Page:The Homes of the New World- Vol. II.djvu/340

Rh be other than grateful to them for their kindness and good-will; but the nights are becoming cold; I am not quite well, andwhat should I do there? We, my countrymen and myself, should not understand one another, although we might speak the same language. But I was well pleased to gain intelligence from these gentlemen, merchants of Rock Island, regarding the present condition of the Swedes in the colony.

Since the death of the bishop, as they called Eric Jansen, they have gone on more prosperously. He, however, by his bad management, left them burdened by a large debt of ten or eleven thousand dollars, and some of them are now gone to California, to get gold to endeavour by that means to liquidate it. Some of the Swedes at Bishop's Hill have unremittingly proved themselves to be honest, pious, and industrious people, and as such they have the confidence of the inhabitants of the town (Rock Island), and obtain on credit the goods for which they are at present unable to pay. They have built several handsome brick-houses for themselves, and manage their land well. They have begun to grow and to spin flax, and they derive an income from the linen-thread they have thus to sell. They continue stedfast in their religious usages, their prayers, and their faith in Eric Jansen, who seems to have had almost a demoniacal power over their minds. When they were ill and did not recover by the remedies and prayers of Eric Jansen, he told them that it was owing to their want of faith in him, and because they were reprobate sinners. Many died victims to the diseases of the climate, and for want of proper care.

The respectable and agreeable man, who was well acquainted with the Swedish colony, would not say anything decidedly against Eric Jansen, nevertheless he doubted him; on the contrary, he praised Eric Jansen's wife, as being very excellent and agreeable. She also had