Pilots of the Republic: The Romance of the Pioneer Promoter in the Middle West — John Shaqi
Pilots of the Republic: The Romance of the Pioneer Promoter in the Middle WestHulbert, Archer Butler
History
Pilots of the Republic: The Romance of the Pioneer Promoter in the Middle West
Hulbert, Archer Butler
Canals -- United States; Mississippi River Valley -- History; Northwestern States -- History; Pioneers -- United States
At last the way was again open, and Zeisberger soon faced the
wilderness. The Church fathers now came to the conclusion that it was
best to extend missionary labor farther than ever before. The entire
West had been saved to England, and the future was bright. It was
Zeisberger to whom they looked, and not for a moment did the veteran
flinch.
"Whither is the white man going?" asked an old Seneca chieftain of
Zeisberger.
"To the Alleghany River," was the reply.
"Why does the paleface travel such unknown roads? This is no road for
white people, and no white man has come this trail before."
"Seneca," said the pale man, "the business I am on is different from
that of other white men, and the roads I travel are different too. I am
come to bring the Indian great and good words."
The work now begun in Potter County, and later extended to Lawrence
County, on the Beaver River, in the province of Pennsylvania, was not
less successful than Zeisberger's work in New York. "You are right,"
said the bravest Indian of the nation to his Indian chieftain; "I have
joined the Moravians. Where they go I will go; where they lodge I will
lodge; their God shall be my God." His faith was soon tested, as was
that of all Zeisberger's converts.
For there was yet a farther West. Beyond the Beaver, the Delaware
nation had spread throughout the Black Forest that covered what is
now Ohio to the dots of prairie land on the edge of what is Indiana.
Somewhere here the prairie fires had ceased their devastation. Between
the Wabash and the crest of the Alleghanies lay the heaviest forest
of the old New World. Of its eastern half the Delawares were now
masters, with their capital at Goschgoschunk on the Muskingum, the
present Coshocton, Ohio. The fame of Zeisberger had come even here,
and the grand council of the Delawares sent him a call to bring his
great and good words into the Black Forest. It was an irresistible
appeal. Yet the Moravian Church could not allow Zeisberger to leave the
congregations in Pennsylvania, for no one could take his place. The
brave man gave his answer quickly: "I will take them with me."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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