hand road but found no water for ten miles. It grew late and we had to
drive five miles into the night to find a stoppingplace." Two of
the Brethren went ahead "to seek out the road" through the darkened
wilderness. There were rough hills in the way; and, the horses being
exhausted, "Brethren had to help push." But, in due season, "Br
Nathanael held evening prayer and then we slept in the care of Jesus,"
with Brother Gottlob as usual in his hammock. Three days later the
record runs: "Toward evening we saw Jeams River, the road to it ran down
so very steep a hill that we fastened a small tree to the back of our
wagon, locked the wheels, and the Brethren held back by the tree with
all their might." Even then the wagon went down so fast that most of the
Brethren lost their footing and rolled and tumbled pell-mell. But Faith
makes little of such mishaps: "No harm was done and we thanked the Lord
that he had so graciously protected us, for it looked dangerous and we
thought at times that it could not possibly be done without accident
but we got down safely... we were all very tired and sleepy and let the
angels be our guard during the night." Rains fell in torrents, making
streams almost impassable and drenching the little band to the skin.
The hammock was empty one night, for they had to spend the dark hours
trench-digging about their tent to keep it from being washed away. Two
days later (the 10th of November) the weather cleared and "we spent most
of the day drying our blankets and mending and darning our stockings."
They also bought supplies from settlers who, as Brother Grube observed
without irony,

"are glad we have to remain here so long and that it means money for
them. In the afternoon we held a little Lovefeast and rested our souls
in the loving sacrifice of Jesus, wishing for beloved Brethren in
Bethlehem and that they and we might live ever close to Him.... Nov. 16.
We rose early to ford the river. The bank was so steep that we hung a
tree behind the wagon, fastening it in such a way that we could quickly
release it when the wagon reached the water. The current was very swift
and the lead horses were carried down a bit with it. The water just
missed running into the wagon but we came safely to the other bank,
which however we could not climb but had to take half the things out of
the wagon, tie ropes to the axle on which we could pull, help our horses
which were quite stiff, and so we brought our ark again to d