Hazard's Register of Pennsylvania: Devoted to the Preservation of Facts and ...

paper. What he penned from the inspiration of the brandy, was perfectly fit for the press without any alteration, or correction.*

GERMANTOWN.

A public Journal was printed in the German language, at Germantown, as early as the summer of 1739, by Christopher Sower. The title of it Englished, was

The Pennsylvania German Recorder of Events. At first this paper was printed quarterly at three shillings per annum; it was, afterward, published monthly, and was continued till about the year 1744. This was, undoubtedly, the first newspaper printed in the German language in America.

Germantanner Zeitung.

Germantown Gazette.

This Gazette was printed by Christopher Sower, jun. and, probably, as a substitute for the Germantown Recorder, which had been published by his father. It was a weekly paper, and commenced about 1744. As an appendage to it, Sower for some time published, every fortnight, a small Magazine of eight 8vo. pages, containing, chiefly, moral and religious essays; with which, it is said, he supplied his newspaper customers gratis. The Zeitung was, I believe, continued until the troubles occasioned by the war obliged the publisher to drop it. It had an extensive circulation among the Germans settled in Pennsylvania.

LANCASTER.

A newspaper in the English and German languages was published in Lancaster by Miller and Holland, in January 1751. What the title of it was, I cannot learn,

nor the time at which it was discontinued.

Lahn, Albright and Stumer published a newspaper in English and German, before the revolutionary war, and for a short time after its commencement.

Francis Bailey published a paper in English soon after the beginning of the war. He, afterward, removed to Philadelphia, and published the Freeman's Journal.

Aitken was a man of truth, and of an irreproachable character. This anecdote came from him some years

before his death.

EARLY SETTLEMENT.

The following extracts are made from an interesting discourse delivered before the Penn Society on the 24th October last, entitled "Sketches of the Primitive Settlements on the River Delaware."

By James N. Barker, esq.

179

Sir Samuel Argal until 1612, nor Lord De la War himself until 1610.

But whatever may be the ground of those claims, it is at least certain, that, as early as 1609, Henry Hudson, an Englishman, but in the service of Holland, a few days before he discovered the noble stream that bears his name, remarked "the white sandy shore" of our capes. Fearful of the shoals that crowded the mouth of a bay, to explore which he conceived it was necessary to have "a small pinnasse," and after actually striking ground once, he bore away with his good ship the "Halfe Moone" which might have taken possession, if it did not, leaving our nameless stream to receive its title perhaps from an accident.

Nine years afterward, in 1618, Lord Delawar, on his voyage from Virginia to England, died, opposite the mouth of the river, which thence it is thought, received

his name.

of Virginia, the French and Dutch were permitted to In 1621, although the Delaware was considered a part trade with the natives, but no European settlements

were made on its shore.

by the Holland West India company under the sanction In 1623, Captain Kornelis Jacobse Mey, despatched of the States General, who founded their claim to the sovereignty of the soil upon the discovery of Hudson, landed at the entrance of our bay, selected as the fairest and most fruitful part of the New-Netherlands. The Dutch commander gave the name of Kornelis to the southern, and Mey to the northern cape, and, sailing up known with certainty to have taken place on our river: the virgin stream, made the first settlement of Europeans this was at Fort Nassau, erected on the Sasackan at a point on the eastern bank of the Delaware, a few miles called by the natives Techaacho, and is in the vicinity of below Coaquenak, now Philadelphia: the place was

the town of Gloucester.

It has been said that the Swedes and Fins visited the

Delaware as early at least as 1627, but it is not thought they made any permanent settlements there until 1629.

In 1628, while the Dutch yet held Fort Nassau, a litcovered on the opposite side of the Delaware, and named tle fresh water river, according to Stuyvesant, was disby them Schuylkil, that is hidden-creek; at the mouth of which the Swedes subsequently erected a fort bearing one of the Indian names of the river, Manaiiung.

In 1629, the Heer Godyn made purchases of land, from the natives, at their village on the southwest corner of the bay, extending "from Cape Hinloop to the mouth of the river," and in the following year being joined with Bloemart, purchased an additional tract from the Naraticon chiefs at Cape Mey, extending sixteen miles along the opposite shore. Being now associated with the paThe history of our river commences at a much earlier troon Vanrenselaer and others, an effort was made to codate than is generally imagined. "There was of very lonise the South River by Godyn, who had already given early and ancient times (the beginning whereof is not his name to the bay. At the creek on which Lewes now known) a settlement and plantations on the Delaware, stands, called Hoerne Kill, and extending perhaps to made and planted and inhabited by christians of the Boompjees Hoek, a settlement was effected; and the Swedish nation; and afterwards held and inhabited, in place heretofore called Cannaresse by the natives, and the year 1609, and for many years after, by christians by the Dutch by names scarcely to be pronounced, reunder the dominion of the States General of Holland," ceived from the proprietor the poetical title of Swansays one of high authority. "The said river, was in the endael, or Valley of Swans. Under the direction of the primitive tyme likewise possessed and a colony planted; company, in the same year, 1630, the gallant and enterand after this, in the year 1623, the fforte Nassaw was prising Pieterz de Vries, artillery master, sailed from the built," observes another of exalted station. A third claim Texel with the colonists, and arriving safely in Godyn's is made by an English author, who distinctly asserts, that bay, built Fort Opland, to protect the valley of the about the year 1588, Sir Walter Raleigh seated and left, swans. Authorities differ as to the precise situation at the creek near the southern cape, thirty men and four of this fort; whether it occupied the spot where pieces of ordnance; and that, in the year 1608, the Ba- Lewes stands, or was fixed at Boompjee's Hock, which in ron De la War, governor of Virginia, by Sir Thomas the opinion of some is the same with Swanendael; or Dale and Sir Samuel Argal, took possession and atturn- whether indeed it was not built in the following year, ment of the land and its Indian kings. Unfortunately, 1631, to protect his contemplated whale fishery. The however, for this pretension to antiquity, it does not ap-fort, however, was built, and is described as a house surpear from any historical evidence, that Sir Walter Ra-rounded with palisadoes, but without parapet, and as at leigh ever was in America; and Stith, the historian of once their fortress, house of commerce, and place of renVirginia, is of opinion he was not. Besides, Sir Tho-dezvous. The fate of this little colony has given a memas Dale did not come to the new world until 1611, nor lancholy celebrity to the spot. De Vries having sailed

for Europe, the commander of the place, with a ridiculous ostentation, erected a pillar near the fort bearing the arms of their High Mightinesses emblazoned on a plate of tin, as the sign of Dutch sovereignty over the land. One of the natives, not understanding the sacredness of the symbol, converted the metal to his own use. This indignity could not be borne with patience by the commander, the silly Gillis Osset, who imprudently urged his complaints and demands with such vehemence and importunity, that the harassed and perplexed tribe brought him the head of the dilinquent. It is hoped that the commander repented his folly; but for this he had but brief time. The relatives and friends of the deceased chief, effected, soon after, a surprise of the garrison, and in one hour the Dutch ceased to exist on the South river.

De Vries, on his return from Holland, in December 1632, in answer to his joyous salute to the fort, met only a mournful silence, which too truly informed him of the fate of his countrymen. He passed up the river, now a cheerless solitude, fort Nassau opposite Coaquenaku and the island Aquekanasua, having been for some time abandoned. Above Nassau, at the mouth of the Timmerkil, now Cooper's Creek, was seated a tribe of Indians, who invited him to enter the stream. He might have complied, and doubtless would have fallen a victim to their treachery, (for they were of the sanguinary race of the Sankhicans,) but for the timely warning, humanely given him by one of the tribe. Need it be added that the generous individual was of that sex bounteously bestowed upon the wayfarer man, in city or in desert, to be his solace and his safeguard-Woman! whom even her native wilderness cannot always render wild, nor a life of savage association deprive of her innate softness!-The fame of the amiable princess of the Powhatan is deservedly dear to us; shall we not gratefully cherish the memory of our own, though nameless heroine of the Lenape Wihittuc?

De Vries, after proceeding to Virginia for provisions, returned to Europe, and the Indians were left once more, sole monarchs of the country. Not a trace remained of the Dutch settlements during this their first era; and so completely was even their name obliterated, that, in the map of Novum Belgium by De Lact, published in his Novus ORBIS, 1633, but for the names of the capes, and the river, it could not be inferred that a Hollander had ever been in the land of the Minquas and

Naraticons.

The crown of England, it is well known, from the year 1498, when Cabot sailed along the coast from Newfoundland as far south as the 38th degree of north latitude, had claimed the country by right of discovery; and the first James or Charles granted a commission to Sir Edmund Ployden, to plant and possess an extensive territory including the North and South rivers. SirEdmund, who was created Earl Palatine of Nova Albion, formed a company of viscounts, barons, baronets, knights, gentlemen and adventurers; and this goodly band, or a part of them, under the style of "the Albion knights of the conversion of (the) twenty-three kings (of Charles river,)" actually commenced their settlements, here in our very neighbourhood. A fort was begun at Eriwomec, or Pensouken in New-Jersey, of which no more trace remains, than of the gold mine it was to protect. Even the sites of the majority of those places can only be conjectured: Roymount was the present Lewes, and Richneck lay probably somewhere between Salem and Alloway's creeks in Jersey. Of other spots settled or intended to be, as little is now remembered; such as Kildorpy, near the falls of Charles' river; or Belville, the seat of a descendant of kings, Beauchamp Plantagenet, one of the Knights companions, who was "admitted as the familiar" of the Earl Palatine, and had "cabined" with him for seven years among the Indians. Nay, the very chosen residence of the Earl himself, the metropolis of his empire-Watcessi-where seventy Albion sub. jects were once seated, has for ever, like Troy, disap

peared from the face of the earth, and circumstances alone lead us to guess that it once flourished on the bank of Salem creek!

Some Swe

The planting of this colony did not commence until about 1640. The Dutch of New-Netherland, although Holland had formally yielded her pretensions to England, taking advantage of the internal commotions then commencing in the British kingdom, tenaciously held on to their possessions, and, being occasionally aided by their new rivals the Swedes against a common enemy, gave the English colonists much trouble. dish soldiers had even dared to take possession of the abandoned fort and mine of Eriwomec, in order, as Plantagenet writes, "to cross the Dutch of Manhatoes and undersell them." "Since my return," observes Master Evelyn in an epistle to the Countess Palatine in England-" eighteen Swedes are settled in the province, and sometimes six Dutch doe in a boat trade without fear." Against a confederacy so powerful what could stand' The gallant and accomplished Ployden was despoiled of his dominion-the Empire of New-Albion, with its wholesome government and laws, fell-at what particular period history has not deigned to tell, and has scarcely left a name behind, even in a brief note on the page of a provincial record.

After the catastrophe at Swanendael, the Dutch had again gradually obtained footing on the shores of Zuydt riviere, and, as early as 1638, we are informed by the Swedish historian of New-Sweden, Acrelius, had erected a fort at Hoerne-Kil.

In the year 1638, the first appearance of the Swedes is said to have taken place, when, in pious fulfilment of the design of Gustavus Adolphus, his illustrious daught er, aided by the counsels of her chancellor, the excellent Oxenstierna, determined to attempt the establishing a colony on our river. Landing at Cape Inloop, from the beauty and fertility of the place, the Swedes named the spot on which they first set their feet, Paradiset.

From this period the history of the Swedes and Dutch on our bay and river, becomes so blended, that it will be necessary hereafter to view them as they proceed in their settlements, together.

The town of Christina Harbour, and Christina Fort, were the first places erected by the Swedes, and in the year of their arrival, 1638. They stood at a place called by the natives Hopohaccan, on the north of the stream Minquaas, sometimes called Suspecough, and not far from its mouth. The stream also received the name of Christina, which it still retains, and a village of some antiquity, further up the creek, is yet called Christina.But the fort and the primitive town of Christina Harbour have disappeared: happily, however, for the antiquary, an accurate draught of both, by the engineer Lindstrom, is preserved in the Nya Swerige of Campanius, who furnishes besides a minute account of its capture in 1655 by the Dutch under Stuyvesant, after a siege of fourteen days, and which completed the subjugation of the country. The Swedish traveller Kalm, who visited this spot in 1748, had presented to him by the reverend Mr. Tranberg, minister of the Swedish church at Wilmington, an old Swedish silver coin of Christina, found among axes, shovels, and other things, at the depth of about three feet under ground, by some workmen, who in the preceding summer were throwing up a redoubt to protect the place from an expected attack by the French and Spaniards. The new fortification, as Mr. Tranberg informed Kalm, was on the same spot which the old one had occupied; Kalm adds, that it is nearly three miles from that point, by the course of the stream, to its mouth.

On the island of Tenna Kong once stood the town of New Gothenberg, the metropolis of the Swedish American Empire, as it has been pleasantly denominated by a learned member of our society. Nya Gotheborg had its church, consecrated by Dr. Campanius in 1646; its fort, and its palace. Upon this island all the principal freemen had their dwellings and plantations. It was in the splendid palace of Printzhoff, the first governor Printz

had concluded treaties with the native lords of the soil, which, under his successor Risingh, were revived with the assembled Sakimen in 1654 the very year before Nya Gotheborg, with all its glories, was demolished by the Dutch. According to Campanius, New Gotheborg was totally "destroyed." It is gratifying, however, to learn from William Penn himself, that on his arrival, the Swedes had a church, perhaps the ancient edifice, yet standing at Tinicum.

"At Mocoponaca," says Campanius, (on the stream of that name) there were some houses built, and afterwards a fort." This became the old Upland of the Swedes, called subsequently by Penn, from the birth place of his friend Pearson, Chester.

Korsholm Fort, abandoned, and burned by the Indians, after Governor Printz returned to Sweden, stood in Passaiung, the domain of the commander Sven, perhaps at Wicacoa. It was from the sons of Sven (Sven Seener) William Penn purchased the ground on which Philadelphia is now built.

Manaiung fortilen, was a handsome little fort built of hickory logs, with sand and stones filled in between, and palisadoes cut very sharp at the top; and, like the other forts, was mounted with cannon. It was placed near the mouth of the river called by the natives Manaiung, or Menajakse, and perhaps Mitabacong or Matinacong; by the Dutch Schuylkil, and by the Swedes Skiarkilen and Lindskilen.

Nya Wasa and Gripsholm are laid down on some of the old maps as fortified places. Ebeling supposes they were on the Schuylkill, but Du Sinitiere places them on the Delaware, between Nya Gothenborg and the Schuylkill, Campanius, however, assigns them a station between the Schuylkill, and a stream north of Tinicum, Gripsholm near the Delaware, and Nya Wasa some distance up the Schuylkil, probably about the point a little below Bartram's Botanic Garden. It is difficult to fix the latter with any certainty, for but a single stream above Tinicum is laid down on the maps, called by Lindstrom, the only one who gives it a name, Tenna Kongz Kilen. Nya Wasa may therefore have been situated even below the present Cobb's Creek.

Chincessing, or Kinsessing, Campanius informs us, was called the New fort, and its title sufficiently indicates its location. But, in the words of the Swedish writer, "This was no fort, but good strong log houses, built of hard hickory; two stories high; which was a fort good and strong enough to secure themselves from the Indians." He adds that the governor had settled five freemen there, who derived a comfortable living from tillage: this was then the population of the township of Kingsessing.

Many other settlements were made, and the old maps of Campanius and Lindstrom are crowded with Dutch and Swedish names of places on both sides of the Delaware. Du Simitiere places Schonberg immediately north of the Schuylkill, and Molwehl next above, about the site of Philadelphia.

Finlandt, called by the natives Chamassung, inhabited by Fins, was situated, says Campanius, two and a half miles north of Christina fort. Meulendael, according to Du Simitiere and Ogibly, was between Uplandt and New Gothenberg. Lapananel was next below Finlandt. There was besides a Swedish settlement at Olof Stilles place, called Techoherassi, in the neighbourhood of Tinicum; another at Karakung, where they had a watermill, but the situation of which is unknown; and a third at Mechacanzia in New Jersey, near the falls, and next below the place called Sankicans.

181

ment at Rypert Landet or Manathaan, near Christina Creek, below which, some miles, between two nameless streams, lies the town of Straws Wijk.

Nieu Causland, by its appearance a place of considerable importance, on the old map of 1655, covers the site of the present Newcastle. Du Simitiere places a town of Nieu Castel above Christina; and another Nicu Castle al Sand hoek, at the very mouth of the Delaware; and at the same time gives fort Kasimir its proper loca tion, which is making three New Castles out of one, for fort Kasimer was unquestionably the Nieu Causland of Lindstrom and the Nieu Castel of Campanius and | others.

The place at which the Dutch erected Fort Kasimer, says Campanius, was called (by the Indians, it is presumed,) Sand hocken, and was on the south, as Christina fort was on the north of the Minquaas or Mingoes creek, called by the Swedes Christina. It was in 1651, that the Dutch were suffered by the Swedish governor Printz, who contented himself with timidly protesting against the measure, to possess themselves of this key to New Sweden. In 1654, the successor of Printz, governor Risingh, obtained possession of the fort, either by treachery or by storm, for the historians disagree on this point, when it received the new title of The Fort of the Holy Trinity, and was placed under the command of Sven, schute, lord of Passaiung. In the following year it was the first place of strength obliged to yield to the conqueror Stuyvesant, and was afterwards called Fort Nieu Amstel. The account by Campanius of these transactions is interesting, and his book contains besides an engraved view of the fort itself under its Swedish title of Trefalldigheets Forte.

To regain the command of the Delaware, after the erection by the Dutch of fort Kasimir, the Swedes chose a point further down and on the opposite side of the river, a little below the present Salem Creek, on which to build a fort. The place is mentioned in the old maps and books as Oitsessing, Asamahoning, and Varchens kit. The fort was called Elfsborg, or Elsenburg, after a town of that name in Sweden. But the garrison met here with an enemy, not quite so unexpected, perhaps, as it proved irresistible; and were actually driven out by a foe which history will blush to introduce except by a periphrasis, in which the world may be informed that the discomfited soldiers left to the abandoned fortress the opprobrious title of musquetoesborg.

This may be considered the last of this series, unless we include the intrenchments, which we are informed, were thrown up by the Europeans, at Point-no-point, in the vicinity of this city, near Trenton in Jersey, and at other places along the river, as defences against the roving war parties of the Five nations.

[To be continued.]

We observe by the Brownsville Galaxy, that Messrs. Johnson, Smith and Snowden, have just finished at that place a new Steam Boat, called the Monongahela. She is intended to ply between Pittsburg and Brownsville, when the state of water will admit. She is of light draft andwill most probably run regularly throughout the year. The first trip was to be made on the 27th. We wish the proprietors success.

Easton, Pa. March 7.-A boat, containing 400 barrels of whiskey, equal in weight to 600 bbls. of flour, under the command of capt. James Connor was safely landed at Philadelphia, last week. We believe this is the largest load of whiskey which ever descended the Delaware from this place.-Sent.

There was a Swedish village, as Ebeling remarks from Died, on Friday, 8th ult. at his late residence in WestCampanius, at Wicacoa, where they had a church with moreland county, Pa. JOHN SCULL, Esq. in the 63d year its loop holes for defence, as early as 1669; and from an of his age. More than 40 years since Mr. Scull became expression of the latter it might be inferred that Wica- a citizen of Pittsburg, then an inconsiderable military coa and Passaiung were the same. In Lindstrom's map, post of the Western frontier. Immediately after his rethe two places are laid down as exclusively occupying sidence here, he published the Pittsburg Gazette, the a much greater extent than the entire ground plot of first newspaper issued west of the Allegheny mounPhiladelphia and its liberties. The Dutch had a settle-tains.

Remarks.

AUDITOR GENERAL's REPORT.-READ FEB. 23, 1828.

Statement of the Quantity of Bark, Flour, Salted Provisions, Domestic Distilled Spirits and Butter and Lard Inspected annually by the Inspectors of the Port of Philadelphia, from 1821 to 1827, inclusive.

21 From 21st March to 31st Dec. 1821.

2 From 13th Feb. to 31st Dec. 1824.

Remarks.

Barrels. Barrels.

Barrels. Hhds.

301023 31665 17892 2489

1822

256784 29227

1823

285873 32661

301333

1825

1826

1827

22149 6789 From March 22, to Dec. 31, 26100 2494 19268 7567 32225 1362 20524 6484 34327 2676 37336 7936 From Feb. 10, to Dec. 31, 278537 31504 33808 1983 24690 6502 323216 38068 15810 22010 7129 331749 39537

1821.

1824.

30656 6161