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The general designation of Leni Lenape which in our language means the original peo- ; Huffington.
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HISTORY OF DELAWARE.
The government of the Indians was by chiefs whom they denominated sachems. Each tribe had one as its head. They had counsellors, orators and councils. Everything of import- ance, as war, peace, and sales of land, was transacted in the council to which all the males of the tribe were admitted who had arrived at years of discretion, or period of early manhood ; but the aged and the counsellors and orators had, after the sachem. the pre-emi- nence. Runners were dispatched to inform the distant members of the tribe of the fact and time of meeting. Treaties were concluded, if of peace, by giving to the party with whom it was made a lighted pipe of tobacco, which, when smoked, finally sealed the agreement.
Their dress was of skins for winter, and is thus described by the celebrated John Smith of Virginia who, in 1608, the year before Hudson discovered our bay, and eight years before Hendrickson's Restless explored our waters, met them on the North East, and the Elk rivers in Cecil County. Md., at the time : of his explorations on the head waters of the Chesapeake and when but a few miles from the Delaware line. His description of the Indian, as then in full dress, is quaint and very striking. We give it it in its original orthoepy. "Their attire is the Skinnes of beares and wolves, some have cossacks made of beares heads and skinnes that a man's head goes through the skinnes, neck and ears of the bear fastened to the shoulder, the nose and teeth hanging down his breast, another beares face, split, behind him, at the end of the nose (the bears we sup- pose) hung a pawe of the beare, the half sleeves coming to elbows were the necks of beares, and the arms through the mouth (of the bear skins we suppose) with pawes hanging at their noses " * * * tobacco pipe, bows, arrows and clubs " suitable to their greatness," and you have the winter dress of the Indian at the head of that bay, and we suppose the distance of a few miles did not alter the fashion in dress of Nanticoke or Minquas. Their women, ac- cording to Campanius spun thread and yarn out of nettles, hemp, and some plants unknown to the white man. He speaks of a dress worn by Governor Printz, consisting of coat, breeches and belt, "made by these barbarians," which cost "some thousand pieces of gold," and we suppose the summer dress of the Indians, in great part, was of a stuff prepared by their women.
The domestic life of these people is sugges- ted by the position in which woman was placed in the social scale. She was the Indian's only beast of burden. She reared his children, raised his corn, cooked his game, and sepawn, a kind of hasty pudding made of corn ground between stones, or beaten in a mortar by her hands ; and spun and prepared the material of his garments, when not made of skins. When the Indian youth arrived at the age of seven - teen or eigteen summers or winters, he selected | his wife or wives ; for polygamy was a custom among them ; and she or they were expected to be in constant attendance upon him when not on the war path or engaged in the council, or in the pursuit of game. If guilty of infideli- ty toward him, she or they were put away, with blows, and another. or others, takeu to supply the place or places. Some manly feats, however, in hunting or war was the usual preliminary, or aboriginal curriculum passed though before he could wive very extensively, Tor indeed at all ; and thus graduate to the head of a wigwam. We live now to smile at the thought that any manliness enters into the question at all ; "love " being the only fitness ; and proof of manhood in industrial or profess- ional success before marriage, the modern novel treats as a "delusion and a snare." So that while our laws prohibit polygamy, yet too often one women is by marriage to a blank incompetent, conducted to a boarding house, or to a misery and degradation below that ordinarily reached by a squaw in the wigwam of the red Leni Lenape !
Their dwellings were of tree-branches inter- laced with bark, or covered with mats made of the leaves of the maize ; a pole was set up in the middle of the tent, with a hole at the top for letting out the smoke, and at the foot of the pole was a large, flat stone on which the fire was built ; mats were strewed on tlie ground on which they sat, and ate, or slept. When their young women arrived at marriage- able age, which was early, they indicated by their head dress that they were maiden candi- dates awaiting offers. Before marriage they remained with their mothers, assisting in the labors of the household in which they were carefully instructed. When she married, her altered dress told of the fact, and her manner of painting her face, also. When a child was born, it was dressed very simply,
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HISTORY OF DELAWARE.
and bound on a board a little longer than itself, slung to its mother's back when she traveled, hung up on the swaying branches of a tree when she rested, or laid flat by the mother's side when she slept. This treatment was continued until the time of learning to walk arrived. The food of the Indian was the game of the forests, and the fish of the streams, together with bread and pudding made of corn crushed between two stones. The bread was made into cakes of of this meal, and baked, after being wrapped up in corn leaves, by putting them in the hot ashes strewed over with live coals. The pud- ding was made and boiled in the kettle which was the one cooking utensil of his culinary department. War, hunting and fishing were his only occupations. For these pursuits he was always prepared. Bows, arrows, war clubs of wood, and hatchets of stone, were always at hand and were always found on his person.
His fish were obtained by spearing them, sometimes with a javelin of reed, oftener with an arrow shot from the bow, which rarely failed to transfix the fish seen by the marksman as it flashed through the deeper or shallower waters.
In the' pursuit of war their keenest suscep- tibilities were aroused and exerted. They were cruel in the treatment of their prisoners, burning them at the stake, or mutilating them horribly until death came to their relief. Mur- der, however, was very uncommon among them ; and theft and lying were only less heinous than cowardice. This, with the Leni Lenape, was the crime of crimes. Among the Ancients, it is said, " he who is guilty of ingrati- tude can be guilty of but one sin, for that includes all others;" with him cowardice was thus regarded ; and he was approximately right, since theft and lying are but forms of cowardice. Hence had grown up among them, even at that time, the typical manhood express- ed in calling their warriors braves. They had fortifications and, sometimes, their villages were surrounded by palisades ; yet they did not possess iron implements of any kind among the Minquas or Nanticokes, according to all we can learn of them. Their boats or canoes were made of bark of the cedar and birch ; sometimes from a log of cedar and hollowed out by the action of fire. In religion they acknowledged a Supreme Being. They wor-
shipped with lamentable cries and strange contortions, offering sacrifices of meat, fish, fruits and tobacco. They were believers in a conscious and immortal future life, and located their Heaven beyond the setting sun, in the far distant west. When an Indian died, they put in or about his grave the most precious articles, that he might be provided for on his journey, and when he arrived at its end. The body was interred in a sitting posture, the grave nearly round, and there were fixed the memorials that told of his prowess. Such is an out-line sketch of the Aborigines, whose wondering eyes and kindly hospitalities met the Captain and crew of the Restless as their feet. believed to be those of the first Europeans. which press- ed the soil of Delaware as pioneers in recorded history.
CHAPTER V.
The Hoornekill-Formation of Dutch West India Company-Fort Nassau-Purchase of Land Deed for- Extent of Purchase- De Vries, Godyn, Blomart and Van Rensselaer, purchase land in New Jersey-Whale Fishing -Swanendalc.
HE Dutch settlement on the Hoornekill began in 1631.
Before reciting this event, it will be satisfactory to notice a few historical movements, leading up to the settlement.
When the fleet that left Holland early in the year 1614 returned and gave their report and showed their map, the States General gave to Captains Mey, De With, Block and Volker- sten, united into one company, a new license, allowing them to navigate and trade for five voyages during a period of three years ; be- ginning with January 1, 1615.
The region allotted to them lay between 40 and 45 degrees of latitude, a tract they had themselves explored and described, including a faithful delineation of the Hudson river as far as Albany, which region they called New Netherlands.
From the documents giving this information, we learn why the fleet divided at Manhattan and pursued their discoveries in different direc- . tions, north and south, and why they were in such haste to get back to Holland.
As Mey left Hendrickson to explore the Delaware, another, doubtless, was sent up the
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HISTORY OF DELAWARE.
Hudson. Whilst Hendrickson tarried long on the Delaware, the Hudson explorer must have rejoined his companions on the way or in Hol- land, early enough to place his sketch of the river on their map, and the Providence must have been designedly favorable, since they crossed the ocean and returned with their new discoveries in time to secure a signature to their new charter so early as the 11th October of the same year.
As Hendrickson had not returned to tell of the Delaware, that locality. is not included in the grant, and it is likely that Hendrickson's claim of privileges and rewards for discovery was disregarded, or at least delayed, because the charter of the other company was still in force, of which, he might be considered, in some sense, an employe. .
Although the discovery of the Delaware was known in 1616, no evidence appears that Mey's company traded there, and their privileges ex- pired by limitation in the year 1618.
Voyaging, exploring and trading must have .gone on, licensed or unlicensed, but by whom and with what fortune or misfortune, we have no records to show. till we come to the great .event, wide-spreading in its influence, of 1621.
This was the formation of " the Dutch West India Company ;" West India, as they persist- ed in calling America, it being in contrast with the East Indies.
It was a commanding Institution ; and when, after a year or two spent in preparation, it en- tered fully upon its work, swallowed up all the other companies and unions, and took possession of all the points of traffic in the New Nether- lands. It was invested by the States General, with almost unlimited authority, and the large- est executive offices, even to make war and peace, to form contracts and alliances, and maintain the administration of government ; while to its use also was made over, exclusive navigation and trading on all the West coast of Africa, together with the whole Eastern coast of North and South America.
Before the company was fully organized with regulations, capital, ships and seamen, to enter upon their privileges, they gave special licenses to individuals to trade on our coasts, not only within the old boundaries of 40 to 45 degrees, but they might go to adjacent territories, in- cluding a great river, lying between 38 and 40 degrees of latitude. This was, doubtless, the Delaware, thus showing that the discoveries of Capt. Hendrickson were then known and confirmed. Into the Delaware these pushing traders came, who, in coming, went so far out of their way as to be discovered, it is thought, by the Virginia Settlers, through whom infor- mation was sent to the Virginia Company in England This Company made influential com- plaints to the English government against the French and the Dutch for invading their rights on the Delaware and the Hudson.
Up to this period the whole Delaware Bay and River was without European inhabitant or fortification, and the West India Company having determined to use that region as well as Manhattan, for a trading ground, the design of the company in what follows, is clearly seen.
In 1623, our old friend Capt. Mey makes his appearance again, and leaves ample traces of his visitation to our waters, and now as an agent of the great company.
A ship called the New Netherlands was fitted out, under the command of Capt. Mey, with Adrien Jones Tienport as colleague di- rector, and dispatched, with other vessels, carrying colonists' stores, provisions, muni- tions of war, and every necessary implement directly to the Delaware. Instead of settling on the bay, they sailed up the river nearly as. high as Philadelphia, and neglecting the fer- tile lands of the Delaware side, took to the sandy downs of New Jersey, on Timber creek, not far from where Gloucester now stands ; here landing and erecting their log fort, which they called Fort Nassau, a name well known in their Fatherland.
It was not designed as a colony, but a sim- The company was divided into five Cham- bers, of which the principal was at Amster- ple guard and storehouse for their trade with the Indians It was located as near as possi- dam. The governing Board consisted of nine- | ble to Manhattan, to keep up a connection teen members, called the College of Nineteen; with that older settlement and act as its out- of which Amsterdam furnished eight, the post of observation and defence ; but it proved States General one, and the other parts of too close to that attractive spot ; for the garri- Holland the remainder. The charter was son, feeling their situation to be too solitary, signed in June, to go into effect the Ist of July. in the dull business season, gradually slipped
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HISTORY OF DELAWARE.
away by a cross-cut, to the livelier Manhattan settlement ; except, perhaps, a few vagabonds, who hung about in the savages' wigwams, or loafed on the little streams, or found shelter amid the ruins of the fortification.
In 1633, De Vries found it abandoned : but shortly after, Walter Van Twiller, the gover- nor of Manhattan, seems to have repaired and remanned the fort, which in 1635 made a suc- cessful resistance when besieged by some Eng- lish adventurers.
It is highly probable that constant inter- course was kept up between the Hudson and the Delaware, by which the value of the latter region for settlements and commerce was re- vealed, besides the discovery that its ocean waters abounded in the fish that made it valu- able as a whale fishery. This increased know- ledge of the Delaware, added to the desire of strengthening the southern boundaries of New Netherland, led the West India Company to make some new offers to such as would plant colonies, including the privilege of sending agents in their ships to view the country and select lands for purposes of settlement.
Moved by their liberal terms, two Dutch gentlemen, Samuel Godyn, a merchant of Am- sterdam, and Samuel Blomaert, were induced to enter upon an enterprise that proved to us of notable advantage. Early in the year 1629, three ships sailed from Holland to Man- hattan, whence, according to contract, one of them was dispatched to the Delaware, carry- ing the agents of Godyn and Blomaert, to make a suitable purchase of land.
In the month of May, the vessel arrived on the Delaware side of the bay, and discerning a native village near Cape Henlopen, on the beautiful Lewes creek, came to and cast anchor in what was considered the safest roadstead in all the bay. The strangers were well received by the natives, and as they landed with a demonstration of flags, music, and the noise of cannon, they were met by three chiefs, with their followers, in corresponding array, of bril- liant paint and feathers, with shouts of surprise and welcome. If these are the same chiefs who afterward, at Manhattan, witnessed the deed of sale, we can give to the curious the names of these Delaware aborigines, to be transmitted, if it is liked, to the present race, who may rejoice to be called Quescacous, or Entquet, or Siconesius. The agents, after
taking the necessary time, and making suitable investigation, concluded a purchase of land. The bargain was made with these chiefs, in behalf of the native commonalty and their heirs ; and it may be recorded with pride, that the first grant of territory in Delaware to Europeans, was honestly bought and paid for, to the full satisfaction of the natives, by value received, in the shape of " certain parcels of cargoes." Of this sale, a solemn deed was made on the 15th July, 1630, the year follow- ing, at Fort Amsterdam, in the presence of the chiefs, and was there signed and sealed, by the Dutch Governor, Minuet, the Directors and Council of New Netherlands, and. the Sheriff, Jan Lampe.
It is edifying to observe how carefully this deed is worded, to guard themselves from all the tricks of aboriginal lawyers ; how it abounds in all those delicate roundings of law and technicalities so dear to the profession ; holding those eloquent repetitious words needed to prevent misunderstanding, indica- ting that the dictionary of synonyms had been thoroughly ransacked for their discovery. Further, to secure this instrument against native acuteness and learning, it was not thought sufficient to impound it in the low Dutch of the period, but, as a double safe- guard, a whole sentence of seven words in law Latin was introduced into the body of the document ; and the closing sentences bound the grantors against reserving or retaining, any, even the smallest part, whether of prop- erty, command or jurisdiction, but, forever and a day, they must desist and retire from, aban- don and renounce the same ; promising to ob- serve, steadfast and unbroken and irrevocable, and maintain the said parcel of land against every one, and to deliver free of controversary, gainsay and contradictions, all in good faith, without guile or deceit.
It has been thought fit to give time and words to the consideration of this document, because it is the first deed given for the first purchase of land in Delaware, and its careful wording may be taken as an instance of wise and fatherly forecast, to be followed by sub- sequent settlements. It may, also, be looked upon as a monument to the supposed legal sagacity of the natives ; and if there is a squinting at some fear of reservation or double dealing on the part of the Sachems, it must be
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HISTORY OF DELAWARE.
remembered that the directors were acting for ' Holland, as well as a skillful seaman, who had absent Patroons. Then, too, there being no just returned with much renown, from a pro - military command on the Delaware to enforce tracted residence in the East Indies. and make them faithful, the power of words He was at first offered the commandership and the place of second Patroon, but being sensible of his own merits and aware of the perils and responsibilities of the enterprise, he declined the business, unless admitted to an equality with the other principals. When this demand was readily agreed to, he entered with zeal and ability upon the proposed expedition. was put forth ; and for fear the language of their High Mightinesses, the States General of Holland, although moulded in most stentorian shapes of jaw-breaking legality, might not prove sufficiently forceful, that Latin sentence was thrown in, that the Leni Lenapes might hear the high-treading tongue of the Ancient Romans of military fame, at which, in turn, every nation of the earth had trembled ; and tremble likewise !
A more serious and becoming reason for expending words on this deed of sale, remains, in the consideration of its real, profound im - portance, both legal and historical, in connec- tion with the settlement founded on it, to the existence of Delaware, as a separate, inde- pendent State in our great Union. Bancroft, Vol. II, testifies " that the voyage of De Vries," to be spoken of immediately, "was the cradling of a State ; and that Delaware exists as a separate commonwealth, is due to the colony he brought and planted on her shores." If occupancy, as well as discovery, be necessary to complete a title, here it is found; and although the colony was soon swept out of being. yet the existence of the colony, in union with the carefully worded and well preserved deed, dated three years before the Maryland Patent was granted to Lord Balti- more, operated as an impregnable bulwark against his claim to the territories of Delaware, to be incorporated into the colony and terri- tory of Maryland.
The tract of land thus purchased, extended along the bay and river from Cape Henlopen for 32 miles, having an interior breadth of half a league, comprising a considerable part of the bay front of Kent and Sussex counties.
When this purchase had been made and secured by the deed of sale, Godyn and Blom- aert entered into company with Van Rens- selaer, De Laet and De Vries, to whom several others were afterward added, who took mea- sure's for the immediate planting of a colony in the purchased territory.
A ship of war, of 18 guns, commanded by Peter Hays, and a yacht, were fitted out, in which upwards of 30 colonists embarked, fur- nished with provisions, and freighted with agricultural implements and seeds for raising wheat and tobacco. In addition, they brought apparatus for catching and taking care of whales, of which our coast was reported to have large numbers, the oil from which being worth sixty (60) guilders per hogshead in Hol- land at that time.
We have reason to believe that the number of these majestic creatures was exaggerated ; or that they have been since routed by mon- sters in the shape of clipper ships and steam- ers. a style of sea monsters we greatly prefer for neighbors. Perhaps, indignant, that we refuse to enlighten our darkness from what they can furnish, they have forsaken our ungrateful shores, leaving us to the tender mercies of gas, kerosene and electricity.
The expedition, now furnished with every necessary that care and money could provide, set sail from the Texel, that famous starting place, off the coast of Holland; but with whatever hopes they started, the ultimate ex- pectations of the settlers were never realized. Embarking the 12th of December, 1630, they. had a wintry voyage before them, but they must have been favored by winds and waves, to reach the Delaware, as they did, in April or May. But whatever rough experience in privations and close quarters they necessarily endured on the way, a wide berth on a smiling, warm and flowery shore, awaited to give a friendly welcome to the far-comers.
They passed what is now the Sussex coast, looking into Indian river, the inlet and Reho- both bay, rounding Cape Henlopen and sailing
De Vries was the naval commander of the expedition. He was a native and resident of over the Breakwater till they arrived at Lewes Hoorne, a port in North Holland, on the Zuy- creek, which was named Hoornekill, from the der Zee, well-known in the military service of native place of their commander, where they
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HISTORY OF DELAWARE.
landed and settled. As Fort Nassau was at | for the year, and as a shelter and a place of this time abandoned, these were the only Europeans on either side of the bay and river, and this settlement preceded any in Pennsyl- vania and New Jersey, for Fort Nassau, as we have said, was not intended as a colony by its builders.
If any wonder is raised at their choosing this spot, on which to begin the founding of a colony, that wonder will be diminished by learning the superior advantages of the local- ity, over its present condition ; nor will com- mercial men find fault with a selection that embraced a superb harbor in connection with nearness to the open sea. This was the region afterward called Paradise, and the creek was Flower river. It was navigable a great way inland ; being two hundred paces broad at the mouth, and somewhat higher up twice as wide, having, also, a fine outside roadstead for ships of all burdens, close to the Delaware channel, and the safest and most convenient in all the bay.
Two small islands gave the creek additional beauty and value, near which, on the muddy bottom of the creek, lodged oysters of the very best kind. Who can tell but that it was on these beds Wm. Penn obtained those on which he feasted 50 years later, declaring them six inches long and very delicious ?
"The like of the soil," he says, "was no ' where else to be found," and to crown the blessings of the spot, a glorious spring of fresh water sent out a small rill, which, after de- scending the hill, made its way, through the soil, to empty into the creek.
The great abundance of wild swans giving life and liveliness to the waters, may have been an additional charm; at least they were a substantial feature on both sides of the river, sufficient to give a name to the two localities of Swansdale.
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