1G48.] HISTORY OF DELAWARE COUNTY. 63 



sachems who confirmed '' the Schuylkill and adjoining lands" to 

 the honorable committee, participated, when asked whether 

 •' they were chiefs and proprietors of the lands situate on the 

 west side of this river, at present partly incorporated and settled 

 by the Swede?" replied that they "were great chiefs and pro- 

 prietors of the lands, both by ownership and descent, and hj 

 appointment of 3Iin(/uas and river Indians.''^ 



The Schuylkill river was not the highway by which the 

 Miiujuas reached the trading mart near its mouth, or at Kin- 

 sesni/h/, as might be inferred from the language of some writers. 

 Their route passed diagonally over the whole extent of Delaware 

 county, entering Philadeli)hia at the head of tide water on Cobb's 

 creek near the site of the Swede's mill; doubtless a branch of the 

 usually travelled path to their more southern trading post at 

 Fort Christina. - 



The land assigned to the freemen, who accompanied Hudde on 

 his return, was located on the Schuylkill, at a place then known 

 as "Mast-makers Corner," "Point," or "Hook." In their 

 efforts to occupy and build on these lands, they met with the 

 same determined opposition from the Swedes, that others had 

 experienced. The officers to whom this work of demolition was 

 assigned, did not hesitate to avow, that they were acting under 

 the special instructions of Governor Printz. The exact position 

 of Mast-makers Corner is not known. It was on the east side 

 of the Schuylkill, and probably but a very short distance from 

 the Dutch Fort Beversreede. An account of these harsh pro- 

 ceedings on the part of the Swedes, forwarded to Fort Amster- 

 dam by Hudde on the 7th of November, closes the often cited 

 report of that vigilant functionary.^ 



Two days later, Adrian Van Tiedhoven, " Clerk of the court 

 on the South river," also reported sundry of the Swedish out- 

 rages above noted, but he arrives at the conclusion that these 

 cannot cause much injury to the Dutch trade with the Indians. 

 He, however, regards commerce here, as "nearly spoiled," as he 

 says, "we are compelled to give two fathoms white, and one of 

 black Seawant* for one beaver ; one fathom of cloth for two 

 beavers ; every fathom of Seawant amounts to three ells, some- 

 times one-sixteenth less, so that in my opinion, this barter is too 

 much against us, as the Indians always take the largest and tall- 

 est ainonj them to trade with us.^'^ 



> X. Y. Col. Doc. i. 597. 



-' St-e map "f Early Settlements, and also plot of the survey for an Indion walk in 

 thisi volume. 



' Hudde's Rep. 442. "in X. Y. Hist. Col. N. S. For correction of date, see O'Callag- 

 han's Hist. New Netherlands, ii. S3, (note.) .\n application for damages to the Dutch 

 government, places the Mast-maker Hook affair in 1649, see N. Y. Col. Doc. i. 594. 



* The Dutch name f<ir Wampum. 



^ Haz. .\nn. 108 ; Hist. New Netherlands, ii. S3. The ells mentioned were probably 

 Flemish ells. It might be inferred that the height of an Indian was taken for a fathom. 



