When our First Colony people landed in Virginia, what was the first thing that they did? Probably, they had a thanksgiving church service and prayer meeting. Apparently the survival rate had been very good. So, after the unpleasantness of the trip, they were thankful to be on land again.
Where did they land? Since the Captain was to collect one hundred and fifty Pounds of money from Lt. Gov. Alexander Spotswood, he probably went to where he would expect to find Spotswood. (The captain had no guarantee that Spotswood would pay the one and fifty pounds, and, if Spotswood declined, the captain would have sought other purchasers of the Germans' services.) Since the most likely place to find the Governor was at the Capital, the ship probably landed close to Williamsburg.
Spotswood had a general plan, and a specific plan, and the Germans fit in very nicely. The general plan was to settle them on the frontier as a barrier to the Indians. He had formulated this plan in 1712 when Graffenried was looking for a place where he could relocate the remnants of his North Carolina colony. Spotswood saw that "foreign Protestants" could be very useful on the frontier. It would open up land for development and would provide some protection. He had asked the Board of Trade in London about this idea, but it seems as if they had never answered him; however, the plan remained in Spotswood's mind.
The specific plan was to have the Germans work on the purported silver mine. The choice of a location for building Fort Germanna satisfied both of his objectives. It opened new territory for development, and it was relatively close to the silver mine. Of course, he described the plan to the Council with an emphasis on the security of the frontier. They, in turn, allowed the expenditure of the money from the coffers of the colony to build Fort Germanna and to equip it with modest arms. (In colonial Virginia, it is doubtful that there were any secrets. The Council probably had at least an inkling of Spotswood's private motives.)
Since the Germans fit in very nicely, Spotswood paid the transportation money. It was now necessary to get the Germans to the site of Fort Germanna, and to build the fort. Of course, most of the labor for building the fort was going to be supplied by the Germans. They would need guidance on how to do it. And they would need transportation to the site of the fort. The cheapest and best transportation would be water as much as possible.
(08 Oct 03)
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.