So determined had been the opposition of the Governor to the encroachments of the Hollanders, that the Directors of the Dutch West India Company now began to think of applying to Queen Christina for a settlement of limits between the rival jurisdictions,—a purpose they communicated to the Director-General of New Netherland in a letter of the 21st of March, 1651, meantime requiring him, however, to “endeavor to maintain the rights of the Company in all justice and equity.” In accordance with these instructions, and in consequence, it is likely, of Printz’s fresh interference in the spring with operations of the Dutch in the neighborhood of Fort Beversrede and on an island in the Schuylkill, the energetic Stuyvesant despatched “a ship, well manned and equipped with cannon,” from New Amsterdam, which made her appearance at the mouth of the Delaware on the 8th of the following May, and “dropping anchor half a (Swedish) mile below Fort Christina, closed the river to navigation of all vessels, large and small.”
VISSCHER’S MAP, 1651.
This is an extract from Visscher’s map as given by Campanius, and the date is fixed from the presence on it of Fort Casimir (built that year) and Fort Elfsborg (abandoned that year). The name above the latter one is a manuscript addition in the copy used in the reproduction. It is also reproduced in Dr. Egle’s Pennsylvania, p. 43.
She was, to be sure, soon forced to withdraw by an armed yacht made ready by Printz; but her captain sending tidings of his situation to Manhattan, on the 25th of June Stuyvesant himself came overland, with a hundred and twenty men, being joined at Fort Nassau by eleven sail (including four well-furnished ships), and after proceeding up and down the river several times, with demonstrations of hostility, finally landed two hundred of his soldiers at a place on the west bank between Forts Christina and Elfsborg, called Sandhoeck (near New Castle, Delaware), where he built a small fort, to which he gave the name of Casimir. He likewise cut down the Swedish boundary posts, and sought by threats to compel the freemen to acknowledge the rule of the Hollanders. Abandoning and razing Fort Nassau, because of its less convenient position (too far up the stream), he stationed two men-of-war at his new fort, and collected toll of foreign vessels, even plundering and detaining several Virginia barques on account of duty demanded on their traffic in New Sweden for the previous four years. Printz was not strong enough to resist these acts by force; but when the Dutch director-general found some Indians ready to deny the rights of the Swedes, and even to undertake to sell to him the territory which he had seized, the Governor held a meeting on the 3d of July at Elfsborg with the heirs of the sachem who had conveyed to Governor Minuit the land between Christina and Bomtiens Udden, embracing the site of Fort Casimir, and obtained a confirmation of that grant, with a denial of the title of the savages who disposed of it to Stuyvesant. A protest was addressed to the latter from New Gottenburg on the 8th, claiming this region as well as that above Christina to Sankikan, and appealing for observance of “the praiseworthy alliance between her Royal Majesty of Sweden and the High and Mighty States-General.” Similar conferences were likewise held at New Gottenburg on the 13th and the 16th of the same month, resulting in still more explicit recognition, on the part of the natives, of the right of the Swedes to the territory on the Delaware; but neither this action of the savages nor a personal visit of Printz produced any effect on the Dutch director-general, although, it is said, at his departure the rival governors mutually promised to maintain “neighborly friendship and correspondence,” and to “refrain from hostile or vexatious deeds against each other.” The Governor of New Sweden related these events in letters of the 1st of August to Chancellor Oxenstjerna and Councillor Brahe, saying that he had been obliged to abandon all save his three principal posts (New Gottenburg, Nya Korsholm, and Christina), which he had strengthened and reinforced. In other respects the colony had prospered, reaping “very fine harvests at all the settlements, besides obtaining delicious crops of several kinds of fruit” that year. “Nothing is needed,” he adds, “but a much larger emigration of people, both soldiers and farmers, whom the country is now amply able to sustain.”
Although the Director-General of New Netherland had informed Printz that his invasion of New Sweden was authorized by the States of Holland, this was not precisely true; and the Directors of the Dutch West India Company, in a letter of the 4th of April, 1652, expressed considerable surprise at the boldness of his action, fearing it might be resented by her Swedish Majesty. The subject was, in fact, discussed by the Royal Council of Sweden on the 18th of March, when “the Queen declared it to be her opinion that redress might fairly be required of the States-General, and the Chancellor of the Kingdom deemed the question well worthy of deliberation.” Two days before, also, a consultation was held on the condition of New Sweden, at which were present, by special summons, Postmaster-General Beier (who, since the death of Admiral Fleming, acted as superintendent of the enterprise in Sweden), the book-keeper Hans Kramer (a zealous co-operator in the work), Henrik Gerdtson (only known as having been a resident of New Netherland), the assessor in the College of Commerce, and finally Lieutenant Schute, who gave a good report of the colony and the resources of the country, and attested the need of a greater number of emigrants. Of these, it was stated, plenty could be found “willing to go forth and settle;” and, in accordance with the judgment of the Queen and the sentiments of her Chancellor, it was resolved to commit the undertaking for the future to the care of the College of Commerce, and to order the Admiralty to prepare a vessel for another expedition to the Delaware. A few days later a ship was designated by her Majesty, namely, “Svanen,” but more than a whole year elapsed before the final execution of the project.
The situation of the colony, meanwhile, awakened great anxiety in the mind of the Governor. Not since the arrival of “Svanen,” between four and five years before, had any message or letter been received from Sweden, and the emigrants naturally began to fear that they had been abandoned by their sovereign. Some of them, therefore, left the country, while others were disposed to do so on a more favorable opportunity. According to a letter from Printz to Chancellor Oxenstjerna, dated Aug. 30, 1652, forty Dutch families had settled on the east side of the Delaware, although, like the rest of their compatriots in New Sweden, they were miserably provided for the pursuit of agriculture, and could only sustain themselves by traffic with the savages. In the latter particular, however, both Hollanders and English had great advantages over the Swedes, who having no cargoes of their own were forced to buy merchandise for barter of their rivals at double prices, or entirely lose their trade. This year, unfortunately, “the water spoiled the grain;” still, says Printz, the country “was in tolerably good condition, the freemen, with their cattle and other possessions, doing well, and the principal places being occupied and fortified as usual.” A vessel also had been built, of ninety or a hundred läster,[931] and was only waiting for sails and rigging, and some cannon, which cost too dear to purchase there. On the 26th of April, 1653, the Governor again wrote to the Chancellor, saying,—
“The people yet living and remaining in New Sweden, men, women, and children, number altogether two hundred souls. The settled families do well, and are supplied with cattle. The country yields a fair revenue. Still the soldiers and others in the Company’s service enjoy but a very mean subsistence, and consequently seek opportunity every day to get away, whether with or without leave, having no expectation of any release, as it is now five years and a half since a letter was received from home. The English trade, from which we used to obtain a good support, is at an end, on account of the war with Holland; while the fur-trade yields no profit, particularly now that hostilities have broken out between the Arrigahaga and Susquehanna Indians, from whom the beavers were procured. The Hollanders have quit all their places on the river except Fort Casimir, where they have settled about twenty-six families. To attempt anything against them with our present resources, however, would be of no avail. More people must be sent over from Sweden, or all the money and labor hitherto expended on this undertaking, so well begun, is wasted. We have always been on peaceful terms with the natives so long as our cargoes lasted, but whenever these gave out their friendship has cooled; for which reason, as well as for the sustenance of our colonists, we have been compelled to purchase a small cargo, by drawing a bill to be paid in Holland, which we expect to discharge by bartering half of the goods for tobacco.”
Finally, on the 14th of July, Governor Printz wrote once more to Brahe concerning a speculation of the Dutch and English for supplying tobacco for Sweden, through the aid of a Virginia merchant sailing under a Swedish commission; and, to give further weight to his appeals on behalf of the colony, he sent home his son, Gustaf Printz, who had been a lieutenant in the settlement since 1648. The situation of the emigrants did not improve during the summer; and nothing yet being heard from Sweden, the Governor felt he could wait no longer, and determined to leave the country. When this resolution became known, some of the Swedes were inclined to remove to Manhattan and put themselves under the protection of Stuyvesant; but being refused permission by the Director-General until instructions should come from Holland, they seem to have abandoned the project. Before taking his departure, Printz promised the inhabitants that he would either himself return in ten months or send back a vessel and cargo, and appointed in his place, as Vice-Governor of the Colony, his son-in-law Johan Papegåja. In company with his wife and Hendrick Huygen, and some others of the settlers, he left the Delaware in the beginning of October, and, crossing the ocean in a Dutch vessel, by the 1st of December reached Rochelle, from whence he went to Holland early in 1654, and in April of that year at last arrived in Sweden.