Governor Printz was now in a position to put the government upon a safe footing to maintain the rights of the Swedes, and to put down the attempts of the Hollanders.  They had lately, before his arrival, patched their little Fort Nassau.  On this account he selected the island of Tenaekong as his residence, which is sometimes also called Tutaeaenung and Tenicko, about three Swedish miles from Fort Christina.  The convenient situation of the place suggested its selection as also the location of Fort Nassau,[7] which lay some miles over against it, to which he could thus command the passage by water.  The new fort, which was erected and provided with considerable armament, was called New Goetheborg.  His place of residence, which he adorned with orchards, gardens, a pleasure-house, etc., he named Printz Hall.  A handsome wooden church was also built at the same place, which Magister Campanius consecrated, on the last great prayer-day which was celebrated in New Sweden, on the 4th of September, 1646.  Upon that place also all the most prominent freemen had their residences and plantations.

[1] From Acrelius’s “History of New Sweden.”  Printed in “Old South Leaflets.”  Acrelius from 1749 until 1756 was provost over Swedish Congregations in America and pastor of their church at Christina, now Wilmington, on the Delaware.  His complete work is an exhaustive one, and covers not only the early but the later years of Swedish history on the Delaware.  It has long been esteemed the best work we have on the subject.

    [2] Usselinx had proposed the formation of a company to trade in
    foreign countries, including America, as early as 1604.

    [3] Peter Minuit, the Governor of New Amsterdam, who purchased
    Manhattan Island from the Indians for goods worth $24, is here
    referred to.

    [4] Paradise Point was near the present town of Lewes, in the State
    of Delaware.  The site is near where the Bay merges in the ocean.

[5] This name has been corrupted Into Henlopen.  The cape was named by Captain Cornelius May after a towu in Friesland.  May’s name was given to the southern point of New Jersey now known as Cape May.  He visited Delaware Bay in or about 1614.

[6] Ft.  Christina was within the limits of the present city of Wilmington.  The ancient Swedish church, built in 1698 and still standing in Wilmington, marks the site of this, the original settlement of Swedes in Delaware.

    [7] Fort Nassau was on Delaware Bay at the mouth of Timber Creek,
    below Gloucester Point, in New Jersey.

THE BEGINNINGS OF THE MASSACHUSETTS BAY COLONY

(1627-1631)

BY GOVERNOR THOMAS DUDLEY[1]