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By Frank R. Stockton
Originally published in 1896
AFTER the importance of the discovery of North
America came to be properly appreciated by
the nations of Europe, the ownership was looked
upon as a great national prize, and there were several
nations who were anxious to play for it. This
country, so readily approached by the Delaware, became
attractive not only to kings and sovereigns, but
to settlers and immigrants. Gustavus Adolphus of
Sweden granted a charter to a company called the
West India Company, which was formed for the purpose of making settlements on the shores of the
Delaware Bay and River, and commissioned them to
take possession of this country, without the slightest
regard to what the English sovereign and the Dutch
sovereign had granted to their subjects.
The Swedes came to Delaware Bay. They stopped
for a while at Cape Henlopen; and then, of course,
they sailed up the Delaware, when things soon began
to be very disagreeable between themselves and the
Dutch, who were there before them.
The Swedes were a warlike set of people, and they
held their ground very well. Besides making some
settlements, they built a fort which they called Elsinburgh; and, if a Dutch ship happened to pass by
mat fort, it was obliged to strike its flag in token of
mission to a superior power. The Indians, who
were perhaps as much opposed to the Swedish settlement
as they had been to those
of other nations, no not
appear to have been able
to attack this fort with
any success; and as
for the Dutch, it is
not certain that they
even attempted it. So
the Swedes at that
time governed the
passage tip and down
the Delaware, as the
English now govern
the passage through
the Straits of Gibraltar.
It was probably winter
time or cool weather
when the Swedes built
their proud fort on the banks
of that river which they now
named "New Swedeland Stream;"
but when the warm and pleasant days came on, and it
was easy to travel from the interior to the river shore,
and when the weather was so mild that it was quite
possible to spend the nights in the woods without injury,
there came an enemy to Fort Elsinburgh which proved The fort was surrounded; and frequent and violent
attacks were made upon it, especially in the night,
when it was almost impossible for the garrison to defend
themselves. Many bloody single combats took
place in which the enemy generally fell, for in bodily
prowess a Swede was always superior to any one of
the attacking force. But no matter how many assailants
were killed, the main body seemed as powerful
and determined as ever. In course of time the
valiant Swedes were obliged to give way before their
enemy. They struck their flag, evacuated the fort,
and departed entirely from the place where they had
hoped a flourishing settlement would spring up under
the protection of their fort.
The enemy which attacked and routed the Swedes
was a large and invincible army of mosquitoes, against
whom their guns, their pistols, their swords, their spears,
and their ramparts afforded them no defense.
After that, the deserted fort was known as
Mygenborg, meaning Mosquito Fort.
on the Swedes, who continued to establish
themselves at various points; and
did not make an alliance
The Dutch looked with great disfavorwith the body of natives
who had driven these northern
people away from Elsinburgh, –
for a compact of that
kind would be dangerous in many
ways, – they took up the matter by
themselves; and finally the Dutch, under their valiant Peter Stuyvesant, completely conquered
the Swedes, and sent their leaders to Holland,
while the ordinary settlers submitted to the Dutch.
This Web version, edited by GET NJ, COPYRIGHT 2003
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