164 TRAVELS IN THE CONFEDERATION 



mostly by Germans, who are well satisfied in such re- 

 mote regions where they can have land at a trifling 

 cost. We passed a little wooden meeting-house which 

 serves alternately as a place of worship for a Lutheran 

 and a Reformed congregation. Pastor Weber lately 

 had charge of these congregations, but he mispleased 

 because he preached too much of the war ; they asked 

 him to leave and he was under the necessity of with- 

 drawing to Pittsburg. The first settlers of these 

 wastes came a few years after the last peace and be- 

 fore their numbers grew somewhat, had many hard- 

 ships to bear. The neighborhood of Indians, at that 

 time still numerous there, was not the most agreeable. 

 They had to fetch in all their necessities and seed- 

 grain a distance of 50 miles, and if they wanted bread 

 were obliged to go 30 miles and more to the nearest 

 mill. For fear of the Indians, during the recent dis- 

 turbances, many left their cabins, which now stand 

 deserted and gone to ruin. 



We reached Brinker's Mill not before midday 

 (three and a half miles from Eckardt's) and found 

 the family over a repast customary here but which in 

 Germany the farmer permits himself only on festive 

 occasions : young chickens and rice. Three more miles 

 to Dieter's who settled here just ten years ago. He 

 was at that time quite alone and had many Indians 

 around him who at first caused him great uneasiness 

 but later showed themselves placable. But when he 

 began to bring more and more land into cultivation 

 and found it necessary to take up for meadow a field 

 planted by the Indians in wild red plums, that dis- 

 gusted them and they went away. They are very fond 

 of this insipid fruit, which grows wild in the woods, 



