On the 8th, William Rasche went to Berdjansk, on the Sea of Azov, to change some English money, and to inquire if there were any religious people there.  He met with some interesting persons, who seemed at first to be prejudiced against the Friends but after some conversation became very loving, and desired he would bring J.Y. to see them the next day.  Accordingly, on the 9th, J.Y. and W.R. went to Berdjansk, accompanied by Pastor Wuest and several others.  The meeting which they went to attend was held in a private house.  It commenced in the usual manner, with singing; after which, ——­ Buller read a chapter, and the pastor commented upon it; and then they asked J.Y. what he had to say regarding it.  He answered by giving his view of the subject, and afterwards addressed them in the ministry.  Various individuals then related their experience, one after the other, as is usual in the more private religious meetings in these churches.

——­ Buller (writes J.Y. in recording this meeting) is an interesting man; I had much conversation with him as to his own conversion.  It seems to have been a work of the Spirit, without, in the first instance, any other instrumentality than reading the Bible.  I met several pious persons in the meeting-room, and held converse with them to mutual comfort.  They are simple and sincere.  We took tea in the garden after the meeting, and did not reach our lodging in Neuhoffnung until 12 o’clock the same night.

10_th_.—­This morning they started for Elizabethsdorf, accompanied by Robert Lehmkuhle, a teacher from Kharkov.  Their way lay entirely through the boundless steppes, where so many ways ran into each other that the driver missed the road, and they wandered about until 10 p.  M., when they took shelter at a German colonist’s.  The inmates, who had gone to rest, rose to give them milk and bread.

The next day they proceeded to Elizabethsdorf, being escorted on the way by hospitable members of the settlements through which they passed.  At Elizabethsdorf they were received by schoolmaster Seib, a brotherly Christian man, whose conversation was “seasoned with grace.”

After tea, says John Yeardley. we held a devotional meeting, in which I had an opportunity to address the little company; but the people generally in the colonies are busy till late in the evening.  Being much weary with our jolting journey, I retired to the waggon for the night, as I supposed; but W.R. soon came to inform me that a number of young persons, men and women, were come, it being as early as they could be liberated from their day’s labor, to have some of our company.  I sprang from the waggon with joy, and we had a delightful meeting, with a pretty large company.  They sang repeatedly, and betweentimes I related to them something of my travels in Germany and Greece, with which they appeared wonderfully pleased.  We were all served with tea out of doors, and the company remained together till after eleven o’clock, and then returned joyfully home.