.

"The first European to visit the valley was Count Zinzendorf,"
continued the captain. "He was of an ancient Austrian family. He was
a Christian man and very earnest in trying to do good. He travelled
through Germany, Denmark, and England, and in 1741 came to America and
preached at Bethlehem and Germantown. He was very desirous to do the
poor Indians good, so travelled about among them, though he had no
companions except an interpreter. In one of these excursions he
crossed the Pocono, and came into this Valley of Wyoming. At this time
he had with him a missionary named Mack and his wife. They pitched
their tent upon the western bank of the Susquehanna, at the foot of a
high hill and near a place in the river known as Toby's Eddy.

"Not very far away was a Shawnee village. The Indians held a council
there to hear what these missionaries had to say, but could not
believe that they had come all the way across the Atlantic just to
teach religious truth to them. The conclusion they came to was that
these strangers had come to spy out their country and rob them of
their lands. Thinking thus, they made up their minds to murder the
count. But they feared the English, therefore instructed those
appointed to do the deed to be very secret about it.

"On a cool September night two stout Indians went stealthily from the
town to the missionary's temporary dwelling--a tent with a blanket
hung across the doorway. They drew the blanket stealthily aside and
peeped in. They made no noise, and he was not aware of their presence,
as he reclined on a bundle of weeds engaged in writing or in devout
meditation.

"As Lossing says: 'The benignity of his countenance filled them with
awe, but an incident (strikingly providential), more than his
appearance, changed the current of their feelings. The tent cloth was
suspended from the branches of a huge sycamore in such a manner that
the hollow trunk of the tree was within its folds. At its foot the
count had built a fire, the warmth of which had aroused a rattlesnake
in its den; and at the moment when the savages looked into the tent
the venomous reptile was gliding harmlessly across the legs of their
intended victim, who did not see either the serpent or the lurking
murderers. At that sight they at once entirely changed their opinion
of him and regarded him as under the special protection of the Great
Spirit.' They were filled with profound reverence for him, and went
back to their tribe w