ELISHA MITCHELL SCIENTIFIC SOCIETY. 



A SKETCH OF THE LIFE AND SCIENTIFIC WORK 

 OF LEWIS DAVID VON SCHWEINITZ. 



Lewis David Von Schweinitz was born at Bethlehem, North- 

 ampton County, Pennsylvania, on the thirteenth of February, 1780. 

 His father, Hans Christian Alexander von Schweinitz was of an an- 

 cient and distinguished family in Silesia, in Germany, and exercised 

 here the functions of Superintendent of the fiscal and secular con- 

 cerns of the " Unitas Fratrum " or Moravian Brethren in North 

 America. His mother was Dorothea Elizabeth de Watteville, daugh- 

 ter of Baron, afterwards Bishop, John de Watteville, and of Benija, 

 who was a daughter of Count Zinzendorf. Of the last mentioned 

 ancestor, it may not, for reasons which will appear in the sequel, be 

 inappropriate to make a passing reminiscence. 



Nicholas Lewis, Count Zinzendorf, was born at Dresden, in 1700, 

 and was celebrated in his youth for forming religious societies, six 

 or seven of which are said to have originated from his own efforts, 

 and one at least to have been planned at the early age of ten years. 



He was associated with Watteville in founding the great mission- 

 ary system of the " Unitas Fratrum.'''' At the age of twenty-one 

 he became Count of Berthelsdorf, in Lusatia, by purchasing the 

 estate appendant to that title, and soon after established there the 

 village of Herrnhut, whence the Moravians are sometimes called 

 Herriihutters. In prosecution of his favorite scheme, he, in con- 

 nexion with his new colony, many of whom were natives of Mora- 

 via, commenced the, sending of missionaries to instruct the heathen, 

 and at the end of nine years, though their numbers did not 

 when they first made the attempt exceed 600, had actually formed 

 establishments in Greenland, St. Thomas, St. Croix, Surinam, Rio 

 de Berbice, among the Indians of North America, and the Negroes 

 of Carolina, in Lapland, Tartary, Algiers, Guinea, in the Island of 

 Ceylon, and at the Cape of Good Hope. In his ardour for attain- 



NoTE. — This sketch is compiled from the memoir of von Schweinitz, by 

 Walter R. Johnson, read before the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadel- 

 phia in 1835, and published by the Academy, and from facts contributed by his 

 son, Bishop Edmund de Schweinitz. The above mentioned memoir has, as a 

 rule, been closely followed, and often exactly reproduced. The portrait of Dr. 

 von Schweinitz, placed as frontispiece to this Journal, was presented by his 

 family. Editor. 



