I made a bad mistake in the last paragraph of Note 512. It should be replaced with the following one:
The voyage to England took six weeks and they landed at Bristol. After a short rest here he went down to London by horseback. Generally in all of his travels now, he traveled alone or 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. While some of Graffenried's confusing statements (especially with regards to the timing of events) imply he was in London after her death (which occurred 1 Aug 1714), he was in London only in the fall of 1713. A 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."
As an after thought to his description of his London stay, Graffenried adds, "Meanwhile I cannot omit to relate that when I reached London I was shocked to learned that Mr. J. Justus Albrecht with some forty miners had arrived. This caused me not a little pain, worry, vexation and expense, since these people had come there so blindly, thinking to find everything necessary for their support and their transportation to the American mines." So, Graffenried continues his theme that their presence was not his fault.
Graffenried had to admit that he had hardly enough money for his own needs and could not help them. He says that the Germans thought that on account of the treaty, he was under an obligation to look out for them. Furthermore, they claimed to have come at his command. Graffenried says that he had written to them often from America that they should not come without his express orders. He claimed that he had warned them of the problems caused by the Indians and the failure of Michel to show the mines. He did admit writing to them, that if the chief miner (Albrecht), and one or two others wanted to take a look, they could come. In the end, Graffenried blames Albrecht for going about it in this "thoughtless way".
From the present and with a scarcity of documents, it is hard to say why the Germans were in London. Did Graffenried not admit to the real truth of what he wrote? Was Albrecht overly eager? Or were the Germans anxious? The initial contact with them had been made three years earlier. It is clear that the Germans, though they apparently paid their own way to London, thought that the George Ritter and Company enterprise was going to pay their way to America. Albrecht, in his recruiting efforts, had probably made this point. But where did the idea originate that now was the time to go? Did Graffenried write confusing statements to them? Albrecht was certainly a promoter and did he feel that this was the best way of getting something going?
Graffenried wrote, "What was now to be done? I knew nothing better than to direct these people back home again."
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.