailing distemper, a party 
 of separatists, under the lead of James O'Kelly, a 
 disappointed candidate for a Methodist bishopric, 
 banded together, forming a society and designating 
 themselves as Neiv-LigJits, or Christians. Their 
 specialty was a creed denunciatory of creeds ; their 
 confession was a protest against confessions, and 
 their church an organized body formed to resist 
 organizations. They repudiated the doctrines of 
 the Trinity, of total depravity, and of the atone 
 ment. Governor Garrard, of Kentucky, fell into 
 the heresy, and made himself somewhat famous in 
 the composition of a tract on one of the topics 
 that touching the question of Christ's divinity 
 in controversy. Others of the sloughers-ofT at 
 tached themselves to the Quakers, a company of 
 whom from the State of New York had recently 
 planted a settlement in the region. Elder Holmes, 
 a sort of Peter the Hermit, conceived the notion 
 that the restoration was at hand, gathered around 
 him a group of followers, and started off for the 
 prairies in search of the Holy Land. For many 
 days he wandered about, reaching at last an island 
 in the Mississippi River, where, to the interruption 
 
264 BLACK-ROBES. 
 
 of his enterprise and the sad disappointment of his 
 attendants, he sickened and died. Elder Farnum 
 became the founder of the model institution of the 
 Screaming Children ; and brother Abel Sargent, 
 the Halcyon Preacher and Millennial Messenger, 
 who lived on very intimate terms with the angels, 
 and received his dispatches statedly, like any other 
 foreign ambassador, from heaven, appeared as a 
 second Messiah, perambulating the wilderness 
 with his twelve disciples, all women, and pro 
 claiming his revelations. He denied that there 
 was a devil, a hell, or a future judgment. On a 
 " banter " of one of his apostles, he undertook a 
 forty days' fast, in imitation of the memorable one 
 in the Wilderness. He persevered in the experi 
 ment, actually abstaining all the while from food, 
 for sixteen days, when, still persisting, he died from 
 starvation. A certain zealot of the name of Kid- 
 well also began to prophesy, affirming that men 
 were never excluded from heaven because of crime; 
 that God would not retaliate wrong for wrong; that 
 expiation in the flesh follows for offenses of the 
 flesh, and that out of the body is neither sin nor 
 punishment, the souls of all, awarded the one 
 destiny, sharing alike in the delights of Paradise. 
 The measure of success attending the labors of 
 these reformers has not been recorded. 
 
 The "Falling Exercise" continued for some time 
 to prevail as a " manifestation " in the churches, but 
 not with the " power and demonstration " that gave 
 
THE METHODIST. 265 
 
 it its marked distinction on this occasion. The 
 cases of " arrest," however, as faith in its efficacy 
 as a converting instrumentality began to waver, 
 became fewer and fewer, ceasing eventually alto 
 gether. Near about the same time, indeed, it 
 broke out again, but in a different settlement of the 
 border then, and among the congregations of a dif 
 ferent people. As among Methodists, its epidemical 
 career was limited to the one season and the one 
 spot, in its traditional association with which the 
 "Cane-Ridge" has become famous first among 
 camp-meetings, and the " Cumberland " of tower 
 ing renown among revivals. 
 
 VI. 
 
 MENTIONABLE MEN AMONG THE PREACHERS OF THE 
 BORDER. 
 
 WHEN the material is considered of which 
 the Methodist ministry in border-days was 
 composed, it could scarcely be expected that any 
 of the order should have attained to such a degree 
 of eminence as would challenge specially the notice 
 of after-times. Two hundred and eighty preachers, 
 through the first sixteen years' existence of the 
 church on the frontier, constituted the clerical 
 2 3 
 
266 BLACK-ROBES. 
 
 (itinerant) force of the service. They were all 
 uneducated, save in the simplest rudiments of com 
 mon-school learning ; or, as one of their number 
 who has written a book is pleased to express it, 
 " there was not a single literary man among them." 
 Minds gotten up after that sort of fashioning are 
 not of the stamp to make a mark that is likely to 
 prove permanently prominent. 
 
 But there were those who in their day and gen 
 eration had a distinction, and who in the circuits 
 over which they traveled were famous. Good 
 fighting-properties and propensities were re 
 spected in the church as well as out of it ; and the 
 Black-Robe who, boldly offering or accepting de 
 fiance, stood always ready, under provocation, to 
 whip or be whipped, was noted and petted among 
 believers quite as much as could have been Crib 
 or Molyneaux among bruisers. John Ray has an 
 honorable mention in history because of his " great 
 muscular power and natural courage," an illustra 
 tion of which has been particularly set forth in an 
 anecdote. Himself and a party of other itinerants 
 in the course of their journeying were approaching 
 a toll-gate which, near where the road branched, 
 had recently been moved from its position on one 
 of the forks to the main stem, in order to command 
 passage and control fare from travelers along both 
 routes, when the right of the keeper to demand 
 toll was called in question. John Ray disputed it 
 roundly, and declared that if the rest would agree 
 
THE METHODIST. 267 
 
 he would carry them through without cost. One 
 of his companions expressed a desire to know how 
 he would do it. " I will ride up to the gate," said 
 he, " and command the keeper to open it." " But 
 suppose he declines ?" it was suggested. " Why, 
 I will break the gate down," said John Ray, " and 
 let him do his worst." To avoid the fray which 
 he knew must ensue, one of the more peaceably 
 disposed, who luckily happened to be the purse- 
 bearer of the party, trotted on in advance and 
 settled with the toll-man, although " there was a 
 great deal of clamoring behind him," and the 
 " company looked sour and showed some dissatis 
 faction." John was deprived of the opportunity 
 of showing his muscle on the occasion, but not of 
 demonstrating to the satisfaction of his fellow-itin 
 erants that he was entirely willing in fact, that he 
 would be rather glad of a chance to put it to the 
 proof. 
 
 Peter Cartwright stands high on the record as a 
 sharer in his honors with the redoubtable Ray : 
 hence was he fancifully known as the " Bull-dog " 
 among the saints, as well as among the sinners, of 
 his time. At a camp-meeting attended by a larger 
 number than usual of " rabble and rowdies," all 
 drunk', and armed with dirks, clubs, knives, and 
 horse-whips, two finely-dressed fellows marched 
 into the congregation with their hats on, and rose 
 up and stood in the midst of the ladies and began 
 to laugh and talk. They were ordered to desist, 
 
268 BLA CK-R OSES. 
 
 but declined, couching their refusal in terms which 
 out of the pulpit were considered profane, if not 
 blasphemous. Peter immediately stepped down 
 from the platform, walked up to one of the in 
 vaders, dodged a blow from a loaded whip aimed 
 at his head, closed in on his man, and brought him 
 to the ground. A drunken magistrate interfered, 
 and ordered the reverend combatant to let his 
 prisoner loose or " he would knock him down." 
 Cartwright invited him, very coolly, to " crack 
 away." The officer took him at his word, and 
 aimed a blow which might have damaged his 
 profile, except that it was scientifically parried by 
 the preacher, who, taking advantage of the un 
 guarded instant, jumped in, and, seizing the coat- 
 collar of his antagonist with one hand and his hair 
 with the other, " fetched him a sudden jerk for 
 ward," floored him, and leaped on his prostrate 
 body. The ringleader of the rioters then stepped 
 forward and made three passes at Peter, who, ex 
 hibiting much skill, not only warded off the thrusts, 
 but, watching his chance, delivered a ri^ht-hander 
 fair "on the burr of the ear" in return, "which 
 dropped him to the earth." The friends of order then 
 rushing to the rescue, the mob was soon dispersed. 
 When the fight was ended, Cartwright resumed his 
 place at the sacred desk, and, taking for a text the 
 appropriate passage, " The gates of hell shall not 
 prevail," preached a sermon with such " power and 
 demonstration" that three hundred hearers fell like 
 
THE METHODIST. 269 
 
 dead men in battle, and two hundred professed re 
 ligion and were added to the church. 
 
 To excel in the art lachrymose, or be able at 
 will to command the shedding of tears, was es 
 teemed a rare accomplishment. Ralph Lotspiech, 
 with no other possibly discoverable virtue to dis 
 tinguish him, was nevertheless a man of mark 
 because of his proficiency in this particular ; and 
 so, as the Weeping Prophet, a Niobe in broad 
 cloth, he has been calendared with the illustrious 
 and lives among the immortal of the period. 
 
 Miracles, not at all uncommon among Method 
 ists, were sometimes a means of celebrity. Brother 
 Joseph Dickson, a great hunter and trapper of the 
 border, having provided himself with the necessary 
 outfit, took passage in a " dug-out" and started off 
 on a voyage to the wild Indian country on the 
 Missouri. Two winters were spent in this remote 
 and unfriendly region. To protect himself against 
 the bitter cold of the climate, he made an excava 
 tion in a steep hill-side, where he managed to lodge 
 with tolerable comfort. The glare of the light from 
 the snow, however, affected his eyes to such an 
 extent that ultimately, towards the close of the 
 second winter, he became blind. Reduced to this 
 helpless and hopeless condition, and with death 
 apparently certain before him, he began to realize 
 how great a sinner, and how utterly unprepared 
 for the future, he was. He knelt and prayed, and 
 solemnly vowed to God that, if he were spared and 
 
 23* 
 
2/0 BLA CK-R OBES. 
 
 delivered, his life should thenceforth be devoted to 
 His service. All of a sudden there was a strong 
 impression made on his mind that if he would 
 take the inside bark of a tree that grew near by his 
 cave, and beat it up soft and fine, soak it in water, 
 and apply it as a wash, his vision would be restored. 
 He tried the treatment at night, and awoke in the 
 morning to find the inflammation gone and his 
 eyes made whole again. He then " felt that God 
 had forgiven his sins, and that he ought to praise 
 and give glory to His name." As in further evi 
 dence of the special interposition of Providence 
 in his case, it is stated that, spring soon opening, 
 he had "astonishing good luck" at trapping, se 
 curing a great amount of the best furs, which he 
 afterwards sold in St. Louis for several thousand 
 dollars. He then returned home, " took preach 
 ing into his cabin," joined the church, became 
 a leader and steward, and acquired a renown at 
 once, particularly as a successful agent in the col 
 lection of funds for the support of the gospel. 
 
 Others, again, were famed as dreamers of drea r.s 
 and seers of visions; their power and scope of 
 clairvoyance scarcely up to the old prophetic 
 standard, perhaps, but among believers none the 
 less credible or creditable on that account. John 
 Stewart, the Mulatto of Marietta, to whom allu 
 sion has already been made, slept, and, sleeping, 
 dreamed that he was about to commence a reli 
 gious meeting. While seated, awaiting the hour 
 
THE METHODIST. 271 
 
 appointed for the opening of service, an Indian 
 man and woman, "clothed in particular garments," 
 entered the house "in a peculiar manner," saluted 
 him, shook hands with him, and "seemed to mani 
 fest peculiar earnestness and interest in regard 
 to his message," It was mysteriously made to 
 appear to John that they invited him "to go and 
 preach for their people," living somewhere, not 
 definitely set forth, " northwest of Marietta." The 
 dream impressed him powerfully. He tried to 
 argue the force of it away; but it clung to him 
 night and day. Doubting the call plunged him 
 into a state of mental misery ; the favorable con 
 sideration of it brought "great peace and joy of 
 mind." He retired to the woods and fields, day 
 after day, to pray, and at each visit regularly saw 
 the Indian and the squaw, always seeming to come 
 from the northwest and renewing their invitation 
 "to come and preach for them." The mental an 
 guish resulting from the difficulty of deciding the 
 question of duty so agitated his body that he was 
 thrown into a severe fit of sickness. When brought 
 to his bed, he finally resolved that as soon as he 
 could " pay some debts which he had contracted 
 before he had experienced religion," he would 
 recognize the call as of Providence, and go. His 
 health and strength were immediately restored. 
 Being enabled to effect a settlement of the pecu 
 niary claims against him, he prepared himself for 
 his missionary enterprise, followed up the north- 
 
2 ; 2 BLACK-ROBES. 
 
 west course, according to direction, and in due 
 time reached a small settlement of half-breed 
 Wyandots on the Upper Sandusky, where among 
 the first to accost him on his arrival he recognized 
 instantly, in living identity, the Indian and squaw 
 of his vision, a manifest confirmation of the 
 divinity of the dream. 
 
 The Rev. Jonathan Stamper had also his revela 
 tions. Once upon a time, in a " remarkable dream," 
 he had an interview with the spirit of the Rev. 
 John P. Finley, one of his best friends in life, and 
 for whom he mourned in death as a dear brother 
 departed ; and the burden of the vision was as 
 follows : 
 
 In his slumbers Stamper thought that he went 
 to the house of Finley, who welcomed him at the 
 door with his usual urbanity, expressed much 
 gratification at the visit, took him in, and sat down 
 with him, side by side, at the fire. Jonathan, al 
 though he said nothing, felt an anxiety, as was 
 natural, to learn something respecting the world 
 of spirits. The shade of the departed, divining 
 the desire, said, 
 
 " Brother, you are filled with curiosity." 
 
 " Yes," Jonathan replied ; " my mind has taken 
 a very curious turn." 
 
 " Well," continued the shadow, " ask any ques 
 tion you see proper, and I will satisfy you, so far 
 as I can, consistently with the laws of the country 
 where I live." 
 
THE METHODIST. 273 
 
 " Brother," Jonathan then began to interrogate, 
 " are you happy ?" 
 
 " Happy as heaven can make me," was the re 
 sponse. 
 
 " When you died, did you enter immediately into 
 heaven ?" 
 
 " No ; but I immediately started for it. It took 
 me three days to make the journey, though I sped 
 with the velocity of a sunbeam. I passed beyond 
 the boundaries of this system, and lost sight of the 
 most distant star that twinkles in these skies, and 
 entered into thick and uninterrupted darkness." 
 Here the shadow paused for a moment; then, re 
 suming with an expressive look, " Oh, brother," it 
 said, " hell is a solemn reality ! After this, I all at 
 once burst into the glories of heaven." 
 
 " The Scriptures represent heaven as a glorious 
 city, such a one as was never seen on earth, and 
 by other splendid and beautiful imagery. Is this 
 entirely figurative," inquired the dreamer, " or is it 
 a literal description ?" 
 
 " Partly literal and partly figurative," answered 
 the shade. " Heaven is a local residence gloriously 
 fitted up for the abode of saints and angels. All 
 the beautiful imagery of the Scriptures is there 
 seen, though of a spiritual character ; such as the 
 trees ever green, the golden streets, etc." 
 
 Jonathan then inquired if the saints in heaven 
 knew each other. 
 
 The deceased assured him that they did, per- 
 
274 
 
 BLACK-ROBES. 
 
 fectly. He knew all the patriarchs, prophets, and 
 apostles at sight 
 
 Here the dreamer, satisfied with his examination, 
 rested ; when his ethereal visitant, who seemed to 
 be quite as much in the dark about earthly affairs 
 as was his brother in the flesh concerning things 
 celestial, became querist in return, and thus began 
 to interview the slumberer : 
 
 " I desire to know how you are getting along in 
 the good work." 
 
 " About as we were when you were with us." 
 
 " Do the Methodists pay their preachers no 
 better than formerly ?" 
 
 " No !" 
 
 " Oh ! what a pity ! what a pity ! The itinerant 
 plan," the shadow of the old exhorter then went 
 on to say, " is the plan of God. He designs it to 
 take the world, and nothing will prevent it but a 
 want of liberality in our people. You must never 
 locate. If I had my life to live again, I would 
 travel, if I begged my bread from door to door. If 
 I had traveled as I ought to have done, I should 
 have shone much brighter in heaven than I now 
 do. Don't locate, brother; God will support you." 
 He then reached up to the chimney-piece, the 
 dreamer proceeds to relate, and took down a con 
 siderable roll of bank-notes of the most beautiful 
 and singular appearance, which he handed to Jona 
 than, saying, " Here, these are for you." 
 
 Jonathan suggested that perhaps the money had 
 
THE METHODIST. 275 
 
 better go to his own widow, but the shade an 
 swered, " No ; it is for you. There is- a bank in 
 heaven for the support of itinerant preachers, and 
 this is for you ;" when the slumbering brother re 
 luctantly reached out his hand and took it After 
 some loud and animated shouting and singing, the 
 vision ended, and the sleeper awoke. 
 
 This saintly interview of Brother Jonathan must 
 not be understood as a humorous invention, de 
 vised, by way of novelty, as a hint for higher 
 salaries, but as a circumstance of serious fact and 
 worthy of most sober acceptance. 
 
 Among the reverends notable for their early 
 labors along the bor- er are to be found such men 
 as Thomas Wilkinson, John Page, John Watson, 
 Lewis Garret, Benjamin Lakin, Jesse Walker, Sam 
 uel Parker, Samuel Doughty, Benjamin Young, 
 Anthony Houston, John Adam Granadd, Jacob 
 Young, Archibald McElroy, distinguished for 
 his " peculiar aversion to Calvinism," and the 
 Bishops Asbury and McKendree. Jarvis C. Tay 
 lor has a rather prominent record as "a pretty 
 good poet,'*and the author of a pamphlet under 
 the inviting title of " News from the Infernal 
 Regions." James Quinn, who " lived and preached 
 like a primitive evangelist," enjoys the distinction, 
 which he shares with his " poor horse Wilks," of 
 having been first to carry the Methodist gospel 
 into the State of Ohio (1799). Four years later, 
 having been appointed, with John Meek for his 
 
2 ;6 BLACK-ROBES. 
 
 colleague, to the newly-created " Hockhocking 
 Circuit," embracing the settlements in the valleys 
 of the Muskingum, Scioto, and Hockhocking, he 
 made his permanent abode within its bounds. 
 Benjamin Lakin is known in connection with Peter 
 Cartwright as having been the original pioneer of 
 the Faith in Indiana (1802), among the borderers 
 occupying the lands opposite Louisville. These 
 neighborhoods were formed into a circuit called the 
 " Silver Creek Circuit," and placed under charge 
 of Moses Ainsworth, in 1807. The credit of in 
 troducing Methodism into Illinois (1793) belongs 
 to Joseph Lillard; although Hosea Riggs was the 
 first to settle in the State, about five years later. 
 
 Methodism was of rapid growth in the back 
 woods, everywhere except in Western Pennsyl 
 vania, throughout the length and breadth of which 
 " Calvinism and Universalism had so intrenched 
 themselves that Methodism could scarcely live," 
 its preachers " not hoping to rise above the occu 
 pation in the church of hewing wood and drawing 
 water." In 1800 the communion, embracing the 
 entire membership of the border, numbered 2OOO 
 souls. In 1802 it was increased to 7200; in 1804, 
 to 9600; and in 1811, to 30,741. Work done 
 quickly, however, is seldom work done well. 
 Members were glued to the surface merely, as 
 would appear, not mortised into the body of belief; 
 so that, while there is room for regret, there is 
 none for surprise, that they should hold in place 
 
THE METHODIST. 277 
 
 by an attachment very precarious, and extremely 
 liable to come apart under unfavorable exposure. 
 Three thousand cases of apostasy are reported as 
 having occurred within one year (1812). Perhaps 
 it was from the commonness of a tendency thus to 
 lapse natural, nay, inevitable, from the "method" 
 by which conversions were made that, to meet 
 the exigency, it had been found necessary at the 
 outstart to declare against the dogma of the " per 
 severance of the saints," and not only to confess 
 the possibility of "falling from grace," but to 
 write and register the confession as a doctrine of 
 the church. 
 
 And so, keeping up a pretty equal ratio of in 
 crease through the years ensuing, the Society has 
 gone on winning and losing, but, in the long run, 
 gaining and growing ; and so it lives and flourishes, 
 whether to last for long in the future, as organisms 
 of forced growth seldom can, or to die out eventu 
 ally, all the sooner for the process, the time to be 
 must determine. 
 
 24 
 
THE PRESBYTERIAN. 
 
THE PRESBYTERIAN. 
 
 I. 
 
 OLD REDSTONE - ITS PEOPLE AND ITS PRESBYTERY. 
 
 OVER the top-piece of the door of the old 
 house in which he lived, in the " Nether 
 Bow/' John Knox, the maker of Presbyter ianism, 
 had caused to be written this legend : 
 
 . all * and * w* . nichfaw* . a 
 
 If the distinguished Scotch Reformer had made 
 search through all the recorded sayings of the wise 
 of all ages, he could not, for his purpose, have hit 
 upon a more comprehensive, a better, or a more 
 beautiful precept If, as well as across the lintel 
 of his home, he could have had the sentence in 
 scribed over the threshold of the sanctuary in 
 which he preached, and at the same time have made 
 its sentiment the governing principle of the new 
 faith which it was his choice to proclaim, his fol 
 lowers would have been none the worse of it, and 
 himself, perhaps, somewhat the better. But the 
 24* (281) 
 
282 BLACK-ROBES. 
 
 text seems not to have been understood according 
 to the letter of its rendering ; else the First of 
 Presbyterians could never have merited tie epithet, 
 scarcely complimentary, of the " Iconoclast," nor 
 his disciples have perpetuated for themselves a 
 fame of reproach for deeds of violence and vandal 
 ism done by their hands. Churches would not 
 have been forcibly entered and despoiled; pictures 
 and images sacred to Christian worshipers would 
 have been spared, and monasteries would have 
 been exempt from sack and from pillage. 
 
 Whatever tracing may serve for his picture as 
 of to-day, with which this sketch has nothing to 
 do, one hundred years ago, when we find our 
 " congregation"alist drifted off from his native 
 shore and anchored far away in an inland wilder 
 ness of the New World, we discover a likeness but 
 little altered from the original, notwithstanding 
 generations had passed since its angry population, 
 roused at the blast of their prophet's trumpet, were 
 stirred to riotry in the streets of Perth, and although 
 two centuries had elapsed since the Reformer him 
 self had ended his career and been gathered to his 
 fathers. First among adventurers had he started 
 from the settlements of his people on the James 
 and Rappahannock, and foremost among squatters, 
 crossing the ridges of intervening mountains and 
 penetrating to the "Yough" and Monongahela, 
 had he hewn out his little clearing and planted his 
 cabin, on the levels and slopes drained and made 
 
THE PRESBYTERIAN. 283 
 
 fertile by their floods. Still the legitimate, unadul 
 terated issue of the race to which he belonged, 
 the characteristics of the progenitor were inherited 
 in the successor; his tough energies, eager to be 
 employed, seeking that occasion for exercise 
 among the savages which more fortunate forbears 
 had found in their feuds among old neighbors. 
 
 Backwoodsmen were "crack " men all, as it well 
 became them to be; but at handling an axe or 
 poising a rifle, at leveling a tree or laying a Mingo, 
 at willing with a purpose and doing what was to be, 
 whole-heartedly, till all done and well done, better, 
 at best, than the Scotch-Irish Presbyterian wore 
 not buckskin nor domiciled in logs on the border. 
 Did forests, dense and deep, encumber the ground 
 which he would reduce to cultivation ? Inch by 
 inch he hacked his way in through the timber, till 
 patches at first of fat soil growing into fields, then 
 widening into farms, were laid bare, and the labor 
 that Hercules might have halted at was accom 
 plished. Were murderous assaults essayed against 
 him by the savage ? He was ready to meet him, 
 in his own way and on his own terms : behind trees, 
 a hundred yards between, at " Hy Spy," the style 
 of dueling current in those days, with a rifle ; 
 openly and face to face, at throwing-distance, with 
 a tomahawk ; or grip and grip, with a knife. Be 
 sieged in his cabin, he would hold at bay his 
 score of dusky assailants outside, discharging death 
 through the loop-holes, while his wife moulded 
 
284. BLACK-ROBES. 
 
 the bullets and his stripling son picked the flints ; 
 amid all comporting himself as composedly as 
 though a bull's-eye were his target, and a shooting- 
 match on an after-harvest holiday the occasion. In 
 his lexicon there was no such word as fear, no 
 such word as fail. His practical belief was that 
 virtue goes by inheritance, and that with man, the 
 son, in his degree, as with God, the Father, in his, 
 all things were possible ; that, not in a conditional 
 sense but an absolute, it was practicable to say to 
 a mountain, " Be thou removed, and be thou cast 
 into the sea," and to see it done ; in fine, that mira 
 cles were not mysteries, but may-be's, difficult, 
 no doubt, of achievement, but, under a living con 
 sciousness of one's omnipotence, feasible. 
 
 But the Presbyterian was not only remarkable 
 for his qualities of faith and courage. All the 
 severer, or what may be termed the more strictly 
 masculine, virtues besides, were permeating ele 
 ments, as well, in his character. He was honest. 
 Averse to aught that savored of disingenuousness 
 or dissimulation, of hypocrisy or fraud, his opin 
 ions were never liable to misapprehension, nor his 
 conduct, if he knew it, open to misconstruction. 
 As he thought, he spake, " the word the cousin 
 to the thing" always; as he spake, he meant; and 
 as he meant, so, to the letter, he lived. He was 
 just. Accepting certain maxims, hereditary in his 
 house since the days of the Marys, or of Moses, 
 for that matter, as of settled incontrovertibility, 
 
THE PRESBYTERIAN. 285 
 
 he made them the rule of his reasoning and of his 
 judgments. The rule may have been hard, but 
 it was wholesome ; he could quote you the text 
 for it, and he was true to the text. Wrongs done 
 had to be righted to the fullest degree of compen 
 sation. If a man caused a blemish in his neigh 
 bor, as he had done so was it to be done to him. 
 It was bounden duty to duplicate a crime lawfully 
 to perpetrate over again that which in itself was 
 unlawful in order to atone for it; to smite for 
 having smitten ; to maim for having maimed ; to 
 murder for having murdered. Such was his stand 
 ard of equity ; even-handed assuredly, and impar 
 tial, as was becoming, in accordance with the 
 economy of ancient dispensation, in which he de 
 lighted, and to which he adhered with loyal fidelity. 
 So, examined strictly on each, down through the 
 whole catalogue of moralities, examined, that is, 
 in the light of the olden ordinances, he might be 
 represented as of righteous reputation in all, unim 
 peachable, irreproachable. Like the young Judean 
 in the gospel, he knew the Commandments, and 
 kept them. He did not commit adultery ; he did 
 not kill ; he did not steal ; he did not bear false 
 witness ; he defrauded not ; he honored his father 
 and his mother. 
 
 But there his virtues ended. Perfect as he strove 
 to be, and as, according to the law, let it be con 
 ceded, he was, yet, measured by the purer standard 
 of the gospel, was he lamentably wanting. As the 
 
286 BLACK-ROBES. 
 
 law knew not charity, neither did he. How could 
 he be generous and at the same time just? To 
 show mercy was, to the extent of the showing, 
 without authority to abate the punishment duti 
 fully due the offender, thus becoming an offense 
 in itself. To forgive absolutely was to forget all 
 obligation and to sin unpardonably. Under cloud 
 of such a conviction, he stood veiled impenetrably 
 apart, as it were, from all the warmer, kindlier, 
 brighter influences of heaven. With the tender 
 growth indigenous to it ever as it peeped to the 
 surface plucked up by the roots, his heart, weary 
 at length of the ineffectual struggle, ceased its 
 efforts, sunk into unproductiveness, and so re 
 mained, a blighted, ruined, wreck-strewn waste. 
 He had no feeling. His nerves were steel ; " his 
 blood was very snow-broth." Hard, uncompro 
 mising, compassionless, the very virtue the sum- 
 mum jus in which he gloried, was the vice the 
 summa injuria that told most to his shame. 
 
 The Presbyterian had a religious character as 
 well as a moral ; not less marked, not less thor 
 oughly imbued with the spirit of the law, not less 
 in accord with the temper of the gospel. 
 
 A reverend orator, now occupying a high posi 
 tion as a theological teacher in a leading school of 
 the sect, on a certain occasion once made " Prot 
 estantism " the theme of a popular discourse. In 
 the discussion of his subject, he undertook to make 
 it appear that the antagonistic feature implied in 
 
THE PRESBYTERIAN. 287 
 
 its title was the one of highest order and of most 
 praiseworthy merit in the reconstructed system of 
 which he appeared as the champion, in other 
 words, arguing, upon the presumption, apparently, 
 that whatever is, in religion, is, always has been, 
 and always must be wrong, that therefore the 
 oftener the " protest " the purer the profession. In 
 proof of his point he started back with the genesis 
 of history, quoting his examples from the patriarchs 
 (strangely overlooking, however, the still earlier 
 instance in the garden of Eden), and so, from the 
 Luther of the Flood, coming down, through the 
 prophets, the apostles, and the martyrs, to John 
 Knox of Edinburgh. Why he stopped short of 
 Beecher or Brigham Young did not satisfac 
 torily appear. 
 
 The early religionist of the Monongahela Val 
 ley was of like mind, precisely, with the Princeton 
 Professor. His conviction seemed to be that the 
 worst and most dangerous enemy, if not, indeed, 
 the only one, which the church had to contend 
 against, was the church itself; that the surest way 
 to prove a faith perfect was to pick flaws in it; that 
 to point out its weaknesses was to show its strength, 
 and coming down to the practical belief at the 
 bottom of the whole that to despitefully treat the 
 world of believers outside his own elect circle, and 
 to cast contempt upon their usages, was, as the Nether 
 Bow motto had it, to "lufe God above all, and his 
 nichbour as himself." Chiefly was it his duty to 
 
288 BLACK-ROBES. 
 
 protest against all, in creed, or custom, or cere 
 monial, that appertained to the Roman Catholic 
 Church, that Scarlet Woman, and Mother of 
 Harlots and Abominations of the earth. Did she, 
 out of deference to a taste which she thought it 
 not derogatory to her Christian character to gratify, 
 build her temples after an artistically ordered plan, 
 and with an eye to architectural beauty? Turret 
 and spire, and arch and column, were heathenish 
 devices, therefore, and decorated walls and carved 
 woods and dim religious lights idolatrous inven 
 tions, contrived to captivate the carnal sense and 
 allure infatuated souls to their eternal undoing. 
 Square walls instead, and squat roofs, inclosing 
 interiors bare, utterly, of ornament, and as dull, 
 comfortless, and wretched as possible, composed 
 the edifices of worship, presumed only to be con 
 sistent with a proper idea of devotion. In the 
 observance of the "popish" Sunday was it lawful to 
 engage in such innocent diversions as, contributing 
 to rest and relaxation, would make the day one to be 
 looked forward to eagerly through the week, and 
 to be enjoyed heartily and sincerely when it came? 
 The very idea of " rest," in any reasonable sense, lay 
 under rigid ban of the "protest." To walk abroad 
 in wood or field, to sing (unless a psalm of Rouse), 
 to read (except a treatise on Justification, or a dis 
 sertation on the Decrees), to talk (unless upon 
 some topic drawn from the Confession of Faith), 
 to laugh from any cause, and, indeed, to eat (ex- 
 
THE PRESBYTERIAN. 289 
 
 cept cold meats of Saturday's cooking), were sins, 
 one and all, of rankest odor, that smelt to heaven. 
 Dispensation was granted for but one indulgence: 
 "Monongahela" was not prohibited, and the Pres 
 byterian could take his toddy when he pleased 
 hot or cold without offense. For writing 
 hymns and singing them on the Lord's day, Zin- 
 zendorf, the Moravian, and his daughter were 
 arrested and fined in the sum of six shillings. In 
 fact, to such an extent was the reformatory process 
 carried that Christ was almost protested out of 
 Christianity, and the anomalous but scarcely sin 
 gular coincidence succeeded of extremes meeting, 
 and Gospeler and Jew uniting on a common basis 
 of belief and practice. 
 
 And yet the Presbyterian was guilty of glaring 
 inconsistencies. He censured the presumption of 
 Rome in claiming to be the only true church, and 
 yet was quite as exclusive himself, holding no 
 communion with any one outside of his own per 
 suasion. It was punishable misdemeanor to attend 
 a Methodist meeting. To refuse to have his child 
 baptized by a " lawful minister" subjected the unruly 
 member to a fine, by way of expiation (for pardons 
 had their purchase-price outside of Babylon as 
 well as in it), of two thousand pounds of tobacco. 
 It was a cruel, despotic wrong, which neither God 
 nor man could excuse, to burn John Rodgers at 
 the stake, and yet it was a law " of universal and 
 perpetual equity," as orthodoxy did not hesitate to 
 25 
 
290 BLACK-ROBES. 
 
 preach, and quote the Scripture for (Deut xiii.9, 10), 
 "to put to death any apostate seducing idolater or 
 heretic who seeketh to thrust away the souls of 
 God's people from the Lord their God." He con 
 tended for a Bible without note or comment, in 
 sisting that " God was his own interpreter, and He 
 would make it plain," and yet, notwithstanding, 
 thought the "gilt" of a confession indispensable 
 for the "refined gold" of the word, which the be 
 liever was forced to accept as solid coin, conscience 
 or no conscience, on peril of excommunication. 
 To show reverence to the Cross through one sense 
 was gross idolatry, while to adore it through an 
 other was orthodox and proper. He might not 
 look upon that sacred emblem without sin, and yet, 
 most rightfully and piously (but out of the sanc 
 tuary only at first, until Rouse, after a convulsion 
 that shook the church to its centre, was set aside 
 for the hymn-book), he could sing, or hear sung, 
 "Jesus, I my cross have taken," or, "Simply to 
 thy cross I cling," or, " Here it is I find my heaven, 
 while upon the cross I gaze." So in his lighter 
 social occupations and amusements. To participate 
 with a lady, at a neighborhood gathering of an 
 evening, in a jig, a fling, or a hornpipe, was scan 
 dalously indelicate and immoral, while to " hold," 
 and to "bundle," as the since-discarded but then 
 all-prevalent customs were on the border, was 
 harmless and allowable. A Virginia reel was a 
 "session"able enormity, but a deacon might dance 
 
THE PRESBYTERIAN. 
 
 2 9 I 
 
 at the selfsame diversion under the fiction of 
 "Peeling the willow," kiss his partner, too, at 
 the end of it, if he pleased, and not provoke the 
 whisper of a protest. 
 
 The Presbyterian could not be charged with 
 negligence in the religious training of his children. 
 While nurselings still, and ere able to articulate 
 the syllables of their task distinctly, they were 
 taught to repeat devoutly, bent at their mother's 
 knees, or at the bedside, and regularly as the hour 
 for retiring came with each night, "Our Father 
 which art in heaven." Nor, besides, were their 
 seats allowed to be vacant at the " family exercise," 
 when, morning and evening, that service was con 
 ducted, the father reading, and copiously comment 
 ing upon, some chosen portion of Scripture, lead-ing 
 in the singing of a psalm, and delivering a prayer 
 remarkable for its orthodoxy, its legality, and its 
 length. On weekdays no additional observances 
 excepting, of course, the "grace" at meals 
 were exacted. Bible and psalm-book were laid 
 carefully aside betweenwhiles, one upon the other, 
 in their corner, by sacred appropriation, of the 
 shelf, balanced at the opposite end by " Baxter's 
 Call to the Unconverted," or " Alleine's Alarm," 
 and the " Pilgrim's Progress." The moral obliga 
 tion of Work was tantamount, in its place, to the 
 spiritual one of Worship, and, as in one case so in 
 the other, the youths of the household had to 
 take and bear their proportionate share. " Sab- 
 
2 9 2 BLACK-ROBES. 
 
 bath," however, was the day especially devoted to 
 educational purposes. School-hours began before 
 breakfast, and, without a moment (except a stolen 
 one) of intermission or relaxation, were continued 
 until bedtime. Study, close, hard, dry, as incom 
 prehensible subject-matter could make it, was the 
 inflexible law, submission to which, enjoined by 
 parental authority, was enforced by such threaten- 
 ings of divine indignation for neglect as, striking 
 terror to the soul of the pupil, proved all-sufficient 
 to insure it. The discipline was stringent, but it 
 was effective ; so effective that scarce a boy or girl 
 of " evangelical " begetting was to be found on the 
 border but that, with Madge Wildfire, could say 
 " the single carritch, and the double carritch, and 
 justification and effectual calling, and the Assem 
 bly of divines at Westminster," through each par 
 ticular " act " and " work," and prohibition and re 
 quirement, from cover to cover, without a stumble. 
 Fifty-two good whole days at cramming out of 
 three hundred and sixty-five, repeated year after 
 year until the student had attained a parental age 
 and relation himself, ought to have left him at the 
 end quite competent to pass examination. And it 
 did. He understood all mysteries and all knowl 
 edge quite as well as Paul, perhaps a little better. 
 Indeed, so complete was his theological schooling 
 so thoroughly (to put it in another shape) had 
 he familiarized himself with the sinuosities and cir- 
 cuities of his channel of passage to the celestial 
 
THE PRESBYTERIAN. 
 
 293 
 
 shores that he felt himself entirely qualified to 
 sail his own craft; as he would have attempted 
 and been perfectly content to do, only for the fact 
 that the law of the line, in which he was a share 
 holder and by which he voyaged, demanded the 
 services of a professional pilot at the helm. To 
 preside in the pulpit, to pronounce the benediction, 
 to administer the sacraments, must be done, ac 
 cording to statute, by the minister, licensed, called, 
 and ordained for the discharge of those offices. 
 
 The settlement of Western Pennsylvania may be 
 said to date from 1752, when Christopher Gist, with 
 eleven other pioneers and their families, chose out 
 places and built them cabins at what is known 
 as Mount Braddock, lying west of the Youghio- 
 gheny, and about midway between Connellsville 
 and Uniontown, in Fayette County. The early 
 emigrants were exposed to sufferings that made 
 their lot a sorely trying one. The forests were 
 infested with roving bands of savages, armed with 
 knife and rifle, and abroad everywhere for mas 
 sacre and plunder. Who stepped beyond the 
 threshold of his door went out at the peril of his 
 life. Men were slain in the fields ; women, as 
 they went to the springs for water, were seized 
 and butchered or carried captive into the wil 
 derness. Dwellings were burned, property was 
 destroyed or stolen, and, in short, disasters and 
 misfortunes visited upon him so sweeping and dis 
 heartening as might well have served to deter the 
 
 25* 
 
294 BLA CK ~ R OBES. 
 
 borderer from a new attempt to establish himself 
 in so inhospitable a region. But the iron will of 
 the Covenanter, used in other lands to maintain 
 itself under hardest pressure of adversity, was not 
 of a texture likely to yield to the circumstances, 
 grievous as they were, of his new situation. 
 Crushed to earth, he rose again. Out of the ashes 
 of his ruin sprang up himself in certain reappear 
 ance, with the finer perfumes of his nature lost, 
 perhaps, like a rose subjected to a similar process, 
 but with his other perfections purified rather than 
 impaired in the palingenesis. Miraculous energy 
 such as this was sure to win in the end. The 
 savage, wearying at length of his unsuccessful 
 efforts at dislodging his enemy, ceased his raids, 
 and the pioneer was left in undisturbed possession 
 of his home. Hostilities suspended, adventurers 
 who had not cared to share the perils of the border 
 while they lasted, took heart of the fact, and began 
 to follow as their predecessors had led. Emigrant 
 after emigrant gathered in; clearings multiplied; 
 cabin after cabin was built, until at length, of a 
 still summer twilight, house-dog baying to house 
 dog, the chain of responses linked across the roll 
 ing lands to Old Redstone, to Turkey-foot, to 
 Catfish ; and down the valleys of the Youghio- 
 gheny and Monongahela to the little " Manor," 
 that lay with a destiny in store for it of which the 
 loiterers in and about it did not dream wedged in 
 between its rivers, a hundred miles below, under 
 
THE PRESBYTERIAN. 295 
 
 the guns of old Fort Pitt. As early as 1763, at the 
 close of the French War, the settlements had a 
 population of four thousand souls. 
 
 At this time the Presbyterian Church in the East 
 began to turn 4ts attention to the West. A meet 
 ing of the Synod of New York and Philadelphia, 
 down till 1789 the supreme judicatory of the church, 
 was held, when, the condition of the " distressed 
 frontier inhabitants" being taken into considera 
 tion, it was resolved to send out two ministers on 
 a tour of inspection among them. The Reverend 
 Messrs. Beatty and Brainerd were nominated for 
 the mission. According to their report, offered 
 before Synod at its next meeting (1764), they were 
 providentially prevented from fulfilling their ap 
 pointment, " the whole design of the mission being 
 entirely frustrated by the breaking out of the In 
 dian [Pontiac's] war." Two years later (1766) the 
 appointment of Mr. Beatty, with Mr. Duffield for 
 his colleague on this occasion, was renewed. The 
 savages having abandoned their designs on Fort 
 Pitt and retired beyond the Ohio, the journey 
 could be taken with entire safety, and the two rev 
 erend gentlemen started on it accordingly. At the 
 fort they were politely received by Captain Mur 
 ray, the commandant, who gave them places at his 
 table, provided them with rooms, and furnished 
 them with beds, so that, "on the whole," as a his 
 torian of the times relates, "they.were as comfort 
 able as could be expected." After a flying visit to 
 
296 BLA CK-ROBES. 
 
 the Muskingum, they returned home, the whole 
 tour consuming some six or eight weeks. No par 
 ticular results are recorded as growing out of the 
 mission. Messrs. Cooper and Brainerd were next 
 commissioned for the service, "to- spend at least 
 three months on the frontier;" but, in consequence 
 of ".discouraging accounts brought in by the inter 
 preter, Joseph," they declined to act. Mr. Ander 
 son, shortly afterwards, was proposed to take the 
 field "for twelve Sabbaths," at twenty shillings a 
 Sabbath ; but it does not appear from the records 
 that he ever went. Mr. Niles, the next appointee, 
 " failed through sickness." Other emissaries, such 
 as Finley (1771), who took advantage of the trip 
 to buy himself a good tract of land in Fayette 
 County, Craighead, and King (1/72), Foster 
 (1775) and Carmichael (1776), were ordered out on 
 transient visits, certainly one (Finley), and possibly 
 two of whom, complied, although without seeming 
 to have accomplished anything worthy of men 
 tion ; and thus terminated the efforts of the church 
 towards the planting of the Faith on the border. 
 
 Late in the year 1776 a little band of journeyers 
 might have been seen pursuing patiently the way 
 by which the descent, on its western slope, of 
 Laurel Hill is made. The track they followed was 
 that opened up twenty years before by the unfor 
 tunate British officer who, alas ! never lived to 
 trace it all back .again, and which was long after 
 wards known, in association with that disastrous 
 
THE PRESBYTERIAN. 297 
 
 expedition, as " Braddock's Trail." A man in the 
 prime of life, with his oldest .daughter, still a girl, 
 behind, and his youngest, a child, pillowed before 
 him on a horse, led the way, closely followed by 
 his wife, riding like himself and leading still another 
 horse, on either side of which, packed snugly in 
 creels or baskets slung across the animal and fast 
 ened securely to the pack-saddle, were deposited 
 the two remaining children of the family. Thus, 
 one day in the darksome month of November, de 
 scended into the valley of the wilderness JAMES 
 POWER, who enjoys the distinction among Presby 
 terians of having been first of the Black-Robes of 
 their order to establish himself among the settlers 
 of the border and "aid in laying the foundations 
 of the western Zion." Mr. Power undertook this 
 mission not by appointment of the church, but on 
 his own motion, prompted to it, without doubt, 
 precisely as was any other emigrant of the time, 
 by the attractive prospects of the new region, with 
 its fields of plenty and of promise, opened up and 
 reaching forth invitingly for occupation. Indeed, 
 except that we hear somewhat vaguely, of his 
 having baptized a child for Mr. Marquis, at Cross 
 Creek, in 1778, there is no positive evidence that 
 he pursued his profession at all, in any regular 
 way, for several years after his arrival. On the 
 contrary, the date of his first settlement and ser 
 vice as a preacher (at Mount Pleasant) is fixed by 
 Dr. McMillan as late as 1781. 
 
298 BLACK-ROBES. 
 
 In the mean time the congregations of the 
 frontier, left altogether uncared for, and beginning 
 to realize, as we have seen, the necessity of church 
 organization, decided to take up the work and 
 carry it through on their own account. Meetings 
 were held accordingly. As the result, on the 
 2 1st of June, 1779, a Call was made out from the 
 " United Congregations at Buffalo and Cross Creek, 
 to the Rev. Joseph Smith, a member of the Pres 
 bytery of New Castle." The Call set forth "the 
 great loss youth sustain by growing up without the 
 stated means of grace, the formality likely to spread 
 over the aged, and the great danger of ungod 
 liness prevailing amongst both : there being divers 
 denominations of people among us" (Ommishes, 
 or Dunkards, Quakers, and Seventh-day Baptists) 
 "who hold dangerous principles, tending to mis 
 lead many weak and ignorant people." Submission 
 was pledged to the " due exercise of discipline," 
 and a salary promised of one hundred and fifty 
 pounds, or rather, according to the summing up 
 of the subscription paper accompanying the Call, 
 something over a hundred and ninety-seven pounds, 
 Pennsylvania currency, "money to be made equal 
 in value to what it was in the year 1774," before 
 the depreciation in that class of paper took place. 
 Among others in the list of subscribers occur the 
 names of Andrew Poe and Adam Poe, the famous 
 brothers whose daring adventures furnish the ma 
 terial for many a thrilling story of the border. The 
 
THE PRESBYTERIAN. 
 
 299 
 
 Call was accepted, and, in the year following, Mr. 
 Smith, along with his family, planted himself per 
 manently within the bounds of one of his parishes. 
 Near about the same time the churches at Lower 
 Ten-Mile and Upper Ten-Mile, each distant from 
 the town of Washington the space intimated by 
 their titles, fell under the pastoral care of Thad- 
 deus Dodd, who had bought and was cultivating 
 a farm in the neighborhood ; while John McMil 
 lan, more noted as a " doctrinal examiner and in 
 structor " than as a preacher, took charge of the 
 congregations at Chartiers and Pigeon Creek. 
 With these four reverend gentlemen for its mem 
 bers, the old Presbytery of Redstone was organ 
 ized (1781), the. creed of the Catechisms established, 
 and the general enginery, invented at Edinburgh, 
 put in motion, by which backwoodsmen were to be 
 trained how, evangelically and soundly, to "luff 
 God above all, and their nichbour as themselves." 
 
 II. 
 
 THE PARSON OF SEVENTY-FIVE YEARS AGO. 
 
 A SKETCH of the Presbyterian Black-Robe of 
 the olden time, to represent its subject faith 
 fully, calls for but little variation in the general 
 outline from the picture already presented of the 
 
300 BLA CK-R OSES. 
 
 layman of his persuasion. Their features in the 
 main were the same, save that in the case of the 
 officer they were more definitely traced, and be 
 trayed a deeper and more determined outline of 
 development, than in the subordinate. Passing 
 through the same preparatory training, yielding 
 under persistent pressure to the same constraints, 
 that which, taking its bent accordingly, hardened 
 eventually into a habit with the latter and ended 
 there, went on, attaining a still more vigorous and 
 overshadowing growth, until it matured into a. pro 
 fession, with the former. As a teacher, or preacher, 
 following his vocation up on a chosen line, it be 
 came him of course it would become him to 
 magnify that line, to show its superiority over all 
 other lines, and by emphatic protestation of his own 
 unlimited confidence in the singular and exclu 
 sive advantages of it, to win over customers from 
 competing routes. Very naturally, as a result, his 
 preaching turned chiefly on the points of differ 
 ence ; his religion became a religion of reason, and 
 himself the orator, conscientious, earnest, obstinate, 
 as schoolmen always are, of its philosophy. Mir 
 roring that philosophy all the while, his own mind 
 caught and held fast the likeness of what it re 
 flected, so that at last it became a fixed impres 
 sion, felt to the core of his being and picturing all 
 the surface of his character. 
 
 As the expounder of its ordinances, the Law was 
 with him the subject of absorbing study. It was 
 
THE PRESBYTERIAN. 301 
 
 his meditation all the day; its testimonies were his 
 delight. He measured his steps by it; he ordered 
 his thoughts according to it; he believed, he 
 hoped, he preached, he sung, he prayed by it. 
 The straitest among the "most straitest" of 
 Jewish sects, in the tight days when the Pharisees 
 wore broadest their phylacteries, could not have 
 adhered with a truer or more exact fidelity to its 
 precepts. Its demands admitted of nothing short 
 of plenary and absolute satisfaction. "Thus saith 
 the Lord" settled the question, and was an extin 
 guisher upon all controversy, a choke-off against 
 whatever plea the sufferer under it might propose 
 to offer in abatement of the decree pronounced. 
 Hence, where the heart of the layman under like 
 influences was as flint, that of the Black-Robe be 
 came as adamant. The springs of compassion that 
 should have had source in his bosom, were dried 
 up. " He had no juice but that was verjuice in 
 him." 
 
 Of such a mould, one is in no wise surprised, in 
 following up his history, to discover that in all 
 cases of civil disturbance, when, upon one provo 
 cation or another, mutinous men were banded 
 together to achieve violently the correction of 
 alleged causes of complaint, the disciple of the 
 Iconoclast was leadingly identified with the move 
 ment. Among the terrible incidents of border 
 times, that of the planned attack in the night.on 
 a cluster of Indian huts on the Conestoga Creek, 
 26 
 
302 
 
 BLACK-ROBES. 
 
 when the unconscious slumberers were crept in 
 upon and " shot, stabbed, and hacked to death," 
 and which was but the beginning of a continued 
 series of outrages, has a dark and sorrowful promi 
 nence. The Paxton Boys who did it, and who, the 
 blood of their shedding still red and, reeking on 
 their hands, quoted Scripture in justification of its 
 doing, were organized in his own parish and from 
 among his own parishioners, by one Presbyterian 
 preacher, and defended afterwards, when all was 
 over, as men "humane, liberal, and moral, nay, re 
 ligious," by another. Reverend penmen who have 
 written their narratives of olden events, naturally 
 anxious to defend the good reputation of the " mis 
 sionaries" from the reproach of having had either 
 heart or hand in Tom the Tinker's rising, assert 
 that no sympathy was felt for the malcontents by 
 the Black-Robes ; on the contrary, that they op 
 posed the movement " strenuously and success 
 fully." The scene of insubordination lay within 
 the bounds of what had then become (1794) the 
 Synod of Virginia. A party of soldiers on their 
 way out to aid in suppressing the insurrection, ar 
 rived in the town of Harrisonburg, where, at the 
 time, the Synod was in session. The occasion 
 seemed to call for an expression of loyalty, and, on 
 the motion of one of the members, an address to 
 the people was proposed, " inculcating obedience 
 to.the laws of the country." The prevailing senti 
 ment of the body, as a lively discussion soon 
 
THE PRESBYTERIAN. 
 
 303 
 
 revealed, was that "there were wrongs to be re 
 dressed, rather than a rebellion to be suppressed." 
 A vote being taken, the address was rejected, 
 and Tom the Tinker had the indorsement of 
 the Synod. 
 
 In like manner, as respected questions affecting 
 the interests of humanity, where Charity which 
 knew not law, on the one side, stood advocate 
 as against the Law that knew not charity, on the 
 other, the attitude of the Presbyterian was just 
 what, according to his code and creed, it could 
 not but have been. In his own time he was the 
 patron, as his church after him was the apologist, 
 not to use a stronger term, of slavery, the per 
 severing apologist, down until the Samaritans out 
 side, with whom it had no dealing, interposed to 
 rid the nation of the curse. He " could not say 
 that slavery was a sin, without charging the apos 
 tles of Christ with conniving at it." So he was 
 ready to testify, as half a century later his profes 
 sional successors through their General Assembly 
 did testify, and as often afterwards, in much less 
 moderately chosen terms, was ratified by many a 
 divine, who perhaps would scarcely care possi 
 bly might blush to own it now. For criminals 
 doomed to punishment he manifested no symptom 
 of mercy, no showing of compassion, unless the 
 offer of his ghostly services at the sharply-closing 
 crisis of their career, in extreme cases, might be 
 so construed. Penance to the full extent of the 
 
304 BLACK-ROBES. 
 
 award must be had, without easement, curtailment, 
 or commutation, as, in like manner, was de 
 manded by the justice-loving Jew of Venice ; as, in 
 like manner, has been insisted upon by the clerical 
 of his own sect ever since and until now. A move 
 ment was made, not many months ago, having in 
 view the doing away with capital punishment in 
 the State of Pennsylvania. While the project^was 
 pending, a paper was prepared and sent forward to 
 the legislature from the judicatory of one of the 
 branches of the church (the " United Presbyterian"), 
 then in session at Pittsburg, praying against the 
 proposed change, as prompted by mistaken notions 
 of humanity, and as in direct contravention to the 
 law not of Christ, although affirmed as " of God," 
 but of Moses. 
 
 His ideas of conversion were, of course, in har 
 mony with his views of belief. Faith had its phi 
 losophy, which the would-be partaker of its benefits 
 must be thoroughly drilled in before he could hope 
 to enjoy the saving advantage of its exercise. The 
 poor sinner of the gospel whose all of confession 
 was comprehended in two simple words, sufficient 
 as they seem to have been in his day, would not 
 have found them equal to the emergency of his 
 case under the later schedule of conditions : "Pisteuo 
 Kurie /" would scarcely have carried him past the 
 pickets, to get where he is gone, by way of the 
 Redstone Presbytery. He must have first been 
 led to understand that he was made a partaker of 
 
THE PRESBYTERIAN. 305 
 
 the redemption purchased by Christ by the effectual 
 application of it to him by the Holy Spirit ; that 
 the Holy Spirit applied this redemption by work 
 ing faith in him, and thereby uniting him to Christ 
 in his Effectual Calling ; that Effectual Calling was 
 the work of God's Spirit, whereby, being convinced 
 of his* sin and misery, having his mind enlightened 
 in the knowledge of Christ, and his will renewed, 
 he would be persuaded and enabled to embrace 
 Jesus Christ ; and that thus, at length, being Effect 
 ually Called, he would partake of justification, 
 adoption, and sanctification, the benefits of which 
 were peace of conscience, increase of grace, and 
 perseverance therein to the end. 
 
 The ''enlightening" operation could be consid 
 ered as a success only by the overcoming before 
 hand of obstacles, minutely specified and elabor 
 ately described by journalists of the time, who 
 went through with it, and which were wellnigh 
 insuperable. There were the difficulties of the 
 " Imputation of Adam's Sin to his Posterity," the 
 "Strictness of the Divine Law," the fact that 
 " Faith alone was the Condition of Salvation," and 
 numerous others over which the seeker must pass 
 necessarily, and at which it was inevitable that he 
 should stumble, not to mention the experience, 
 indispensable besides, of a " Sufficient Weanedness 
 from the World," and of the " Mortification of in 
 dwelling Corruption," before he could expect to 
 gain " evidence of serious and comfortable exer- 
 26* 
 
306 SLA CK-R OSES. 
 
 cise." The satisfaction which followed the enlight 
 enment was of its own kind, and quite peculiar to 
 the Presbyterian subject. Moses Tinda Tautamy, 
 the converted Indian interpreter of Brainerd, in his 
 moments of enthusiasm used to testify, " that he 
 never felt better pleased than when his heart echoed 
 to the soul-humbling doctrines of grace, and -when 
 he heard of the absolute sovereignty of God, and 
 the salvation of sinners in a way of mere free 
 grace." A refreshing experience it must have 
 been, certainly. 
 
 A " call " for the ministry, while not claimed as 
 having been made through special and miraculous 
 revelation of himself by the Almighty, as in the 
 case of the Methodist, was still viewed as of super 
 natural prompting; the Deity indicating, not in 
 an ostensible way, but through the secret con 
 sciousness of the subject, his election to the sacred 
 office. That God had a choice, and that this one 
 or that one out of the multitude of less worthy 
 vessels, on some account or other, which often 
 puzzled the inquirer to determine, had been par 
 ticularly ticketed for distinction, was assumed as a 
 matter of course. The election, although usually 
 signified to the favored subject himself directly, 
 was not unfrequently, however, the result of ar 
 rangement entered into with responsible parties 
 before, and, in fact, as a condition of, his existence. 
 He was made to order, as it were ; expfessly to fill 
 a place for which, amonj all the living ready-made, 
 
THE PRESBYTERIAN. 307 
 
 the fitting substitute was not to be found. One of 
 the members of the Old Redstone Presbytery thus, 
 we are informed, on their pledge that he should 
 be dedicated to the ministry, was granted to his 
 parents, " like Samuel and John of old," in answer 
 to special prayer. 
 
 But the mere " call " was not enough to entitle 
 the candidate to an assumption at once of the 
 functions of the priestly office. A previous course 
 of training, really indispensable to a complete 
 mastery of the difficult mysteries of his faith, was 
 required ; embracing in its order a thorough study 
 of the Latin, Greek, and Hebrew languages. Con 
 sequently, whatever may have been his position 
 with regard to information derivable from other 
 alien sources, in his own literature, or that of his 
 church, he was well schooled. The distinctive 
 dogmas of his communion, which he was taught 
 to respect as its most sacred properties, were the 
 subjects upon which it was his duty to be accu 
 rately informed. As the sinners among whom it 
 must be his destiny, following along the border, to 
 direct his missionary labors, would consist chiefly 
 of Quakers, Sabbatarians, Baptists, and Methodists, 
 he must not only hold correct views, but be able 
 to defend them, of Original Sin, Election, Pedo- 
 baptism, and Perseverance. Familiarity with the 
 scriptural languages prepared him not merely to 
 grapple with doctrine in the naked, as it were, but 
 armed him besides with the means of hopelessly 
 
3 o8 BLA CK-R OBES. 
 
 confounding the adversary with whom he had to 
 deal ; for while the Arminian and the Immersionist, 
 from frequent hearing of controversies common to 
 the time, had caught and could toss back again 
 their single stray terms of " original," their Pres 
 byterian antagonist in return could overwhelm 
 either, or both, with whole sentences of dumb- 
 foundering quotation. 
 
 Testimony must be borne to the fact that the 
 Presbyterian was always the faithful friend and 
 zealous promoter of education. The Methodist him 
 self, contemptibly ignorant as he was, conscious 
 of it, too, and glorying in it, recognized, in the 
 very attempt of affecting to despise, this feature of 
 excellence in his Calvinistic rival. Scarcely had 
 he planted himself in his new parishes on the 
 border, when he began to turn his attention to that 
 interest. Rev. Joseph Smith, appreciating the want 
 which all the neighborhood experienced, but had 
 not the enterprise to remedy, determined to take 
 the correction of it in charge. Consulting first his 
 wife, and having secured her " cordial acquies 
 cence," he set apart a new kitchen which, as an 
 appendage to his house, he had just built, and, at 
 Upper Buffalo, in 1785, opened in it a classical 
 school, the first of the kind in the West, com 
 mencing duty with three young men, Messrs. Mc- 
 Gready, Porter, and Patterson, for his pupils. In 
 17912 the institution was transferred to Canons- 
 burg, erected into an academy, and by appoint- 
 
THE PRESBYTERIAN. 309 
 
 ment of the Synod of Virginia, who assumed the 
 control of it, left for management in the hands of 
 the Rev. Dr. John McMillan. The establishment 
 grew in favor, increased in patronage, and acquired 
 a wider and wider renown, until, under charter of 
 the State, as Jefferson College, in 1802, it took its 
 place among the leading seminaries of the land. 
 
 And yet, sorrily irreconcilable with such tutor 
 age as it would seem, the Presbyterian Black-Robe 
 was decidedly confessedly superstitious. As 
 between his own views on this point and those of 
 his Wesleyan brother, he made the distinction, 
 where it is difficult to detect the difference, that 
 whereas the latter claimed the manifestations with 
 which he was honored as of express matter-of-fact 
 revealment from heaven, his were referable to " a 
 strong and firm persuasion" flowing from an ex 
 traordinary " liberty and enlargement of soul." The 
 Rev. Joseph Smith lay, as was supposed, at the 
 point of death. Mr. Edgar, a warm personal friend, 
 was hastening to wait upon him in his extremity, 
 when, as he approached the house, he met an old 
 lady who was considered in her neighborhood as 
 a " Mother in Israel." Mr. Edgar's first natural 
 inquiry had reference to the condition of his sick 
 friend. "He is worse," said the Mother; "but he 
 will not die, for the Lord hath told me to-day that 
 He will raise him up, and send him out to the 
 West to preach the gospel ;" and, continues the 
 reverend writer who has made memorandum of 
 
3io 
 
 BLACK-ROBZS. 
 
 "this singular but well-authenticated fact," he 
 began to recover from that very hour. This same 
 ministerial gentleman with his wife was returning 
 from a walk, one evening, about sundown, when, in 
 a wood near the town where they dwelt, " they 
 both distinctly heard strains of sweet and melo 
 dious music over the tops of the trees, that seemed 
 to them to rise and float away into the distant skies." 
 It was interpreted " as under a special providential 
 direction, and designed, as without doubt it served, 
 to encourage and cheer them in the prospect of 
 setting out at no distant day, with their family of 
 helpless children, to the western wilds." It did not 
 weaken the supernatural aspect of the case that a 
 band, in a military encampment some distance off, 
 was known as a regular custom to serenade the 
 closing day ; but it did surprise the historian, as 
 he states in a foot-note, that so excellent a writer 
 as Dr. Mosheim should sneeringly speak of "the 
 pious sort of mistake" that Christians sometimes 
 make in interpreting a " happy coincidence" into 
 a special interposition of Providence. A son of 
 the Rev. James Finley, one of a party of twenty 
 men, was waylaid and attacked by a band of sav 
 ages. A sharp skirmish took place. Finley, the 
 force to which he belonged being worsted and 
 beginning to retreat, found, when he wanted to fire 
 as he ran, that his gun would not "go off," stopped 
 to pick his flint, and, doing so, fell behind his com 
 panions. An Indian leveled his rifle at him, but 
 
THE PRESBYTERIAN. 311 
 
 before he could fire was luckily shot down. A 
 few moments later, by a happy dodge, he succeeded 
 in throwing one of his comrades between himself 
 and a pursuing red-skin, and so escaped, but at the 
 expense of the life of the comrade, who was in 
 stantly tomahawked by the enemy. At the same 
 hour, as a comparison of time instituted afterwards 
 made to appear, the father of young Finley, three 
 hundred miles off, felt a "strange and unaccount 
 able impression" that his son was in imminent 
 danger of some sort, and immediately "betook 
 himself to intense and agonizing prayer" for the 
 boy. He continued this exercise for some time, 
 until at length " he felt relieved and comforted, as 
 though the danger was past." Finley, the senior, 
 regarded the escape as a special providence. How 
 the father of the son who was elbowed back and 
 got brained instead esteemed it, we are not in 
 formed. 
 
 After the expiration of his academical term, the 
 pupil was transferred to some minister, under whose 
 private instruction he pursued his strictly theologi 
 cal studies; Dr. McMillan's lectures being his text 
 book, with such collateral authorities besides as 
 the clerical libraries, within reach of borrowing, 
 afforded. This system of private tuition a neces 
 sity of the time had its advantages. The student 
 enjoyed the undivided care and attention of the 
 teacher. What was required, by olden usage in 
 the church, to be learned, he had to learn, and to 
 
312 BLACK-ROBES. 
 
 learn well. There could be no shirking of duty, 
 no skipping over of half- mastered tasks. Ready 
 to lend assistance when assistance was needed, the 
 instructor, nevertheless, expected, and taught his 
 disciple to expect, that the burden of achievement 
 should rest on his own shoulders, and that if he 
 would bear him worthily up under the pressure, 
 and carry him palmily through, it must be mainly 
 by his own efforts. The consequence was that the 
 close of his apprenticeship found him well prepared 
 for service, and possessed, very naturally, of. the 
 fullest confidence in his own sufficient ability to 
 assume, and capably to wield, the responsibilities 
 of his office. But the system had its drawback. 
 Presbyterianism was not born in a manger, nor 
 saluted in its cradle with the songs that angels are 
 wont to employ at the Nativities over which they 
 rejoice. Sprung from a conjunction of the tem 
 poral with the spiritual, its character discovered a 
 pretty evenly-balanced share of the family marks 
 of both. If it appeared with an olive-branch in one 
 hand, it came armed with a sword-blade in the 
 other. Its seel in church became its party in state, 
 for one, or the other, or both of which, it could 
 either fight or pray, as inclination prompted or as 
 the contingency invited. Politics and "persuasion" 
 were woof and warp of one piece, and the whole 
 cloth was its religion. That its " professors," 
 therefore, and particularly its preachers, moved 
 by both these powerfully constraining influences, 
 
THE PRESBYTERIAN. 313 
 
 should have manifested a devotion perhaps with 
 out a parallel certainly without its like to their 
 creed, is not astonishing. Time did not, neither 
 could change of scene or surrounding, of country 
 or of circumstance, alter the cast of their con 
 science, or qualify their conviction, or modify their 
 confession. As in the beginning, so to the end, 
 they were " True Blue" all the time. The master- 
 graduate taught, and the student learned: learn 
 ing, in his turn he taught again ; so that, handed 
 down from generation to generation, the theology 
 that was promulged in the Nether Bow was per 
 petuated in the study of the Redstone Presbyter. 
 As the result, the pupil came out from his cloister 
 well disciplined, truly, in the tenets of his church, 
 but so impregnated with, and habituated to, its 
 " doctored" atmosphere as to doubt, if not disbe 
 lieve entirely in, the presence of a healthy, life- 
 supporting presence at all in any other. 
 
 Thus he was outfitted for duty, and so, commis 
 sioned, went he forth to fill his professional place 
 in the service, a redoubtable champion surely, as 
 his Methodist cotemporary was willing to concede, 
 but view-contracted, arrogant, and intolerant, as the 
 same authority, by way of complement, and with 
 an emphasis decidedly more to his relish, was also 
 prompt to testify. 
 
 27 
 
314 
 
 BLACK-ROBES. 
 
 III. 
 
 THE SABBATH-DAY, AND HOW IT WAS SANCTIFIED. 
 
 BEFORE the Black-Robe had thought it pru 
 dent to attempt a permanent settlement among 
 them, the borderers, not willing to await his coming 
 at the expense of a total deprivation of the privi 
 leges of worship, had long been accustomed to 
 observe the stated assemblings of themselves to 
 gether for " exercise " on the Sabbath. These 
 " societies," as they were called, were held in the 
 private dwellings of such families as chose to 
 offer the accommodation, alternating from one to 
 another in regular rotation, and were conducted 
 usually by an elder ; the ordinary routine of ser 
 vices being followed, except that a select reading 
 of some appropriate sort took the place of a ser 
 mon, and that the delivery of the benediction, as 
 well as,, of course, the administration of the sacra 
 ments, was dispensed with. Houses of worship 
 began to be erected perhaps as early as 1790. In 
 their construction they differed in no particular 
 from the cabins of the settlers, only in the re 
 spect that they were somewhat larger. A few 
 hours' labor was the cheap cost of their erection. 
 Timber necessary for the purpose had but to be 
 
THE PRESBYTERIAN. 315 
 
 felled, cut the desired length, notched at the ends, 
 laid, log upon log, in place, covered with clap 
 boards, and the sun that at its rising saw the axe 
 laid at the roots of the standing trees out of which 
 the work was to be made, witnessed at its setting 
 the laying of the last " weight-pole" that kept the 
 clap-boards of the roof in position and finished 
 the job. For ordinary Sabbath-day use the meet 
 ing-house answered the purpose well enough. In 
 summer-time, when the heat was oppressive within 
 doors, and on sacramental and other special occa 
 sions, when the attendance was unusually large, 
 services were conducted in the open air. Nearby 
 the meeting-house, on the slope of a gently-rising 
 hill, a plot of ground was marked off, from which 
 the underbrush was cleared away and the trees cut 
 down, with the exception of here and there an oak 
 or a maple of imposing growth, left to lift its wide- 
 spreading branches as a shelter against tbe sun. 
 The space "thus opened was laid with logs, or slabs, 
 arranged in parallel order across the ascent of the 
 slope, and designed to serve as seats for the con 
 gregation. At the lower extremity of this area a 
 platform was erected, six or eight feet wide by ten 
 or twelve in length, and about four from the ground 
 at the front. This platform was boarded up nearly 
 breast-high above its floor, entrance to it being had 
 by means of a short flight of steps and through a 
 doorway left open at one side, while the whole was 
 covered with a roofing of slabs. Intended as a 
 
BLACK-ROBES. 
 
 pulpit for the minister, this structure went by the 
 name, along the border, of the " Tent,"- a title still 
 preserved as applied to one of the oldest churches, 
 near Uniontown,in Fayette County, for many years, 
 and down to the date of his death, under the pas 
 toral care of that amiable gentleman and most loyal 
 Presbyterian, the Rev. Dr. A. G. Fairchild. 
 
 The meeting-houses were about as comfortless 
 as it was possible to have them. The walls, some 
 times "chunked and daubed," sometimes not, 
 allowed of a free passage of air between the logs, 
 the bitter blasts of which, on winter-days, told with 
 tingling effect on the ears, the noses, and the un 
 gloved ringers of the worshipers. Stoves were not 
 permitted in the building. Physicians objected to 
 them on hygienic principles, while professors op 
 posed them as devices of the devil, designed to pro 
 duce a feeling of ease in Zion, and thus to rob the 
 believer of the benefit of a flesh-afflicting but soul- 
 chastening experience. Certain, among the women 
 especially, of the congregation, either doubting 
 the efficacy of the penance, "cross" they called 
 it, or scarcely tough enough to endure it, and 
 willing to risk the consequences, were accustomed 
 to heat stones in the nearest cabin fires, or fill jugs 
 with boiling water, and to convey them clandes 
 tinely, carefully wrapped in a fold of their gowns, to 
 their seats, where laid upon the floor they served 
 to keep the feet warm at least, let the rest of the 
 person fare as it might. For ten or twelve years 
 
THE PRESBYTERIAN. 
 
 317 
 
 this singular practice was persisted in; and when 
 at length a change was proposed, and' by a close 
 vote of the congregations the use of fire was 
 formally authorized, it was at the cost of an oppo 
 sition so violent as to threaten, while it lasted, the 
 complete disruption of the churches. 
 
 No Sabbath-day duty was more strictly enjoined 
 upon the people than that of regular and prompt 
 attendance at public worship. As the appointed 
 hour of service drew nigh, they might be seen filing 
 in along the paths that led Tent-ward through the 
 woods, some afoot, others on horseback, the 
 riders, if fathers, with an elder son or daughter, 
 sometimes both, mounted behind them, or, if 
 mothers, studded all around with the smaller 
 family jewels, a babe in the arms, last year's twins 
 in creels, one on each side of the " beast" bestrad- 
 dled, and, perched en croupe, the promising three- 
 year-old of the household closely hugging the 
 maternal waist, as a dependence both needed and 
 relied upon to maintain the mastery of his situa 
 tion. The husband rode in advance of the wife. 
 Arrived at the outskirts of the sanctuary precinct, 
 or edge of the uncleared woods, the former dis 
 mounted, and, after fastening his horse with a tie of 
 the raw-hide hitching-strap attached to its bridle, 
 doubly knotted and carefully tested, to a sapling or 
 the lower branch of a tree, turned to look to the 
 making fast, in like manner, of that of the latter, 
 who, meanwhile, drawing rein at the side of a 
 27* 
 
318 BLACK-ROBES. 
 
 stump for the easier execution of the task, had, 
 alone and unassisted, succeeded in safely landing 
 herself and the entire of her infant impedimenta in 
 charge. Here, too, the pedestrians the younger 
 folk generally of the settlements halted as they 
 came, the men ostensibly to interchange neigh 
 borly greetings with each other, but more likely, 
 as observing ones among the elders shrewdly sus 
 pected, to cast sly glances askant at the girls, who, 
 having walked barefoot from their homes, to save 
 the wear and tear of leather, took advantage of the 
 partial screen afforded by the bushes to draw on 
 the stockings and shoes with which, wrapped up 
 in handkerchiefs and carried under their arms, for 
 wearing at " meeting," as the mannerly custom 
 was, they had not failed to come provided. 
 
 The ascent of the minister into the pulpit was 
 the signal for the congregation to assemble. So 
 berly and solemnly the members advanced, the men 
 and the wftmen falling into separate lines, and, with 
 very much the air of prisoners moving to their 
 doom, marching down the aisle or passage dividing 
 the auditory, these filing to the right and those to 
 the left, for it was not lawful that the sexes should 
 worship together, and edging in between logs as 
 they went, until all were seated. Among the 
 attendants, however, were not a few who preferred 
 to decline the offered accommodations of the 
 sanctuary. These were composed of the less rev 
 erent youths of the parishes, upon whom the reins 
 
THE PRESBYTERIAN. 319 
 
 of discipline were not so tightly drawn at home as 
 they should have been, much to the detriment of 
 their proper deportment abroad, and of a sort of 
 Arab ^lass wandered in from the mountains, men 
 with unshorn beards, shaggy heads, and faces hard 
 as iron and brown as its rust, who, disliking close 
 quarters, were not to be drawn into a crowd when 
 free elbow-room could be had outside of it. Hold 
 ing back, near enough to hear and to see, but clear 
 of the consecrated limits, they stationed themselves, 
 leaning indolently against the trees or lolling at 
 half-length on the ground. Both classes all of 
 the one, and many, that is, of the other came 
 furnished with powder-horns and bullet-pouches, 
 and armed with rifles ; the latter, because it was 
 the regular habit of their lives, from which they 
 never deviated, and the former, really, perhaps, to 
 be ready for any chance shot that might offer at a 
 wild turkey or a deer on the way, but professedly for 
 the more orthodox purpose of protecting the con 
 gregation against surprise from the Indians, who, 
 by the way, so far as we are informed, never offered 
 to interfere with them. In fact, if they had been so 
 inclined, much the easier and safer plan, as well as 
 the one more in accordance with their style of 
 doing things, would have been to waylay the 
 church-goers singly and separately on the road to 
 and from rather than in a body, watchful and ex 
 pectant, at the Tent. 
 
 After a short introductory invocation, the exer- 
 
3 20 BLACK-ROBES. 
 
 cises of the day were opened .with the singing of a 
 psalm. Recited first at length from the pulpit, the 
 task was taken up immediately after by the pre 
 centor, or clerk, an officer second perhaps, but 
 only second, in importance to the minister, who 
 occupied a seat, constructed for his exclusive use, 
 right under the sacred desk. The stanzas were 
 delivered line by line by this officer, who had his 
 professional way of doing it, commencing at a 
 pitch perhaps a fifth above the natural key of his 
 voice, drawling out the syllables in a sort of sing 
 song recitative, and so regulating the intonation 
 as to leave the last-spoken word at the pitch pre 
 cisely with that of the note next in order, whatever 
 it might be, in the suspended melody. So nicely 
 were the two renderings dovetailed into each other 
 that they might have passed as solo and refrain, or 
 chant and response, of one musical performance. 
 In his selection of an air the clerk had a dozen out 
 of which to choose. These were known as the 
 "Twelve Tunes of David," copies of which, care 
 fully produced in angular "characters variously 
 shaped to indicate the different notes (fa, sol, la, mi) 
 of the gamut, and elaborately illuminated as to the 
 text, were among the properties of all competent 
 precentors. To these melodies the faithful adhered, 
 and to the exclusion of all others, with scrupulous 
 fidelity. Later down a few years, when, captivated 
 by their novelty, some of the more daring among 
 the leaders undertook to introduce certain "fugue 
 
THE PRESBYTERIAN. 321 
 
 tunes," caught up from emigrant Yankees passing 
 through on their way to Marietta, like " Corona 
 tion," for instance, which, by the way, became im 
 mensely popular soon after, the attempt excited 
 intense opposition, and for some time, like the stove- 
 question, threatened seriously a downright schism 
 in the churches. The first plunge into. the melody 
 was made by the clerk alone, the voices of the 
 congregation dropping in one upon another in 
 after-succession with an effect which, while it 
 increased the volume, so retarded the progress of 
 the music that it required the fullest exertion of 
 the lung-power of the leader, always chosen with 
 special reference to his superior qualities of chest, 
 to keep the chorus up to time, or anything like it. 
 The style of singing was unique. The rendering 
 of the lines proper was prefaced by a snatch of 
 nasal " voluntary" so, for lack of a better term, to 
 distinguish it closely resembling the prolonged 
 sounding of the closing consonants of the present 
 participle, ng, and not unlike the drone of a bag 
 pipe before the stops are operated upon. Fairly 
 plunged into the text, the task of struggling 
 through went on, word mortising into word, note 
 gliding through vague and wayward flights into 
 note, until the end of the passage was reached. 
 Usually, almost uniformly, in fact, at first, the con 
 gregation, men, women, and children, all sang in 
 unison, following in various octaves the air of the 
 melody. Now and then a clerk, happily possessed 
 
322 BLACK-ROBES. 
 
 of more accomplished parts than distinguished the 
 general, would veer off into the base; but the diver 
 sion was not often attempted, arrd was prudently 
 limited to the few closing notes of the verse ; when, 
 in the case of misadventure, ticklishly probable, in 
 the experiment, the stop of the strain would cleverly 
 cover up the failure. Later on, about the time of 
 the introduction of the fugue tunes, the singing of 
 "parts" began to be introduced ; in the apportion 
 ment under the new order of arrangement, the men 
 sustaining the air, and the women, or detachments 
 of them, serving on the " tribble," answering to what 
 is known in these later days as the tenor. Parceled 
 off in this way, the effect maybe more readily con 
 ceived than described of the singing of a hymn like 
 Mear or Dundee, the burden of it borne by the 
 multitudinous baritone of one side of the congre 
 gation, and the accompaniment, in soprano, by the 
 other; the voices of these latter soaring at a giddy 
 height among the " fifths" (making their escape 
 chiefly through the nose), and maintaining that 
 elevation, with as little variation as a decent 
 respect for the harmonies permitted, down to the 
 very close, quieting lingeringly and reluctantly 
 into silence even then. 
 
 The psalm ended, a " portion of Scripture" was 
 read, selected usually either from the Old Testament 
 or the Epistles of the New, each verse of the chapter 
 so chosen, in its order, undergoing a close analysis 
 and critical exposition, rather more to the edifica- 
 
THE PRESBYTERIAN. 
 
 323 
 
 tion than to the entertainment of the congregation. 
 This exercise was fallowed by a prayer, particu 
 larly worthy of mention on account of its length, 
 often consuming thirty minutes or more in the 
 delivery; its breadth, covering all subjects con 
 ceivably within the scope of desire, except those, 
 perhaps, that appear in " Our Father" in the Sermon 
 on the Mount ; and its depth, penetrating to the 
 very bottom of profoundest doctrines, and defining 
 according to Westminster science, and making 
 clear so as to come within the comprehension of 
 their Author, the dark and difficult significance of 
 his own mysteries. After the prayer came the 
 second psalm of the service. This praise-offering 
 differed from the first in that, as read from the 
 sacred desk, and before being taken hold of by 
 the clerk, it was subjected, sentence by sentence, 
 to a searching note-and-comment process by the 
 preacher. The special aim of this labor was to 
 show the " evangelical" character of David the 
 Hebrew, and to illustrate how eminently appro 
 priate for devotional purposes in a Christian meet 
 ing-house was the psalmody composed for priestly 
 rehearsal in a Jewish synagogue. 
 
 But the sermon, next in order, was the feature 
 of the service. If the people felt it, as they evi 
 dently did, to be so, so, still more evidently, did 
 the minister. Having the scriptural authority to 
 that effect, it was his duty, as well as his delight, 
 "to magnify his office;" and as the sermon, best, 
 
3 24 BLA CK-R OES. 
 
 if not alone, of the round of exercises, afforded 
 a ready range for the purpose, he made the most 
 of the chances, in it and attending it, to do that 
 justice to himself and his profession. After the 
 singing of the psalm, the pause of a moment or 
 two, usually occurring between performances, was 
 allowed to lengthen out materially, the parson 
 consuming the interval, very much at his leisure, 
 and with a quiet show of preparation that was 
 very impressive, in turning over the leaves of his 
 Bible, dog-earing a page here and there for con 
 venience of reference, or producing and assorting 
 his notes, or (although this was less ostentatiously 
 done) in fortifying the inner man with a draft of 
 sufficient cordial from the little brown jug that 
 seldom was wanting in its own appropriate nook 
 behind the breast-board of the pulpit. These pre 
 liminaries disposed of, to the desired effect of 
 stimulating the attention and whetting the ex 
 pectation of his listeners, he arose to his feet, 
 stripped himself of his coat, if the day happened 
 to be warm, and in his shirt-sleeves stepped for 
 ward to his place at the desk. Inviting the atten 
 tion of his hearers, he then announced his text, 
 indicating, first, the book, chapter, and verse, and 
 again, the more certainly to impress it upon the 
 congregation, the verse, chapter, and book, re 
 versely, where it was to be found. Promptly, in 
 return, each member of the flock produced his 
 own private copy of the Bible, with which he 
 
THE PRESBYTERIAN. 325 
 
 always came provided, and, with a sound like the 
 rustle of leaves stirred by a summer wind, or the 
 flutter of birds' wings as a flight of them is about 
 to light among the branches, turned over the pages 
 in search of the passage, to make sure that it was 
 rendered true to the letter in the reading. As 
 among the sacred writers, the lawgiver and the 
 prophets stood first in the esteem of ministers, the 
 epistolary authors next, and the evangelists, rather 
 distantly, last. The sayings of our Lord, as gathered 
 from his lips and as recorded in the books of 
 Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, were of account 
 certainly, but of account only as they tallied, or 
 could be made to seem to tally, with the utter 
 ances of Moses or the mystical vaticinations of 
 Isaiah, or as they stood the test of the criticisms 
 of Paul. Out of these higher authorities, there 
 fore, it was the favorite custom of the preacher to 
 choose his subject of discourse. In the treatment 
 of his topic he followed the old regular routine of 
 his fathers in the profession, setting forth the 
 same proposition in the same terms, pursuing the 
 same line of argument in the same methodical 
 manner, quoting the same proofs in defense of the 
 same positions, and arriving, through the same 
 series of heads, sub-heads, inferences, and practical 
 observations, at the same conclusions ; very much 
 in the same manner, with the same degree of anima 
 tion, and to the same convincing, and about the 
 same spirit-cheering, effect that would have at- 
 28 
 
326 BLA CK-R OSES. 
 
 tended the attempt, had it been made, at a solution 
 of a question in calculus, or one of the more intri 
 cate of the problems of Euclid. To go through with 
 all this called for time, so that, although one and 
 a half and two hours sometimes sufficed, three 
 were not regarded as an extraordinary allowance 
 for the performance The audience lingered out 
 the siege with more than the patience that could 
 have been expected. If the elders of the congre 
 gation, when their backs, which were without sup 
 port, grew weary, and the crook'd hinges of their 
 knees became cramped from long sitting, rose to 
 their feet during the service, it was only tojelax 
 their joints with a walk to window or door, if in 
 the meeting-house, or simply to stand for sake 
 of change, if on the Tent-ground, resting them 
 for a time against sill or jamb in the one case, or 
 leaning, still listeningly and devoutly, with palms 
 planted, hand over hand, on the knotted heads of 
 their stout hickory walking-sticks, in the other. 
 The younger hearers kept up a wakeful attention 
 as long as they could, the better to sustain them 
 at it nibbling the while at shreds and ends of 
 slippery-elm bark, peppermint, and sassafras-root, 
 or gnawing at bits of biscuit. But even these 
 expedients spent their virtue ere long, when, after 
 many a nod dropped more and more decisively, 
 followed by as many a less and less alarmed start 
 of recovery, the drowsy influence prevailed, and 
 the captured senses settled into a repose that was 
 
THE PRESBYTERIAN. 327 
 
 thenceforth to know no balk nor break through 
 all the dull while the sermon lasted. The women, 
 less restless than the men, if not quite so attentive, 
 sat the performance out with the perseverance of 
 saints. If the day proved warm and the atmosphere 
 close, they employed their folded handkerchiefs 
 as fans, or, unprovided with those conveniences, 
 the leafy extremities of the slender twigs which 
 they had used on their way to " meeting" to brush 
 off the flies from the necks and the flanks of their 
 horses. But for this exercise as a counter-recourse, 
 the influences together of weather and "word" 
 would have been insupportable, and the strongest 
 of flesh, the most willing of spirit, must have sunk 
 exhausted under them. Except the mothers not 
 a few, nor far between-times freshly in that way 
 among them ; in which case tired nature found a 
 sufficient diversion in the frequently-recurring at 
 tentions required by their nurslings, whose crav 
 ings and whose necessities had to be cared for, of 
 course, as they were, right openly, and without 
 a thought of impropriety, in the presence of the 
 whole congregation. 
 
 Meanwhile a spirit of impatience, in smart 
 contrast with the forced repose of the people, 
 began to manifest itself among the "beasts," 
 standing hitched in close neighborhood to each 
 other, along the outer lines of the Tent-ground. 
 Fagged by the toils of the Sabbath-day's journey 
 that brought them there ; with hanging heads, and 
 
328 BLACK-ROBES. 
 
 drooping ears, and eyes half closed ; leaning their 
 weight on three legs for the relief of the remaining 
 one, loosely depending and resting at ease on the 
 toe, as it were, of its hoof; showing scarcely a sign 
 of life, except an occasional quiver of the skin on 
 flank or foreshoulder, to shake off the flies that 
 swarmed about them when they became too an 
 noying, the drowsy animals had stood out the 
 opening services in a well-behaved and most or 
 thodox manner. But rest, in due time, wrought its 
 work, and, rousing from the dreamy, indolent mood 
 into which they had settled, the creatures, refreshed, 
 were now themselves again. Wearying soon from 
 idleness, as before from exercise, they became rest 
 less and fretful; switching their tails at the trouble 
 some insects whose stinging assaults were no longer 
 to be passively endured, stamping their feet, and 
 swinging round their heads with great stretches, 
 sometimes to the very shank of a hind-leg, lifted to 
 shorten the effort, to bring their teeth to bear re- 
 lievingly, or their noses, upon some particularly 
 irritated spot of attack. Hitched to neighboring 
 trees, pairs of cross-grained geldings, on terms of 
 forbearance hitherto, seeming to have discovered 
 sudden cause of misunderstanding, threw back 
 their ears, made dashes with open teeth at each 
 other, and, finding their career checked by the 
 tightened tether before quite within nipping dis 
 tance, reversed their tactics, and, turning rear to 
 rear, with angry screams joined skirmish with their 
 
THE PRESBYTERIAN. 329 
 
 heels. Mares, appearing to have awakened all at 
 once to the consciousness of their absence, began 
 to call, in tones indicative of alarm, for their off 
 spring. Prompt at the summons, the colts, bleat 
 ing as they ran, came racing from abroad in the 
 woods, whither they had wandered ; in the confu 
 sion attending the common rush, making for the 
 wrong dams, and meeting with such repulses, when 
 they began to make themselves at home, as to send 
 them skipping away, their mouths, the while, going 
 through the motions, but without the voice too 
 completely shocked by surprise to find it of a 
 protest at the unmotherly treatment. Stallions, 
 stationed prudently at more distant posts, caught 
 the contagion of excitement, champed their bridle- 
 bits, pawed the ground madly with their feet, 
 tramped in circles round and round the saplings 
 to which they were tied, winding themselves up, 
 and then unwinding back again, in the process, 
 leaped, now with plunges that made their straight 
 ened raw-hide fastenings twang to cracking fairly 
 under the strain, now stood with lifted crest in 
 breathless pause, now gave vent to their suspended 
 respiration in a blast through their nostrils, sharp 
 and shrill as the shriek of a trumpet, and now 
 crowned the proceeding with a neigh, long, and 
 fierce, and loud, that sped pealing and reverberating 
 abroad till the forest rang in all its shelters, far and 
 near, with the echo. 
 
 Amid all these untoward circumstances, the 
 28* 
 
330 SLA CK-R OSES. 
 
 minister, wholly unconscious, or at all events re 
 gardless, of them, proceeded with his discourse. It 
 was the sinner's own affair whether he would hear 
 or whether he would forbear; but as for himself, 
 it was his business to preach, and, like a faithful 
 servant, once entered upon his task he was bound 
 to see it through. Holding fast to the line of his 
 argument, step by step plodding along he followed 
 it up. If the sound of his voice happened to be lost 
 for a time, swallowed up by a wave of tumult rolled 
 in from the disturbed verge of the camp, no matter ; 
 a proof missed, more or less, of the proposition, for 
 instance, that "all mankind sinned in Adam and 
 fell with him in his first transgression," left the 
 elucidation of it none the less complete on that 
 account. Told over and over so often, his people 
 had heard the story to little purpose if now they 
 were to lose the chain of it by the simple dropping 
 of a link. And so the work went on, slowly, steadily, 
 surely, one great section of it after another dis 
 sected, desiccated, and, as was proper with the meat 
 of doctrine, made dried-beef of to insure its keep 
 ing, ere laid at length away; and so, like the 
 "going going gone" of an auctioneer, followed 
 the warning calls, delivered with the due delays 
 between, of, " In the last place, finally, in conclu 
 sion," when with the closing thump of "Amen!" the 
 hammer fell, and the sermon was ended. A prayer, 
 long enough, but brief compared with the one that 
 went before it, succeeded, followed by a psalm, 
 
THE PRESS YTERIAN. 3 3 1 
 
 after which the benediction was pronounced, and 
 the morning service closed. 
 
 Dismissed, the congregation slowly retired in 
 close procession from their seats, scattering, when 
 quite outside the precincts of the sanctuary, in 
 various directions. Some went to look after their 
 horses, to see that they had not slipped their head 
 stall, and that their fastenings were secure; or, 
 perhaps, to " piece" them on nubbins of corn, 
 brought along in their pockets for that purpose, 
 just as on the same grain, ground, and baked into 
 " dodgers," did the mothers their children, and 
 from the same tenderly considerate motive. Some 
 withdrew in pairs, or groups of three and four, and, 
 seeking the shade of a tree, whittled with their 
 heavy-bladed, horn-handled jack-knives at the 
 tough knots on their walking-sticks, talking the 
 while of the weather and the crops; of the flocks 
 and herds that filled their pastures, their hogs, 
 their cattle, and their horses, and, as likely as 
 not, going through the preliminary negotiations of 
 a "swap," which to-morrow or next day would see 
 consummated, before all was over. Some retired 
 to the graveyard, picking their course along path 
 less ways, wading knee-deep in heavy, rank grasses, 
 and forcing a passage through thickets of thorn and 
 patches of blackberry-bushes to the spot of their 
 search, where, pausing and leaning over the rough 
 stone planted to mark the place, they paid their 
 tribute of sorrow to the memory of some loved one, 
 
332 BLA CK-R OBES. 
 
 husband, or wife, or child, whose all of what 
 once had been left and that was its ashes lay 
 buried there. Women in couples wandered off, 
 slowly strolling, and pausing ' often on various 
 trifling pretenses, to reach a leaf, standing on 
 tiptoe to do it, or stooping to pluck a flower, but 
 quickening their paces as the straggling bushes 
 intervened to veil their retreat, until tlu utmost 
 limits of the clearing were passed, and themselves, 
 hid from view, were lost amid the cover of the 
 copses. But the centre of general attraction was 
 the "Spring." Thither, sooner or later during the 
 "intermission," all were accustomed to repair. 
 Those that thirsted drank of the water, the more 
 attentive youths of the flock standing, gourd or 
 earthen bowl in hand, in turn at the fountain, and 
 Dispensing the element to the rest in waiting, 
 blushing to the brows when the customer happened 
 to be one, young and fair, of the opposite sex, her 
 self crimsoning to the bosom in return as she trem 
 blingly received the proffered vessel from his hand. 
 Lingering as they came and drank, the visitors 
 tarried, so that ere long quite a large proportion of 
 the congregation was assembled at the spot. Seated 
 on stones or reclined on the grass rested the elders, 
 puffing their pipes, and through the smoke looking 
 dreamily on, while their sons and daughters, in 
 separate companies that would not mingle, and yet 
 could not keep apart, found pastime, the former 
 in delving amid the soil for roots of sassafras and 
 
THE PRESBYTERIAN. 333 
 
 calamus, and the latter, perchance, in gathering 
 sprays of spearmint, tramping the beds in which it 
 grew, and crushing the plants as they did so, till 
 all the air around was odorous with their perfume. 
 The blast of a horn blown from the Tent by 
 the clerk, as the man naturally presumed to be 
 best in wind for it, gave signal when the half-hour 
 of intermission was up. At the call the worshipers, 
 laying aside all levities alas for the levities ! of 
 walk and conversation, resumed their serious de 
 portment, and in solemn procession took up their 
 return to the sanctuary. Again were they to be 
 seen seated in their places. Again the minister 
 mounted the pulpit, stooped to a kiss of the little 
 brown jug, and rose to his place at the desk. Again 
 psalm, prayer, and sermon were delivered in their 
 order, but with less of prolixity now ; and again, 
 as the sun's rays fell slanting down through the 
 tree-tops on the summits of the hills that lay 
 towards his setting, was heard the welcome end-all 
 to the exercise, long delayed, but reached at last, 
 of the benediction. Meeting was over. The last 
 duty of the day's dismal catalogue was discharged, 
 and with a sense of relief which it would have been 
 rank crime against heaven to confess, even to their 
 own consciences, but which Was felt nevertheless, 
 the worshipers scattered towards their various 
 homes, thanking God in their hearts, though the 
 devil may have had the credit of the suggestion, 
 that another Sabbath with its "sanctifications" was 
 
334 
 
 BLACK-ROBES. 
 
 gone, and that a good week's allowance was theirs, 
 ere its next return, of rest, rest that was real in 
 comparison, rest at the axe, the plow, and the 
 mattock ; chopping in the forest, furrowing in the 
 field, or grubbing in the clearing. 
 
 IV. 
 
 THE LONG SABBATH, AND THE GREAT BUFFALO 
 SACRAMENT. 
 
 THE Great Day, holiest among the hallowed 
 of the year, and honored with special observ 
 ance by the Presbyterians of the border, was the 
 " Long Sabbath," as it was popularly called, or the 
 Sabbath of the Sacrament. The strong right arm 
 of him who led, preparing the way of the " New 
 Departure," had made bare itself with mighty 
 effect to the lopping oiT of idolatrous superfluities 
 of worship, so that his followers now, of the round 
 of ceremonials that used to give variety and lend 
 attraction to a Lord's-day's services, had but this 
 single spared, sadly-mutilated remnant left. But 
 as a mother, bereft of all beside of her offspring, 
 hugs to her bosom with a therefore more jealous 
 liking the darling that only remains, so the Pres 
 byterian clung to his Communion the one Set- 
 
THE PRESBYTERIAN. 335 
 
 time, the sole Solemn Feast, that he could call his 
 own with the concentrated whole of his soul^e 
 devotion. , 
 
 The Sacrament, as the common rule of the time, 
 was celebrated but once a year. A minister had 
 usually, however, two congregations under his 
 care, so that, having to provide for the spiritual 
 necessities of both, the ordinance occurred twice 
 under his administration once to each parish 
 during that term. The ceremonies of the season 
 lasted through five days. The opening one 
 Thursday was consecrated to fasting, humiliation, 
 and prayer, and was observed, especially in the 
 first particular, with scrupulous fidelity. It was 
 the New-Dispensation " Day of Atonement" bor 
 rowed bodily from the Old; and not Moses himself 
 could have honored it more strictly in accordance 
 with his own law, save in the offer of the offering 
 by fire, perhaps, of the young bullock, the ram, 
 and the seven lambs, than did his loyal follower 
 on the border. The sermon of the day was long 
 beyond ordinary; prayerfully prepared, and par 
 ticularly, as an exhibit of the "grounds and 
 reasons" for the fast should be ; and powerfully 
 adapted, so the assurance comes down to us, as a 
 strengthening exercise towards making more suc 
 cessfully the ascension of the mount of ordinances 
 on the ensuing Sabbath. Friday was not so de 
 voutly observed. Few, except those who intended 
 to "take the sacrament," went to meeting, the rest 
 
336 BLA CK-R OSES. 
 
 remaining at home and pursuing, but only with 
 a- half-hearted sort of energy, their usual labors. 
 Saturday followed in the same way, the " seculars" 
 doubtfully on duty at work, and the saints having 
 the worship to themselves. After the preaching 
 on this day, the session of the church was accus 
 tomed to meet to examine applicants for member 
 ship and to distribute " tokens" among those that 
 were entitled to commune. These "tokens" were 
 small pieces of flattened lead, about the size of 
 the copper coin, then in circulation, known as the 
 "half-cent," and stamped, to make them valid, 
 with the initials B. C, for instance, indicating 
 "Buffalo Church" of the congregation to which 
 they belonged. The " token" was regarded for 
 many years as an "element" excellent of virtue, 
 and quite as essential to an orthodox celebration 
 of the Supper as the bread and the wine. It went 
 into disuse finally, as later and somewhat more 
 liberal generations sprang up to take the place of 
 their fathers, but never while a gray-beard of the 
 old stock lingered to protest against the innova 
 tion. 
 
 The Sabbath, however, was The Day, by emi 
 nent distinction, of the group, and enjoyed the 
 special honors of the season accordingly. Not 
 only did all the members of the .congregation, con 
 verted and unconverted, make it a point to be in 
 attendance at the meeting-house, but distant fellow- 
 believers from other parishes, ten, fifteen, twenty 
 
THE PRESBYTERIAN. 337 
 
 miles away, gathered in, so that the exercises, 
 opening half an hour earlier than usual, witnessed, 
 when begun, such an assemblage as the sanctuary 
 usually had scarcely the capacity to accommodate. 
 The Black-Robe in charge had always from two or 
 three to half a dozen of his ministerial brethren to 
 assist him at the services ; while the clerk, extend 
 ing his invitations on a similar scale of liberality, 
 not to be behind in supporting the dignity of his 
 office, was to be seen surrounded by half the 
 precentors of the Presbytery. The offering of the 
 introductory prayer was attended to by one of the 
 reverend aids ; the reading of the psalm, by another. 
 The delivery of the discourse, or Action Sermon, as 
 it was called, devolved upon the pastor. A third 
 assistant afterwards took up the exercise of Fencing" 
 the Tables, or, as with propriety it might be termed, 
 " Boxing the Compass" of the creed. This was a 
 performance preliminary to the dispensation of the 
 Sacrament, in which, taking the Ten Command 
 ments for his text, the preacher entered upon an 
 exposition that, beginning with the first, was sus 
 tained the rest, one by one, following in their 
 order until the list entire was disposed of. Emi 
 nent account was made of the decalogue as covering 
 the whole ground of qualification for church-mem 
 bership, and so rigorously were the tables "fenced" 
 in the enumeration of the sins forbidden in each 
 commandment, that it was commonly remarked 
 2-) 
 
338 BLA CK-R OSES. 
 
 by the profane (and without dissent, either, on the 
 part of the reverend biographer who chronicles the 
 fact), that " the preacher never stopped till he had 
 solemnly debarred from the ordinance every one 
 of his people, and himself to boot." 
 
 These preparatory services discharged, the bap 
 tismal ceremonies came next. All the children 
 of believers born within the year, to the very 
 youngest, where it was possible for the parents to 
 appear with them, were expected to be present to 
 undergo the rite. A long dissertation preceded 
 the "sprinkling," in which were dwelt upon, par 
 ticularly, the points in controversy between the 
 more prominent sects of the time : first, that is, 
 as to whether infants were proper subjects of 
 the ordinance ; and second, whether the mode in 
 vogue among Presbyterians of applying it was the 
 scriptural one ; both of which were affirmatively 
 demonstrated to the entire satisfaction of all con 
 cerned. It was not only recommended to the 
 parents at the same time, but required of them by 
 solemn vow, that they should conscientiously per 
 form all their duty in the religious training and 
 nurturing of their children ; especially attending to 
 their instruction in that faultless digest of only 
 genuine doctrine, the Shorter Catechism. As a 
 test of their fidelity to the promise thus given, it 
 was the custom of the minister to call at least once 
 a year on each of the families in his charge, and 
 put the children to the " question" (in more senses 
 
THE PRESBYTERIAN. 
 
 339 
 
 than one), who were expected, and seldom failed, 
 to be ready for the ordeal. 
 
 Then followed " the Sacrament." Tables made 
 of logs with the upper side hewn down so as to 
 leave a flat surface, and supported either on blocks 
 of wood or legs of sapling-stocks cut the right 
 length and straddled apart, two at each end, to 
 make a steady work of it, were arranged length 
 wise along the central aisle or passage, and again 
 transversely across the open space in front of the 
 pulpit. Other logs, dressed in a similar way, but 
 narrower and lower, and designed to serve as seats, 
 ran parallel-wise along either side of the table. On 
 the centre of the transverse table, and consequently 
 at the head of the other, widened somewhat for 
 the purpose, stood the vessels containing the 
 sacred symbols. These latter were covered with 
 white linen napkins, as, in cloth of the same mate 
 rial, was the board itself (neatly folded and pinned 
 at the corners) ; prepared the spotlessness of the 
 fabric, and the creases, marked by the iron, with 
 which it was barred, showing with what an eye to 
 tidiness for the occasion. Taking his station at 
 this point of the table, the exercises of the Feast 
 were opened by the pastor with an address, the 
 most noticeable feature of which was its elaborate 
 laying bare of the kindred enormities of transub- 
 stantiation and impanation, as heretically enter 
 tained by Romanists and Lutherans ; both of 
 which, the people were assured, it became them as 
 
3 40 BLA CK-R OBES. 
 
 good and true communicants utterly to repudiate. 
 Next in order a psalm was read, during the 
 singing of which, to some melancholy tune, such 
 as "Coleshill," or "Communion," or, when the 
 metre admitted of it, " Windham," a portion of the 
 church-members rising to their feet and filing into 
 line marched into and along the aisle, the men on 
 one side and the women on the other, until the 
 leaders reached the end of the table, where they 
 seated themselves, their followers dropping suc 
 cessively into place likewise, side by side, as they 
 approached, until the benches were filled. The 
 singing then ceased ; whereupon two of the elders 
 arose, and, commencing at the rear of the board, 
 started along the lines to collect the tokens ; pretty 
 much as a car-conductor does, passing among his 
 passengers to lift their tickets for the trip. Served 
 with the customary formalities, more or less tedious 
 as the minister officiating chose at his pleasure to 
 order it, this first installment of communicants re 
 tired at length, under cover of Coleshill resumed ; 
 while a second, at the same time, the counter-files 
 edging side-wise past each other as they came and 
 went along the narrow aisle, moved forward to 
 occupy their vacated places. The same proceed 
 ing was repeated over and over again, so that there 
 were, not unfrequently, six or seven tables filled 
 and administered to before all were served who 
 were entitled to the privilege. At the close of the 
 meeting the preachers and the elders were accus- 
 
THE PRESBYTERIAN. 341 
 
 tomed to assemble in a little group by themselves 
 and have a private entertainment of their own, on 
 a more liberal scale, over the elements that were 
 left of the Supper, not, of course, to gratify a carnal 
 appetite, but merely to show, practically, their con 
 tempt of the old notion, which they had just heard 
 denounced from the pulpit, of the fact of a Real 
 Presence in the Sacrament, or that the bread and 
 wine were anything other, holier or better, than 
 they ought to be. 
 
 It seems almost incomprehensible how out of a 
 series of exercises so frigid and formal it should 
 be possible for other than correspondingly formal 
 and frigid effects to proceed. The intellectual and 
 the emotional are not in such relations of sym 
 pathy that the tender susceptibilities of the one 
 should melt responsively to the dull logic (which 
 it does not comprehend) of the other. And yet 
 we have the evidence that the miracle could 
 happen; that a homily of Smith's or Macurdy's 
 could arouse to enthusiasm as well as a harangue 
 from Finley or Cartwright, and that the impertur 
 bable predestinarian could be brought to his rap 
 tures as well as the impressible Methodist. Shortly 
 after the Cane-Ridge revival, a very similar move 
 ment started in one of the Presbyterian parishes 
 of Western Pennsylvania. It created intense ex 
 citement at the time, and not only because of the 
 extraordinary manifestations which attended it, but 
 as the opening scene of a revival that spread through 
 
 29* 
 
342 BLACK-ROBES. 
 
 all the settlements, and continued, more or less 
 powerfully, to prevail through some four years, to 
 the material building up of the Redstone Zion 
 has become memorable in the annals of the church. 
 The occasion is associated with the place in which 
 it occurred, and is known in the narratives of the 
 time as the GREAT BUFFALO SACRAMENT. 
 
 On the last Sabbath of October, 1802, the com 
 munion of the congregation at Cross Roads took 
 place, which was attended with such gracious dis 
 plays of divine power as to induce the brethren to 
 make an appointment for the administration of 
 the same ordinance, two weeks later, at the church 
 of Upper Buffalo. Very remarkable exercises had 
 attended the services at Cross Roads, in the pres 
 ence of an unusually large assembly, the fame of 
 which was carried far and wide throughout the 
 region; so that when the announcement was pub 
 lished that the celebration was to be repeated, the 
 people everywhere were eagerly ready to attend. 
 With the dawn of the day before the appointed 
 Sabbath Saturday began to pour in the wor 
 shipers, the tide keeping increasingly up until 
 much the largest assembly which had ever been 
 seen at a religious meeting in Western Pennsyl 
 vania, numbering about ten thousand, was collected 
 on the ground. Among the rest were fifteen min 
 isters. Houses in the neighborhood were hos 
 pitably thrown open for the accommodation of 
 attendants ; horses were stabled in the barns, and 
 
THE PRESBYTERIAN. 
 
 343 
 
 the wants of both beasts and owners abundantly 
 supplied while food and fodder lasted. Tents, with 
 which they had prudently come provided, were 
 erected by some, while others camped in the woods, 
 under booths of bushes hastily heaped together 
 for a shelter. On Saturday afternoon two of the 
 ministers preached at the same time, one in the 
 meeting-house, the other in the tent. Exercises, 
 consisting of preaching, exhortation, prayer, and 
 praise, were resumed in the evening and kept up 
 through the night. Two discourses were deliv 
 ered, simultaneously again, on Sunday morning, 
 one in the church, as before, and one in the open 
 air. The Sacrament, with its customary formali 
 ties, was then administered, nearly a thousand 
 communicants participating in the ceremony. The 
 Reverend Elisha Macurdy, well remembered yet 
 by many on the scene of his early labors, as in 
 the closing days of his life he used to appear, 
 after having officiated at the first table, at the re 
 quest of one of his brethren, took a position at a 
 short distance from the meeting-house, and, while 
 the rest of the tables were still being served, began 
 to preach to the crowd that soon collected about 
 him. He selected for his text the second Psalm, 
 and delivered the discourse, entirely unpremedi 
 tated, as we are assured, which proved the eventful 
 one of his life, and which has ever since been fa 
 mously known in clerical circles as " Macurdy's 
 War Sermon." The effect produced upon his 
 
344 BLA CK- ROBES. 
 
 audience was overwhelming, literally, almost, in 
 point of fact, like a discharge of musketry. He 
 "popped them down," as the saying among the 
 thoughtless and wicked was, " like pigeons," the 
 scene appearing " like the close of a battle, in 
 which every tenth man had fallen fatally wounded." 
 It was the old experience told over again of Cane- 
 Ridge, the same mysterious agency breaking out 
 and working in the same mysterious way. Some 
 fell to the earth suddenly ; some sunk gradually ; 
 some lay quiet and silent; some were violently 
 agitated; some, seeing the spiritual glory, rejoiced 
 hopefully, while others groaned in pain, sorrowing 
 and thirsting for the water of life. The work con 
 tinued with unabated interest on through Monday 
 and until the evening of Tuesday, the people lin 
 gering fondly as long as they might at the place 
 where so much of God's power had been mani 
 fested in their presence 
 
 Not to let the awakening subside, nor to fail of 
 putting it to the best advantage while it lasted, the 
 meeting at Buffalo Creek was followed up by sim 
 ilar ones, held, one after another, in all the various 
 churches of the region. Each in its turn was 
 a success, the interest which had foeen aroused 
 keeping up unabatedly from first to last. Crowds 
 gathered at all, from all quarters of the country, 
 from the Forks, from Salem, from Congruity, from 
 Chartiers. The church at Cross Roads was so 
 packed with hearers that the preacher, unable to 
 
THE PRESBYTERIAN. 345 
 
 force an entrance at the door, had to use a ladder 
 and climb in to his pulpit through a back window 
 of the building. 
 
 A remarkable feature of the revival, viewed in 
 connection with its peculiarities of manifestation, 
 was the character of the preaching, not only under 
 which it started, but by which, afterwards, it was 
 sustained. The sermons were purely doctrinal. 
 The source and the supply of the enthusiasms of 
 the season were the Confession of Faith and the 
 Catechisms. The doctrine of Justification by Faith, 
 we are assured, was much insisted upon ; also that 
 of Sanctification by the Word and Spirit of God, 
 and the manner of receiving Christ and walking in 
 Him, as set forth in the Holy Scriptures and the 
 Standards of the church. That " men of informa 
 tion, of strong nerves and vigorous understand 
 ings," to say nothing of women and children, should 
 have been overcome " popped down like pigeons" 
 by orthodox knocks such as these, is certainly 
 astonishing, and is about the best evidence that 
 could be quoted in proof of the presence of a 
 supernatural agency in the work. 
 
 That there was an influence more than human 
 astir was generally conceded among the members; 
 but whether it emanated from above, or proceeded 
 from below, was a controverted point. One would 
 suppose that the simple fact of there being room 
 to doubt the question ought to have settled it. To 
 say that " the devil could not have been its author," 
 
346 BLA CK-ROBES. 
 
 seems rather like an intimation that there was 
 plausible reason to suspect he was, and to try to 
 prove the proposition only strengthens the doubt. 
 
 Outside the communion, among " the opposers 
 of the revival," the excitement was attributed by 
 many to the terrific character of the preaching, 
 the vehement appeals to the conscience, and the 
 protracted exercises ; all calculated, as was alleged, 
 to produce just such an effect on persons of weak 
 nerves and delicate constitutions. As against this 
 solution, it was retorted that the deists who offered 
 it ought to be ashamed of it, especially as not 
 a few of their own number, fortified against im 
 pression by the writings of Bolingbroke, Hume, 
 Voltaire, and Paine, had, nevertheless, been brought 
 down among the rest. Could such a miracle be 
 ascribed to anything else than the finger of God ? 
 
 Others accounted for it on the ground of " Sym 
 pathy." In rejoinder to this theory, it was urged 
 that sympathy can only communicate as it has been 
 communicated to ; that it never could have begun 
 such a work, and that the work having ceased 
 though but for an hour, it could not have brought 
 it again into operation. One person falling might 
 have brought another sympathizing neighbor down 
 with him, but what occasioned the first prostra 
 tion ? The merit of the invention of this argument 
 belongs to the Rev. Doctor George A. Baxter, the 
 then President of Washington College. 
 
 A more philosophical and better-sustained view, 
 
THE PRESBYTERIAN. 347 
 
 as its author claims, was that the bodily affection 
 was the result of the mental excitement arising 
 from the influence of the Spirit and truth of God 
 upon the consciences of those who were its sub 
 jects. As violent gusts of passion, sudden sur 
 prise, strong mental impulses in which either joy 
 or sorrow predominates, produce sometimes inju 
 rious, occasionally fatal, bodily results, why might 
 not similar effects proceed from the similar in 
 fluence of religious excitement? And yet the 
 inventor of the argument confesses to having en 
 countered a difficulty in it, this, that there were 
 instances of pungent exercise of mind where the 
 generally accompanying physical symptoms were 
 entirely wanting. The difficulty was an insuper 
 able one, for an exception to the rule was an ex 
 tinguisher to the argument, as the projector of it 
 upon final reflection concedes, and it was aban 
 doned. No explanation could be settled on that 
 was entirely satisfactory, although the general con 
 viction soon grew to be that the outsiders, or 
 " opposers," had, as near as could be, the sensible 
 view of it. 
 
 As the results of this remarkable outpouring of 
 the Spirit, we are informed that many hundreds of 
 persons, of both sexes and of all ages, were brought 
 under deep conviction of their sins. A considerable 
 proportion of these one hundred and twenty-five 
 at the congregations of Cross-Roads and Three 
 Springs alone were converted, as it was hopefully 
 
34 8 BLACK-ROBES. 
 
 believed ; but there were numerous cases among 
 them, unhappily, of apostasy. On the whole, not 
 withstanding the large accessions claimed, the 
 church does not seem to have afterwards held the 
 Buffalo style of sensation in particular esteem; for, 
 with the exception of a brief run of very unsatis 
 factory experience at the Anxious Bench, which 
 occurred about a generation later, when similar 
 scenes, though on a less extravagant scale, were 
 acted over again, she has cautiously steered clear 
 of it altogether. 
 
 V. 
 
 THE EARLY LABORERS IN THE BORDER VINEYARD. 
 
 OF those who enjoy distinguished mention, as 
 eminent on one account or another among 
 the Presbyterian Black-Robes of the border, the 
 choice of renown attaches to the half-dozen who 
 were foremost to take the field, Power, McMillan, 
 Finley, Smith, Dodd, and Clark. These " mission 
 aries" appeared on the scene of their future labors 
 nearly simultaneously, entering almost abreast, as 
 we are told, upon the mighty harvest, and con 
 tinued thenceforward as faithful co-workers in the 
 cause to the end. As conglomerately, so to speak, 
 the Rock upon which the Western Zion was 
 founded, their fame rates high, in the estimation 
 
THE PRESBYTERIAN. 349 
 
 especially of the generation that succeeded them ; 
 nor among the children's children will their names 
 be forgotten while frontier legends, told at family 
 firesides, may hold their power to charm, or while 
 the local histories last, to invite a perusal, in which 
 they are written. We have already alluded to most 
 of them, but a somewhat more particular reference 
 may not be out of place. 
 
 JAMES POWER emigrated with his family to the 
 West in 1776. He did not take the regular charge 
 of a congregation for some years, but served as a 
 sort of missionary pastor, dividing his time among 
 the churches at Mount Pleasant, Unity, Laurel 
 Hill, Dunlap's Creek, Tyrone, and Sewickley. Five 
 years later he was installed as the regular pastor 
 over the flocks of the two folds at Mount Pleasant 
 and the neighboring field of Sewickley. In 1787 
 he ceased his connection with the latter-mentioned 
 people, and, on a salary of one hundred and fifty 
 pounds a year, devoted his exclusive services to 
 the former. Here he remained until the spring 
 of 1817, when, in consequence of the infirmities 
 attending old age, he retired, resigning his charge 
 to the care of the Rev. A. O. Patterson. Thirteen 
 years afterwards he died. 
 
 Mr. Power was a man of medium height, slen 
 derly built, and of erect stature. In his dress he 
 was plain and neat ; easy in his manners ; cour 
 teous in his deportment ; of a mild disposition ; a 
 dignified minister in the pulpit,- and a genial gen- 
 30 
 
350 
 
 BLACK-ROBES. 
 
 tleman, though rather a precise one, out of it. He 
 had a sweet voice, and spoke with great ease and 
 no little eloquence. His favorite portion of the 
 Scriptures was the Psalms ; handling them often 
 at the desk, always, in fact, when favorable occa 
 sions tempted him to aim at telling effects in his 
 lectures. His parishes extended over a reach of 
 thirty miles, every family in which it was his rule 
 to visit at least once during each year. Besides 
 these pastoral calls, it was his custom to assemble 
 the people, men, women, and children, of different 
 neighborhoods, from time to time, and put them 
 through a course of examination on doctrinal faith ; 
 requiring them to repeat the Assembly's Catechism 
 from beginning to end, together with the proofs 
 from the Bible, and the explanations of Fisher. 
 In addition to his other virtues, faithful chroniclers 
 have not neglected to note the fact that he was 
 a good rider and an excellent judge of a horse; 
 always, with an eye to the protection of his dress, 
 selecting one with such a step as would not cast 
 mud or dirt, while traveling, on his person. Pro 
 fessionally, Mr. Power's labors could not be said 
 to have been rewarded with remarkable results ; 
 although it is claimed for him that he was success 
 ful in edifying Christians, instructing the young, 
 and improving the morals of the community. 
 
 JOHN McMiLLAN was born of North-of-Ireland 
 parents, at Fagg's Manor, Chester County, Penn 
 sylvania, in 1752. ' He commenced his classical 
 
THE PRESBYTERIAN. 351 
 
 studies at the academy, somewhat celebrated, of 
 his native place, under the charge of the Rev. John 
 Blair, which he further pursued at the grammar- 
 school at Pequea, and finally completed at Prince 
 ton College, in New Jersey, at the time presided 
 over by the Rev. Dr. Witherspoon. He studied 
 theology privately under the direction of Dr. Smith, 
 at Pequea, was licensed by the Presbytery of New 
 Castle in 1774, and entered upon his border mission, 
 taking charge of the congregations at Chartiers and 
 Pigeon Creek, in the fall of 1778. Mr. McMillan 
 was a man of stern and forbidding aspect ; of an 
 uncommonly dark complexion, and with a coun 
 tenance sharply marked and strikingly expressive 
 in every feature. His manners were "studiedly" 
 perhaps it would be nearer the mark to say 
 vulgarly plain. He was clownishly careless as 
 to his personal appearance, being usually dressed, 
 as chroniclers, seeing fun but no farce in the fact, 
 inform us, like the Jack of Spades, with boots on 
 like a ten-gallon keg. It is scarcely characterizing 
 his common walk and conversation too severely to 
 say that they were ungentlemanly. General Mor 
 gan having ridden to church one day in a carriage, 
 the first vehicle of the kind ever seen in the neigh 
 borhood, Mr. McMillan manifested his ill-bred 
 impertinence by contemptuously remarking in his 
 sermon that " people might travel on the broad 
 road in fine carriages, as well as on horseback or 
 afoot." In a quarrel with one of his professional 
 
352 BLA CK-R OSES. 
 
 brethren, the Rev. Mr. Birch, he denounced him 
 as "a liar, a drunkard, and a preacher of the devil." 
 Mr. Birch entered suit against him for slander, on 
 which he was tried before the civil court of Wash 
 ington County, and convicted. The plea that the 
 language had been used in a sort of Pickwickian 
 sense, secured a reversal of the decision in the 
 Supreme Court, to which it was appealed, but 
 could not shake the opinion of the honorable- 
 minded among the people, that the expression 
 was grossly unbecoming, and such as no circum 
 stances could justify, especially in a minister of the 
 gospel. 
 
 As a preacher, Dr. McMillan was of no marked 
 reputation. There was little or no action in his 
 delivery. He seldom moved an arm or lifted a 
 hand, by way of gesture, in the pulpit His voice 
 was harsh, and his sermons, while always sensible, 
 pious, and full of matter, were severely plain and 
 simple. He was much in the habit of repeating 
 himself; but his exhortations, though heard ever 
 so often, always, somehow, we are assured, seemed 
 fresh to the hearer. As a teacher he was a greater 
 success than as a preacher ; so that, although there 
 was reason to be thankful for three wide- spread 
 and powerful revivals that occurred under his min 
 istry, the church confesses to a deeper sjnse of 
 gratitude for the hundred, more or le;s, of young 
 men taken in hand and trained for the pulpit under 
 his private tuition. He lived to the ripe old age 
 
THE PRESBYTERIAN. 353 
 
 of fourscore-and-one, his death taking place at 
 Canonsburg in 1833, up almost to the very date of 
 which he continued, with his mental and physical 
 faculties but little impaired, in the active prosecu 
 tion of his professional labors. 
 
 JAMES FINLEY, an Irishman, born (1725) in the 
 county of Armagh, in the province of Ulster, emi 
 grated to America while yet a boy ; was taught in 
 the languages and sciences at Fagg's Manor ; or 
 dained to preach in 1752, was the first minister to 
 set foot on western soil, although rather on a merce 
 nary tramp (having "an eye on certain good tracts 
 of land") than a missionary one ; moved to the 
 border with his family in 1783, and permanently 
 settled there, as the pastor of Rehoboth and Round- 
 hill congregations, some two years afterwards. Mr. 
 Finley is described as a fat, fidgety, red-faced little 
 fellow in black, good-natured, and quite a favorite 
 among his people. He was a man who, while duly 
 attentive to spiritual affairs, was, at the same time, 
 not forgetful of temporal ones. It was possible, 
 as he saw it, to serve God, and yet, without dispar 
 agement to his loyalty, to lend some little alle 
 giance to Mammon too. To have a faith was no 
 reason why he should not have a farm, or, for that 
 matter, several farms, one for each of his half- 
 dozen of promising boys. The only points in 
 Mr. Finley's history which tradition has laid hold 
 of as worthy of mention are that he was a man of 
 eminent piety, and an excellent pastor; that he 
 
354 BLACK-ROBES. 
 
 visited mudi among his people, and that he was 
 particularly remarkable for his attention to the 
 catechetical instruction of the youth of his con 
 gregation. In his own family it was his custom to 
 call his children and slaves together and put them, 
 through the same training, regularly every Sabbath 
 evening. His forte does not seem to have lain so 
 much in bringing sheep into the fold as in keeping 
 them there when they were in. He was conserva 
 tive rather than aggressive ; better satisfied to hold 
 fast to the bird in the hand than to run any risk by 
 reaching after others in the bush. And so he lived, 
 his parish his world, he all in all to his people, his 
 people all in all to him ; and so he died. 
 
 JOSEPH SMITH, a Marylander, of Nottingham in 
 that State, was born in 1736, received his literary 
 education at Princeton, studied theology under Dr. 
 Samuel Finley, at Nassau Hall, and in 1767 was 
 licensed to preach the gospel. He visited Wash 
 ington County in 1779, where he remained for 
 some time, breaking the bread of life to these 
 people " in the wilderness." A few months later 
 he received a call from the congregations at Buffalo 
 and Cross Creek, which he accepted, moving out to 
 take charge of them in the year following. Mr. 
 Smith was tall and slender in person, of fair com 
 plexion, an expressive countenance, and with eyes 
 that were piercingly brilliant, but which, like the 
 celebrated Whitefield's, squinted. This peculiarity 
 served him in profitable stead, however, giving 
 
THE PRESBYTERIAN. 355 
 
 him an increased power over his audience; as, look 
 where he might, each hearer felt that his eye was 
 on him, and, taking the notice in good faith, ac 
 cepted the appeal that went with it, never doubting, 
 as personal to himself. His voice, promptly ad 
 justable to any style of eloquence, "now like the 
 thunder, and now like the music of heaven," was 
 perfectly at home alike on the "terrific" as on the 
 "pathetic," when in glowing rhapsodies he pic 
 tured the attractions of heaven, or when, " arrayed 
 with divine and awful majesty, he uncovered the 
 bottomless and wide-extending pit of woe, whose 
 billows of fire are ever lashed into fury by the 
 almighty breath of an incensed Saviour !" He 
 was more particularly strong, however, on the 
 " terrific," " that kind of preaching that drives a 
 man into the corner of his pew, and makes him 
 think the devil is after him;" on which account he 
 was generally known as "Hell-fire" Smith along 
 the border. As a deviser of innocent contrivances 
 "to catch flanking-parties and strolling individuals 
 in the gospel net," and as an " eagle-eyed spy and 
 scouter upon the trails of the enemy," capturing 
 them singly and in squadrons, he was eminently 
 skillful and successful. In the Christian warfare 
 upon which he was entered, he made it his mission 
 to conquer, peaceably when he could, forcibly 
 when he must ; accepting the latter alternative, 
 as it happened, unhesitatingly and boldly, for "he 
 feared none of the devil's emissaries on this side of 
 
356 BLA CK-R OBES. 
 
 hell." He was of a particularly devotional temper 
 of mind, observing closely not only the regularly- 
 appointed seasons of fasting, humiliation, and 
 prayer, but privately, in his own family and on 
 his own account, setting apart others, and keeping 
 them quite as religiously. It was, also, a common 
 custom with him to seize occasions in the night 
 for intercessory exercises ; at which times he would 
 leave his couch and kneel upon the floor, in the 
 winter season and when the nights were cold, keep 
 ing for his comfort, as he did so, a cloak always 
 hanging ready to wrap about him, at the foot of 
 his bed. 
 
 Hell-fire Smith may with propriety be said to 
 have been the Lion of the Tribe of the Redstone 
 Judah. Wind and will and muscle are potent 
 elements in the church as well as out of it, and 
 there was a larger share of all of them lodged in 
 that long, lank frame of his than in the persons 
 of the whole remaining of his co-presbyters put 
 together. He had scarcely planted himself among 
 the people of his charges before a lively " gale" of 
 grace was started in both congregations. Keeping 
 in steady blast through the mean time, the gale 
 reached its height at the May Sacrament of 1787, 
 at Cross Creek, after which it subsided considera 
 bly, still continuing, however, to sustain a vigorous 
 current, as long as life was spared the inspirer of 
 it to keep it in motion. He died, after a twelve 
 years' service in the settlements, on the I9th of 
 
THE PRESBYTERIAN. 357 
 
 April, 1792; sorely to the sorrow and seriously 
 to the apprehension of his people, who, a mourn 
 ing cotemporary informs us, 
 
 " trembled when this Pillar fell, 
 
 Lest God, who his ambassador withdrew, 
 Should take away his Holy Spirit too." 
 
 THADDEUS DOD, educated at the College of New 
 Jersey, and ordained by the Presbytery of New 
 York in 1777 or '78, moved in the year following 
 with his family to the West, where he settled, in 
 charge of the two congregations of Upper Ten-Mile 
 and Lower Ten-Mile, each about the distance im 
 plied by their names from the town of Washington. 
 Mr. Dod is described as a young man of sallow 
 complexion, slender figure, black hair, and with 
 eyes that were dark, keen, and penetrating. Intel 
 lectually he was possessed of only ordinary ability, 
 although he had not failed, by diligent use of the 
 means of improvement that were within his reach, 
 to make the most out of his faculties that they 
 were capable of. He made himself a thorough 
 master of the Greek, Latin, and Hebrew languages. 
 His preferences, however, ran rather in the line of 
 the exact sciences. The Dods of the day were 
 famous for their mathematical heads, and Thad- 
 deus did no discredit to the connection. He could 
 explain every line and figure on Gunter's scale ; and 
 that his pupils, when he had them, might do so, 
 perfectly, too, it was required of them that they 
 
358 BLACK-ROBES. 
 
 should make copies of this ingenious contrivance 
 to carry about with them in their pockets, so as to 
 be conveniently at hand at all times for study, 
 which they did, carving them out of pieces, neatly 
 prepared for the purpose, of dogwood. Mr. Dod, 
 known throughout the parishes as the " Son of 
 Consolation," was a man in whom the crowning 
 Christian virtue shone more conspicuously than in 
 any other of his brethren, in fact, in whom alone 
 of the whole Presbytery it may be said to have 
 shone particularly at all. He was modest and un- 
 presuming in his manners, gentle in his speech, 
 and deeply devout and spiritual in his nature. But 
 Providence had never, evidently, designed him for 
 the pulpit. Mathematics was his mission. He 
 seemed himself to be conscious of the fact, and 
 before he had been many years in the service began 
 to turn his chief attention in that direction. In 
 1782 he opened the first classical and scientific 
 school in the West. Seven years later he was 
 appointed principal of the academy at Washing 
 ton, which position he continued to fill until the 
 old court-house in which it was kept was de 
 stroyed by fire. He died in the spring of 1793. 
 
 JOHN CLARK, born " somewhere" in the State of 
 New Jersey, educated at Princeton, and licensed 
 by the Presbytery of New Brunswick, after having 
 spent much the better part of his life in unprofit 
 able service among various folds in his own and 
 the neighboring Presbytery of Philadelphia, moved 
 
THE PRESBYTERIAN. 359 
 
 to the Redstone region in 1 78 1, and, then in the 
 sixty-fourth year of his age, took charge of the 
 united congregations of Bethel and Lebanon. Mr. 
 Clark had not experienced a halcyon time of it 
 while tending his flocks in the valleys of the Dela 
 ware, and this was undoubtedly the chief induce 
 ment which tempted him to hazard the fortunes 
 of his declining years among a strange people and 
 in the new settlements of the border. The big 
 white wig he wore quite a novelty on the frontier 
 has kept the memory of him from perishing, 
 more than anything else. Concerning him as a 
 preacher, except in the general, matter-of-course 
 particular that he was " solemn and impressive," 
 little or nothing is known. His church had its 
 attendants on Sabbath-days, but whether they 
 were not attracted there by the performances, reg 
 ularly to be expected, of two of his slaves famous 
 for their singing, rather than by his preaching, is a 
 point which at least will admit of dispute. Perhaps 
 the cause may have been benefited somehow by 
 his labors, but, if it was, no one seems to have 
 discovered it. His death is mentioned as having 
 taken place in 1797. Bancroft Ubrary 
 
 The Redstone settlements, even at this early 
 period in their history, must have been a remark 
 ably inviting field for missionary enterprise, not 
 withstanding the perils and privations, so elabo 
 rately and so compassionately made note of by 
 historians, which attended the occupation of it; 
 
3<5o BLACK-ROBES. 
 
 because we discover that at a very early date other 
 missionaries were out on their own account, to 
 share the labors and to participate in the profits 
 of the same vineyard. The fact that some of these 
 may have been pronounced impostors, and the rest, 
 all of them, regarded as informally, one way or 
 another, in the service, while it may indicate a lack 
 of strict fidelity among them, somehow, to their 
 church, cannot but be accepted nevertheless as an 
 evidence of their zeal. Participating alike in the 
 risks of the mission, and subject equally to its 
 hardships, they are as justly entitled to mention as 
 any of their regularly commissioned and respecta 
 bly recognized cotemporaries. A certain Mr. Barr, 
 we are told, gained admission into the Presbytery 
 shortly after its organization. Where he labored 
 we are not informed. His connection with the 
 Presbytery lasted some three or four years, when, 
 it having become too plainly apparent that he was 
 a hinderance rather than a help in the cause, he 
 received his dismissal. Thomas Cooly, a "wan 
 dering star" from the Presbytery of Charleston, 
 South Carolina, as he claimed, illuminated the 
 congregations for some time, but serious doubts 
 began to be entertained at length of his orthodoxy. 
 He was called up to undergo an examination OP 
 "experimental religion and cases of conscience," in 
 which he failed satisfactorily to sustain himself. It 
 was afterwards ascertained that he was out under 
 forged credentials, when, instead of being stripped 
 
THE PRESBYTERIAN. 361 
 
 of his robe of office, he was merely transferred, on 
 his own petition, to the Presbytery of Carlisle. 
 Two Irishmen, father and son, of the name of Mor 
 rison, filled pulpits here and there for awhile, but 
 they proved vexatious and troublesome, and it was 
 not long until, according to a peculiar expression 
 of the time, they were " hated out" of the settle 
 ments. Mr. Hughey, an importation from Ireland, 
 Presbytery of Deny, was also found prophesy 
 ing among the people. He was regarded by the 
 Redstone regulars as a slippery adventurer, loose in 
 his belief, and altogether unworthy of confidence. 
 Being accustomed to officiate at weddings, Pres 
 bytery, not liking the interference, took the matter 
 up, and, after due deliberation, resolved that, "as 
 many difficulties arose from marriages celebrated 
 by Mr. Hughey," who had no authority civil or 
 ecclesiastical to perform the same, "such mar 
 riages be discountenanced, and people cautioned 
 against them as unlawful." The Derry divine, cut 
 off from his most profitable source of income, 
 soon retired, and was heard of no more among the 
 churches. The next and last prominent of the re 
 pudiated was " a man of the name of Birch," who 
 has already been referred to in connection with 
 the McMillan slander suit. Mr. Birch was an 
 Irishman, and a regularly ordained Presbyterian 
 minister. He was charged by his brethren as being 
 deficient in " experimental knowledge ;" in fact, as 
 destitute of piety. It was also suspected of him 
 
362 BLA CK-R OBES. 
 
 that he was addicted to the too free use of liquor. 
 On these accounts, when he applied for admission 
 into the Presbytery he was rejected. If Mr. Birch 
 was in the habit of manifesting in his daily life any 
 thing like as little of the genuine spirit of piety as 
 was exhibited when that application was made by 
 the ecclesiastical body into which he asked to be 
 received, then was the judgment that excluded him 
 a most just and righteous one. Dishonored thus 
 in his own country, the discarded prophet next laid 
 his application before the Presbytery of Baltimore, 
 where he fared better, \\\zk fag-end of the Presby 
 terian Church, as it was contemptuously styled 
 by its border sister, admitting him, by a " gross 
 irregularity," into its body. Mr. Birch still con 
 tinued on duty in the West. We do not hear that 
 he accomplished much by his labors, but there is 
 no evidence that the after-course of his life justified 
 the scandalous accusations of Mr. McMillan, or 
 could be referred to as vindicating the angry 
 charges of complaint against the Presbytery that 
 adopted him. 
 
 As the scenes of his earliest labors, the Presby 
 terian Black-Robe had invariably fixed upon fields 
 selected out of country quarters. All the churches 
 to which reference has been made were situated in 
 the various settlements planted along the water 
 courses and intermediate uplands included in what 
 are now known as Washington, Fayette, West 
 moreland, and the south-of-the-river strip of Alle- 
 
THE PRESBYTERIAN. 363 
 
 ghany Counties. The towns which had sprung up 
 here and there, Greensburg, Uniontown, Browns 
 ville, Washington, Florence, and the like, were 
 entirely destitute of the means of grace, except as 
 very rarely, now and then, in a missionary way, it 
 may have been dispensed to them by the pastors 
 of the neighboring rural churches. From the time, 
 in 1756, when Charles Beatty, acting for a few 
 months as chaplain among the troops at Fort Pitt, 
 was accustomed to induce attendance at worship by 
 making the distribution of whisky rations a part 
 of the service, down for thirty years, there was not 
 a priest of any persuasion, nor church, nor chapel, 
 in Pittsburg. The whole town, as a distinguished 
 Virginia visitor of the time has testified, was likely 
 to be damned without benefit of clergy. In 1786 
 an interest seems to have awakened in the spiritual 
 welfare of the slovenly Scotch and Irish inhabitants 
 of the place, and a congregation was organized, 
 over which the Rev. Samuel Barr was settled by 
 Presbytery as the pastor. Mr. Barr had not been 
 long in his place before trouble arose between him 
 and his people. It was alleged against the latter 
 that they would not hold themselves amenable to 
 church discipline ; that they devolved upon their 
 pastor the responsibility of collecting his salary ; 
 that the elders among them indulged too much 
 in drinking and card-playing and being idle with 
 women ; that they were untruthful and covetous ; 
 and that by circulating false reports they had 
 
364 BLACK-ROBES. 
 
 made it impossible to worship God in a peace 
 able manner on the Sabbath-day. On the other 
 hand, it was retaliated by the elders that their 
 minister had not done his duty by his people ; 
 that he had not visited their families, nor ex 
 amined them in their Catechism ; that he had 
 collected money in Philadelphia and New York 
 and rendered no account of it to the trustees or 
 anybody else in the church ; that he never tried to 
 use discipline; and that he, as well as his officers, 
 was addicted to card-playing and night-reveling. 
 A trial of the case being had before Presbytery, 
 the elders were sustained, and Mr. Barr, after a 
 three years' term of service, was relieved of his 
 charge. Upon assuming his pastorate, _a church 
 " of squared timbers and moderate dimensions" 
 was erected for the accommodation of his flock. 
 This humble structure was the original First Pres 
 byterian Church of Pittsburg. In course of time 
 around it were piled itself remaining undisturbed 
 meanwhile the brick walls of another edifice, con 
 sidered as very imposing in its day, but which grew 
 to be despised, too, in after-years, and was torn 
 away to give place to the temple which, of far 
 costlier construction, has since been reared, and 
 still stands, with its two stone towers planted square 
 and broad upon its old foundations, the pride of 
 the worshipers that gather at its gates. 
 
 For two years after Mr. Barr's retirement the 
 congregation remained without a pastor. In 1793 
 
THE PRESBYTERIAN. 365 
 
 Mr. Mahon, a licentiate of the Carlisle Presby 
 tery, undertook to supply the pulpit ; but, like his 
 predecessor, his " experimental acquaintance with 
 religion" was not what Presbytery, after having put 
 him through an examination, thought it ought to 
 be, and within about a year his connection with 
 the church was dissolved. Mr. Semple followed 
 next ; but, the civil law proving more to his taste 
 than the ecclesiastical, he abandoned the pulpit 
 and tpok to the bar. The congregation, failing, 
 after so many attempts, to secure the services of a 
 sound man, declined now to experiment further, 
 and through a long interim were shepherdless al 
 together. In 1800 Mr. Steele made a venture at 
 the vacancy. His brethren had grave doubts about 
 his orthodoxy ; but, after two trial sermons preached 
 in their hearing, meanwhile, however, being al 
 lowed to officiate as a "supply," he was finally 
 admitted, speciali gratia, into the Presbytery. A 
 call was then (1802) placed in his hands, and the 
 First Church of Pittsburg had a pastor. 
 
 With the occupation of Pittsburg the "mission 
 ary" labors of the church may be said to have 
 terminated. Satan had here intrenched himself 
 behind his last defenses, and when these were 
 stormed and taken his sovereignty was ended. 
 Presbyterianism had conquered the situation. It 
 only remained for her to protect herself in the pos 
 session of her properties, to call in her " watch- 
 31* 
 
3 66 BLACK ROBES. 
 
 men to set on her walls," to lengthen the cords of 
 her tents and strengthen her stakes ; and to this 
 work were her energies thenceforth directed. How 
 she met the responsibility, with what success, 
 through what chances, and changes, and modifi 
 cations in her experience, her faith, and her cus 
 toms, and whether, consistently, for worse, or at 
 clash, for better, with the example of the olden 
 time, her after-history, which falls not within the 
 province of this sketch, and her living self, as she 
 stands to-day, will best illustrate. 
 
 THE END. 
 
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