|
By the middle of the 17th century, the Realm of Sweden had reached
its greatest territorial extent and was one of the great powers of
Europe. Sweden then included Finland and Estonia along with parts of
modern Russia, Poland, Germany and Latvia. The Swedes sought to
expand their influence by creating an agricultural (tobacco) and
fur-trading colony to bypass French and British merchants. The New
Sweden Company was chartered and included Swedish, Dutch and German
stockholders. The first Swedish expedition to North America embarked
from the port of Gothenburg in late 1637. It was organized and
overseen by Clas Fleming, a Swedish Admiral from Finland. A
Dutchman, Samuel Blommaert, assisted the fitting-out and appointed
Peter Minuit to lead the expedition. The members of the expedition,
aboard the ships Fogel Grip and Kalmar Nyckel, sailed into Delaware
Bay, which lay within the territory claimed by the Dutch, passing
Cape May and Cape Henlopen in late March 1638, and anchored at a
rocky point on the Minquas Kill that is known today as Swedes'
Landing on March 29, 1638. They built a fort on the present site of
the city of Wilmington, which they named Fort Christina, after Queen
Christina of Sweden. In the following years, 600 Swedes and Finns,
the latter group mainly Forest Finns from central Sweden (and also a
number of Dutchmen and Germans in Swedish service) settled in the
area. The settlement constituted an invasion of New Netherland,
since the river and the land in question had previously been
explored and claimed for that colony.
Peter Minuit was to become the first governor of the newly
established colony of New Sweden. Having been the Director of the
Dutch West India Company, and the predecessor of then-Director
William Kieft, Minuit knew the status of the lands on either side of
the Delaware River at that time. He knew that the Dutch had
established deeds for the lands east of the river (New Jersey), but
not for the lands to the west (Maryland, Delaware, and
Pennsylvania). Minuit made good on his appointment by landing on the
west bank of the river and gathered the sachems of the local
Delawares tribe. Sachems of the Susquehannocks were also present.
They held a conclave in his cabin on the Kalmar Nyckel, and
persuaded the sachems to sign some deeds he had prepared for the
purpose to solve any issue with the Dutch. This deed has not
survived. The Swedes said the segment of land purchased included the
land on the west side of the South River from just below the
Schuylkill; in other words, today's Philadelphia, Pennsylvania,
southeast Pennsylvania, Delaware, and Maryland. The Delaware sachem
Mattahorn, who was one of the participants in the transaction,
stated that only as much land as was contained within "six trees"
was purchased and the rest of the land occupied by the Swedes was
stolen.Director Kieft objected to the landing of the Swedes, but
Minuit ignored his missive because he knew that the Dutch were
militarily impotent at the moment. Minuit finished Fort Christina
during 1638, then departed to return to Stockholm for a second load,
and made a side trip to the Caribbean to pick up a shipment of
tobacco for resale in Europe to make the voyage profitable. Minuit
died while on this voyage during a hurricane at St. Christopher in
the Caribbean. The official duties of the first governor of New
Sweden were carried out by Lieutenant (then raised to the rank of
Captain) Måns Nilsson Kling, until the next governor was chosen and
brought in from the mainland Sweden, two years later. |
.jpg)