ompany, with private help from Dutch merchants.
The history of this little colony belongs to another volume of this
series, but some account of its absorption in New Netherland should find
a place in this.

At first the Dutch and Swedes on the Delaware, the former with their
Fort Nassau on the east side, the latter with their three forts, Nya
Elfsborg on the east side, Christina and Nya Goteborg (New Gottenburg)
on the west, dwelt together in amity. But competition for the Indian
trade was keen, conflicting purchases of land from the Indians gave rise
to disputes, and from the beginning of Stuyvesant's administration there
was friction. This he greatly increased by proceeding to the South River
with armed forces, in 1651, and building Fort Casimir on the west side
of the river, near the present site of Newcastle, and uncomfortably near
to Fort Christina. In 1654 a large reinforcement to the Swedish colony
came out under Johan Rising, who seized Fort Casimir. But the serious
efforts to strengthen the colony, made by Sweden in the last year of
Queen Christina and the first year of King Charles X., were made too
late. The Dutch West India Company ordered Director Stuyvesant not only
to retake Fort Casimir but to expel the Swedish power from the whole
river. He proceeded to organize in August, 1655, the largest military
force which had yet been seen in the Atlantic colonies. The best Dutch
account of what it achieved is presented in translation in the following
pages; the Swedish side is told by Governor Rising in a report printed
in the _Collections of the New York Historical Society_, second
series, I. 443-448, and in _Pennsylvania Archives_, second series, V.
222-229.(1)

(1) Rising's dates are given according to Old Style, Swedish
fashion, Bogaert's according to New Style, as customary in
the province of Holland.

Of Johannes Bogaert, author of the following letter, we know only that
he was a "writer," or clerk. Hans Bontemantel, to whom the letter was
addressed, was a director in the Amsterdam Chamber of the West India
Company, and a schepen (magistrate) of Amsterdam from 1655 to 1672, in
which last year he took a prominent part in bringing William III. The
letter was first printed in 1858 in _De Navorscher_ (the Dutch _Notes
and Queries_), VIII. 185-186. A translation by Henry C. Murphy was
published the same year in _The Historical Magazine_, II. 258-259, and
this, carefully revised by the present e