New Amsterdam to visit him in October, 1643, as a man very furious and passionate, immense in person, weighing over four hundred pounds, and as drinking "three drinks at every meal." He was difficult of access, requiring communication to be made to him in writing, and when messengers came bringing intelligence that was distasteful, subjecting them to personal abuse, and sending them home "bloody and bruised." This was not the kind of government required for an infant colony, estimated at various periods to number from fifty to three hundred souls, having to maintain a vigorous competition with a rival power upon the river, and to preserve peace and friendly relations with the fickle and ignorant savages of the forest.

In November, 1653, the Swedish College of Commerce granted to John Amundson a commission as Captain in the Navy, and sent him to the Delaware to superintend the construction of vessels, he having obtained a grant of land upon the river, favorably located for the prosecution of shipbuilding. Printz had brought under cultivation a farm upon the island of Tinicum, which he had much improved and planted. This had been granted to him by royal favor, which upon his departure he left to his daughter, the wife of Pappegoya, where the Governor's residence was maintained. Pappegoya retained his power but five or six months.

JOHN CLAUDE RYSINGH, 1654-55.- The application of Printz to be relieved was not acted on for nearly two months after the Governor had taken his departure, its acceptance bearing date of 12th of December. He was granted the desired favor, but he was urged to remain until a successor could be duly provided. On the same day that this document was signed, John Claude Rysingh, who had been Secretary to the Chamber of Commerce in Stockholm, was commissioned as vice-Director of New Sweden, and sailing in the government ship Aren, arrived in the colony near the close of May, 1654. He was not invested with the absolute powers which had been conferred upon Printz. Military and

naval authority was bestowed upon John Amundson, who was also to have superintendence of government shipbuilding, but in such a manner that neither was to decide or approve anything without consulting the other; and a council, formed of the best instructed and most reliable officers in the country, was established for the exercise of civil authority, of which Rysingh was director. He was instructed to employ none but the mildest measures against the Dutch at Fort Casimir; and it was recommended, if he could not induce them to abandon it by argument, that he should endeavor to supersede its importance and power, by building another fort below.

Disregarding the explicit instructions of the home government to pursue a pacific policy, Rysingh had no sooner arrived in the river and ascertained that the Dutch garrison at Fort Casimir was weak and would be powerless to resist him, than he assumed the offensive. Gerrit Bicker, who was in command of the fort, upon seeing a strange sail approaching, sent his secretary, Van Tienhoven, to learn its character and destination. Rysingh detained the messenger and his escort until the following day, when he sent a company of soldiers under the leadership of Lieutenant Swen Schute, a soldier of long service in the colony, marked by royal favors, who followed close upon the path of the messenger, and entering the fort, where they were received as friends, proceeded to take forcible possession, rifling the garrison, even to side-arms. The conduct of Rysingh is defended on the plea that in the correspondence between the Dutch and Swedish home governments, the complaints of encroachments on the part of the Dutch in building Fort Casimir had been answered by saying "if the Dutch are found encroaching upon Swedish territory, drive them off," and that his answer may have been communicated to Rysingh after receiving his general instructions.

Finding that the new vice-Governor was disposed to assume the responsibility of government, and a more aggressive policy than he was inclined to pursue, Pappegoya, leaving his wife

in possession of Printz Hall, departed for Europe soon after, whereupon Rysingh assumed the title of Director-general. One of his first acts, after gaining full possession of the territory, was to call together the chief sachems of tribes far around, for the purpose of establishing the old-time friendship, which during the sway of the arbitrary and irascible Printz had been well nigh destroyed. Ten grand sachems assembled at the seat of government on Tinicum Island. In this grave council, conducted with all that decorum and gravity which was a characteristic of the North American Indian, bitter complaints were made of the ill treatment which the natives. had received at the hands of the Swedes, chief among which was that many of their number had died, plainly pointing, though not explicitly saying it, to the giving of spirituous liquors as the cause. Rysingh, without attempting to answer these complaints, distributed valuable presents which he had brought with him for the purpose. Whereupon the chiefs sat apart for conference. With the piled up presents in their midst, Naaman, the most venerable and sincere among them, spoke: "Look,' said he, pointing to the presents, and see what they have brought to us, for which they desire our friendship.' So saying, he stroked himself three times down his arm, which, among the Indians, was a token of friendship; afterwards he thanked the Swedes on behalf of his people for the presents they had received, and said that friendship should be observed more strictly between them than it had been before; that the Swedes and the Indians had been in Governor Printz's time as one body and one heart (striking his breast as he spoke), and that thenceforward they should be as one head; in token of which he took hold of his head with both hands, and made a motion as if he were tying a knot, and then he made this comparison: That, as the calabash was round without any crack, so they should be a compact body without any fissure; and that if any should attempt to do any harm to the Indians, the Swedes should immediately inform them of it, and, on the other hand, the Indians would give immediate notice to the Chris

tians of any plots against them, even if it were in the middle of the night. On this they were answered, that that would be indeed a true and lasting friendship, if every one would agree to it; on which they gave a general shout in token of consent. Immediately on this the great guns were fired, which pleased them extremely, and they said, 'Poo, hoo, hoo; mokirick picon,' that is to say, Hear and believe, the great guns are fired."" All the treaties which had been concluded with the Indians from the first settlement, and which had been recorded at Stockholm, were produced and confirmed. "When those who had signed the deeds heard their names they appeared to rejoice, but, when the names were read of those who were dead, they hung their heads in sorrow."* The ceremonies were concluded with feasting and drinking, and the treaties, confirmed in this solemn and characteristic manner, were ever after kept.

In a letter addressed to the home government, dated July 11th, 1654, Rysingh gives a flattering account of the progress of the colony since his arrival, which he estimates to have quadrupled in population and in ground under cultivation; "for then," he says, "we found only seventy persons, and now, including Hollanders and others, there are three hundred and sixty-eight persons." Among the wants of the Governor he is particular in making known to the minister that of a wife. "Sufficiently plain offers," he says, have been made to him by the English who have visited the colony, but he would not think of entering into an alliance without the approval of the minister, whose advice he relies on with more confidence than that of any other person in the world; and he expresses a special desire that he would send him a good one.

But the morning of his administration, which had thus dawned so brightly, was soon destined to be obscured by clouds and darkness, though through no lack of wisdom and enterprise on his part. The Dutch at Manhattan had greatly increased in strength and numbers, while the Swedes upon the Delaware, in their best estate, were but feeble. The † Haz. Ann. 153.

*Campanius, 77.

Swedes had gained a momentary advantage in the capture of Fort Casimir; but that very triumph was regarded by the Dutch as an encroachment upon, and an insult to their power, and was to be seized upon as the immediate occasion for breaking up entirely the Swedish dominion in the New World. For the West India Company, on learning of the loss of the fort, sent orders to Stuyvesant "to exert every nerve to avenge the insult by not only replacing matters on the Delaware in their former position, but by driving the Swedes from every side of that river." In the meantime, a Swedish ship, called the Golden Shark, was piloted by mistake or treachery behind Staten Island, where it was captured by the Dutch, and was held by Stuyvesant as a reprisal for the seizure of Fort Casimir. Van Elswyck, its captain, was dispatched to the Delaware with a request that Rysingh would either repair in person to Manhattan, or send one duly qualified to settle the difficulties between them, and secure the release of the ship. To this Rysingh declined to listen. A wordy correspondence ensued, the only effect of which was to widen the breach.

Peace had been concluded between England and Holland, and Queen Christina, now at the age of twenty-nine, ended a feeble reign by voluntarily yielding the throne to her cousin Charles Gustavus. Holland, free from foreign war, and beholding the power of Sweden rapidly waning since the days of Gustavus Adolphus, determined to pursue an aggressive policy in the New World. Accordingly, five armed vessels were sent to Stuyvesant, with a renewal of the order to drive the Swedes from the Delaware. Determined to go with sufficient force to be master of the situation, the Dutch Governor, with much ado, collected a force of over six hundred men, and, after attending solemn religious services, sailed on the afternoon of Sunday, September 4th, 1655, in seven vessels, bent upon conquest. On the following day he arrived in the bay. Fort Elsinborg, which had been abandoned, was first seized. Fort Casimir, or Trinity, which name it had received since falling into the hands of the Swedes,