hundred and thirty-nine days, in which time the Atlantic can now be crossed eight or nine times!

Clay, in his "Annals of the Swedes on the Delaware," tells us that when Sandel, the Swedish missionary, was appointed to come over and take charge of the church at Wicaco, "he left Sweden on the 21st of August, 1701, and after some detention in England, and the usual tedious passage of those days across the Atlantic, arrived in the Delaware on the 12th of March following:"-that is, in 29 weeks; in which time a good ship can sail from New York to Calcutta, and back again, with a cargo.

In the very interesting account of his voyage from Sweden to the Delaware, by the elder Campanius, we are informed that he sailed from Stockholm August 16th, 1642, and arrived at Christina February 15, 1643. To explain the nature of such passages as we have alluded to, we will present the reader with a brief review of Campanius's narrative, as given by himself. 1642. Aug. 16. Sailed from Stockholm.

14th. In the Spanish sea, (supposed off the

coast of Spain.)

21st. Sailing along the coast of Portugal.

26th.

Off the Barbary Coast.

28th. South of the Canary Islands.

Dec. 20th. Arrived at Antigua.

Jan. 3d. Sailed by St. Christopher's and other

small Islands.

24th. Soundings off the Coast of America.

25th. Saw land near the Capes of Delaware. 26th. Off Lewistown.

Feb. 15th. Arrived at Christina. Passage just fivemonths

or 150 days.

Assuming that the ships under the command of Minuit arrived in the spring of 1638, it is easy to harmonize with this position, all the known facts having relation to the case. Clay says, "the building of a fort was no doubt their first undertaking after their arrival." This opinion is rendered very probable from a consideration of their actual position at that time. The Indians were very numerous in that vicinity, and, under the influence of the Dutch traders, might be opposed to this invasion of the Swedes. The massacre of the colonists under De Vries, only about six years before, must have been fresh in their recollection. They knew the West India Company would consider them as intruders. The officers of the expedition were military men, holding the questionable, but generally received opinion, that "to maintain peace it is necessary to be prepared for war. They were provided with troops, arms and ammunition, brought with the express intention of establishing a military post; and finally, the people, ignorant of the strength of that defence, which kindness, benevolence, and strict justice build round a nation, would naturally feel insecure without one. Under all these circumstances there can be little doubt that "the building of a fort was their first undertaking after their landing."

That the time of their arrival was in the spring of the year, is rendered probable from a circumstance mentioned by Campanius, who tells us that "when the Swedes came to this country

*The colonies when first planted in Virginia, New York, and New England, were "prepared for war," and the pages of their history are mournfully stained with blood. No language can adequately describe the suffering, both of the colonists and the natives, that followed this anti-christian course. Wm. Penn and his colony came to Pennsylvania unarmed and defenceless, wholly unprepared for war; and he and his people lived in harmony and peace with the natives, as long as the government remained in their hands, which was about seventy years. It can hardly be supposed that to carry a dirk and a pair of pistols, is the best way to keep the peace of individuals.

4

for the first time, they found it so pleasant and agreeable that they could think of no name more proper to be given to the place on which they first landed, than that of Paradise Point, which is near Cape Henlopen."

If the little squadron left Sweden in the autumn of 1637, as we suppose it did, and sailed a southerly course by the way of the West India Islands, as was usual at that time, it would probably arrive at the Capes of Delaware about the time of the vernal equinox, or in the early part of the Fourth month, according to the present style. At that period our spring unfolds her early flowers, and the opening buds of our forest and fruit trees exhale their grateful odours; which, after a long passage, in a crowded ship, would excite the most agreeable sensations, and incline them to give the point a name expressive of their feelings. To them it was a Paradise.

By Acrelius we are informed that at the time the colony arrived, the Dutch, anxious to secure all the lands between Delaware and New Amsterdam to their own use, "kept, therefore, some persons residing on the east side of the river to keep a look out on all that might visit it, and these immediately apprized the Governor General at New Amsterdam, of the arrival of Minuit." Kieft, who had just before arrived at New Amsterdam, under his new commission as governor, kept his eye on Minuit, and watched his motions to discover the object of his expedition. Being informed of the hostile movement of the Swede, in erecting a fort, he immediately issued a protest, dated May the 6th, 1638, against the encroachment, and declaring his determination to protect the rights of the Dutch to the territory invaded.

If the Swedes arrived at the period we have supposed, there was time, more than sufficient, for Keift to receive information, and issne his protest against the proceedings of Minuit, before the 6th day of May, 1638. If, therefore, the building of a fort was the first undertaking of the colonists, and if their passage across the Atlantic occupied the usual time of such a voyage in those days, then we must conclude that they left Sweden in the

antumn of 1637, and arrived in the Delaware in the spring of the following year.

*

* Clay informs us that REORUS TORKILLUS accompanied Peter Minuit, who brought over the first Swedish colony; and Nicholas Collin in his notes on Rudman's Memoirs, preserved in the books of the Swedish Church at Wicaco, says, "several clergymen came from Sweden during the colonial time; the first was REORUS TORKILLUS, who died in September, 1643, and in the fourth year after his arrival." This would fix the period of the arrival of the Swedes as late as 1639. But this remark of Collin, for which he gives no authority, cannot be considered of equal value with an official document.

Nicholas Collin, in his Notes on Rudman's Memoirs, says: "The time of this first arrival is not certainly known, but must have been in 1636, or 1637; because the fort on Christina Creek was begun in 1638, as appears by the protest against it by Wilhelm Kieft, the Dutch commander at New York."

CHAPTER IV.

We have the authority of Acrelius for stating that the little squadron, consisting of two ships, the "Key of Calmar," and the "Griffin," having on board the first Swedish colony that settled on the Delaware, sailed from Gottenburg on the west coast of Sweden, and reasons have been given for the opinion that it arrived at Christina in the spring of 1638.

Having passed the capes, and sailing up the fair bosom of our beautiful bay, they came to a point of land jutting into the broad expanse of its waters, on which they landed for observation and refreshment. By Lindstrom's map of the Delaware and adjacent country, preserved and published by Campanius, it appears that this promontory was the same which is now called "Mispillion Point." It was probably in that season of the year, when the bursting foilage of our trees and shrubs, and the opening wild flowers of our meadows and woodlands, load the air with perfume; and when the feathered community, having commenced their annual employments, fill it with their music. After a long and tedious imprisonment in the narrow confines of a ship, with all the cares and anxieties incident to a new and hazardous enterprise, it must have been unspeakably delightful to land on this beautiful promontory, and enjoy for a moment the freshness and fragrance of the opening year. That it was so, we have the evidence in the fact that they named it "Paradise Point."

We are not informed how long they remained on the point, nor why they did not settle there. It was not far from the spot where the colony of De Vries had been cut off by the Indians, and was within the limits of the purchase made for Godyn, Bloemart, De Vries, and others; either of which circumstances might have induced them to remove higher up the country.