Page:Mennonite Handbook of Information 1925.djvu/59

 Palatinates. It was found that the government did not have ships enough to transport so great a multitude, when by the beginning of winter, the miseries of the waiting multitude became constantly greater, which in consequence caused the death of about a thousand persons. Under such circumstances some remedy for the state of affairs had to be provided.

"With this arrangement several thousand of the unfortunates were shipped back to Holland and Germany. Some three thousand eight hundred were taken over to Ireland to aid in the weaving industry there. Six hundred were sent to the Carolinas, while over three thousand took ship for New York. But two thousand, two hundred and twenty seven of these reached their destination on the Hudson, for four hundred and seventy persons died of shipfever during the voyage. Two hundred and fifty more .perished on Governor's Island where they had been detained for several weeks in bad lodgings under the suspicion that they were taken with contagious disease.

"When finally this frightful quarantine was lifted, these Palatinate survivors were led to hope that their worst difficulties were overcome. Following their release they located in two camps near the Hudson river not so far away from the Catskill mountains, in the state of New York, where for some time they passed a most wretched existence.

"With the slender hope held out to them to obtain relief, they determined to take advantage of an offer made them by some Indian chiefs from the Valley of the Schoharie. In March of the year 1713 they set out on their journey thither, which on account of the difficulties of the route required fourteen days of travel. This was rendered most difficult because they had no draft animals and no wagons to transport the baggage, the women, the children, and the sick. All property had to be carried by hand or on the back, while in the meantime far and wide there lay a deep snow over the country. When finally the poor wanderers reached the beautiful Schoharie, they had nothing to live on, and they would in all probability have starved, had not the Indians taken pity on them and provided them