68 HISTORY OF DELAWARE COUNTY. [1656. 



Campanius says " the Dutch proceeded to destroy New Got- 

 tenburg, laying waste all the houses and plantations without the 

 fort, killing the cattle and plundering the inhabitants of every- 

 thing that they could lay their hands on." A late writer^ con- 

 cludes that "this is unquestionably erroneous," and assigns two 

 reasons for his opinion. First, " the Dutch had no motive for 

 such destructive cruelty, the country being now theirs by a 

 formal surrender and they were bound by their treaty at Chris- 

 tina," &c. Second, "that the church at Tinicum was standing 

 twelve years afterwards, and Printz Hall at the commencement 

 of the present century." But the writer has failed to observe, 

 that the depredations were committed during the siege of Fort 

 Christina, and not after its surrender and the conclusion of the 

 treaty ; and that a fair construction of the language of Campa- 

 nius will not warrant the inference that any building, except the 

 fort, was actually destroyed. 



The Dutch were not, however, permitted to practice these 

 cruelties towards the Swedes with impunity. Even before the 

 return of the fleet to New Amsterdam, to use the language of 

 Governor Stuyvesant, "it pleased God to temper this our victory 

 with such an unfortunate and unexpected accident, as New 

 Netherland never witnessed, inasmuch as in less than three days, 

 over forty of our nation were massacred by the barbarous 

 natives ; about one hundred, mostly women and children, taken 

 prisoners ; boweries and some plantations burnt and laid in 

 ashes, and in and with them over 12,000 schepels of grain yet 

 un thrashed."^ With one half of the force taken to the Delaware, 

 the conquest of the Swedes would have been equally certain, and 

 far more creditable to the conquerors, while the other half could 

 have guarded their own people against such a dreadful calamity. 



By the terms of capitulation^ of Fort Christina, all the Swedes 

 and Finns who desired to remain in the country, were obliged to 

 take an oath of allegiance to the States General of the United 

 Netherlands — even those who intended to leave, but who were 

 obliged to remain for a time to dispose of their lands and settle 

 up their business, (for which one year and six weeks were allow- 

 ed,) were not exempted from taking the oath, to be binding so 

 long as they remained. 



Thus ended Swedish sovereignty on the continent of America. 

 Deriving its only title from the savages, which is not recognized 

 by the law of nations, no very protracted endurance could have 

 been anticipated for the colony as a dependency of Sweden ; but 



' Ferris' Original Settlements on the Delaware, 97. 



■i N. Y. Col. Doc. i. 639. 



3 For this paper, see Col. Doc. i. 607, Acrelius 415 and Ilaz. Ann. 187, in which work 

 sub. an. 1655, all the important papers connected with the capture of'the Swedish forts 

 will be found. 



