1735, the first company of Moravian colonists
arrived in London. At their head was David Nitschmann,--variously
called "the III", "the weaver", "the Syndic", and Count Zinzendorf's
"Hausmeister", who was to stay with them until they left England,
and then return to Germany, resigning the leadership of the party to
Spangenberg, who was instructed to take them to Georgia and establish
them there, and then go to Pennsylvania to the Schwenkfelders. The other
nine were

John Toeltschig, Zinzendorf's flower-gardener.
Peter Rose, a gamekeeper.
Gotthard Demuth, a joiner.
Gottfried Haberecht, weaver of woolen goods.
Anton Seifert, a linen weaver.
George Waschke, carpenter.
Michael Haberland, carpenter.
George Haberland, mason.
Friedrich Riedel, mason.

They were "good and true sons of God, and at the same time skillful
workmen," with such a variety of handicrafts as to render them largely
independent of outside assistance in the settlement which they proposed
to make; and all but Haberecht were religious refugees from Moravia and
adjacent parts of Bohemia.

Nitschmann and Toeltschig were two of the five young men in Zauchenthal,
Moravia, who had set their hearts on the revival of the ancient Unitas
Fratrum. Toeltschig's father, the village burgess, had summoned the
five comrades before him, and strictly forbidden their holding religious
services, warning them that any attempt at emigration would be severely
punished, and advising them to act as became their youth, frequent the
taverns and take part in dances and other amusements. They were sons of
well-to-do parents, and little more than boys in years, (Nitschmann
was only twenty), but their faith and purpose were dearer to them than
anything else on earth, so they had left all and come away, commending
their homes and kindred to the mercy of God, and singing the exile hymn
of the ancient Unitas Fratrum, sacred through its association with those
brave hearts who had known the bitterness and the joy of exile a hundred
years before.

"Blessed the day when I must go
My fatherland no more to know,
My lot the exile's loneliness;

"For God will my protector be,
And angels ministrant for me
The path with joys divine will bless.

"And God to some small place will guide
Where I may well content abide
And where this soul of mine may rest.

"As thirsty harts for water burn,
For Thee, my Lord and God, I yearn,
If Thou are mine