is singular and curious that it should have received the same name from two persons of different nations, each giving it his own; for Thomas West, Lord Delaware, is also said to have discovered and given his name to this river. The bay has also been known as New Port May and Godyn's Bay.1 Captain Cornelis Jacobsen Mey, [1614] commanding the Fortune owned by Hoorn, a merchant of Amsterdam, under authority of the States General of Holland, in company with other vessels, proceeded on an exploring expedition to the mouth of Manhattan river, whence his companions sailed eastward, but Mey south and arrived at Delaware bay; from him the eastern cape was called Cape May, and the western cape Cornelis, the principal cape being named Hinlopen, either after a town in Friesland, or after Ilmer Hinlop.2 The cape now called Henlopen was then Cornelis. On the return of the fleet, Captain Hendrickson, commanding the Onrust (Restless), went to the Delaware for a more minute examination of the coast, and for information regarding the country, as well as the native trade. This year, [1618] Lord Delaware, died off the Western Isles, or as some say, off the capes of Delaware, on a voyage from England to Virginia. There was some suspicion that he had been poisoned.2 The great West India Company was chartered this year, [1621] under whose power and government the first settlements on the Delaware were made. The charter may be seen in Hazard's Historical Collections, I. pp. 121-131, 149, 181. Concurrent testimony, which may be seen in Hazard's Annals of Pennsylvania, fixes upon this year [1623] as the date of the first European settlement on the Delaware. Captain Mey, (the same who is mentioned above) in virtue of an agreement made between the managers and adventurers of the West India Company, and sanctioned by the States General, was jointly with Adrian Jorisz Tienpont placed at the head of a new expedition to America and duly provided with the necessaries, safely reached the Delaware on board of the ship "New Netherlands." Ascending the river about 15 leagues from its mouth, he built Fort Nassau on the Eastern Shore, at a place called Techaacho, upon or near Sassackon, now Timber Creek, which empties into the Delaware a few miles below Coaquenaku, now Philadelphia. There are no data to determine the duration of Mey's stay, or the nature of his operations. Peter Minnewit, a native of Wesel, on the Rhine, was appointed director of New Netherland, and leaving the Texel January 9th, 1626, landed at New Amsterdam on May 4th, of the same year. His first official act consisted in purchasing the site of modern New York, the ancient New Amsterdam, from the Indians for the sum of 60 Dutch guilders or 24 dollars gold, unquestionably, as Kapp observes,1 the best land speculation ever made in New York or in America. Minnewit, who placed the new colony on a firm foundation, and greatly promoted its growth by his judicious measures, continued in office until 1632, when he returned to Holland. During this year the charter of the Swedish West India Company, upon the plan of the Dutch West India Company, was obtained [June 14th, 1626,] at the instance of William Usselinx, an Antwerp merchant and original projector of the latter, from Gustavus Adolphus, King of Sweden. Usselinx took this course in consequence of his disappointment in the conduct of the managers of the Dutch Company. The Charter of the Swedish Company is printed in the "Argonautica Gustaviana,” (a very rare work, the only copy known to be in this country, is in the library of Harvard College) and a summary of it may be seen in Hazard's Annals of Pennsylvania, p. 16-sq. 2 "In 1629, the West India company granted, by charter, special privileges to all persons who should plant any colony in New Netherlands; giving to the patroon, or founder, exclusive property in large tracts of land, with extensive manorial and seigniorial rights. Thus encouraged, several of the directors, among whom Goodyn, Bloemært, Pauuw, and Van Renselær, were most distinguished, resolved to make large territorial acquisitions, and sent out Wouter Van Twiller, of Niewer Kerck, a clerk of the Amsterdam department of the company, to direct its public affairs, and to make a selection of lands for the benefit of individual directors. "One of the three ships which came over in 1629, visited an Indian village on the south-west corner of Delaware bay, and purchased from the three chiefs of the resident tribe, in behalf of the Heer Godyn, a tract of land, extending from Cape Hinloop to the mouth of the river, being in length thirty-two, and in breadth two, English miles. In the succeeding year, several extensive purchases were made, for Godyn and Bloemært, from nine Indian chiefs, of land at Cape May, in length sixteen miles along the bay and sixteen miles in breadth; for the director Pauuw, Staten Island and a large tract on the western side of the Hudson, in the neighborhood of Hoboken; and for Van Renselær, very extensive tracts along the river, above and below Fort Orange. The impolicy of these large and exclusive appropriations was subsequently felt and condemned, and their ratification seems to have been obtained by admitting other directors to participate in them. The territory of Godyn was denominated Swanwendel (Valley of Swans), that of Pauuw, Pavonia, and that of Van Renselær, Renselærwick. 1 Geschichte der deutschen Einwanderung, etc. 3 Gordon. "For the purpose of prosecuting their plans of colonization, the above named and several other directors entered into an association, to which they admitted, on equal terms, David Pieterson De Vries, an experienced and enterprising navigator. Their immediate design was to colonize the Delaware river; to cultivate tobacco and grain, and to establish a whale and seal fishery. The command of the vessels appointed to carry out the colonists, was given to De Vries, who left the Texel on the 12th December, 1630, and arrived in the Delaware bay in the course of the winter. He found the country deserted by Europeans. Fort Nassau was abandoned, and in possession of the Indians. Captain Mey had departed, bearing with him the affections and regrets of the natives, who long cherished his memory. De Vries and his companions selected a spot on Lewis' creek, (called by the Dutch Hoerne Kill,) for their settlement, and unimpeded by the season, which he reports as uncommonly mild, they erected a house, surrounded with palisades, and called it Fort Oplandt, serving as a fort, a house of commerce, and place of rendezvous. The whole plantation, as included within the limits of Godyn's purchase, extended to the Little Tree corner, or Boompjes Hoeck, corrupted into Bombay Hook. "On the return of De Vries to Holland, the colony was left under the command of Giles Osset, who set upon a post or pillar the arms of the States General, painted on tin, in evidence of their claim and possession. An Indian, ignorant of the object of this exhibition, and, perhaps, unconscious of the right of exclusive property, appropriated to his own use this honored symbol. The folly of Osset considered this offence, not only as a larceny, but as a national insult; and he urged his complaints and demands for redress, with so much vehemence and importunity, that the harrassed and perplexed tribe brought him the head of the offender. This was a punishment which Osset neither wished nor had foreseen, and he ought justly to have dreaded its consequences. In vain he reprehended the severity of the Indians, and told them, had they brought the delinquent to him, he would have been dismissed with a reprimand. The love of vengeance, inseparable from the Indian character, sought a dire gratification; and, though the death of the culprit was doomed and executed by his own tribe, still they beheld its cause in the exaction of the strangers. Availing themselves of the season in which a greater part of the Dutch were engaged in the cultivation of the fields, at a distance from their house, the Indians entered it, under the amicable pretence of trade, and murdered the unsuspicious Osset, with a single sentinel, who attended him. Thence proceeding to the fields, they fell upon the laborers, in the moment of exchanging friendly salutations, and massacred every individual. This conduct of the Indians, with its extenuating circumstances, as related by themselves to De Vries, is sufficiently atro cious; but it is neither improbable nor inconsistent with the disposition the aborigines had frequently displayed towards foreigners, that the desire of possessing the white man's wealth was as powerful a stimulant to violence as the thirst for vengeance. "In December, 1632, De Vries again arrived from Holland. He found no vestiges of his colonists, save the ashes of their dwelling, and their unburied carcasses. Attracted by the firing of a cannon, the savages approached his vessel with guilty hesitation. But having at length summoned courage to venture on board, they gave a circumstantial narrative of the destruction of his people. De Vries deemed it politic to pardon what he could not safely punish; and was, moreover, induced, by the pacific disposition of his employers, to seek reconciliation. He made a new treaty with the Indians, and afterwards, with a view to obtain provisions, ascended the river above Fort Nassau. He had nearly fallen a victim here to the perfidy of the natives. Pretending to comply with his request, they directed him to enter the Timmerkill creek (Cooper's,) which furnished a convenient place for an attack, but warned by a female of the tribe of their design, and that a crew of a vessel (supposed to be from Virginia) had been there murdered, he returned to Fort Nassau, which he found filled with savages. They attempted to surprise him, more than forty entering his vessel; but, aware of their intention, he ordered them ashore with threats, declaring that their Mannetto, or Great Spirit, had revealed their wickedness. But subsequently, pursuing the humane and pacific policy which had hitherto distinguished him, he consented to the wishes they expressed, of forming a treaty of amity, which was confirmed with the customary presents on their part; but they declined his gifts, saying they did not now give presents that they might receive others in return. "Failing to procure the necessary provision, De Vries, leaving part of his crew in the bay to prosecute the whale fishery, sailed to Virginia, where, as the first visiter from New Netherlands, he was kindly received, and his wants supplied. Upon his return to the Delaware, [April, 1633,] finding the whale fishery unsuccessful, he hastened his departure, and with the other colonists returned to Holland, visiting Fort Amsterdam on his way. Thus, at the expiration of twenty-five years from the discovery of the Delaware by Hudson, not a single European remained upon its shores." Director Minnewit, suspected to have favored the claims of the patroons, having been recalled, left the now flourishing colony of New Amsterdam in the spring of this year, [1632.] The same year Lord Baltimore obtained a grant for Maryland, under which he claimed the lands on the west side of Delaware River, the fruitful source of continual controversies between him and the Dutch, and later with the Pennsylvania proprietaries, which were not settled for more than one hundred and thirty years. After his death, the patent was, in 1633, confirmed to his son. The extent of the grant will be seen from the following proceedings and description:1 "By letters patent of this date, reciting the petition of Cecilius, Lord Baltimore, for a certain country thereinafter described, not then cultivated and planted, though in some parts thereof inhabited by certain barbarous people, having no knowledge of Almighty God, his majesty granted to said Lord Baltimore: "All that part of a peninsula lying in the parts of America between the ocean on the east, and the bay of Chesapeake on the west, and divided from the other part thereof by a right line drawn from the promontory or cape of land called Watkins's Point, (situate in the aforesaid bay, near the River of Wigheo) on the west, unto the main ocean on the east; and between that bound on the south, unto that part of Delaware Bay on the north which lieth under the 40th degree of north latitude from the equinoctial, where New England ends; and all that tract of land between the bounds aforesaid; i. e., passing from the aforesaid bay called Delaware Bay, in a right line by the degree aforesaid, unto the true meridian of the first fountain of the River of Pattoumeck, and from thence trending towards the south unto the further bank of the aforesaid river, and following the west and south side thereof, unto a certain place called Cinquack, situate near the mouth of the said river, where it falls into the Bay of Chesapeake, and from thence by a straight line unto the aforesaid promontory and place called Watkins's Point." It does not appear that actual steps towards the settling of the banks of the Delaware were taken until 1638, and the authentic notices of transactions belonging to the interval which have come down to us, are not of sufficient moment to be chronicled in this place. Peter Minnewit, after his return to Holland, went to Sweden and succeeded in reviving the plan of colonizing the Delaware, abandoned by Usselinx, who is supposed to have died at the Hague in 1647. Towards the close of 1637, Minnewit, at the head of an expedition consisting of the ship of war "Key of Calmar" and the transport "Bird Grip," and carrying a clergyman, an engineer, about fifty settlers, with the necessary provisions, merchandise for trade and presents to the Indians, left Gottenburg, and after calling at Jamestown, in Virginia for wood and water, reached the Delaware about May, 1638. Purchasing the soil on the western shore from the Capes to the falls of Sankikans, opposite to the present city of Trenton, from the Indians, he erected the fort and town of Christina, on the north bank of the Minquaskill. The Rev. Reorus Torkillus, who accompanied Minnewit, was the first Swedish clergyman 1 E. Hazard's Hist. Coll. I. 337. |