42 HISTORY OF DELAWARE COUNTY. [1646. 



and in the meantime he received instructions to inquire about 

 certain minerals in the country ; in pursuance of which he visited 

 Sankika77s which was the Indian name for the Falls of the 

 Delaware at Trenton, but he was arrested in his upward progress 

 by an Indian sachem, who confided in the truth of a story 

 alleged to have been gotten up by Governor Printz, that the 

 Dutch " had an intention to build a house near the Great Falls, 

 and that in the vessels which were expected — 250 men would arrive 

 — which would be sent hither from the Manhattans, and would 

 kill all the savages below on the river, &c !"^ It was manifestly 

 the interest of the Dutch at this time, to have an establishment 

 higher up the river in order to secure its trade, and it is much 

 more reasonable to believe that something of the kind was con- 

 templated by them, than that the whole story was the malicious 

 invention of the Swedish governor. 



Under instructions received on the 7th of September of this 

 year, " to purchase some land from the savages, which was situ- 

 ated on the west shore about a mile (Dutch,) distant from Fort 

 Nassau on the north," we find the vigilant commissary busily 

 engaged on the very next day, in taking possession of the covet- 

 ed spot, by erecting the company's arms upon it. This Christian 

 method of acquiring title to Indian lands, by taking possession 

 in advance of the purchase, is to be excused in the present in- 

 stance on account of the proprieto?' not being " «i home." On 

 the 25th of the same month, however, the purchase was com- 

 pleted, in evidence of which the original proprietor aided in 

 placing the arms of the company on a pole, which was fixed in 

 the ground on the limits.^ This purchase included a portion of 

 the grounds now occupied by the city of Philadelphia, as it also 

 certainly did some of the lands that had been purchased by the 

 Swedes upon their first arrival in the country, and of course this 

 transaction became a bone of contention between the two govern- 

 ments. The planting of a Dutch settlement on the western 

 shore of the Delaware was now the policy of the authorities at 

 Manhattan.^ Upon certain Dutch freemen making preparations 

 to build on their newly acquired possessions, the Swedish com- 

 missary Henry Huygen, removed the emblem of Dutch sove- 

 reignty, that had been set up by Hudde with the assent of his 

 savage grantor, using at the same time the very insulting re- 



1 Hudde's Rep. 432. 2 lb. 433. 



' As a further evidence of the disposition of the Dutch to gain a footing on the west 

 shore of the Delaware, their governor (Kieft) about this time granted to four freemen 

 100 Morgens of land, " lying almost over against the little island called Vogelsant, 

 (Singing bird) now Egg island, in the state of Delaware, on the condition that they 

 would improve it, and bear allegiance to their high Mightinesses, Ac. See Ilaz. Reg. 

 iv. 119; Hist. N. Nctherland i. 373; "York Book" Rec. deeds office, Dover, where 

 the name of the island is translated " nird land ;" Acrelius says the grantees never 

 came there. N. Y. Hist. Col. N. S. i. 417. 



