After spending Easter with Spotswood, Graffenried made his way on horseback toward New York with the objective of returning to England. This was a round about way of returning, but Graffenried could not leave from a Carolina or Virginia port where he was known. The colonial laws forbid anyone who was in debt to leave the colonies and Graffenried was deeply in debt. So he had to sneak out of the Americas by going to a port where he was unknown. On the trip back to England, several things made an impression on him.
He thought New York was a very pleasant place. He rested here ten or twelve days before he took a sloop to England.
On the sea, the small ship was in great danger once because of a storm and the failure of the captain to respond quickly. The ship was flying the small sail above the bowsprit when the winds grew too strong for the sail to be up. Once the bowsprit and the sail were submerged below the waves which broke off the bowsprit. The ship was then dragging the bowsprit and the sail in the water which severely hampered the ability of the ship to move or to navigate. They had to tie lines around sailors and lower then over the sides so they could raise the bowsprit and sail onto the ship. Everyone got wet and the waves washed over the ship. Finally the pieces were back on board and the bowsprit was repaired though it was shorter than it had been.
Once, the people on board thought they had sighted a sail in the distance. To see better, they sent a small boy up to the top of the mast. Then he could see that the white object was too big to be a sail. They guessed they were seeing land which troubled them very much because they thought they were in the middle of the ocean. They consulted the maps but could find no islands around where they thought they were. At length, they discovered that it was a mass of ice which had become detached from one of the northern glaciers.
(The trips from America to England were generally made by a northern route, where they took advantage of the Gulf Stream currents, which helped tremendously. Coupled with the westerly winds, the trip to England could be made much faster than to America. The fare structure even reflected this; it cost less to go to England than to America. Also, there was more space available from the west to the east.)
The voyage to England took six weeks and they landed at Bristol. After a short rest here Graffenried went down to London by horseback. Generally in all of his travels now, he traveled alone and in small groups and stayed off the main path. Graffenried was hoping that the Duke of Beaufort, who was the First Lord Proprietor of North Carolina, might intervene with Queen Anne on his behalf. But Queen Anne died 1 Aug 1713. Though some of Graffenried's confusing statements (especially with regards to the timing of events) imply he was in London before her death, it seems more likely that it was after her death. Another statement of his is, "Because the winter is troublesome to travel in and I could not accomplish anything in London I was in a hurry to go home."
We gratefully acknowledge the work of John Blankenbaker who published over 2,500 Germanna History Notes via the Germanna-L@rootsweb.com email list from 1997 to 2008. We are equally thankful to George Durman (Sgt. George) for hosting the list and republishing the notes via rootsweb.com.