Gloucester County Democrat. (Woodbury, N.J.) 1878-1932, 1904-04-28


new elimes. They came mot many Of
them, as we have said at various times,
beginning with the year 1888. Itappears
that the Swedish Ambassador to England,
John Oxenstiern had obtained from King
Charles I, a cession OF the territory the
Swedes desired to colonize, so that they
might have a full legal title. This first
expedition which came over in two vessels,
'The Key Of Calmar" and the Bird
Grihin,'' landed in the neighborhood OF
what is now the town of Lewes. They had
an ample supply Of provisions, ammuni-
tion and merchandise suitable for trading
with the Indians We have glimpse OF
the WEAKNESS of these people on this long
voyage in the fact that they named the
place where they landed Paradise Point T"
Our Pennsylvania neighbors are justly
proud Of the fair treatment accorded to the
natives by Penn The records of our deal
ings, as a nation, with the Indians, is not
on the whole creditable one, and it is
therefore the more pleasing to think of
those who dealt justly, and the Friends OF
Pennsylvania were not alone in this, for
this first Swedish colony Immediately on
landing made purchase Of lands from the
Indians And Acrelius says ''it was deter
mined that all the land on the Western
side Of the river from the point called Him
lopen up to the fall called Santickan (Tren-
toni and all the country inland, as much
as was ceded, should belong to the Swedish
Crown forever IA deed was drawn up
for the land thus purchased. This was
written in Dutch, because no Swede was
yet able to interpret the language of the
heather. The Indians subscribed their
hands and marks. The writing was sent
home to Sweden to be preserved in the
royal archives The Rev. Reorus Tarkil-
lus, of East Gothland, accompanied this
expedition, and was thus the first Swedish
clergyman to minister in this land. 1t
strikes us as being interesting to note the
fact that about the same time there were
three settlements made upon the Atlantic
Coast (not reckoning the earlier colonial
tion Of Virginia) by the English puritans,
the Dutch and the Swedes; and that in
each case the patriotic feelings of the col
onists led them to give their settlement the
name of the mother country; and so there
was New England, the New Netherlands
and New Sweden. The expedition we
have spoken Of as taking place in 1888 was
followed by another under Governor Printz
in 1643, this consisted of three vessels, the
''Fama,' the Swan and the .Charitas. y
During his governorship three other yoy-
ages were made-the first ship was the
1'Black Cat" with ammunition and mer-
chandise for the indians. Next came the
ship Swan on second voyage, with
emigrants. Afterwards two other ships
called the Key and the Lamp Dur
ing these times two clergymen-the Rey.
Laurentins Carroll Iockenius and the Rev.
Israel Holgt were sent out to the colony.
A word or two may be said about the for
mer now, lest it be forgotten, His name
was Lars Lock, which is good Scand dinavian,
but after the fashion Of that day among
scholars it was Latinized and Lars became
LaurentiHs, which would, Of course be
Laurence in English; and Lock became
Lockenius. He spent the remainder of
his life in New Sweden and it has been
said Of him to his honor that he preserved
the church from destruction in the troub-
lous days the colony passed through He
labored hard for God and his fellow eoun-
trymen, and well deserves to be remem-
bered. He had numerous troubles of his
own, among others being so lame during
his last years as to be incapacitated for
work His descendants. are with us to this
day, and bis name of Laurence Lscke is
honorably borne by one Of the vestrymen
of old Trinity Church. The family is
almost, if not quite, the only one that has
had constant succession Of church officers
from that day to this-more than two hun
dred years. Not an Apostolic succession,
indeed, but most uncommon one in this
country, and one that has done equal
honor to him who inaugurated and to those
who have perpesuated it.
Hindsight is said to be always better
than foresight, and we can, Of course, see
that it was inevitable with three nations
claiming the territory that in the long run
the strongest must obtain possession. At
the time we speak Of Holland and Sweden
both claimed this territory, and English
settlers were coming in, the vanguard Of
the great colonizing movement that was
destined to take possession Of and mould
the destinies Of the continents. So far the
Swedes had not seemingly settled on the
East Of Delaware Bay and river, but the
instructions that Governor Printz received
from the home authorities are very definite
M, tho ostl;ook If &1,n cS,zos4;ot, ,,1a sx,e I,