“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.

Upon a tributary of the Muskingong, called the Tuscarwawas, a settlement was founded.  Near and far the news was circulated.  Redmen from all tribes came flocking to the new colony.  Chiefs and warriors, squaws and maidens, were attracted by the new doctrine of the converted Indians.  They were astonished at the missionaries’ teachings.  Many doubted, some were converted, all listened.  Great excitement prevailed when old Glickhican, one of the wisest chiefs of the Turtle tribe of the Delawares, became a convert to the palefaces’ religion.

The interest widened, and in a few years a beautiful, prosperous town arose, which was called Village of Peace.  The Indians of the warlike tribes bestowed the appropriate name.  The vast forests were rich in every variety of game; the deep, swift streams were teeming with fish.  Meat and grain in abundance, buckskin for clothing, and soft furs for winter garments were to be had for little labor.  At first only a few wigwams were erected.  Soon a large log structure was thrown up and used as a church.  Then followed a school, a mill, and a workshop.  The verdant fields were cultivated and surrounded by rail fences.  Horses and cattle grazed with the timid deer on the grassy plains.

The Village of Peace blossomed as a rose.  The reports of the love and happiness existing in this converted community spread from mouth to mouth, from town to town, with the result that inquisitive savages journeyed from all points to see this haven.  Peaceful and hostile Indians were alike amazed at the change in their brethren.  The good-fellowship and industry of the converts had a widespread and wonderful influence.  More, perhaps, than any other thing, the great fields of waving corn, the hills covered with horses and cattle, those evidences of abundance, impressed the visitors with the well-being of the Christians.  Bands of traveling Indians, whether friendly or otherwise, were treated with hospitality, and never sent away empty-handed.  They were asked to partake of the abundance and solicited to come again.