onsidering an opportunity
then offered to him, caused a fort to be built at this place, called
Elsenborch,(2) and manifests there great boldness towards every one,
even as respects the Company's boats or all which go up the South River.
They must strike the flag before this fort, none excepted; and two men
are sent on board to ascertain from whence the yachts or ships come. It
is not much better than exercising the right of search. It will, to all
appearance, come to this in the end. What authority these people can
have to do this, we know not; nor can we comprehend how officers of
other potentates, (at least as they say they are, yet what commission
they have we do not yet know,) can make themselves master of, and assume
authority over, lands and goods belonging to and possessed by other
people, and sealed with their blood, even without considering the
Charter. The Minquas-kil(3) is the first upon the river, and there the
Swedes have built Fort Christina. This place is well situated, as large
ships can lie close against the shore to load and unload. There is,
among others, a place on the river, (called Schuylkil, a convenient and
navigable stream,) heretofore possessed by the Netherlanders, but how
is it now? The Swedes have it almost entirely under their dominion. Then
there are in the river several beautiful large islands, and other places
which were formerly possessed by the Netherlanders, and which still bear
the names given by them. Various other facts also constitute sufficient
and abundant proof that the river belongs to the Netherlanders, and not
to the Swedes. Their very beginnings are convincing, for eleven years
ago, in the year 1638, one Minne-wits,(4) who before that time had had
the direction at the Manathans, on behalf of the West India Company,
arrived in the river with the ship Kalmer-Sleutel [Key of Calmar], and
the yacht Vogel-Gryp [Griffin], giving out to the Netherlanders who
lived up the river, under the Company and Heer vander Nederhorst, that
he was on a voyage to the West Indies, and that passing by there, he
wished to arrange some matters and to furnish the ship with water and
wood, and would then leave. Some time afterwards, some of our people
going again, found the Swedes still there but then they had already made
a small garden for raising salads, pot-herbs and the like. They wondered
at this, and inquired of the Swedes what is meant, and whether they
intended to stay there. They excused them