OF LANCASTER COUNTY. 29 



is sino-ular and curious that it sliould 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 

 name to this river. The bay has also been known as New Port May 

 and Godyn's Bay.^ 



Captain Cornelis Jacobsen Mey, [101-i] 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, com- 

 manding 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 oft^ the Western Isles, or as 

 some say, off the capes of Delaware, on a voyage from England to Vir- 

 ginia. There was some suspicion that he had been poisoned.^ 



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 Penn- 

 sylvania, 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 agree- 

 ment 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 

 duly provided Avith 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 

 called Techaacho, upon or near Sassackon, now Timber Creek, which emp- 

 ties 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 di- 

 rector 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 

 1 Gordon. ITa-zard. 2 Hazard. 



