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CHAPTER allies, and Van Cuyler, in hopes to ransom these prisonXIII. ers, made a journey into the Mohawk country, the beauty 1642. of which he greatly admired. He was received with August. much kindness, and feasted on wild turkey; but the Mohawks could not be persuaded to part with their prisoners, the principal of whom was Father Jogues, a zealous Jesuit missionary. They promised, however, to spare their lives, and twelve Indians escorted Van Cuyler back to Beverswyk.

1643. The next year, on one of their trading expeditions to July. Fort Orange, the Indians brought their prisoner with

them. While there, news was received of a repulse which the Mohawks had suffered in Canada. It was believed that, on his return to the Mohawk country, Jogues would certainly be burned, and the Dutch commandant advised his escape, and offered to assist in it. After many contrivances to evade the vigilance of the Indians, he was concealed in the hold of a sloop, but was almost stifled with bad air. The Mohawks, greatly enraged, threatened vengeance, but were induced at last to accept a ransom. Sent to New Amsterdam, where he was kindly received by Kieft, the rescued missionary was presently furnished with a passage to Holland. The next 1644. year similar good offices were performed toward Father Bressani, another Jesuit missionary captured by the Mohawks.

As security against interloping traders, a fort and trad ing house were built on a precipitous little islet in the Hudson, eight or ten acres in extent, called Bear's, now Rensselaer's Island, near the southern boundary of the colony. Watch-master Coorn, to whom the command of the fort was intrusted, was directed to demand of all vessels passing a toll of five gilders, and the lowering of their flags, in acknowledgment of the staple right of

save

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July 5.

Rensselaerswyk. Skipper Lookermans, of the yacht CHAPTER Good Hope, on a voyage to Fort Orange, being hailed and ordered to lower his colors, replied scornfully, with 1644. an oath, that he would strike his flag for nobody " the Prince of Orange and the high and mighty lords his masters." Thereupon Coorn let fly at him divers shots, one of which perforated the "princely flag" of their high mightinesses the States-General, which the intrepid skipper held in his hands the while, raised just above his head. Van der Huygens, shout-fiscal of New Netherland, avenged this insult by a prosecution against Coorn, who was condemned in damages. A protest was also entered against the fort on Bear's Island. But the pa

troon was not inclined to relinquish any of his claims, and Coorn's zeal was presently rewarded by promotion to the office of shout-fiscal, in Van der Donck's place.

The settlements about New Amsterdam, almost ruined by the late war, could hardly muster a hundred men. Of thirty flourishing boweries, but five or six remained. The complaints against Kieft, and the disastrous condition of the colony, caused much discussion among the directors of the West India Company. It appeared, indeed, from a statement of accounts, that New Netherland, up to this time, had cost the company more than 1638. half a million of gilders, $200,000, over and above all receipts.

Kieft had flattered himself that the little Swedish colo

ny on the Delaware would be broken up for want of supplies, and during the first three or four years it was in some danger. But soon Queen Christina appropriated 1642. a liberal sum for its benefit, and John Printz, lieutenant August. colonel of cavalry, was sent out as governor, with a com- 1643. pany of soldiers and a number of settlers. Toward the Dutch at Fort Nassau, unless molested by them, he was

CHAPTER to observe friendly conduct. He was to treat the naXIII. tives with "great kindness and humanity," and not to 1643. allow any violence or injustice; to instruct them in the Christian religion, and to secure their good will and attachment by underselling the Dutch and English traders. But the trade in furs was to be strictly confined to the Swedish Company's agents. He was to pay particular attention to the cultivation of tobacco and the propagation of sheep and cattle; to find out if silk and wine could be produced; to attempt the manufacture of salt from sea water; and to explore the mineralogy of the country. Oak wood and walnuts were to be sent home as ballast, the nuts to see if they would not produce oil. The colony was to be governed according to "the laws, customs, and usages of Sweden." Punishments were not to be inflicted except according to "ordinances and legal forms," and by the advice of the "most prudent assessors of justice" to be found among the inhabitants. Especially was he enjoined "to render to Almighty God the true worship which is his due, according to the Confession of Augsburg, the Council of Upsal, and the cere monies of the Swedish Church;" looking well after the religious instruction of the young, and taking care that "a good ecclesiastical discipline" be maintained. Dutch farmers, had established a little settlement under the Swedish jurisdiction, some twenty miles below Christina. Printz was authorized, if he deemed it expedient, to remove them to a somewhat greater distance, but was specially instructed to respect their rights, and to allow them the free exercise of their religion.

Some

The new governor established his residence in a fort of hemlock logs, at Tinicum, or New Gottenburg, an island eight or ten miles below the mouth of the Schuyl kill. He built at the mouth of Salem Creek, the site

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of the recent New Haven settlement, broken up just CHAPTER before his arrival, another fort, called Elsenberg, which mounted six or eight twelve pounders, and commanded 1643. the channel of the river. All vessels passing were required to lower their flags and submit to an examination. Christina, near the present site of Wilmington, the chief Swedish fort and trading post, was well stored with merchandise for the Indian trade. Still another post, at the mouth of the Schuylkill, directly in front of the Dutch fort of Beversreede, cut off the Dutch from the Indian trade in that quarter. Fort Nassau, near by, but on the opposite side of the river, the chief Dutch station on the Delaware, was but ill supplied with goods, and the larger share of the trade fell presently into the hands of the Swedes. Some tobacco plantations were also established, cultivated by indented servants and transported criminals.

The Swedish colony was so successful as soon to be able to send home two vessels loaded with tobacco and beaver. Owing to the war between Denmark and Swe- 1644. den, these vessels were obliged to put into a Dutch port, and the Dutch West India Company immediately claimed the per centage on their cargoes, payable, as recognitions, by all vessels trading to New Netherland. An angry correspondence ensued between the Swedish embassador and the Dutch government. The claim of duties was at length abandoned, but any acknowledgment of the territorial claims of the Swedes was carefully avoided.

Printz built a church at New Gottenburg, and, in conformity to his instructions, the Swedish Lutheran worship was regularly established there, under the adminis tration of John Campanius as minister.

To the remonstrances of the Commissioners for the

CHAPTER United Colonies of New England against the expulsion XIIL from the Delaware of the New Haven settlers, Printz re1644. turned a respectful answer. But the Swedes and Dutch.

1646.

though they did not agree among themselves, still combined to exclude the New England traders. A vessel, fitted out by a Boston company, entered the Delaware to ascend in search of the great interior lakes, of which the English had heard some rumor, and whence the chief supply of beaver was said to come. Though provided with letters and a commission from the governor of Massachusetts, this vessel was closely followed by two pinnaces, one Dutch, the other Swedish, was forbidden, to trade with the Indians,, and not allowed to pass the Swedish fort.

The Dutch themselves were soon threatened with a similar exclusion. They were forbidden to trade at the mouth of the Schuylkill, or to attempt any settlement on the west bank of the Delaware. The Dutch who visited Printz's head-quarters were overwhelmed with profane abuse. Nor did it always end there, for they often returned "bloody and bruised."

Excluded from the Delaware, the New Englanders pressed their encroachments toward the Hudson. High up the Housatonic, near a hundred miles in the interior, the people of New Haven established a trading post, with the design, as the Dutch alleged, of drawing off the Indian trade from Fort Orange. The post of Good Hope, on the Connecticut, was still exposed to constant annoyances. The people of Connecticut complained of it as a refuge Sept. for runaway servants and culprits; and in an angry correspondence between Kieft and the New England Commissioners, all the old points of quarrel were revived and reviewed.

Kieft meanwhile became more and more unpopular.

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