284 HISTORY OF 



engrossing aim was to christianize the- Indians. With- 

 this view he visited a distant part of Lancaster county — 

 the Wyoming country — inhabited by the Shawanese 

 Indians. Zinzcndorf, and his httle company, pitched 

 their tents on the banks of the Susquehanna, a Uttle 

 below the town. This caused no small degree of alarm 

 among the Indians; "a council of the chiefs was assem- 

 bled, the declared purpose of Zinzcndorf was deliber- 

 ately considered. To these unlettered children of the 

 wilderness it appeared altogether improbable that a 

 stranger should brave the dangers of a boisterous ocean, 

 three thousand miles broad, for the sole purpose of in- 

 structing them in the means of obtaining happiness after 

 deaths and that too without requiring any compensation 

 for his trouble and expense ; and as they had observed 

 the anxiety of the white people to purchase lands of the 

 Indians, they naturally concluded that the real object of 

 Zinzcndorf was either to procure them the lands at 

 Wyoming for his own use, to search for hidden treasures, 

 or to examine the country with a view to future con- 

 quest. It was accordingly resolved to assassinate him, and 

 to do it privately, lest the knowledge of the transaction 



Note. — Zinzendorf, the patron of the sect of the Moravians, 

 was born at Dresden, May, 1700. He studied at Hale and 

 Utrecht. About the year 1722, he began to preach and write to 

 instruct his fellow men. He travelled extensively in Europe. 

 In 1737 he visited London ; 1741 he came to America, and 

 preached in various parts in Pennsylvania. He with his daugh- 

 ter, Benigna, and several brethren and sisters, visited various 

 tribesof Indians. At Sheconneco he established the lirst Indian 

 Moravian Congregation in America. In 1743 he returned to 

 Europe. He died at Ilerrnhut in 17(50, and his coffin was car- 

 ried to tlic grave by thirty-two preachers and missionaries, 

 whom he had reared and some of whom liad toiled in Holland, 

 England. Ireland, North America, and Greenland. \Nhal mon- 

 arch uas ever honored Inj a funeral like this .' — Allen, 



