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Historical sketches of the United Brethrens Mission among the Cherokee Indians

One of the many important consequences, derived from the interesting acquaintances formed by the United Brethren in England, at a very early period of the renewal of their Church, was the offer made by the Trustees of Georgia, of a piece of land to the Brethren for forming a settlement in Georgia, in the hopes that its contiguity to the Indian Country would facilitate their access to the Cherokees & Creeks for the purpose of preaching the Gospel to them. Unwitting to relinquish so promising a field of labour, a Company of Brethren left Herrnhut in Germany in November 1734, arrived in London towards the end of the same year, & landed in Georgia in the succeeding Spring of 1735. The same year a second company of Brethren consisting of 26 persons sailed for Ga from Europe. Their christian deportment on the passage & on their arrival gained them the esteem & friendship of the Rev. John & Charles Wesley & Benjm Ingham, who sailed in the same ship. The brethren immediately began to build a house in the town of Savannah & afterwards erected a School house upon an Island in Savannah River called Grene?, 4 Miles above the town, for the instruction of the Children of the Indians who visited them frequently with their chief Torno? T chalchi?. In their letters of the year 1736 it is mentioned that many of the Creeks, Cherokees & Chikasaws came to the Brethren to hear the Gospel; those in their neighborhood sent their children to School where some of the Indian boys & girls learned to read & even comenced to write. It appears that the Indians in general were well inclined towards the Brethren & knew very well how to distinguish between them & the rest of the white people, who came into their country merely in pursuit of gain or to lead a dissolute life. Thus their small Colony began to prosper & appearances were a favourable aspect as regarded their external condition & the conversion of the heathen. Rev. Peter Rose & wife, Anthony Seiffart, Biener & others lived in the School house & being thus among the Indians they succeeded in their attempts to learn the language, in which they also found an able assistant in the Rev. B. Ingham. In the year 1737 the Rev. Peter Boehler of the University of Jena was chosen & ordained Minister of the Colony in Georgia. But their fair prospects were soon blasted. The Spaniards, being then at war with England, the Brethren were required by the latter Governments to take up arms against the former & join them in expelling the Spaniards from Georgia. This the brethren refused on the ground that it was contrary to the stipulation made & guaranteed to them by the Government "that they should be exempt from Military duty". They were therefore obliged to leave their flourishing settlement & plantation, & retire to Pennsylvania. The last Missionary John Hagen left Georgia in 1740 & returned to Penn where a regular settlement was built in 1741, afterward called "Bethlehem" & which succeeded by others settlements in the following years. After the suspension of this Southern Mission, the Rev. Christian Rauch arrived in New York, July 16 1740 for the purpose of commencing a Mission among the Mohicans at Shekomeko, having been invited to them by the principal Men of the tribe.