MERCANTILE PRINTING COMPANY WILMINGTON, DELAWARE
[Illustration: MAP of DELAWARE]
_·ONCE·UPON·A·TIME·
·IN·DELAWARE·_
_by_
_Katharine Pyle_
[Illustration]
_Edited by Emily P. Bissell_
_Drawings by Ethel Pennewill Brown_
TO BE COPYRIGHTED
BY THE DELAWARE SOCIETY OF THE
COLONIAL DAMES OF AMERICA
1911
To All Delaware Children
Dear Girls and Boys:
These true stories are written just for you. They tell how once upon a
time brave men and women came across the ocean and landed here in the
wilderness, among the Indian tribes; how they made farms and towns and
cities and formed a state; and how they fought for the freedom and the
peace that Delaware now enjoys. Only thirteen out of the forty-eight
states of our Union are original colonies, and Delaware is one of these
famous thirteen. You are the young citizens, therefore, of an historic
state. To you it will fall, some day, to uphold the honor of Delaware.
May you be as patriotic and as brave as the Delaware settlers who
conquered the wilderness and the Delaware soldiers who laid down their
lives for liberty and right.
THE DELAWARE SOCIETY OF THE
COLONIAL DAMES OF AMERICA.
Editor’s Preface
This book is published by the Delaware Society of the Colonial Dames of
America for the use, primarily, of the children of Delaware, in school
and out. Its style and matter are therefor chosen to suit young readers.
Many historical points in these stories are more or less disputed.
The original sources do not always agree. In preparing these stories
of Delaware for children’s reading, it has been thought best to use
anecdotes and interesting traditions whenever they could be found. The
result is a substantially true set of stories, which do not however,
undertake to settle the facts in any disputed case, but are designed to
leave in a child’s mind the broad outlines of Delaware history.
The stories have all been read and revised by the Hon. Alexander B.
Cooper of New Castle, to whom the thanks of the Colonial Dames are here
expressed for his wise and constant help. The Rev. Joseph B. Turner, of
Dover, has also kindly read over several of the stories.
Table of Contents
1—HOW ONCE UPON A TIME THE DUTCH CAME TO ZWANNENDAEL 2
2—HOW ONCE UPON A TIME THE SWEDES BUILT A FORT 18
3—HOW ONCE UPON A TIME GOVERNOR STUYVESANT HAD HIS WAY 32
4—HOW ONCE UPON A TIME WILLIAM PENN LANDED AT NEW CASTLE 48
5—HOW ONCE UPON A TIME CAESAR RODNEY RODE FOR FREEDOM 60
6—HOW ONCE UPON A TIME THE ROW-GALLEYS FOUGHT THE ROEBUCK 75
7—HOW ONCE UPON A TIME THE BLUE HEN’S CHICKENS WENT TO WAR 84
8—HOW ONCE UPON A TIME WASHINGTON CAME TO DELAWARE 100
9—HOW ONCE UPON A TIME MARY VINING RULED ALL HEARTS 112
10—HOW ONCE UPON A TIME MCDONOUGH SAILED THE SEA 124
11—HOW ONCE UPON A TIME DELAWARE WELCOMED LAFAYETTE 138
12—HOW ONCE UPON A TIME MASON AND DIXON RAN A BOUNDARY 152
[Illustration]
How Once Upon A Time The Dutch Came To Zwannendael.
[Illustration: The “Half-Moon” in Delaware Bay 1609]
IT was a clear warm day in May in the year 1631, and the sunlight shone
pleasantly on a little Indian village of the Leni Lenapes on the banks
of the broad Delaware river.
From the openings in the tops of the wigwams—openings that answered in
place of chimneys—the smoke of the fires rose toward the cloudless May
sky. Kettles were suspended over these fires, and from their contents
came a savory smell of cooking—of game, of fish, or of a sort of hasty
pudding that the squaws make of corn, which they have ground to meal
between stones.
A number of the young men had gone off to the forest in search of
game, or had paddled away in their canoes to distant fishing grounds,
but some of them were still left in the village. Now and then a brave
stalked with grave dignity among the wigwams; and the three chiefs,
Quescacous, Entquet, and Siconesius sat a little withdrawn, and in the
shadow of some trees, smoking together.
An Indian youth who was setting a trap down by the river paused, when
he had finished his task, to look up and down the stream for returning
canoes. There was none in sight, but what he did see caught his
attention and brought a startled look of wonder to his face. He bent
forward in eager attention and gave vent to a low guttural exclamation.
Down toward the bay two objects such as he had never seen before moved
slowly over the surface of the water. They moved like great birds with
wide spread wings; but they were no birds, as the Indian knew well.
Whatever they were, they were the work of human hands, and they were
coming toward the village.
Once satisfied of this, the Indian turned and sped back to the wigwams
to carry the news.
What he had to tell was enough to arouse not only the interest of the
younger Indians, but of the braves and the chiefs as well. Soon a group
of natives had gathered on the shore, all gazing down toward the bay.
And a marvellous sight it must have been to those Indians that May
morning when the two ships of the first colonists who ever settled in
Delaware came sailing up the river toward them. In the lead came a
vessel of eighteen guns, her sails spread wide to the light breeze, the
flag of Holland floating from her masthead. Following her was a smaller
yacht named the _Walrus_. Over the sides of these vessels leaned the
sailors and the colonists, blue eyed and fair haired, dressed in cloth
suits and glittering buttons.
These immigrants gazed with wonder at the strange natives gathered on
the shore—at their painted faces and feathers; and they saw with joy
the beauty of this new land. For five months these ships had sailed the
trackless ocean, now beaten by storms, now driven on by favoring winds;
and now at last, under their leader, DeVries, they had reached their
haven.
They were not the first white men who had sailed these waters. Long,
long before, Hudson had come this way on his search for a north-east
passage to China. In 1612 Hendrickson had ventured up the river in his
little ship _Restless_, but neither of these had set foot on the land,
unless it was to seek a spring for water to drink. These men under
DeVries in 1631 were the first who ever made an attempt to settle.
Very joyously these first colonists landed in Delaware. Flags were
flying and music playing. The cannon of the ship boomed out a salute
across the water. It reverberated solemnly over the wild and lonely
country where such a sound had never been heard before. The colonists
were so delighted with the peace and the beauty of the land that they
named the point where the boat first touched, _Paradise Point_. It is
the little projection of land at the mouth of what is now known as
Lewes Creek.
The three chiefs, gorgeous in paint and feathers, came down to meet the
strangers and conducted them up the shore to the village. Here they
motioned to them to seat themselves around the fire and smoke the pipe
of peace.
The various small tribes of Indians in Delaware all belonged to the one
great tribe of the Leni Lenapes.
DeVries, on his side, was very anxious to establish friendly relations
with them. He believed that if the natives were treated fairly and
kindly there would be no trouble with them.
We do not know how the bargain was made between the Indians and the
white men, whether by signs or whether through an interpreter sent down
from the New Netherlands (New York) which had been settled some time
before. But we are told in the old documents that this first tract of
land, thirty-two miles along the bay and river from Cape Henlopen, was
sold by the Indians for “certain parcels of cargoes,” probably kettles,
cloth, beads and ornaments.
After the bargain was made, DeVries again took ship; and the three
chiefs sailed with him up to New Netherlands, where a solemn deed
was made before the three chiefs and signed and sealed by the
Dutch Governor and the Directors, Council and Sheriff of the New
Netherlands.[1]
Down in the newly purchased land the colonists immediately set about
building shelters for themselves. Their possessions had been landed
with them—their chests of clothing, their farming tools, and the seeds
they had brought from home. They must begin to prepare fields, too; for
it was time the seeds were planted.
The spot they selected was near the mouth of the creek, where there
was a spring of delicious cool water; and, because of the wild swans
that were sometimes seen there, they named their little settlement
Zwannendael. The river they called Hoornekill in honor of DeVries,
whose native place was Hoorne in Holland.
The natives watched with wonder the strange work of these colonists,
and the square houses with doors and windows which they made, and which
were so different from the round wigwams woven of boughs and barks.
Beside separate cabins the settlers built themselves a general house
to serve as defense in time of need. They called it Fort Uplandt; but
DeVries placed such extraordinary confidence in the Indians that the
so-called fort was only a house, larger and stronger than the cabins,
and surrounded by a high fence.
So diligently did the settlers go about their work that by the middle
of the summer they were quite well established.
DeVries was anxious to go back to Holland and bring out more settlers,
so he appointed Giles Hosset[2] Director of the colony and then made
his preparations to sail.
It was with heavy hearts that the little band of colonists saw the ship
that had brought them from home spread its wings and sail away.
They watched it until it was only a speck in the distance, until even
the speck had disappeared. Then they turned again to their work with
a new feeling of loneliness. They were so few in that great land of
savages.
They had provisions enough, brought from home to last them a year and
there was some comfort in the fact that the yacht _Walrus_ was left
behind. She was anchored just off shore in the river, and from there
she could keep guard over the little colony like a mother bird guarding
her nest. If danger arose, the settlers could retreat to her. But what
danger was there to fear when the Indians seemed so peaceable and
friendly?
For some months after DeVries left them, all went well; and then
trouble arose. The trouble was over a very little thing, no more nor
less than a little square of tin.
One of the first things the colonists had done after settling their
farms, was to erect a pillar, and place on it a piece of tin carved
with the arms of the United Provinces, as Holland was called. Those
arms, set high above the village, were to them a constant reminder of
their old home across the sea; and often, as they went to and fro about
their work, their homesick eyes would turn to it for comfort.
But one morning when the colonists arose to go to their daily toil, the
piece of tin was missing. Evidently, someone had wrenched it from its
place in the night.
Angry and excited, the colonists began to make inquiries. For a time
they learned nothing of how or why it had been taken, but at length
they found it had been stolen by an old chief to make tobacco pipes.
Then the colonists were more angry than ever. It seemed an insult to
their country that her arms should have been put to such a base use.
The natives were much alarmed when they found how angry the settlers
were. They did not understand why they set such value upon the arms.
Was the piece of tin something sacred—something that the pale faces
worshiped? Out in the river lay the _Walrus_, seeming to threaten them
with its presence; and soon the great sachem DeVries would return,
unless they could make their peace with the pale faces.
A few days later some of the natives came to the settlement, bringing a
gift to the white men—a gift that they hoped might soothe the anger of
the settlers. It was the bloody scalp of the old chief. They had killed
him and brought this as a peace offering.
The settlers, with Giles Hosset at their head, were overcome with
horror.
“What have you done!” Hosset cried, “Why did you not bring him to the
fort? We could have reproved him, and told him that if he did such a
thing again he would be punished. But you yourselves should be punished
for this. It is a bloody and barbarous act!”
The Indians heard him with sullen look. They in their turn were
enraged. They had thought to please the white men by killing the white
men’s enemy, and now the white men were more angry than ever. The
natives dissembled, however; they went away with calm looks, but black
rage was in their hearts.
Giles Hosset was deeply troubled.
“Evil will surely come of this,” he said. “Innocent blood has been
shed, and something tells me that more will follow.”
However, the next few days passed peacefully. Giles Hosset’s fears
began to die away. The Indians were apparently as friendly as ever,
and the whole tragic event seemed to have been forgotten. But it was
not. There were friends of the chief who remembered and blamed the pale
faces for his death, and whose hearts were full of hatred and revenge.
One morning the little ship _Walrus_ drew up its anchor and sailed down
the bay and out into the ocean to look for whales. There were said to
be a great many along the coast, and an Indian had brought them news of
one that had been spouting outside at dawn.
The colonists were gathering in their crops, and the little cluster of
cabins lay peaceful and deserted in the golden autumn sunlight. Two
people only were left in the strong house. One was a man who was sick
and so unable to work; the other was a stout, strong fellow who stayed
there on guard. A great brindled mastiff was chained to the wall by a
strong staple. He lay asleep, sometimes rousing himself to snap lazily
at the flies. The guard was sharpening some farm implements; the man on
the bed lay watching him, and now and then they chatted idly.
Suddenly the great mastiff lifted its head and listened. Then it sprang
to its feet, struggling against the chain and growling ominously.
“What is it?” asked the sick man.
The guard went to the door and looked out.
“Indians,” he answered.
“Indians?” repeated the sick man, “I like not that they should come
here when all the others are away and out of call.”
However, it seemed that these Indians had come on a matter of barter.
They had with them a stack of beaver skins, which they wished to
exchange for cloth or provisions. They spread them out on the floor,
and the white men grew quite interested in examining them.
Presently they made their bargain, and the guard said he would go up to
the loft and get certain of the stores that were kept there.
One of the Indians followed him up and stood around as he selected the
things he was to exchange for the skins. Then, as the guard started
down the ladder, swift as lightning the Indian struck him with an axe
he had picked up, and crushed in his head. The man had not even time to
cry out.
Immediately, and as though this sound had been the signal, the natives
fell upon the sick man and killed him. Others rushed upon the dog, but
there they met with such a fierce defense that they fell back. The
brave beast pulled and struggled against the chain, and a moment later
he fell pierced by a shower of arrows.
When nothing was left alive in the strong house, the Indians went out
to where the colonists were quietly at work in the fields, guessing
nothing of the tragedy that had just been enacted at the strong house.
The Indians approached them tranquilly, their weapons carefully
concealed. So friendly were their looks that the white men felt no
fear; but only Giles Hosset, remembering the death of the chief,
watched them with some uneasiness. But even he had no faintest
suspicion of the bloody work so soon to begin.
When the Indians were quite close to the settlers, their friendly look
suddenly turned to one of ferocity and hate. Weapons were flourished,
they burst into their terrible war cry and fell upon the defenseless
colonists. So thorough was their work that, when it was ended, not one
white man was left alive to tell the tale of the terrible massacre of
Zwannendael.
Meanwhile, out in the ocean, the _Walrus_ had cruised about all day;
but the sailors had seen no signs of the whales the Indians had told of
and at evening they came sailing home.
What was their surprise, as they approached the settlement, to see no
signs of life. They could not understand it. Only when they reached the
strong house and saw the bodies of the men and the dog, did they begin
to guess at the terrible tragedy of that day.
They hastened to the field where they had left their friends cheerfully
at work that morning. Not one was left alive.
Filled with despair, the survivors hurried back to their ship. The
native village too, was empty, the Indians had disappeared; but the
white men were afraid to stay on the shore. They spent the night on the
_Walrus_, and the next day set sail for Holland to carry the sad news
to DeVries.
We are told that DeVries had almost finished his preparations and was
expecting soon to return to Zwannendael, but that when he heard the
tidings he was overcome.
The return voyage was given up, for the new colonists were afraid to
risk the fate of the others. And so, in the massacre of Zwannendael,
ended the first settlement ever made on Delaware soil.
Yet still the land had been possessed by the Dutch. It was not, any
more, unclaimed land that belonged to any man that came along. When the
King of England gave away all the land along that part of the coast to
Lord Baltimore, only three years later, he could not give this land of
Delaware, because it had already been settled by DeVries for Holland.
Our state began when the Dutch colonists first stepped ashore on
Paradise Point.
[Illustration: Monument at Lewes to first Dutch Colony under
DeVries—1631]
NOTES
[1] Bancroft says, “The voyage of DeVries 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 shore. Though the colony was swept
out of existence soon after, this charter, three years before the
Maryland patent was granted Lord Baltimore, preserved Delaware.”
[2] Giles Hosset in this position as Director of the Colony may well be
called the first Governor of Delaware.
[Illustration]
How Once Upon A Time The Swedes Built A Fort.
[Illustration: Old Swedes’ Church · Wilmington 1698]
SPRING had come again. The sun shone as bright and clear as when, seven
years before, DeVries and his Dutch settlers had sailed up the Delaware
and landed on its shores.
That was in 1631. Now it was the year 1638, and two other vessels[3]
were sailing up the broad river. But these ships were not Dutch; they
carried the colors of Sweden, and the men who crowded to the sides of
the vessels to gaze at the unknown shores were Swedes.
Six months before, these men, fifty in all, had started out from
Gottenburg to journey across the sea to this new land. For six months
they had been tossed and beaten by many storms upon the ocean, but now
at last they had reached the promised land.
Slowly they sailed up the river and past the mouth of the
Hoornekill.[4] The colonists stared in silence at the spot where the
little settlement of Zwannendael had once stood. Nothing marked the
place now but a few blackened ruins; and these, wind and storm were
slowly eating away.
The Swedes did not stop there, but sailed on up the river. Their
commander, Peter Minuit, had once been with the West India Company
at New Netherlands, and knew something of the country and had a
clear idea of where he wished to start his colony. Some miles above
the Hoornekill, Minquas Creek (now our Christiana) emptied into the
Delaware. Two and a half miles from its mouth, a point of rocks[5]
jutted out into the stream and made a sort of natural wharf. It was
upon this point that the Swedes made their landing.
Stores and implements were carried to the shore, and soon the silence
of the new land was broken by the sound of the ax and the voices of the
settlers talking and calling to one another.
Lonely and deserted as the country had seemed to the new settlers,
their coming was quickly known to both the Indians and the Dutch.
The first to visit them was an Indian Chief named Mattahoon. He and
some of his braves stalked in among the colonists one day, with silent
Indian tread, and stood looking about them with curious, glittering
black eyes. Minuit gave them some presents, and they seemed much
pleased. Then Mattahoon told Minuit that the land belonged to him and
his braves.
Minuit wished to buy it from him, and the Sachem agreed to sell it for
a copper kettle and some other small articles. These were given to him,
and he and his braves went away, well content with their bargain.
The next visitor to come to them was a messenger from New Amsterdam.
He told them that Director General Kieft, the Dutch Governor, had sent
him to ask why they had settled on land that belonged to the Dutch. The
Dutch had bought it from the Indians long ago, at the time DeVries had
settled on the river.
Minuit answered the messenger very civilly. He gave the Dutchman to
understand that he and his Swedes were on their way to the West Indies,
and had only landed on this shore for rest and refreshment.
The messenger believed what Minuit said, and was quite satisfied, and
the next day he returned to New Amsterdam and told Kieft there was
nothing to fear from these strangers; they were only passers-by and had
no wish to settle upon the river.
However, not long after this, a Dutch ship sailing up the river saw
that the strangers were still there. Moreover, they were building
houses and something that looked like a fort, and gardens were laid out.
Kieft, the Dutch Governor was very angry when he heard this. Again he
sent a messenger in haste, to ask why the Swedes were building, and to
demand that they should re-enter their ships and sail away.
Minuit paid but little attention to this second messenger. He was very
busy. The fort was almost finished. Reorus Torkillus, a clergyman who
had come from Sweden with him, had already held services in it, and
had prayed for the welfare of their little settlement of Christinaham,
for that was what they had named it. The fort itself was called Fort
Christina, in honor of the Swedish Queen, and the name of the creek was
changed from Minquas to Christina.
It was of no use for the Dutch to send messengers now. The Swedes were
well established. Moreover, they had made friends with the Indians.
Minuit had given them a number of presents—kettles, cloth, trinkets,
and even fire-arms and ammunition.[6]
With these presents the savages were delighted; and they signed a paper
with their marks, giving to the Swedes all the land from Cape Henlopen
to Santican, or what is now called the Falls of Trenton. When the Dutch
heard this, they were indignant for they claimed that all that land had
already been sold to them.
Reorus Torkillus, the Swedish minister for the little settlement, did
what he could to keep peace with both the Dutch and the Indians. He was
an earnest, pious man, and his great hope was that he might convert the
savages to Christianity. He regularly held Divine service in the fort.
He also had a plot of ground fenced off to serve as a burying ground
when such might be needed.[7]
The Indians understood but little of the teachings of Torkillus; but
there was one thing that they did understand, and that was that the
Swedes gave them many presents and paid them better for their furs and
skins than the Dutch did. Minuit, indeed, was always careful to find
out what the Dutch were paying them and then to offer a little more. In
this way he secured all the best and choicest of the furs—a cause of
fresh anger to the Dutch.
But with all this friendly feeling between the Swedes and the Indians,
the settlers were obliged to be on their watch with the savages. The
Leni Lenapes, to which the Delaware tribes belonged, were for the most
part a peaceful people; but there often appeared among them Indians
from another tribe, probably Iroquois, whom the settlers called
“Flatheads.”[8] These strange Indians were both cruel and treacherous,
and they made it dangerous for a settler to venture out of sight or
hearing of the settlement. Often they would hide in the woods and fall
upon some lonely wanderer, and kill or stun and then scalp him.
The scalping itself was not always fatal. There is a story of a drunken
soldier who fell asleep across his gun. When he awoke, he had a strange
feeling in his head. At first he thought it was the effect of what he
had drunk, but presently, to his terror, he found he had been scalped.
And there is a story too, of a woman who had gone into the forest
to gather fire-wood. She was struck down, stunned, and scalped by a
Flathead, but she lived many years afterward. Her hair, however, never
grew out again, except as a fine down.
There was another thing about the Indians that, as time went on, made
the settlers more and more anxious. In order to keep them in good
temper, it was necessary to continue to give them presents. At first it
was easy for the colonists to do this, for they had brought with them
from Sweden a large store of things for that very purpose. But as time
went on, their stores dwindled away. They had expected ships from home
to bring them a fresh supply, but no ships came.
Week after week and month after month passed by; the home land seemed
to have forgotten them. Their cloth was all gone, their clothes were
threadbare, and many of their cattle had died. The Indians came to
Christinaham, expecting presents, and went away with angry looks and
empty hands.
In the year 1640 the Chief Mattahoon called together a great meeting
of the sachems and warriors of Delaware. The meeting was held deep in
the wood where no white man could come. All the chiefs and braves were
gathered there, old and young. They ate and drank. Then Mattahoon spoke
to them. He asked them whether it would not be better to kill all the
Swedes. He said:
“The Swedes live here upon our land, they have many forts and houses,
but they have no goods to sell us. We find nothing in their stores
that we want. They have no cloth, red, blue, or brown. They have no
kettles, no brass, no lead, no guns, no powder. But the English and
the Dutch have many things. Shall we kill all the Swedes or suffer them
to remain?”[9]
An Indian warrior answered:
“Why should we kill all the Swedes? They are in friendship with us. We
have no complaint to make of them. Presently they will bring here a
large ship full of all sorts of good things.”
With this speech all the others agreed. Then Mattahoon said:
“Then we native Indians will love the Swedes, and the Swedes shall be
our good friends. We and the Swedes and Dutch shall always trade with
each other.”
Soon after this the meeting was dissolved, and all the Indians returned
to their own villages.
The Swedish settlers knew nothing of this meeting, but they had felt
that they were in danger. It was in March of that year, 1640, that they
decided, with sad hearts, to give up their little settlement and remove
to New Amsterdam. Preparations were made for abandoning Christinaham.
Tools and provisions were packed, and the boats made ready.
The Dutch heard with joy that the little settlement was to be given up.
At last they would be rid of their troublesome neighbors.
However, the very day before the Swedes were to leave, a vessel arrived
from Sweden, bringing them cattle, seeds, cloths and all the things of
which they were so in need. The ship also brought a letter from the
wise Swedish Councillor Oxenstiern and his brother. In this letter, the
colonists were encouraged in their undertaking and told to keep brave
hearts. They were also promised that two more vessels should be sent
out to them in the spring.
When the colonists heard this news, they shouted for joy. The household
goods which they had packed with such heavy hearts were now unpacked,
the houses were opened, and the work of the village was taken up again.
The Indians were greatly pleased. Now they saw how wise they had been
to have patience and wait, instead of killing all the Swedes as they
had been tempted to do. The Swedes were again their best friends, and
the givers of many gifts.
The Dutch were obliged to swallow their disappointment as best they
could, for now the Swedes were more firmly settled than ever. Fields
were tilled, and orchards planted. Later on they built forts at the
mouths of various Creeks, so as to prevent the Dutch from trading with
the Indians.
When, in 1643, Lieutenant Printz came out from Sweden to take the
position of Governor; he built a handsome house on Tinnicum Island,
just above Chester, and also a fort and a church.[10] The principal
Swedes built their houses around this fort, and the village that arose
back of it was called “Printzdorf.” Thus the capital of New Sweden was
removed from Christinaham to Tinnicum Island.
The Governor held absolute power over the little colony, and all
matters were decided by him according to his own will.
There were, at this time, two kinds of people upon the Delaware;
the freemen, who owned their own land and farmed and traded, and
prisoners, who had been sent over from Sweden on the earliest vessels,
and who were employed in digging ditches and hewing and building, and
were treated as slaves. In fact, there was no lack of laborers in the
colony.
Rich cargoes of furs and tobacco were now sent back to Sweden. The
Dutch were in despair. They saw all the Indian trade being taken out of
their hands; but Sweden was too powerful both at home and abroad for
them to dare to interfere with her, and from this time until Stuyvesant
came out to be Governor of the New Netherlands the Swedes ruled supreme
along the Delaware.
The spot where the Swedes first landed is still preserved, and
is marked by a portion of the original rock, placed close to the
landing-place on the bank of the Christiana. This rock bears an
inscription, and is enclosed by a low iron railing. It may be called
the Plymouth Rock of Delaware, for it is taken from the natural wharf
of rocks on which the Swedes first stepped, and marks the first
permanent settlement made in Delaware.
[Illustration: Portion of Swedes’ Rock
Wilmington
Site of Fort Christina
1638]
NOTES
[3] The ships were the _Key of Kalmar_ and the _Bird Grip_ or _Griffin_.
[4] A landing was made a few miles above the Hoornekill at a point
between the Murderkill and Mispillion Creeks, in Kent County, but the
Swedes only stopped there for a short time for rest and refreshment.
The place was so beautiful that they named it Paradise Point.
[5] This point of rocks marked the foot of what is now Sixth Street, in
Wilmington.
[6] Giving or trading fire-arms or ammunition to the Indians was
afterward forbidden on pain of death. The arming of the Indians was
considered too dangerous.
[7] Upon the site of this burying ground the Old Swedes Church now
stands; and somewhere beneath it lie the bones of Reorus Torkillus.
[8] So called from a curious flattening of the crown of the head.
[9] This account is given by Campanius.
[10] The present church of Old Swedes at Wilmington, was not built
until 1698, so this church on Tinnicum Island was the first one built
by the Swedes. In Minuit’s time, Torkillus had held Divine service in
the fort.
[Illustration]
How Once Upon A Time Governor Stuyvesant Had His Way.
[Illustration:
Demolished
1885
Old Tile House
New Castle 1687]
PETER STUYVESANT was a tall, red-faced Dutchman who came out to the New
Netherlands in 1647, to take the place of Kieft as Governor of that
Province.
Governor Stuyvesant had fought in many battles, and in one of them had
lost a leg. When he came out to New Netherlands he had a wooden leg;
and as it was fastened together by rings of silver, it was often called
“the Governor’s silver leg.” Stuyvesant had also a very violent temper;
and, when he was angry, he stamped about with this leg as though it
were a club and he were beating the floor with it.
At this time, in 1647, the Swedes claimed all of Delaware as theirs,
and called it New Sweden. They had driven many of the Dutch away, had
torn down their buildings, and had kept them from trading with the
Indians. Every little while news of fresh wrongs to the Dutch was
brought from Delaware to Governor Stuyvesant; and every time a letter
or messenger arrived, the Governor had a fresh fit of rage. He believed
that the Dutch were the real owners of the river; and, if he could,
he would have gathered his soldiers together and sailed down to New
Sweden, and have done his best to drive every Swede out of the country.
This he could not do, however; for the Directors of the West India
Company, who had given him his position as Governor, had told him to
keep peace not only with the Indians, but with the Swedes as well.
This was a hard thing for a hot-tempered man like Stuyvesant to do.
Now the story would be that the Swedes had destroyed more of the Dutch
buildings along the Delaware; again, that the Swedes had incited the
Indians to try to surprise and massacre the Dutch; and Hudde, the
Dutch commissioner in New Sweden, wrote that a Swedish lieutenant and
twenty-four soldiers had come to his house one day and cut down all his
trees, even the fruit trees.
Stuyvesant stamped about louder than ever when he heard this. The
insult to the Dutch commissioner seemed the worst thing that had yet
happened; and he made up his mind to sail down to New Sweden and
remonstrate with the Swedish Governor Printz himself.
Governor Printz lived in a very handsome house called Printz Hall, on
Tinnicum Island. All about it were fine gardens and an orchard. There
was also a pleasure house, and indeed everything that could help to
make it comfortable and convenient. Governor Printz received Governor
Stuyvesant very politely in the great hall of the house, and presently
the two governors sat down and began to talk. Stuyvesant complained
bitterly of the treatment the Dutch had received in Delaware. He
repeated that by rights the Dutch really owned the land; they had
bought it years before from the Indians, and their right to it had been
sealed by the blood they had shed upon its soil.
Printz himself was a very violent man, and often gross and abusive; but
this time he kept his temper and answered the Dutch Governor civilly.
Stuyvesant, though, gained nothing by his visit, and all his talk
and reasoning. Printz was determined to keep all the land along the
Delaware, and to govern it as he pleased. As to cutting down Hudde’s
trees, he said he had had nothing to do with that matter, and was sorry
it had happened.
So Stuyvesant went back to his own fine house at New Amsterdam, and the
Dutch in New Sweden were no better off.
However, he was not one to let the matter rest at that. He kept it
in his mind, and at last, as the result of his thinking, he sent
messengers to all the Indian sachems along the Delaware, inviting them
to come to a great meeting at the governor’s house in New Amsterdam.
The meeting was set for early in July; and, on the day appointed, the
Indians came. They were grave and fierce looking, in spite of their gay
paint and feathers. Stuyvesant received them in the hall of his house;
and after they had all arrived, they sat down there in council.
The first thing Stuyvesant wished to learn from them was exactly how
much land they had sold to the Swedes.
The Indians told him they had not sold any land to the Swedes, except
that upon which Fort Christina stood, and ground enough around it for
a garden to plant tobacco in.
“Then will you sell the land to us?” asked Stuyvesant.
The Indians were quite willing to do this. They were always willing to
sell anything, even if they had already sold it; but what they wished
to know was what the Dutch would give. The price finally agreed upon
was, if they had only known it, an absurd price indeed; but the Indians
were quite content with it. It was;—12 coats of duffels (a kind of
cloth), 12 kettles, 12 axes, 12 adzes, 24 knives, 12 bars of lead and 4
guns with some powder; besides this, the Dutch to repair the gun of the
Chief Penomennetta when it was out of order, and to give the Indians a
few handfuls of maize when they needed it. This was the price for which
the Indians sold to the Dutch all the land along the Delaware River,
from Fort Christiana to Bombay Hook.
The Indians then went away, very much pleased. Governor Stuyvesant,
too, was in high good humor. Now he would show Printz who was the real
owner of the land.
In the year 1651, Stuyvesant set about having a fort built at New
Amstel, (now New Castle) about five miles south of Fort Christina. The
name of it was to be Fort Casimir.[11] This fort was of great value to
the Dutch, and Stuyvesant felt that he had taken the first step toward
recovering Dutch possession of the Delaware.
Printz, as soon as he knew what Stuyvesant was about, protested against
the building of the fort; but he was not strong enough to prevent it.
He had grown very unpopular, because of his violent and coarse temper.
He was hated not only by the Dutch and the English, but by his own
people as well. Things began to grow more and more unpleasant for him,
so that at last he begged to be allowed to go back to Sweden; and in
1653 he left the shores of New Sweden and his house on Tinnicum Island,
and sailed away not to return.
But Stuyvesant was well pleased. He felt that it was he, with his
building of Fort Casimir, who had driven the Swede away. He smiled
comfortably to himself as he sat smoking his pipe, and made fresh plans.
But in June, 1654, news came to Governor Stuyvesant that made him leap
from his chair and clench his hands and stamp up and down as though
he would break his wooden-silver leg to pieces. _The Swedes had taken
Fort Casimir!_ And they had taken it without a single blow having been
struck by the Dutch. The taking of the fort was in this way:—
Rysing, the new Swedish governor, had arrived at Godwin Bay early in
May. He came sailing up the South River in the good ship _Aren_, and
with him came a number of new settlers, bold and resolute men, about
two or three hundred in all.
As they came near Fort Casimir they fired a royal salute, dropped
their sails, and anchored. This was May 31, 1654. Gerritt Bikker, the
commander of the fort, immediately sent to ask their business in these
waters. Bikker was a very weak and timid man.
The messengers soon returned, bringing word that it was a Swedish ship
with the new Governor, and that he demanded to have Fort Casimir handed
over to him, as it was on Swedish land.
Bikker was amazed at this message, and was about to write out an answer
when he was told that a boat from the Swedish vessel was coming toward
the Fort, with about twenty men.
Bikker thought that they were bringing some further message, and
politely went down to the beach to meet them. The gate of the fort was
left open.
The Swedes landed; but, instead of stopping on the beach, they marched
straight to the open gate and into the fort. Then, drawing their
swords, they demanded the surrender of the fort. At the same time two
shots were fired from the Swedish vessel, and the Swedes in the fort
wrenched the muskets from the hands of the Dutch soldiers. The whole
thing was so sudden that the Dutch were unable to make any resistance,
and in a moment they had been chased from the fort, and the Swedes had
taken possession of everything.
All this happened on Trinity Sunday, so the Swedes now changed the name
of the fort from Fort Casimir, to Fort Trinity.
The Dutch living near the fort, took the oath of allegiance to the
Swedish crown, and it seemed that Stuyvesant was to lose everything he
had just gained in Delaware.
It was felt to be very important at this time to gain the friendship of
the Indians, so, very soon after the capture of Fort Casimir, Governor
Rysing asked the Delaware sachems to come to a meeting at Printz Hall.
The Indians came to Tinnicum Island in answer to his message as, a
short time before, they had gone to New Amsterdam when Stuyvesant sent
for them. They were seated in the great hall of the house and waited
gravely to hear “a talk made to them.”
Rysing began by telling the Indians how much the Swedes respected them.
He reminded them of the gifts they had received from the Swedes—many
more than the Dutch had ever given them.
The Indians replied that the Swedes had brought much evil upon them;
that many of them had died since the Swedes had come into the country.
Rysing then gave them some presents, and after that the Indians arose
and went out.
Presently they returned; and the principal sachem, a chief called
Naaman, “made a talk.” He began by saying that the Indians had done
wrong in speaking evil of the Swedes; “for the Swedes,” said he, “are a
good people; see the presents they have brought us; for these they ask
our friendship.” He then stroked his arm three times from the shoulder
down, which among the Indians, is a sign of friendship. He promised
that the friendship between the Indians and the Swedes should be as
close as it had been in Governor Printz’s time.
“The Swedes and the Indians then,” he said, “were as one body and one
heart” (and he stroked his breast as he spoke), “and now they shall be
as one head,” and he seized his head with both hands and then made a
motion as though he were tying a strong knot.
Rysing answered that this should indeed be a strong and lasting
friendship, and then the great guns of the fort were fired.
The Indians were delighted at the noise and cried, “Hoo, hoo, hoo;
mockirick pickon!” which means, “Hear and believe! The great guns have
spoken.”
After more talk great kettles were brought into the hall filled with
_sappawn_, a kind of hasty pudding made of Indian corn, and all sat
down and fed heartily, and then the Indians departed to their villages.
Rysing had thought that as soon as Stuyvesant heard that the Swedes had
taken Fort Casimir, he would try to recapture it; but day after day
and week after week passed peacefully by. Rysing began to believe that
Stuyvesant meant to let the matter rest.
But the hot-tempered Dutchman had far other ideas than that. He still
remembered that he had been told to keep peace with his neighbors, but
he wrote an account of the whole matter to the West India Company at
home. Then he had to gather together all his patience and wait, for an
answer from across the ocean. What he most feared was that he would be
told still to keep the peace.
But when Stuyvesant’s letter telling how the Swedes had taken Fort
Casimir reached Holland, the people were aroused at last. The roll of
drums sounded in the streets of old Amsterdam. Volunteers were called
for. A ship, _The Balance_, was fitted out with men, arms, ammunition
and provisions, and set sail as quickly as possible for New Netherlands.
Great was the joy of Stuyvesant to receive such an answer as this. He
too had called for volunteers, and he had gathered together all the
vessels he could; he had even hired a French frigate, _L’Esperance_,
which happened to be lying in the harbor of New Amsterdam at that time.
About the middle of August, 1655, the little Dutch fleet sailed out
from the harbor of New Amsterdam-seven vessels in all and carrying
almost seven hundred men. Stuyvesant himself was in command.
They sailed down to the Delaware Bay, in between the capes, and up the
river to a short distance above the fort. Quietly as Styuvesant had
moved, the Indians had learned his plans some time before, and had
carried the news of them to Rysing.
Rysing had immediately sent what men and ammunition he could spare to
Fort Trinity, and had told Captain Sven Schute, its commander, to fire
on the Dutch if they attempted to sail past the fort. This, Sven Schute
did not do. He allowed the Dutch to pass by without firing a single
shot, and so all communication with Fort Christina was cut off.
Stuyvesant landed the Dutch soldiers on Sunday, September 5, 1655, and
sent Captain Smith with a drummer to the fort to demand that Captain
Schute should surrender it, as it was Dutch property.
Schute, however, asked time to consider, and also to be allowed to
write to Rysing.
This was refused; and Schute was again called upon to surrender, and so
spare the shedding of innocent blood.
A second time he refused, and a third time he was asked to surrender;
and the third time he agreed and opened his gates to the Dutch. So it
was that within a short time after leaving New Amsterdam, the Dutch
marched to the fort with music playing and banners flying; and so, a
second time, Fort Casimir (then Fort Trinity) was captured without a
blow having been struck or a drop of blood shed.
After capturing Fort Casimir, Stuyvesant sailed up the river to Fort
Christina and surrounded it. Rysing had only thirty men, and around him
camped almost seven hundred Dutchmen.
Stuyvesant sent him a message by an Indian, bidding him surrender the
fort.
Rysing, by the same Indian, returned a letter begging Stuyvesant to
meet him and talk the matter over.
This Stuyvesant agreed to; but he treated Rysing in such an insolent
way that it made matters harder than ever for the Swedish governor to
bear. Rysing laid before him all the Swedish claims to the river, and
begged him to withdraw his soldiers. This, Stuyvesant refused to do,
and again demanded the surrender of the fort.
Rysing would not agree to this and so returned.
On the twenty-fourth of September all the Dutch guns were turned upon
Fort Christina, and Rysing was again called upon to surrender.
This time, seeing how useless it was to try to defend the fort with his
small force, he agreed. Such terms as he could, he made with the Dutch.
He and his troops were allowed to march out with drums beating, fifes
playing, and colors flying, and they were also allowed to keep their
guns and ammunition and all effects belonging to the Swedish Crown. It
was agreed that no Swedes were to be kept there against their will; but
any were to be allowed to stay one year if they wished, in order to
arrange their affairs. Rysing and his Swedes were also to have a ship
to take them back to Gottenburg in Sweden.
Thus, on September 25, 1655, our state became the property of the
Dutch, and Swedish power ended forever on the banks of the Delaware.
[Illustration: Stone at New Castle·
Fort Casimir was built by the Dutch in—1651 · and recaptured by them
from the Swedes—1655·]
NOTE
[11] The spot where Fort Casimir (or Trinity) once stood, is now
covered with water, the Delaware flowing over it. It was a little
north of where the town of New Castle now stands. A boulder with
an inscription has been placed near the shore, on the road, by the
Colonial Dames, to mark the vicinity of the old fort.
[Illustration]
How Once Upon A Time William Penn Landed In New Castle.
[Illustration: William Penn’s Ship—the “Welcome”—off New Castle Oct
1682]
IT WAS in the year 1682, and Delaware had seen many changes since Peter
Minuit and his little band of Swedes had landed on her wild shores.
During those years the Swedes had been driven out by the Dutch, and the
Dutch had afterward surrendered to the English; then the Dutch, growing
stronger, had driven out the English; but again the English had taken
possession and now owned all of what had once been New Netherlands
and New Sweden. New Netherlands was now called New York, and it was
the English Directors, (living in the town of New York, formerly New
Amsterdam), who made the laws for Delaware.
Only a few English, however, had come to Delaware to live. The people
of Wilmington (once Christinaham, or Christina Harbor) and of New
Castle, were principally Dutch and Swedes. They were simple farmer
people, raising crops and cattle and chickens, and they were very
willing to keep the laws that the English at New York made for them.
The Indians were still troublesome at times, but the settlers had
their block-houses or forts to retreat to and were generally able to
protect themselves.
But now it had come to their ears that a new governor was coming out
from England to rule over them, and they wondered anxiously what sort
of man he would prove to be. Governor Printz had been coarse and
violent; Governor Stuyvesant, hot-tempered, ambitious, and overbearing;
and terrible tales had been told of the cruelty of Governor Kieft.
There had been a long line of governors since Minuit’s time, both in
Delaware and in New York; and few of them had seemed to care for the
good of the poorer people. And now this new man was coming and, for all
they knew, might be the worst of all.