Their chief argument
was that the English Government sent its convicts to Georgia,
a proof that it was not a good land, and the Schwenkfelders were also told
that the English intended to use them as slaves.
Disturbed by this view of the case, the Schwenkfelders accepted
an offer of free transportation to Pennsylvania, where they arrived in safety
on the 22nd of September.
Spangenberg had wished to serve as their pastor in Georgia,
thinking it would give him opportunity to carry out his cherished wish
to bear the gospel message to the heathen, and he felt himself
still in a measure bound to them, despite their change of purpose,
and at a somewhat later time did visit them in their new home. There was
some idea of then taking them to Georgia, but it did not materialize,
and they remained permanently in Pennsylvania, settling in the counties
of Montgomery, Berks and Lehigh. Their descendents there preserve the customs
of their fathers, and are the only representatives of the Schwenkfelder form
of doctrine, the sect having become extinct in Europe.
Preliminary Steps.
While the exile of the Schwenkfelders was the immediate cause
which led Zinzendorf to open negotiations with the Trustees
of the Colony of Georgia, the impulse which prompted him involved far more
than mere assistance to them.
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