erve. The Moravians thought they
had defined their position clearly at the outset, and believed they had
the Trustees' promise that all should be as they desired, and if the
Trustees realized the construction placed upon their words they had
taken a most unfair advantage of the Moravians by offering them the two
town lots as a special favor, and then using the ownership of those lots
as a lever to force unwelcome service. On the other hand the Trustees
claimed that Zinzendorf had tacitly agreed to furnish two fighting men
when he allowed Spangenberg and Nitschmann to take the two freeholds,
and one can hardly imagine that the gentlemen who served as Trustees of
Georgia would stoop to a subterfuge to gain two soldiers. Probably it
was an honest misunderstanding for which neither side was to blame,
and of which neither could give a satisfactory explanation, each party
having had a clear idea of his own position, and having failed to
realize that in the confusion of tongues the other never did grasp the
main point clearly.

Regarding the Moravian request for permission to leave, the Trustees
declined to give instructions until after an exchange of letters with
Zinzendorf; but in a second letter to his Congregation, the Count wrote,
"If some do not wish to remain, let them go," and "if the authorities
will not do what you demand it is certain that you must break up and go
further; but whether to Pennsylvania, or New York or Carolina, the
Lord will show you." Carolina would be no better than Georgia for
their purpose, for the military conditions were identical, and Bishop
Nitschmann's advice that they go to Pennsylvania, together with
Spangenberg's residence there, decided them in favor of that location.

Zinzendorf's permission having cleared the way for departure, they
resolved to wait no longer on the Trustees, and a general conference was
held on September 18th, in which definite arrangements were made for
the assumption of the debt by those who were willing as yet to remain
in Georgia, freeing the four who were to go first. A recent letter had
informed Tanneberger of the death of his wife and children in Herrnhut,
and the news shattered his already weak allegiance. Without them he
cared little where he went, or what became of him, if only he could get
away, and Haberecht was more than ready to join him. His young son went
as a matter of course, and Meyer, another member who had been lazy and
unsatisfactory, completed t