ound their favorite supplies cut off, and diverted into the
larders of the hostile camps? For some time this war of the cupboard was
carried on to the great festivity and jollification of the Swedes, while
the warriors of Fort Casimir found their hearts, or rather their stomachs,
daily failing them. At length the summer heats and summer showers set in,
and now, lo and behold! a great miracle was wrought for the relief of the
Nederlands, not a little resembling one of the plagues of Egypt; for it
came to pass that a great cloud of mosquitos arose out of the marshy
borders of the river, and settled upon the fortress of Helsenburg, being
doubtless attracted by the scent of the fresh blood of the Swedish
gormandisers. Nay, it is said that the body of Jan Printz alone, which was
as big and as full of blood as that of a prize ox, was sufficient to
attract the mosquito from every part of the country. For some time the
garrison endeavored to hold out, but it was all in vain; the mosquitos
penetrated into every chink and crevice, and gave them no rest day nor
night; and as to Governor Jan Printz, he moved about as in a cloud, with
mosquito music in his ears, and mosquito stings to the very end of his
nose. Finally, the garrison was fairly driven out of the fortress, and
obliged to retreat to Tinnekonk; nay, it is said that the mosquitos
followed Jan Printz even thither, and absolutely drove him out of the
country; certain it is, he embarked for Sweden shortly afterward, and Jan
Claudius Risingh was sent to govern New Sweden in his stead.

Such was the famous mosquito war on the Delaware, of which General Van
Poffenburgh would fain have been the hero; but the devout people of the
Nieuw-Nederlands always ascribed the discomfiture of the Swedes to the
miraculous intervention of St. Nicholas. As to the fortress of Helsenburg,
it fell to ruin, but the story of its strange destruction was perpetuated
by the Swedish name of Myggen-borg, that is to say, Mosquito Castle.[47]

FOOTNOTES:

[47] Acrelius' History N. Sweden. For some notices of this
miraculous discomfiture of the Swedes, see N.Y. Hist. Col., new
series, vol. i., p. 412.

CHAPTER II.

Jan Claudius Risingh, who succeeded to the command of New Sweden, looms
largely in ancient records as a gigantic Swede, who, had he not been
rather knock-kneed and splay-footed, might have served for the model of a
Samson or a Hercules. He was no less rapacious tha