A representative assembly was called, which annulled Leisler's proceedings and formulated a code similar to the earlier charter of liberties. Gov. Benjamin Fletcher (1692-1698) was notoriously corrupt. He levied blackmail on the pirates and smugglers who swarmed in the harbors, and intrigued for money with members of the assembly; but in his dealings with the hostile French and Indians he was firm and successful. In 1698 the Earl of Bellomont was appointed governor, and New York, New Jersey, Massachusetts, and New Hampshire were jointly placed under his rule. In New York he restored order, reduced crime, and rooted out corruption and piracy, so that when he died (1701), his loss was sincerely regretted. Sidenote: Characteristics of New York. New York had gone through a development which down to the end of the eighteenth century marked the colony out from her sisters. No other colony had a history of any importance before the English domination; in no other colony were a foreign race and a foreign language and customs so intrenched. No colony had such an experience of control from England. The history of New York up to 1700 is chiefly a history of administrations. The commercial pre-eminence of New York was hardly shown in colonial times. Its chief importance among the colonies arose out of the relations with the Iroquois. 87. Delaware (1623-1700). Sidenote: Early Dutch settlers. We have seen that the Dutch West India Company established (1623) a trading post, called Fort Nassau, on the banks of the Delaware River within the present town of Gloucester, N.J., and four miles below the future site of Philadelphia. The settlers were a portion of the party of Walloons sent out to America in that year. Eight years later (1631), De Vries, Blommaert, and other patroons (page 199, § 84) of New Netherlands founded Swaanendael, near the site of Lewes, Del.; but a quarrel soon arose between the new settlers and the Indians, resulting in the complete massacre of the Swaanendael colonists and the driving away of the garrison at Fort Nassau. In 1635 the patroons owning lands on both shores of Delaware Bay and River sold their possessions to the Dutch West India Company, and a small garrison was sent by the latter to re-occupy Fort Nassau. A party of Englishmen from New Haven attempted that year to settle in the district, but were taken to New Amsterdam as prisoners. Sidenote: The South Company of Sweden.