USA > Delaware > History of Delaware : 1609-1888 > Part 9
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Among the very first to act under the Charter of Exemptions and Privileges were Samuel Blom- maert and Samuel Godwyn. in 1629 they sent two persons to the Delaware to examine and buy
on the south (or west) side of the bay, a tract. thirty-two miles long and two miles deep, extend- ing from old Cape Henlopen (about where the south boundary of Delaware touches the ocean), northward, to the mouth of a river, the patent being registered and confirmed June 1, 1630.1 Other would-be patrons soon followed the example of Blommaert and Godwyn, and made similar pur- chases elsewhere in New Netherlands, Van Rens-e- laer becoming the proprietor of nearly all of the present Counties of Albany and Rensselaer in New York, while their comrades secured almost equally extensive, and in some cases even more valuable estates. But these lords of the soil began to quar- rel among themselves, and to avoid exposure and scandal (for the land " pool" kad much to fear because of the peculiar nature of its transactions), they divided the lands equally among the disaf- fected ones of their number, the historian, De Lact, Blommaert and Godyn, each receiving a fifth in-
1 Thns tru bor Lind was the first ever purchased by the whites with the limits of the State of Delaware. Tins first purchase from the In- dians was recognized by the Intretors and Council of New Netherlands w ting tor Samuel Godyn and samuel Blommaert, in a so-called deed dated at the I-bunt of Minhattan July 17, 10 This document, which Is rather an arreptance ut metniandum of purchase than a deed, being unsigned by the Indiatu grantors, has been preserved in the New Ynth State Library and a photographie copy was given to the Historial Society of Delaware by tien. Meredith Read. It has also been published in Hazard's Annals, p 23. It is injursible at this day to determine the lumials of the tiart but it must have comprised the greater part of the bay front of the present counties of Sussex and kent from Cape Hen- lopen northward being thirty-two nubes (eight Dutch miles long and two miles for half a Dutch groot Malen brood). The hotel produkty over-measured the law and came north to the month of the Mahon River, (s)instead of (A) mitles, and that in a straight lute instead of following the curves of the coast The document which is signed by Peter Miuint, Jacob Elbertson Wissink, Jan Jansen Brouwer, Sinon Iureksen Pos, Reyher Harmersaer and Jan Lampe reuds mu part as follows:
" We, the Directors and Council of New Netherlands, residing on the Island of Manhattan and in Fort Amsterdam, under the authority of their Hugh Mightnesses the Lord - State General of the United Nether- Janis, and of the Investporated West India Company Chambert at Am- sterdam, hereby acknowledge and declare, that on this day, the date underwritten, cats and ageand befar us in their proper jepsen, Queskacons and Entquet, siconesius and the inhabitants of the village. sitnate at the South Cape of the bay of South River, and freely and voluntarily des lated by special authority of the rulers, and content of the community there, that they already on the first day of June, of the past year lucy, for, and on account of certain parcels of cargoes, which they previous to the pursing hereot, acknowledged to have re- ceived and got into their hands and power, to their full satisfaction, have transferted, ceded, given over, and conveyed, in just, tine, and free proganty, as they hereby transport, cede, give over, and cutivey to, and for the behoof of Mosts. Samuel Godyn and Samuel Blommmieit alment ; and for whom, We, by virtue of our other under proper stipu- lation, do accept the ethie, namely, the land to them belongings, situate on the south side of the aforeand Bay, by is called the Day of the South River, extending in length from Cape Hintoffin, off into the month of the aforesaid South River, about eight league- (groote inslemt, and half a league in breadth into the interior, extending to a certene marche diste for milley, through which these limits can clearly enough be di- tit_ mished. And, that with all the ar tion, right, att jurisdiction, to them in the aforesed quality therein apportantans, constituting and sittogating the Me-sis, Godyn and Blaumaert, in then stead, state, real, and actual passt spon thereef ; and giving them at the same time. tull and irrevocable autority, gower, and special command to hold it quiet possession, a copy and use, tamquam Actores et Procuratores m rem propriam the afore -and land, acquired by the above mentione ! Messrs. Godyn and Blommaert, or those who may hereafter olatain their interest, als, to se barter and dispose thereet, as they may do with their own well and lawfully acquired land -. " .
So much of this quay derd minst anttice, the remainder bring uniques. fant and technical. The fir-Goodand Indian deed on record in Delaware is given in the preceding chapter.
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HISTORY OF DELAWARE.
terest in Van Rensselaer's patents, and Blommaert as stated by same writers) .! They arrived in South and Godyn sharing similarly with their partners the tract on the South River and Bay for Godyn's Bay, as it now began to be called ).
Godyu and Blommaert, in order to hold, or rather secure full title to their tract, had to colo- nize and improve it, and, in the accomplishment of this, David Pietersen De Vries, of Hoorn, a Nerchs Holland port, "a bold and skilful seaman and master of artillery in the service of the United Pro- vinces, became the leading instrument." De Vries, a skipper who was known to Godyn and, who in 1624, had tried, unsuccessfully, to invade the West India Company's monopoly, and now newly returned from a three years' cruise to the East Indies, way offered an opportunity to go the New Netherlands as a captain and " second patroon." But he de- clined to enter into the project on any terus save equality with the rest, which finally bemg agreed to, he was made a patroon on October 16, 1630. and taken into partnership with Godyn, Biom-
the same time four other directors of the West India Company, Van Ceulen, Hamel, Van Har- land "pool," as it would now be called. The captain now set to work to advance the enter- prise of his associates. The ship " Walvis," or " Whale," of eighteen guns, and a yacht were im- mediately equipped and sailed from the Texel, in December, 1630, to plant the first settlement within the present boundaries of the State of Delaware, a settlement which has a mournful interest, from the fact that all of its people were massacred by the Indians. The vessels carried out immigrants, cat- tle, food and whaling implements, for De Vres had been told that whales abounded in Godyn's Bay, and he intended establishing a whale and seal fishery there, as well as a settlement and plantations for the cultivation of tobacco and grain. The expedition sailed from the Texel, in December, under the command of Peter Heyes, of Edam (for De Vries did not go out at this time,
River. in April, 1631. Sailing up the southern ur west shore the " Walvis" and her consort, just above the present Cape Henlopen, entered "a fine navigable stream, filled with islands, abounding in good oysters," sud flowing through a fertile region, and there the immigrants --- about thirty in num- ber, all males -- were landed, and the first colony in Delaware e-tabli-hed. The place was near the site of Lewes, and the stream was what is now known as Lewes Creek, bet was then named, by Heves. Hoornkill, and subsequently corrupted into Whorekill or Horekill.' The settlement was called Zwaanendael or Swanvale, and a small building,' surrounded with palisades, was given the name of Fort Oplaadt. The land at Zwaanendael, or the Valley of Swans," was again purchased, evidently in a kind of confirmatory way. by Peter Heyes and Gillis Hassett, respectively the captain and commissary of the expedition, on May 5, 1631, from Sannoowouns, Wiewit, Penehacke, Mekowe- tick, Teehepewuga. Mathamem, Sacoock, Anchoop- oen, Janqueus and Pokahake, who were either Lenape or Nanticoke Indians.
Soon after the colonists were comfortably settled at Zwaannendael, Heves crossed to Cape May and bought from ten chiefs on behalf of Godyn. Blommaert and their associates a tract of land twelve miles square which purchase was registered at Manhattan June 3, 1631. Then after demonstra- ting that nothing was to be expected from the whole fishery, Heyes sailed in September for Ho!land to report to his employers, leaving Hossett in command of Fort Oplandt and the colony of Zwaanendael. Just how the massacre of the set- DAVID PIETERSEN DE VRIES. tlers came about was never known, but there is reason to believe that it was incited by wrongful or maert, De Vries and Van Rensselaer, and about at least unwise acts on the part of Hossett and his
inghoeck and Van Sittorigh, were admitted to the a pillar and placed a piece of tin upon it,
men. The Dutch says one account (given to De Vries by an Indian) as was the custom, erected traced with the coat of arms of the United Pro- vinees. One of the chief's not knowing the gravity of the offence, took away the tin to make pipes from it, which created great indignation among the officers of the little garrison. The Indians, con- tiques this narrative, were exceedingly anxious to make amends to the white men, for they enter- tained an awe and reverence scarcely inferior to that which they accorded the gods, and slaying the
"Ferris and Vinernt have buth fallen into this error, doubtless from the fact that De Vries was at the head of the enterprise and that he was afterward- on the IN lawale.
" There is that the slightest evidence that this name had its origin in the alleged ill In bivior of the Indian women of the region. It was tin. doubtedly named after Hour of Holland with the athy of " kill " the Durch fon nver, ail corrupted by the English into Whot kill which Hatus alter the arrival of Penn was apphed to all of the territory included in Sure's Contrats Cape Horn was also named after the "fatherland ' town of Hoorn by William Cornelius & houten.
. This is said to have Iyen a brick house, but there is no mention of either of the ships bringing over bricks or buick-making implements in their cargo.
1
83
DISCOVERY AND SETTLEMENT BY THE DUTCH.
offending chief brought a token of their act to the fort hoping thus to appease the white Manitou's anger. They were rebuked for this act, which they thought would prove propitiatory, and went away di-pleased. Some of the friends of the murdered chief who had taken no part in the crime and re- zarded it as being actuated by the Dutch, resolved upon revenge, and stealing upon them when with the exception of one sick man they were all at work in the fields, slew them, afterwards going to the fort and making the massacre complete by killing its solitary occupant, and shooting twenty- five arrows into a huge chained mastifl. This ac- count of the destruction of the first colony of white men within the boundaries of Delaware is open to doubt, so far as the provoking cause is concerned, but it appears certain that the whites were greatly to blame. Whatever may have been its causes the massacre was a melancholy faet, and thus was shed the first white blood upon the Delaware.
'De Vries early in 1632 had made preparations to visit the colony, inspect its condition and place more settlers there. Just as he was ready to sail from the Texel in command of another ship and yacht, on May 24, Governor Minuit arrived from Manhattan with the startling intelligence of the massaere at Zwaanendale. Notwithstanding this discouraging news he sailed, and after a tedious voyage (making their customary immense detour to the southward) arrived off the Delaware coast early in December, knowing long before he saw land that it was near " by the odor of the underwood which at this time of the year is burned by the Indians in order to be less hindered in their hunting." On
that day. Upon the next, the 7th of December, they discovered several Indians near the ruins of the fort, but they would not come down to the ship. They evidently feared to appproach and desired the whites to come on shore, which De Vries did the following day, being anxious to learn some par- ticulars of the massacre if possible. He went up the stream in the yacht in order that he might " have some shelter from their arrows," and found a number of the natives, but they were very shy, and it was some time before he could induce any of them to go on the vessel, though he finally sue- ceeded in gaining their confidence. He then re- ceived the story, already given in substance, which was very probably a fabrication designed to pal- liate the action of the Indians and at the same time to conciliate the Dutch. De Vries did not care to investigate too clearly a deed which was irrepara- ble, and which he felt assured originated in some brutality or debauchery among his own race. He already knew something of Dutch cruelty, and at- tributed the massacre of Hossett and his men to "mere jangling with the Indians" and made a treaty of peace with them and scaled it with pres- ents-duffels, bullets, hatchets and Nuremburg toys" after the usual custom.
De Vries and his inen lingered in the region of Lewes Creek through the remainder of December, attempting, it is supposed, to capture whales, but on January 1 1633, navigation being open, they weighed anchor and sailed up the bay and river to Fort Nassau, where he arrived on the 5th. There De Vries met some of the natives, who de- sired to barter furs for corn, of which, however, the 3d of December the weary voyagers saw the he had none, and was thus unable to trade with entrance of the Bay; on the 5th sailed around the them. The Indians made a show of offering peace,
Cape, and on the 6th ran with the coast up the Hoornkill, having first taken precautions against an ambushed attack by the savages. De Vries doubtless had hopes that the massacre would prove to have been of a less pending character than had been represented; that some of the men had es- caped or been spared; but he found that his worst fears had been realized and the scene that met his eyes, even before landing told too well of the fact of the settlement. The stockade had been burned and the dwelling or store house which constituted the stronghold of Fort Oplandt was nearly ruined. But the worst was reached when they came to the place where their countrymen had been butchered, when they found "the ground bestrewed with heads and bones of their murdered men, and near by the remains of their eattle. " Silence and ruin und desolation reigned in the onee lovely valley. The melancholy little search party returned to their ship, and having as yet seen no Indians, De Vries ordered a cannon fired with the hope of bringing their wicked designs On the 8th, after cruising some of them down to the shore, but none came
but their actions were suspicious, and he was warned by a squaw whom he gave a cloth dress, that their intentions were evil. He noticed, too, that some of them wore English jackets, and pres- ently learned that they had recently murdered the crew of an English sloop, said to have come np the river from Virginia, and, as they greatly out- numbered his men, the wary captain dealt with them very eantiously. On the 6th he anchored in front of the Timmer Kill (Timber Creek), fully prepared for the Indians if they intended harming him, and soon their canoes came shooting from the shore and approached the yacht. Forty odd of the natives clambered on board. Their visit was probably made with pacific intent, but they were closely watched, and when the captain thought they had been there long enough, he ordered them ashore, threatening them to fire it' they refused to depart, and telling them that he had been warned by their Manitou (God or devil) of up and down the river, he again returned to his position before the fort, which was now thronged
1 De Vries, p. 251.
3
34
HISTORY OF DELAWARE.
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with Indians, and presently a canoe came off with Two years after the departure of De Vries att his colonists from the Delaware on the 7th of Fl .. ruary, 16 ,5, the whole of the patroon lands on hop shores of the bay, one stretching along the coast thirty-two miles and the other embracing Cap May and the surrounding country for a distance of twelve miles, were sold by Godyn, Blommaert and their associates to the West India Company, for fifteen thousand six hundred guilders or sis thousand two hundred and forty dollars. Thi- was the first land sold by whites upon the Dela ware Bay or River. nine of them, who, when they came on to the yacht, were found to be chiefs. They crouched in a circle, and gave the captain to understand they had found he was afraid of them, but that they desired only peace and trade, and presented ten beaver skins, with much ceremony, in token of their friendship. On the 9th and 10th he obtained from them a small quantity of corn and a few furs, and on the latter day dropped down the river and anchored half a mile above the Minquas Kill (Christiana River), on the lookout for whales Ilis yacht was afterwards twice frozen fast in the Fort Nassan, which was unoccupied except by Indians in 1633, must have been garrisoned soon afterwards, for in 1635 a party of Englishmen from the colony on the Connecticut River, who sought to make a settlement on the Delaware en- deavored to capture it, but were thwarted, captured and sent as prisoners to Manhattan. It is proba- ble that the fort was continuously occupied by the Dutch from this time to and after the settlement on the river by the Swedes in 1638, and it certain- ly was in that year as the accounts of expeditions for its maintenance in the West India Company's books prove. But other than this infinitesimal dot of slowly dawning civilization, near the pres- ent town of Gloucester, N. J., there was nowhere ice, and he was in some danger from Indians, of whom he saw numerous bands, there being some interneeine war among them He reached Zwaan- endael, atter most vexations delays, on February 20th, and on March 6th sailed for Virginia to pro- eure, if possible, supplies for his colony. He was upon his arrival there met by the Governor and some officers and soldiers, who treated him very cordially, but told him that the South River be- longed to the British by right of discovery. The Governor appeared never before to have heard that the Dutch had built forts and placed settlements upon the river, but spoke of a small vessel that had been sent some time before to explore the stream, and of which nothing had since been upon the shores of the river ani bay any sign of human habitation, zave the occasiona! wigwatu of the natives; and the great wilderness that stretched away, no one knew whither, from the royal water-way lay as a virgin region awaiting the coming of man. But preparations were again making beyond the ocean-this time in far away Sweden-for the peopling of these shores.
heard although she was long since due. De Vries then narrated what had been told him by the In- dian squaw in regard to the murder of a boat's erew, and related the circumstance of having seen some of the Indians wearing English gar- ments. Purchasing provisions and receiving a present of half a dozen goats, De Vries set sail again to the northward, and in due time reached Zwaanendael. He found that his men stationed there had taken seven whales from which they had rendered thirty-two cartels of oil, but as the fishing was too expensive in proportion to the pro- eeeds, and the colony being so small that it couldl not reasonably be expected to maintain itself and resist the Indians, he took the few adventurers there and sailed to Manhattan and thenee to Hol- land some time in the summer of 1633. Thus the Delaware Bay was again abandoned to the In- dians, and no people but they broke the solitude of its shores or trod the melancholy, blood-stained and desolate ground of the " Valley of Swans," the site of Delaware's first settlement, for many years.
Aeeording to English rule, occupancy was nee- essary to complete a tith to the wilderness. The Delaware having been reconquered by the natives, before the Dutch could renew their claim, the pat- ent granted to Cecilius Calvert, second Lord Balti- more, on June 20, 1632, gave the Dutch an Eng- and curious fiets, which presents itself to the -tu- lish competitor in the person of the proprietary of Maryland.
MA ix.
CHAPTER V.
NEW SWEDEN ON THE DELAWARE
SWEDEN was now to become the competitor of France, and England, and Holland for a foothold in North America. The liberal mind of Gustavus Adolphus early discerned the benefits to his people of colonies and an expanded commerce ; and William Uss Inx, the projector of the Dutch West India Company, visiting the Baltic, quick- ened the zeal of the sagacious sovereign. Turning to Sweden and contemplating the complex begin- ning of her colonization project, which resulted in the planting of the first permanent organized settlement on the Delaware, in 165> -- Christina- ham, the site of which is now embraced in the city of Wilmington -one of the most noteworthy
dent, is, that the three individuals chiefly instru- mental in accomplishing that work were men who
1
1737551
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NEW SWEDEN ON THE DELAWARE.
had already become prominent in the Dutch colo- niall enterprises These were William Usselinx. Peter Minuit and Samuel Blommaert-names with which the reader of the preceding chapter is already familiar, knowing them to have been re- -pectively those of the first projector of the Dutch West India Company, in 1621 ; a Governor of Now Netherlands and a patroon proprietor of great land traets on the Delaware, one of which included the site of the unfortunate colony of Zwaanendael, upon the Hoornkill.
Usselinx, as has been shown, left Holland late in 1623 or early in 1624, impoverished and stung by the ingratitude of the Dutch. He went imme- diately to Sweder and there made, through Chan- cellor Axel Oxenstierna, to King Gustavus Adol- phus,-the, then, most commanding figure in Europe and the chief defender of Protestantism, -a proposition to establish a Swedish Trading Company to operate in Asia, Africa and America, but to especially direct its energies to the latter. Both King and Chancellor embraced the enthusi- ast's project, with alacrity, and their interest and assistance knew no abatement, save through the pe- euniary embarrassments, politieal changes and wars which unfortunately ensued. Usselinx, in urging all the advantages that might aeerne to the nation and individuals by the enterprise, stated that there were thousands of miles of shore in America where no Spaniards or Dutch had ever been, with fertile soil, and good climate, to the natives of which their superfluous goods could be sent and from whom other goods taken in return : that colo- nies might be planted on these shores to the great benefit of the mother country and vastly extend- ing His Majesty's dominions, and that the causes of civilization and Christianity might be greatly advanced. " Above all," said he :-
" It must truly he said that the most important objet at which all pions Christians should aim, is that a knowledge of and friendship with so many different nations minst serve most powerfully to the honor of God, which is effected partie by preaching the beautying world of our Lopl Jesus Christ to those nations who have hitherto lived in luifulness. Holatry, and wahidness, so they will be brought to the light of truth and eternal salvation. In those countries where trade had hitherta Fern carried on, the natives, for want of a mild government, had been in a great part extirpated, and those that remained so and h oppressed that life had tocome a burden to theth."1
For the settlement of su h a company as Ussel- inx proposed the King granted letters patent, dated November 10, 1624, creating the Swedish South Sea Company which it was provided, should go into operation May 1, 1625, and continue twelve years, or until 1637. On the 21st day of the next month Gustavus Adolphus authorized Usseliny to travel through the kingdom and solicit sub-eri- bers to the stock of the Company and gave him a kind of general letter of recommendation in which he said :-
1 "Some Account of William Usarlink and Peter Minut," by Joseph J Mickley.
" The honest and prudent William Berline has humbly represented and demonstrated in. by ent mente a "enerd Trading Company could be , statiished bere in me kis: 200 We have taken his propust-
certainly will tend to the the new of the holy namie, to our states' pore- pe.ich, and to our subjects' impe selben and braucht."
A second charter for the company was granted by the King, June 14. 1626. which was similar in all essential matters to that of two years before, except that it changed the time for going into ef- feet from 1625 to 1627. It consisted of thirty- seven articles and was introduced with the follow- ing words by the King :--
. Finding it serviceshe and necessary to the welfare and improve. ment of our kingdom and enlaerts that trade, prodner and commerce should grow whlan our kingdom and domainions, and be furthered by all proper pieuns, and having received of credible an I experienced per- ouis goed inf riaalten that in Aire a Asia, And rien and Magellanica, or Terra Australis, very rich land- and t lands do exist, certain of which are peopled by a well governed nation, certain others by heathens and wild men, and etbere still inghaunted : and others not as yet perfectly discovered, and that not only with such places a great trude may be driven, bu. char the hope strengthens of bringing band people easily, through the 4, tting on foot . rammer al intercourse, tu a letter civil state and to the truth of the Christian religion, We Gustavus Il. Adolphus, Fing it Svedr: . " etc , " for the spread of the koly thisfel and the pros- perity if opr sghjects" . . Lave concluded to erect " general company or united power of proprietors of our own realm, And such others as shall associate themselves with them, and help forward the work, promising to strengthen it with our succor and assistance.". "
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