# Zinzendorff and Other Poems/Zinzendorff/Notes

NOTES.
$^1$ "Its roughly-guarded pass."
The Susquehannah, after entering Luzerne county, Penn., breaks into the valley of Wyoming, near the mouth of the Lackawana, through a narrow mountain chasm, rendered rugged by perpendicular rocks, and after pursuing a serpentine course, for twenty miles, breaks again out of the valley, at a similar pass, called the "Nanticoke gap."
$^2$ "The landscape hath a legend:"
The battle fought on the 3d of July, 1778, between the Americans, under the command of Col. Zebulon Butler, and the British, led on by Col. John Butler, and a Chieftain of mixed blood, named Brandt, is sometimes styled both in history and poetry, the "Wyoming massacre."
"The occasion of our assembling in this spot, is one of no common interest: to witness the re-interment of the mutilated bones of our ancestors, and to perform the grateful duty of laying the corner-stone of their monument. This work of gratitude is destined, in the language of the eloquent Webster, to 'rise till it meet the sun in his coming,—till the earliest light of morning shall gild it, and the parting day linger and play upon its summit.'"—Oration of Chester Butler, Esq., on laying the corner-stone of the Wyoming monument, July 3d, 1833.
$^4$ "The slumbering Anthracite."
The beautiful vale of Wyoming is distinguished by the anthracite coal formation. This valuable mineral, as exhibited in that region, is unsurpassed in richness and brilliancy, and in quantity apparently inexhaustible.
$^5$ "A white-brow'd stranger."
Count Zinzendorff, a nobleman of Saxony, the restorer of the ancient church of the United Brethren, or Moravians, performed a mission to the Indians of Wyoming, in the year 1742, He is asserted to have been the first white person who had ever visited that portion of the Shawanese and Delaware tribes, who held dominion in the valley.
$^6$ "The woad-stain'd Briton, in his wattled boat."
The boats of the ancient Britons were composed of basket-work, covered with the skins of beasts. So much were these baskets admired in Rome, and such quantities were exported there, that one of their satirical poets ridicules them as among the luxuries of his countrymen, more than a hundred years after the conquest of the British isles.
$^7$ "The fatal rattle-snake."
"Zinzendorff was alone in his tent, seated upon a bundle of dry weeds that composed his bed, and engaged in writing, when the Indians, who had determined to murder him, approached to execute their bloody commission. It was night, and the cool air of September rendered a small fire necessary to his comfort. A curtain formed of a blanket, and hung upon pins, was the only guard to the entrance of his tent. The heat of the fire aroused a large rattle-snake, which crawled slowly into the tent, and passed over his feet undiscovered. At this moment, the assassins softly approached the door of his tent, and slightly removing the curtain, contemplated the venerable man, too deeply absorbed in meditation to notice either their approach, or the venomous snake that lay extended before him. At this sight, even savage hearts shrank from their deadly purpose, and suddenly quitting the spot, they bore tidings that the white man was in league with the Great Spirit.—Chapman's History of Wyoming.
$^8$ "Fair Bethlehem."
Zinzendorff, during his second voyage to America, founded the colony of Bethlehem,—a spot celebrated both for its beauty of scenery, and its school, where the elements of piety are blended with the whole process of education, and presented to the young mind, as the source of daily serenity and joy, as well as of future felicity.
$^9$ "Of her whose cheek was pallid for his sake."
His wife, the sister of the Prince of Reuss, was distinguished for every excellence, and during his absence, took charge of his estates, and devoted their surplus income to the works of benevolence in which he delighted.
When the victorious Gauls, under Brennus, entered Rome, they found the ancient Senators sitting in their order, in the Forum, undaunted and unmoved. Their splendid habits, their majestic gravity, and venerable countenances, awed the barbarians into reverence, and they offered them adoration, as tutelar deities.
Zinzendorff's estate of Bertholsdorf, in Lusatia, was a refuge for the persecuted Moravians. He, with the Countess, continually extended to them patronage and assistance. By them, the settlement of Hernnhut was protected and cherished, from whence the first missionaries went forth, to the West Indies and to Greenland, somewhat more than a century since.
$^{12}$ "That the poor Greenlander might taste its fruits."
The centennial anniversary of the Moravian missions in Greenland, was celebrated on the 20th of January, 1833, with great joy and grati​tude among the different congregations, established by those devoted servants of the cross, in that inclement clime.
$^{13}$ "The Ethiop forehead, and the name of slave."
More than 40,000 of the converts, connected with the 214 mission stations, maintained by the United Brethren, in different parts of the globe, are either dwellers in Africa, or slaves in the West India islands.
$^{14}$ "And in the carving of our cummin-seeds."
"Antoninus Pius, from his desire to search into the least differences, was called 'cumini sector,'—the carver of cummin-seeds."—Fuller's Holy State.