It happened in this way. Gustavus Adolphus, the most famous king of Sweden, so famous, that he was called "The Lion of the North," — had heard about America, and resolved to plant a colony there. So a company was formed, which invited colonists, from every part of Europe, to go out under the control of the Swedish Government. The company resolved, in particular, to to allow no slaves among them. "Slaves," they said, "cost a great deal, labor with reluctance, and soon perish from hard usage. Thẹ Swedish nation is laborious and intelligent; and surely we shall gain more by a free people with wives and children." Gustavus Adolphus called the proposed American colony "the jewel of his kingdom," and thought that it would be a benefit to "all oppressed Christendom." Unfortunately the great Gustavus was killed in battle in 1632; and his daughter Christina, a little girl only six years old, became queen in his place. But the Swedish prime-minister, Oxenstiern, was one of the wisest statesmen in Europe; and he was resolved to carry out the plan of the American colony: so he sent out, in 1638, a large number of Swedes and Finlanders, who built a fort, and called it Christiana after their little queen. The colony itself they called New Sweden. Many more colonists followed, and their settlements extended into what is now Pennsylvania; so that the governor's house was at one time only a few miles from what is now Philadelphia. But this did not please the Dutch settlers in New Netherlands; for they considered that they had taken possession of the region first, and that the Swedes were intruders. The Swedes were very enterprising, and rivalled the Dutch in buying tobacco from Virginia traders, and in selling beaverskins and other furs. Still the Dutch did not attack them, because the Swedish Government was powerful in Europe, and would be sure to sustain its colonies. However, the Dutch built a fort of their own, near Christiana; but the Swedes captured it. Then the Dutch company would bear it no longer; and they ordered their governor, Peter Stuyvesant "to revenge their wrongs, to drive the Swedes from the river, or to compel their submission." So, in 1655, the Dutch governor sailed up the Delaware River, took back his own fort, and then took the Swedish forts. The Swedish Government had, by that time, grown much weaker in Europe, and did nothing to defend its only colony; and, after seventeen years of separate existence, New Sweden was merged in New Netherlands. Then came the English, in 1664, and drove out the Dutch from the whole of New Netherlands; so that Delaware belonged, in turn, to three different nations. After this it was at one time a part of Pennsylvania, and at another time a separate colony; but it was always a small and peaceful community, being sheltered from the Indian attacks by the other colonies around it. CHAPTER XIII. THE OLD DOMINION AND MARYLAND. I VIRGINIA. HAVE described the early colonies in geographical order, beginning with New England, because this order is so much easier to remember than any other. But no colony can claim to date back so far as Virginia, "The Old Dominion" as it is sometimes called. Nothing but a ruined church, at a place called Jamestown, now marks the spot where the first Virginia settlement was made, in the year 1607, thirteen years before the landing of the Pilgrims at Plymouth. When King James I. gave a charter to two companies, one of which was to settle south of a certain region, and the other north of it, leaving a vacant space between them, it was the southern or Virginia company that settled Virginia. The commander of the vessels that brought out the first Virginia colony was Capt. Newport; but the leading person among those on board was Capt. John Smith, a man who had led a very strange life. He was born in Lincolnshire, England, in 1579. When he was a boy of thirteen, he sold his school-books and satchel, meaning to run away to sea. Then his father died sud |