1654.]

THE ARRIVAL OF RYSINGH.

155

the Delaware. But stopping at New Amsterdam, to inform Stuyvesant in a friendly way of their purpose, and to secure his acquiescence, he arrested them without ceremony, and would only release them on condition of their immediate return whence they came.

Printz, nevertheless, sent messengers to Sweden to complain of the intrusion of the Dutch, and had he waited long enough would have received the aid he asked for. But either tired of waiting, or impelled by a growing unpopularity which his arbitrary rule had provoked, he sailed himself for home late in 1653, before his Printz messengers could be heard from. Their mission, however, leaves New was not unsuccessful. Before Printz reached Sweden a ship was dispatched with a deputy governor on board, John Rysingh, with a force of about three hundred men, whose first act was the capture of Fort Casimir.

Sweden.

Rysingh was to supersede Printz in case Printz should wish to retire, as he had asked leave to do. Having already gone to Sweden there was no question of Rysingh's position, though Printz had left his son-in-law, John Pappegoya, as his representative at Tinicum. It seems, however, that Rysingh did not wait to communicate with his countrymen before exercising his power; for he found none of them below Fort Casimir, as Elsingborg, on Salem Creek, had been abandoned. His instructions from the government at home were pacific; he was not to break the peace with the Dutch; as to Fort Casimir— he was to leave it in their hands, unless there was danger of its falling into the hands of the English - a danger not imminent, as there was hardly an Englishman then on the banks of the South River.

He paid no regard, however, to his instructions, not waiting even, apparently, to learn the situation of affairs on shore, or that his superior, Printz, had gone to Sweden. "On the last day of May," wrote Gerrit Bikker, the commandant of Fort Casimir, to Stuyvesant, 66 we perceived a sail, not knowing who she was or where from." On the 27th of May, 1654, Rysingh himself wrote to Stuyvesant: "I cannot refrain giving you notice that a few days ago I arrived here safe in the government ship the Aren, with a considerable number of people from the kingdom of Sweden;" and in his report to his own government2 he fixes the date of his arrival as "a few days before the 27th of May."

Whatever the date of his arrival, which is thus left uncertain, the fort was taken without resistance. Bikker sent messengers to the ship to ask who she was and what was her purpose. Adrian van Tien

1 See the petition for redress for this outrage of "Jasper Graine, William Tuttill, and many other the inhabitants of New Haven and Sotocket." Hazard, vol. ii., pp. 192 et seq. 2 Holland Doc. cited in Hazard's Annals of Pennsylvania.

Swedes.

hoven - a brother of the New Amsterdam fiscal-reported on his return that she was Swedish, and that a new governor was on Fort Casimir taken by the board who demanded the surrender of the fort. Van Tienhoven and others counselled defence. "What can I do?" said Bikker, "there is no powder." There was no time for deliberation. The captain of the ship immediately landed at the head of twenty or thirty men, marched into the fort and, at the points of their swords, compelled submission. Bikker "welcomed them as friends," he says, and asked a parley; but, he adds, "the soldiers were immediately chased out of the fort, and their goods taken in possession, as likewise my property, and I could hardly by entreaties bring it so far to bear that I, with my wife and children, were not likewise shut out almost naked." Van Tienhoven hurried back to the ship to ask of Rysingh his commission and the reasons for this summary proceeding. It was by order of the Queen, the governor said, whose ambassadors at the

was all a lie, no doubt; but Rysingh slapped Van Tienhoven on the breast, and said, with a hearty and confident familiarity, "Go, tell your Governor that!"1

The Swedes were again in undisputed possession on the South River. All the Dutch in and about the fort were required either to take the oath of allegiance to Sweden or to leave that part of the country. To make the event the more significant the name of the fort was changed to Trefalldigheet (Trinity fort) because it was taken on Trinity Sunday, or more probably, because that festival of the church was within a week of its capture.2

When the news reached New Amsterdam the town rocked with

1 Hol. Doc. cited in O'Callaghan and Hazard's Annals.

2 It is usually said that the fort was so named because the capture was on Trinity Sunday. It was probably taken two or three days before Trinity Sunday.

1654.]

THE SWEDES VICTORIOUS.

sant.

157

excitement and indignation from the Battery to Wall Street. Stuyvesant seized an opportunity that occurred presently to re- Indignation taliate, though it produced no other result than private in- of Stuyvejury. A Swedish ship, bound for the South River, ran into the Kill behind Staten Island, and sent a messenger to New Amsterdam for a pilot. Stuyvesant imprisoned the messengers and dispatched a file of soldiers to the vessel to seize her and her crew, to be detained till Fort Casimir was restored. The captain lost ship and cargo, but Rysingh was not moved thereby to give up his capture. He disregarded all the messages from Stuyvesant, who invited him to New Amsterdam, with the assurance of a safe conduct, that they might come to terms in regard to the fort and the question of jurisdiction on the Delaware. The Swedish governor preferred possession to negotiation, and declined to discuss the subject, either in person or by deputy. Stuyvesant had nothing to do but wait, and his anger was not of a kind that cooled by waiting.

as

But his indignation was no greater than that of the Company's directors in Holland. In their letters to Stuyvesant they denounced the surrender of Casimir as "infamous," as "scandalous," and as "cowardly;" the conduct of the commandant, Bikker, was declared to be in that "shameful transaction," "unfaithful, yea, treacherous," and his apprehension was earnestly insisted on; and it was, they urged, the Director's duty, "to exert every nerve to revenge that injury, not only by restoring affairs to their former situation, but by driving the Swedes from every side of the river as they did with us." They were much in earnest, and meant to put it in the Director's power to obey their orders.

Communication between the colonies and Europe was so slow and infrequent that winter was near before Stuyvesant could hear from Amsterdam, and all action was necessarily delayed. The Director availed himself of this interval of quiet in the affairs of his government to visit the West Indies, where he remained some months in the hope of advancing the interests of the colony. But in this he was thwarted by Cromwell's expedition under Sir William Penn. " We have mett the Dutch governor of New Netherlands, with three ships under his command," wrote the commissioner, Edward Winslow, from Barbadoes. This man's business was to settle a faire trade between the Netherlands and this place; but we spoiled the sport." In this project Stuyvesant spent more than half a year, and had hoped great things. So serious a disappointment, we may be sure, did not make him the less inclined for another expedition in another direction, when soon after his return a ship of war arrived from Holland with orders that he should move against the Swedes on the South River.

66

Preparations

New Swe

den.

New Sweden was to be reconquered, and the Director set on foot the most active preparations. The company had sent from to reconquer Holland a single ship, the Balance, a man of war; such other vessels as were needed were chartered, or impressed without the consent of the owners; and patriotic volunteers were invited to join the expedition. Measures were taken to keep it secret, that the enemy might be taken by surprise. The fleet numbered seven vessels, and they were manned by a force of from six to seven hundred men. It is not unlikely that many of these were volunteers attracted by the alluring aspects of an expedition which might, after a pleasant voyage of four-and-twenty hours, appear before the stronghold of an enemy unprepared for their coming, and whom they outnumbered probably by ten to one. If there was no fighting, there might at least be a chance of plunder, and there was the prospect of a charming excursion. There was certainly nothing to fear, for all the people of the South River country, both Swedes and Dutch, scattered about in the different forts and the neighborhoods, from the Schuylkill to the capes, were not more than half the invading force.

Fort Trinity
taken by
the Dutch.

It was, therefore, only a handful of men that on the 10th of September saw Stuyvesant's formidable fleet of seven vessels with six or seven hundred men on board come to anchor just above Fort Trinity. A force was landed; an earthwork was thrown up; a detachment was sent forward to command the road from Fort Christina four miles above; and then a surrender was demanded. Resistance, of course, was useless, but the Swedish commandant, Swen Schute, nevertheless, contrived to protract the parley through the day and delay capitulation till the next morning. Then he evacuated the fort with all the honors of war, and the Dutch marched in. Such of the garrison as chose to take the oath of allegiance to "the high and mighty lords and patrons of this New Netherland province" were permitted to remain as "Freemen on South River." Twenty, two thirds of the whole number, accepted these terms. "About noon," wrote Stuyvesant to the magistrates at New Amsterdam, "our troops with flying colors marched into the fort; Domine Megapolensis, the New Amsterdam minister, who had come as the chaplain of the expedition, preached a sermon "with our imperfect thanksgivings," continues the Director, "as God's hand and blessing was so remarkably visible with us as well in the weather and prosperous success, as in the discouragement of our enemies." And as a day of fasting had been held in New Amsterdam before the fleet. had sailed, so now he directed that there should be a day of thanksgiving set apart that "the all-wise and good God should be openly thanked and praised" for granting him the victory.