Wilmington, Delaware - History (part 3 of 7)

"I, the undersigned, promise and swear, in the presence of the Omniscient and Omnipotent Cod, that T will be faithful and obedient unto the Stales General of the United Netherlands, the Director General and his Council, present and future, and remain without aiding in any hostile enterprise or sedition, either in words or deeds against the same, but will conduct myself as a faithful and obedient subject so long as I remain in this South river in the New Netherlands. So help me Almighty God."

Campanius says, the Dutch proceeded from Christina to New Gottenburg, the late residence of Governor Print/, on Tinicum, and laid waste all the houses and plantations, without the fort, killing the cattle, and plundering the inhabitants, &c. &c. But this is unquestionably erroneous. The Dutch had no motive for such destructive cruelty, the country was now theirs by a formal surrender, and they were bound by their treaty at Christina, to protect the inhabitants who chose to remain in it, which obligation, there is no evidence to prove that they ever violated. Besides, we know that the church was standing at Tinicum many years after the surrender to the Dutch,* and Printz-hall was standing since the commencement of the 19th century.

In the year 1755, just one hundred years after its capture by Stuyvesant, the old Fort Christina was again brought into notice, by a circumstance which is recorded by Acrelius, and which oc-

* Rudaaan, speaking of the slate of the Swedes, in relation to their religious concerns after the conquest by the Dutch, says: "The Rev. Lawrence Look was now the only remaining clergyman. He preached in the church at Tinicum, and sometimes in that of Cranehook, on the other side of the Christina Creek." Cranehook church was not built until 1667; twelve years after the surrender of Foil Gottenburg, since called Tinicum. So that at least twelve years afterwards, the church at Tinicum was standing; andRudmau informs us that the present church at Wicaco was built in part of materials brought from Tinicum, out of the old church which Governor PrintZ had erected.

Os History Of The

The fact is thus related. " On the 31st of March, 1755, on taking up, by chance, some pieces of the walls, there were found many cannon balls, granadocs, and other similar things, which had been kept carefully concealed, exactly one hundred years." These had probably been buried by Rising during the siege, and the circumstance gives ground to suppose that he expected the Swedes would regain their power on the Delaware. He published, in 1656, the year alter the capture of Fort Christina, an " Account of New Sweden," in which he endeavoured to influence the reigning monarch, Charles Gustavus of Sweden, to struggle for its recovery.

Chapter Viii

Notwithstanding the paucity of matter for history left us by Dutch and Swedish writers, yet sufficient authentic evidence, though in small and scattered fragments, is left for forming a judgment of the colonial government of the Swedes, from the accession of Printz, to the downfall of Rising ; a period embracing three-fourths of the whole term of its existence. Printz was bold, active, and persevering, but passionate and rash, as his treatment of Boyer, Iludde, and others indicates. His activity is the more wonderful, as De Vries tells us, he weighed four hundred pounds! One would suppose such an enormous weight of flesh, too oppressive to comport with much intellectual or physical energy. He was provokingly overbearing to his Dutch neighbours, giving them unnecessary cause of offence."1 He took violent possession of their lands on the Delaware and Schuylkill, almost under the guns of their fort. When they attempted to carry on their commerce with the Indians at their usual trading places, he drove them away, destroyed thei1' trading-houses, and, in offensive language, threatened to seize and confiscate their vessels. He ridiculed the Dutch claim to the country on the Delaware, scouted the idea of title by original occupancy, and declared to Commissary Hudde, that the company vainly relied on their " uninterrupted possession, that the devil was the oldest possessor of hell, but sometimes admitted a younger one ;"t using " many other vulgar expressions." 'He not only treated the company and its officers with contumely, but their authority, with contempt ; shutting up the river, " so that no vessel could enter it, on any account, except with his previous consent ; notwithstanding they had been provided with the most respectable commissions;" and, adding injury to insult, he forced them to pay toll for the privilege of passing to a territory originally discovered and settled by themselves. In fine, although Printz was an enterprising, vigilant officer, faithfully executing the orders of his government, he wanted that prudent forbearance, and conciliating temper, that would avoid collisions or allay irritation.*

When Printz returned to Sweden in 1G52, or 1G53, he left his son-in-law, John Pappegoia, as deputy governor in his place. Of his administration nothing can be said, for nothing has been transmitted to us from his cotemporaries, by which to form a judgment of bis character or government. .But negative evidence is good in such cases, for if he had done much mischief, we should, most probably, have heard of it. He returned to Sweden after governing the colony about eighteen months.

Rising was a soldier, and probably well instructed in the duties of his profession ; but he manifested more of the military character, than that of the statesman, relying more on physical force, than on a wise and prudent policy. The habit of command with the expectation of implicit obedience, may comport with the station of a military officer ; but it is apt to beget an imperious temper illy suited to the nature of civil government, and an impatience under trying circumstances, often dangerous to the country. It was, perhaps, one of the most fruitful sources of unhappiness to the Swedish emigrants, that their colonial rulers were always military characters; relying more on coercive power, than on the omnipotent influence of justice, candour, benevolence and truth.

There arc perhaps few instances in the history of the human family, where the disparity, between the character of a people and their rulers, was more apparent than in the case before us.

Sweden, by her military prowess, had risen to great eminence as a war-like nation. Her riders, confident of her power, had taken possession of a country claimed by die Dutch, without their consent or any attempt to gain it by an amicable arrangement. Their first step was aggressive, and they did not avail themselves of subsequent events, most favourable for the purpose, to acquire a just and satisfactory title to the territory. At the time when Printz was sent over, if the government had authorized a negociation upon equitable principles, there can be little doubt that the commanding position of Sweden, and the respect felt, for her as the champion of the Protestant cause, would have ensured a favourable result. But unhappily for the people, and the success of her first and only experiment at colonization in the new world, she felt power and forgot right. The colonial governors, in carrying out their instructions, were necessarily the instruments of repeated aggression on the rights of the Dutch, and they did not care to execute their commission in the most gracious manner. Printz, more especially, was arbitrary in his conduct, and offensive in his language. The people, on the other hand, during all the vicissitudes of their colonial state, were remarkable for their quiet inoffensive demeanour. After the subjugation of their colony, the Dutch were uneasy lest the Swedes, tempted by their numbers, should attempt to recover the government ; but the fear was groundless. They never manifested any disposition to revolt, but quietly submitted to their conquerors. They were industrious and peaceable, with strong religious feelings, warm domestic attachments, and great veneration for the "father-land," the manners and customs of which they retained for more than a century. Widely differing from the restless, unsettled Anglo-Saxon race, the Swedes had strong local attachments. Once comfortably settled, they aspired to no change but the improvement of their possessions. Fond of home and its quiet enjoyments, they manifested little ambition cither of wealth or distinction.* They sought the comforts rather

!are yet standing, in which generation after generation contentedly resided, until, by mixture with other races, their national character was lost.

It is remarkable that, during the whole period of the Swedish dominion on the Delaware, there is no evidence that a single human being lost his life in hostile contest, either between the Swedes and their European neighbours, or between them and the Indians! Rarely has a population composed of three distinct nations, so unlike in their customs, habits, and language, with so many conflicting interests, lived so long together without bloodshed.

The conduct of the Swedish colonists towards the Indians bordering on their settlements, was not only consonant with the requirements of truth and justice, but with the dictates of a sound and enlightened policy, as was found by happy experience. Their honesty, their kindness, their friendly deportment, disposed the Indians to peace, and on one occasion, at least, prevented a war, when war would probably have been fatal to the colony. The maintenance of such an intercourse so won their affections, that they used to call the Swedes their "own people." Campanius, speaking of the natives, says, " they are very courteous in their behaviour, and fond of obliging the Swedes. They take great pains to help them, and to prevent any harm happening to them." In this happy state, the colonists found a rich reward for their kind and noble conduct towards the poor unlettered natives. Instead of a life of terror and alarm ; of war and all its horrors ; the honest Swede could eat his bread in peace, and after the toils of the day, lay down his head in quietness, fearless of a midnight attack - undisturbed by dreams of the tomahawk and scalping knife.

How different was the lot of the New England colonics! Long and bloody wars, fearful loss of life, anxiety and bitter suffering on the one hand, and whole nations of people exterminated on the other. The just and liberal conduct of the "pil- grim fathers" of our Slate, is more honourable to their memory, than all the triumphs of the diplomatist over a simple unlettered people; or all the laurels of the warrior, won in a contest with the original and rightful owners of the land, in order to wrest from them their country and their homes.

An interesting proof of the affectionate attachment of the Indians for their old friends, the Swedes, subsequent to the conquest of their colony, is related by Campanius. In the spring of 1G56, six months after that event, a Swedish ship, called the Mercurius, which had been sent out, before the news of their loss had been received at Stockholm, arrived in the Delaware with a fresh supply of colonists. The commander at Fort Cassimir forbid the ship to pass. Whereupon a party of Indians, probably assured that the Dutch would not venture to fire at the vessel while they were on board, joined the Swedish crew, and conducted the ship by the fort, and into the Christina. The natives were not deceived in their calculations ; the commander permitted them to pass without firing a gun, or in any way molesting them.

The subjugation of the Swedes to Dutch authority, although represented by Rising as afflictive and grevious, was not, perhaps, attended by any consequences more serious than the privation of a frequent intercourse with the "father-land," by which the nation so completely lost sight of its offspring, that after a few years, when it became known at Gottenburg and Stockholm that a branch of the family, speaking the language, retaining the customs, and professing the religion of Sweden, dwelt on the banks of the Delaware, the fact was hailed with enthusiasm, and regarded as the recovery of a long lost child. Rising, who was mortified at the loss of the colony, was anxious to induce the government at Stockholm to attempt a re-conquest of the country ; he therefore laboured to make the impression in Sweden that their countrymen were maltreated and oppressed. But time is a great friend to truth, and seldom fails to lift up the veil that malice or error may throw over it. In a letter from the Swedes on the Delaware, dated 1G93, signed by thirty-six of their principal men, every one of whom, perhaps, knew the truth of what lie assorted, they say, "since this country has ceased to lie under the government of Sweden, we are bound to acknowledge and declare, for the sake of truth, that we have been well and kindly treated, as well by the Dutch, as by his majesty the King of England." - "We have always had over us good and gracious magistrates, and we live in the greatest union, amity, and peace with each other."*

The war that had just closed, was the war of a trading company for therecovcry of its trade. The Dutch desired to govern just so far as government contributed to the promotion and prolection of their trade, and no further. Land might be had any where for taking it up, and satisfying the Indian claim. As a means of raising the necessaries of life, the company cared little about it. They would encourage agriculture, so far as it contributed directly to commerce ; and if that encouragement depended on the easy acquisition of land, the company would lay no restriction in the way of those who wanted it. The only deeds they gave the Swedes for real estate, were evidently deeds of confirmation, to satisfy some old occupants near Christina : two for plantations, and one for a mill, built in the vicinity, and used to grind com for the garrison.! Many such deeds are yet in existence, given under the English administration, by Lord Lovelace. The great object of the company was to monopolize the trade, not to oppress the people ; and it is much to be doubted whether, with a population, such as was then scattered along the creeks and inlets of the Delaware, they could have done so, if inclined to severity.^

* Campanius, p. 91. The Swedes were an agricultural people, they do not seem ever to have been inclined to commerce. Wm. Perm says, "the Dutch applied themselves to traffic, the Swedes and Finns to husbandry." Proud, vol. 1, p. 260. The tyrannical restrictions afterwards imposed on trade, under the Duke of York, did not much affect the Swedes . they were far more severely felt by the Dutch.

J When Governor A 1 rich, about 1658, by his avarice and severity, offended the people, they soon put themselves out of his power, by moving over the line into Maryland, and Stuyvesant was glad to get them back by persuasion. Acrelins, p. -122.

The war now brought to an issue by the vigorous hand of Stuyvesant, was in many respects a singular one. It was for the government and trade of a territory now including two of the sovereign independent States of the Federal Union. It was waged by the most powerful fleet and army that had ever been engaged in North America. It was prosecuted by a skilful, experieneed general ;* and finally closed by a victory without the loss of a single victim on either side.

In the following year, 1G56, the colony on the Delaware was strengthened by a number of families who removed to it from New Amsterdam, at which time the Governor General and his council gave seventy-five deeds for land, chiefly for lots in the town of New Amstel, just then beginning to assume the character of a village. This was the commencement of the beautiful town of New Castle. The government issued orders to the new settlers at this time removing to the territory, that for the sake of safety, sixteen or twenty families should settle together. Migrating from the north river, where the Indians had been provoked to rctalite the wanton cruelties of the whites, they removed to the Delaware with a dread of the natives, which their new position did not call for. The orders were only observed round Fort Cassimir, where it suited the Dutch emigrants ; nearly all of whom removed with the view of establishing a place of trade. " The Dutch," says Acrelius, " did not mind agriculture."!

When Stuyvesant left the Delaware, after (he conquest, he deputed Deryk Smidt, as commissary pro. fern, over the settlements; but immediately on his arrival at New Amsterdam, he issued a commission dated Nov. 29th, 1G55, to Joiiax Paul Jaquet, constituting him governor.! His duty was to superintend the affairs of trade, and preserve order among the people.

All the country on the west side of the Delaware was divided into two colonics ; one of which included Fort Christina, and the land immediately around it, and extended from Christina riverdown [to Bambo-Hook. This was called " the colony of the company." The other extended from the north boundary of the company's colony, up the Delaware to the extent of the settlement, and was called "the colony of tiic city." It belonged to the city of Amsterdam,* and was governed by the Burgomasters and council of that city, through Peter Stuyvesant and his council. Before the erection of Fort Cassimir, in 1651, all business was transacted in the name of "the States General, and the West India Company" jointly. Now their concerns were divided. Lands lying within the territory of the city, were conveyed in Amsterdam, by the Burgomasters and council ; deeds for those within the limits of the company, were executed by directors and commissaries. To the small (own now creeling on Sandhook, near Fort Cassimir, was given the name of New Amslel ; the land on Christina was called Alton a.

In the early part of 1657, according to the present mode of computing time, sundry curious municipal regulations were established at New Amstcl. All lots were to be fenced before the middle of March, under a penalty of six gyllen. Goats to be guarded by herdsmen, or all damages done by them to be satisfied. No one to enter the fort by land or water without leave. None to settle between Fort Cassimir and Christina, that the wood might be saved for the use of the town and fort. All swine to be yoked within twenty-four hours, or be killed by the soldiers.

By these regulations it appears that the Dutch had yet no idea of strengthening their colonies by the presence of an extended and vigorous population. They were probably more in fear that such a community would intermeddle with the company's trade among the Indians, than in hope of support from it, in time of clanger. Present gain seems to have closed their eyes to future evils, and blinded them to the tact that a very extensive fertile country could not be long retained for the benefit of a mere trading company.

The Dutch had now been on our shores almost fifty years, and had yet a meager population ; the New England colonies, not yet of forty years standing, were swarming with inhabitants, and already driving the Dutch from their trading places. While the whole country was covered with timber, the beautiful territory lying between Wilmington and New Castle was destined to remain a wilderness, that a petty fort, and a little village, both on tide water, might not suffer for want of fire-wood !

On the 20th April, 1057, Jaquet was dismissed from his office, and Jacob Alhicii was appointed governor, to preside over the colony of the city. His commission was executed December 19th, 1056, by the Burgomasters and Council in Amsterdam. He fixed his residence at the town of New Arastel.

Over the Swedes, Goeran Van Dyke was appointed inspector, with the Dutch title of Schout Fiscal. They were not to be permitted to remain in the forts during night, and a watchful eye was to be kept on them, that any who might be found seditious, should immediately be sent to New Amsterdam. By proclamation, dated June 12th, 1057, the governor invited them to gather into one settlement, and erect a town at either of the following places, now known by the names of Marcus-Hook, Chester, Kingsessing, or Passyunk, or where they pleased. They did not accede to the invitation, preferring their old settlements and associations.

On the 2Sth October, 105S, William Beekmah, an alderman of the city of Amsterdam, was appointed vice-governor over " the colony of the company" to reside at Altona, now Wilmington ; from whence were written all his letters, forming at this time a valuable collection of authentic documents, preserved among the records of the Stale of New York, at Albany. He administered the affairs of the company, commanded the garrison, regulated the trade, levied the customs payable on all vessels arriving at New Amstel, and superintended the Swedes. Andreas lludde, the former commander of Fort Nassau, was his secretary, and officiated as clerk in the church service at Altona,* The number of Swede families in the colony at this time, was but one hundred and thirty, as ascertained by an official return made by the officer specially charged with their surveillance ; and they made a majority of the whole population. According to this statement, allowing six persons to a family, there were probably not more than twelve hundred Europeans on the Delaware, in 1659, including women and minors.

Beekman had orders from Stuyvesant, to unite with Alrich in the purchase of the Indian claim, to all the territory below Bambo Hook, extending to Cape Henlopen ; with a view to the erection of a new fort at the Hoorn-kill. No fortification had been built there since the destruction of De Vries's establishment, twenty-seven years before ; nor had any possession been taken of the territory, since that mournful event. Alrich hesitated to obey the order, on the allegation, that both money and men were wanting for its erection and defence ; that it would be useless, while the country round it was wild and uncultivated ; and that supplies could not be spared for its maintenance. Beekman, seeing the inactivity of Alrich, took with him lieutenant Ilinoyosa, and on the 23d of May, 1659, purchased the land of the Indians, threw up a fort, and manned it with as many soldiers as lie could procure.

As the old colonists had declined the invitation of Stuyvesant to form a compact settlement of their own nation, he now issued a peremptory order, that all the Swedes should collect into small towns, and proposed Passyunk, a beautiful territory, lying between Wicaco and the Schuylkill, immediately south-west of Philadelphia, being « a pleasant and fruitful country," for that

The church at which Hudde officiated at Altona, as here mentioned, must have been the one in the old fort Christina. The church at Crane- Hook was not built until nine years after this period.

purjio.se. Beekman was commissioned to sec the order executed, and he exerted his influence to persuade them to a compliance. The demand was unreasonable. Some of them had been in the country more than twenty years ; had cleared lands, built houses, planted orchards, and were comfortably settled. No treason or sedition had been laid to their charge, and no compenisation had been offered to them for the abandonment of their improvements. They very properly refused to go, and Bcekrnan pleaded the command of the governor in vain. He had neither the power, nor the inclination to compel them. In a communication to Stuyvesant, "he represented it as unmerciful to force people from their cultivated lands, and put them to new labour and expense." Some of the Swedes had removed from the neighborhood of the Christina into the territory north of the Brandywine, and others into Maryland about Sassafras river, by which the colony under the jurisdiction of Beekman was weakened. Beekman requested Stuyvesant to revoke his order, and instead of using means calculated to impair (he attachment of the Swedes to his administration, to take a different course, and by providing them with books, according to a proposition he had formerly made, reconcile them to the new government, which had been forced upon them. This wise and liberal counsel probably had its effect, for we hear no more of any attempt to disturb the peaceful old colonists, who afterwards quietly settled down among their Dutch neighbors, and in a few years, by family alliances, formed one people. The language of the Dutch had such an affinity to that of the Swedes, that their children soon understood the religious service in (he Swedes' churches, and freely joined in their worship. The Dutch had no regular ministry among them,* whilst the Swedes were careful to maintain public worship as constantly as their isolated situation would

* " On Sandhook [New Cuttle] stood a .small wooden church for a while, but without regular attendance." Acrelius, p. 425. The Swedes were never without a minister from Sweden, until the death of Lock in 1688. Fabritius died in 1692 ; from that time until I097; they had no ordained clergyman.

admit; and being much the larger portion of the population, especially about Christina, the rising genera/ion lost their Butch character and language, so entirely that in the year 1697, Rudman, who had just arrived from Sweden as a missionary, says : " We live scattered among the English, yet our language ispreserved as pure as any where in Sweden.* Several of their writers assure us that their character, manners, and customs, at that time throughout the colonies, remained purely Swedish.

Stuyvesant was probably induced to guard more vigilantly the Swedish population, from well grounded fears for the safety of all the Dutch interests under his care. The civil war in Eng. land which had convulsed that nation to its centre, had placed Cromwell at the head of government. His energy of character and military prowess, had elevated his country, in the view- of the European States, to a fearful height of power. That nation had colonies in New England, which had already come into collision with the Dutch settlements in New York, and were constantly encroaching on the rights and territories belonging to the Dutch. Stuyvesant, in a letter written in September, 1659, to the West India Company at Amsterdam, represented the probability that England would soon conquer the country by the aid of the Swedes ; and desired them to send Polish, Prussian, and 'Flemish peasants, to settle in the New Netherlands. t The Dutch had lately felt the power of England, in a measure little anticipated, at the time when Van Tromp fixed a broom to the top-mast of his ship, intimating that he would sweep the British fleet from the channel. Under such a state of things, it is not a cause of wonder, that Stuyvesant should have been inclined to severe cautionary measures.

him, and jointly with Beelonan, administered the government for three years, when, Hinoyosa, by patent from Stuyvesant, was invested with the whole authority over the colonies, and sometime afterwards Beekman returned, and settled on the North

1 severe laws had been enacted to support the governmentmonopoly, they were wholly powerless to prevent an extensive clandestine trade. The very officers were deeply interested in the violation of them. The English from Long Island, came into the river with their vessels, and constantly carried on the smuggling trade. In consequence of this situation of the company's affairs, it surrendered all its rights to the colony of the city, on the 7th day of February, 1663, and with it the old Fort Christina, on condition that the inhabitants in that vicinity, who were principally Swedes, should be protected in the enjoyment of all their privileges. It was also stipulated that in exchange for the garrison belonging to the company, the government of the city should send another, to defend the colony against the Indians and the English ; and that the agents of the city should never dispose of the country, or any part of it, under penalty of a forfeiture of all their rights.

The regulations for the government of the country, were so restrictive in relation to trade, as greatly to injure it. The adjacent colony of Maryland was not so trammelled. Many removed there, that they might escape from the domination of the city of Amsterdam, which sacrificed the best interests of the country to the love of gain.

On a review of the state of the Swedish settlements on the Delaware, under the dominion of the Dutch, there is little to incline the friends of civil liberty to love or admire a government whose sole object is pecuniary emolument. Its policy was not only mercenary and contracted, but highly injurious to the civil and intellectual improvement of the inhabitants. Under the leaden scepter of a Dutch trading company, every thing beauti- ful, and fair, and good, drooped and lanquished. The people were discouraged and indolent, the lands, by nature fruitful, and offering rich returns to the diligent cultivator, were neglected and lay waste. The manners of the people were rude and unpolished, education was not promoted, the standard of morals was low, and the population, which had been gradually augmenting under the Swedish dominion, had increased but littfe under that of the Dutch. It is essential to the improvement of his rational nature, that man should have higher aims, and holier aspirations, than those which terminate in the accumulation of wealth, or personal aggrandizement. Wealth, as a means of good, may be a lawful object of desire to individuals. Governments should be instituted for other purposes. The pursuit of objects foreign to the legitimate design of their institution, must be productive of evil, and will eventually terminate in disappointment ; as did all the anxiety, and care, and toil, of the Dutch West India Company on the banks of the beautiful Delaware.

Chapter Ix

The gloomy forebodings of Governor Stuyvesant, pointing to (he conquest of the New Netherlands by the English, were now about to be realized. That nation, not very scrupulous about the means, where the endis a gainful commerce, had cast a covetous eye on the beautiful and fertile region, in the tenure of the Dutch. They " saw the laud, that it was pleasant," and having the power, del er mined to wrest it from the rightful occupant. Already the New Englanders had unscrupulously invaded and taken possession of a rich and beautiful country in Connecticut, occupied by agents of the West India Company, and long used by it as a place of trade.* They had pushed their settlements in defiance of the threats and remonstrances of the Dutch authorities, under the very ramparts of their fort " New Hope," on the Connecticut or Fresh-water river. They had nearly overrun Long Island, and had frequently and pertinaciously insisted in making settlements on the Delaware, though they knew it had been originally discovered by the Dutch, and was actually fortified by them at the time. Under pretence of a purchase from the Indians, they came into the river, took possession of lands close by Fort Nassau, and endeavoured to excite the authorities in New England to hostilities against the New

* Even those [the English] of Fresh river, [now Conncclicut river] have ottered to compensate us [for our lands on that river] to give us an annual revenue [rent] or to buy us out. This certainly shows that they know well that we aie the right owners, and that it seemed they began to feel that it was not exactly consistent with their most puritanical consciences. Nevertheless, they have from time to time, been able to find out some palliative, to keep that conscience at ease, and have continued to take our land." Du Simitiere MSS., N. Y. Hist. Soc. Coll. p. 271. ^ec also Hazard's Collections, vol. 2, p. 55.

Netherlander, because (hey drove them from the place. And now Charles II., for once stretching his vision beyond the scene of his personal gratifications, and seeing the long coast of America, from Maine to Carolina, in the possession of the English, excepting only that part that had been settled by the Dutch began to " covet his neighbour's house," and concluded to turn him out of it, for this powerful reason, that he wanted it himself.

The king gave to his brother, the Duke of York, a patent for a large portion of the lands now constituting the State of Maine, and for all the country between the Connecticut river and the east side of the Delaware. Before any declaration of hostility was made against the Dutch, he sent Sir Robert Carr with a small squadron, to put the Duke in possession of the New Netherlands. After touching at Massachusetts, they proceeded to Connecticut, and taking on board Governor Winthrop, and some others of the principal men of that colony, they cast anchor in Gravesend bay, on Long Island, a short distance south of New Amsterdam.

Stuyvesant, in conjunction with a committee of the city, having written and sent to Colonel Nicolls, who conducted the enterprise, to demand the cause of the visit, he answered by stating that his majesty, whose right and title to these parts of America were unquestionable, had commanded him to require a surrender of all such forts, towns, and places of strength, within his majesty's dominion, as were then in possession of the Dutch.

The Governor of New Amsterdam, not having the least idea that he and the colonists under his care were seated on any part of "his majesty's dominion," or that the English monarch had any "unquestionable right and title" to the New Netherlands, let Nicolls know, by a very polite note, that the king was very much mistaken on that point; that the Dutch were "the first discoverers of the country," had bought the Indian title, had settled iheve Jifty years before ; and had retained uninterrupted possession of it down to the present time. And further, that he (Governor Stuyvesant) had no doubt, that if his majesty, Charles II., had known these facts, he was a prince of too much judgment, to have given any such orders, especially at a time when " a

Colonel Nicolls had been educated in a school where he had learned arguments of a much more forcible nature, than those derived from justice, truth and reason* and finding Governor Stuyvesant had only drawn his conclusions from such old fashioned premises, immediately ordered Capt. Hugh Hide, commander in chief of the squadron, " to prosecute his majesty's claim and interest by all ways and means he might deem most expedient, for speedily reducing the Dutch under his majesty's obedience."]'

Commander Hide perfectly understood this language. He was well acquainted with the " ratio regum," or logie of kings, and immediately commenced the necessary preparations for battering down the town of New Amsterdam. Stuyvesant, who had been educated in a similar school, was not slow to understand this kind of reasoning. Finding the argument unanswerable, and wishing to avoid the pointed conclusion of Colonel Nicolls, he prudently resolved on a quiet submission. After some spirited remonstrances, becoming the dignity of his character, and the importance of his station, he agreed to articles of capitulation, dated August 27th, 1664.

New Amsterdam having thus fallen under the dominion of the British King, the rest of the New Netherlands was soon subjected to the same authority. By a commission under the hands of Richard Nicolls, George Cartwright, and Samuel Aleverick, dated September 3d, and directed lo Sir Robert Can, he was commanded to proceed to the Delaware, to reduce in like manner the settlers there.. The commission was in the following language, to wit : >

" Whereas, we we informed that, the Dutch have seated themselves at Delaware Bay, on his Majesty of Great Britain's territories, without his knowledge and consent, and that they have fortified themselves there, and drawn a great trade thither, and being assured that if they be permitted to go on, the gaining of this place will be of small advantage to his majesty; we his majesty's commissioners, by virtue of his majesty's commission and instructions to us given, have advised and determined to endeavour to bring that place and all strangers there in obedience to his majesty, and by these, do order and appoint that his majesty's frigates the Guinea, and the William and Nicholas, and all the soldiery which are not in the fort, shall, with what speed they conveniently can, go thither under the command of Sir Robert Can*, to reduce the same, willing and commanding all officers at sea and land, and all soldiers to obey the said Sir Robert Carr during this expedition. Given under our hands and seals, at the fort in New York, upon the isle of Manhatoes, the third day of September, 1G64.

"When you are come near unto the fort which is possessed by the Dutch, you shall send your boat on shore to summons the governor and inhabitants to yield obedience to his majesty, as the rightful sovereign of that tract of land, and let him and them know that all the planters shall enjoy their farms, houses, land, goods and chattels, with the same privileges, and upon the same terms which they do now possess them, only (hat they change their masters : whether they be the West India Company, or the City of Amsterdam. To the Swedes you shall remonstrate their happy return under a monarchical government, and his majesty's good inclinations to that nation and to all men who shall comply with his majesty's rights and titles in Delaware, without force of arms.

That for six months next ensuing, the same magistrates shall continue in their offices, only that they, and all others in authority, must take the oath of allegiance to his majesty, and all public acts be made in his majesty's name.

If you find you cannot reduce (he place by force, or upon these conditions, you may add such as you find necessary on the place ; but if those, nor force, will prevail, then you are to despatch a messenger to the Governor of Maryland, with a letter to him, and request his assistance, and of all other English who live near the Dutch plantations.

Your first care (after reducing the place) is to protect the inhabitants from injuries, as well as violence of the soldiers ; which will be easily effected ir you settle a course for weekly or daily provisions by agreement with the inhabitants, which shall be satisfied to them, either out of the profits, customs, or rents, belonging to their present master, or in case of necessity from hence.

To my Lord Baltimore's son you shall declare, and to all English concerned in Maryland, that his majesty hath, at his great expense, sent his ships and soldiers to reduce all foreigners in those parts to his majesty's obedience ; and to that purpose only you are employed ; but the reduction of the place being at his majesty's expense, you have commands to keep possession thereof for his majesty' s own behoof and right ; and that you are ready to join the Governor of Maryland upon his majesty's interests on all occasions ; and if Lord Baltimore doth pretend right thereunto by his patent, (which is a doubtful case) you are to say that you only keep possession till his majcsty'is informed and satisfied otherwise. In other things I must leave you to your discretion, and the best advice you can get upon the place."

On the arrival of Cair at New Arnstel, the authorities there quietly surrendered Fort Cassimir and themselves to the English government. The articles of capitulation were as follows, to wit :

" Articles of agreement between the Honourable Sir Robert Carr, Knight, on behalf of his majesty of Great Britain, and the Burgomasters on behalf of themselves, and all the Dutch and Swedes, inhabiting on Delaware bay, and Delaware river.

2. That whoever or what nation soever doth submit to his majesty's authority, shall be protected in their estates, real and personal whatsoever, by his majesty's laws and justice.

4. That if any Dutchman, or other person, shall desire to depart from this river, it shall be lawful for him so to do, with his goods, within six months after the date of these articles.

7. That whosoever shall take the oath, is from that time a free denizen, and shall enjoy all the privileges of trading into any of his majesty's dominions, as freely as any Englishman, and may require a certificate for so doing.

8. That the Schout, the Burgomaster, Sheriff, and other inferior magistrates, shall use and exercise their customary power, in administration of justice, within their precincts for six months, or until his majesty's pleasure is further known. Dated October 1st, 16G4."

Thus was" the government over the Swedes and other settlers on our shores, once more changed. Within ten years they had now been subjects of three different sovereignties. The Dutch dynasty had done nothing to advance the prosperity of the colony. Their government neither encouraged commercial enterprise, nor promoted agricultural improvement. Yet its very inefficiency to protect the odious monopoly of the West India Company, left a door open for the smuggling adventurer, and en- clandestine trade. Such a trade was carried on so extensively, and so effectually, that the profits of legitimate commerce did not pay the expenses of its prosecution. In exchanging such a government for that of the British crown, under which the thriving New England colonies had been settled, a better state of things might have been reasonably expected. But the exchange was in fact from bad to worse. The English could more effectually prevent the illicit trade which had been carried on by the New England and Long Island traders, and thus crush the principal source of all the little business that could animate the cheerless life of a settler on the Delaware. *

Colonel Nicolls, upon the submission of the Dutch, assumed the administration of the New Netherlands, as governor under the Duke of York. New Jersey had been granted by the Duke, to Lord Berkeley, and Sir George Carteret, by deeds of lease and release, dated June 23d and 24th, 1GG4. The colony of New York, and the territory on the west side of the Delaware, remained under the control of the Duke. New York was the seat of government. The executive and judicial powers were vested in the governor and his obsequious council. " With the court of assizes, composed of justices of his own appointment, holding offices at his will, he exercised supreme legislative power, promulgated a code of laws, and modified and repealed them at his pleasure.'' t His word, in fact, was the law of the land.

The Duke, perhaps the weakest of the weak and unhappy family of the Stuarts, had here an unrestricted opportunity to present to the world the plan of a government, suited to the na-

* " When the English government commenced, all were summoned to New York, to receive deeds for the land, which they had either taken up, or intended to take up, A part of the inhabitants took deeds, others gave themselves no trouble about the matter. The people lived in great quiet, but extreme indolence. No agriculture, no trade was pursued, more than was necessary to supply their absolute wants." Acrelius, N. Y. Hist. Coll. p. 427.

ture and prejudices of that royal race. With high notions of the divine right of king's, and extremely low notions of the civil and political rights of a subject, he so modelled his government, as to have it in his power to oppress the people at his pleasure. Some of them presuming to think for themselves, and uneasy under the despotic control of the governor, were roused to resistance. One of the leaders of this rebellion was Konigsmarke, or the " Long Finn," a person of some notoriety in the annals of Delaware ; being the first man on our shores, who had ever dared " to kick against the goads" of an odious and unlimited despotism. His coadjutor, as a leader in this enterprise, was Henry Coleman. They had been for some time, and in divers places, engaged in rousing the public to a resistance of the Duke's government. But the people were depressed. Their scattered position was unfavourable to combinations, the scheme failed for want of sufficient support, and the Long Finn was captured. Coleman, his associate, escaped. He was a citizen of character and property, and had left a valuable estate, in his patriotic attempt to break the yoke of an oppressive government. A proclamation was issued stating " that if Coleman did not surrender himself in fifteen days, his estate should be secured to the king's use."*

A council was held at New York, October 18th, 1669, present Sir Francis Lovelace, the governor, Thomas Delaval, and Ralph Whitfield ; with Thomas Willet, as Secretary. It appears that these four persons, by virtue of their high powers, sat as accusers, judges, and jury, in this case of life and death, and " adjudged that Konigsmarke, commonly called the long Finn, deserved to die : Yet in regard that many concerned with him in the insurrection, might also be involved in the piu'munire, if the rigour of the law should be extended ; and among them divers simple and ignorant people, it was thought fit to order that the Long Finn should be severely whipped, and stigmatized [that is branded] with the letter R, with an inscription in great letters on his breast, [declaring] that he received that punishment for rebellion ; and afterwards to be secured (ill sent to Barbadoes, or some other remote plantation, to be sold. It was nho fart licr ordered, that the chief of his accomplices should forfeit to the king one half of their goods and chattels, and smaller mulct be laid on the rest, to be left at discretion of commissioners appointed to examine the matter."

In pursuance of this sentence, the Long Finn was brought in irons from Delaware. He was imprisoned in the stadt-house at New York, on the 20th of December, and there confined a year, and then transported to Barbadoes, to be sold.

Some idea may be formed of the notions of civil government entertained by Lovelace, the sage representative of the Duke of York, from the order he gave on this occasion to Colonel Carr, his deputy governor on the Delaware. The favourite idea of Lovelace on this subject, he derived from some of his Dutch or Swedish mercenaries, which for its wisdom he deemed " worthy of all acceptation. " " As for the poor deluded sort," says he, "I think the advice of their own countrymen is not to be despised, who knowing their temper well, prescribed a method for keeping them in order, which is severity, and laying suclt taxes on them as migJd not give them liberty to entertain any other thoughts but how to discharge tliem"* So weak was Lovelace, as to believe that the struggling spirit of rational liberty could in so widely extended a country be destroyed by the very means that gave it birth - the rigorous oppression of the people ! Only thirteen years before the arrival of Perm on the Delaware, the purblind statesman, Sir Francis Lovelace, and Edmund Andross, the arbitrary tool of the Duke of York, were deemed to be proper persons to govern those, whose exertions, in fact, were the spring of all that was then cheering in the state of the country.

a certain Capt. Marl in Prieger, (o exact from evciy importer of European goods, and every exporter of furs 01 j'dtrij, a duty often per cent, upon all such merchandize passing bis fortification at the Hoorn-kill. Thus, by a dash of his pen, he laid a tariff and authorized its collection, without any long debates about "free trade and protection,"' and indeed, without lany care or concern whether it destroyed the little trade of the colony or not. If it should replenish his coffers, and silence the rising murmurs against his absurd and oppressive system of government, his object would be attained.

Such was the unhappy slate of the country under the domination of the Duke of York. The political horizon was dark and gloomy. The trading community on the west bank of the Delaware, and its tributaries, had little to cheer them under his yoke. But, according to the old adage, "the darker the night, the nearer is the day." The day, in fact, was just ready to break upon them. Light had already dawned on the settlers in east New Jersey, under the grant to Berkeley and Carteret. Its course was westward, diffusing life and vigour in its progress, according to its own blessed nature, and was soon to shine with unrivalled splendor, on the lovely shores of Pennsylvania and Delaware.

The long civil war in England, which terminated in the elevation of Cromwell, and was followed by the restoration of Charles II., had given occasion for discussions on the subject of government, in the course of which the great principles of constitutional liberty were developed ; and in less than thirty years produced in England the revolution of 1688, which broke the long established line of succession to the throne. So well were those principles understood in the year lGo'5, only five years after the restoration of Charles, that Berkeley and Carteret found it necessary to grant to emigrants the power to institute a free popular government, before they could dispose of their lands' Thus was exhibited one of the most extraordinary spectacles that had ever been held up to the world ; a despotic prince, of a race conspicuous for maintaining the highest notions of kingly pre- rogative, actively aiding in the establishment of one of the freest governments then in existence! At a time when Lovelace and Andross, the obsequious servants of the Duke, were wielding the iron sceptre of the Stuarts over New York, Pennsylvania, and Delaware, the inhabitants of New Jersey were enjoying all the advantages of a republican government, making their own laws, appointing their own judges, and electing their own executive.

Such was the situation of the colonics, when, through the influence of the Duke of Buckingham, and the intrigues of Louis XIV., the English were once more involved in a war with the Dutch. The two unscrupulous sovereigns of England and France, without any just or plausible cause, combined to crush the little mercantile and manufacturing republic of Holland. The objects of Charles were to shake off the restraint of the House of Commons, and make his government absolute, lie was to have from France £250,000, a year, during the war, besides a fleet of armed ships ; and in the division of the Dutch territories, England was to have Zealand, as her share of the spoils.* With an army of 200,000 men, France made a sudden descent on Holland. Louis, on getting possession of Utrecht, was elated above measure, and under the false notion that the Dutch were already conquered, made demands of them, which if they had granted, would have destroyed their independence. But hope dictated vigorous action, and vigorous action, with a most remarkable train of favourable circumstances, which they considered Providential, turned the tide of prosperity in their favour, and finally made them victorious.

In the mean time, the Dutch fleet under Be Ruyter, and the younger Van Tramp, beat the combined fleets of England and France, greatly its superior in number ; and a little squadron ot Dutch ships, under the command of Admiral Evcrtsen, junior, almost ruined the whole French and English navigation, from Newfoundland to Barbadoes ; and in August, 1673, re-captured all the New Netherlands. In every department governed by the Duke, the people were probably glad to be relieved from his control. New York surrendered without resistance, New Jersey quietly submitted, and Pennsylvania and Delaware joyfully received the Dutch authorities as the restorers of a better system.

The first governor under the Duke of York, as we have seen, was Col. Richard Nichols. He had been groom of the bed-chamber to the Duke, and in his office as governor, was steadily devoted to the interest and policy of his master. Jlc administered the government until the spring of 1CG7, when he returned to England, lie was succeeded by Sir Francis Lovelace, who ' governed the provinces until their re-capture by the Dutch squadron, under Admiral Evcrtsen. lie was a weak and pliant tool of the Duke, and at the surrender of the country, went home to England, and was not sent back at the recession of the colonies, because of his incompetency.

The Dutch, now in possession of their old domain in America, proceeded to re-establish the government under authorities of their own. They required oaths of allegiance to the States General and the Prince of Orange, from all oificers, civil and military.* Anthony Colvc was appointed Governor General over New York, and its dependencies. He appointed Peter Alrich his deputy, as commandant over the colonies on the west side of Delaware, and caused the inhabitants to take the oath of fealty 1o the Dutch government. His moderation and prudence were gratifying to all parties, and were the means of a quiet and speedy settlement of the people under the new order of things.

But this new order of things did not long continue. By the treaty of Westminster, made Feb. 19th, 1G74, this country was restored to the English. There was no specific mention of it in the treaty. The surrender was made under the 6th article, which declared that " whatever lands, towns, forts, &c, taken

In the month of October, 1674, Major Edmond Andross arrived at New York and took upon him the administration of the government. All the functions of the legislative and executive departments were vested in him and his council, and their authority not only extended over New York, Pennsylvania, and Delaware, but also over New Jersey, although a government had already been established there, by an express grant from the Duke of York to the proprietors. Andross exerted nil the power of superior talents, to enforce the unjust pretensions of his master, and for several years kept New Jersey in a state of agitation by interfering with her commerce and government.

Soon after his arrival, he gave authority to Capt. Cantwell and Win. Tomm, to take into their possession the fort at New Castle, with the public stores, for the King's use ; pursuant to the provisions of the late treaty. They were authorized to provide for the settlement and repose of the inhabitants at the Hoorn-kill, New Castle, and other places on the Delaware, as they might deem proper ; and were required to demean them- ~ selves amicably towards the neighbouring colonies.!

Among the powers resumed on this occasion, was the one that had been exercised by Lovelace, to impose duties on exports and imports ; and this power was extended to all goods passing up the Delaware ; whether destined to the ports of New Jersey, or those on the west side of the river. The colonists under the conveyance of Berkeley and Carteret, contended that the right of government had been granted them as well as the right to the soil, and complained heavily of the imposition of duties, as an infringement of the contract. In 1G73, by an assignment of Lord Berkeley, his share of west New Jersey had been vested in John Fen wick and Edward Byllinge. The latter became embarrassed in his pecuniary affairs, and assigned his interest, in trust, for the benefit of his creditors, to William

Penn, Gawen Lawrie, and Nicholas Lucas. They formed for west New Jersey, a constitution of government, by which liberty of conscience, universal suffrage, the pursuit of happiness, and security of person and property were inalienably secured. In fine, it was a system in which all the powers of self-government on the most free and liberal principles were granted and confirmed. The proprietors, in trust, were not disposed passively to submit to the illegal exercise of power in the Duke's name. Penn and his colleagues, by a bold and spirited appeal to the Duke, insisted on their rights of exemption from the impositions of Andross, and reasoned the case with a force of argument and clearness of demonstration, seldom equalled, and perhaps never surpassed.* No document since ushered into the world, breathes a purer spirit of liberty, or manifests a more undaunted determination to support its ennobling principles.! To the acts and illustrations of these principles, by Penn and his cotemporaries, our countrymen were much indebted fur those clear views of the subject, which, before the commencement of the revolutionary war, enabled them with so much force to expose and repel a scheme to bring them into a degrading bondage. To this source we trace the germs of that rational freedom, in the enjoyment of

* Seethe document in Smith's history of New Jersey, p. 117. This document, it is said, was prepared by William Penn, Geo. Hutchinson, and others, but any one acquainted with the peculiar style of Penn, can be at no loss to determine whose mind conceived it, or by whose pen it was written. It is clear, forcible, sententious, and like the author in his other writings, remarkable for the cogency of his argument, and the irresistible truth of his conclusions. Pennjs style was as peculiar and distinguishable from others, as his character.

t The society of which Penn was a conspicuous member lias been charged with holding the doctrine of <: passive obedience," and that it was this which recommended them to the royal brothers, Charles and James. So far is this charge from correct, that there never has been a people who have more uniformly or more undauntedly opposed this irrational degrading doctrine than the Quakers. The difference between them and other friends of civil liberty, was this, that the Quakers, in opposing despotic power, did not feel warranted to use means inconsistent icitk the peaceable $]>irit of Christianity. See Gordon's N. J., p. 51.

which our beloved country is, we trust, advancing towards the highest object of the philanthropic statesman, a 'perfect civ'd government; and at the same time holding up a light to the world, which, we devoutly wish, may never be dimmed or extinguished, until the whole race of man shall be disenthralled, and genuine liberty cover the earth, as the waters cover the sea.

The spirited remonstrance of Penn had its proper effect, as is evinced in a letter from Samuel Jennings, a conspicuous emigrant to New Jersey in the year 1680, directed to William Penn, Edward Byllinge, and Gawen Lawrie, then in England, lie says, " About six weeks since, we arrived in Delaware river, where I expected to have met with a combat, in the denial of customs. In our passage at sea, I had communicated to all that had any considerable cargo on board, the opinion of council, concerning the illegal demand thereof; with what else I thought might be for their information : which thus far prevailed, that most, if not all concerned, seemed resolved to deny the paying of custom here, having paid all the king's duties in England. In good time we came to anchor in Delaware, where one Peter Alrich,* came aboard, and brought a handsome present to our commander. They sent for me into the round-house, where they both were, and Peter told me he had nothing to say to us relating to customs ; tie had no commission for it, nor did he know of any body that had. So we had all our goods safely landed after this unexpected easy manner."

The commissioners appointed by the Duke, to hear and determine in the case, could not withstand the force of the arguments for removing the imposition, and finally gave judgment, " that as the grant to Berkeley and Carteret had reserved no

* We first hear of Peter Alvich as commissary at the fort near Cape Henlopen, built in 1659. lie was commandant over the colonies on Delaware, under the Dutch in 1613. and afterwards a member of the General Assembly under Wm, Penn, which met in Philadelphia in 1CS3.

profit or jurisdiction, the legality of the tax could not be defended." 'Tis probable (hat Peter Alrich had received a copy of the decision, or knew its import at the time he permitted Jennings and his friends so easily to pass his station at the Hoorn-killj without payment of the duties.

The Swedes on the Delaware had at this time, lived under three different governments ; their own, the Dutch, and the English. They had increased under them all, and had extended their settlements from Christina and its vicinity, to the Poqucssing creek on the west side of the Delaware. On the cast side they had a settlement on Raccoon Creek, called Swedesborough, and at other places in smaller companies. When William Penn obtained the province of Pennsylvania, their most important settlements were at New Castle, Wilmington, and the. neighbouring country ; at Marcus Hook, Chester, Tinicum, and its vicinity, at Kingsessing, Passyunk, Wicaco, mid the land on which the city of Philadelphia now stands, at Frankford, Pennypack, Poquessing, and probably at other places. They had then three places of worship, one at Crane-hook, near Christina,* one at Tinicum, and one at Wicaco, in the old fort there. Their population passing as Swedes, amounted to nearly 1000. Those descended on one side only from Swedish parents, though probably not amounting to near that number, were undoubtedly numerous. We know they had intermarried extensively with the Dutch, and some marriage connections had no doubt been formed with the English.

The only settlements forming villages in 16S1, were New Castle, Marcus Hook, Chester, and Wicaco. The largest of them was New Castle, settled by the Dutch after the erection of Fort Cassimir in 1661. A few houses may have been built before the year 1656, but nothing like a town or village appeared there, until after the recapture of Fort Cassimir, and subversion of the Swedish authority on the Delaware. In the last mentioned year a large number of Dutch families removed from the settlement of Manhattan, and other places on the North ri\ er. Seventy-five deeds for land were granted at that time, moslh for lots on the point, which had been selected as (lie location for the village, on account of its beauty, and as the most suitable place for trade. The point extended out into the water, far beyond the general course of the western shore, commanding extensive views of the country, both up the river, and down toward the bay. Before the Dutch purchased this spot of the Indians, it was known to the Swedes by the name of " Sandhuken," and was called by the English traders, " Grape-vine point." The town was named " New Amstel."* After the conquest by the Swedes, it was the seat of government for the lower division of the colony ; which had been allotted to the West India Company. Here the governors mostly resided, and here was the only fort that was kept up as a place of defence subsequent to the surrender of Fort Christina. After the caplure of the colony by the English, they called it " New Castle." By this name it has been known ever since.

When George Fox, the reputed founder of the Society of Friends, travelled through the American colonies, in 1G72, he visited New Castle, and was hospitably entertained by the governor and people. His account of that visit furnishes some interesting facts illustrative of the state of the country at that period. He and his companions left " Middlelown Harbour" on a branch of the Raritan, New Jersey, the 9th of September, 1G72, and took a south-westerly course, so as to head the rivers, and, as much as possible, avoid swamps and impassable streams. After passing through many Indian towns, and travelling, as he supposed, forty miles, they made a fire in the woods, and so passed the first night, probably near the place at which Allentown was afterwards located. The next day they travelled about fifty miles, and lodged in a house that had been deserted for fear ol

* New Castle was incorporated by Lovelace in 1G70, to bo governed by a Bailiff and six assistants, with power to try causes for not more than ten pounds. They were permitted thenceforward to carry on trade withont making entry at New York as formerly. Smith's N. J. p. 72.

the Indians. This was probably at (he spot where the city of Burlington now stands,*1 as, one year before, two Dutch men had been murdered on an island which lies between that city and Bristol. The narrator, says it was "near the head of the bay," meaning the head of navigation. The third day they crossed the Delaware, passing first from (lie Jersey shore to an island which he calls " Upper Dinidock," thence to the Pennsylvania side, the whole distance computed at one mile. Their horses swam the river, while the Indians took the travellers over in their canoes. Thence going about thirty miles to the house of a Swede, they procured some straw, and lay there that night; probably near the Blue Bell tavern in Kingsessing, then a Swedish settlement. The fourth day they travelled through the woods, about forty miles ; made a fire and slept by it, to dry their clothes, the day having been rainy. This was probably in Brandywine-Hundred. The fifth day they " passed over a desperate river, which had in it many rocks and broad stones very hazardous" to them and their horses. " From thence," says the narrative, "we came to Christian river, where we swam over our horses, and went ourselves in canoes ; but the sides of the river were so bad and miry, that some of the horses had like to have been laid up. From thence we came to a town called New Castle, heretofore called New Amsterdam,! [New Amstel]

* This is rendered almost certain by a number of circumstances. The island now the site of the city of Burlington, was held by four Dutchmen about that time. Gordon's Gazetteer, p. 113. The men that were murdered, Smith says, were Dutchmen ; the survivors were alarmed and deserted the house. The name of the island where the murder was committed was called Malineconk or Tineconk, which G. Fox, by a slight mistake understood to be Dinidock. It was called Upper Tineconk, to distinguish it from the island on which Burlington stands, then called lower Tineconk. Campanius calls the place Tennako, and says it was inhabited by the Dutch; p. S3. Tiniconk or Tonacong, is probably the Indian name for island.

t In 1075, William Edmundson travelled thiough the colonies. In his journal, pp. 107, 108, he call.-, the town :< Delaware Town.''" The Duke of York in his deed of feoffment to Win. l'enn, dated August 24, 10SJ, calls it -'New Cattle, alias Delaware Town/' Proud's Hist. vol. 1, p. 201.

and being very weary, and inquiring in the town, where we might bu}r some corn for our horses, the governor came into the street and invited me to his house, and afterwards desired me to lodge there, telling me he had a Led for me, and I should he welcome."*

The governor under the Duke of York, at this time, was Lord Lovelace. The house he lived in stood near the shore, on the north side of Harmony street, near the corner of the first street running parallel with the river. It was built of brick, and over each window and door was a low, cliptical arch made of yellow bricks imported from Holland. When in a slate of dilapidation, the timbers appeared to have all been hewed ; indicating its erection before the introduction of saw mills; and the mortar cement had been made of lime, that was burnt from oyster shells, before any lime-stone had been discovered. This building was standing within forty years from the present timet

We cannot with certainty trace the course our travellers lookto pass from Middletown on the Raritan, to New Castle.} But we cannot be mistaken in pointing to the Brandyivine, as the " desperate river which had in it many rocks and broad stones, very hazardous to them and their horses," nor can we be deceived in calling the river, whose sides " were so bad and miry," that their horses suffered severely m crossing it, our Christina; which the journalist calls Christian-river. The " rocks" of the one and the " miry sides" of the other, sufficiently identify them to the present time.

From this account we learn that in 1672, more than forty years after the first permanent settlement on the Delaware, the country between Amboy and New Castle, was yet in a wildcr-

J The course pursued by our travellers was necessarily very circuitous, as there were neither roads nor bridges. By G. Fox's estimate, llicy travelled lf>8 miles in going from Middletown harbour to New Castle. The distance by the present route is about one hundred miles.

ncss slate. Indian towns; streams crossed by the aid of the natives with their canoes ; the original forests of the country, traversed by Indian paths ; dangerous swamps and morasses, are the principal subjects of remark. Burlington, the oldest town in west Jersey, was not laid out until five years afterwards, and the scite of Philadelphia was then inhabited by the Indians. The Swedish settlement at Upland is not mentioned; the travellers, in order to avoid rivers and creeks, kept inland, and probably crossed the country eight or ten miles west of the Delaware.

Marcus Hook is not laid down as a village, on Vandcr Donck's map of 1654 and 1655. It is marked on that map as Finland. This was the name of all the country lying between the Hook and Chester. It was one of the few pieces of land granted by patent, under the Swedish government. The grant was made to a native of Finland, and because he was not a Swede, perhaps it was deemed necessary that he should have a patent or deed for the property. As the document is curious, and connected with the history of our early settlements, it is deemed proper to insert it in full, as translated by Charles Springer, a native Swede of the seventeenth century :

Be it known, that we of our favour, and because of the true and trusty service which is done unto us and the Crown, by our true and trusty servant, Captain Hans Ammundson Besk, for which service he hath done, and further is obliged to do, so long as he yet shall live ; so have we granted and given unto him freely, as the virtue of this our open letter, is, and doth shew and specify ; that is, we have freely given and granted unto him, his wife and heirs, that is heirs after heirs, one certain piece and tract of land, being and lying in New Sweedland, Marcus Hook by name, which doth reach up to, and upwards to Upland Creek, and that with all the privileges, appurtenances and conveniences thereunto belonging, both in wet. and dry, whatsoever name or names they have, and may be called, none excepted of them, that is, which hath belonged unto this aforesaid tract of land, of age and also by law and judgment may be claimed unto it, and he and his heirs to have and to hold it unmolested for ever for their lawful possession and inheritance, so that all which will unlawfully lay any claim thereunto, they may regulate themselves hereafter, so that they may not lay any further claim or pretence unto the aforesaid tract of land forever hereafter.

Now for the true confirmation hereof have we this with our own hand underwritten, and also manifested with our seal, in Stockholm, the 20th of August, in the year of our Lord 1G53.

The Queen of Sweden, by another patent bearing the same date, granted to Svcn Schule, an officer of the government, who afterward made a conspicuous figure in the colony, another tract of land, comprehending all Kingsessing and Passyunk.*

Marcus Hook probably derived its name from a distinguished Indian chief who resided on the point of land where the village now stands. In the report of Commissary Iludde, dated in 1645, and directed to the authorities of New Amsterdam, he speaks of" two of the principal Sachems" on the west side of the Delaware, named " Maarte-hook and Wissemenets," as grantors of land to the Dutch. t This fact suggests the supposition that the Hook, which means a promontory or point of land, took its distinguishing appellation from the old Indian Maarte, as the creek about two miles lower down took its name from the old Indian chief and orator of the Minquas tribe, called Naaman.

$ Carnpanius .says, " there was a fort built there some time after its settlement " But as no mention is made, by any other chronicler, of a land, formed by Delaware river and Chester creek. Its name at that time was Upland, so called by the Swedes after a province of Sweden, on the gulf of Bothnia, but the Indian name was Mecoponaca. In the latter part of that year William Penn held his first Legislative Assembly at Chester ; at which time a code of laws, that had been prepared in England, was passed, the three counties on Delaware annexed to the province of Pennsylvania, and the Dutch, Swedes, and other foreigners naturalized. At that time they had a prison, some remains of which are still to be seen, and the house in which the assembly sat is yet standing. At Chester the first meeting for divine worship ever settled in Pennsylvania, by the Society of Friends, was established. It was visited by William Edmundson in 1675." Proud, in his history of Pennsylvania, says, that in that year Robert Wade and divers others came over, and that meetings were regularly held there from that time.f Chester is located in a rich fertile district ; the situation is very pleasant ; on the north-east side of a fine mill-stream, navigable a short distance from its mouth. It is the seat of justice for Delaware County. The court-house was built of hewn stone in 1724. In it the county courts are yet held. It was the landing place in Penn's time, of a large number of substantial yeomen, whose descendants are now thickly scattered over our widely extended country.

The hamlet of Wicaco occupied a beautiful bank on the Delaware, round the spot where the old Swede's church stands, near the United States Navy Yard, Southwark. Here they had a church, and round it was a number of settlements. It had been fortification or regular military station at Upland, it is probable that "fort,'' in this case, must be understood to mean a "strong house,^ or place of security in case of a sudden attack by the Indians. Such houses are often mentioned by the writers of that time. See Campanius. p. 81.

t Wade's house was on a beautiful rising ground, on the south side of Chester creek, where he had a landing place. I'roud's Hist. Penn. vol. 1, p. 193.

built for a blockhouse, but was converted into a place of worship, and first used as such in 1677, it being no longer needed as a place of defence. The Swedes had here a burial ground, in which their people, on both sides of the river, interred their dead.* In the year 1700, the old church was taken down, and the present building erected on its scite, partly with materials from Governor Printz's church at Tinicum.

When William Perm had fixed upon a place for his intended city and seat of government, he found the land claimed by some Swedish proprietors. These claims he satisfied by grants of larger tracts in other situations. He always treated the Swedes with marked respect, as the original settlers of the country, as well as a worthy industrious people. His character of them, as it was drawn in his letter to the society of traders, in London, dated 6th mo. (August,) 16S3, exhibits them in an interesting point of view. He says : " The first planters in these parts were the Dutch ;t and soon after them the Swedes and Finns.! The Dutch applied themselves to trajfick ; the Swedes and Finns to husbandry. The Dutch inhabit, mostly, those parts of the province that lie upon or near the bay,§ the Swedes the freshes of the river Delaware. || They are a plain, strong, industrious people; yet have made no great progress in the culture or propagation of fruit trees ; as if they desired rather to have enough than plenty, or for traflick ; but I presume the Indians made them the more careless by furnishing them with the means of profit, to wit, skins and furs, in exchange for rum and such strong

|| The Swedes, before Penn'stime, never settled far from the tide water. One of their writers says, that at Christina none of them settled more than a Swedish mile from the fort. Their places of worship, and most of their dwelling houses, were always built on the shore of some navigable water, that they might" go to church in boats.

liquors. They kindly received me, as well as (he English, who were but few before the people concerned withme came among them. I must needs commend their respect to authority, and kind behaviour (o the English. They do not degenerate from the old friendship between both kingdoms. As they are a people proper and strong of body, so they have fine children, ami almost every house full. It is rare to find one of them without three or four boys, and as many girls; some six, seven, and eight sons. And I must do them that right, to say, I see few young men more sober and laborious."

On Penn's first arrival in the Delaware, in 1GS2, the Swedes at New Castle joined the other inhabitants, and met him with demonstrations of great joy. Shortly after his landing he called his first legislature. It met at Upland, now Chester, December 4th, 1672. On this occasion the Swedes, as a distinct people, deputed Capt. Lasse Cock, to address the proprietor on their behalf. He assured Penn, that they would love, serve, and obey him, with all they possessed, declaring that the day of this meeting was the best day they had ever seen.* Lasse Cock in the following year was chosen a member of the Governor's Council, and there were in the first Assembly at least two members who were Swedes. Their names were Anders Bengtson and Sven Svensson. Their writers speak of their situation under the proprietary government, in terms of affection and gratitude. Biorck, the Swedish Missionary, writing to Kolmodin, their superintendent in Sweden, under date, Oct. 29th, 1G97, informs him that the governor received them with great kindness, that the country was delightful, the taxes light, grain plenty, fresh meat abundant, no poor in the country, and the people well clothed. t Rudman, writing to Professor Arrhenius, at Upsal, Oct. 20th, 1697, says, "the English have received us extremely well : the government is very mild, and the people live quietly under Governor Win. Markham, who is exceedingly well disposed towards us. He has reproached us with not going often enough to set him, and has left us quite at liberty as to our church discipline. There are many Swedes employed in the administration of the government, some of them are counsellors, many of them are officers, &c."*

- The Swedes had never known under their own administration, either in the " fatherland," or in the colony, the blessings of a government founded on the popular will, one whose sole object was the good of the governed. Admitting that neither under the Dutch, nor the Duke of York's administration, they had suffered severely, as the victims of a despotic system, yet they had suffered grievously for want of that kind of government which calls into action the intellectual and physical powers of man. All these had been left to languish. Education was neglected ; the active energies of the mind had cither run wild, or been depressed; and for more than forty years there had been very little advancement, either among the Dutch or Swedes, toward the perfection of our rational nature. " They weakly err," says Penn, " who think there is no other use of government, than correction; this is the coarsest part of it."

The government established by William Penn was essentially different from any they had ever known. It was not long before this period that religious toleration was deemed incompatible with civil government.! Even in England, at that time, heresy in certain points, was a capital crime. The writ " de hceretico comburendo" was then available for burning heretics. When Penn, in 1688, published his " Sandy Foundation

* After Term's return to England, he " sent them a parcel of hooks and catechisms, with a folio Bible, for the church,'' and " petitioned the Swedish Ambassador at London, for Ministers and books for them." See Rudman's Memoirs in Wicaco church. Also Clay's Annals, p. 45.

t In tC70 the chaplain to the Archbishop of Canterbury, in a printed discourse against toleration, asserted as a fundamental truth that '-' it would be less injurious to the government to dispense with prophane and loose persons, than to allow a toleration to religious dissenters." Preface to the trial of Penn and Mead.

Shaken," the bishop of London threw him into the tower, and declared he should die (here, unless he would recant. The idea that kings had a divine right to the throne, and that the subject was bound passively to obey, without the least regard to the character or conduct of the sovereign, was the common sentiment of that day. Many years after the revolution which excluded the Stuart branch of the royal family from the throne, the kingdom was repeatedly convulsed by attempts to set aside the house of Hanover, because its kings were not "the Lord's anointed." Not all the weakness, amounting almost to imbecility, not all the corruption, and faithlessness, and ingratitude of that family, more or less obvious as they were, from its accession to its close, could abate in the minds of thousands the idolatrous notion of the inalienable sanctity of the race. Terms only applicable to the Creator, were unblushingly applied, to very unworthy men, and "his most sacred majesty" was well known to be a very low, unprincipled sensualist. *

* " Debauched in mind and heart, adversity, usually the rugged nurse of virtue, made the selfish libertine but the more reckless in his profligacy." Bancroft, vol. 2, p. 48.

Chapter Xi

At the time Perm obtained the grant of Pennsylvania, a better day had dawned, and many saw its glory and rejoiced in its light. But national habits and modes of thinking are not easily changed. The world of mind, like the world of matter, must wait the gradual unfoldings of the day, and thousands of the most virtuous men of the seventeenth century, who had marked with solicitude the revolution of sentiment on the subject of government, did not live to seethe sun of civil liberty fairly above the horizon. Penn had suffered very severely under the old dark system. He had seen thousands of his brethren and sisters, innocent men and women, dragged from their places of worship, from their homes and their firesides, from families of little children, and from the business which procured them bread, and immured in dark loathsome prisons, without any crime, or even -the charge of a crime, but merely for a conscientious dissent from the dictates of an overbearing hierarchy.* He had learned lessons of the highest wisdom in the school of adversity. He had seen human nature under its worst aspect. He had perceived to what fearful extremes of cruelty man may be driven by the love of power, when he has rejected the gentle voice of mercy, the authoritative language of justice, and the holy influence of truth and love in himself.

* la JG70. the recorder of the city of London, sitting in his judicial capacity, at the trialof Perm and Mead, publicly declared, that it certainly never would be well with them till something like the Spanish Inquisition should be cstublislicd in England.

During the reign of Charles, fifteen thousand families had been mined for their religious persuasion, and on the accession of James, twelve hundred Friends were at one time released from filthy prisons and noisome dungeons, in which live thousand persons had perished for conscience sake the victims of a profligate monarch, himself without religion, and regardless even of common morality.

Pcnn had not been an idle spectator of the scenes through which he had passed. His life had been spent in active exertion, lie had boldly braved the force of arbitrary power, at a time when the whole court of the second Charles and his obsequious servants were striving to render the king wholly irresponsible to the law and to the people. While more timid men shrunk from the contest, he openly exposed the tyranny of the government. When the king himself was a pensioner of France ; when the great charter of Engligh freedom was trampled underfoot; when juries were brow-beaten, fined, and imprisoned, for rendering an honest conscientious verdict, Penn stood forth the champion of liberty and law; and by a successful opposition to the court, gave to tyranny and oppression a blow, from the effects of which they never wholly recovered.* On this occasion he boldly appeared in print, published a narrative of the oppressive proceedings against him, exposed the base means taken to crush him, and openly encouraged jurymen to maintain their ground against every attempt to intimidate them.t " Having been oppressed, he had reason to know how hateful the oppressor is, both to God and man;"t and now being called upon to form a system of government, he was prepared to bring into action all the powers of a strong and enlightened understanding, in framing a Constitution, effectually to protect his colonists in the enjoyment of civil and religious freedom.

" Any government," says Penn, "is free to the people under it, where the laws rule, and the people are a party to these laws." " To support power in reverence with the people, and to secure the people from the abuse of power ; that the people t Penn's conduct, on this occasion, docs not favour the suggestion, that he held the doctrine of " passive obedience," nor that he courted the favour of the king and duke of York, by professing a doctrine so degrading in its effects. The society of which he was a member abhorred it, as inconsistent with the first principles of the Christian religion, which teaches to '-'obey God rather than men." Acts v. 28.

maybe free by their just obedience, and the magistrates honorable for their just administration, arc the great ends of government. For liberty without obedience, is confusion, and obedience without liberty, is slavery."* Time, and experience in the science of government, may have, suggested to legislators some material improvements on Penu's model of a Constitution. But such improvements chiefly relate, to the practical part, or the carrying out of the views and intentions of his system. Time and experience have both demonstrated the truth of Penn's theory. That "liberty without obedience is confusion," has been amply demonstrated, in more than one of the states, under our own excellent government ; that obedience without liberty is slavery, is a sentiment, that produced the American revolution. Penn, as a legislator, was more than a century in advance of his age. If any place, more than another, deserves to be called "the cradle of liberty," that place is Pennsylvania. There it was nursed, and there it attained athletic vigor, long before a revolution was contemplated, or a separation from the mother country had become an object of desire.

In his government, instituted in 1 GS3, the legislature consisted of two houses, both elected by the freemen of the province. The upper house was composed of three members from each county, and was called the "Provincial Council." The lower house was composed of six members from each county, and was styled the " General Assembly." It was to be composed of "men of most note for their virtue, wisdom and ability." The executive authority was vested in the Governor and Council, who were charged with the execution of the laws, the care of the public peace, the establishment and order of public schools, institution of courts of justice, &c, &c. Members of the legislature were chosen by ballot, and every freeman of the province was entitled to vote. All laws for the raising of revenue, and other purposes, were enacted by the representatives of the people. The estates of aliens were to descend to their legal representatives, in the same way as the estates of citizens, and all the settlers were at liberty to fish, fowl, and hunt, without restriction, on their own lands, and all others not inclosed ; the proprietor reserving no privileges as chief lord of the fee, or as governor. All persons acknowledging one Supreme Creator, and holding themselves obliged in conscience to live peaceably and justly, should in no ways be molested or prejudiced for their religious pursuasion ; nor be compelled to frequent or maintain any religious worship, place, or ministry whatever.

Thus Perm faithfully redeemed the pledge, which, two years before, he had given to the inhabitants of bis province, in a letter dated a short time after his grant from the king. " You shall be governed by laws of your own making, and live a free, and, if you will, a sober and industrious people. I shall not usurp the right of any, or oppress his person. God has furnished me with abetter resolution, and has given me his grace to keep it. In short, whatever sober and free men, can reasonably desire, for the security and improvement of their own happiness, I shall heartily comply with"

The most ancient, and indeed almost the only monument remaining, to show that there ever was a Swedish colony on our shore, is the old Swede's Church on the bank of the Christina.* Very few of their old dwelling houses remain. Their posterity, a mixed race, cannot now be distinguished from their fellowcitizens. Their language is so entirely lost, that it is doubtful whether they possess a single individual who can read or speak it. But there stands their venerable old church ; with solemn aspect, silently, but expressively bearing testimony to the existence and piety of a generation that has passed away forever. And there is their grave-yard, where repose the mortal remains of those who formed the first enduring settlement on the Delaware ; and where probably some of their bones have rested more than two hundred years. There lies all that could die of a community that connects our country directly with ancient Scandinavia, a region which more than one thousand years ago poured its victorious legions over all the countries of western and southern Europe, and whose blood is now largely mingled with that of the most polished nations of the world.

When the colony under Minuit landed on the point of rocks, and settled the beautiful bank between it and the Brandywine, one of their first cares was to provide a house for divine worship

* The church at Wicaco was built about two years after the one at Christina. It is yet standing, a more elegant structure than ours, but U wants the majestic simplicity of Hs older and only companion.

It was built within the walls of the fort, and stood perhaps within thirty yards of the Christina. A clergyman came with them, and officiated there till his death in 1643. On this spot all the Swedes about Christina met for religious purposes until the erection of the Church at Crane-hook. This church was not built until the year 1GG7, twelveyears after the conquest of New Sweden by the Dutch, and three years after the whole country had been subjected to the British government. Nicholas Collin, in his notes on the memoirs of Rudraan, among the records at "VVicaco, informs us that " when many of the Dutch families had joined in the Swedish worship, a small church was built at Crane-hook, about one and a half miles from the fort, on the south side of the creek ; being convenient for the Dutch at New Castle." In another place he says, speaking of the Swedes, " their mild virtues also changed their former foes, the Dutch, into friends; so that they became members of their church. This happened the more easily, as the Hollanders had no clergyman, nor church of their own. They were of the Reformed Protestant communion, not very different from the Lutheran. Their respective languages are in a great measure congenial.* By these fortunate circumstances the Swedes were the more able to preserve their own religious manners and language, and thereby to keep alive their affection for the mother country."

The Crane-hook church stood on a beautiful spot close to the shore of the Delaware, so that the people from New Castle and Raccoon creek, as well as those on the banks of the Christina and Brandywine could come almost to the church door in their boats ; a great convenience at a time when there were no riding carriages in the country, and perhaps few roads, and no bridges across the creeks and rivulets. But since that time extensive ilats, lying outside of the green plot of upland on which the church stood, have been inclosed by banks, so that a boat.

could not now float within a furlong of it. A few years since on a visit to this spot, which was pointed out by Peter Alrich, (a descendant of the second Dutch governor after the conquest) no tombstone or other trace of the grave-yard could be discovered. The church, which was a wooden one, was entirely gone. The only vestiges of the building were four large hornblende rocks, which had served for corner stones, to raise the house above the earth. These must have been brought from some distance. The ground in the immediate vicinity is alluvial, affording no stone of that kind. The building and grave-yard occupied a piece of ground on which is at present an orchard. It is on a farm near the plantation of Peter Ahich, and directly north of the old brick mansion, formerly Stidham's. Susanna Alrich, who died twenty-five years since, at an advanced age, said she could well remember the remains of the old church.