Old Joan. Smoke- Health and lon- CHAP. V.-Yellow fever in Wilmington in 1798 and 1802. Quaran- one of its members. Prosperity of Wilmington. First cotton factory. Berlin and Milan decrees. British Orders in Council. Manufactures instituted. Road over the Old Ferry to New Castle. Wilmington bridge over the Christiana. Turnpike roads. Rail roads and canals. Events of the war of 1812. Treaty of peace. Death of James A. Bayard. Powder mill explosion. Its con- sequences. Death of E. I. Dupont. Changes in the surface of the ground. Ascents and descents fixed by law. Water works. Wilmington a city. Rows of houses. Manufactories. Ship- yards. Markets. Rail road. Steamboats, CHAP. VI.-William and Elizabeth Shipley. Sea spiders. Fish-tree. Silver region. Black maize, lions, &c. Grapes. Manitto or devil-fish. Great trees. Land about Chris- tina flowing with milk and honey. Gamboge found at the Old Ferry. Red paint at Kimensi used instead of Cinnabar. Won- derful calabashes. Remarks. Table of exports and imports at New Amsterdam. Old houses. Houses for worship now in Wil- mington. Prices of the market, &c. First bridge over Brandywine. First mill in Wilmington. Second bridge over Brandywine. Old bolting mill. Old saw mill. List of Swedish families on the ERRATA. The following errors escaped attention as the work was passing through the press. Page 4 line 13 from the top, instead of "motion" read emotion. 113 line 13 from the top, instead of "New Hope" read Good Hope. 135 (in the note) instead of "page 81" read page 80. 137 line 14 instead of 1672" read 1682. 171 last line instead of " 1719" read 1718. 187 line 23 instead of 199 line 10 instead of 1719" read 1718. Frances" read Francis. "limits" read limit. 232 line 2 instead of " May" read June. 261 line 19 instead of subsided" read subsisted. HISTORY OF SETTLEMENTS ON THE DELAWARE. PART I. CHAPTER I. ORIGINAL SETTLEMENTS. To Italy belongs the honour of producing two of the most distinguished navigators of the world. Whilst the inhabitants of the British Isles were yet in a state of semi-barbarism, Italy was enriched by commerce, and had made advances in the sciences and in the arts, which entitled her to rank among the most enlightened and polished nations of Europe. Her mariners, nursed from their infancy on the water, had acquired that skill and boldness which experience only can give. The limits of their own inland seas were too narrow for their enterprise; they boldly extended their adventures beyond the Straits of Gibraltar, and ventured their little and frail vessels on the broad bosom of oceans, as yet trackless and unexplored. Columbus, a native of Genoa, in 1492, had discovered some islands on the American coast; it was reserved for a Venetian merchant to discover the main land. To JOHN CABOT, the father of the celebrated Sebastian Cabot, is due the credit of first seeing this vast continent. On the 24th of the month called June, 1497, he saw the coast of Labrador, near Byron's bay, N. lat. 56°. England claims the honour of this discovery, and had it been made by a native of that country, and at the expense of the crown, the claim would be indisputable. But the voyage was undertaken by a native of Venice. It was executed at his own proper costs, and at his own risk. The energy to plan, the skill to direct, the means to prosecute the voyage, must all be credited to the science, ardour, and public spirit of foreigners. The reigning monarch, Henry VII., notorious for his parsimony, allowed them to labour for the profit of the crown at their own costs, and after all their perils and expenditures, bound them to pay to the king one-fifth part of the emoluments. In the year 1498, Cabot, in company with his son Sebastian, a noble-minded youth, then only twenty-one years old, made a second voyage to America. They reached the continent near Cape Grimington, on the coast of Labrador, N. lat. 58. Finding the region intensely cold, and the country inimical to the objects of their enterprise, they bore away to the south-west, and were the first navigators who discovered and sailed along the coast, from the far north to the capes of the Chesapeake. But it does not appear that they landed, or took possession of any part of the country, either beyond or within the present limits of the United States. The expedition was obliged to return for want of provisions, and the voyage terminated, more to the honour than profit of the adventurers. From this period the ardour for maritime enterprise spread with great and unparalleled rapidity through the States of Europe. The Portuguese fitted out Cortereal, who reached the shores of North America in 1501, and sailed along our coast from Cape Cod to the 50th degree of north latitude. Within ten years after Cabot's discovery, the French were well acquainted with the banks of Newfoundland, and had a fleet of vessels there engaged in the fishery. They gave the name to Cape Breton,and Dennis, a citizen of Honfleur, drew a map of the Gulph of St. Lawrence. Verrazzini, a Florentine, under the patronage of Francis I., of France, arrived on the coast of Carolina in 1524, and it is supposed was the first European who had ever seen that part of the continent. He sailed northward,-entered the bay of New Port, in Rhode Island, and afterwards pursued his course as far as Newfoundland.* He was delighted with the country and its inhabitants, and on his return to France wrote a narrative of his adventures, which is still extant, containing one of the earliest descriptions of our coast. In 1534, Cartier, a French adventurer, discovered the Gulph of St. Lawrence, and sailed so far up the river that he could see either side of it at the same time. In the following year the king furnished ships for a second adventure, and Cartier penetrated the country as far as Montreal, to which he gave its present name. No further discoveries of much importance were made of territories within the present limits of the United States, during the next half century. Much had been expended, many had perished, and little pecuniary reward had followed the daring enterprise of a host of adventurers. In the following century, however, the spirit of adventure revived. Within the first ten years of it the French were active along our north-eastern and north ern frontier. In 1603 Champlain sailed up the St. Lawrence, and finally explored the country along the Sorel, and to the lake, which is destined, as an imperishable monument, to bear his name down to the latest ages. In 1604 De Montz explored the shores and rivers of New England, as far south as Cape Cod. The first French settlement in America was made in that year at Port Royal. Nothing, connected with the object of the present work, oc *It has been supposed that Verrazzini entered New York bay. As there is no tradition among the natives, of any Europeans having been there before Hudson, some have doubted the fact. The account of Verrazzini, however, makes it probable that he discovered the entrance to the bay, and that he sent his boat some distance up it, far enough to ascertain its form. But no practical advantage ensued. The Indian account of the first arrival of the Europeans, given by Hecke welder, agrees remarkably with the account of Hudson's first visit to Manhattan. See New York Hist. Soc. Collections, vol. 2, p. 71. |