Abstract:
This is a reprint of correspondence between the Ritter Company, Franz (or Frantz) Ludwig Michel, and others in the projected Swiss and Palatine colonies. The letters date between 1703 and 1708 which predate Christoph Baron von Graffenried's expedition to North Carolina by about 10 years. According to Schutz's introduction, the letters address the period in which Michel was sent to North Carolina by the Canton of Bern to find a tract of land for Swiss settlement and later negotiated for the Canton of Bern and the Ritter Company, a silver mining and Swiss Anabaptist settlement venture, to acquire land in North Carolina and Virginia.