Meanwhile new friends were springing up on every side of the Moravians. A doctor helped them lay in a store of medicine, another gave them some balsam which was good for numberless external and internal uses. A German merchant, who had become an English citizen, helped them purchase such things as they would require in Georgia, and a cobbler assisted Riedel in buying a shoemaker’s outfit. Weapons were offered to all the members of the party, but declined, as they wished to give no excuse to any one who might try to press them into military service. They yielded, however, to the argument that they would need to protect themselves against wolves and bears, and sent Peter Rose, the gamekeeper, with Mr. Verelst, one of the secretaries of the Trustees, to purchase a fowling piece and hunting knives. Letters of introduction to various prominent men in America were given to them; and, perhaps most important of all in its future bearing, people discovered the peculiar charm of the Moravian services. Reference is made in the diaries to one and another,--from English clergyman to Germans resident in London,--who joined with them in their devotions, and seemed much moved thereby. Neither was it a passing emotion, for the seed a little later blossomed into the English Moravian Church. And so the month passed swiftly by, and the ship was ready to commence her long voyage. Chapter III. The First Year in Georgia. The Voyage. In the year 1735 a voyage across the Atlantic was a very different thing from what it is in this year of grace 1904. To-day a mighty steamship equipped with powerful engines, plows its way across the billows with little regard for wind and weather, bearing thousands of passengers, many of whom are given all the luxury that space permits, a table that equals any provided by the best hotels ashore, and attendance that is unsurpassed. Then weeks were consumed in the mere effort to get away from the British Isles, the breeze sometimes permitting the small sailing vessels to slip from one port to another, and then holding them prisoner for days before another mile could be gained. Even the most aristocratic voyager was forced to be content with accommodations and fare little better than that supplied to a modern steerage passenger, and those who could afford it took with them a private stock of provisions to supplement the ship’s table.