It was believed that the enterprise would prove of great commercial benefit to Sweden, besides affording private individuals opportunity to recover fortunes lost through the disastrous wars of the period, and furnishing, in the colonies to be established, safe places of retreat for many exiles. By means of a union, in 1630, with the Ship Company, instituted by agreement of the cities of Sweden, at the Riksdag of the preceding year, the Australian—or, as it was now generally called, the South—Company acquired the control of sixteen well-equipped vessels, which they proceeded to send to sea. No advantage, however, was derived from any of the voyages made, and in 1632 four of the ships were taken by Spain.
Meanwhile the momentous conflicts of the age diverted the attention of the monarch and drained the resources of the country, causing inevitable delay in carrying out the plans of the Company, until at last it was determined to seek the aid of foreign capital. Just before the battle of Lützen closed the earthly career of Gustavus, a new charter was prepared for his signature, extending the privileges of the former one to the inhabitants of Germany, and prolonging the enjoyment of them until the first day of January, 1646. This paper, which was already dated, was published by Axel Oxenstjerna, Chancellor of the Kingdom of Sweden,[909] at Heilbronn, April 10, 1633, and was confirmed, with certain modifications, by the Deputies of the four Upper Circles at Frankfort, Dec. 12, 1634.
Another, written at the same time and signed by the Chancellor May 1, 1633, recognized Usselinx as “Head Director of the New South Company,” with authority to receive subscriptions and promote the undertaking; in discharge of which duty the zealous Belgian issued a fresh defence of his project, addressed especially to the Germans, besides reprinting in their language the earlier documents on the subject. Nevertheless, no success attended even this well-advertised revival of the long-cherished enterprise, and subsequent appeals of Usselinx to France and England, the Hanse Towns, and the States-General appear to have been without result.[910]
The first real advance towards the founding of New Sweden was made in 1635. In May of that year Chancellor Oxenstjerna visited Holland, and on his return home held correspondence upon the advantages of forming a Swedish settlement on the coast of Brazil or Guinea, with Samuel Blommaert, a merchant of Amsterdam and a member of the Dutch West India Company, who had participated five years before in an attempt to colonize the shores of the Delaware; and in the following spring he commissioned Peter Spiring, another Dutchman, dwelling in Sweden, to learn whether some assistance might not be obtained from the States-General. With this intent, proposals were made by Usselinx, now Swedish minister, to induce the States of Holland to found a “Zuid-Compagnie,” in conjunction with his Government; but the Assembly of the Nineteen (to whom the matter was referred) refusing their consent, the States postponed further action in the premises.
Nevertheless, if failure attended this appeal to the rulers of the nation, Spiring’s intercourse with private individuals had a happier issue; and conversations with Blommaert introduced to his acquaintance Peter Minuit, or Minnewit, a native of Wesel, who had served the Dutch West India Company from 1626 to 1632 as Director-General of New Netherland,[911] living in New Amsterdam, and who was then once more residing in Cleves,—the person who was destined to conduct the first Swedish expedition to America.