Here is my gift to you to show what hardship immigrants went through to
settle our country


a translated letter

To my well beloved friend ,the amtskeller(Finance Official) Heyler, and
also to Herr Strum and to my dear friend the pastor Conrath Dercap and
his wife at Zweirkirchen; greetings in Gods name and the comfort of
Jesus be with you;
If this writing finds you all in good health when it arrives, it will be
a great joy to me.As for what concerns me and my family, we have arrived
in part, arrived safe and well in this land, but my little daughter
Maria Margretha fell gently asleep  in the Lord, in the hope of blessed
salvation, in the midst of our voyage, on the 10 of September , on the
high sea. she bade farewell to this word of sorrow at four o'clock. she
was consigned to the deep. As a last honor to her memory I had them sing
for her the two funeral hymns" When my last hour is come", and,"Now let
us lay away the dead" I also had a funeral sermon preacched for her, but
a wewere having a storm, and the waves rose in the tempest described in
Psalm 107 and in the eighth chapters of the gospels of Matthew and Luke
. Then we had reasons to cry to God in the words of the hymn " Great is
the danger on the Sea") verses 5 and 6 in the New Heidelberg Hymnal

"Now as to our voyage, we travelled down the Rhine to Colgne, There we
were not allowed to pass through, because the King of Prussia, since h
could not have us ,refuse to let us go by. Therfore we were obliged to
travel by land to Hertzogebbosch which is forty hours distance. from
Cologne, and to have our goods hauled over al that distance cost us 3
florins 40 Kreuzers for each hundred weight
"Now as to the rest of our journey ,we sailed on July 22 from Helforth
Schlies ( Hellevoetslius-ED) on the Dollen Hunt and reached harbour
safely. thaank God. on the 30th, for we had a storm that lasted 4 days
and on St Jacobs Night wind and storm drove a ship between us and the
coast of Flanders, so that it stuck on a rock and split in two. and out
of 700 passenges and crew only 72 escaped with their lives. fourteen of
these 72 were able to reach this land on another ship and have told us
this. As we sailed again on August 17 fromCauss (Cowes) in old England
and came safely over the sea to Philadelphia on the 14 October as
healthy and hale. thank God. as when we left Wolfstien. If there is
anyone else there who has a desire to come over here, tell him to turn
all his goods into money. so that he does not have a lot to pay for
frieght as far as Rotterdam. At Rotterdam one can buy all kinds of
victuals cheaply.and whatever articles one needs at sea.
It happens just now that ther is a good opportunity to send this as the
Nuelander(Immigration agent) Nickell Licht with whom I am well aqainted
is on his way over again. so I take advantage of this to send my
esteemed friend the Amtskeller the bell for his church an English bell
as a gift of gratitude from me for this reason. he showed both me and my
brother many favour and kindnesses. and if he would like to have another
or anything special from this land ,we will take pains and get it to
him.
I have nothing more to write for the present. Our whole journey from
home to Philadephia was 18week and one day. Herewith I commend you all
as aforesaid to the protection of the Amighty, and wish you all,
according to your offices ,a quiet and peacefull sphere of duty and
remain your obediant servant

JohannHenrich Schmitt  formerly Wofstein
Phialdelphia Nov 21 1754

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