Christoph von Graffenried's Account of the Founding of New Bern
edited by Vincent H. Todd, Ph.D.

ENGLISH TRANSLATION OF GERMAN VERSION

REPORT TO GEORG RITTER COMPANY

Carolina, Newburn, May 6, 1711.

Gentlemen:

I wonder through whom the 100£ sterling shall be paid at New Castle, because Mr. Wray gives me no notice of it.

You tell us that we in Carolina should try to do something on credit. Enough has already been done. Indeed we had to use all our credit to get the necessaries of life and stock for a year, if we did not want to die of hunger with the whole colony; for ill-fortune will have it that we found the government at our arrival in the greatest confusion because of the death of the Governor. When I wished to bring the Receiver-General to keep that which the Lords Proprietors had promised he resigned. Since the Lieutenant Governor, and Colonel Cary will accept neither the new Governor Hyde nor any of the Lords Proprietors’ new officers, I have not found the slightest assistance upon the side of the Lords Proprietors and of the government. If an honorable well-to-do man, Colonel Pollock and another, had not assisted us, we should have been compelled, as said before, to die of hunger. So I was compelled to get everything from him and others upon notes, and these provisions had to be for a year long, that is, until the coming December; for the neighboring islands which are in great want of food buy the corn before it is ripe in the field. So then this business needs a good heart, good friends, and good credit; and if I had not been a land-grave so that I could sit in the Court and Upper House of Parliament, which give me authority and credit, we should have had to die.

Thus you see Gentlemen, in passing, that the jealousy in regard to these titles of honor, which indeed bring in nothing, is not well founded; but rather this position of honor procures the colony advantage and benefit. It might be objected that it causes great expenses and ceremony. For this reason I have not even a livery coat in the procession. I live as poorly as the least private individual, as you can well hear from others.

Regarding the mines; It is true that you are under obligation to Fr. Michel for looking for and discovering them. But if I had not been present at the first negotiation nothing would have come of it, and Mr. Penn would do and conclude nothing, unless it were signed by me.

Regarding my difficulties and pains, there is much to be said about them. Speaking of recompence, even if I can be recompenced for the danger to my life, unspeakable cares, and affronts which have already come to me because of the lack of needed assistance, and if I were, on account of the protestation of my notes to expect it, there is, in truth, none big enough and none good enough for me. I should do better to claim none. The best recompense would be to pull me forthwith out of this difficult labyrinth; it will be to your advantage and my own.

Since you announce that probably all of you will come to this country, I am glad. I could wish that you had been here from the beginning, and were here still. Then you could see whether everything goes so easily, and with so little to do with. You would also have been compelled to take your share in this great complaint, toil, anxiety, and vexation, instead of all this resting upon me.

To make a day-book of occurrences will not be entirely a pastime because until now little of anything pleasant, but many vexations have occurred.

A journal or table of the expenses of the past is hardly to be made so very exactly, especially where Fr. Michael has acted. But in the future more regularity will be observed.

If you should not come so very soon, it will be well to send here a young honest burgher who understands book-keeping. The English are entirely too expensive. They ask 50£ sterling a year. As far as the others are concerned, whether they are tenants or artisans, we will wait until the general peace is made, but there is need of a pastor and a book-keeper. They could come this next autumn, that is, in October or November, with the Virginia Fleet. Care must be taken to conclude and negotiate everything there, for when they get here they immediately become puffed up, want to be masters themselves. But if I would give high wages I could not get a man- or woman-servant into my service. Tenants and servants must be hired at Bern, as also all sorts of artisans. Here is the answer to all the articles of the letter.

Now I will report upon the condition of affairs here, upon the situation and productiveness of the land, in a few words; deferring the rest till my vexed and disturbed mind is in a quieter frame. And so I send to you only a map made in haste and quite plain. The situation of the city could not be finer, more cheerful, and convenient. So also the whole colony touches upon it; and all the settlements lie side by side, and all lie along the water in such a way that at one place one can come up from the sea and on the other back into it again and go only six or eight miles by land. I do not believe that there has been a finer colony planted in the world, that is regarding the situation. It continues thus as far as the River Clarendon or Cape Fear. It is certain that in a few years, under the blessing of God, this colony will greatly increase. The land is excellent and good; corn, rice, hemp, flax, turnips, beets, beans, peas, all sorts of garden produce, and tree-fruits grow well. I know of few in our country that one cannot have here. Wild grapes are very abundant and yield especially well. I do not doubt that one could make them tame and plant others, just as has been commenced already.

In the way of drink, even if one does not yet have wine, they generally make a very pleasant, healthful, and cheap beer of molasses, which is a juice of sugar, and sassafras, a little dried wheat, corn, or only cherries. Others make beer of figs, quinces, mulberries, a kind of red medlar, and other things beside.

Wild game and fish are all in abundance. All sorts of good meat can be gotten by the way of the sea. Small cattle increases, costs nothing to keep winter or summer; so that if one has only a little to invest, he can, in a few years, own many hundreds, and the trade in them goes well.

The general trade is exceedingly good, but everything goes by barter. Of money there is none at hand, except in the South Island and the lands which the Spaniards and Dutch possess. But in these countries one receives it for wares. The wares which are disposed of there are indigo, certain spices, sugar, rum, molasses, (both of these made from sugar afford us a delicious brandy), rice, hides, and skins. Tanners of furs are much needed for the skins of the wild and tame animals, feathers and down. N. B. Upon these rivers are swans, geese, and ducks by the millions. Wild turkeys are in great numbers.

Regarding the climate; it is tolerably good and healthy, not so exceedingly warm as supposed. June, July, and August are hot, yet there blows occasionally a cool wind. The rest of the time of the year is tolerably temperate. In the beginning one must pay the tribute of a fever.

Regarding the Indians, they are not to be feared if one makes a league with them, which we have already solemnly done. At first they were hostile to us because they were incited to it by jealous traders, but everything is now quiet.

The government is well appointed, but the good ordinances and laws are badly executed. Everything, as I said, at my coming was in great confusion, to my great harm. But it is now better; only the revenues to which I had claims are gone because the Lieutenant Governor Cary wanted to assume the whole government. But he, whom I had put into jail through the new governor and council, broke out of his confinement and has become a fugitive. Before this he sold everything and took the proceeds with him. This man with two more has made such a rebellion that I had to come to the aid of the government with our people. For this cause I repeat that I was in great extremity from the failure in the execution of good ordinances and laws; for because of the situation, on account of its being in a new land, it would have been all topsy-turvy if I had proceeded differently, since I had to give the Royal Committee security for 5000£ sterling on account of these people. If in the beginning when I saw that everything was failing, I had left these poor people in the lurch and had retired elsewhere, or had let them die of hunger, I should have lost the five thousand pounds and should have been hanged without mercy; and where would my conscience have been as I did it? Could I do differently than I did? It is still a great thing that in a wild country, where, strange to say, I have no friends or acquaintances, I have so much credit that I have received everything which was really necessary. Now it is a question of how to work myself out of this labyrinth that I may not come to disgrace, and we all be compelled to lose together; for I am fearful of being arrested because of the protestation of the notes, and Colonel Pollock, as the strictest creditor, could take possession of everything, a procedure which would do us all irreparable damage and cause the greatest disgrace and destroy the whole country, for they would certainly run away from it.

So I find no better means than to look for eight more associates at the least, if possible more, at 300£ each to be paid in, or four or more at 600£ each. If we wanted to do something in trade we should double our money, but this might be postponed for a good while. But these notes must be paid directly, cost whatever it will. So it seems to me on this point, that one more experiment would be good; that is, if the Company would go to my father, speak to him about an obligation and the investment of the whole amount from his money which he has in the bank in London, 2000£. There will still remain to him a considerable portion, and this would not discommode him at all. But if this trial is not successful, I should know nothing better than to call upon my Lords, giving them the same security. N. B. This is to be remarked along with it, that these are not lost debts, which have been squandered and are not to be gotten back, but at the end of three years all will be replaced with profits. The especial account I will make this summer; this time only in general.