In the summer of the same year occurred the first outbreak of the jealousy which had existed from the beginning between the Swedes and Hollanders, however well it may have been concealed, especially during the need of concerted action against their common rival the English. On the 23d of June a sloop arrived at Fort Nassau with a cargo from Manhattan, to trade with the Indians, and was directed by Andries Hudde, the Dutch commissary who had succeeded Jan Jansen, “to go into the Schuylkill.” She was immediately commanded by the Swedes to leave the place,—an order which was repeated to Hudde, and reiterated the next day by Campanius. The result was a conference between the Dutch commissary and Commissary Huygen, Sergeant Van Dyck, and Carl Janson, on behalf of Printz; which was followed on the 1st of July by so menacing an admonition from the Governor, that Jurriaen Blanck the supercargo, fearing his vessel and goods might be confiscated, felt constrained to yield, and abandoned his enterprise. Soon afterward Hudde was prevented from executing a commission of Director Kieft, to search for minerals at Sankikan, through the opposition of the Indians, prompted by a report of the warlike intentions of the Hollanders circulated among the savages by Printz. And when, in September, in obedience to instructions from Manhattan, the Dutch commissary purchased from the natives land on the “west shore” of the Delaware, “distant about one league to the north of Fort Nassau” (within the limits of the present city of Philadelphia), and erected the arms of his West India Company upon it, these were pulled down “in a hostile manner,” on the 8th of October, by Commissary Huygen, and a protest against his action was delivered to him on the 16th by Olof Stille and Mans Slom, on the part of the Swedish governor. The latter likewise forbade his people to have any dealings with the Hollanders, and treated a counter-protest, sent to him by Hudde on the 23d, with such contempt as effectually completed the rupture.
It was now two years and three months since the “Fama” left the Delaware, during the whole of which time no letters were received in the colony either from Sweden or from Holland. This apparent neglect of her offspring by the mother country was accounted for by Chancellor Oxenstjerna through the occurrence of the war with Denmark, which absorbed the attention of the Government and cost the life of Admiral Fleming, who had been the chief administrator of the interests of the settlement. Not until the 1st of October, 1646, did the sixth Swedish expedition arrive in New Sweden, on the ship “Gyllene Hajen” (the Golden Shark), after a tempestuous voyage of four months, in which the vessel lost her sails, topmasts, and other rigging, and the crew almost to a man fell sick. Few, if any, emigrants came out on this voyage; but the cargo was valuable, comprising cloth, iron implements, and other goods, which supplied the needs of the settlers, with something to spare for sale in New England. Printz was also enabled to revive his languishing trade with the Indians. He “immediately despatched Commissary Hendrick Huygen, with Sergeant Gregorius van Dyck and eight soldiers, to the country of the Minquas, distant five German miles, who presented the savages with divers gifts, and induced them to agree to traffic with the Swedes as formerly, particularly,” says the Governor, “as the Commissary promised them higher prices than they could get from the Hollanders.” On the 20th of February, 1647, the vessel sailed on her return, carrying 24,177 pounds of tobacco, of which 6,920 pounds were raised on the Delaware, while the rest was purchased elsewhere. Lieutenant Papegåja went home in her, commissioned to execute some private behests of the colonists, and to present the Governor’s third Report to the Swedish West India Company.
In the document referred to, dated at New Gottenburg the day “Gyllene Hajen” left, Printz gives a very satisfactory account of the settlement, which, he says, at that time numbered one hundred and eighty-three souls. “The people,” he adds, “have always enjoyed good health, only two men and two young children having died” since the second Report. “Twenty-eight freemen were settled, and beginning to prosper; many more being willing to follow their example if they could be spared from the fortified posts.” Of these, Fort Elfsborg had been considerably strengthened; Fort Christina, which was quite decayed, repaired from top to bottom; and Fort Nya Korsholm, on the Schuylkill, was nearly ready for use. This last was doubtless the structure called by Campanius “Manaijung, Skörkilen,”[926]—“a fine little fort of logs, filled in with sand and stones, and surrounded by palisades with sharp points at the top.” “I have also built,” says Printz, “on the other side of Korsholm, by the path of the Minquas, a fine house called Wasa,[927] capable of defence against the savages by four or five men; and seven stout freemen have settled there. And a quarter of a mile farther up the same Indian highway I have erected another strong house, settling five freemen in the vicinity,—this place receiving the name of Mölndal, from a water-mill I have had constructed, which runs the whole year, to the great advantage of the country; especially,” adds he, “as the windmill, which was here before I came, was good for nothing, and never would work.” Both of these posts the natives were obliged to pass in going to Fort Nassau; and the Swedish governor hoped, by storing them with merchandise for barter, to intercept the traffic with the Dutch. Printz insists upon the need of getting rid of the latter, accusing them of ruining his trade, and supplying the savages with ammunition, and inciting them against the Swedes. “The English Puritans,” he continues, “who gave me a great deal of trouble at first, I have been able finally to drive away; and for a long time have heard nothing from them, except that last year Captain Clerk, through his agent from New England, attempted to settle some hundred families here under our flag, which I civilly declined to permit until further instructed in the matter by her Majesty.” The Governor earnestly solicits the sending of more people from Sweden, particularly “families to cultivate the country,” artisans and soldiers, “and, above all, unmarried women as wives for the unmarried freemen and others.” He likewise mentions the names of several officers who wished to be allowed to return home, and desires himself to be relieved, especially as he had been in New Sweden more than a year and a half beyond the term agreed upon.
Printz’s Report and Papegåja’s representations seem to have hastened the sending of another vessel to the Delaware, for on the 25th of September, 1647, the seventh expedition sailed from Gottenburg on “Svanen,” Captain Steffen Willemsen. Papegåja returned on the ship, bearing a letter of commendation from Queen Christina to Governor Printz, promising to consider a request of the latter for augmentation of his salary and a grant of “seventy farms,”[928] but requiring him to remain in the colony until his place could be supplied.
A great deal of the ammunition asked for by the Governor was sent out on this vessel, but very few emigrants,[929]—a circumstance which was explained, in a communication from Chancellor Oxenstjerna in reply to Printz’s Report, by the near approach of winter. Action was likewise taken some months later by the Crown making good the deficiency of the South Company through payment of the salaries of its officers in New Sweden,—a burden which had been temporarily assumed by it in consequence of the misappropriations, as well as insufficiency, of the tobacco excises which had been granted towards that object by statute of the 30th of August, 1642. And by the same royal letter, dated Jan. 20, 1648, merchandise coming from Holland for transportation to New Sweden was freed from duty, as also tobacco and furs which arrived in the kingdom from the colony. On the 16th of the following May “Svanen” set out again from the Delaware, and after a remarkably quick voyage arrived on the 3d of July at Stockholm. The clergyman Johan Campanius Holm returned in her, and Lieutenant Papegåja wrote to Chancellor Oxenstjerna, begging the favor of a position in Sweden, since the people in New Sweden were too inconsiderable for him to be of any service to the company where he was, and “the country was troublesome to defend, both on account of the savages and of the Christians, who inflict upon us,” says he, “every kind of injury.”
This complaint is evidently directed against the Hollanders, who now began to strengthen their position on the Delaware. Willem Kieft, so amiably pacific in his comportment towards the Swedes, was superseded in the government of New Netherland in May, 1647, by Peter Stuyvesant,—a man of arbitrary and warlike character, who declared it to be his intention to regard as Dutch territory not only New Sweden, but all land between Cape Henlopen and Cape Cod. Meanwhile, Governor Printz persisted in a haughty demeanor towards the Dutch, continuing to impede or prevent their navigation of the “South River,” and he is charged with inciting suspicion of his rivals among both Indians and Christians,—actions which were protested against by Stuyvesant, to whom the Swedish governor made a reply which was transmitted to Manhattan by Commissary Hudde in December. During the winter Printz collected a great quantity of logs for the purpose of erecting more buildings at the Schuylkill; and when in the spring Hudde, instigated by the natives, constructed a fort called Beversrede at Passajung, Lieutenant Kling opposed the work, and ordered his men, some twenty-four in number, to cut down the trees around the spot. On news of this, and in consequence of a complaint of the Directors of the Dutch West India Company that the limits between the Swedes, English, and Hollanders were still unsettled, Councillors Lubbertus van Dincklagen and Johannes la Montagne, despatched by Stuyvesant on that mission in June, procured from the natives confirmation of a grant of land on the Schuylkill made to Arendt Corssen on behalf of the Dutch in 1633, and, visiting New Gottenburg, protested before the Governor against the actions of the Swedes. No attention was paid to this, however, and houses which two Dutchmen immediately began to build upon the tract were destroyed by Printz’s son (Gustaf Printz) and Sergeant Van Dyck. In September the Governor caused a house to be built within a dozen feet of Fort Beversrede, and directly between it and the river, while Lieutenant Sven Schute prevented the construction of houses by the Hollanders in November. Another Dutchman obtained permission from Director-General Stuyvesant to settle on the east side of the Delaware, at Mantaes Hoeck (near the present Mantua Creek, New Jersey), and solicited the aid of Governor Printz in carrying out his purpose. This was promised him, provided he acknowledged the jurisdiction of that officer; but, fearing some advantage might be taken of the concession by the Hollanders, Printz immediately bought from the Indians the land between this place and Narraticons Kil, which constituted the northern boundary of the purchase of Governor Hollender, and erected the Swedish arms upon it. According to Hudde, the Governor of New Sweden likewise endeavored to acquire from the natives territory about Fort Nassau, more completely to isolate that place from intercourse with Manhattan, but was anticipated by the Dutch, who secured it for themselves in April, 1649.
Meanwhile, in the mother country an expedition was preparing, which but for its untimely fate would have furnished the colony with such ample means of security and self-defence as might very probably have postponed or even altogether prevented the ultimate subjugation of the latter by the Hollanders. On the 24th of March, 1649, Queen Christina issued orders to the College of the Admiralty to equip the “Kalmar Nyckel,” then lying at Gottenburg, for the projected voyage across the ocean; and finding it would take too long to get her ready, on the 13th of April her Majesty authorized the substitution of the ship “Kattan” (the Cat), under the command of Captain Cornelius Lucifer. A certain Hans Amundson Besk was appointed leader of this, the eighth, Swedish expedition to New Sweden, which comprised his wife and five children, and sixty-three other emigrants, including a clergyman, clerk, and barber-surgeon, many mechanics, and some soldiers, with sixteen unmarried women, designed no doubt as wives for the earlier settlers. The fact that three hundred Finns applied for the privilege of joining the party showed there was no lack of voluntary colonists. The cargo embraced implements of every sort, and a large quantity of the materials of war,—“two six-pounder brass cannon, two three-pounder, twelve six-pounder, and two four-pounder iron cannon, powder, lead, grenades, muskets, pistols,” and so forth, besides rigging for a ship to be built on the Delaware. The vessel sailed on the 3d of July from Gottenburg, and arrived in safety at the West Indies, where, through the carelessness of the captain, on the 26th of August she struck a rock near an island fourteen miles from Porto Rico. When ready to set out afresh, the emigrants were pillaged by the inhabitants, who were Spaniards, and were taken to the latter place, where certain of them permanently settled, while others contrived in the course of one or two years to get back to Sweden. Eighteen, only, determined to continue their voyage to the Delaware, leaving Porto Rico with that intention in a little bark which they were able to purchase, May 1, 1651. They were seized the very next day, however, by a frigate, which carried them to Santa Cruz, then in the possession of France, where they were most barbarously treated by the Governor and his people. In a few weeks all died but five, who were taken off by a Dutch vessel, of whom a single survivor finally reached Holland. Commander Amundson and his family were sent by the Governor of Porto Rico to Spain, where they arrived in July of the same year, and whence they afterward proceeded to Amsterdam, and at last returned to Sweden.
This expedition, therefore, effected nothing for the colonists on the Delaware, who must have been greatly depressed by the news of its calamities. This reached them, through a letter of Director-General Stuyvesant to Commissary Hudde, on the 6th of August, 1650 (N. S.).[930] Printz immediately wrote by a Dutch vessel to Peter Brahe, referring to the report, and giving some account of the settlement since the departure of “Svanen,” two years and three months before. “Most of the people,” says he, “are alive and well. They are generally supplied with oxen and cattle, and cultivate the land with assiduity, sowing rye and barley, and planting orchards of delicious fruit, and would do better if all had wives and servants. Last year the crops were particularly excellent, our freemen having a hundred tuns of grain to sell. In short, the governor who relieves me will find his position as good as any similar one in Sweden. I have taken possession of the best places, and still hold them. Notwithstanding repeated acts and protests of the Dutch, nothing whatever has been accomplished by them; and where, on several occasions, they attempted to build within our boundaries, I at once threw down their work: so that, if the new governor brings enough people with him, they will very soon grow weary and disgusted, like the Puritans, who were most violent at first, but now leave us entirely in peace. This year, however, they had all the trade, since we received no cargoes; and so long as this is the case we must entertain some fear of the savages, although as yet we have experienced no hostility from them.” Further details as to the condition of the colony were to be orally communicated to the authorities in Sweden by Lieutenant Sven Schute, who was sent home for that purpose. Printz earnestly renewed his appeal to be released, urging his age and great feebleness, and recalling the services he had rendered to his country during the past thirty years.