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Papers of the Historical Society of Delaware
Papers of the Historical Society of Delaware Author:Historical Society of Delaware Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: "FORT CASIMIR." 1651-1671. PART I. There is some historical mention, which might lead one inadvertently to believe, (considering the apparently authorit... more »ative source from which it comes), that there had existed for some twenty years prior to the erection of Fort Casimir by the Dutch, a Swedish town, at or near its site, called "Stockholm." Mr. John F. Watson, the well known historian, in his exceedingly interesting and accredited work entitled "Annals of Philadelphia and Pennsylvania in the Olden Time," at page 8, Volume 1, states: "The Swedes claim our notice from and after the year 1631, as the time of their arrival assigned by their historian, Campanius. At that time they laid out the present New Castle, under the name of 'Stockholm.' " Again on the same page he says, ' 'the numerous forts, as called under the Government of the Swedes, very probably, often mere block-houses, indicate the state of their apprehension from enemies. Whether their Dutch neighbors, (at New Amsterdam, now New York) gave significant signs of intentions eventually to supplant them, is not now so obvious; but it is a matter of record that the Dutch, as early as 1651 built Fort Casimir, and called the place, ' Nieu Amstel' at the present New Castle. As it had before been a Swedish town under the name of 'Stockholm,' the Swedish Governor Printz, did what hecould to prevent it by solemn protest". Beyond such general statements, the writer has been unable after a thorough and careful search, to find anything to corroborate or sustain such a contention. If such a town ever did exist, beyond the fertile imagination of Campanius, (a most inaccurate and fanciful writer) it must have been very short-lived, small and insignificant, as nothing more is known or said of it. "Stockholm" seems to have been b...« less