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the ship "Friedenburg," under the command of Capt. Jacob Powellson, having on board a number of Dutch colonists, with Jost Van Bogardt, who emigrated under the auspices of the Swedish crown, cattle, and "other things necessary for the cultivation of the country," arrived in New Sweden. These emigrants occupied land three or four Swedish miles below Christiana. Very little is known of the history of the colony from 1640 to 1643, saving that in 1642 a general sickness prevailed among the Swedish settlers on the Delaware.1 | 1 Winthrop, vol. ii. p. 76 | ||
| The "Kalmar Nyckel" returned to Sweden in July, 1640. The home government, in its anxiety to obtain settlers for its American colony, had ordered the Governor of Orebro to prevail upon the unsettled Finns in that province to emigrate with their wives and children to New Sweden, while Mans Kling was instructed from the mining classes, and particularly from among the roaming Finns, who lived free of charge in the homes of the inhabitants of the Swedish forests, to procure settlers to be sent abroad. The third expedition , in the "Kalmar Nyckel" and the "Charitas," sailed for New Sweden in 1641, and a number of the Finns came hither in those vessels. Hence many of the early Swedish settlers were not of a class to be desired as founders of a new empire, for the archives of Sweden disclose the fact that quite a number of criminals and forest-destroying Finns were transported to the Delaware River settlements to rid the mother-country of their presence. The Finns mentioned had, in violation of the mandates of the royal government, set fire to the forests in Varmland and Dal, that they might free the ground of trees to sow grain in the ashes, and for this act they were banished to the New World. Professor Odhner directly asserts that in the province of Skaraborg, a trooper, who was condemned to death for having broken into the monastery gardens at Varnhem, was permitted to make his selection between being hanged or embarking for New Sweden, and as late as 16532 a criminal who had been convicted of killing an elk on the island D'Auland was sentenced to transportation hither. | 2 Penna. Archives, 2d series, p. 780, where is given Queen Christina's order of Aug. 11, 1653, directing that Harvey D'Oregrund, a malefactor under sentence of death, be sent to New Sweden. | ||
| The fourth colony, and the one whose history most intimately connects itself with Delaware County, was that which left Gottenburg on Nov. 1, 1642. This expedition, composed of the ships "Fama" and "Swan," was under the command of Lieut.-Col. John Printz, who had been commissioned Governor of New Sweden, Aug. 15, 1642, with an annual salary of one thousand two hundred dollars in silver and an allowance of four hundred rix-dollars for his expenses. The journey was a long one; "the watery way to the West was not yet discovered, and therefore, for fear of the sand-banks off Newfoundland, the ships which went under the command of Governor Printz sailed along the coast of Africa until they found the eastern passage, then directly over to America, leaving the Canaries high up to the north."3 They landed at Antigua, inhabited at "that time 'by Englishmen and negroes, with some Indians,' where they 'spent their Christmas holidays, and were well entertained,'" says Mr. Holm, "'at the Governor's house.' After quitting this seat of 'perpetual summer' (as the same gentleman depicts it) they encountered 'a severe storm,' accompanied at the last 'with snow,' which 'continued about fourteen days,' by which they 'lost three large anchors, a spritsail, and their mainmast, and the ship was run aground; but on the 15th of February, 1643, by God's grace, came up to Fort Christina, in New Sweden, Va.,' in the precise phrase of the historian, 'at two o'clock in the afternoon.' Here the first three Swedish expeditions had established their chief settlement, under Minuit and Hollandare, and here remained a short time also this fourth and greatest of the colonies, enjoying friendly intercourse with fellow-countrymen most glad to welcome them, and happily reposing from the distresses of their long and perilous voyage.'"4 | 3 Acrelius, "History of New Sweden," p. 41. 4 Professor G. B. Keen's summary of Printz's voyage, in "Descendants of Joran Kyn," Penna. Mag. of History, vol. ii. p. 326 | ||
| Under the instructions he had received from the home government, Printz, in the exercise of his discretion, located the seat of government at Tinicum Island, where he built a fort, which he called New Gottenburg, and resided for a time in the fortress, until he built his mansion-house, know in our annals as Printz Hall. On this island the principal inhabitants then had their dwellings and plantations.5 With the fort at that place, Printz controlled the passage of the river above Tinicum, and when he, shortly afterward, built Fort Elsenburgh, at Salem Creek, placing therein four brass and iron twelve-pound cannon and one "pots-hooft,"6 manned by twelve- soldiers in command of a lieutenant, he rendered the Dutch fortress on the east side of the river above the mouth of the Schuylkill almost useless to the Holland colony, as was fully recognized by Hudde, who reported that Printz had closed "the entrance of the river." | 5 Campanius, "History of New Sweden," p. 79.
6 Hudde's Report, Penna. Archives, 2d series, vol. v. p.104. | ||
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We are told by Campanius that "In the beginning of Governor Printz's administration there came a great number of those criminals, who were sent over from Sweden. When the European inhabitants perceived it they would not suffer them to set their foot on shore, but they were all obliged to return, so that a great many of them perished on the voyage. This was related to me, amongst other things, by an old, trustworthy man, named Nils Matsson Utter, who, after his return home, served in His Majesty's life-guards. It was after this forbidden, under a penalty, to send any more criminals to America. Lest Almighty God should let his ven- | |||