THE SWEDES, GOVERNOR PRINTZ AND THE 

 BEGINNING OF PENNSYLVANIA. 



By THOMAS WILLING BALCH. 

 (Read March 5, 191 5-) 



Of the original thirteen States, those south of the Middle States 

 as well as those known under the collective name of New England, 

 were settled by men and women of English race. New York, New 

 Jersey and Delaware were first settled by Hollanders. The whole 

 area of the Dutch settlements was known as New Netherland, and 

 the chief city of the Hollanders in the new world was called Am- 

 sterdam in New Netherland, though historians afterwards thought 

 fit to change the name into New Amsterdam,^ doubtless because 

 the English had renamed the town New York. The settlements in 

 the valley of the Hudson and in what is now New Jersey passed 

 by conquest into the hands of the English. The Dutch settlement 

 in Delaware was destroyed after six months by the Indians. Sub- 

 sequently, the Swedes took over the inchoate title of the Dutch to 

 present-day Delaware. The Swedes later lost Delaware to the 

 Dutch by conquest, who in their turn were afterwards conquered 

 by the English. 



No European Power, however, occupied and took possession of 

 what today constitutes the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, until 

 Lieutenant-Colonel John Printz, .who was the fourth Governor of 

 New Sweden, moved up from Delaware to Great Tinicum Island 

 and there established, in 1643, his seat of government, the first 

 capital placed in the territory of the present State of Pennsylvania. 

 He thereby became the first governor of the territory now known 

 as Pennsylvania. 



That Sweden was the first European nation to possess itself of 

 what is present-day Pennsylvania was supported by the International 



1 1 have to thank Mr. Robert H. Kelby, the learned librarian of the New 

 York Historical Society, for this information. 



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