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ful attempts to trade or plant there: meanwhile the two other nations lived side by side with unsettled boundaries. William Penn very reasonably thought that, even if Lord Baltimore's patent was originally good, he had lost his right to that region by never acquiring possession, and the region had become the property of the Dutch by the treaty between Cromwell and the Estates General in 1653, yielding to the latter the land of which they were possessed at the beginning of the war. The restored English monarchy, keeping Jamaica, which was acquired through that treaty, was bound by it. Sweden, by the capture of the Dutch fort in May, 1654, secured the dominion of the Delaware basin from below Cape Henlopen to miles above the fortieth parallel; but the Dutch reconquered it in September, 1655.

Except to state title in sending commissioners to agree upon a boundary, Lord Baltimore and his representatives seem to have acquiesced in the possession by the Swedes and Dutch until 1659, when he sent an officer to New Amstel to demand the withdrawal of the settlers who were below the fortieth degree or an acknowledgment of tenure. The Dutch officials refused, and their superiors on Manhattan Island sent ambassadors asserting title under the King of Spain's right by Columbus's discoveries, and the assignment of that right to the United Republic of the Seven Provinces by the treaty of Munster in 1648, recognizing their independence, and giving up all countries conquered and seated by them. The ambassadors claimed in general New Netherland, extending along the ocean from 38° to 42°, bounded on the west by Maryland on Chesapeake Bay, as one of those countries, and in particular the South River, as having been possessed by the settlement of Hoorekill (the early spelling of Whorekill), and by various forts. A just title to the whole river and especially the western shore was furthermore claimed from

purchase from the natural proprietors, the native Indians. Baltimore subsequently had an agent press his cause in Holland, but without success.

Although James I and Charles I had tried to avoid any conflict in regard to colonies with other civilized nations, Charles II in fact offered the Netherlandish possessions in North America to any Englishman who would conquer them. It has been said that he never forgave the Estates General for sending him, when an exile, away from the Hague, at the demand of Cromwell. The restored monarch did not wait for a declaration of war. Under date of April 23rd in the fourteenth year of his reign (1662), in chartering the Governor and Company of Connecticut, he granted to them a depth or extent in longitude to the Pacific Ocean, with no exceptions as to the possessions of other civilized nations. This may have been merely a careless copying of the charter for Massachusetts, or designed by the grantees to enable them to absorb the rival colony of New Haven, in which they succeeded; but such a document could have been construed as a license to seize under the old claim of the Crown of England the southern part of the Hudson Valley, and what lay west of it. The extent of the grant southward was not mentioned clearly, the description being "all that part of the King's dominions in New England in America”—as before mentioned, the land from the fortieth parallel to the forty-eighth parallel had received the name New England in 1620-bounded on the east by Narragansett River "commonly called Narragansett Bay where the said River falleth into the Sea; and on the north by the line of the Massachusetts Plantation; and on the south by the Sea and in longitude as the line of the Massachusetts Colony running from east to west that is to say from the said Narragansett Bay on the east to the South Sea"-i.e. the Pacific Ocean "on the west with the islands thereunto belonging." Had

there been no Europeans above the fortieth parallel, we may admit that, under this description, Connecticut could have sent colonists to and possessed what became Bucks County, Pennsylvania, as well as Manhattan Island, and been ultimately the greatest state in the American Union. We need not stop to examine the claim of Connecticut to the Wyoming region; for it was not brought forward until after the time at which this history closes. The recipients of the aforesaid charter of 1662 not having evicted the Dutch, King Charles, under date of March 12, 1663-4, executed a patent to his brother, who was his heir presumptive, James, Duke of York, etc., for the land from the west side of the Connecticut River to the east side of Delaware Bay. Under date of April 25th, in the sixteenth year of the reign (1664), and with a recital that complaints had been received from New England of differences and disputes as to the bounds of the charters and jurisdictions, a commission was given to Col. Richard Nicolls, Sir Robert Carre, George Cartwright, and Samuel Maverick to visit the colonies and other plantations within the tract known as New England, and hear and determine all complaints and appeals, and to provide for and settle the peace and security of the country according to their discretion and instructions. The instructions were to reduce the Dutch "anywhere within the limits of our [Charles II's] dominions to an entire obedience to our government,' no man to be disturbed in his possessions who would yield obedience, and live in subjection, with the same privileges as other subjects.

The Commissioners sailed from England with a considerable force, and overawed the Dutch garrison on Manhattan, obtaining a surrender of that region without the shedding of blood; and a detachment under Sir Robert Carre was sent to summon the Governor and inhabitants on the Delaware to yield obedience to

their "rightful sovereign," who was pleased to have them enjoy their real and personal property and liberty of conscience. The Swedes among the people were to receive congratulation on "their happy return under a monarchial government"! Carre was instructed to declare to Lord Baltimore's son and all Englishmen concerned in Maryland that Carre was only employed to reduce the region to obedience to the King, for whose own behoof Carre was to keep possession: if Lord Baltimore's right under his charter was asserted, Carre was to say that he was keeping the place only until the King was "informed and satisfied otherwise." Carre went up the Delaware, passing the fort at New Amstel on the last day of September; and, in the course of three days, gaining the Swedes to his side, he entered into an agreement, which was dated October 1st, with the burgomasters, who declared themselves acting in behalf also of all the Dutch and Swedes of Delaware Bay and River, that they submitted to the King's authority, and were to be protected in their persons and property. The commander of the fort, however, was true to his charge, and refused to surrender; so, on Sunday morning, the detachment under Carre opened fire, and then stormed the fort without loss, killing three of the garrison, and wounding ten. On October 24th, Nicolls was authorized by the Commissioners to go to the region thus conquered, and take care of the government, and depute such officers for the same as he should see fit.

In none of these proceedings do we find the western shore of Delaware River and Bay declared the property of the Duke. Nicolls, in various patents of 1667 and 1668 for lands there, describes himself as Principal Commissioner from the King for New England, Governor-General under the Duke of York of his territories in America, and Commander-in-Chief of the King's

forces to reduce the "usurped" plantations of the Dutch to his Majesty's obedience.

By the treaty of Breda, made in 1667, the Dutch left the English in possession of these conquests, included among the places held by the English on the 10th of May of that year.

In 1668, the English officers at New York, in providing for certain persons to be Councillors at Delaware, ordered them to take an oath to the Duke of York, and established for matters of difficulty an appeal to the Governor and Council at New York. Thus the Governor commissioned by the Duke over his possessions in America took jurisdiction over what had been the southern colony or province of the Dutch, which came to be often called Delaware more than a century before that name was reassumed for the state embracing the greater part of the district. Magistrates looking to New Castle, as New Amstel was called, refused to allow Marylanders to make surveys near the bay or river, and when, in 1672, the Marylanders seized goods at Whorekill, and talked of a stronger expedition to possess the land up to forty degrees north, the commander at New Castle prepared, by order of the New York Governor, to resist what was deemed an invasion.

In the summer of 1673, the Dutch and English being again at war, the former captured New Netherland, and the people on the Delaware made submission. The treaty signed at Westminster on February 9, 1673-4, restored to each party the possessions taken by the other since the beginning of the war. William Penn spoke of this arrangement as an exchange of Surinam, which the English were actually holding, for the North American conquests of the Dutch.

Doubts could be raised whether the former grant to the Duke of York by a king not actually in possession had been valid. Apparently to set the question at rest, Charles II issued a new patent under date of June 29,

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