Daily stories of Pennsylvania

by Frederic Antes Godcharles

Hudson then sailed up the New Jersey coast, on the third day of September, anchored his ship within Sandy Hook, and the 12th he entered New York Bay through the Narrows, and discovered the great river that since has borne his name.

So far as the history of Pennsylvania is concerned there is much import in the exploration of Hudson in Delaware Bay. He made known to his employers, the Dutch East India Company, and to the seafaring nations of western Europe, the existence of this wide bay, into which, as he perceived, a great river must discharge. His discovery laid the ground for the claim by the Dutch to the country on the Delaware. Exploration followed, then trade, then occupancy, then a new State, in which the present Pennsylvania, Delaware, New Jersey and New York were united under one government, called New Netherlands.

On August 27, 1610, Captain Samuel Argall, from Jamestown, Va., sailed into the Delaware Bay, and, remaining a few hours, gave it the name of Delaware, in honor of Lord Delaware, then Governor of Virginia. Thus we notice that neither Captain John Smith nor Henry Hudson entered Pennsylvania, they approached the very doorway, but did not come inside.

The first actual visit of a white man seems to have been six years later, when Etienne Brulé, a Frenchman, and a follower of Champlain, the first Governor of New France, came into Pennsylvania via the headwaters of the Susquehanna River and explored its entire length.

Hudson’s report of a land rich in furs attracted the attention of the Dutch, and before 1614, five vessels came to Manhattan on the North River. One of them, the “Fortune,” commanded by Captain Cornelius Jacobson Mey, sailed in the Zuyd River, and he named the cape at the east entrance of the bay Cape Mey, and the cape on the west Cape Cornelius.

One of these vessels, the “Tiger,” was burned and her captain, Adrian Block, built a yacht forty-four and a half feet long, eleven and a half feet wide, of sixteen tons burden, to take her place. This boat, the “Onrust,” was the first built within the limits of the United States, and she was destined to fame. Cornelius Hendrickson brought the “Onrust” to the Delaware in 1616, and made the first exploration of the Delaware River, and discovered the mouth of the Schuylkill and first saw the site of Philadelphia. Here he ransomed from the Indians a Dutchman named Kleynties and two companions, who had come down from the North River by land, and who may have been the first Europeans in Pennsylvania.

On June 3, 1621, the Dutch West India Company was formed. The charter by the Dutch Government gave it the exclusive right to trade on the coast of America between Newfoundland and the Straits of Magellan. This company, by virtue of its charter, took possession of the country, and dispatched the ship “New Netherland,” with a number of people, under command of Captain Mey, to the Delaware, where, on the eastern bank, fifteen leagues from its mouth, Captain Mey erected Fort Nassau.

The site of this fort was about five miles above Wilmington, and here four married couples and eight seamen lived. This was, probably, the first settlement on the Delaware River. Fort Nassau was a log structure, capable of defense against bows and arrows, sufficient for a depot of furs, but badly situated to command the commerce of the river. It stood for nearly thirty years, until 1651, and in that time was the center on this continent of Dutch authority and trade. It was to this fort that the Indians of Pennsylvania brought their peltries to exchange for articles that served their use or pleased their fancy, or for rum that made them drunk.

Another settlement was made farther north, on the same side of the river, which consisted of three or four families.

The administration of the affairs of New Netherlands was confided by the Dutch West Indian Company to Peter Minuit, who arrived at Manhattan, May 4, 1626. He came from Wesel, and was commissioned as director-general. It was he who soon after his arrival “purchased the island of Manhattan from the Indians for sixty guilders, or the sum of twenty-five dollars in real money.”