However, 99% of the people who ever heard him speak never bothered with him again.
He never had more than 3,000 followers at any one time, and about 500-1000 of them were children who were there because of their parents, not because of his eloquence.
He convinced about 500-600 adults to follow him to Guiana, of whom as many as 200 began questioning his motives and behavior.
Far from having a general and mesmerizing appeal to the population as a whole, it is clear that his rhetoric really only worked on emotionally disturbed individuals.
I heard on the last 45 minutes of the lives of those people, the woman was clearly trying to convince him and others that this was not the right thing to do. She was obviously scared for her life, but was trying to calmly explain why suicide was not the only option. She was cursed and yelled at by the others.
I wanted to cry for that woman.