SWEDES AT CHRISTINA

DELAWARE HISTORIC SPOTS

SEWELL P. MOORE

WILMINGTON NEWS JOURNAL

MONDAY OCTOBER 13 1930

SWEDES AT CHRISTINA

Had it not been for some internal trouble in the Dutch West India Company the Swedes

would not have had a part in the settlement of Delaware. There were misunderstandings between

the men who controlled the money and the men who set the policies of the Dutch Company.

In 1624, William Usselinx of Antwerp who had been a director in the New Amsterdam

enterprize left Holland and wemt to Sweden with hopes to interest King Gustavus Adolphus in

a claim to land on the western bank of the Delaware River. Usselinx descriptions of the richness

and possibilities of the new world were so convincing the King granted a charter that same year, however, no action was taken for another charter was granted in the year 1626.

This new company was the Swedish South Sea Company which proposed to tke up lands

in America and other parts of the world.

An expedition set sail for America in 1626 but was captured by the Spanish. If this expedition

had reached the Delaware river, the Swedes would have taken the peninsula and a different history

of Delaware would have been written. Nothing came of the Swedish company and the 1631 voyage was the first to reach Delaware shores.

The year the Dutch, upon returning to the Lewes settlement and found it in ashes, the king

Adolphus was killed in battle between Sweden and Germany and there was no Swedish patron nor

capital for any explorations and the South Seas Company was disbanded without taking an acre of

new world land.

The Swedish King, needing to give his full attention to matters at home, was still interesed

in an American Swedish colony had early on urged the project to be continued. At his death, an

infant daughter, Christina, ascended to the throne, and, Axel Oxenstierna, became Chancellor,

the ruler of Sweden. One of the chancellor's first acts was to send Peter Spiring to Holland seeking

a man willing and capable of undertaking the colonaziation of America.

1636 , in May, Spiring reported that Peter Minuet was the ideal leader, since he had been

governor of Dutch New Ansterdam, dismissed to return to Holland and was anxious to undertake

any expedition in competition to the Dutch Company. Minuet organized the Swedish-Dutch

Company with money from both Swedish and Dutch Banks which established fur trade post in any

part of the New World not already occupied by English or Dutch, caled the land Nova Swedia on

the west bank of Delaware before the dutch could send another lot of immigants to settle it.

In 1737 Minuet went to Sweden to take active charge of preparations and the little band of colonists set sail in 1638. There were 50 imigrants, with cattle, sheep, and other animals, trading materials, food, seeds, and ammunitions. In March, 1638, they arrived at Cape Henlopen and

renamed the river “New Swedens River”.

The first landing place was on a point which they named ' Paradys Udden' meaning

Paradise Point located land just south of Muderkill Creek, originally “ Morders Kylen” .

They decided not to stay here and sailed up the bay to Minquas Creek and changed the Indian name

to “Christina” in honor of their infant Queen. Entering the creek they sailed up two miles above

the Brandywine to land at the “Rocks” being still March.

All of this land was claimed by the Indian Chief Mattahoon which was bought from the chief

as much as lay between six trees marked a good distance apart. At the rocks was built a square fort

of logs and called “Fort Christina”. Emigrant cabins were built and the settlement was called New Sweden. This settlement was protested by the Dutch, however, no serious trouble happpened

until many years afterwards.