CHAPTER IX.
NEW SWEDEN, OR THE SWEDES ON THE DELAWARE.
BY GREGORY B. KEEN,
Late Professor of Mathematics in the Theological Seminary of St. Charles Borromeo, Corresponding Secretary of the Historical Society of Pennsylvania.
THE honor of projecting the first Swedish settlement in foreign parts is due to Willem Usselinx,—a native of Antwerp, who resided for several years in Spain, Portugal, and the Azores, and was afterward engaged in mercantile pursuits in Holland, acquiring distinction as the chief founder of the Dutch West India Company.[907]
Failing to obtain adequate remuneration for his services in the Netherlands, he visited Sweden, and succeeded in inducing Gustavus II. (Adolphus) to issue a Manifest at Gottenburg, Nov. 10, 1624, instituting a general commercial society, called the Australian Company, with special privileges of traffic with Africa, Asia, and America. Authority was conferred on Usselinx to solicit subscriptions, and a contract of trade was drawn up to be signed by the contributors, the whole scheme being commended in a paper of great length by the projector of it. On the 14th of June, 1626, a more ample charter was conceded, which was confirmed in the Riksdag of 1627,[908] and followed by an order of the sovereign requiring subscribers to make their payments by May, 1628. The King himself pledged 400,000 daler of the royal treasure on equal risks, and other members of his family took stock in the Company, which embraced the Royal Council, the most distinguished of the nobility, officers of the army, bishops and other clergymen, burgomasters and aldermen of the cities, and many of the commonalty.
