Going back to Germany (Siegen) was not a course of action that the Germans preferred. They had closed out their lives there and at the moment they were without a country. When Graffenried was not very helpful in solving the problems, they decided that they hire themselves out as servants for four years in America to pay their transportation. Graffenried took the negative opinion that no ships would be leaving for America until spring and the Germans would have to support themselves for several months. But the Germans' determination roused him to action even though he claimed it caused him a lot of trouble and pain.
First, he found them jobs working on a great dike. But a heavy rain came and all was overturned. So he had to search elsewhere to find jobs for some of them. Graffenried was very anxious to go home, fearing a voyage in winter and feeling an attack of gout. He mentions at another point that some of his creditors were in England and he may have been as scared of meeting them as anything.
He worked on the transportation problem of the Germans also. He approached two powerful merchants of Virginia and a "Lord of distinction" to whom he had been recommended by Spotswood, and who had a knowledge of the mines. This might have been Lord Orkney who owned a sixteenth of the silver mine, or it might have been Col. Blakiston who was working with Spotswood on the royal share of the mines. In the German version of the story, Blakiston is clearly mentioned as helping even though he was hardly a "Lord."
The final arrangement was that the Germans would pool their money and the merchants would advance one hundred and fifty pounds sterling for the balance of the transportation costs. When they landed in Virginia, they were to become servants of Spotswood, working for him for four years. Spotswood did not know, until the Germans were on the sea headed for Virginia, that he had bought the services of the Germans. He would pay the ship's captain who would reimburse the merchants in London who had advanced the original money.
Blakiston must have been instrumental in suggesting these arrangements. He knew that Spotswood had a mine and was very anxious to get started in working it. Blakiston probably thought this was a good opportunity to procure the labor and tools. He must have felt that the question of the royal share would be solved soon.
When the arrangements were in place, both Blakiston and Graffenried wrote to Spotswood and told him that the Germans would be arriving in Virginia and that he would have to pay their transportation charges. Graffenried was very apologetic in his letter, for he had no authority to do the action in which he participated. Even Blakiston had no authority but he had been working with Spotswood on the mines and may have felt like a partner even though he had no share of the mine. The Germans may have been nervous about this as they set sail not knowing whether Spotswood would pay the balance of their transportation charges when they arrived.
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.