In January, 1800, I began my regular itinerant life. It was on Dorchester Circuit, on the Eastern Shore of Maryland, in Philadelphia Conference. The peninsula that lies between the Delaware and Chesapeake Bays, though not considered very healthy, was the garden of Methodism in America. Methodism was early introduced there, and for a time the ministers were greatly persecuted; but they achieved a glorious success. The heroic Garrettson was persecuted; Caleb B. Pedicord, the sweet singer of our Israel, received scars which he carried with him to the grave; Joseph Hartley was imprisoned, and through the grates of his prison preached deliverance to the captive; and Thomas S. Chew took the sheriff prisoner who had taken him captive. Dorchester Circuit was formed in 1780. It was a large circuit, embracing not only Dorchester County, but Taylor’s and Hooper’s Island in the Chesapeake Bay. The introduction of Methodism into Dorchester can be traced to the conversion of a young woman, Miss Catharine, sister of Harry Ennalls. She was afterward Mrs. Bruff of Baltimore, who was so useful in the revival at the General Conference of 1800. Through her influence her sister Mary, and her husband, the Hon. Richard Bassett of Delaware, were converted; also Henry Airey, Esq. It was at Squire Airey’s house that Freeborn Garrettson preached the first Methodist sermon in Dorchester County, and from that house he was taken to the jail at Cambridge. The squire threw over Mr. Garrettson the mantle of his protection as far as he was able. I learned while traveling there that all the ringleaders in that mob died a violent death, except Batt Ennalls, who was converted, and joined the Church. I knew him very well, and preached at his house when on that circuit. The sad end of these persecutors was considered a special judgment from God. I was employed by Rev. Thomas Ware to preach on this circuit because John Leach was sick and unable to travel. He was an excellent young man, with a shattered constitution, who lingered a year or two, and then entered into rest. I bade farewell to the scenes of my childhood and started to go among strangers. My mother’s sweet kiss and my aged father’s blessing I still remember. The tears rolled down my cheek as I looked back upon the home of my childhood, the old family mansion, endeared to me by so many tender associations. With weakness, fear, and much trembling, I entered upon my new field of labor and began to cultivate Immanuel’s land. The arrival of a new preacher, a German youth from Pennsylvania, was soon noised abroad, and this called out many to see and hear. I was reluctant to go to a circuit and preach in the English tongue. Had it been in the German language I should not have been so embarrassed.