The Swedes on the Delaware, 1638-1664Johnson, Amandus
History
The Swedes on the Delaware, 1638-1664
Johnson, Amandus
Delaware River Valley (N.Y.-Del. and N.J.) -- History; New Sweden -- History; Swedes -- United States
Towards the middle of July the preparations for the return voyage
of the _Örn_ were completed. Some tobacco had been bought from
Virginia merchants, but a sufficient cargo could not be secured. “On
July 15 the dispatches were finished, and, as Papegoja had in mind to
go home with the ship,” a recommendation to the government was prepared
for him by the director. The settlers assembled on the shore at Fort
Christina during the day to wish a happy voyage and bid farewell to the
ship and its passengers, and in the afternoon the _Örn_ (Eagle)
spread her wings, and glided down Christina river amid the cheers of
the people on the bank. Rising went over land to Fort Trinity, where
he boarded the ship, and remained over night. On the sixteenth he went
ashore together with Madam Papegoja, (who had accompanied the vessel as
far as Fort Trinity to see her husband off), and the _Örn_ made
her final start for the return journey.
In his report sent on the ship Rising gave a brief review of the
conditions in the colony as he found them, and proposed several
reforms, complaining that he was in want of potters, brickmakers,
lime-burners, cabinet-makers, tanners, shoemakers, and turners, but
above all of provisions and supplies and colonists. He thought it a
pity that a country with so many advantages, where expenses would be
rewarded a thousand fold, should be neglected, when “one often spent
both property and _blood_ on land, which could not by far be
compared with this. Why should one not risk the expense of money and
property, _without_ the shedding of blood” on a settlement that
“in the future in case of need, would be able to do good service to
the fatherland, and become a jewel in the Royal Crown, if aid should
now be sent at an early date.” As yet he had made no progress in the
establishment of manufactories and the founding of towns, on account of
the bad health of the people and the small resources; but he promised
to do his best as soon as opportunity occurred, since there were many
localities where towns could be built and several waterfalls, where
mills could be erected. He was particularly planning to construct a
dam at the great fall of Christina river, “when everything had been
harvested and sown” in the autumn.
As a result of the troubles of the previous autumn, dissatisfaction
was rife among the colonists. A court was convened at Tinicum in the
summer to examine the charges against the Rev. Lars Lock and Olof
Stille; but no definite evidence could be established in Locke’s case,
and Stille produced bondsmen, who were accepted by the court. “The
great majority complained about the severity of Governor Printz,” and
the director, who handled the case as delicately as possible, being
unwilling to offend them, requested the dissatisfied ones “to draw up
their complaints themselves, which they later did.”
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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