_The Grave of David Zeisberger, Moravian Missionary to the Indians.--The Great Length of his Service.--His Flight from Moravia to Saxony.--Arrival at Bethlehem, Pa.--He studies the Mohawk Language.--Visits the Land of the Iroquois and is captured as a French Spy.--Imprisoned by Governor Clinton and freed by Parliament.--The Iroquois place in his Mission-house the Archives of their Nation.--He converts Many Delawares in Western Pennsylvania.--His Work interrupted by Pontiac's Rebellion.--The Delawares invite him to the Black Forest of Ohio.--He takes with him Two Whole Villages of Christian Indians.--Their Unfortunate Location between Fort Pitt and Fort Detroit in the Revolutionary War.--They are removed by the British to Sandusky.--One Hundred of them, being permitted to return, are murdered by the Americans.--The Remnant, after Many Hardships, rest for Six Years in Canada, and return to Ohio.--Zeisberger's Death._ DAVID ZEISBERGER: HERO OF "THE MEADOW OF LIGHT" [Illustration] IN the centre of the old Black Forest of America, near New Philadelphia, Ohio, a half-forgotten Indian graveyard lies beside the dusty country road. You may count here several score of graves by the slight mounds of earth that were raised above them a century or so ago. At one extremity of this plot of ground an iron railing incloses another grave, marked by a plain, marble slab, where rest the mortal remains of a hero, the latchets of whose shoes few men of his race have been worthy to unloose. And those of us who hold duty a sacred trust, and likeness unto the Nazarene the first and chiefest duty, will do well to make the acquaintance of this daring and faithful hero, whose very memory throws over the darkest period of our history the light that never was on sea or land. The grave is that of David Zeisberger, the Moravian missionary to the Indians in New York, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Michigan, and Canada for fifty active years, who was buried at this spot at his dying request, that he might await the Resurrection among his faithful Indians. His record is perhaps unequalled in point of length of service, by the record of any missionary of any church or sect in any land at any time. Among stories of promotion and daring in early America, this one is most unique and most uplifting. On a July night in 1726 a man and his wife fled from their home in Austrian Moravia toward the mountains on the border of Saxony for conscience' sake. They took with them nothing save their five-year-old boy, who ran stumbling between them, holding to their hands. The family of three remained in Saxony ten years. Then the parents emigrated to America, leaving the son of fifteen years in Saxony to continue his education. But within a year he took passage for America and joined his parents in Georgia, just previous to their removal to Bethlehem, Pennsylvania.