Part VII: But some Virginia watch-dog of the treasury had seen through Spottswood's scheme of building habitations for his miners at public expense and filed written charges against him with the Board of Trade in London. The Board ordered the Governor to answer the charges. He did so under date of February 7, 1715 (1716). These answers tell so much about the Germanna colony that they are quoted from liberally (Spottswood's Letters, Vol. II, p. 193). "Query 3. Whether ye Governor under pretense of guarding the frontiers by building two forts, one at the head of the James River (the French colony at Mainkintown) the other of Rappahanock River, at the great charge and expense of the country, and only to support two private interests in both of which he is principally concerned, is not guilty of a high misdemeanor and breach of his oath, and of his Majesty's royal instructions, against his being concerned in trade." The Governor says (Spottswoods letters, Vol. II, p. 196) " . . . As to the other settlement named Germanna there are about 40 Germans men women and children, who have quitted their country upon the invitation of Herr Graffenried, and being grievously disappointed by his failure to perform his engagements to them, and they arriving also here just at a time when the Tuscaruro Indians departed from the treaty, they had made with this government to settle in its Northern frontiers, I did both in compassion to these poor strangers and in regard to the safety of the country place them together upon a piece of land several miles without the inhabitants, where I have built them habitations and subsisted them until they were able by their own labor to provide for themselves, and I presume I may without a crime or misdemeanor endeavor to put them in an honest way of paying their just debts." Querry 15 (Ibid, Vol. II, page 215): "Whether the Gov'r denying to his Majesty's subjects to take up land, and at the same time gave leave or order to another person to take up 12,000 acres to be patented in the name of Wm. Robinson, to his own private use, and leasing the same to ye Germans (not permitting them to take ye same up to their own use) at such rents as shall be agreed upon between the said Governor and ye Germans is not arbitrary illegal and oppressing his Majesty's subjects, and a breach of his Majesty's royal instructions." The Governor answers: (ibid, p. 217) "I have frequently mentioned how the Germans came to be settled on this land, and 'tis well known that when they arrived in this country, they were so far from being able to undergo the charge of taking the land for themselves that they had not wherewithall to subsist, so that besides the expense of � 150 for their transportation, they are still indebted for near two years charge of subsisting them. I cannot therefore imagine myself guilty of any oppression by placing them as tenants on my own land, when if I had pursued the common methods of the country, instead of being my tenants, they might have been my servants for 5 years. "Nor are the Germans insensible of the favor I have done them. . . The terms upon which the Germans are settled will not appear very like oppression seeing they have lived for 2 years upon this land, without paying any rent at all and that all which is demanded of them for the future, is no more than 12 days work a year for each household, which is not so much as rent for their houses, without any land, would have cost in any other part of the country . . . There are not 12,000 acres, but 1,200." This is a fine case of special pleading on the part of the Governor, to cover up the public money spent on the Germans, to hide the iron scheme, and to throw the blame of the coming of the Germans on de Graffenried, but we will forgive him because he tells us so much about 'Our Colony." It consisted of "forty persons men women and children" and it will be remembered, that de Graffenried's colony consisted of "40 miners." They are the people de Graffenried had invited over, and whose passage Spottswood had agreed to pay and he had paid it to the extent of � 150. They had been at Germanny nearly 2 years when this answer was written in February 1716, and we know that "Our Colony" reached VA between March 15 and April 28, 1714, and we will shortly see this date confirmed from another source. The identity seems complete. We see further that these people had not been sold as servants, as had so often been stated, they were tenants on the Governor's land at Germanna, rendering a rent. It is undoubtedly true that some of the later-coming German colonists to VA were sold as servants to pay their passage money, but "Our Colony" - the first German colony to come to VA, the Germanna colony - was always free and always had the care and assistance of the Governor. But where is Germanna? Or rather where was it? For this famous town of Governor Spottswood; the first German settlement in VA; the first county town of Spottsylvania County; where St. George's Parish was organized and its first church built; where the first iron furnace in America was built and the first pig iron made, as Spottswood claimed; the place from which the famous expedition of "the Knights of the Golden Horseshoe" started; where the first German Reformed congregation in the US was organized, its first pastor settled, and its first service held - is no more. In Civil War times it was only a ford in the river; it is now forgotten. Take your map of VA, and in the extreme northeastern corner of Orange County on a horseshoe peninsula of about 400 acres, with the Rapidan to the north, west and east of it, was the site of this famous town. Here "Our Colony" was located in the summer of 1714 ostensibly to protect the frontier from Indians, in reality to work iron mines for the Governor on his lands, near at hand, and to make iron for him. Col. Wm. Byrd locates Germanna, in his "History of the Dividing Line," in 1732, Vol. II, p. 53: "The river winds in the form of a horseshoe about Germanna, making it a peninsula containing about 400 acres. Rappahanak forks about 14 miles below this place." Both branches of the river were formerly called Rappahannock, the southern branch is now called Rapidan. (To be continued)