The Lenni Lenape[1] were the original inhabitants of southeastern Pennsylvania, but the first Europeons of record to set eyes on the Delaware River and Bay were the Dutch. Henry Hudson, aboard the Halvemann ("Half Moon") -- owned by the Dutch East India Company -- discovered what appeared to be "a great bay and river" in 1609. However, he was reluctant to explore it in his 80-ton ship after coming across shoals that could seriously damage his large ship.
In 1610 the bay was entered by an Englishman, Sir Samual Argall. He named it in honor of Thomas West, Baron De La Warr, then Governor of the Jamestown Colony in Virginia[2]. The name "Delaware" was also given to all the indigenous peoples who lived along the river. Thus, the Lenape began to be called the Delawares.
While England claimed ownership of the bay and river, they did little to assert control. The Dutch, however, continued to explore and vied for direct ownership of the river valley by establishing settlements[3]. In 1616 Cornelius Hendrickson aboard the Restless may have sailed up the Delaware River as far as the mouth of the Schuykill River[4]. If so, Hendrickson was the first European to see the forested hills and fertile valleys of what are now Delaware, Chester, and Lancaster Counties of Pennsylvania.
Sweden[5] also tried to claim the Delaware River Valley, and for a time their early colony, as well as that of the Dutch, became the forefunners of the cities and towns that would grow to pre-eminence under English rule. Modern day Philadelphia and Chester in Pennsylvania; and Wilmington, New Castle, and Lewes in Delaware; all had their beginnings in Dutch and Swedish settlements with names like Swandendale, Kristina, Tornaborg, Printzdorp, Passy Konck, Tinne Konck, and Oplandt.
Early Control of the Delaware River Valley
The Dutch had arrived first, but the Swedes dominated early. The first Swedish expedition arrived on the banks of the Delaware River in 1638, under Peter Minuit aboard the Kalmar Nyckel and Gripen. They established a settlement at Fort Kristina, named in honor of their young queen[6]. They called the colony "New Sweden," and the Christiana River that flows through the area they settled in the present-day city of Wilmington still bears her name. They purchased land from the Lenni Lenape from there to present-day League Island (the old Navy Yard at Philadelphia), that encompassed land "from the river to where the sun set."
The second and third voyages of the the Kalmar Nyckel were less noble in design but more effective in their result. It was the intention of the Swedish government to populate the entire region with Swedes and in their effort to do so, undersirables became the mainstay. On the second voyage in 1640, newly appointed Governor of New Sweden Peter Hollandare noted that "no more stupid, indifferent people are to be found in all of Sweden than those who are now here." And in 1641 he stated that on the third voyage of the Kalmar Nyckel "quite a number of criminals and forest-destroying Finns[7] were transported to the Delaware River settlements to rid the mother-country of their presence."
The fourth Swedish expedition arrived in 1643 under newly commisioned Governor of New Sweden, John Printz[8]. He essentially wrestled control of the river from the Dutch, settling at Tinne Konck (Tinnicum Island) which he named New Gottenburg and from which he consolidated power as New Sweden's seat of government. He built a fortess at the mouth of Salem Creek on the east side of the river called Fort Elsenburgh and filled it with four copper cannons. That was enough to control the lower Delaware River, closing it off and rendering useless the Dutch fortress on the east side of the river above the Schuylkill.
Open Warfare Begins
Although the Swedes were in firm control, the Dutch continued to assert their power and old animosities flared. New Sweden's Governor Printz was often openly hostile and insolent. Upon suggestion that the Dutch were the earliest settlers on the Delaware, he was said to reply, "The devil was the oldest possessor of hell, but he sometimes admitted a younger one." When emmisaries of the Dutch Company went to Tinnicum, Printz often sent them home bloody and bruised. Relations were tenuous at best, but when Printz returned to Sweden in 1653, hostilities and outright warfare erupted.
In 1654, the Swedish Government sent to New Sweden a new Lieutenant-governor named John Claudius Rising. But he crossed the path of Printz in mid-ocean, so no Governor was in charge when he arrived. Leadership of the colony fell to this new subordinate who had little understanding of the emotions that infected the Delaware. In direct violation of his orders, he approached Dutch-held Fort Cassimir and demanded its surrender. The Dutch asked for an hour to consider the demand, but Rising refused, and instead sent a party ashore to take the fort by force. They captured it and carried off its entire inventory regardless of whether it belonged to the Dutch Company or to private individuals.
In Holland, indignation flared over the news and Peter Stuyvesant was ordered to avenge the insult and drive the Swedes from the Delaware River. In 1655, he sailed up the river with an armada of seven vessels, surprising the Swedes. After re-taking Fort Cassimir and capturing Fort Christiana, Stuyvesant proceeded up the Delaware to New Gottenburg on Tinnicum Island where he destroyed the settlement surrounding the fort -- burning houses, killing livestock, and looting the inhabitants of all their posessions. Fourteen days later the Swedes had no alternative but to surrender their fortifications. By 1655 the Swedish flag no longer flew over the Delaware Valley.
Great Britain Asserts Its Power
The triumph of the Dutch was both costly and short-lived. They could not afford to garrison the region, and their attempts to re-settle the Swedes failed. With no sufficient garrison, the region soon fell into dissarray and petty quarreling. Great Britian, the absentee landlord, had never acknowledged the right of either the Dutch or Swedes to occupy the Delaware, and their squabbling served only to bring it to the attention of Charles II, King of England. In May 1664, he resolved to settle the issue by granting territory consisting of present-day New York and New Jersey, which included the Delaware River, to his brother the Duke of York. Within months, the Duke drew together four warships and four hundred and fifty men and sailed for the New World "to join and assist ... vigorously in recovering our right to those places now possessed by the Dutch, and reducing them to an entire obedience and submission to our government."
By August of 1664, the armada had reached the lower bay of the Hudson River at New Amsterdam and demanded the Dutch surrender. Facing a superior force, the Dutch reluctantly did so and the English renamed the capital of the colony New York. In September, three frigates under Sir Robert Carr proceeded to the Delaware and easily took control, primarily because the Swedes were happy to escape subjucation of the Dutch, and even the Dutch were somewhat pleased to be released from domination by the tyrannical Stuyvesant. Lands and estates were confiscated and ownership granted to the officers and commanders who had participated in the expedition. The English flag flew over the Delaware, and would do so for almost 100 years[9].
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Footnotes
1The Lenni Lenape (pronounced LEN-ah Len-AH-pay) can be translated to mean "First People." They were, as individuals and as a group, people of peace and often called the "Grandfather Tribe" because they were frequently called upon to settle disputes between rival tribes. Their legacy lived on in the religious ideals of some of the European settlers in the area -- Quakers, Mennonites, and Amish -- who were likewise devoted to peace.
2At the time, Virginia's claim to the new world was extensive. It was the name the English used to describe the entire Atlantic Coast of North America from present day Pennsylvania to Florida and west to the Pacific Ocean. Great Britain would eventually control all of this coast by 1664, but Virginia would eventually be reduced in size as the crown carved up the colony into smaller pieces.
3The Dutch settled primarily along the lower Delaware Bay at present-day Cape Henlopen, Delaware. From the mouth of Lewes Creek near Rehobeth, Delaware, they spread northward into what is now New Castle, Delaware. At New Castle they built a fortress called Fort Cassimir. They also extended their influence further up-river in 1621 when Cornelius Jocobson Mey erected Fort Nassau near the mouth of Timber Creek in present-day Gloucester County, New Jersey. Cape May, New Jersey -- across the Delaware Bay from Cape Henlopen -- today bears his name. While the English called it the Delaware River, the Dutch called it South River, to differentiate it from the Hudson River which they called North River, both of which they claimed as part of New Amsterdam.
4The river was named the Schuyllkill, a Dutch term that means "hidden creek," because early explorers sailed past its mouth a number of times before realizing it was a river and not merely an inlet along the shores of the Delaware.
5At the time, Sweden was an European military power that matched the super-powers of the the day -- England, France, and Prussia (Germany). When Gustavus II Adolphus became King in 1611 at the ripe old age of 17, it heralded the beginning of an epoch of expansion. Through the first half of the 17th century, wars were fought successfully with Denmark, Russia, and Poland. And by the final stages of the Thirty Years War with the Catholic Hapsburgs of Germany, Gustav Adolph had marched into central Germany and established control. Sweden dominated all the lands surrounding the Baltic Sea, as well as interior portions of what are now Norway, Finland, Russia, Poland, and Germany. It was during this time that they set their sights on a recently explored river across an ocean in the New World, and along a seemingly insignificant stretch of land now called Delaware County, Pennsylvania -- establishing a colony there that they called "New Sweden."
6Christina was 6 years old when her father, Gustav II Adolf, died at the Battle of Luetzen in 1632, and only 12 years old when Peter Minuit landed on the Delaware River and named the first settlement in her honor. She was coronated Queen of Sweden when she came of age on her 18th birthday in 1644. She proclaimed that she would never marry in 1649, abdicated in 1654, and emigrated to Rome and converted to Catholicism. During her reign she had acquired the nickname the "Philospher Queen," and her abdication and conversion to Catholicism came as a shock to Sweden's population, who were primarily Lutheran.
7The "forest-destroying" violation of the Finns directly flaunted a mandate of the royal government. They had set fire to the forests in Varmland and Dalclear to clear the land of timber and prepare the ground for planting grain in the ashes. It became common to offer banishment to the New World for perputrating such nature-related crimes. In the province of Skaraborg, for example, a man condemned to death for breaking into the monastery gardens at Varnhem was permitted to choose between being hanged or leaving for New Sweden. As late as 1653, a criminal who had been convicted of killing an elk on D'Auland Island was given a similar choice. Unfortunately, the "forest-destroying" techniques employed by the Finns in the Old Country was used effectively on the North American continent and virgin forests soon fell before the axe and the burning brand.
8The Printz name today has become familiar to residents living along the Delaware River because of the numerous parks and roads named for him. But what do we know of him? John Printz was well educated, and after he entered the military he rose rapidly during the German-Prussian War. In 1638 he was promoted to Lieutenant-colonel of the West Gotha Cavalry. But in 1640 he shamefully surrendered the fortress of Chemnitz and returned to Stockholm without the consent of his field-marshall. He was put under arrest, tried, and disgracefully relieved of his rank. In 1642 he was appointed Governor of New Sweden where he was true to his sovereign's interests, even though he had failed in that respect in the Old World. On his return he was made a general, and in 1658, Governor of the District of Jonkoping. He died in 1663 leaving no male heirs.
9With the fall of the Delaware, England controlled the entire Atlantic Coast of North America from Maine to Florida. The dutch and swedish colonies along the Delaware River had been the last bastions of resistance, that now having fallen, allowed complete anglo-saxon supremecy. Except for some localized indian attacks and the short-lived re-capture of some of the Duke of York's lands by the Dutch from 1673-1674, an extended era of peace began that lasted until the American Revolution.
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