The Hawaiian gazette., 1872-09-11
A Record of a Thousand Years

Correspondence y Y Journal Of Commerce, Aug. ST.
DRESDEN, July, 1872.
The early history of this country is obscure as
10 dates and details, but we are told that in the
seventh century the country was overrun and &C.
cupied by the Wends SclaviC tribe, who came
from the South and East, and who are supposed
by some to be the same as the Yandals. They
we're barbariaus and idoaters. The evidences of
their occupation of the land are numerous and IN
questionable, consisting in Wendish names of
places still retained the remains of an altar of
granite. in many discoveries Of the urns in which
they we're accustomed to deposit the ashes of
their dead and in their descendants of whom
there are more than fifty thousand in Saxony
having their distinct language, costume and
habits.
The date Of the subsection Of these idOIaters is
fixed IN the year A d. 92S, when Heinrich, Duke
of the Saxons and King of the Germans, made a
fortress at Nielsen to enable him to hold the
land which he had conquered from the Wends.
Nielsen was thus, in the year 92S, established as
the chief place of the country, which had not yet
become Saxony, but was called Nielsen land.
About the year 933 the cornerstone of the ca
thedral at Meissen was laid. The day is not def
nitely ascertained, but this cannot be far from
correct,
Between these two dates we fix the building of
the church at Briesnitz. 1t was already built when
the church at Nielsen was begun, and 1t cannot
well have been in existence before the Wends
were driven out. Without doubt it was the first
house erected for Christian worship in Saxony.
To confirm what history says asked an an
Gent inhabitant of the village how old his church
was and he said about a thousand years. and
he gave me other information concerning the
pastors in the early Catholic times, and also
corning the former course of the river, which
items are not in my history, and therefore claim
the statements of the old gentleman to be nde-
pendent evidence. As we were looking at the
laborers gathering the harvest on the wide mead.
ows on the other side Of the river he said that in
ancient times the channel was on the further side
of this land, and that an extraordinary high
water had opened the present course of the flow,
bringing the Elbe over to the Bresntz side all Of
which an American who has steamed up the
Mississippi from New Orleans to Fever river can
comprehend and readily believe.
Bresnitz lies on the first bluff going down the
river from Dresden and not more than twenty
minutes distant by steamboat; the church is on
the highest part of the bluff, and is a prominent
landmark seen from all the vicinity. In form it
is simple parallelogram, with here and there an
rregularity in the outline, which serves to estab-
lish its antiquity by revealing the urskillfulness
Of the architect
The tower is broad rectangular structure, or
namented with waving line of capstoue for the
parapet. Through this tower passes the main en-
trance way, but there is also door on each side
with its smaller tower. These three towers have
each been surmounted by small spire covered
with slate-a decided improvement on the Origi-