Wells, to his old friend. "I want to
hear all about your work, what you have done, and what you hope to
do."
"We have met with wonderful success, far beyond our wildest dreams,"
responded Mr. Zeisberger. "Certainly we have been blessed of God."
Then the missionary began a long, detailed account of the Moravian
Mission's efforts among the western tribes. The work lay chiefly
among the Delawares, a noble nation of redmen, intelligent, and
wonderfully susceptible to the teaching of the gospel. Among the
eastern Delawares, living on the other side of the Allegheny
Mountains, the missionaries had succeeded in converting many; and it
was chiefly through the western explorations of Frederick Post that
his Church decided the Indians of the west could as well be taught
to lead Christian lives. The first attempt to convert the western
redmen took place upon the upper Allegheny, where many Indians,
including Allemewi, a blind Delaware chief, accepted the faith. The
mission decided, however, it would be best to move farther west,
where the Delawares had migrated and were more numerous.
In April, 1770, more than ten years before, sixteen canoes, filled
with converted Indians and missionaries, drifted down the Allegheny
to Fort Pitt; thence down the Ohio to the Big Beaver; up that stream
and far into the Ohio wilderness.
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