1647.] HISTORY OF DELAWARE COUNTY. 45 



much to say, and that he stood alone and talked so long, while 

 all the rest were listening in silence. This excited in them 

 strange suspicions; they thought everything was not right, and 

 that some conspiracy was going forward amongst us ; in conse- 

 quence of which, my grandfather's life, and that of the other 

 priests, were for some time, in considerahle danger from the 

 Indians, who daily came to him and asked him many questions." 



Campanius availed himself of these opportunities to make his 

 savage visitors understand there was one self-existing God ; to 

 acquaint them with the doctrine of the Trinity ; the creation of 

 the world and of man ; original sin ; together with the doctrines 

 and miracles of Christianity generally. If we are to credit his 

 grandson, whose statements are not the most reliable, he was so 

 successful in his instructions " that many of those barbarians 

 were converted to the Christian faith, or at least acquired so 

 much knowledge of it, that they were ready to exclaim, as Cap- 

 tain John Smith relates of the Virginia Indians, that so far as 

 the cannons and guns of the Christians exceeded the bows and 

 arrows of the Indians in shooting, so far was their God superior 

 to that of the Indians."' 



Governor Kieft having been recalled, the administration of 

 affairs upon Dutch account on our river, passed into the hands 

 of Peter Stuyvesant, his successor, a man of great energy, intel- 

 ligence and bravery, but possessed of a will characteristic of his 

 countrymen. His administration commenced on the 27th of 

 May, 1647, and continued till 1664, when the American inter- 

 ests of the Dutch passed into the hands of the English. 



The bickerings between the Swedes and Dutch were continued, 

 and during the early part of the administration of the new direc- 

 tor general, the latter, in their claims for redress were not more 

 successful than they had been under his less worthy predecessor. 

 The reason is obvious, as according to the most reliable authority 

 on the subject, the whole population of New Netherland at the 

 close of Kieft's administration did not exceed a thousand souls. ^ 

 Besides their weakness, the Dutch authorities may find an addi- 

 tional excuse for the neglect of their interests on the Delaware, 

 in the fact, that the whole energies of the government were, at 

 this time, required to resist the constant encroachments of the 

 New Englanders on their territory. 



If the evidence of Commissary Hudde is to be relied upon, the 

 annoyances practised by the Swedes towards the Dutch were un- 

 ceasing and unendurable. In the absence of Swedish authority 

 on the subject, without questioning the general truthfulness of 

 the Commissary's statements, it would be unjust to give too 



' Campanius, 75, 76. 



•^ Hist. New Netherland, i. 386. 



