*[Morgen soll es scheien.]
The first group of colonists at Roanoke in 1585 included many men of advanced skills and learning. Some have compared it to scientific expeditions of a later era. One of these men was Joachim Ganz, a metallurgist born in Prague. He was invited because earlier explorations had discovered copper ore. The copper was plentiful and readily workable. It was brought to the attention of the English because the Native Americans wore ornaments of copper. It remained to be determined what the quality of the copper was and whether it might also contain silver and gold.
A primary objective of the First Colony was to locate and extract valuable metals for the investors and Queen Elizabeth. Though there was some doubt as to whether gold and silver were to be found north of the southern Americas, the demonstrated riches there were enough inspiration to inspire a search in the north. In the pursuit of this, men of all races, religions, and national origins were recruited for their knowledge of locating and extracting ores.
One group of these men, who were called the mineral men, contained metallurgists and miners. A leading man in this group was Dougham Gannes, also called Joachim Ganz, a Jewish expert from Prague who had been involved in the locating and working of copper mines in England. By the standards of that day he was considered to be “Dutch” or German. Ganz/Gannes was to find and test the metals that were to make everyone’s fortune.
To become the permanent governor of Virginia, Raleigh had to establish an enduring colony before his patent from Queen Elizabeth expired in 1590. A profitable mine and smelter would put Raleigh’s colony on a self-supporting basis and assure its continuity. The Queen expected to receive a fifth part of all gold and silver that was found.
Already England has felt the lack of knowledgeable people to locate and extract metal ores. For this reason, they had imported many workers from the continent who were more advanced than they, the English, were. Considerable success had been achieved by these foreign workers in England, but the pressure to succeed in America was much higher. They were to search for gold and silver and to determine the quality of the copper. Possibly this might contain precious metals.
Ironically, a metal which was known to exist, iron, would have profited England more than gold and silver but this was ignored in the first years.
*[Tomorrow it is supposed to snow.]
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.