[From The Official Letters of Alexander Spotswood . . .]
to the Council of Trade, 8 February 1712 (NS),
“The Baron de Graffenried being obliged, while he was a prisoner among the Indians, to conclude a Neutrality for himself and his Palatines, lives as yet undisturbed by the Heathen, but is sufficiently persecuted by the people of Carolina for not breaking with the Indians, though [they] will afford him neither provisions of War or Victuals nor Assistance from them. He has always declared his readiness to enter into a War as soon as he should be assisted to prosecute it, but it would be madness in him to expose his handfull of people to the fury of the Indians, without some better assurance of help than the present confusions in that province gives him reason to hope for . . . that he has made some efforts to remove the Palatines to this Colony upon some of her Majesty's Lands; and since such a number of people as he may bring with him, with what he proposes to invite over from Swisserland and Germany, will be of great advantage to this Country and prove a strong Barrier against the incursions of the Indians if they were properly disposed above our Inhabitants. I pray your Lordships' directions what encouragement ought to be given to their design, either as to the quantity of Land or the terms of granting it.”
[Already in early 1712, Spotswood is proposing to settle Germans on the frontiers as a barrier to the Indians. It is also to be noted that Graffenried proposes to bring more Germans and Swiss come to America. In fact, a fellow employee of George Ritter and Company, Johann Justus Albrecht, is recruiting at this time in Nassau-Siegen.]
to the Council of Trade, 8 May 1712
“According to what I had the honor to write to Your Lordships in my last, The Baron de Graffenried is come hither with a design to settle himself and several Swiss families in the fforks of the Potomack [i.e., the forks of the Shenandoah], but when he expected to have held his Land there of her Majesty, he now finds Claims made to it both by the Proprietors of Maryland and Northern Neck.”
[Graffenried was especially interested in the "Forks of the Potomack" because his associate, Franz Louis Michel, had spent many months exploring the Shenandoah Valley in the years around 1706, and he thought he had found silver there. Graffenried was expecting to use the Swiss and Germans in founding a colony there and in mining silver. The exploration by Michel was several years in advance of Spotswood's two day visit to the Shenandoah Valley. Furthermore, Michel left a reasonably good map of the Valley which had been transmitted to London in 1707. Still, the different proprietors and the Crown could not say for certain who had the rights in the Forks.]
(02 Sep 04)
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