David Nitschmann, the Bishop.
Christian Adolph von Hermsdorf, a volunteer.
John Andrew Dober, a potter.
David Zeisberger.
David Tanneberger, a shoemaker.
John Tanneberger, son of David, a boy of ten years.
George Neisser.
Augustin Neisser, a young lad, brother of George.
Henry Roscher, a linen-weaver.
David Jag.
John Michael Meyer, a tailor.
Jacob Frank.
John Martin Mack.
Matthias Seybold, a farmer.
Gottlieb Demuth.
John Boehner, a carpenter.
Matthias Boehnisch.
Maria Catherine Dober, wife of John Andrew Dober.
Rosina Zeisberger, wife of David Zeisberger.
Judith Toeltschig, Catherine Riedel, Rosina Haberecht, Regina Demuth,
going to join their husbands already in Georgia.
Anna Waschke, a widow, to join her son.
Juliana Jaeschke, a seamstress.*
* Fifteen of these colonists were originally from Moravia
and Bohemia.—
During an enforced stay of three weeks at Altona, the Moravians experienced much kindness, especially at the hands of Korte and his family, and Mrs. Weintraube, the daughter of a Mennonite preacher, who had come from her home in London on a visit to her father. By this time the Moravian settlement at Herrnhut was coming to be well and favorably known in Holland, and every visit won new friends, many of whom came into organic fellowship with them. A few years later, when the Unitas Fratrum was confronted by a great financial crisis, it was largely the loyalty and liberality of the Dutch members that enabled it to reach a position of safety.
On the 9th of September, the company went aboard an English boat, homeward bound, but contrary winds held them in port until the 13th, and it was not until Sunday, Oct. 2nd, that they reached London, after a long and stormy crossing, which gave many of them their first experience of sea-sickness.
Nitschmann and Korte at once went ashore to report their arrival to Secretary Verelst, and on Monday a house was rented, and the twenty-five colonists and Jonas Korte moved into it, to wait for the sailing of Gen. Oglethorpe’s ship, the General having offered them berths on his own vessel. The General was out of town when they reached London, but called on Monday evening, and showed them every kindness,—“Oglethorpe is indeed our good friend, and cares for us like a father.”
Nitschmann found a good deal of difficulty on account of the language, for he could not speak Latin, as Spangenberg had done, and knew no English, so that all of his conversations with Oglethorpe had to be carried on through an interpreter; nevertheless a number of important points were fully discussed.
On the question of military service he could reach no definite and satisfactory conclusion, and thought it a great pity that there had not been a perfect mutual understanding between Zinzendorf and the Trustees before the first company sailed. That Zinzendorf’s “servants” should be free from military service was admitted by all, but Oglethorpe thought three men must be furnished to represent Zinzendorf, Spangenberg and Nitschmann (the Hausmeister), the three free-holders, and suggested that Lieutenant Hermsdorf might take one place. Nitschmann said that would not do, that the Moravians “could not and would not fight,” and there the matter rested. Nitschmann wrote to Zinzendorf, begging him to come to London, and interview the Trustees, but advised that he wait for Oglethorpe’s return from Georgia some nine months later.
On this account the members of the second company agreed that it would be better for them not to accept land individually, but to go, as the others had done, as Zinzendorf’s “servants”, to work on his tract. Oglethorpe suggested that an additional five hundred acres should be requested for Count Zinzendorf’s son, and Nitschmann referred the proposal to the authorities at Herrnhut. In regard to the five hundred acre tract already granted, the General said that it had been located near the Indians, at the Moravians’ request, but that settlers there would be in no danger, for the Indians were at peace with the English, there was a fort near by, and besides he intended to place a colony of Salzburgers fifty miles further south, when the Moravians would be, not on the border but in the center of Georgia.
Gen. Oglethorpe assured Nitschmann that there would be no trouble regarding the transfer of title to the Georgia lands, for while, for weighty reasons, the grants had been made in tail male, there was no intention, on the part of the Trustees, to use this as a pretext for regaining the land, and if there was no male heir, a brother, or failing this, a friend, might take the title. (In 1739 the law entailing property in Georgia was modified to meet this view, and after 1750, all grants were made in fee simple.) He also explained that the obligation to plant a certain number of mulberry trees per acre, or forfeit the land, was intended to spur lazy colonists, and would not be enforced in the case of the Moravians.
Nitschmann told Gen. Oglethorpe of the wives and children who had been left in Herrnhut, and suggested the advisability of establishing an English School for them, that they might be better fitted for life in Georgia. Oglethorpe liked the idea, and, after due consideration, suggested that some one in Herrnhut who spoke French or Latin, preferably the latter, should be named as Count Zinzendorf’s Agent, to handle funds for the English school, and to accompany later companies of Georgia colonists as far as London, his expenses to be paid by the Trustees. Of this the Trustees approved, and donated 40 Pounds sterling, partly for Nitschmann’s use in London, and the balance,—about 4 Pounds it proved to be,—for the Herrnhut school. An English gentleman also gave them 32 Pounds, with the proviso that within four years they in turn would give an equal amount to the needy, which Nitschmann readily agreed should be done.
Various other gifts must have been received, for when the company sailed, Nitschmann reported to Count Zinzendorf that, without counting a considerable amount which Korte had generously expended on their behalf, they had received 115 Pounds in London, and had spent 113 Pounds. “This will seem much to you, but when you look over the accounts, and consider the number of people, and how dear everything is, you will understand.” Unfortunately the colonists had left Herrnhut without a sufficient quantity of warm clothing, thinking that it would not be needed, but letters from Georgia gave them quite new ideas of the climate there, and they were forced to supply themselves in London, though at double what it would have cost in Germany.