From Rotterdam he wrote to Zinzendorf, saying that he heard
no ship would sail for America before February or March, and that he thought
it would be best for the colonists to wait until he wrote from London,
and then to come by way of Altona, as the Holland route was very expensive.
These suggestions, however, came too late, as the party had left Herrnhut
before the arrival of his letter.
Spangenberg had a stormy voyage to England, and on reaching London,
rented a room in "Mr. Barlow's Coffee House, in Wattling's street,
near St. Anthelius Church." He found the outlook rather discouraging,
and a long letter written on the 10th of January, gives a vivid picture
of the English mind regarding the "Herrnhuters". Spangenberg had called
on several merchants to see if he could arrange a loan for the Moravians,
for Zinzendorf's means were already strained to the utmost
by what he was doing for the Church, and he did not see how it was possible
to provide the money in any other way. But the merchants declined
to make the loan, saying: "We can not take the land (in Georgia) as surety,
for it is not yet settled, and no man would give us a doit for it;
the personal security (of the emigrants) is also not sufficient,
for they might all die on the sea or in Georgia, -- there is danger of it,
for the land is warmer than Europeans can bear, and many who
have moved thither have died; if they settle on the land and then die
the land reverts to the Trustees, so we would lose all;
and the six per cent interest offered is not enough,
for the money applied to business would yield twenty per cent.
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