CHAPTER XX. FIRST VISIT TO THE SOUTH. The next day after the Western Conference adjourned the two bishops and myself started for the South Carolina Conference, which was to meet in Liberty Chapel, Green County, Georgia, on December 6, 1808. There was a novelty and variety about my present large field of labor which made it peculiarly interesting. I had been to what was then the West, (it would be difficult to tell where it is now,) and I was highly delighted, and now I was on my way to the sunny South. And I had the wisest and best companions in the world. This was the first tour which M’Kendree made with Bishop Asbury after his ordination to the episcopal office. Everywhere the old and the new bishop were objects of interest, and their appearance hailed with joy. On Monday we reached Dr. Henry Tooley’s. This was a family of note, and their house one of the best of homes. Here we rested and refitted, and prepared to climb the mountains and to penetrate the wilderness, for all this must be done before we could reach Georgia. On we went, preaching every evening, till on Saturday we fell in with a camp-meeting at Ohaver’s. On Sunday morning Brother Learner Blackman, Presiding Elder of Holston District, preached at sunrise, I preached at ten o’clock, and then Bishop M’Kendree gave one of his overwhelming discourses, after which I preached again in the German language. Bishop Asbury then preached with great liberty. We were at it five hours without intermission, during which time the people heard four sermons in English and one in German, and yet we were not through, for in the evening John Henninger preached, and Nathan Barnes exhorted. Thus ended this memorable day. It was a time of uncommon power, and many were converted. What would people think now of listening to six sermons in one day? How would they get along who can hardly endure one? The next morning the bishops preached again: Bishop Asbury first, and Bishop M’Kendree immediately after him. I have written, “It was a solemn, searching time.” To benefit the Germans I took a little tour by myself, while the bishops went forward. Bishop Asbury makes this entry in his journal: “Henry Boehm has gone to Pigeon River to preach to the Dutch.” I preached six times, and then rode on to overtake the bishops. After riding twenty miles I learned they were still far in the advance of me, and had gone on to Buncombe. On Thursday I hastened on to overtake them. I went over the lofty hills and mountains and solitary valleys along the banks of the French Broad. This is an astonishing river in its meanderings through beautiful valleys and mountain gorges, with overhanging rocks. Here nature is seen in her beauty and grandeur, and I wonderfully admired that day the works of nature as one scene after another broke on my delighted vision.