and before night they learned that their new ruler had arrived and the Dutch fort Cassimar was in his hands. When this proceeding became known at New and Old Amsterdam, the wrath of the Dutch government knew no bounds. On the 5th of September, 1655, fifteen months later, all eyes in the little city of New Amsterdam watched from the battery a fleet of seven ships of war, carrying a force of seven hundred men, sailing down that matchless harbor and through the Narrows. Of course, Governor Stuyvesant carried everything before him. Fort Cassimar, newly named by the Swedes Fort Trinity, although greatly enlarged and strengthened, yet having only forty-seven men for its garrison, was obliged to surrender. Fort Christina also, with her thirty defenders, was menaced from every side. There was Fort Slangenborg from across the creek, Fort Fligenborg on Timber Island, Fort Myggenborg on the west, Rottonborg in the rear, with supporting companies of soldiers, a mine, and ships of war anchored in near waters. A surrender within twenty-four hours was demanded, on pain of receiving no quarter; and thus without the shedding of a drop of blood, the whole of New Sweden, after seventeen years of independence, passed within the boundaries of New Netherlands. These territories, however, all came into the possession of the English in 1664. In 1673 the Dutch recovered New Sweden, but it was restored the next year, by treaty, to the English government. Wilmington was started in 1731 by Thomas Willing of Philadelphia. His father-in-law was a Swede, by whom land was assigned to him lying along the Christiana, between the present French and West streets, on which he laid out some streets at right angles with each other, and sold a number of the lots. The place was at first called Willingtown, but afterwards named Wilmington for Lord Wilmington. By 1736 the plan was much extended, the width of the streets enlarged, and thirty-three houses built, with a market-house on Fourth street. Since then Wilmington has grown to its present dimensions. Its location is beautiful and healthful, and in its early history it was noted for intelligence, hospitality, benevolence, good manners, and good morals, giving the city an enviable starting. But much of its molding and forming influence must be accredited to the sturdy and religious character of the first settlers. The ground occupied by the town was owned by individual Swedes or the old Swedish church trustees, and that spreading for miles around had been in the hands of the Swedes for a hundred years. By them the forests had been leveled, the soil cultivated, hundreds of dwellings built, whilst thousands of Swedish people were still living within a few miles to nourish the new settlement. The original cluster of houses called Chris tinaham was ruined by the Dutch, but close by stood, rejuvenated, the Swedes' stone church, of venerable age, which was finished in 1698, and about it is the much older cemetery where some of the oldest families were sleeping. These landmarks perpetuate the memory of the Swedes and link their coming with the present city, but much more strongly is Wilmington indebted to the good character of the original settlers than to their scattered houses and cultivated lands. The Swedes were a simple, pious, honest people, characterized by William Penn in 1683 as "a plain, strong, industrious people." Nor were they at all illiterate or rustic, nor altogether poor, for some brought over handsome furniture, silver plate and jewelry, and rich dresses. Swedish names of distinction still prevail, and the number who might claim Swedish blood is very large. Delawareans have occasion to cherish the memory of the English nobleman from whom the name of the river, the bay, and the state was received. Had other names prevailed it might have been Chickohockee, or Pontaxat, or Maris-Kitten, or Lenapé-Whittuck, or we might have carried the Dutch name of Zuydt river or Godyn's bay. Thomas West, the third Lord Delaware, was appointed governor of Virginia for life; and for his honest and diligent devotion to his duties, his watchful care over the colony when necessarily absent, and the exposure if not the sacrifice of his life in seeking their interests, he is to be placed among earth's true heroes. In coming to this country his vessel was driven north by opposing winds, and entered the river called by the natives Chickohockee but which received its present name in his honor. Under the name of Delaware the colony remained a dependency of Great Britain until 1776, when it became an independent state and the first state of the Union by first signing the federal Constitution, December 7, 1787. William W. Taylor THE FIRST IRON WORKS IN AMERICA Verily there is nothing new under the sun in the laws of nature or of trade. The present large impetus of English capital into this country only marks afresh a movement that has existed since the very beginnings of the western continent. There is something stimulating in the contact of an old race with a new soil. English capital was seeking investment when the Puritan took possession of Massachusetts Bay. In this marvelous age of iron it will be interesting to note a few incidents in the history of the first iron works in America. Midway between Salem and Boston, the first and second capitals of Massachusetts, there flows a serpentine little stream called the Saugus by the Indians and their English successors. From an elevation it resembles a string of "upper-case" letter S's. Tide-water meets the downflowing fresh water two miles from the bay between Round Hill on the west and the dark forest on the east. Just where the currents lap each other on the bank of the stream is a long sloping mound like a sea-serpent's back, which to the passer-by seems but a freak of nature. The hand of man, however, wrought that earth-work. At this point was the upper ferry crossed in the early days by Endicott and Winthrop, and all the Puritan worthies in the infancy of New England. The mound which lies at this point upon the river-bank, and is known to the natives as "the Cinder Banks," is the heaped-up scoria-the refuse, the remainder-the sweepings of an iron foundry which was in full blast before the red man had cast his last lingering look upon his beloved river and upon the blue waters of the Atlantic beyond. The fleecy snows have mantled it, the sun has scorched it for two centuries, and only an occasional curious observer has disturbed its scanty covering of vegetation. for some relic of the first manufacturing industry of the continent. A surpassingly beautiful picture rewards the lover of nature who ascends the "pirates' look-out" on the opposite side of the stream. Glancing down the lazy waters, in the foreground lie the Nahants and the Egg rock, like fair nymphs arising from the sea; near at hand are green forests and nestling hamlets; to the right the eye catches the glittering dome of the State House; beyond it the famed Blue Hills of Milton; and far away on the left, almost mingling with the horizon, are the cliffs of Cape Ann. The existence of iron ore about Lynn had been known from the first settlement. The presence of the ore and the want of iron tools combined in the year 1642 to send one of the enterprising settlers of Lynn, Captain Robert Bridges, to London with specimens of the ore in the endeavor to enlist English capital. He succeeded in forming a company called the "Company of Undertakers for the Iron Works." The names, residences, and occupation of the undertakers, or, as we should now call them, the stockholders, were as follows: Lionel Copley, Esquire, of York County, England. Thomas Pury, Esquire, of Westminster. John Becx, London, Merchant. William Beauchamp, London, Merchant. Thomas Foley, London, Gentleman. William Greenhill, Stepney, Middlesex County. Thomas Weld, Minister, Gateshead, Durham County. John Pococke, Merchant Tailor, London. William Becke, Merchant Tailor, London. This company advanced one thousand pounds for commencing the work. John Winthrop, Jr., also engaged in the enterprise, and Mr. Endicott of Salem, in a letter to Governor Winthrop, dated December 1, 1642, says: "I want much to hear from your son's iron and steel." The village at the iron works was called Hammersmith, from some of the principal workmen who came from a place of that name in England. Captain Bridges and the undertakers did more than to establish the first iron works in America: they brought to the infant colony men who at home would have been mere skilled artisans, but here the necessities of a new world brought out dormant genius from the brains of inventors, of whom Joseph Jenks was a type, and who were the forerunners of Morse in the last generation and of Edison in this. The year 1652 was full of momentous events in the mother country. Parliament had triumphed. King Charles had been beheaded, but Cromwell had not yet become lord protector. There was little attention paid to the colonies. In the matter of money they had, however, outgrown wampum, brass farthings, or musket-balls in which exchanges had been made. The Massachusetts colony took upon itself a sovereign prerogative and set up a mint in Boston for coining silver. The precious metal then coined is now famous and rare. The pieces had the word "Massachusetts," with a pine tree, and the letters "N. E. Anno 1652 "and "III., VI., or XII.," denoting the number of pence. The dies for this coinage were made by Joseph Jenks at the Lynn iron works. These fathers of ours seem to have practiced all the powers of gov ernment, not in embryo but in full operation, regardless of the paternal government across the seas, for in 1655 the general court granted to Mr. Joseph Jenks a patent for an improved scythe "for the more speedy cutting of grass, for seven years." This improvement consisted in lengthening the blade, making it thinner, and welding a square bar on the back to strengthen it, as in the scythe of to-day. Before this the old English blade was short and thick like a bush scythe. This invention lightened the labor and cheered the hearts of merry mowers till the mowingmachine of our day superseded the old emblem of the husbandman. The general court had previously granted him patents for improvements in edge-tools and " for a newly invented sawemill that things may be afforded cheaper than formerly, and that for fourteen yeeres without disturbance by any others setting up the like invention so that his study and cost may not be in vayne or lost, so as power is still left to restrayne the exportation of such manufactures, and to moderate the prises thereof if occasion so require." The grave and reverend householders of Boston did not propose to dine upon roast pig after the manner of Charles Lamb's traveler, nor did they desire to dwell in cold houses with stone walls lest fire should harm them. They built stout wooden mansions facing due south, and wisely believing that an ounce of prevention was better than a pound of cure the selectmen in 1654 were authorized to contract with Joseph Jenks “for an Ingine to carry water in case of fire." This was not so elaborate or powerful as our modern steam-engines, but it marks the thrift and foresight of the authorities. It was the first fire-engine built or used in America, and it made many a large draught upon "Mr. Blackstone's spring" and upon the "Great spring" in Spring Lane. In any account of our iron works frequent mention must be made of Joseph Jenks. He was a remarkable man. Of him Alonzo Lewis, the historian of Lynn, says: "He deserves to be held in perpetual remembrance in American history, as the first founder who worked in brass and iron on the western continent." When his mission in Lynn was accomplished, he sent his son Joseph to Rhode Island, where he was not only an iron founder but the founder of the very eminent Jenks family. He gave his son and namesake to that state as one of its governors. It is a curious fact that while our first inventor furnished a governor to Rhode Island, our own first governor and promoter of the iron works gave |