The Newlanders

"In the ancient past, in the dim mists of man's childhood, far beyond recorded memory, the vastness and mystery of the far mountains summoned the curious and the brave. Those bold enough to seek their fortunes in the uncertain distances were the first newlanders. There, beyond the horizon, was a land of their own. Without land, they were paupers; with land they were lords. Land, the matrix for life itself. Land, more precious than gold, more durable than life, yea, more honored than knowledge."

"Are such dreams the stuff of myth and legend, and nothing more? Might God again grant the poor such hopes - even those of the war devastated Rhine - even you ... or you?"

"Friends, I stand before you to tell you it is so."

Seven hundred souls from Switzerland and the German Palatinate, corralled into a caravan of Rhine barges, had placed their trust in neulander agent Gottlieb Mittelberger's silver-tongued promises of land and a new life in the English colonies. Mittelberger's partner, leather-clad Arthur O'Connor, now drives them like cattle.

On board, young David Jansohn, bound for indentured servitude, is delighted to find himself assigned to a compartment with two lovely Rhine maidens, also bound for servitude, but guarded by their uncompromising, religious brother, an organist contracted to a Pennsylvania church. The journey to America would be fraught with danger, fraud, and deception. Many would die on the perilous Atlantic crossing. Other's lives would end in tragedy in the wilds of an untamed world. Only the strongest would live to see their hopes and dreams come true.

Olin Johnson has been professor of Computer Science at the University of Houston for a quarter of a century, publishing over sixty technical papers. His avocation is historical research. He is reader at The Clements, The Newberry, The Huntington, The Bodleian, The Ephrata Cloister, and The German Society of Pennsylvania.