communities of the sect in America, and where the people still turn to the pages of Van Braght to read the lives of their forefathers.
Many copies of the book were brought to America, but they were in Dutch. No German translation existed, and much the larger proportion of those here who were interested in it could read only that language. It was not long before a desire for a German edition was manifested, and the declaration of a war between England and France in 1744, which in the nature of things must involve sooner or later their colonies in America, made the Mennonites fearful that their principles of non-resistance would be again put to the test, and anxious that all of the members, especially the young, should be braced for the struggle by reading of the steadfastness of their forefathers amid sufferings abroad. Their unsalaried preachers were, however, like the members of the flock, farmers who earned their bread by tilling the soil, and were ill fitted both by circumstances and education for so great a literary labor. Where could a trustworthy translator be found? Where was the printer, in the forests of Pennsylvania, who could undertake the expense of a publication of such magnitude? Naturally, they had recourse to the older and wealthier churches in Europe, and on the 19th of October, 1745, Jacob Godschalck, of Germantown, Dielman Kolb, of Salford, Michael Ziegler, Yilles Kassel, and Martin Kolb, of Skippack, and Heinrich Funck, of Indian Creek, the author of two religious works published in Pennsylvania, wrote, under instruction from the various communities, a letter to Amsterdam on the subject. They say: “Since according to appearances the flames of war are mounting higher, and it cannot be known whether the cross and persecution may not come upon the de-
