Settlers came to New Jersey in various ways. Their voyages were
generally very long, and it often happened that they did not settle at
the place for which they had started, for there were many circumstances
which might induce them to change their mind after they reached this
country.
But there was one settler, and a very valuable one too, who came to New
Jersey in an entirely original and novel fashion. She was a girl only
sixteen years old, and a Swede. There is no reason to suppose that she
wanted to come to America; but circumstances made it necessary that she
should get out of Sweden, and this country was a very good place to come
to. It is said that this girl, whose surname we do not know, but who was
called Elizabeth, was a connection of the Swedish royal family; and, as
there was great trouble at the time between different factions in the
land, it happened that it was dangerous for Elizabeth to remain in
Sweden, and it was very difficult to get her away. It is quite certain
that she was a person of importance, because it was considered
absolutely necessary to keep the authorities from knowing that she was
about to sail for foreign lands.
There are people at the present day who, when they first go on board an
ocean steamer, are very much surprised and disgusted at the small size
of the stateroom they will have to occupy during the voyage; but if they
could have seen the accommodations with which Elizabeth was obliged to
content herself, they would not look with such contempt upon a room in
which three persons can sleep, leaving space to move about.
The people who had Elizabeth's passage in charge conceived the idea that
the safest way to get her on board the vessel, which was waiting at the
dock, would be to ship her as freight. So she was put into a large
hogshead, and securely fastened up, and then carried on board. She must
have been a girl of a good deal of pluck, for the vessel was not to sail
for several days, and she must remain in the hogshead all that time, as
the officials of the port might come on board at any moment and discover
her, if she should get out of her hiding place. I have no doubt that she
was supplied with three or four meals a day through the bunghole.
Not only was Elizabeth's precious self thus duly consigned to America as
if she had been ordinary merchandise, but a great many of her valuable
possessions, jewels, clothes, etc., were also shipped to accompany her.
In the course of time, and it must have been a dreary time to this poor
girl, the ship moved out of the dock, and started on its voyage across
the North Sea, and then over the Atlantic to the new country. Not until
the vessel was well out of sight of land, and free from danger of being
overhauled by a vessel of the Swedish navy, did Elizabeth come out of
her barrel and breathe the fresh sea air.
At that time, early in the seventeenth century, a good many vessels
crossed the Atlantic, and most of them must have made safe and
successful voyages; but it so happened that the ship in which Elizabeth
sailed was not a fortunate craft. When she reached the far-stretching
Jersey coast, dangerous even now to mariners who know it well, this
vessel was overtaken by storm, and soon became a hopeless wreck.
It might have been a very good thing if Elizabeth had concluded to end
her voyage as she began it. If she had put her valuables into her
hogshead, and then had jumped in herself and had asked some of the
sailors to fasten her up, there is no doubt that she would have floated
ashore, if she had known how to keep the open bunghole uppermost,--which
no doubt she did,--and would have saved all her possessions. If one must
float through stormy waves and great breakers, there is no safer way to
do it than in a hogshead, as has been proved by the man who in that way
navigated the fierce rapids at Niagara. But Elizabeth did not go back to
her hogshead. She took her chances with the rest of the people on
board, and with them was cast on the shore of New Jersey.
This shore was absolutely wild and bare, and what became of the others
who reached it, we do not know; but Elizabeth eventually wandered off by
herself, alone and lost in a strange land. If the people who had been so
much concerned about her connection with the Swedish throne had been
able to see her then, they would have been perfectly satisfied that she
would give them no further trouble. How she lived during her days of
wandering and solitude is not told; but when we remember that New Jersey
is noted for its berries and for its clams, and that it was probably
summer time when she was cast ashore (for mariners would generally
calculate to arrive at the settlement in good weather), we may give a
very good guess at Elizabeth's diet.
It was not very long before she found that there was another wanderer in
this desolate and lonely place. She met with a white hunter named
Garrison; and very much surprised must he have been when his eyes first
fell upon her,--almost as much surprised, perhaps, as if he had come
upon a stranded hogshead, with a human voice calling through the
bunghole to be let out.
When a possible heiress of a royal crown meets with a solitary hunter,
probably poor and of no family to speak of, her reception of him depends
very much upon surrounding circumstances. In this case, those
circumstances induced Elizabeth to look upon Garrison with more favor
than she had ever looked upon a king or noble, for there is no doubt
that she would have perished on that wild and uninhabited coast if she
had not met with him.
Of course, the hunter gladly undertook to guide this Swedish girl to a
settlement; and the two started off on their long tramp. It is not at
all surprising that they soon began to like each other, that it was not
long before they fell in love, and that in course of time they were duly
married. If she had ever thought of a marriage with a high-born Swede,
Elizabeth gave up all such notions when she entered her hogshead, and
left all her proud hopes behind her.
This young couple--one of royal Swedish blood, the other a hardy hunter
of the New World--settled near Bridgeton, and there they flourished and
prospered. Elizabeth lived to be ninety-five years old. She had ten
children, and in 1860 it was computed that her descendants numbered at
least a thousand. That any of these considered themselves better than
their neighbors, because it was possible that they might have a drop or
two of royal blood in their veins, is not likely; for but few American
families would care to base their claims of social superiority upon such
a very diluted foundation as this. But they would have good reason to
trace with pride their descent from the plucky girl who started for
America in a hogshead, and who was able to land alone and unassisted on
the Jersey coast in a storm, and to take care of herself after she got
ashore.