Von Graffenried met Luis Michel, who claimed to know the location of silver ore in Virginia and owned land in the New World. He told von Graffenried what glorious places Carolina and Virginia were, and he advised him to move to Carolina. With the idea of paying off his debts and making money on the cheap land of Carolina, he left his debts to his father and secretly departed for London to make arrangements to move to the New World. When in London, he met with explorer John Lawson, who was publishing a book entitled "A Voyage to Carolina". Lawson was the Surveyor General of Carolina. Lawson promised to show von Graffenried and his settlers a perfect place to establish a community. In 1709, von Graffenried next met with the Lords Proprietors of Carolina, who granted to him ten thousand acres (40 km²) on the Neuse and Cape Fear Rivers. They also gave him the title Baron of Bernberg, after the colony he was supposed to found.