THE SOUTH.

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THE WALDENSES AT VALDESE, N.C.

SECRETARY C.J. RYDER.

This new field of work, which was reported for the first time at our
annual meeting last year, is one of unique and especial interest. Two
years ago the steamship Kaiser Wilhelm arrived in New York with one
hundred and sixty-six Waldenses among her steerage passengers. These
people came from the Piedmont valley and mountain regions of Italy.
Their purpose in coming to America was to establish for themselves homes
in our own mountain region of the South. This little company that came
down from the deck of the Kaiser Wilhelm were the pioneers in the
establishment of their colonies in this new land. They were rather the
Pilgrim Fathers of this Waldensean movement. Before the actual colonists
had come, Rev. Chas. A. Tron, D.D., pastor of the Waldensean Church, and
member of the Board of Evangelization in Italy, had been to the mountain
regions of North Carolina, and after careful investigation had purchased
a tract of land for these Waldensean colonists.

Soon after the coming of these Waldenses, correspondence was opened with
them by the American Missionary Association. The colony was to be
planted in the midst of our great mountain field, and we had every
confidence that the coming of these conscientious and devoted Christian
colonists would be of real helpfulness in our work there. Rev. C.M.
Prochet, D.D., whose name is well known to the readers of this magazine,