inia settlement, which he seems to have known about; and,
working cautiously northward along the coast and feeling his way
with the lead line, he soon entered Delaware Bay. But finding it very
difficult of navigation he departed and, proceeding in the same careful
way up along the coast of New Jersey, he finally entered the harbor of
New York and sailed up the Hudson far enough to satisfy himself that it
was not the desired course to China.

This exploration gave the Dutch their claim to the Delaware and Hudson
regions. But though it was worthless as against the English right by
discovery of the Cabots, the Dutch went ahead with their settlement,
established their headquarters and seat of government on Manhattan
Island, where New York stands today, and exercised as much jurisdiction
and control as they could on the Delaware.

Their explorations of the Delaware, feeling their way up it with small
light draft vessels among its shoals and swift tides, their travels
on land--shooting wild turkeys on the site of the present busy town of
Chester--and their adventures with the Indians are full of interest.
The immense quantities of wild fowl and animal and bird life along the
shores astonished them; but what most aroused their cupidity was the
enormous supply of furs, especially beaver and otter, that could be
obtained from the Indians. Furs became their great, in fact, their only
interest in the Delaware. They established forts, one near Cape Henlopen
at the mouth of the river, calling it Fort Oplandt, and another far
up the river on the Jersey side at the mouth of Timber Creek, nearly
opposite the present site of Philadelphia, and this they called Fort
Nassau. Fort Oplandt was destroyed by the Indians and its people were
massacred. Fort Nassau was probably occupied only at intervals. These
two posts were built mainly to assist the fur trade, and any attempts at
real settlement were slight and unsuccessful.

Meantime about the year 1624 the Swedes heard of the wonderful
opportunities on the Delaware. The Swedish monarch, Gustavus Adolphus, a
man of broad ambitions and energetic mind, heard about the Delaware from
Willem Usselinx, a merchant of Antwerp who had been actively interested
in the formation of the Dutch West India Company to trade in the Dutch
possessions in America. Having quarreled with the directors, Usselinx
had withdrawn from the Netherlands and now offered his services to
Sweden. The Swedish court, nobles, a