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the year 1698, some Shawanese from the southward applied to the Conestogos, and through these to William Penn's government, for permission to settle near Conestogo; which being granted, they established themselves upon Pequea Creek, under Opessah, their principal chief. They remained there during at least a quarter of a century, branching off, however, above Conestogo, and westward of the river. Opessah retained his position at their head until the year 1711, when he abdicated, and an election took place, which resulted in the nominal elevation of Lakundawanna to the successorship; but the people being refractory, there was an interregnum in effect, which lasted several years. As early as 1728, a few of them emigrated to the Ohio, and these were gradually followed by the remainder; so that before the middle of the eighteenth century they had wholly removed from the county of Lancaster.

"Soon after the arrival of the Shawanese, or about the year 1700, some Ganawese, from the Potomac, were upon application to the Proprietor, and upon the security of the Conestogos and Shawanese, permitted to remove within the province. They fixed their principal village between Pextang and Conestogo, and kept it there for at least thirty years. The Nanticokes of Maryland, made frequent visits to Conestogo, and at length some of them settled near it, those called Conoys (who are sometimes confounded with the Nanticokes, as in the reports of treaties, and sometimes distinguished from them, as by Mr. Heckewelder, who says they were the same as the Ganawese,) subsequently appeared in the same vicinity, as did also a body of Delawares. The former began to shift their ground before the year 1744; the latter, although occasionally mentioned as present in conference with the provincial government, never occupied a prominent post, and they soon retired to the Juniata. As early as 1711 there were Palatines settled near the Pequea, who were promptly admitted to the friendship of the neighboring tribes. From first to last the paramount authority of the Five Nations is manifested in the superintendence of their organ, the Conestogo Council, and in the respect yielded to this by the surrounding Indians. Peace and free intercourse were manifested amongst all of them, until after their villages began to be disturbed by the general movement of their brethern to the North and West.

"It must be obvious that any traditions respecting the tribes above mentioned, while they remained within the limits of Lancaster county, had their origin prior to the year 1763; and if of much older date than this, they must have been derived through persons who were living whilst the Indian settlements presented that diversity of aspect which has just been sketched. The first border settlers were not very competent judges of historical matters, nor very nice critics upon aboriginal peculiarities; and whatever facts were within the sphere either of their

perception or their comprehension, come to us now over a tract of nearly a century of time. While, therefore, we yield something to that probability of truth which locality or integrity may create, we have little reason to prefer any account orally transmitted, in circumstances and during an interval of time such as have existed in the present case, if that account is inconsistent with the general testimony of writers upon the subject. Perhaps, in this respect, no part of our State was more unfavorably situated than Lancaster county, prior to the year 1750. Ten years before this, the Indians had been embarrassed by the advance of the borderers; and probably still earlier there were apparent symptoms of that antipathy, which has generally marked the intercourse of frontiermen and savages. At least four or five considerable villages of different tribes were within the county; smaller villages were scattered around these. Different dialects, different customs, were in close proximity. That must be a singularly fortunate tradition which, faithful to its original, could convey to us living at the middle of the nineteeenth century, accurate details of the customs of one of those villages-uncorrupted specimens of one of those dialects as they were in the first quarter of the eighteenth century."

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CHAPTER II.

FROM THE EARLIEST SETTLEMENT OF PENNSYLVANIA TO THE ARRIVAL OF WILLIAM PENN.

In an official report drawn up by a Dutch Chamber [A. D. 1598] from documents and papers placed in their hands, December 15, 1644, it is said that "New Netherland, situate in America, between English Virginia and New England, extending from the South (Delaware) River, lying in latitude 3810, to Cape Malabar, in latitude 4140, was first frequented by the inhabitants of this country in the year 1598, and especially by those of the Greenland Company, but without making any fixed settlements, only as a shelter in the winter; for which purpose they erected there two little forts on the South and North Rivers, against the incursions of the Indians."1

Sir Walter Raleigh's discovery of the Delaware cannot be substantiated by evidence.

Lord Delaware, on his passage to Virginia, is said to have touched at Delaware Bay in 1610, and "from this circumstance the Bay probably received his name, and may have given to him the credit of its discovery, as it was so called in a letter from Captain Argall, written from Virginia in 1612." But, if this be true, it was a year after the well-known visit of Henry Hudson, who is now almost universally regarded as the discoverer of the Delaware. Henry Hudson, an Englishman by birth, in the service of the Dutch East India Company, reached the Delaware in the "Yagt Halve Maan" (Yacht Half-Moon) on August 28, 1609. The journals of Hudson and of Robert Juet, his mate, have been preserved in the Transactions of the N. Y. Historical Society. The honor of the discovery and the right to the land are claimed by the English on account of Hudson's birth, and by the Dutch on account of his having been at the time in their service and sailed under their flag.

The Delaware River and Bay have been known by different names. The Indians called it Poutaxat, Mariskitton, and Makerisk-Kiskon, Lenape-Wihittuck or the stream of the Lenape; the Dutch called it Zuydt or South River, Vassan River, Prince Hendrick's or Charles' River; the Swedes denominated it New Swedeland Stream; Heylin, in his Cosmography, calls it Arasapha; and the English named it Delaware. Campanius says it was so named after Mons. de la Warre, a captain under Jacques Cartier, and that it was discovered in 1600. If this be true, it 1 O'Callaghan quoted by Hazard. 2 N. Y. Histor. Collections, 1609.

is singular and curious that it should have received the same name from two persons of different nations, each giving it his own; for Thomas West, Lord Delaware, is also said to have discovered and given his Dame to this river. The bay has also been known as New Port May and Godyn's Bay.1

Captain Cornelis Jacobsen Mey, [1614] commanding the Fortune owned by Hoorn, a merchant of Amsterdam, under authority of the States General of Holland, in company with other vessels, proceeded on an exploring expedition to the mouth of Manhattan river, whence his companions sailed eastward, but Mey south and arrived at Delaware bay; from him the eastern cape was called Cape May, and the western cape Cornelis, the principal cape being named Hinlopen, either after a town in Friesland, or after Ilmer Hinlop. The cape now called Henlopen was then Cornelis. On the return of the fleet, Captain Hendrickson, commanding the Onrust (Restless), went to the Delaware for a more minute examination of the coast, and for information regarding the country, as well as the native trade.

This year, [1618] Lord Delaware, died off the Western Isles, or as some say, off the capes of Delaware, on a voyage from England to Virginia. There was some suspicion that he had been poisoned.2

The great West India Company was chartered this year, [1621] under whose power and government the first settlements on the Delaware were made. The charter may be seen in Hazard's Historical Collections, I. pp. 121-131, 149, 181.

Concurrent testimony, which may be seen in Hazard's Annals of Pennsylvania, fixes upon this year [1623] as the date of the first European settlement on the Delaware.

Captain Mey, (the same who is mentioned above) in virtue of an agreement made between the managers and adventurers of the West India Company, and sanctioned by the States General, was jointly with Adrian Jorisz Tienpont placed at the head of a new expedition to America and July provided with the necessaries, safely reached the Delaware on board of the ship "New Netherlands." Ascending the river about 15 leagues from its mouth, he built Fort Nassau on the Eastern Shore, at a place alled Techaacho, upon or near Sassackon, now Timber Creek, which empties into the Delaware a few miles below Coaquenaku, now Philadelphia. There are no data to determine the duration of Mey's stay, or the nature of his operations.

Peter Minnewit, a native of Wesel, on the Rhine, was appointed director of New Netherland, and leaving the Texel January 9th, 1626, landed at New Amsterdam on May 4th, of the same year. His first official act consisted in purchasing the site of modern New York, the

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ancient New Amsterdam, from the Indians for the sum of 60 Dutch guilders or 24 dollars gold, unquestionably, as Kapp observes, the best land speculation ever made in New York or in America. Minnewit, who placed the new colony on a firm foundation, and greatly promoted its growth by his judicious measures, continued in office until 1632, when he returned to Holland.

During this year the charter of the Swedish West India Company, upon the plan of the Dutch West India Company, was obtained [June 14th, 1626,] at the instance of William Usselinx, an Antwerp merchant and original projector of the latter, from Gustavus Adolphus, King of Sweden. Usselinx took this course in consequence of his disappointment in the conduct of the managers of the Dutch Company. The Charter of the Swedish Company is printed in the "Argonautica Gustaviana," (a very rare work, the only copy known to be in this country, is in the library of Harvard College) and a summary of it may be seen in Hazard's Annals of Pennsylvania, p. 16-sq.

"In 1629, the West India company granted, by charter, special privi leges to all persons who should plant any colony in New Netherlands; 2 giving to the patroon, or founder, exclusive property in large tracts of land, with extensive manorial and seigniorial rights. Thus encouraged, several of the directors, among whom Goodyn, Bloemært, Pauuw, and Van Renselær, were most distinguished, resolved to make large territorial acquisitions, and sent out Wouter Van Twiller, of Niewer Kerck, a clerk of the Amsterdam department of the company, to direct its public affairs, and to make a selection of lands for the benefit of individual directors.

"One of the three ships which came over in 1629, visited an Indian village on the south-west corner of Delaware bay, and purchased from the three chiefs of the resident tribe, in behalf of the Heer Godyn, a tract of land, extending from Cape Hinloop to the mouth of the river, being in length thirty-two, and in breadth two, English miles. In the succeeding year, several extensive purchases were made, for Godyn and Bloemært, from nine Indian chiefs, of land at Cape May, in length sixteen miles along the bay and sixteen miles in breadth; for the director Pauuw, Staten Island and a large tract on the western side of the Hudson, in the neighborhood of Hoboken; and for Van Renselær, very extensive tracts along the river, above and below Fort Orange. The impolicy of these large and exclusive appropriations was subsequently felt and condemned, and their ratification seems to have been obtained by admitting other directors to participate in them. The territory of Godyn was denominated Swanwendel (Valley of Swans), that of Pauuw, Pavonia, and that of Van Renselær, Renselærwick.

1 Geschichte der deutschen Einwanderung, etc.

3 Gordon.

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