The first Swiss settlers who arrived in SC and settled Orangeburgh (current Orangeburg, also Saxegotha to the north and New Windsor to the south) wrote letters back to Switzerland about what they saw there. Several of those letters were translated and published in Leo Schelbert's America Experienced--a 1996 book which has been out-of-print. It's recently been reissued in paperback. Check www.pictonpress.com. Cost is $29.95 plus $4 S&H. Letters included are (in chronological order by ship-of-arrival): Ship William, Feb 1735: Jakob Gallmann of Saxegotha. Ship Samuel, Jul 1735: Hans Georg Strigger, leader of the Bernese group that settled Orangeburgh Township; Dr. Fridolin Hilti; Hanss Danner. Ship Prince of Wales, Feb 1737: Johannes Tobler, leader of the Appenzeller group that settled New Windsor Township; Sebastian Zuberbühler, organizer of the voyage; Johann Ulrich Giezendanner, first minister in Orangeburgh; Hans Wernhard Trachsler, who went back to Switzerland ASAP. The book covers all Swiss emigrants of the 18th and 19th centuries. It's perhaps a coincidence that such a large proportion of the letter-writers happened to be among the earliest settlers of Orangeburgh! If your library doesn't have a copy, encourage them to get one while this print-run is still available. It's a "must-read" for anybody who's tracking their families back to Orangeburgh or Saxegotha in 1735-7. First-settler Strigger took one look at the primeval forests of the American frontier (that was Orangeburgh SC at the time) and skedaddled to Philadelphia immediately. Other people who had come over with him liked it and stayed there. And they even wrote letters about why they did. Harriet Imrey himrey@ntelos.net