Delaware gazette and state journal. (Wilmington, Del.) 1883-1902, 1894-09-13
EBBd BORJEsON.
a Book of General Interest to All and
of Especial Interest to Descendants of
the Early Swedish Settlers.

of Especial Interest to Descendants of
the Early swedish Settlers.
Those Wilmingtonians who have not
yet read "Ebba Borieson" are missing a
rich historical treat, especially those
Wilmingtonian whose ancestors were
the early Swedish settlers of the little
Chrlstinehamn and its surrounding
lands.
The lives and homes of those settlers
are drawn with loving accuracy by the
author, who has devoted years Of labor
and research TO the work, studying
records, identifying places and persons,
and collecting vast amount of histori-
cal material in order, finally, to recon-
struct the whole as faithful picture of
the time, in scenery, habits and people.
The patient, somewhat slow, but
always freedom-loving and freedom
giving Swede is here shown in his family,
ON his farm, at his nut.gathering and
fruit-preserving in his church-going by
boat and marsh path to Crane-hook on
the Delaware, and in his mill-going to
Upland in his light skiff with corn and
wheat to be ground in the new mill
1.-THE walls of which still stand)--that
mill fated to be SO often swept away by
floods, but as often rebuilt by the en-
ergetic and hopeful company of which
William Penn and Caleb Pusey were
the head.
William Penn, the new English gov
ernor who succeeds the Duke of York
as proprietor of "the three lower coun-
ties on the Delaware" appears before
us as he was, a handsome, learned man,
of serene dignity, young, and with all
the polish Of the court and the univer-
sity.
Caleb Pusey, the relative of the
numerous families of that name in this
region, is shown in his own character OF
astute business man, thoughtful, far.
seeing, kindly and generous.
Charles Springer, the active secretary
of the colony, and one of the best edu-
Gated men among the early settlers
appears in the gulse of the hero Of the
story, "Nalvor Mondahl."
John Moll and Ephraim Herman, the
| commissioners of the Duke of York
who make the transfer of the colony t
William Penn, are real names which
appear in the records of the time u
| New Castle.
Tamanend, the Indian chief, is full o
the wise simplicity of his race, before i
had been taught by experience to dis
trust the white man.
The scenery is most carefully anC
appreciatively reproduced. There W
have the low-lying river-bank, and tn
bold promontory called 1.-THE Rocks,
which the Swedes found to be the onl,
available landing place on the Chris
tiana, whose tide-coVered marshe
stretching to the river, made with it
wide bay of several miles in exten
from the foot of the thicklywoodc
hills on the west across to the Jerse
shore. ... ..
There is the "fast land" mile or tw
down the Delaware, where Crane-hoc
Church was erected to accommodate th
scattered settlers who came by wateI
ways for miles to attend the Luthera
service, and to exchange the gossip {
the different settlements and Cherr
Island, then the only spot of the exter
sive marshes sufficiently elevated 10
out of the water at high tide, while
half mile away is the crumbling ol
Fort Christiana, surrounded by walnt
trees, and the scene of tho bloodle!
conquest by the Dutch in 1865, whic
is most amusingly described by "Unc
Gabe"-one of these same Dutch col
querors who liked the place and Il
people, and who had remained to mal
Coopers, (afterward Cherry Islandl h
home, and to found there the shil
building on the Delaware--the first {
that industry which has now become :
famous.
! ToQuakers also,as well as to Swedes,
"Ebba Borjeson" of especial interest,
an exposition of Friends principle
. and the clearest elucidation of what
often thought to be their rather dim al
! evasive doctrine. As an eXpounder
I the faith Caleb Pusey deserves to raj
with Barclay and Fox, while his Ii
: and character, as that of Gabriel al
, other personages in the book, are Il
best defence and dclineation of Il
beauty and truth of the principles
+: promulgates.