During the six years now elapsed since the founding of New Sweden the colonists were compelled to undergo the privations which inevitably attend the first settlement of a wild and untitled country; and the frequent scarcity of food and insufficiency of shelter, combined with the novelty and uncertainty of the climate, and occasional seasons of disease, had the usual effect of diminishing their numbers. Especially fatal was the last summer, that of 1643, when no fewer than seventeen (between six and seven per cent) of the male emigrants died, among these being the Reverend Reorus Torkillus, the first pastor of the colony.
The need, therefore, for fresh recruits to take the places of those who proved themselves unequal to the trials of their situation constantly presented itself to the survivors, and ought, surely, to have been appreciated by the authorities in Sweden. Nevertheless, the fifth Swedish expedition to the Delaware, which arrived at Christina on the “Fama,”[923] March 11, 1644, added very little to the numerical strength of the settlement;[924] while, through the carelessness of the agent at Gottenburg, some of the clothing and merchandise was shipped in a damaged condition.
The principal emigrant on this occasion was Johan Papegåja, who had already been in New Sweden, and now returned, bearing letters of recommendation to the Governor from his sovereign and from Peter Brahe, President of the Royal Council, in consequence of which he was at once appointed to the chief command at Fort Christina. He was likewise accepted as a suitor for the hand of Printz’s daughter, Armgott, and not long afterward became the Governor’s son-in-law. Brahe acknowledged the receipt of Printz’s letter, before referred to, on the 18th of August; and congratulating him on his safe arrival at the Delaware he expresses the hope that he will “gain firm foothold there, and be able to lay so good a foundation in tam vasta terra septentrionali, that with God’s gracious favor the whole North American continent may in time be brought to the knowledge of His Son, and become subject to the crown of Sweden.” He particularly admonishes the Governor to cultivate friendship with “the poor savages,” instructing them, and endeavoring to convert them to Christianity. “Adorn,” says he, “your little church and priest after the Swedish fashion, with the usual habiliments of the altar, in distinction from the Hollanders and English, shunning all leaven of Calvinism,” remembering that “outward ceremonial will not the less move them than others to sentiments of piety and devotion.” He likewise enjoins “the use of the Swedish language in spoken and written discourse, in all its purity, without admixture of foreign tongues. All rivers and streams, forests, and other places should receive old Swedish names, to the exclusion of the nomenclature of the Dutch, which,” he has heard, “is taking root. In fine,” he adds, “let the manners and customs of the colony conform as closely as possible to those of Sweden.” To Printz’s reply to this letter we are indebted for the fullest account of the religious rites observed in the settlement which has been preserved to us. “Divine service,” says the Governor, “is performed here in the good old Swedish tongue, our priest clothed in the vestments of the Mass on high festivals, solemn prayer-days, Sundays, and Apostles’ days precisely as in old Sweden, and differing in every respect from that of the sects around us. Sermons are delivered Wednesdays and Fridays, and on all other days prayers are offered in the morning and afternoon; and since this cannot be done everywhere by our sole clergyman, I have appointed a lay-reader for each place, to say prayers daily, morning and evening, and dispose the people to godliness. All this,” he continues, “has long been witnessed by the savages, some of whom we have had several days with us, attempting to convert them; but they have watched their chance, and invariably run off to rejoin their pagan brethren,”—a statement not inconsistent with the testimony of Campanius, who admits that, although his grandfather held many conversations with the Indians, and translated the Swedish Lutheran catechism into their language[925] for their instruction in Christian doctrine, no more definite result was reached than to convince them of the relative superiority of the religion thus expounded.
In the course of three months a cargo was obtained for the return voyage of the “Fama,” consisting of 2,142 beaver skins, 300 of which were from the Schuylkill, and 20,467 pounds of tobacco, part being bought in Virginia, while the rest was raised by the Swedes and their English neighbors at Varkens Kil, Printz allowing a higher price for this, to encourage the cultivation of the plant and to induce immigration to New Sweden. The Governor also freighted the vessel with 7,300 pounds on his personal account. Five of the colonists embraced this opportunity to go back to Sweden, among whom were Captain Boije, the clergyman “Herr Israel,” and a barber-surgeon. The “Fama” set sail on the 20th of June, and reached Europe in the autumn, but putting into a Dutch harbor to revictual was detained there pending a long controversy as to the payment of duty between Peter Spiring, then Swedish Resident at the Hague, and the States-General, and did not arrive at Gottenburg till May, 1645.
At the date of Governor Printz’s second Report to the Swedish West India Company, which was sent home by the “Fama,” the colonists in New Sweden numbered ninety men, besides women and children. About half of these were employed, at stipulated wages, in the discharge of various civil and military functions on behalf of the Crown and Company. The “freemen” (frimännen)—so called because they had settled in the colony entirely of their own will, and might leave it at their option—held land granted them in fee, temporarily not taxed, which they cultivated for themselves, being aided also by the Company with occasional gifts of money, food, and raiment. Persons who had been compelled to immigrate, as elsewhere stated, in punishment for offences committed by them in Sweden, were required to till ground reserved to the Company, which fed and clothed them, or to perform other work, at the discretion of the Governor, for a few years, when they were admitted to the privileges of freemen, or assigned duty in the first class above mentioned.
In the autumn of 1644 a bark was sent by the merchants of Boston to trade in the Delaware, which passed the winter near the English plantation at Varkens Kil, and the following spring fell down the bay, and in three weeks secured five hundred skins of the Indians on the Maryland side. Just as the vessel was about to leave, she was treacherously boarded by some of the savages, who rifled her of her goods and sails, killing the master and three men, and taking two prisoners, who were brought six weeks afterward to Governor Printz, and were returned by him to New England.
On the 25th of November, 1645, a grievous calamity befell the colony in the burning of New Gottenburg, which was set on fire, between ten and eleven o’clock at night, by a gunner, who was tried and sentenced by Printz, and subsequently sent to Sweden for punishment. “The whole place was consumed,” says the Governor, “in a single hour, nought being rescued but the dairy;” the loss to the Company amounting to four thousand riksdaler. “The people escaped, naked and destitute; but the winter immediately setting in with great severity, and the river and creeks freezing, they were cut off from communication with the mainland,” and barely avoided starvation until relief arrived in March. Printz continued, however, to reside at Tinicum, and soon rebuilt a storehouse, to receive “provisions and cargoes to be sold on behalf of the Company.” He also erected a church upon the island, “decorating it,” says he, “so far as our resources would permit, after the Swedish fashion,” which, with its adjoining burying-ground, was consecrated by Campanius, Sept. 4, 1646.
