to their subjects.

The Swedes came to Delaware Bay. They stopped for a while at Cape
Henlopen; and then, of course, they sailed up the Delaware, when things
soon began to be very disagreeable between themselves and the Dutch, who
were there before them.

The Swedes were a warlike set of people, and they held their ground very
well. Besides making some settlements, they built a fort which they
called Elsinburgh; and, if a Dutch ship happened to pass by that fort,
it was obliged to strike its flag in token of submission to a superior
power. The Indians, who were perhaps as much opposed to the Swedish
settlement as they had been to those of other nations, do not appear to
have been able to attack this fort with any success; and as for the
Dutch, it is not certain that they even attempted it. So the Swedes at
that time governed the passage up and down the Delaware, as the English
now govern the passage through the Straits of Gibraltar.

It was probably winter time or cool weather when the Swedes built their
proud fort on the banks of that river which they now named "New
Swedeland Stream;" but when the warm and pleasant days came on, and it
was easy to travel from the interior to the river shore, and when the
weather was so mild that it was quite possible to spend the nights in
the woods without injury, there came an enemy to Fort Elsinburgh which
proved far more formidable than the Indians or Dutch.

The fort was surrounded; and frequent and violent attacks were made upon
it, especially in the night, when it was almost impossible for the
garrison to defend themselves. Many bloody single combats took place in
which the enemy generally fell, for in bodily prowess a Swede was always
superior to any one of the attacking force. But no matter how many
assailants were killed, the main body seemed as powerful and determined
as ever. In course of time the valiant Swedes were obliged to give way
before their enemy. They struck their flag, evacuated the fort, and
departed entirely from the place where they had hoped a flourishing
settlement would spring up under the protection of their fort.

The enemy which attacked and routed the Swedes was a large and
invincible army of mosquitoes, against whom their guns, their pistols,
their swords, their spears, and their ramparts afforded them no defense.
After that, the deserted fort was known as Mygenborg, meaning Mosquito
Fort.

The Dutch looked with great disfavor on the Swedes, who