For the materials of the work I had a manuscript journal of two thousand pages. This we went over together, reviewing all my fields of labor, and drawing additional particulars from the storehouse of memory, Brother Wakeley performing the work of transcribing, arranging, and revising. Thus the journal furnished the warp and recollection the filling of what is before the reader in the shape of a book. In this way we were employed, at different times, during a period of twelve years, so that if the work has been poorly done it has not been through undue haste or the sparing of labor or pains. Next year is the centenary of American Methodism, and this volume is a connecting link between the present and the origin of our Church, for I have heard Robert Strawbridge, who laid the foundation of Methodism in Maryland nearly a hundred years ago. From it the reader may get a good idea of primitive Methodism, and learn how our fathers toiled and “endured hardness as good soldiers,” and some, I trust, will catch their spirit of labor and self-denial for Christ and the Church. CONTENTS. CHAPTER PAGE I. MY ANCESTORS AND MY EARLY DAYS 9 II. SKETCHES OF EARLY PREACHERS 19 III. BOEHM’S CHAPEL 30 IV. GENERAL CONFERENCE OF 1800 35 V. PHILADELPHIA CONFERENCE—GREAT REVIVALS—BARRATT’S CHAPEL 44 VI. MY FIRST CIRCUIT, DORCHESTER 57 VII. MY SECOND CIRCUIT, ANNAMESSEX, 1802 65 VIII. KENT, BRISTOL, AND NORTHAMPTON CIRCUITS 75 IX. PHILADELPHIA CONFERENCE, 1803—BRISTOL CIRCUIT 88 X. SHORT TOUR WITH BISHOP ASBURY, 1803 100 XI. DAUPHIN CIRCUIT, 1803-4 106 XII. BALTIMORE AND PHILADELPHIA CONFERENCES, 1805—ST. MARTIN’S CIRCUIT 118 XIII. FIRST CAMP-MEETING ON THE PENINSULA, 1805 128 XIV. DOVER CIRCUIT, 1806—SICKNESS AND DEATH OF BISHOP WHATCOAT 137 XV. DOVER CIRCUIT—GREAT CAMP-MEETINGS 147 XVI. MISSIONARIES, 1807 161 XVII. DOCTOR ROMER AND THE GERMAN METHODIST DISCIPLINE 173 XVIII. GENERAL CONFERENCE OF 1808 180 XIX. FIRST ANNUAL TOUR WITH BISHOP ASBURY, 1808 186 XX. FIRST VISIT TO THE SOUTH 209 XXI. NORTHERN TOUR—VIRGINIA AND BALTIMORE CONFERENCES 220 XXII. FIRST VISIT TO NEW YORK CITY—NEW YORK AND NEW ENGLAND CONFERENCES 234