Pyrlaeus, John Christopher

Pyrlaeus, John Christopher a Moravian itinerant and missionary among the Indians, was born April 25, 1713, at Pausa, in Swabia, graduated at the University of Leipsic, and immigrated to America in 1740. After having spent a part of the year 1743 in the Mohawk country, in order to learn its language and customs, he opened a so-called "Indian school" at Bethlehem, Pa., in which he prepared young men for missionary service among the aborigines. and, in particular, taught them the Mohawk tongue. The illustrious David Zeisberger (q.v.) was one of his pupils. He continued such instructions at Gnadenhutten, a missionary settlement in Pennsylvania. whlither he removed in 1747, taking part at the same time in the work of the mission. Besides translating a number of hymns into the Mohawk, he wrote three valuable treatises on this language, which, however, were never printed. The MSS. are deposited in the library of the American Philosophical Society, Philadelphia. In 1751 he went to England, where he labored in the ministry for nearly twenty years. He died at Herrnhut, Saxony, May 28, 1785. (E. de S.)