There is, in the possession of the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation, as a part of the Francis Nicholson Papers, an anonymous letter written to "His Excellency". The document was found by Andreas and you may view an image of the original, plus a transcription, at http://www.pastportal.com/Archive/Manuscripts/Html/M4304406.htm . I will paraphrase selections from the letter here.
The writer, in the fall or summer of 1721, wrote that on the surface the differences between the Governor [Spotswood] and the Council and Assembly were made up. [The Board of Trade in London had sent William Byrd home with a message to all that unless these differences were ironed out that everyone would be out of a job.] The Governor is very eager to carry on his new designs at Germanna, which his enemies call a monopoly, and hence they hold this against him. And they envy him his view of making himself a very great man. In any case, they have a large field to exercise their opinions against him.
He represents to the Lords of Trade how advantageous it would be to secure those passes through the mountains, but his enemies say he has only his private interest in mind by improving that part of Virginia wherein he has so great an estate and the prospect of a much greater one. The Indian Trading Company is entirely dissolved and the horses sold. A new one is projected on a different basis.
Christianah [sic] Fort is the most southerly of those two passes and is as much talked of as Germanna is for the northerly pass. He is building a very fine house there and encouraging all sorts of people to move there. It is a regularly laid out town. The governor leaves no means unturned of improving this part of the country and uses every means possible toward that end. No pains are spared to let the people of the maritime parts of Virginia know that it is to their advantage to improve the inland parts and provide protection against the Indians, Spaniards, and French.
The iron mines are said to be good and a petition has been sent home for liberty to manufacture iron in Virginia, for what has been sent so far has gone home in pigs [according the Custom House in England, no pig iron had been shipped from Virginia at this time]. The governor is busy acquiring land and wants to obtain more. Everyone is expecting that a settlement so far to the west will be able to command the Indian trade at their pleasure.
[Thom tells me that the proper spelling of the southern fort is Christanna, see the previous note. Think of it as Christ + Anna, where Anna is for Queen Anne.]
(20 Nov 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.