File:History of the United States from the discovery of the American continent (1858) (14799812733).jpg

Identifier: historyofunited12banc (find matches)
Title: History of the United States from the discovery of the American continent ..
Year: 1858 (1850s)
Authors: Bancroft, George, 1800-1891
Subjects: United States -- History Colonial influence United States -- History Revolution, 1775-1783
Publisher: Boston, Little, Brown and Co.
Contributing Library: New York Public Library
Digitizing Sponsor: MSN

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o dispossess the Swedes.^ With the Swedes, therefore, powerful competitorsfor the tobacco of Virginia and the beaver of theSchuylkill, the Dutch were to contend for the banksof the Delaware. In the vicinity of the river, theSwedish company was more powerful than its rival;but the whole province of New Netherlands was ten-fold more populous than New Sweden. From motives1651. of commercial security, the Dutch built Fort Casimir,on the site of Newcastle, within five miles of Chris-tiana, near the mouth of the Brandywine. To theSwedes this seemed an encroachment; jealousies en-1654. sued; and at last, aided by stratagem and immediatesuperiority in numbers, Rising, the Swedish governor,overpowered the garrison. The aggression was fatalto the only colony which Sweden had planted. The1655. metropolis was exhausted by a long succession of wars ; 1 B. Plantagenets Description of phia. Hazard, i. IGO, &c. Win-New Albion, 1648, in tiie library throp, ii. 325.of the Library Company, Philadel-
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CONQUEST OF NEW SWEDEN 297 the statesmen and soldiers whom Gustavus had edu- chapcated, had passed from the public service; Oxcnstiern, -^v^after adorning retirement by the sublime pursuits ofphilosophy, was no more ; a youthful and licentiousqueen, greedy of literary distinction, and without capa-city for government, had impaired the strength of thekingdom by nursing contending factions, and thencapriciously abdicating the throne. Sweden had ceasedto awaken fear or inspire respect; and the Dutchcompany fearlessly commanded Stuyvesant to revenge 1654their wrong, to drive the Swedes from the river, or le.compel their submission. The order was renewed ;and in September, 1655, the Dutch governor, collecting 1655a force of more than six hundred men, sailed mto theDelaware with the purpose of conquest. Resistance hadbeen unavailing. One fort after another surrendered:to Rising honorable terms were conceded ; the colonists Sept . 25. were promised the quiet possession of their estates;and,

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