Moravian zealot, Nicholas Ludwig, Count Zinzendorf' first hand accounts of wolves in the Iroquois lands of Pennslvania and New York in 1745.........145 years after Jamestown, New Amsterdam and Plymouth foundings

MORAVIAN JOURNALS RELATING TO CENTRAL
NEW YORK

  Count Zinzendorf was thinking of the Five Nations, with many odd conceits. In an address in London, March 7, 1743, he said: "" The Second Nation, and which properly governs the rest, is the Nation of the Onondagoes. Those are Philosophers and such as among us are called Deists. They are brave honest People who keep their world; and their general weakness is that they delight in Heroick'Deeds; and this will be the main Difficulty in the way of their Conversion, to make them forget these their heroick Notions; for they have the Principles of the old Romans, that they look upon every one as a miserable Creature, scarce worth a Thought, who will -not, submit himself to them. . . .

"The Two other Nations which, are stiled Children, are the Cajugas and Oneydoes, who regulate themselves after these Two Nations.""

 Friday, lOth.-"We made an early start. As we were scant of provisions we did not take a meal until noon, when we felt very much exhausted and weary because of our heavy packs. The noise of howling wolves had greatly disturbed us during the night, and they kept it up in the morning. We then crossed Lake Sganiatarees and rested at noon at John's Beach "

May 16, "there was ice, with a strong northwest wind. "" We passed two huts inhabited by Indians. At night we encamped on the Shomoko road, which comes from the great desert and here touches the Susquehanna. Br. Joseph and party had taken this route when he went to Onondago. The wolves made a terrific noise around us during the night.""

October 17." We passed Oweke and two wolves chased' a deer toward us, which we shot. They, however, escaped."

In this volume are given all the Moravian journals relating to Central New York, beginning with 1745, when the first visit was made to Onondaga. This concerned the removal of the Shekomeko converts from Dutchess County. The mission there, commenced in 1740, was legally closed in 1745, and the converts went first to Bethlehem, Pa., and then to Gnadenhutten.

Nicholas Ludwig, Count Zinzendorf, was born in Dresden in 1700. He was very much a part of the Pietist movement in Germany, which emphasized personal piety and an emotional component to the religious life. This was in contrast to the state Lutheran Church of the day, which had grown to symbolize a largely intellectual faith centered on belief in specific doctrines. He believed in "heart religion," a personal salvation built on the individual's spiritual relationship with Christ.

 There followed an intense and powerful experience of renewal, often described as the "Moravian Pentecost." During a communion service at Berthelsdorf, the entire congregation felt a powerful presence of the Holy Spirit, and felt their previous differences swept away. This experience began the Moravian renewal, and led to the beginning of the Protestant World Mission movement. 

Zinzendorf himself visited St. Thomas, and later visited America. There he sought to unify the German Protestants of Pennsylvania, even proposing a sort of "council of churches" where all would preserve their unique denominational practices, but would work in cooperation rather than competition. He founded the town of Bethlehem, where his daughter Benigna organized the school which would become Moravian College.

 His overwhelming interest in the colonies involved evangelising the native Americans, and he travelled into the wilderness with Indian agent Conrad Weiser to meet with the chieftains of several tribes and clans. As far as we have been able to identify, he is the only European noble to have gone out to meet the native American leaders in this manner.