BETHLEHEM. 355 
On tbe Atlantic side of the mountains the 
country is much less rugged than on the op¬ 
posite one, and it is more cleared and much 
more thickly settled : the inhabitants are for 
the, most part of German extraction; 
Bethlehem is the principal settlement, ill 
North America, of the Moravians, or United 
Brethren. It is most agreeably situated on a 
rising ground, bounded on one side by the river 
Lekeigh, which falls into the Delaware, and 
on the other by a creek, which has a very rapid 
current, and affords excellent seats for a great 
number of mills. The town is regularly laid 
out, and contains about eighty strong built 
stone dwelling houses and a large church. 
Three of the dwelling houses are very spacious 
buildings, and are appropriated respectively 
to the accommodation of the unmarried young 
men of the society, of the unmarried females, 
and of the widows. In these houses different 
manufactures are carried on, and the inmates 
of each arc subject to a discipline approaching 
somewhat to that of a monastic institution. 
They eat together in a refectory ; they sleep in 
dormitories ; they attend morning and evening 
prayers in the chapel of the house * "they work 
for a certain number of hours in the day ; and 
they have stated intervals allotted to them for 
recreation. They are not subjected by the 
rules of the society, to perpetual confinement 
