tion for trade. New Amsterdam itself was only a commercial settlement. Other posts of the same character had been begun, but the colony, as a whole, was in a languishing condition; the company, of course, being disappointed in their expectations of rich returns. To advance their interests, they offered a slice of territory and the title of patroon to any one who, within a given period, would settle a given number of colonists upon lands bought of the natives, (1629.) This regard for the Indians was not the only proof of liberality in the patroon system, as it may be styled. The support of a clergyman and a schoolmaster, with that of a "comforter for the sick," was especially enjoined as one of the conditions to be fulfilled by the patroons. But mixed up with the more generous provisions were others of a very opposite nature. The fur trade, the great attraction of New Netherland, was reserved exclusively to the company. Pain of banishment was to deter the colonists from "making woollen, linen, or cotton cloths." "As many negroes as can be conveniently provided "were promised to the Dutch settlers. All the while, the patroons were constituted a class of feudal lords, as threatening to their superiors in the company as to their inferiors in the colony. Large purchases were made by individuals, (1629-31,) and some settlements were attempted, the chief being those of Rensselaerswyck, near Albany, Pavonia, opposite Manhattan Island, and Swaanendael, on the Delaware. Some of these reverted to the company; some disappeared.

claims.

English Spain and France, as we have read, had their pretensions to the soil of New Netherland. But the only power to dispute the Dutch possession was England. Tradition asserts that the same Captain Argal who destroyed the French settlement in Maine visited the huts on Manhattan Island, as he was returning to Virginia, and

compelled the few Dutchmen whom he found there to acknowledge the English supremacy, (1613.) This is uncertain; but it is certain that when the New Netherland Company appealed to the States General in behalf of the Plymouth Puritans, they represented the danger of the colony's being surprised by an expedition sent to support the claims of England, (1620.) The Council for New England was soon engaged in appealing to the Privy Council against what they deemed to be an invasion of their territory. The appeal was received, and an order of inquiry into the circumstances went to the British ambassador in Holland. He replied that there was as yet no Dutch colony upon the soil, (1621.) But as time passed, and colonies were founded, the suspicions of the English, both in England and in America, were revived. A correspondence, opened by Peter Minuit, director of New Amsterdam, with William Bradford, governor of New Plymouth, stirred the Englishman to ask that the Dutch should trade no more in his neighborhood; and further, that they should clear their title to trade or to settle in any part of the country at all. No wonder that Minuit applied to the company in Holland for forty soldiers, (1627.) On his voyage home, a few years later, Minuit and his ship were detained on touching at Plymouth in England, and to the remonstrance of the Dutch embassy, the British ministry formally opposed the title of Great Britain to New Netherland, (1632.) It was soon after that the English settlements in Connecticut began to crowd upon the fort of the Dutch, (1633-38,) while a direct invasion of Delaware was made from Virginia, (1635.) This was repelled; but the soil of Connecticut could not be retained. The colony was still a colony of traders. No generous views, no manly energies, were as yet excited amongst its inhabitants or its rulers. From

Trade of the colo

ny.

the slave to the colonist, from the colonist to the patroon, from the patroon to the director, and even from the director to the company, there was little besides struggling for pecuniary advantages. It was esteemed a great era in the colony when, after various dissensions, its trade was nominally thrown open. But the percentages to the company were such as to prevent any really free trade, (1638.)

Idea of
Gusta-

phus.

CHAPTER VI.

SWEDISH SETTLEMENTS.

LAST of all to claim a share as a nation in our territory were the Swedes. Their far-sighted and vus Adol- large-hearted king, Gustavus Adolphus, the champion of the Protestant cause in Europe, caught up the idea of supporting the same cause in America. "It is the jewel of my kingdom," he wrote just before he died, concerning the settlement that was yet to be, (1632.)

Oxenstiern

calls in

Germany.

The jewel of Gustavus received its setting from the regent of his infant daughter Christina, the Chancellor Oxenstiern. With the same loftiness of view, - preparing a state that was to be of benefit to "all Christendom,” Oxenstiern invited and obtained the coöperation of Protestant Germany, (1634.) The Swedish West India Company was to be the instrument by which the north of Europe, as well as Sweden, was to be linked to America. It was a design of greater ends and of broader motives than had as yet been formed for the new world.

Results.

But the results bore no proportion to the plans. It was not to be expected that such colonists as could be found in Sweden would embrace the same wide objects as their regent or their king. They would enlist only in an enterprise that promised personal as well as national returns. Some years passed before any settlement was attempted, and then a colony of only twenty-four, and

these chiefly transported convicts, was established at Fort Christina, near the present Wilmington in Delaware, (1638.) The territory, which was purchased of the Indians, extended on either side of the fort, along the western shore of Delaware Bay, and up the Delaware River as far as Trenton, under the name of New Sweden.

Opposing

To this the Swedes had been guided by Peter claims. Minuit, lately of New Netherland. His recommendation of lands previously purchased and occupied, though just at this time unoccupied, by his countrymen, involved the Swedish colony in immediate difficulties. A remonstrance from the governor of New Netherland against the invasion of his province was supported in Holland by the seizure of a Swedish vessel touching at a Dutch port on its way home. The English had their pretensions likewise to the lands appropriated by the new colony. On each side were conflicting claims. With feeble numbers and with scanty supplies, the Swedes would find it difficult to keep their New Sweden.