The Palatine Emigration. , 123 



Kohl, the German traveler, in 1840, regretted that he 

 could not personally visit this colony, but says they have 

 not lost the German character for good honor and honora- 

 ble dealing. They are much wealthier and better off than 

 any of their neighbors. And Mr. Kohl argues that their 

 prosperity notwithstanding they are subject to the same 

 laws and influences as the native Irish, would seem to de- 

 cide that it is not merely to the tyranny and bad govern- 

 ment of the English, that the misery of those around them 

 is to be attributed. 



At least 75 families of those who settled in Ireland 

 returned to London and were sent elsewhere. And 

 for several years numbers of them emigrated to Penn- 

 sylvania. 1 



The next party of emigrants of whom we have definite 

 information were a company of 700 persons who settled on 

 the Cape Fear and Neuse rivers in North Carolina. Christo- 

 pher De Graffenried and Lewis Michell were attempting, 

 about this time, to mend their fortunes by purchasing 

 lands in some of the British colonies. Michell had been 

 several years in America and had obtained some knowledge 

 of the country. In April, 1709, the lords proprietors of 

 Carolina had agreed with those gentlemen that ten thou- 

 sand acres of land should be laid off for them in one body 

 between the Neuse and Cape Fear rivers. Mr. De Graffen- 

 ried made the purchase and was created baron. Michell 

 had originally been employed by the canton of Bern in 

 Switzerland to search for land in Pennsylvania, Virginia or 

 Carolina, to which they might send a colony. Bern had de- 

 sisted from the project. 2 This company having secured the 

 lands, wished to make them productive by settling them 

 with tenants ; and the poor Palatines presented themselves 

 ^s an object of speculation. 



1 JRupp's Berks County. 



1 Williamson's North Carolina. 



