In 1607, Englishmen established at Jamestown, Virginia, the first permanent English colony in what is today the United States. It has been described as "the birthplace of the United States of America."' Continent.al European craftsmen arrived at Jamestown one year later. Capt. John Smith wrote that "eight Dutch-men and Poles"^ arrived ca. Oct. 1, 1608, with the Second Supply under Capt. Christopher Newport. Smith said that these eight were sent by the parent Virginia Company of London "to make Pitch, Tar, Glasse, Milles, and Sope ashes."* Nova Britannka, published in 1609, reiterates most of this information: "And for the making of Pitch, Tarre, Turpentine, Sope-ashes, Deale, Wainscott, and such like, wee have alreadie provided and sent thither skillfull workemen from forraine parts."Smith did not reveal who among the eight foreigners was to make which product; therefore, we have to take a closer look at each. Pitch and tar refer to "naval stores." Soap ashes are for making lye used in making soap. Glass is self evident, but what is "milles," and who was to make it? According to the Oxford English Dictionary, milles refers to the products of a mill. Wainscot refers to wooden paneling for rooms. Deal is planks. Capt. Newport's returning ship is said to have carried clapboard and wainscot."* 1 believe that milles, the product of a mill (such as a saw mill), referred to such related wood products as wainscot, clapboard and planks. But who among the eight Continental Europeans at Jamestown made these wood products?
Mineral expens from Germany played an important role in helping to establish or modernize the English mineral and metal industry under Queen Elizabeth I. German mineral specialists accompanied Martin Frobisher, the seeker after the Northwest Passage, in 1577 and 1578. At least one accompanied Sir Humphrey Gilbert when he tried to establish the first English colony in the New World in 1583. Joachim Gans, a German Jew from Prague, took part in the first English settlement in what is today the United States. It was established in 1585 under Sir Walter Raleigh in an area the settlers called Virginia and we know today as the Outer Banks of North Carolina. David B. Quinn, the world authority on this colony, believes that it included also a group of German miners. Samuel Eliot Morison states that German miners in addition to Gans were present in this settlement. German Mineral Experts in EnglandThe first English explorers and colonizers eagerly sought metals such as gold, silver and copper. Within Elizabeth's domain, immigrants from Germany were among those deemed most versed in locating and working minerals. According to A H istory o f Technology, by "the middle of the sixteenth century Germany led Europe in the praaice of mining and metallurgy."' "Germany was the great school of metallurgy for the rest of Europe," declares the Jo u rn al o f Chem ical Education, "and it was due to the wise foresight of Queen Elizabeth that German workers were invited to England to instruct her subjects in this art."^ According to British historian William Rees:
European scientists took an early interest in the natural resources of English America. Two scientists had taken part in the first, unsuccessful Engfish settlement in 1585-86 of what is today the United States. Thomas Hariot, an English mathematician and astronomer, had described the flora and fauna along the coast of North Carolina and the Chesapeake Bay in his ^4 im efeand true report ofth e new fou n d land ofVirginia. Joachim C ans, a German Jew from Prague, had been the scientist at what National G eographic Magazine called "Colonial A m erica's First Science Center" at their
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