USA > Delaware > Narratives of early Pennsylvania, West New Jersey and Delaware, 1630-1707 > Part 27
USA > New Jersey > Narratives of early Pennsylvania, West New Jersey and Delaware, 1630-1707 > Part 27
USA > Pennsylvania > Narratives of early Pennsylvania, West New Jersey and Delaware, 1630-1707 > Part 27
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1 Salem. * Raccoon Creek. ' Mantua Creek.
Big Timber Creek. " Between Gloucester and present Camden.
. At present Camden, New Jersey. " Pensauken Creek.
. Rancocas Creek. · Assiscunk Creek.
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GABRIEL THOMAS'S ACCOUNT
sount of this Countrey, and have stretch'd this (now) Pocket Volume to an extraordinary Bulk and Size; and yet without straining or deviating in the least from the Principles of my Profession, which are Truth it self. I have no Plot in my Pate or deep Design, no, not the least expectation of gaining any thing by them that go thither, or losing by those who stay here. My End chiefly in Writing, nay, indeed my great Aim, is to inform the People of Britain and Ireland in general, but particularly the Poor, who are begging, or near it, or starving, or hard by it (as I before took notice in my Preface) to encour- age them (for their own Good, and for the Honour and Bene- fit of their Native Countrey, to whom they are now a Scandal and Disgrace; and whose Milk and Honey these Drones eat up, and are besides a heavy Burden to the Commonwealth, in the Taxes paid by every Parish in England, etc., to support them.
Law-Causes are here (as in Pensilvania) speedily deter- mined, in the second Court at least, unless in some difficult Business. One Justice of the Peace hath Power to try a Cause, and give Judgment therein, if the Original Debt be under forty Shillings. And for Thieves and Robbers (as I hinted. before in the Preface) they must restore fourfold; which, if they are not able to do, they must work hard till the injured Person is satisfied.
I shall conclude with a Word or two on New-East-Jersey. This Countrey is exceeding fruitful in Cattel, of which I have seen great numbers brought from thencc, viz. Oxen, Cows, Sheep, Hogs, and Horses, to Philadelphia, the Capital of Pen- silvania. The chiefest Manufactory (besides English and In- dian Grain) fit for Traffick that this Countrey affords.
Now I shall give thee an Account of the English Manufac- tory, that each County in West-New-Jersey affords. In the first Place I shall begin with Burlington-County, as for Peltage, or Beavers Skins, Otter-Skins, Minks Skins, Musk-rats Skins, Rackcoon, Wild Cats, Martin, and Deer-Skins, etc. The Trade in Glocester-County consists chiefly in Pitch, Tar, and Rosin; the latter of which is made by Robert Styles,1 an excellent
1 Robert Stiles (d. 1713), was living in 1711 on his farm of over 200 acres on Pensauken Creek, in Chester Township, Burlington County, just over the line from Gloucester (now Camden) County, New Jersey.
1.
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NARRATIVES OF EARLY PENNSYLVANIA
[1698
Artist in that sort of Work, for he delivers it as clear as any Gum-Arabick. The Commerce carried on in Salam-County, is chiefly Rice, of which they have wonderful Produce every Year; as also of Cranberries which grow there in great plenty, and which in Picle might be brought to Europe. The Commodities of Capmay-County, are Oyl and Whale-Bone, of which they make prodigious, nay vast quantities every Year, having mightily advanc'd that great Fishery, taking great numbers of Whales yearly.1 This Country for the general part of it, is extraordinary good, and proper for the raising of all sorts of Cattel, very plentiful here, as Cows, Horses, Sheep, and Hogs, etc., likewise it is well Stor'd with several sorts of Fruits which make very good and pleasant Liquors, such as their Neigh- bouring Country before mention'd affords. Now Reader, hav- ing no more to add of any moment or importance, I salute thee in Christ; and whether thou stayest in England, Scotland, Ireland, or Wales, or goest to Pensilvania, West or East-Jersey, I wish thee all Health and Happiness in this, and Everlasting Comfort (in God) in the World to come. Fare thee well.
* About 1690 Dr. Daniel Coxe established a town and an extensive whale fishery on the bay side of Cape May.
CIRCUMSTANTIAL GEOGRAPHICAL DESCRIP- TION OF PENNSYLVANIA, BY FRANCIS DANIEL PASTORIUS, 1700
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INTRODUCTION
UPON the most trustworthy estimate, one-fifth of the blood of the United States is German. In Pennsylvania the propor- tion runs even higher. The German contribution to American civilization defies numerical estimate. Plainly, therefore, a book which aims at presenting typical narratives of Pennsyl- vania's foundation should include the chief writing relative to the beginnings of German colonization in that province, and especially if that principal writing should by chance have emanated from the chief figure in that earliest movement of German settlement. That classical position belongs so pre- cisely to Pastorius's Umständige Geographische Beschreibung Pensylvanic, that it is surprising that it has never before been presented, save in fragments, in an English translation.
Francis Daniel Pastorius was born September 26, 1651, at Sommerhausen in Franconia, the son of Melchior Adam Pas- torius, legal counsellor to the Count of Limpurg,1 and of Mag- dalena Dietz, his first wife. His father's removal to the city of Windsheim, where the elder Pastorius became burgomaster and judge, brought it about that Francis was educated first at the gymnasium in that city, under a Hungarian schoolmaster named Tobias Schumberg.' In 1668 he proceeded to the univer- sity of Altdorf, and for the next eight years was engaged in studies, chiefly of law, there and at the universities of Strass- burg, Basel, and Jena. Taking his degree of doctor of laws at Altdorf in 1676, he practised law at Windsheim and at Frank- fort-on-the-Main till 1680, when as the companion of a young
" For a fuller account of Melchior Adam Pastorius, see below, p. 361, note 1.
' A poem of Pastorius addressed to his former schoolmaster is printed below; pp. 422-424.
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NARRATIVES OF EARLY PENNSYLVANIA
nobleman he entered on a period of travel, lasting two and a half years, and extending through Germany, the Netherlands, England, France, and Switzerland.
Frankfort in 1682 was the very centre of the Pietists, who were endeavoring by revival of devout and practical Chris- tianity, tinged often with mysticism, to melt and vivify the creed-bound theological and sacramentarian system of the Lutheran Church. That Pastorius would by natural sympathy be drawn into their circle is plain from the account of his spir- itual development which he gives in the preface below. So when a kindred spirit, the Quaker William Penn, who in 1677 had paid a memorable religious visit to the Frankfort Pietists, became four years later a great landed proprietor in America, and through German translations of some of the documents already presented in this volume appealed to the Pietists and Mennonites of Germany to take part in his "holy experiment," it was natural that Pastorius should be strongly attracted. A Frankfort group bought 15,000 acres of land in the new province. He was made their agent, sailed for America in June, 1683, and arrived at Philadelphia in August. The main section of the first body of German immigrants to Pennsyl- vania, a Crefeld group, came in October. Uniting the inter- ests of the German (Frankfort) Company and of the Crefelders, Pastorius by skilful management obtained favorable terms from Penn for the Germans, and before the end of October founded Germantown.
The development of this first of German townships in Amer- ica can be followed during its first sixteen years in the pages which follow. Pastorius continued as agent for the German Company till 1700 only, but throughout his lifetime remained the chief citizen of Germantown, bailiff or clerk of the corpora- tion in many years, justice of the peace, occasionally member of the General Assembly of the province. He shared in, per- haps wrote, the famous protest (1688) of the German Friends
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INTRODUCTION
or Mennonites of Germantown against slavery. From 1698 to 1700 he served as schoolmaster of the Friends' School in Philadelphia, from 1702 till after 1716 he was master of the school in Germantown. Add to these occupations that of scrivener, in which capacity he was in much request, and it will easily be seen that no one was better qualified to testify as to the early days of the German village. In Germantown he lived until his death, which occurred between December 26, 1719, and January 13, 1720. The chief account of his life and writings, and an excellent one, based on most painstaking re- searches, is The Life of Francis Daniel Pastorius, the Founder of Germantown, by Professor Marion D. Learned (Philadelphia, 1908).
Pastorius was a man of wide learning, not only in legal and administrative matters, but in science, medicine, agriculture, history, theology, and business. His learning, his large library, his skill with the pen, his eagerness to do good, and, we must add, some willingness to display his talents, impelled him to most copious writing, now in vivacious if not too orderly prose, now in verses plainly meant to be, and thought of as being, poetry. Half a dozen printed books and a great mass of manu- scripts remain to attest his literary zeal. The chief of the latter is the Beehive, a combination of commonplace-book and ency- clopædia which he wrote for his children. The chief of the printed books is that which is here translated. From its pages, though the great waves of German immigration into America began several years after its publication, we can at least ob- tain priceless and abundant data regarding the first small beginning of that process.
The first printed account of Pennsylvania by Pastorius was an eight-page tract, headed Sichere Nachricht auss America, wegen der Landschafft Pennsylvania, von einem dorthin gereiss- ten Teutschen, de dato Philadelphia, den 7. Martii 1684 (Posi- tive Information from America, concerning the Country of .
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NARRATIVES OF EARLY PENNSYLVANIA
Pennsylvania, from a German who has migrated thither, dated Philadelphia, March 7, 1684).1 Of this excessively rare tract there is a copy in the city library of Zürich. A longer state- ment, entitled Francisci Danielis Pastorii Sommerhusano- Franci Kurtze Geographische Beschreibung der letztmahls erfun- denen Americanischen Landschafft Pensylvania (Short Geo- graphical Description of the recently discovered American Country Pennsylvania), was printed in Nuremberg in 1692 as an appendix to Melchior Adam Pastorius's Kurtze Beschrei- bung Der H. R. Reichs Stadt Windsheim. This also is rare, but there is a copy of it in the library of the Historical Society of Pennsylvania. The appendix fills only thirty-two pages. By expansion of these to forty-five and by many additions Pas- torius composed his final treatise, Umständige Geographische Beschreibung Der zu allerletzt erfundenen Provintz Pensylvania, In denen End-Gräntzen America In der West-Welt gelegen, Durch Franciscum Danielem Pastorium, J. U. Lic. und Frie- dens-Richtern daselbsten. Worbey angehencket sind einige nota- ble Begebenheiten, und Bericht-Schreiben an dessen Herrn Vat- tern Melchiorem Adamum Pastorium, Und andere gute Freunde. Franckfurt und Leipzig, Zufinden bey Andreas Otto. 1700.ª (Circumstantial Geographical Description of the Lately Dis- covered Province of Pennsylvania, Situated in the Farthest Limits of America, in the Western World, by Francis Daniel Pastorius, J. U. Lic., and Justice of the Peace in the Same, to which are Appended certain Notable Events, and Written Re- ports to his Honored Father, Melchior Adam Pastorius, and to Other Good Friends.) A second edition, without change of
1 A translation of this interesting document, by the general editor of the series, has been substituted below, pp. 392-411, for those pages of the book of 1700 which present merely a brief summary of the Sichere Nachricht. Other versions may be seen in J. F. Sachse, Letters relating to the Settlement of Germantown (Phila- delphia, 1903), and in S. W. Pennypacker, The Settlement of Germantown (Phila- delphia, 1889), pp. 81-99. A photographic facsimile of the original may be found in Learned's Pastorius, between pp. 128 and 129.
' A facsimile of the title-page will be found opposite p. 360 of the present volume.
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INTRODUCTION
substance, was issued under the same imprint in 1704. This usually has, bound up with it, a German translation of Gabriel Thomas's Historical and Geographical Account, and Daniel Falkner's Curieuse Nachricht. Friedrich Kapp republished Pastorius's part (Crefeld, 1884) with an introduction.
The Umständige Geographische Beschreibung is a small book, printed on paper 6 { x 3 4 inches in size, and contains xii+140 pages. It was edited for publication by the writer's father, Melchior Adam Pastorius, and the last twenty pages are occupied with his autobiography, supplied at the request of his grandsons. It is a very interesting document, but as its interest is wholly European, it has not been thought needful to include it in the present translation, which accordingly stops at page 120 of the original. As will be seen, the book opens with seventeen chapters of a more or less systematic treatise, but is continued by the printing, in nearly chrono- logical order from 1683 to 1699, of various letters of Pastorius, together with a few written by his sons, his father, or William Penn. No one should look to it for a methodical history of Pennsylvania or of Germantown, but surely no one can look into it without catching vivid glimpses of early Germantown and Pennsylvania, without seeing, to some degree, "the very form and pressure of the time."
About a fifth of the book, in an imperfect English transla- tion by Lewis H. Weiss, was printed in 1850 in the Memoirs of the Historical Society of Pennsylvania, volume IV., part 2, and reprinted in 1898 in no. 95 of the Old South Leaflets. The present version was made by the late Miss Gertrude Selwyn Kimball of Providence; Professor M. D. Learned has kindly revised it. The foot-notes are by the editor of the volume, Mr. A. C. Myers.
J. F. J.
CIRCUMSTANTIAL GEOGRAPHICAL DESCRIP- TION OF PENNSYLVANIA, BY FRANCIS DANIEL PASTORIUS, 1700
Circumstantial Geographical Description of the Lately Discovered Province of Pennsylvania, Situated in the Farthest Limits of America, in the Western World, by Francis Daniel Pas- torius, J. U. Lic., and Justice of the Peace in the Same, to which are Appended certain Notable Events, and Written Reports to his Honored Father, Melchior Adam Pastorius, and to Other Good Friends.
Frankfort and Leipzig: To be found at the Shop of Andreas Otto, 1700.
TO THE GENTLE READER
I herewith present to you the province of Pennsylvania, lately discovered by means of the expeditions sent out under Charles Stuart the First of England, and likewise its inhabit- ants, the Christians as well as the native savages, together with the laws, form of government, customs and habits of both of these, and also the towns which have already been settled, and the commerce which has been established, all most faithfully described, not only by the governor of the province, William Penn himself, but also by the local authorized representatives of the English and High-German Companies.
And it is worthy of remark that this province, as early as the year 1684, contained four thousand Christian souls; there- fore, at the present time, at the end of sixteen years, it must, necessarily, have a much greater population, both because of the yearly arrival of settlers, and because of the natural in- crease of the Christian colonists, and must also have attained to a state of greater prosperity in agriculture, in dwellings, and in trade. This is especially the result of the inestimable vigil- ance, admirable bearing, and prudent conduct of the above-
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Umftandige Beogra- phi'che Befchreibung
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Der su Hlerlegt erfundenen Brovink PENSYLVA- NIÆ, In Denen End - Orangen AMERICA In der Beft . Belt gelegen/ Durch FRANCISCUM DANIELEM PASTORIUM, J. V. Lic. und Friedens, Richtern Dafelbften. Borben angebendet find eini. ge notable Begebenheiten / und Bericht: Schreiben an Di ffen Derin Dottern MELCHIOREM ADAMUM PASTO- RIUM, Und andere gute freunde.
Grandfurth und Leipzig! Bufinden ben Hindi eas Otto. 1700,
TITLE-PAGE OF PASTORIUS'S "UMSTÄNDIGE GEOGRAPHISCHE BESCHREIBUNG," 1700 From an original in the New York Public Library
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PASTORIUS'S PENNSYLVANIA
1700]
mentioned governor, William Penn, to whom the English King, Charles Stuart the Second, gave this country in perpe- tuity, as an English fief, upon the yearly payment of two beaver-skins. All of which will be learned more in detail in the proper place.
Good health to the reader, whom I am ready to serve fur- ther, on receipt of further information.
N. B. The publisher received this from the hand of Mel- chior Adam Pastorius,1 J. U. D., Councillor to the Prince of Brandenburg and Historian, whose son now resides in Penn- sylvania.
PREFACE
The method by which I have regulated the course of my life, from the cradle, after laying-aside childish things, along the 'path of this temporal state, toward a joyous eternity, is well known to all my intimates; and also that in all my deeds I have striven to learn the will of God, to fear His omnipotent power, and truly to love, honor, and praise His unfathomable
1 Melchior Adam Pastorius (1624-1702), doctor of civil and canon law, father of Francis Daniel Pastorius, was a native of Erfurt, in Thuringia, spring- ing from a prominent Catholic family, whose name was originally Scepers or Schäffer (shepherd or pastor), then Pastor, and finally under humanistic influ- ences fully Latinized to Pastorius. The family was long resident in Warburg in Westphalia, whence his father, Martinus Pastorius, a native of the latter town, educated in the liberal arts and in the law, son of Fredericus Pastorius, town councillor, had removed to Erfurt and become tribunal assessor. Receiving an early training in the humanities M. A. Pastorius, in 1644, joined the train of Cardinal Rosetti, then on his way to the election of a new pope, went to Rome, studied in the German College, pursued a course in law at the University Alla Sapienza, practised in the Roman trials with his brother and for a few months in 1648 held his brother's place as resident at Rome for the Elector of Trier. Having made a grand tour of observation-interestingly recorded by him- through Italy, Germany, Austria, and France, under the patronage of the Elector of Mainz, in 1649, he became counsellor to the Count of Limpurg at Sommer- hausen, in Franconia. Here he changed to the Lutheran religion, married, and had his son Francis Daniel born to him. In 1659 he removed to the imperial city of Windsheim, serving as counsellor, elder burgomaster, superior judge, and councillor to the Prince of Brandenburg. He was a man of much learning, know- ing Latin, Italian, and French. He wrote a history of Windsheim and many other works in prose and verse, some of which have never been published. His later years were spent at Nuremberg, where he died.
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NARRATIVES OF EARLY PENNSYLVANIA [1700
goodness and mercy. And although I have, besides the or- dinary courses in the liberal arts, happily undertaken and finished the study of law, and at the same time became suf- ficiently skilled in the Italian and French languages, and in good company made the so-called grande tour, through those countries, nevertheless, in all countries and places, my great- est industry and effort has been to endeavor to discover where and amongst what people and nations a true devotion, love, knowledge, and fear of God might be met with and acquired. I found, in universities and academies, learned men almost without number, but as many religions and sects as there were individuals; [I found] sharp wits and keen questionings, but, in fine, there was that great babbling and ostentation of frivo- lous worldly wisdom of which the apostle says: Scientia inflat.1
But that I saw anywhere, in the Netherlands or in France, a professor who, with the heart of a child and the soul of a dis- ciple, earnestly pointed out the pure love of Jesus and a knowl- edge of the Holy Trinity-that [is something] which I cannot write with a clear conscience.
It is true that there is no lack of those Christians in name and in speech, who go about conceited in their worldly wisdom, and are really devoted to the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eye, and the pride of life (the Trifolium of the devil). But they who with fear and trembling thought, to work out their own salvation, who lived without guile, and who penetrated to the centre to God, that highest good, with all the power of their being-such were rara avis in terris.2
I found, indeed, at last, in the University of Cambridge and in the city of Ghent, some in secret retirement who were devoted men, resigned to the Heavenly Father with their whole soul; these having perceived my earnest quest, taught me many good doctrines and strengthened me greatly in my purpose, and so aided me that the birth-chamber of the most glorious Emperor Charles the Fifth, in the royal palace at Ghent, was shown to me (it is four ells long and four ells wide), with the reminder that to this newborn prince was given by one of his god-fathers as a christening-present a richly-bound Bible with the inscription in gold: Scrutamini scripturas,' the
" Knowledge puffeth up.
Search the Scriptures.
'A rare bird in the lands.
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1700]
which he had read diligently, and therein learnt that he must die in the merits of Jesus Christ, which alone suffice.
I further saw, in my travels at Orleans, Paris, Avignon, Marseilles, Lyons, and Geneva, many thousands of youths from Germany, the greater part of them of noble rank, who habitually imitate only the frivolities of dress, speech, foreign customs, and ceremonies, and spend incredible amounts in learning to leap horses, to ride, to dance, fence, swing a pike, and wave banners; so that a large portion of their German patrimony is spent on the useless frivolities of this world, while no thought is given to the love of God, and to the wisdom of an imitation of Christ, well-pleasing in the sight of the Lord. In- deed, he who will discourse somewhat of the writings and com- munings with God of the holy Augustine, Taulerus, Arndius, and other men of godly wisdom, will be proclaimed a pietist, sectarian, and heretic; nor will the man who has drunk deep of the worldly wisdom of the school of Aristotle let himself be persuaded, or be admonished by the Spirit of God.
For these reasons, when my tour was ended, I withdrew into my study for a short retreat, and recalled to mind all that this world-spectacle had brought to my view, and could find no enduring pleasure in anything therein, and also I gave up all hope that, in the future, any place could be found in my native country, or in all Germany, where a man could abandon the old habit of mere operis operati,1 and enter into the pure love of God with his whole heart and spirit, and with his entire strength, and love his neighbor as himself.
So the thought came to me that it might be better that I should expound for the good of the newly-discovered American peoples in Pennsylvania that knowledge given me by the grace of the highest Giver and Father of Light, and should thus make them participators in the true knowledge of the Holy Trinity, and the true Christianity.
But since the province and country of Pennsylvania is situated at the further limits of America, it is necessary that some few words should first be premised and set forth concern- ing the divisions of the globe, and in particular concerning America (the fourth part of the world). I divide the globe into four parts: the first is Europe, wherein are Spain, France,
" Dead works.
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NARRATIVES OF EARLY PENNSYLVANIA
Italy, Greece, Germany, Hungary, Dalmatia, Croatia, Sla- vonia, Bulgaria, Muscovy, Poland, Denmark, Sweden, Eng- land, Ireland, Scotland, Holland, etc. This division is the smallest of them all, but because of its art and of the Christian religion, it is the most famous.
The second division is Asia, which lies toward the rising sun, or to the east, of Europe, and is almost as large as Europe and Africa together. In this part of the world Paradise was situated, and here Adam was created, and here too was the promised land of Canaan, wherein dwelt the patriarchs, Abra- ham, Isaac, and Jacob. It also contains Arabia, wherein is Mount Sinai, where God gave the law to Moses. In Asia are likewise found Syria, Judæa, Galilee, Babylon, and Niniveh. It also includes the East Indies, Tartary, and China, that land which lies the furthest to the east, and which is separated from its neighboring lands in part by lofty mountains, and in part by a wall twelve hundred miles in length.
The third division is Africa, divided from the south of Europe by the Mediterranean Sea, and from Asia by the Red Sea. It is a very hot, unfruitful, and partly uninhabited land, and full of venomous animals. It contains Egypt, Barbary, and the country of Prester John.
The fourth division of the world is America, or the so-called New World, which was discovered in part, A. D. 1492, by Christopher Columbus, and in part by Americus Vespucius, and by this last it was called America. It lies toward the setting-sun, or to the west, of Europe, and comprises the largest part of the globe, being almost as large as the entire Old World, Europe, Asia, and Africa, together. This is the country where- in are found in superabundance gold, silver, gems, sugar, spice, and many other rarities, as the silver fleets, coming from there every year, bear ample witness.
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