USA > Pennsylvania > Delaware County > History of Delaware county, Pennsylvania, from the discovery of the territory included within its limits to the present time > Part 5
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This report, from such a close and accurate observer as Hudde, renders it certain that the immigrants who accompanied Printz, as they spread themselves from Tinicum, at first for a time, con- tinued within the bounds of what is now Delaware County. The points on the river where no marsh or flats intervene between the water and the shore, were doubtless the locations first occu- pied by these settlers. Chester, Marcus Hook, and one or two points above and below, may therefore claim a priority of set- tlement to any part of the county of Philadelphia, and after Tinicum, of any part of the Commonwealth.
It is not easy, at this time, to arrive at any satisfactory con- clusion in respect to the social and domestic condition of the settlers on the Delaware at the time of the arrival of Governor Printz, and for a short time afterwards. The Swedes were of three classes : " The company's servants, who were employed by
1 Hist. New Sweden, 79. 2 N. Y. Hist. Col. N. S. i. 429.
*
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them in various capacities ; those who came to the country 'to better their fortunes,' and who, by way of distinction, were call- ed freemen; and a third class, consisting of vagabonds and malefactors," who " were to remain in slavery and were employ- ed in digging earth, throwing up trenches, and erecting walls and other fortifications."1
Fort Nassau was merely a military establishment to maintain a trading post. It is not known that any actual settlement had been made at that point, previous to the arrival of Governor . Printz, or for some time afterwards. The fort was occupied by the soldiers and servants of the Dutch West India Company, and there is reason to believe that at times, some of the latter were negro slaves.2
But little is known of the early doings of the settlement of Hollanders under Swedish authority on the river and bay below Christina. As has been before observed, this colony had its origin in the bitter feuds that existed between the patroons and the West India Company. The chief element in this controversy was the amount of trade which should be enjoyed by the patroons, which the Company seemed determined to wholly monopolize themselves. As the trading privileges contained in the Swedish grant to these Hollanders are strikingly liberal, it is reasonable to conclude that trade at first constituted their chief employment.
In respect to domestic animals, goats were probably first in- troduced. In the investigation of charges brought against Governor Van Twiller in 1639, a witness mentions "twenty-four to thirty goats,"3 as being in his custody at forts Hope4 and Nassau. The careful and prudent Minuit had no doubt supplied his settlement at Christina with both cattle and sheep. In the grant to the colony of Hollanders, it was provided that they should take "two or three vessels with men and cattle," and as the English settlers at Vrakens kill (Salem) came from New England, they were doubtless well supplied with domestic ani- mals, which were probably left on the river when they abandoned their new home.
Prior to this period, but very few females of European birth, had resided on the Delaware. There was not one in the ill-fated colony at Swanendael, by her supplication for mercy, to stay the
1 Campanius, 73.
2 Haz. Ann. 49, as quoted from the Breviat, case of Penn and Lord Baltimore, 35. The " Freedoms, privileges and exemptions," proposed by the States General prior to 1640, but not adopted, contains this article : " In like manner the Incorporated West India Company shall allot to each patroon, twelve black men and women out of the prizes in which negroes shall be found, for the advancement of the Colonies of New Netherland," N. Y. Col. Doe. i. 99.
3 Haz. Ann. 50 .- In 1634, the Governor of Virginia sent 6 goats to Director Van Twiller, by De Vries, as " he had understood there were no goats at Fort Amsterdam." 4 Fort Hope was on the Connecticut river.
3
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1
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hand of savage cruelty. The affidavit of Dame Catelina Tricho, before given, establishes the fact that on at least one occasion, four females accompanied their husbands to Fort Nassau ; but as the fort was soon abandoned, and only occupied occasionally up to the arrival of Printz, their residence here could only have been temporary.
There is also some evidence that the colony at Christina did not consist exclusively of the male sex. The Rev. Reorus Torkillus, the Swedish priest, who accompanied Minuit, we are informed by Campanius,1 took a wife there, by whom he had one child previous to his death on the 23rd of February, 1643. It is not to be supposed that Mrs. Torkillus was the sole representa- tive of her sex in that colony ; nor would it be reasonable to con- clude, that the colony of Jost De Bogardt, had omitted to intro- duce an item so necessary to its prosperity and permanency. Still the number of European females on the river, prior to the arrival of Governor Printz, must have been very few, and even with the addition brought by him, the number must have been disproportionately small compared with the other sex.
Tobacco and maize, and probably beans, were Indian produc- tions of the river prior to the arrival of the Dutch or Swedes. Wheat, rye and buckwheat, with a number of garden vegetables, had become articles of culture at this period. But the immigrant settlers had none of the luxuries, and but few of the comforts of civilized life. Where woman was so nearly excluded, but few could feel that they had a home even in name.
In respect to religious matters on the river, there is nothing on record, except that the Rev. Mr. Torkillus officiated as clergyman at a church built within the walls of Fort Christina up to the period of his death.
The river is generally spoken of as healthful; but it would ap- pear that great sickness and mortality prevailed among the set- tlers in 1642. Winthrop2 attributes the dissolution of the English "plantation," that is, the settlement at Salem creek, to the sickness that prevailed that year. He says, "the same sick- ness and mortality befell the Swedes settled on the same river." The despondency, with which the early colonists were usually seized, was well calculated to increase the mortality of any serious disease that might happen to prevail.
Up to this period, notwithstanding the repeated sales of large tracts of land that had been made to the Dutch and Swedes by the Indians, the country remained substantially one unbroken. forest, and was almost as much in possession of the savages, as when Cornelis Mey first sailed up the river. They had received but little compensation for their lands, but as yet, they had the
1 Page 107.
2 Winthrop's Journal, ii. 76.
:
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same use of them as they had heretofore enjoyed-not dreaming that the enjoyment of these lands by the white man was event- ually to result in the total exclusion of their race. The time has now arrived for dispelling this delusion. The traffic, that neces- sarily made the savage a party, is gradually to give place to the culture of the soil, that renders his presence a nuisance.
Before resuming our narrative, it may not then be amiss, briefly to advert to the Indian tribes that occupied the river when first visited by Europeans. These tribes collectively, have been designated Leni Lenape, or Delaware Indians. They had once been a more powerful and warlike nation, but had been con- quered by those more northern and western assemblages of Red Men known in history as the " Five Nations."! Not only were
they a conquered people, but, on the condition of still being per- mitted to occupy their lands, they had subjected themselves to a kind of vassalage that excluded them from engaging in war, and according to Indian ideas of such matters, they were placed on a footing with women. They remained in this degraded condi- tion until the last remnant of the nation had left the shores of the Delaware.2
The Leni Lenape were not exclusively confined to the shores of the Delaware. They occupied most of New Jersey and the whole valley of the Schuylkill. The northern portion of this large district was occupied by a division of the nation called Minsi or Muncys. The Nanticokes, a rather warlike independ- ent nation, occupied the eastern shore of the Chesapeake.3
The Delaware Indians enjoyed the advantage of a general exemption from the horrors of savage warfare, as a guarantied protection was an incident to their vassalage; but they were frequently subjected to the intrusions of parties of the Five Nations, who occupied portions of the Lenape country, as their occasions required. The Minquas, whose name was borne by the Christina river, was among the warlike tribes that most fre- quently visited the Delaware for trade. Campanius located them twelve (Swedish) miles from New Sweden, "on a mountain very difficult to climb." He also describes them as a very war- like tribe, who had forced the Delaware Indians, who were not so warlike, to be afraid of them "and made them subjects and
1 The Indian communities embraced in this confederacy, were the Mohawks, Oneydas, Onondagos, Cayugas and Senecas. Colden's Hist. Five Nations, Ist part, 1. In 1712, the Tuscaroras, a kindred nation from North Carolina, removed to western New York and joined the confederacy, after which it was known as the "Six Nations." By the French these Indians in the aggregate were known as the Iroquois.
2 At a treaty held at Philadelphia in July 1742, Canapatego, a chief of the Onondagos, thus reprimanded and taunted the Delawares, who were present, for continuing on lands they had sold : " We conquered you ; we made women of you ; you know you are women and can no more sell land than women." Colden's Five Nations, part ii. 79.
3 Bancroft's Hist. U. S. iii. 238.
4 One Swedish mile is equal to six of our miles.
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tributary to them ; so that they dare not stir, much less go to war against them."1
The Minquas Indians, as a tribe, belonged to the Five Nations. They resided upon the Conestogo, but their visits to the Dela- ware for purposes of trade or to fish were frequent.
It will thus be seen that the early settlers on the Delaware, had two classes of Indians very different in character to deal with ; the one a constant inhabitant of the country whose presence was familiar to them and caused no uneasiness ; the other, an occasional visitor whose stay amongst them, when the object of it was not well understood, excited apprehensions for their safety. The Lenape lived in small tribes, generally occupying the tribu- taries of the Delaware. Each tribe was frequently known to the settlers by the Indian name of the stream it occupied.
In returning from a digression that seemed necessary, to pro- ceed with our narrative, we will confine our observations more closely hereafter to the small district of country under notice.
Governor Printz possessed many qualifications that fitted him for the position he occupied. His plans were laid with good judgment, and were executed with energy. He managed the trade of the river with the natives so as to monopolize nearly the whole ; and while the jealousy of the Dutch, on this account, was excessive, he succeeded during his whole administration, in avoiding an open rupture with that government. But he was imperious and haughty, and sometimes gave offence, especially in personal interviews, when a milder course would have better befitted the occasion.
Though the Swedes had erected a fort on the Jersey side of the river, they never placed so high an estimate on their title to the land on that side, as to that on the western shore. As a consequence, most of their settlements were at first made on this side of the Delaware, up which, and the Schuylkill they were gradually extended. These rivers and our numerous tide-water creeks, constituted the highways of the Swedish settlers, and it was in close proximity with these streams their habitations were erected.
The annual pay of the Governor was 800 Rix dollars,2 which of course did not include his rations. In addition to this, and in remuneration of the long and excellent services that he had ren- dered to the crown of Sweden, and was then rendering, his sovereign, by a deed of gift executed on the 6th of November, 1643, granted to him and his heirs, the whole Island of Tinicum.3
If we can rely upon the statement of De Vries who visited the Governor on the 13th of October, 1643, and remained with him several days, he was a man of enormous dimensions, weighing
1 Campanius, 158.
2 Haz. Reg. iv. 314. 3 Appendix, note A.
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over four hundred pounds.1 At the time of this visit by De Vries, the Swedish fort at "Verchens kill" was not " entirely finished," and there were " some houses" at Fort Christina. The vessel in which De Vries made his visit, was laden with Madeira wine, a portion of which the skipper exchanged with the Gover- nor for beavers.
John Papegoya, who had sometime since returned from New Sweden, was recommended to Governor Printz by a letter from the Qeeen and her council, dated at Stockholm on the 2nd of November, 1643.2 The Governor was recommended " graciously to employ him" in those affairs "to which he might think him adapted," and " to give him as much as will be possible and reasonable his protection, in order to his advancement." The suggestions contained in the letter were construed most liberally in favour of the bearer ; for not long after his arrival in New Sweden, he became the son-in-law of Governor Printz, and took the position of second in command to him.
Campanius informs us, that in the beginning of Governor Printz's administration, "there came a great number of criminals who were sent over from Sweden. When the European inhabitants perceived it, they would not suffer them to set their foot on shore, but they were all obliged to return, so that a great many of them perished on the voyage."3 The same author says, that it " was after this forbidden, under a penalty, to send any more criminals to America, lest Almighty God should let his vengeance fall on the ships and goods, and the virtuous people that were on board." This part of the statement is not strictly correct, for reliable evidence exists that an individual was sentenced to be trans- ported to New Sweden nearly ten years subsequently.4
The settlement of the country proceeded very slowly under the Swedish dynasty, while trade was pushed to an extent never before known upon the river. This was a source of great annoy- ance to the Dutch, as the trade of the river was lost to them in proportion as it was acquired by the Swedes. In the language of Van der Donk, they " would regret to lose such a jewel by the devices and hands of a few strangers. "5
It is by no means wonderful, that the Dutch should become alarmed at the progress the Swedes were making in securing the trade of the river, for during the year 1644 they freighted two of their vessels, the Key of Calmar and the Fame, with cargoes that included 2,127 packages of beaver, and 70,421 pounds of
1 N. Y. Hist. Col. iii. 123.
2 Haz. Reg. iv. 214.
3 Campanins, 73, related on the authority of Nils Matton Utter. who after his return home, served in his Majesty's Life Guards.
4 Haz. Reg. iv. 374.
5 See liis description of New Netherland in N. Y. Hist. Col. N. S. i. 142.
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HISTORY OF DELAWARE COUNTY. [1645.
tobacco.1 This shipment of tobacco would indicate that this noxious plant was cultivated to a considerable extent on the river at that early period.
The Swedes mill, known to have been the first mill erected in Pennsylvania, was probably built this year, though it possibly might have been erected during the year 1643. It was located on Cobb's creek immediately above the bridge near the Blue Bell tavern. From the holes in the rocks at the point mentioned, the mill must have occupied a position partly over the stream, and was doubtless driven by a tub-wheel which required but lit- tle gearing. Karakung, as given by Campanius, was the Indian name of Cobb's creek. This mill, which the governor " caused to be erected," he says, " was a fine mill, which ground both fine and coarse flour, and was going early and late : it was the first that was seen in the country. There was no fort near it, but only a strong house, built of hickory and inhabited by freemen."2
The jealousy of the Dutch on account of the progress made by the Swedes, induecd their Governor (Kieft) to send an agent to the Delaware to keep a watch on the procedures of Governor Printz, and to resist his supposed innovations. The person selected was Andreas Hudde, whose report, though incomplete, was made at different dates. That part of it from which the two following paragraphs have been taken, was made the 1st of November, 1645. As it will be seen the Swedes mill was then erected, and was erected by Governor Printz, who arrived in the country 1642, the date of its erection can hardly vary from the time above mentioned.
" In regard to this Schuylkill, these are lands purchased and possessed by the Company. He (Governor Printz,) employed the Company's carpenter, and constructed there a fort3 on a very convenient spot on an island near the borders of the kill, which is from the west side secured by another creek, and from the south, south-east, and east side with valley lands. It lays about the distance of a gun-shot in the kill. On the south side of this kill, on the same island, beautiful corn is raised. This fort can- not, in any manner whatever, obtain any control on the river, but it has the command over the whole creek ; while this kill or creek is the only remaining avenue for trade with the Minquas, and without this trade the river is of little value."
" At a little distance from this fort was a creek to the farthest
1 Hist. New Netherland, i. 370 .- De Vries says, the tobacco raised in New Nether- land and also on the South river was not different from that raised in Virginia. N. Y. Hist. Col. N. S. iii. 125.
2 Campanius, 81.
3 It was subsequently reported, that this fort was erected on the site of a Duteh trading-house, which was demolished by the Swedes, but this is very improbable. The Company's earpenter would hardly engage in such a business. See Hist. New Nether- land, ii. 79.
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distant wood, which place is named Kinsessing by the savages, which was before a certain and invariable resort for trade with the Minquas, but which is now opposed by the Swedes, having there built a strong house. About a half a mile further in the woods, Governor Printz constructed a mill on a kill which runs into the sea [river] not far to the south of Matinnekonk, and on this kill a strong building just by the path which leads to the Minquas ; and this place is called by the savages Kakarikonk, so that no access to the Minquas is left open ; and he, too, controls nearly all the trade of the savages on the river, as the greatest part of them go a hunting in that neighborhood, which they are not able to do without passing by his residence."1
The above extracts have been introduced not only because they exhibit the means resorted to by the Swedes to secure the whole trade of the river, but because they contain all that the Dutch Commissary Hudde, relates on the subject of the location of the Swedish fort on the Schuylkill; in respect to which Mr. Ferris in his History of the original settlements on the Delaware.2 has fallen into a very serious error-an error, the correction of which has been rendered more important from the fact that the opinion of Mr. Ferris has been relied upon by subsequent writers,3 on account of his supposed "local knowledge."
Mr. Ferris locates this fort on a cluster of rocks, once a very small island in the Schuylkill above Bartram's Garden, but now connected with the shore by marsh meadow. As the island on which the fort was erected, "lays about the distance of a gun- shot within the kill," it became necessary for our author to re- move the mouth of the Schuylkill to a point a short distance below the site of the Bartram Garden-now the scat of Mr. Thomas Eastwick, because the water at high tide was over "the great meadows," extending from thence "in a southerly course to the Delaware." Even if the real mouth of the Schuylkill had been mistaken by Hudde, the " cluster of rocks" fixed on by Mr. Ferris would entirely fail to meet his description of the island upon which the Swedish fort was erected. This island, from the west was " secured by another creek," and " on the same island beautiful corn was raised." While these facts could not possibly apply to the site designated by Mr. Ferris, they, as well as the other facts mentioned by Hudde, exactly fit the island then, as now, at the real mouth of the Schuylkill. The location of the fort was undoubtedly upon what is now known at Province island ; and as it could not in "any manner whatever obtain any con- trol on the river," but had " the command over the whole creek" or kill, its exact site must have been near the western abutment of Penrose Ferry Bridge, or perhaps a little lower down.
1 Hudde's Rep. in N. Y. Hist. Col. i. N. S. 429.
2 Page 70.
3 Haz. Ann. 78.
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HISTORY OF DELAWARE COUNTY. [1645.
" At a little distance from this fort was a creek to the farthest distant wood which place is named Kinsessing by the savages." This is designated " Minquas creek," on the "map of the first settlements, &c." contained in this volume, and is still known in the neighborhood under the corrupted name of Minkus. That the name assigned to this creek on our map is the one it bore in very early times, is confirmed by a conveyance of Marsh mea- dow bordering on it, by Lasse Cock to James Hunt, bearing date 27th of 3rd mo. 1685,1 in which that name is applied to it, and is conclusive in establishing its identity with the creek referred to by Hudde. This being established, there will be but very lit- tle difficulty in fixing, approximately, the site of the "strong house" built by the Swedes. This creek for some distance borders on the fast land, and as the remainder of its course was through grounds overflowed or partially overflowed at every high tide, there is no room to doubt that the " strong house" occupied some point on this margin of fast land. " About half a [Dutch] mile further in the woods, Governor Printz had constructed a mill, &c." This distance accords very nearly with the location assigned to the " strong house" of the persevering and avarici- ous Swedes.
There is an additional reason for locating this Indian and Swedish trading post, at the point mentioned, in the fact, that at this point there are several springs of water in the margin of the marsh.
Hudde at this time, estimates the whole force of the Swedish governor at from eighty to ninety men, "freemen as well as servants with whom he must garrison all his strong places." But the Dutch force on the river at the same time, and for some years afterwards was utterly insignificant, even when compared with that of the Swedes. In 1648 they had but six able bodied men on the river.2
Jan Jansen Van Ilpendam, who had held the office of Com- missary at the Dutch Fort Nassau, on account of improper con- duct was recalled, and Hudde appointed in his stead, who proved himself a more efficient officer in resisting Swedish aggressions, at least with paper missiles. He repaired the fort, which he found in a dilapidated and destitute condition.
The accidental destruction of Fort Gottenburg by fire, hap- pened on the 5th of December, in the year 1645.3 This circum- stance is not mentioned by Campanius, though it must have
1 Recorder's office, Philadelphia, book E, i. 492. The deed after describing other tracts contains the following : " also my right, title and interest in the marsh meadow, bounded southward with Minquass creek to the eastward with the Schuylkill river, to the northward with Laud's creek, and to the westward with some of the same land." On Hill's map of " Philadelphia and Environs" generally known as " Hill's map of Ten miles around Philadelphia" published in 1808, this creek is called " Mingo creek." 2 Hist. New Netherland, ii. 82.
3 Hudde's Rep. 429.
.
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happened while his grandfather resided there. It was doubtless soon again rebuilt, as the seat of government of New Sweden was continued at Tinicum.
The first controversy in which Commissary Hudde was engaged, was on the account of the arrival of a shallop or sloop from Manhattan under the command of Juriaen Blancke, a private trader, who was ordered by the commissary to the Schuylkill, " near the right, and to await there for the Minquas." When arrived there, he was peremptorily " commanded to leave the spot at once, as belonging to the Swedish crown." This, Commander Blancke, at first refused to do, and referred the matter to Hudde, who conducted a rather angry controversy with the governor, which not being likely to result in obtaining permission for him to remain in the Schuylkill, at the spot he desired to occupy, and being a private person whose expenses and losses would not be borne by the Company, he wisely took his departure ; not how- ever by reason of any order from the Commissary. What is re- markable, a Swedish priest, most probably Campanius, took a part in the negotiation.1
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