80 HISTORY OF 



After they had been scarce fairly seated, they thought 

 of their old homes, their country and friends — they 

 sighed for those whom they left for a season; "They 

 remembered them that loere in bonds as bound with them 

 and which suffered adversity," and ere the earth began 

 to yield a return in ^* kindly fruit s^^ to their labors, con* 

 sultations were held and measures devised, to send some 

 one to their Vaterland, to brmg the residue of some of 

 their families; also their kindred and brothers in a land 

 of trouble and oppression, to their new home ; into a 

 land where peace reigned, and abundance of the comforts 

 of life could not fail ; they had strong faith in the fruit- 

 fulness and natural advantages of their choice of lands. 

 They knew these would prove to them and their children,, 

 the home of plenty — their anticipations have never 

 failed. 



A council of the whole society was called ; at which 

 their venerable minister and pastor, Hans Herr, pre- 

 sided, and after fraternal and free interchange of senti- 

 ment, much consultation and serious reflection, lots, in 

 conformity to the custom of the Mennonites, were cast, 



abundance, Sec. Of fish, sturgeon, herring, rock, shad, cats- 

 head, eel, trout, salmon, &c. 



The fruits that I find in the woods, are the white and black 

 mulberry, chesnut, walnut, plums, strawberries, cranberries, 

 hurtleberries, and grapes of divers sorts. The great red grape, 

 called by ignorance, the fox-grape." — Pemi's letter to the Free 

 Society of traders^ at London, dated Philadelphia, the 16^/i August, 

 1683. 

 Well might the poet say, 



" Quaevis sylva feris, et piscibus amnis abundat ; 

 Fertque suum fructus quaelibet arbor onus. 

 With beasts the woods, with fish the streams abound ; 

 The bending trees with plenteous fi'uits are crowned." 



Makin. 



