USA > Pennsylvania > Lives of the governors of Pennsylvania : with the incidental history of the state, from 1609 to 1873 > Part 3
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JOHN PAPPEGOYA.
wide enough." But this failed to satisfy Stuyvesant, who characterized it as a subterfuge, and adduced what he re- garded as plain proof of his allegation. Numerous complaints, and claims of indemnity for losses sustained by lawless con- duct of the Swedes, were presented to the Governor during his stay. Determined to put an end to these troubles, Stuy- vesant having acquired title from the Indians to lands south of Fort Christina, proceeded to erect a new fort on com- manding ground, the site of the present town of New Castle, which he called Fort Casimir; whereupon Fort Nassau was abandoned and destroyed as of no further value. Printz pro- tested against this encroachment upon lands claimed by the Swedes; but beyond protests he seems to have meditated no more hostile demonstration; for before the departure of Stuyvesant, the two Governors had friendly conference, in which " they mutually promised not to commit any hostile or vexatious acts against one another, but to maintain together all neighborly friendship and correspondence, as good friends and allies are bound to do."
JOHN PAPPEGOYA, 1653-54. - The Dutch Fort Casi- mir rendered the Swedish Fort Elsinborg, which had been relied on to command the navigation of the river, useless, and it was accordingly abandoned; but on the plea that it had become uninhabitable on account of the mosquitoes, which swarmed about it like a resistless plague. Governor Printz, having by this time, doubtless, discovered that he had been overreached by the crafty Hudde and the headstrong Peter Stuyvesant, and that his power was fast waning, asked to be relieved of the government of the colony. Without awaiting the answer of the Queen, Printz set sail for Sweden in Octo- ber, 1653, leaving his son-in-law, Pappegoya, in chief author- ity. Printz's administration was anything but successful. IIe seems to have come to America with the expectation of holding court in the New World with all the formality and insignia of royalty preserved by the petty potentates of Eu- rope. He is represented by De Vries, who came in a ship from
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New Amsterdam to visit him in October, 1643, as a man very furious and passionate, immense in person, weighing over four hundred pounds, and as drinking " three drinks at every meal." He was difficult of access, requiring communication to be made to him in writing, and when messengers came bringing intelligence that was distasteful, subjecting them to personal abuse, and sending them home "bloody and bruised." This was not the kind of government required for an infant colony, estimated at various periods to number from fifty to three hundred souls, having to maintain a vigor- ous competition with a rival power upon the river, and to preserve peace and friendly relations with the fickle and ignorant savages of the forest.
In November, 1653, the Swedish College of Commerce granted to John Amundson a commission as Captain in the Navy, and sent him to the Delaware to superintend the con- struction of vessels, he having obtained a grant of land upon the river, favorably located for the prosecution of shipbuilding. Printz had brought under cultivation a farm upon the island of Tinicum, which he had much improved and planted. This had been granted to him by royal favor, which upon his de- parture he left to his daughter, the wife of Pappegoya, where the Governor's residence was maintained. Pappegoya re- tained his power but five or six months.
JOHN CLAUDE RYSINGH, 1654-55. - The anplication of Printz to be relieved was not acted on for nearly two months after the Governor had taken his departure, its accept- ance bearing date of 12th of December. He was granted the desired favor, but he was urged to remain until a suc- cessor could be duly provided. On the same day that this document was signed, John Claude Rysingh, who had been Secretary to the Chamber of Commerce in Stockholm, was commissioned as vice-Director of New Sweden, and sailing in ' the government ship Aren, arrived in the colony near the close of May, 1654. He was not invested with the absolute powers which had been conferred upon Printz. Military and
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naval authority was bestowed upon John Amundson, who was also to have superintendence of government shipbuild- ing, but in such a manner that neither was to decide or approve anything without consulting the other; and a coun- cil, formed of the best instructed and most reliable officers in the country, was established for the exercise of civil authority, of which Rysingh was director. He was instructed to em- ploy none but the mildest measures against the Dutch at Fort Casimir; and it was recommended, if he could not induce them to abandon it by argument, that he should en- deavor to supersede its importance and power, by building another fort below.
Disregarding the explicit instructions of the home govern- ment to pursue a pacific policy, Rysingh had no sooner arrived in the river and ascertained that the Dutch garrison at Fort Casimir was weak and would be powerless to resist him, than he assumed the offensive. Gerrit Bicker, who was in command of the fort, upon seeing a strange sail approach- ing, sent his secretary, Van Tienhoven, to learn its character and destination. Rysingh detained the messenger and his escort until the following day, when he sent a company of soldiers under the leadership of Lieutenant Swen Schute, a soldier of long service in the colony, marked by royal favors, who followed close upon the path of the messenger, and entering the fort, where they were received as friends, pro- ceeded to take forcible possession, rifling the garrison, even to side-arms. The conduct of Rysingh is defended on the plea that in the correspondence between the Dutch and Swedish home governments, the complaints of encroach- ments on the part of the Dutch in building Fort Casimir had been answered by saying "if the Dutch are found encroaching upon Swedish territory, drive them off," and that his answer may have been communicated to Rysingh after receiving his general instructions.
Finding that the new vice-Governor was disposed to assume the responsibility of government, and a more aggressive policy than he was inclined to pursue, Pappegoya, leaving his wife
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in possession of Printz Hall, departed for Europe soon after, whereupon Rysingh assumed the title of Director-general. One of his first acts, after gaining full possession of the terri- tory, was to call together the chief sachems of tribes far around, for the purpose of establishing the old-time friendship, which during the sway of the arbitrary and irascible Printz had been well nigh destroyed. Ten grand sachems assembled at the seat of government on Tinicum Island. In this grave council, conducted with all that decorum and gravity which was a characteristic of the North American Indian, bitter complaints were made of the ill treatment which the natives had received at the hands of the Swedes, chief among which was that many of their number had died, plainly pointing, though not explicitly saying it, to the giving of spirituous liquors as the cause. Rysingh, without attempting to answer these complaints, distributed valuable presents which he had brought with him for the purpose. Whereupon the chiefs sat apart for conference. With the piled up presents in their midst, Naaman, the most venerable and sincere among them, spoke : "Look,' said he, pointing to the presents, 'and see what they have brought to us, for which they desire our friendship.' So saying, he stroked himself three times down his arm, which, among the Indians, was a token of friend- ship; afterwards he thanked the Swedes on behalf of his people for the presents they had received, and said that friendship should be observed more strictly between them than it had been before; that the Swedes and the Indians had been in Governor Printz's time as one body and one heart (striking his breast as he spoke), and that thencefor- ward they should be as one head; in token of which he took hold of his head with both hands, and made a motion as if he were tying a knot, and then he made this comparison : That, as the calabash was round without any crack, so they should be a compact body without any fissure; and that if any should attempt to do any harm to the Indians, the Swedes should immediately inform them of it, and, on the other hand, the Indians would give immediate notice to the Chris-
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tians of any plots against them, even if it were in the middle of the night. On this they were answered, that that would be indeed a true and lasting friendship, if every one would agree to it; on which they gave a general shout in token of consent. Immediately on this the great guns were fired, which pleased them extremely, and they said, 'Poo, hoo, hoo ; mokirick picon,' that is to say, 'Hear and believe, the great guns are fired.'" All the treaties which had been concluded with the Indians from the first settlement, and which had been recorded at Stockholm, were produced and confirmed. "When those who had signed the deeds heard their names they appeared to rejoice, but, when the names were read of those who were dead, they hung their heads in sorrow."* The ceremonies were concluded with feasting and drinking, and the treaties, confirmed in this solemn and characteristic manner, were ever after kept.
In a letter addressed to the home government, dated July 11th, 1654, Rysingh gives a flattering account of the progress of the colony since his arrival, which he estimates to have quadrupled in population and in ground under cultivation ; " for then," he says, "we found only seventy persons, and now, including Hollanders and others, there are three hun- dred and sixty-eight persons."+ Among the wants of the Governor he is particular in making known to the minister that of a wife. "Sufficiently plain offers," he says, have been made to him by the English who have visited the colony, but he would not think of entering into an alliance without the approval of the minister, whose advice he relies on with more confidence than that of any other person in the world; and he expresses a special desire that he would send him a good one.
But the morning of his administration, which had thus dawned so brightly, was soon destined to be obscured by clouds and darkness, though through no lack of wisdom and enterprise on his part. The Dutch at Manhattan had greatly increased in strength and numbers, while the Swedes upon the Delaware, in their best estate, were but feeble. The
" Campanius, 77.
¡ Haz. Ann. 153.
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Swedes had gained a momentary advantage in the capture of Fort Casimir; but that very triumph was regarded by the Dutch as an encroachment upon, and an insult to their power, and was to be seized upon as the immediate occasion for breaking up entirely the Swedish dominion in the New World. For the West India Company, on learning of the loss of the fort, sent orders to Stuyvesant "to exert every nerve to avenge the insult by not only replacing matters on the Delaware in their former position, but by driving the Swedes from every side of that river." In the meantime, a Swedish ship, called the Golden Shark, was piloted by mis- take or treachery behind Staten Island, where it was cap- tured by the Dutch, and was held by Stuyvesant as a reprisal for the seizure of Fort Casimir. Van Elswyck, its captain, was dispatched to the Delaware with a request that Rysingh would either repair in person to Manhattan, or send one duly qualified to settle the difficulties between them, and secure the release of the ship. To this Rysingh declined to listen. A wordy correspondence ensued, the only effect of which was to widen the breach.
Peace had been concluded between England and Holland, and Queen Christina, now at the age of twenty-nine, ended a feeble reign by voluntarily yielding the throne to her cousin Charles Gustavus. Holland, free from foreign war, and be- holding the power of Sweden rapidly waning since the days of Gustavus Adolphus, determined to pursue an aggressive policy in the New World. Accordingly, five armed vessels were sent to Stuyvesant, with a renewal of the order to drive the Swedes from the Delaware. Determined to go with sufficient force to be master of the situation, the Dutch Governor, with much ado, collected a force of over six hun- dred men, and, after attending solemn religious services, sailed on the afternoon of Sunday, September 4th, 1655, in seven vessels, bent upon conquest. On the following day he arrived in the bay. Fort Elsinborg, which had been aban- doned, was first seized. Fort Casimir, or Trinity, which name it had received since falling into the hands of the Swedes,
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was under command of Swen Schute, and Fort Christina un- der Governor Rysingh in person. The surrender of Casimir was demanded by Stuyvesant as the property of the Dutch. Schute held out until the following day, when, having had an interview with Rysingh, and seeing that resistance was useless, capitulated upon honorable terms. At Christina Rysingh decided to offer resistance, and, accordingly, Stuy- vesant determined upon its reduction by siege, which, after an investment of fourteen days, was also surrendered, even more favorable terms being accorded to the garrison than to that at Casimir. The conduct of the Dutch troops during the continuance of the siege, and after the capitulation, was most inhuman. The laws of civilized warfare were set at naught. According to the remonstrance of Rysingh, Stuy- vesant's men " acted as if they had been on the lands of their inveterate enemy," plundering the Swedish villages, and at Fort Christina violently tearing women from their houses, destroying buildings, and butchering, day after day, oxen, cows, swine, and other creatures: "Even the horses were not spared, but wantonly shot, the plantations destroyed, and the whole country left so desolate that scarce any means are remaining for the subsistence of the inhabitants." "The flower of their troops [Swedish] were picked out and sent to New Amsterdam, under the pretext of their free choice, being forcibly carried on board their ships."
Stuyvesant determined to make thorough work, and suc- ceeded well in his purpose. The Swedes and Finns who desired to remain were required to take an oath of allegiance to the Dutch power, and even those who chose to return to the mother country were obliged to take a like oath, to be binding until their departure.
Thus ended the power of the Swedish arms in the New World. It had been maintained from 1638 to 1655, a period of a little more than seventeen years. "The descendants of these colonists," says Bancroft, " in the course of genera- tions, widely scattered and blended with emigrants of other lineage, constitute probably more than one part in two hun-
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dred of the present population of the country. At the sur- render, they did not much exceed seven hundred souls. Free from ambition, ignorant of the ideas which were convulsing the English mind, it was only as Protestants that they shared the impulse of the age. They cherished the calm earnest- ness of religious feeling ; they reverenced the bonds of family and the purity of morals; their children, under every disad- vantage of want of teachers and of Swedish books, were well instructed. With the natives they preserved peace. A love for Sweden, their dear mother country, the abiding senti- ment of loyalty towards its sovereign, continued to distinguish the little band; at Stockholm, they remained for a century the objects of a disinterested and generous regard ; affection united them in the New World; and a part of their descend- ants still preserve their altar and their dwellings, around the graves of their fathers." Of the Dutch, who were now in full possession, he says: "They sounded with exultation the channel of the deep stream, which was no longer shared with the Swedes; they counted with delight its many lovely runs of water, on which the beaver built his villages; and the great travelers who had visited every continent, as they ascended the Delaware, declared it one of the noblest rivers in the world. Its banks were more inviting than the lands on the Amazon."
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CHAPTER III.
DUTCH RULE, 1655-64.
DETER STUYVESANT, 1655-64. - DERCK SMIDT, 1655. Scarcely had his operations upon the Delaware been con- cluded, when Stuyvesant was summoned home in great haste to defend his possessions upon the Hudson, the Indians hav- ing risen in the absence of the Governor and the military, massacred and carried away into captivity large numbers of the helpless and unoffending settlers, and laid their habi- tations in ruins. Leaving Derck Smidt-who had been sent as the herald from the fleet to demand the surrender of Fort Casimir-as Schout-Fiscal and chief agent of the Dutch in the conquered province, Stuyvesant hastened away with all his force to punish the savages and restore his authority at home.
JOIIN PAUL JACQUET, 1655-57. - On the 29th of November, John Paul Jacquet was appointed vice-Director of the entire settlements upon the Delaware, with the seat of government at Fort Casimir. A council was given him, con- sisting of Andreas IIudde, secretary, surveyor, and keeper of the keys of the Fort, Elmerhuysen Klein, commissary, and two of the most expert freemen to constitute a court for the trial of civil causes. Two sergeants were to take the place of the two freemen in the trial of military offenders. In March following, the Swedish ship Mercury arrived with one hundred and thirty emigrants, the authorities in Sweden having had no intimation of the conquest of their colony at the time of sailing. The ship was not allowed to pass Fort Casimir, and its commander was referred to Director-General
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Stuyvesant at Manhattan. To him application was accord- ingly made for permission to ascend and land the passengers ; but Stuyvesant refused his assent, and ordered it to be brought at once to Manhattan. In the meantime, a party of Swedes and Indians boarded the vessel, and, running past the fort, landed the passengers, who settled and were absorbed in the colony. Pappegoya, the son-in-law of Printz, was of the number. The armed vessel Balance was dispatched by Stuy- vesant to bring the Mercury to New Amsterdam, where the commander was permitted to discharge his cargo.
JACOB ALRICHS, 1657-59 .- COLONY OF CITY. - The ex- pense of fitting out the expedition for the reduction of New Sweden was considerable, and had become a heavy burden to the Company. The city of Amsterdam had loaned a part of the money thus used; and to settle that claim, the Com- pany sold to the city, for the sum of seven hundred thousand gilders, all that tract of land on the south bank of the Delaware, reaching from the east side of Christina Creek to the ocean, and extending back into the country to the lands of the Minquas. This sale was ratified by the States-General on the 16th of August, 1656, and the territory thus ceded was designated Nieuer Amstel. The government of this colony was vested in forty commissioners, to reside in the city of Amsterdam, by whom Jacob Alrichs was appointed Director. Forty soldiers, under command of Captain Martin Krygier and Lt. Alexander D'Hinoyossa, and one hundred and fifty emigrants, were sent in three small vessels to the colony. Upon his arrival, Alrichs appointed Andreas Hudde to the command of Fort Christina, now called Altona, and of New Gottenburg ; and upon his assumption of power, the authority of Jacquet ceased.
GORAN VAN DYCK, 1657-58 .- COLONY OF COMPANY .- Over the Swedes and Finns, who dwelt above the limits of the city's colony, Gæran Van Dyck was appointed to exer- cise authority, with the title of Schout-Fiscal. By his sugges-
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tion, Stuyvesant, under whose orders he acted, issued a pro- clamation inviting the Swedes to abandon their scattered habitations, and assemble themselves together in one village. This request was not acceded to; and the proposition to compel obedience to the mandate was abandoned, on the suggestion of the successor to Van Dyck, who had discovered that it would be a great hardship to force these settlers from the lands which they had subdued and brought under culti- vation, and from the humble habitations which had become endeared to them by the struggles they had endured to · obtain them.
"Evert Pieterson," says Smith, in his history of Delaware County, "who held the office of schoolmaster, comforter of the sick, and setter of the psalms, in the City Colony, writes to the commissioners that, upon his arrival in April, he found but twenty families in Nieuer Amstel, all Swedes except five or six families. He appears to have been a man of observation, and suggests our black-walnut timber for making gun-stocks; requests that inquiries be made of the gunsmiths in respect to its value, and in what shape it should be cut. In August he had a school of twenty-five children. This is the first school established on the river of which we have any account."
The governors of both city and company colonies seem to have been still under the supervision of General Director Stuyvesant; for we find both Alrichs and Van Dyck com- municating with him, and seeking his advice and direction. Stuyvesant visited the colony in 1658, being drawn thither by the conflicts of authority between the two vice-governors, and by the fact that many things connected with the trade of the colony needed a careful inspection. He was met by Van Dyck and the leading Swedish citizens, who renewed their oaths of allegiance, and made known their complaints and wants.
WILLIAM BEEKMAN, 1658-63. - COLONY OF COMPANY. Stuyvesant's chief purpose in visiting the colony seems to
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have been to put a stop to smuggling, which had sprung up and was becoming a serious evil. Upon his return, he re- ported the irregularities which he had discovered to the West India Company, and recommended that some com- petent person be appointed to have complete supervision of the revenues arising from imports and trade, both in the City's and the Company's colonies. Accordingly, William Beekman,* an alderman and an elder in the church at New Amsterdam, was appointed to this office, with the title of vice- Director and Commissary.
The year 1658 was one of great distress in the colony. A prevailing sickness, short crops, and an unsettled state of affairs in the government, bore heavily upon it. " Continued sickness," says Alrichs, "curbed us so far down that all the labor in the field and agriculture was abandoned ; " and adds, " Winter, early, long, and unexpected, caused great distress." To increase this distress, emigrants arrived without supplies. In January, 1659, the wife of Alrichs died. The Amsterdam Company, not satisfied with the profits of its investment, made new and exacting conditions of settlement, which caused much discontent among the colonists, and these con- ditions being imposed at a time of grievous afflictions, many
* " Wilhelmus Beeckman was born at Hasselt, in Overyssell, in 1623; served the West India Company on board The Princess; settled as a merchant in New Amsterdam, in 1647; was married to Catalina De Booghs, a native of Amster- dam, on the 5th of September, 1649; was appointed Lieutenant of the Burgher Corps, in 1651; one of the Schepens of New Amsterdam, when that city was incorporated, in February, 1653, in which office he was continued in 1654, 1656, 1657, and 1673; Commissary of South River, in July, 1658; Vice-Director of the same Colony, in October, 1658; Commissary at Esopus, in July, 1664; Burgomaster of New Orange, in 1674; and an Alderman of New York in 1679, 1680, 1682, and 1685; and Alderman of the East Ward of the city, from 1691 until 1695; and died in 1707, aged eighty-four years, leaving six children - Marie (wife of Nicholas William Stuyvesant), Hendrick, Gerardus, Cornelia, Johannes, and Jacobus.
"He was engaged in business as a brewer, as the successor of Thomas Hall, in Smit's Vly [Pearl] near Beekman Street, 'where William and Beekman streets still bear his name;' and his descendants, widely scattered over the country, are among the most respectable and respected of its inhabitants."- HENRY B. DAWSON, Hist. Mag., 1867, 358.
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fled to the English settlements in Maryland. Learning from these visitors that sore distress prevailed upon the Delaware, and judging it to be a favorable time to acquire possession of the territory, which had always been claimed by the Eng- lish on the plea of discovery by De la War, Lord Balti- more, Proprietor of Maryland, sent commissioners to demand its surrender, or the submission of the settlers to English rule. This demand was vigorously resisted by Stuyvesant, to whom it was referred, who sent commissioners to the Chesapeake to defend the Dutch claims by argument, while he dispatched a company of sixty soldiers to the Delaware, to maintain his power by force. This vigorous policy had the desired effect, and Lord Baltimore allowed his claim to rest.
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