1G48.] niSTORY OF Delaware county. 49 



intention to buil<l on that spot which they had granted him." 

 Upon this representation, the sachems sent a message to the 

 Swedes '■'ivho lived there alreadi/, and commanded them to depart 

 from thence, insinuating that thej had taken possession of that 

 sjiot in a clandestine way, and against their will and that they 

 had made a cession, for the present to Iludde ; that he too 

 should build there ; on which two of the principal sachems, as 

 Maarte Iluock and Wissementes, planted there with their own 

 haiuls the colors of the prince of Orange, and ordered that I 

 should fire a gun three times, as a mark that I had taken 

 ])ossession."' 



After this ceremony and waste of powder, the house was raised 

 iu the presence of the chiefs, but towards evening the Swedish 

 Commissary, Iluygens, with seven or eight men arrived there, to 

 question Hudde, '' by whose permission or order he had raised 

 that house." Iludde replied, "by order of his masters, and with 

 the previous consent of the savages." The Swede demanded 

 documentary evidence that he was acting by authority of his 

 masters, "and not on letters of some freemen." This Hudde 

 agreed to produce, after Huygens had delivered to him the like 

 authority for making such a demand. 



The sachems now interceded, and delivered a rather sharp 

 reprimand to Ilendrick Huygens and his company. They in- 

 formed them that they should grant the Dutch " that tract of 

 land, and that they would Settle there;" and asked, "by whose 

 orders they, (the Swedes,) did erect buildings there ? If it was 

 not enough that they were already in possession of Matennckonk, 

 the Schuylkill, Kinsessing, Kakanken, Upland, and other places 

 possessed by the Swedes, all of which they had stolen from them ? 

 that Meunewit, now about eleven years past, had no more than 

 six small tracts of land, upon Paghaghacking, purchased to plant 

 there some tobacco, of which the natives, in gratitude, should 



enjoy the half of the produce ; that they, (the Swedes,) 



arrived only lately on the river, and had taken already so much 

 land from them, which they actually settled, while they, [the 

 Dutch] pointing to them, never had taken from them any land, 

 although they had dwelt here and conversed with them more than 

 thirty years."- Hudde continued the work — "surrounding the 

 house with palisades because the Swedes had destroyed before, 

 the house, which the company possessed on the Schuylkill, and 

 built a fort in its place, and they might do the same here." 

 "While we were thus at work, continues Hu<lde, "arrives Maens 

 Klingo, Lieutenant at the fort on the Schuylkill, with twenty- 

 four men fully armed, with charged muskets, and bearing maces, 

 marching in ranks. He asked if we intendeil to finish thatAVork, 



> Iliukle-:- Report, 438. 2 ib. 439. 



4 



