-■?- ,-0 %/^ c" .^\ .0 o. \^^ O' '^^. •^OO^ >A v^' 'o. * (/ » K ^ .A -5' >: ^^_ ^"'\:k^^ .H -/^ ..^'■.v' .5 -n^ ri-, -> '<^^ >^ A\^ V a\ N^^ -% .■.\' ,=^■■1 •'/ ^:.. .^\^ %, .s .\\' •/-, CO' .A' .^- cP\o iV 'J- ■:S>% A^^ ScHEYICHBI AND THE StRAiND, EARLY DAYS ALONG THE DELAWARE. WITH AN ACCOUNT OF RECENT EVENTS AT SEA GROVE. CX)NTAINING SKETCHES OF THE ROMANTIC ADVENTURES OF THE PIONEER COLONISTS; THE WON UERFUL ORIGIN OF AMERICAN SOCIETY AND CIVILIZATION; THE REMARKABLE COURSE OF POLITICAL PROGRESS AND MATERIAL IMPROVEMENT IN THE UNITED STATES, AS SHOWN IN THE HISTORY OF NEW JERSEY, WITH PROOF OF THE SAFETY AND BENEFIT OF DEMOCRATIC INSTITU- TIONS, AND THE NECESSITY OF RELIGIOUS FREEDOM. TO WHICH IS APPENDED A GEOLOGICAL DESCRIPTION OF THE SHORE OF NEW JERSEY. BY EDWARD S. WHEELER. ILLUSTRATED WITH TWELVE FULL-PAGE ENGRAVINGS, FROM ORIGINAL DRAWINGS BY D. B. GULICK, CHARLES W. KNAPP, AND OTHERS. PRESS OF J. B. LIPPINCOTT & CO. PHILADELPHIA: 1876. Copyright, 1876, by Edward S. Wheeler. ■\ V ^ ^ - DEDICATION. TO MY CHRISTIAN FRIENDS. who, firm in the faith themselves, can nevertheless respect the convictions of others ; to earnest Christians whose spiritual trust and faith is so perfect, they have no fear any fact can disprove truth, or human error annul the divine law ; to Christians whose character honors their creed, whose fairness and honesty command regard, while their kindness and courtesy inspire fraternal love; to all who love truth better than their own conceit ; to all who reverence God more than any tlieory ; to all who seek the good, the true, and beautiful themselves, and devoutly labor for the welfare and eternal happiness of hu- manity, I dedicate this volume. PREFACE. Every work should be justified by its usefulness and recommended by the manner of its performance. Criticism of literary style is averted from this little book, since nice elaboration of details, and smooth, consistent unity of parts, with a high degree of literary finish, are impossible in a volume made diverse by the requirements of its purpose and desultory by needful brevity. I have been disinterested in that of which I have written, and left entirely free to follow my own taste and judgment in regard to matter and manner, being bound in agreement with those concerned only that I should serve their purpose by " truthful representations" alone. Thus directed and encouraged in pursuing the course congenial to my feelings and conscience, I have tried to present only the facts of science and the truth of history, knowing them to be stranger than fiction, and in simple statement more wonderful and interesting than the most remarkable works of imagination. Although an observer of the things I have described so far as they exist in the present, it woul.d be absurd to put forward any claim to original discovery. I have gathered from many sources, but think a display of authorities would be out of place ; yet, it is true, I have been more inquisitive than the result may indicate. Errors are possible, even when care is taken to be accurate, and mistakes are not at all inconsistent with an honest purpose; still, if misrepresentations exist in this work they are unknown, and as the motive has been consci- entious, and the effort earnest, I believe the consideration due reliability is deserved by all herein published. But whatever discrepancies may mar the printed pages, there is no occasion to criticise the illustrations for misrepresentation. They are mostly drawn from photographic views, taken on the spot, with micro- scopic fidelity, by artistic operators, and have been faithfully repro- duced by the draughtsman and engraver. They may, therefore, be looked upon as giving a correct idea of the physical features of the vi PREFACE. beautiful locality in which they were taken, and the varied structures which utih"ze and decorate the neighborhood. Whoever has loitered along the shore of the summer sea, seeking rest and recreation therefrom, has, when feeling his soul stirred by the grandeur and loveliness of the scene, longed for some magic art which could fix forever the transient glories of evanescent beauty in his mind, making his memory thus the picture-gallery of nature. This may not be, but somewhat has been done to recall the features of the seascape where, in the bygone summer, so many earnest. Chris- tian souls " took sweet counsel together," amid the healing breezes and peaceful surroundings of the consecrated Sea Grove. Neither the artist's pencil nor the photographer's skill can reproduce all that presented itself before the delighted vision. No art can imitate the tenderness of the dawn across the sea, or do justice to the resplen- dence with which the sun sank among the western waves on quiet Sabbath evenings ; but all this maybe suggested to the sense, and with many memory will fill the picture with colors true to nature, and even recall the friends who shared their summer vacation. Again, as they look upon the pictures of our unpretending book, they will hear in memory the voice of exhortation and the music ol praise, mingling with the undertone of the unceasing surges. Again they will enter the broad pavilion, and, pausing but to offer a word of prayer for all who share not in their religious blessings, bow the soul in devotion to partake of the union communion service with their numerous friends of many churches. To awaken such reminiscences in those who know Sea Grove and its associations by residence there, and to increase their interest and pleasure in the place by bringing before them many facts pertaining to their favorite resort, is the purpose of this book ; besides, it is requisite that all who need the sea-side privileges of rest and cheerful recreation should be informed where they can secure them at their convenience, reasonably, without annoying contact with demoralizing dissipations, as distasteful to the thoughtful as they are wearisome and hurtful to the invalid, and physically and spiritually unprofitable to all. Trusting that these ends may be fully served to the common benefit, and that something of instruction and refined gratification may be incidental thereto, the author with pleasure presents his work to an en- lightened public. ERRATA AND CORRIGENDA. n page 5, 26th line, for "its citizens discovered" read: their citizens )vered. .1 page 8, 32d line, for "the discoveries" read: the discoverers. n page 16, 28th line, for " Peterzen" read : Pieterzen. 1 page 19, 4th line, for "catalogue" read: catalogues. 1 page 55, 30th line, for "home and asylum of those who had deprived of liberty and life" read : asylum of those who had deprived his people berty and life. 1 page 63, 42d line, for " 1852" read : 1822. 1 page 107, nth line, for "seventeen" read: seven. SCHEYICHBI AND THE STRAND. History evinces the exceeding potency of religious ideas, as a cause of material progress; as the phenomena of Nature manifest the power of the Infinite Spirit. Curiosity, avarice, and ambition induce exploration and discovery; stimulate enterprise ; found and foster states ; but fanaticism, faith, and spiritual convictions are the world's pioneers ; these move more pro- foundly the passions of mankind, quicken higher and intenser energies, and develop more sublime results. Fanaticism, the fungi of religious growth, provokes the bigot to draw the sword of exterminating conquest, changing the character and boundaries of nations ; the mad zealot lights the fires of persecution, expatriating the flower of a country's population, who carry religion and the arts into their place of banishment. Devotion inspires the propaganda, and missionaries penetrate the antipodean wilderness, domicile among barbarians, and plant civilization to flourish above their martyr graves. Faith feeds the courage of the believer, and impels to self-consecration ; fired by religious enthusiasm, bound by stern conviction, and led by the "inwaid light," the dissenting Hugue- not, the Covenanter, the Puritan, and the Quaker dare the ocean, the desert, and the savage, in search of a home of righteousness, for free- dom and for peace. Hope stimulates them, a religious purpose sus- tains them ; they confront every peril, endure every trial, survive all suffering, outlive every hinderance, and triumph at last over every difficulty in the adorable name of God! § Prophesied in the rhapsodies and inspirations of the seers of all ages; mysteriously reported in the literature of Asia in the early dawn of the Christian era; celebrated obscurely in the historic runes of the heroic Scandinavian sea-kings a thousand years ago, and claimed by Icelandic and Danish historians as the familiar haunt of their fore- fathers for many centuries, — the Western Hemisphere long nourished on its soil nations who imitated the architecture of Egypt, perpetuated the religious rites of Tyre, and may have shared in the commerce of the Orient. On the shores of the Western World, it has been claimed, was mined the gold of Ophir for the temple of Solomon ; while the 3 4 SCHEYICHBI AND THE STRAND. broad plains of its continents received, it is said, the lost and wandering ten tribes of Israel. Reflecting dubiously the life of unknown ages, from the sculptured sides and hieroglyphic ornaments of its antique and symbolic monu- ments, America inspires the imagination, but compels the mind to drift unsatisfied over its vast and significant ruins, back into the twilight of tradition and the night of pre-historic oblivion. The plains of America are marked by the work of a race without a record; its great valleys covered with traces of a numerous and active population-, and yet they have no chronicle. The American forests tower above the ruins of large cities whose civilization is evident from their architecture, — still the hosts of citizens have passed away: their origin, their history, and their fate conjecture alone can intimate. But, if the past of America is perplexing to the antiquarian, dubious in historic twilight, or hid in the darkness of time and barbarism, its modern life is clearly defined and of thrilling interest. Here are no monuments of an enduring civilization, linking the present, generation by generation, to the remote past ; no vast collections of splendid volumes, the record of a people's ancient glory; no empire, one in faith and one in government for a thousand years, — all is new, primi- tive, incomplete; but there are young states in America proud as Rome, more free than Athens; there are a hundred great, luxurious, and growing cities ; there are public works that open up the long sought passage to India, and millions of happy homes, of the best provided, most intelligent, free, and independent people. It is less than four centuries since the voyages of Columbus; the history is brief, but the advance has been rapid, the development immense. Each American generation has done the work of a hundred years, and each century has become an era in civilization, an epoch in history. To compile and elaborate the record of such an advance, and educe the principles of progress from the facts of social and political evolution, is the congenial and proper work of philosophic scholars, and acute and comprehensive minds have employed themselves therein with usefulness and honor. It is not the purpose of the writer to ape the great historiographers, but he may modestly hope to add a reliable note to the materials of history, suggest some practical inference, or inspire an appropriate reflection, just as the wandering but observant Indian, though unskilled to build the monument of a nation, still faithfully places a votive pebble upon the growing mound which tells of the greatness of his tribe. However little the present publication may add to the vast sum of historic knowledge, it at least indicates the causes which have fostered American liberty, and manifests the nature and temper of a free people as the energetic cause of moral improvements and unexampled material progress; this appears in the history herein given of the THE RED /SCO VER V OF AMERICA. . 5 settlement of the valley of the Delaware, especially in New Jersey, and conclusively in the interesting and detailed account of the develop- ments of Sea Grove, — that beautiful and prosperous town having been instituted entirely in keeping with the spirit of the representative men composing the Association which bears its name. § The discovery of America was prehistoric; its unrecorded monu- ments, ruins, and sculptured rocks were antiquated when, in 1492, Columbus voyaged to the West Indies, and various nations and races had already left the traces of their visits and occupancy at a number of widely separated localities upon the two Western Continents. The modern histor)^ of America begins with the voyages of the inspired navigator of Genoa. The rediscovery of the Western Hemisphere commanded the attention of the civilized world; aroused the emula- tion of nations, and the ambition of kings ; it inflamed the spirit of the adventurous and enterprising; kindled the imagination of the enthusiastic ; awakened the hopes of the people ; encouraged the aspirations of liberal statesmen, and actualized the dreams of the philanthropist. India was the prize Europe coveted four hundred years ago. Colum- bus sailed for Cathay, and supposed he landed on its eastern shore, — "the beginning and the end of India." His voyages for a short route to India discovered America; the search for a northwest passage explored the shores of the " New World." In the time of Columbus it was the uncertain international law of Christendom, that Christian nations became entitled to any land or country its citizens discovered, took possession of and occupied, unless it was already the territory of other Christians. This presumptuous claim of the exclusive right of a sect, as sucli, to the secular owner- ship of the whole world, was a political device, and, though endorsed by popes and approved by bishops, was at once absurd, impudent, and irreligious; but the heresy had a natural origin, and, becoming a dogma and an apology, developed an awful historic sequence. Numerous as the voyages of discovery to America were, and impor- tant as trade became, for more than a hundred and fifty years after Columbus, gross ignorance of the Western Hemisphere characterized the action of even the courts and kings of Europe. Under the name of the " West Indies," two vast and rich continents were long regarded as but troublesome islands in the way of voyages to India, and frequent and conflicting royal grants afterwards assumed to convey, in an impos- sible manner, possession of the territories of America from ocean to ocean, the grantors having the untroubled conceit that the average width of the continent was no more than about three hundred miles. Under the pretext supplied by the voj-ages of Columbus, Alexander VI., " the worst of the popes," assuming to be the temporal as well as spiritual head of Christendom, pretended to invest Spain with regal 6 . SCHEYICHBI AND THE STRAND. possession in perpetuity of all heathen lands found, or to be discovered, to the west of a meridian three hundred and seventy leagues westward of the Azores. In insolent and fanatical assertion of her declared rights, which, thus derived, became a matter of religious faith, Spain undertook to monopolize the trade of the West Indies and control the navigation of the high seas. Hence, Portugal colonized and traded only in part of Brazil, her minute allotment of all the vast "Indies;" and so, in defense of the faith enshrined in her Papal mon- opoly, the fleets of Spain pirated all vessels they overhauled sailing the Atlantic to her pretended exclusive possessions. At the same time Spanish kings made war upon Protestant maritime nations in a way that left enterprising Holland no chance for existence but in her defeat, and compelled England to sail to commercial and naval supremacy over the sunken hulks of the " Invincible Armada." § Although Balthazar Mouchcron, of Holland, and his associates, patrons of discovery, moved by the terrible sufferings and failures of their explorers, about the year 1600 abandoned as hopeless the quest for a northern route to India, the immense importance of such a pas- sage was obvious, and the Danes and English continued the resolute search. The directors of the prosperous and powerful Dutch East India Company, then in full operation, shared the notions of their cotemporaries, and, overruling the experienced Moucheron and his Zeeiand partisans, the Amsterdam members of the Directory, jealous of Denmark and England, decided the Company to seek for itself a safer and more convenient way to their remote places of traffic. The stockholders of the East India Company had received in one year a dividend of seventy-five per cent, on their investment; they could well afford a venture which promised even greater facilities to their business. By orders from the Directory at Amsterdam, a very fast sailing vessel named " De Halve Maan," or Half Moon, of forty lasts or eighty tons, a " vlie-boat," having two masts, such as were constructed especially for difficult navigation in sounds and rivers, was fitted for an arctic voyage. For a schipper, or commander, Henry Hudson, an P^nglish- man, who had already made two such adventures, was engaged. The under schipper, or mate, was a Dutchman, and the vlie-boat was manned by twenty men, P^nglish and Dutch. Robert Juet sailed with Hudson as his clerk, and became the historian of the voyage. The De Halve Maan was ordered to look for a passage by the northeast or northwest to China, the Directors trusting Hudson to find some way past Nova Zembla. or some strait or channel between the islands of the West Indies, by which their fleets of Dutch East Indiamen, fearless of Spanish interference, could bear directly to India and all the Orient the products of Europe in profitable exchange for the pearls of the Asiatic Archipelago, the diamonds of Golconda, the lawns of the Deccan, and the spices of Cathay. VOYAGE OF THE VLIE-BOAT. 7 Accompanied by his only son, Hudson, hailing from Amsterdam, set sail the 4th of April, 1609, for the northeast of Norway. He left the Texel on the 6th of April, and doubled the cape of Norway on the 5th of May. Finding his way toward Nova Zembla obstructed by vast ice- bergs, and his ship crowded out of her course by great fields of moving ice, Hudson ran the Half Moon to the west and south. Passing through a great fleet of French fishermen off Newfoundland, and touching at several points on the coast of New England, he arrived off the Chesapeake in the middle of August. Hudson's old friend, Captain John Smith, had given him a map of Virginia, on which, somewhere to the north of the Chesapeake, a strait was laid down, by which Smith was confident the Pacific Ocean could be reached. Knowing himself to be in the neighborhood of the settlement of his countrymen and friends at Jamestown, Hudson put his ship about, August i8th, and kept along the coast to the north again. The Half Moon entered Delaware Bay August 28th, which Hudson slightly explored and sounded, making observations of its shores, but without landing. Finding he could not sail his vlie-boat from Sea Grove to San P^ran- cisco, and hence that the Delaware was not the passage to Cathay, Hudson coasted to the north along the Jersey shore, and on the 3d of September anchored inside of Sandheuken, or Sandy Hook, where he remained a week, and was frequently visited by the Indians. From this anchorage the Half Moon sailed into the bay of New York, still being visited by the Indians, whom Hudson and his crew taught, as their first lesson in civilization, — how to get drunk. Hudson examined the Hudson River for twenty-two days, his boats going up twenty-five or thirty miles above Albany, and then, having made sure that neither Hell Gate nor the Hudson were a water-way to Hindustan, he, on the 4th of October, put out to sea, and, in conse- quence of the dissensions of his crew, finally decided to set sail for Holland. The Half Moon with her motley and mutinous company, of whom Hudson became afraid, put into Dartmouth, in England, where, the Dutch assert, she was detained and Hudson kept through the jealousy of James I. Hudson, however, sent a brilliant report of his voyage to his employers in Holland, in which he speaks of the country he visited as "most beautiful," " hct scoonste land dat men met voeten betreden kon," etc. Whoever has voyaged up the " Great River of the Mountains," above New York, by the Catskills, or yachted in August off Sea Grove and up Delaware Bay, where the vlie-boat De Halve Maan cruised in that month long ago, will certainly agree with him. During his fourth voyage of discovery, made from P^ngland in 1610, Hudson with his only son and eight men, four of them being sick, was driven by mutineers from his ship, the Discovery, into an unprovisioned boat and cast loose among the ice, mid-seas in Hudson's Bay. There 8 SCHEYICHBI AND THE STRAND. the brave and persistent navigator must have cruelly and miserably perished. Could he but voyage once more out of the cold and ice-bound Arctic seas, how overwhelming would be his astonishment ! At the extreme point of Cape May he saw, with admiration, long ago, the green woods crowd down to the sandy strand, and from the primeval forest the wondering Kechemeches stare out, thinking his ship the canoe of their Manitou. There he would now look in amazement upon the broad avenues and handsome cottages of Sea Grove ; he would see hotels and pavilions in the place of savage wigwams, and hear the Sabbath bell, the organ, and the Christian hymn, instead of "the gaunt wolf's long- drawn howl" along the shore, or the war-whoop of the exultant savage. " The bay of the south river was the first place of which the men of the Half Moon took possession, before any Christian had been there," says Vander Donk, the historian ; and the claim of the Dutch to the adjoining territories by right of discovery was based upon the assumed accuracy of the statement. Hudson may have been the first to form- ally take possession of the Zuydt Baai, as the Hollanders called the bay of Delaware, but Cabot, Cortereal, Verazzani, Captain John Smith, and others, iiad at various times carefully observed the shores and harbors of "Virginia," and cruised along the coast to the north; besides, it is historical that very early, scores of years before the voy- ages of Hudson, "there was hardly a convenient harbor on the whole Atlantic frontier of the United States which was not entered by slavers." It seems that Hudson, following, perhaps unconsciously, in the wake of others, merely took possession of the unrecorded dis- coveries of some unknown navigator. § In answer to the petitions of a number of merchants, a general edict was issued by the States General of Holland, March 27th, 1614, for the encouragement of discovery and the protection of aboriginal trade. It was enacted by the High and Mighty States General that the discoveries of "any new courses, havens, countries, or places" should have "the exclusive privilege of resorting to and frequenting the same for four voyages," and all intruders were to be punished by confiscation and fines. A number of merchants, chiefly of Amster- dam, thereupon formed a partnership to make discoveries and carry on trade to new countries, and five vessels were fitted out to follow in the track of Hudson to Manhattan. One of these, named the Fortune, was from Hoorn, a port in North Holland, and commande-d by Corne- lis Jacob.sen Mey ; another ship, also called the Fortune, was in charge of Commander Hcndrick Christiaensen ; a third, named the Tiger, was sailed by Captain Adriaen Block. Arriving at the mouth of the Hudson, Block's vessel was accidentally destroyed by fire. To retrieve this misfortune, he erected a few huts at Castle Garden, and began to construct a yacht of about sixteen tons burthen, of the fine THE FIRST VESSEL BUILT AT NEW YORK. g timber he found there, the Indians kindly feeding him and his men, all the winter of 1613. May, in the mean time, cruised to the eastward, coasted along the southern shore of Long Island, and continued his trip to Martha's Vineyard, then called " Capacke" by the natives. Upon the completion of his new craft, the Onrust, or Restless, Block sailed through the East River and Hell Gate, where he led the way as a pilot, and through Long Island Sound, observing the coasts, harbors, islands, rivers, and waters, as far as Cape Cod, the promontory to which Hudson, in the summer of 1609, had given the name of " New Holland." Block ascertained that Long Island was sea-girt, and visited many other remarkable places along the New England coast. The records of the voyages of the consort ships, the Fortune, the Little Fox, and Nightingale, in 161 3 and 1614, are imperfect and unreliable. The name of Block Island perpetuates the memory of its persistent and intrepid discoverer, the first man to run a keel through Hell Gate, and the first " Long Island Sound Pilot." The shores which Block surveyed, and which Holland first colonized, have been for two cen- turies or more, as now, "the land of steady habits," the home of in- dustry, prosperity, intelligence, and freedom, — a " New Holland," indeed, a " New England" as well. They are glorious by day with many a fair town and city, and sparkle at night with scores of shining beacons, while over the seas the Dutchman slowly navigated speeds in ceaseless succession a numerous fleet of" floating palaces," the best, the safest, and most magnificent steamboats in the world. The " Restless," built at Manhattan, in 1614, was thirty-eight feet in the keel, forty-four and one-half feet from stem to stern, and eleven and one-half feet wide. She was remarkable as the first vessel built in the harbor of New York, but was not, as has been written, " the first decked vessel built in the old United States," the " Virginia," of " Saga- dahoc," of thirty tons, a "pretty pinnace," having been built by "one Digby, of London," at St. George's, — Sir George Popham's settlement, — at the mouth of the Penobscot River, in the winter of 1607. Still, the Restless was a notable craft, for she sailed in the van of a countless fleet, which for two hundred and fifty years has stood out from the northern coast of the United States to astonish the navigators of Eu- rope by the excellence of American ships, and furnish models for the improvement of the naval architecture of the world. Of all the many fine ships which have done honor to American shipwrights, a credita- ble share have been launched in the waters of the Delaware. Since 'the " iron age" of shipbuilding, the craftsmen of its shores have made their names honorably known from London to the " city of Pekin," and now compete with England and Scotland for supremacy in trade, confident of surpassing the industries of the Clyde on the banks of the Delaware. The Restless explored her way to " Pye Bay," now Nahant Bay, lO SCHEYICHBI AND THE STRAND. Massachusetts ; there she fell in with Christiaensen's ship, the Fortune, also on a cruise. Leaving the Restless in command of Cornells Hen- dricksen, to be used in exploring on the coast and in the rivers, Block returned to North Holland and made his report to his employers. From his sketches and descriptions an elaborate " Figurative Map" was made, and laid before the States General, with a request for a charter for those who had procured the discovery of the lands delineated upon it, without delay. A special grant, dated October iith, 1614, was made to the Amsterdam partnership ; they were conceded the monop- oly of trade from forty to forty-five degrees north latitude on the coasts of America. The partnership took the title of " The United New Netherland Company." The territory assigned them was called New Netherland. At the same time, at Manhaddoes, or Manhattan, their principal fort was named " New Amsterdam." The first vessel built at Manhattan was the first to cruise the Dela- ware. Hudson, in 1609, was too fearful of getting aground to attempt explorations in Zuydt Baai, though less timid in the Noordt Riviere. Argall, on his return from his mysterious cruise in 1610, remained but a day at anchor in the Delaware, leaving the same evening for the Chesapeake, but, in 1616, circumstances led to an exploration of the Poutaxit. It happened that three fur traders, agents of the New Netherland Company, having left Fort Nassau (near Albany), and made their way along Indian trails to the mouth of the Schuylkill, were there kept prisoners; news of this reaching Manhattan, the Restless was sent from the Mauritius River, under command of Cor- nclis Hendricksen, to ransom the adventurous captives. Block had constructed the Onrust for shallow waters and inland navigation; so Hendricksen, on his arrival at Zuydt Baai, coasted fearlessly along the western shore, making careful observations, bartering with the natives for seal-skins and sables, and being delighted with the scenery, climate, and vegetable productions of the valley, until he arrived at Coaquannock, " the place of tall pines," now central Philadelphia; there he found and ransomed his countrymen for "kettles, beads, and other merchandise." The people at Manhattan now called the Delaware River New, South, or "Zuydt" River, and the southern Cape of Zuydt Baai, now called Henlopen, was soon known as Cape Cornells, after Cornelis Hendrick- sen. A point some miles south of Cape Cornelis was named Hinlopen, in honor of Thymen Jacobsen Hinlopen, of Amsterdam, one of the "Northern Company," engaged in the whale fisheries and explorations, by which Block was employed on his return from America. Cape Hinlopen was also called Inloopcn by the Dutch schippers, because it seemed to recede from sight when approached from the sea. The names of these capes have been transferred, and the name of Henlopen is now borne by the point at first named Cornelis. ORIGIN OF THE NAME OF CAPE MAY. II § In 1620, Cornelius Jacobsen May, who in 16 14 commanded the Fortune of Hoorn in the explorations along the coast east of Man- hattan, came again to New Netherland in a new vessel called the "Blyde Boodschap," or Glad Tidings. This voyage was intended for the exploration of territories to the west of and below Manhattan, and those south of the fortieth degree to "Virginia," and was made to include Zuydt Baai and the Chesapeake, which the Blyde Boodschap ascended, and went up the James River to Jamestown. May carefully examined the bay and river of the Delaware, where Hendricksen had preceded him four years before, and then returning to Holland early in the summer of 1620, announced the discovery of "certain new populous and fruitful lands" along the Zuydt Riviere. The Poutaxit, Zuydt, or Delaware Bay, as the Indians, Dutch, and English had named it, was after this called "Nieuw Port Mey," and the name of " Cape Mey" was given to the southern point of New Jersey, then as now "the best bathing place in the world." May, as Hendricksen had done, indeed as every one does who visits Cape May in summer, found the climate charming. It was the highest compliment they could imagine, when the Dutch explorers, a home- loving though voyaging people, declared the climate of the Delaware was "like to that of Holland;" as good as home. As it happened, both the nomen and cognomen of Cornelius Jacobsen May were applied to capes at the mouth of the Delaware, but the name of Cornelius, given in honor of Hendricksen, has been thrust aside and made insignificant, while the fame of Cape May has become world- wide, and summer by summer its increasing attractions add to its popularity, as time multiplies its appreciative visitors. § The principles of the Lutheran Reformation gave permanence and character to the colonization of the United States ; the hand of perse- cution pointed the way to New Netherland, and the valleys of the Hud- son and the Delaware became an asylum from ecclesiastical despotism even while the Puritans of New England, jealous of their own freedom, denied liberty to others. When, in 1623, the great Dutch West India Company, complete in organization, sought to people its territories, the victims of persecution offered themselves as its first and most desirable emigrants. When the Hollanders, after their revolt against Spain and the Inqui- sition, in 1565, formed the Union of Utrecht, the Belgic provinces of Hainault, Namur, Luxemburg, Limburg, and Liege, having mostly Roman Catholic citizens, did not join the Dutch Confederation ; still, many of the Belgic people were Protestants, and as such were victims of persecution under Philip II. of Spain. Speaking the old French lan- guage, these people were termed Gallois; they fled by thousands to Holland, where their skill as well as their faith secured them protection and a welcome. In low Dutch the name of the rcfucfces became 12 SCHEYICHBI AND THE STRAND. " Waalsche," which the English rendered Walloons. The farmers among the Walloons found poor encouragement in Holland, and in 1622 a number of them offered to emigrate to Virginia if assured municipal freedom. Some delay followed their application to the British Minister at the Hague, and meantime those willing to form a settlement were, at the suggestion of the Provincial States of Holland, engaged as colonists by the Dutch West India Company, and em- ployed in Holland until such time as the perfect organization of that corporation would enable its Directors to send the Walloons to New Netherland. Having by virtue of their charter taken possession of their domain in 1622, the Dutch West India Company secured the assent of the States General to their articles of internal government the 21st of June, 1623. The same month three trading ships were dispatched to Manhattan " to maintain the course of traffic," and a special effort was made to colonize " Nova Belgia." The " New Netherland," a ship of two hundred and sixty tons, was fitted up, and on board her were embarked a company of thirty families, mostly the Walloons who had offered to settle in Virginia. The superintendence of the ship and colony was entrusted to Cornelius Jacobsen May, who was appointed to remain in New Netherland as First Director; his second in command on the ship being Schipper Adriaen Joris, of Theinpont. The expe- dition left the Texel early in March, and, following the southern route by the Canary Islands and Guiana, came in safety to Manhattan, the beginning of May. At the mouth of the North River the emigrants repulsed a party of Frenchmen, who were about to erect the arms of France; the French ship, however, renewed her attempt at Zuydt Raai, but was driven off from there by the Dutch settlers or traders. At an early date the Dutch established a lookout at Cape May, and from the time Cornelius Hendricksen in the Onrust explored the Delaware, they were generally well informed of whatever took place thereabouts, and frequently warned off whoever entered. At Manhattan, Director May left several families, and a number of sailors and men from the New Netherland, for the settlement of South River and the shore of the sound eastward. The ship then proceeded with difficulty up the North River, and landed her company just above Castle Island, on the western bank of the Hudson, at Albany. There "a fort with four angles, named Orange," which had been plotted the year before, was soon com[)lctcd ; the industrious Walloons "put the spade in the earth," and when the next yacht sailed for Holland, their corn " was nearly as hii^h as a man, so that they were getting along bravely." Brave hearts, heroic souls, the verdant corn you tilled struck no root so deep in the soil of the New World as the faith for which you were exiles, no harvest spread so rich a growth as the principles of freedom and toleration you planted here! Down the Hudson every ■ — ^1 1 LOVE AND PEACE IN THE WILDERNESS. 13 year floats the wealth of granaries, richer than Egypt, but the spirit of Reh'gious Liberty and Civil Independence, entrenched in the hearts of millions, bids defiance to intriguing priests and threatening tyrants as it breathes the benediction of " Peace on earth and good will to men" over the vast expanse of a mighty continent. To prevent attempts to occupy Zuydt Baai, the fort projected in 1622 was, by order of Director May, speedily completed. It was built five miles below Philadelphia, on the Jersey side of the river, of great logs, and named Fort Nassau, the first post of that name, on the island near Albany, having been destroyed by flood and ice. There were four weddings on board the New Netherland during her two-months' voyage from Holland over the sunny Southern seas. Director May, who was a kindly man, had been directed to govern his people " as a father, not as an executioner;" and it was with a touch of romance, as well as paternal care, that he selected these eight newly-married Wal- loons, and sent them, about the first of June, in a yacht, with as many sailors, to abide at Fort Nassau. They were far from home, from friends, even from civilization, a mere handful in the wilderness among savages, but they were enough ; each for the other of every pair, and all for each of the quadruple family. It was a fitting and poetic thing that the valley which was to welcome the men of peace, and grow in peace to be the home of freedom, should owe its first historic settle- ment to young and joyous brides, with their free and hopeful partners. It was in harmony also that they should come in the fresliness of summer, when the very air was balm, when every leaf told of life and vigor, when every forest aisle was sweet with woodland fragrance and echoing with bird songs, every note swelling the all-pervading melody, one perfect chorus, whose glad refrain was evermore of love, and still of universal, all-embracing love. Eighteen of the Walloon families settled at Albany, others went for a time to the House of Good Hope, at Hartford, Connecticut ; others made themselves homes, in comfort and happiness, on Long Island. There, in June, 1625, Sarah Rapelje, the first white child of New Neth- erland, was born ; and thereabouts, in usefulness and honor, the de- scendants of the Calvanist Gallois still reside. § Of Cornelius Jacobscn May, who was formally installed during the summer of 1623 as the first Director-General of New Netherland, there is but little more to be said, but that little is entirely to his credit. "'Tis better to govern by love and friendship than by force," wrote his superiors in Holland ; and May acted in the spirit of his instructions, to " the great contentment of the people." Among the Indians at Fort Nassau May's little colony of brides and grooms were unharmed, while at both Manhattan and Fort Orange the Indians "were all as quiet as lambs, and came and traded with all the free- dom imaginable." It required other men than May, and other means H SCHEYICHBI AND THE STRAND. than " love and friendship," to arouse the savage in the red man of America. Mentioned as a man of experience at the time of his appointment, Director May had many unrecorded adventures. During one of his earliest voyages to America he found the colonists at Manhattan suf- fering for stores and clothing. From his own ship he supplied their necessities, and the grateful Manhattanese celebrated the timely relief by giving the name of Port May to their harbor. The voyage of Director May to the Delaware, in 1620, was com- memorated by the name of New Port May, applied to the bay of the Delaware, and by that of Cape May, ever since retained by the southern point of New Jersey. Thus circumstances supposed to indicate the vanity of May in affix- ing his name to various localities are explained either as a just tribute to the deeds of another exploring " Cornelius," or the grateful and graceful act of his people. Cape May is one of the very few points about the Delaware which retain the names first given them by white men ; but of the thousands who visit it annually, very many are not aware of the source from which that name was derived. Some, careless of history, infer from their pleasant experience of its balmy atmosphere that Cape May derived its appellation from the May-like breezes which make its summers "balmy as the breath of spring." But " the Cape," especially since the improve- ment of Sea Grove, has too many charming attractions to need mis- representation to make it popular. By nature and improvement Cape May is superior as a seaside resort, but its name is significant only as a memento of the old-time voyages of the Hollanders, and of their regard for the character and exploits of their popular Superintendent. Though the name of Cornelius Jacobsen May disappears from this history, the admirers of Cape May have reason to be proud of the name it bears, since it recalls only deeds of courage and goodness, such as confer an honest fame in the history of time, and crown with happiness the pure in heart amid the glories of eternity. § But while perfect peace and fair prosperity marked the history of their colonics, the Directors of the Dutch West India Company were disturbed by the enterprise of a person destined to play an important part in the events of New Netherland. A mariner of Hoorn, North Holland, by the name of David Pietersen Dc Vries, who had several times voyaged to Newfoundland, procured a commission from the King of France, and, dividing his venture with some Rochelle merchants, he bought a small vessel for a voyage to Canada, for fish and peltries. Determined to prevent all ships but their own sailing to North Amer- ica from Holland, the Directors seized the vessel of De Vries as it lay in the harbor of Hoorn ready to sail, and detained it until an admoni- tory mandate of the States General ordered its release. De Vries re- FIRST PURCHASE OF MANHATTAN. 15 ceived his vessel after much delay; although his v»oyage was broken up, his claim for damages was evaded, and, suffering from corporate injustice, the enterprising navigator was compelled to bide his time and await another chance of fortune. Director William Verhulst presided over New Netherland in 1625. He visited the Delaware and extended his voyage far up to the falls at Trenton; there on an island in the bend of the river another trading post was established, and for a time occupied by several families of Walloons. Verhulst returned to Holland in 1626, and Peter Minuit became Director-General of New Netherland. "To superadd a higher title" than that supposed to be derived from discovery and occupation, Minuit purchased Manhattan from the Indians. The island contained about twenty-two thousand acres, and was bought of the natives "for the value of sixty guilders," — about twenty-four dollars. Having bought Manhattan, the Dutch began a fort, "to be faced with cut stone," for its defense; for the misbehavior of some of the colonists had given reason to fear just hostility. About the same time the posts on South River were much reduced, and in 1628 left un- tenanted, in order to strengthen Manhattan. Still there were in all probability settlers left on the Delaware, rK3t perhaps the servants of the Company, but " vrye persoonen," who had reason to trust their Indian neighbors, and led a roving, adventurous life among them; but of these adventurers history, made up of corporation documents, has nothing to relate. Before the completion of the fort at Manhattan, it was called Fort Amsterdam, and made the seat of government. There has been a great amount and variety of government on the island of New York since that date, and not a little misgovernment; but with it all an undeniable increase of trade, and a most notable advance in the price of real estate. § The United Provinces of the Batavian Republic elaborated the idea of federal union, but their institutions failed to develop personal liberty; the peasantry of Holland had therefore too lijttle self-reliance to emigrate, and a plan was evolved to encourage colonization, called the Charter of Privileges and Exemptions. By the provisions of this new charter of 1629, whoever of the stockholders of the Dutch West India Company established a colony of fifty persons within four years in New Netherland, became a " Patroon" or " Lord of the Manor." The Patroon had jurisdiction over the settlement he founded, and, by peaceful purchase from the natives, might hold and own the lands on the sea-shore or river-bank for sixteen miles, and as far inland as "the situation of the occupiers would admit;" or the land each side of a river could be held half as far, with a pro rata increase for more colonists in each case. While the Charter of Freedoms and Exemptions was under consid- eration, several directors of the Dutch West India Company, tempted 1 1 6 SCHEYICHBI AND THE STRAND. by the concessions it made, undertook to forestall its provisions, and embezzle for themselves in advance the richest territories of the cor- poration. These crafty schemers sent three ships to America with agents to locate manors, and buy the land of the Indians. One of these ships entered the Delaware in May, and on the ist of June, 1629, a {^\N days before the adoption of the charter in Holland, "two persons," who came on the ship, bought for directors Samuel Godyn and Samuel Blommaert, from the natives, a tract of land two miles wide, which extended from Cape Henlopen thirty-two miles up the bay to the mouth of the river. At the first meeting of the Amsterdam Chamber after the adoption of the Charter of Freedoms and Exemptions, Director Samuel Godyn gave notice that he as Patroon occupied the bay of the South River, having notified Minuit to register his possession of the same at New Amsterdam. To remove the dissatisfaction which was manifest in the chamber at the course taken by them, and to secure capital, the Pa- troons admitted Killiaen Van Rensselaer, Johannes de Laet, the his- torian, Mathias Van Ceulen, Hendrick Hamel, Johan Van Haringhoeck, and Nicholas Van Sittorigh, as partners in their enterprise. In order to secure his services as supervntendent, Pieterzen De Vries was made an equal partner in the concern. The ship "Walvis," or Whale, carrying eighteen guns, and a yacht, were fitted out at once for an expedition to the Zuydt Baai. The two vessels were loaded with colonists, stock, animals, seeds, tools, and the requisites of an agricultural colony. At the suggestion of Godyn, implements were also taken for the capture of the whales, seals, and sturgeons, then abundant in the Delaware. Amply supplied, the expedition left the Texel December 12th*, 1630, under command of Pieter Heyes, of Edam, North Holland, Peterzen De Vries remaining in Amsterdam. Through carelessness on board the Walvis, the yacht was captured by Dunkirk privateers, but the ship kept on, and, passing by Tortugas, where a part of her colonists were bound on French account, but which was found in Spanish hands, she completed her trip. In April, the Whale arrived safely at Zuydt Baai. Poinding a safe landing and convenient harbor, with islands, good oysters, and very fertile land, the colony was landed up the stream on the banks of a " kill" (creek, or small river), near the present Lewes, Del. Tliis stream, which was called after the city of Hoorn, Hoornkill, Hooikill, etc., afterwards corrupted to Whoorkill, or Whore- kill, was also called the river of Swans, and was reported to be two leagues from " Cape Kornelis," now Cape Henlopen, the site of the splendid light that, with its equal and neighbor at Sea Grove, illumin- ates the wide entrance to the Delaware. In the vale where the Dutch colonists landed there were many swans, and hence they gave their settlement the name of Swaanendael (Swandalc). Gillis Hoasctt, a former agent of Van Rensselaer's in the purchase ORIGINAL DEED OF CAPE MAY. 17 of lands from the North River Indians, was placed in command of the station ; a large brick house was built of Holland brick, and enclosed with palisades ; this building served at once as a residence for all the colony, a storehouse, and a fort. As soon as the settlement was well begun, Commissary Hossett and Schipper Heyes visited the Jersey shore, and, as agents of Godyn and Blommaert, bought of ten Indian chiefs, on May 5th, 1630, a tract of land twelve miles along the shore of the bay, from Cape May Point to the north, and twelve miles inland above, and including Cape May. The lands on the northern and eastern shores of Delaware Bay were in possession of the great and influential but peaceable tribe, called Lenni Lenape (the original people). From them must have been obtained the original title to Cape May ; and the Nanticokes, who occupied what is now Delaware, must have been the grantors who, on July 15th, 1630, ratified by treaty the sale of the western shore of the bay, made to Godyn and Blom- maert's agents the year before. § Such is the record of the first transaction in real estate at Cape May; the advance in value on the smallest building lot in Sea Grove, for the current year, is represented by a sum of money greater than was needed to buy the lands of all the lower Delaware; yet both parties were well pleased with the speculation. The Indians, who knew but little more of the full purport and effect of a deed of land than the deer of the primeval woods, were delighted with the "pres- ents" they received, and charmed by the civil and novel manners of their liberal customers. The patroons needed but to examine their pur- chase to become satisfied they had come into possession of a land of promise. Zuydt Baai was now called Godyn's Baai, by which name it was afterwards well known to the Dutch. After spending a few weeks at Swaanendael, Heyes, with Hossett in company, visited New Amster- dam, and there, on the 3d of June, 163 1, had the purchase they had effected formally recorded and attested by Director-General Minuit and his council. The deeds of the lands purchased on the Delaware for Godj'n and Blommaert were deposited at Fort Amsterdam, and conveyed to Holland, but are now in the archives of the State of New York, at Albany. Whaling was undertaken by Heyes in Godyn's Baai, but the experi- ment was a failure, and, in September, 163 1, the Walvis sailed for Hol- land. Gillis Hossett remained at Swaanendael to superintend that colony, and, by more thorough explorations of the new manors and their resources, prepare the way for future settlements. Pioneer explorations must have been magnificent in those days. As Hossett sailed over the waters of the Delaware he saw a roadstead and harbor, where all the commerce of Europe could ride secure; the low shores on either side reminded him and his companions of Holland, as they offered every facility for the construction of canals, in broad 1 8 SCHEYICHBI AND THE STRAND. marshes, which could easily be redeemed from the sea, and turned into fertile fields. But, unlike Holland, Cape May had dense forests of varied timber near the shores, for the countless hulls of navies, such as the world had never seen, and beyond, yet near, interminable swamps where the giant cedars towered, — an arsenal of imperishable planks and spars to equip every craft, though each of them were more huge than ever sailed the Texel, or startled the dreams of shipwrights beside the Zuyder Zee. The waters swarmed with fish : the whale, the por- poise, the sturgeon, and the cod abounded; besides, there were black fish, blue fish, "green" fish, "silver" fish, and "variegated" fish ; there were mackerel, gar-fish, drum, bass, perch, herrings, flounders, turbots, soles, eels, anchovies, mullets, porgies, smelts, and shiners, all affording *^an ocean full" of excellent food; then there was also the flying-fish, and scores of other varieties more curious than eatable. There is no historic evidence that Gillis Hossett or the mariner Peter Heyes tarried to catch all these kinds of fish; if not, it was their own fault; the fish were there, and one summer, just two and a quarter cen- turies later. Secretary Spencer F. Baird, of the Smithsonian Institute, caught them all except the whale, the sturgeon, the porpoise, and the cod-fish, in the waters near Cape May; moreover, any visitor of Sea Grove may have the same pleasure. The whale rarely visits the Dela- ware now; the porpoise still rolls lazily against the tide, but the stur- geon are comparatively few; yet if any transient dweller by the sea despises the capture of the smaller fry, and aspires to wage war upon veritable monsters of the deep, he can, by taking passage for deep water on the yacht of the Sea Grove Association, not only enjoy a trip over genuine ocean billows, but may, if favored by St. Peter, return with " a string" of sJiarks, and an appetite like that of the marine out- law he captures. At the time of Godyn's purchases, the marshes of Cape May were much more extensive, and the sounds and thoroughfares larger. The explorer found the inland waters of Cape May abounding with fine oysters, clams, crabs, and other shell-fish, as at present. The marshes around the sounds, and the savannas or slashes between the sandy beaches, were the haunts of countless water-fowl, some remarkable for their large size and notable appearance, while many of various kinds were estimable as game birds and known to the natives then as deli- cious delicacies, as well as to the sportsman and bott vivant of the present. In their proper season the Canada geese were immensely numerous, and their habitual resorts were also frequented by more than two dozen varieties of duck and plover, in flocks or pairs, by tens of thousands; among them was the world-renowned "canvas-back" [Anas valisncria). The meadows, marshes, and shores were overrun by snipe and loons, woodcock, rail, curlew, bitterns, herons, sand-pipers, and tern. Eagles, cormorants, hawks, gulls, and other fish-loving varieties of birds UPLAND BIRDS OF CAPE MAY. 19 hovered over the waves and the quiet waters for prey, or, pirate-h'ke, plundered others of the scaly prize. On the uplands the variety of birds was vastly greater — quite too numerous to mention outside of scientific catalogue. The bald eagle, and ten or a dozen kind of hawks, half as many owls, and eight or ten kinds of fly-catchers exercised their capacity upon their varied and proper game ; while the turkey-buzzard, with the help of several kinds of crows, was the common scavenger of the land. Master Evelyn, William Penn, and others mention wild turkeys of the Delaware country which weighed from forty-five to fifty pounds. Grouse, partridges, pigeons, doves, and robins were abundant. Of birds of song there was no lack. There were fourteen kinds of warblers ; there were thrushes, larks, vieros, finches, sparrows, orioles, bobolinks, blackbirds, blue jays, cuckoos, and mocking birds, with hosts of others more or less musical. Of birds remarkable for plumage there were many fine species. The great blue, white, and snowy herons, and some of the ducks, were very handsome. The snowy owl, well named, was a choice specimen, while red birds, yellow birds, blue birds, scarlet birds, indigo birds, golden birds, and numerous party-colored birds, lent animation to the woods. Besides all these, the humming bird, bright flashing gem of the air, bred at Cape May. Since the advent of white men upon the coast some varieties of birds have almost or quite disappeared, yet no locality in the United States surpasses Sea Grove and its vicinity in advantages for the naturalist. The distinguished American ornithologist, Wilson, resided during different seasons in the neighborhood of Cape May. y\t such times he was the guest of the elder Thomas Beesley, of Bees- ley's Point, and his visits are yet remembered by some of the oldest people. Thomas Beesley declares, in a too brief note to one of his scientific contributions, that the interest awakened there by Wilson in the study of ornithology has never ceased. To that interest and a lively intelligence are to be credited the catalogue of birds and beasts which Thomas Beesley has added to the natural science of his native county, and the fact that " Beesley's Point" has become one of the important centres of scientific interest in South Jersey. It is a legend that birds choose for their habitat the most favorable and pleasant lands — the fairest scenes. Upon this point Thomas Beesley, in a note to his catalogue of Cape May birds, quotes a citizen of Cape May as saying, " If birds in their choice of a residence are gifted in deter- mining what is the fairest and what is best, there can be no question but that the County of Cape May is among the most attractive portions of the earth ; for here they congregate in as great a variety and abund- ance as upon any other portion of at least the civilized globe." The intermediate latitude of Cape May and its consequent equable climate, with an uncommon distribution of ocean, sound, lake, river, 20 SCHEYICHBI AND THE STRAND. swamp, tliicket, wood, marsh, and meadow, afford varied attractions to the denizens of the air. Birds of the north and of the south, with many a feathered beauty "to the manor born," there congregate and dwell, or visit the scene on flashing wing with tumultuous song one after another, as the passing year rolls its changing glories through the sky. To the plodding pot-hunter the birds of Cape May supply — his dinner; to the sportsman, choice and abundant game; to the naturalist, an unequaled field of study; to the artist, forms and hues of beauty; to the invalid, cheer and diversion; to all, a song; to the thoughtful and pious soul, most — bright examples of nature's handi- work, a joyous testimony to the universal providence of God! The pioneers of Cape May were very practical persons, men who would turn away from the finest display of plumage and the sweetest song to capture a good fat goose or pursue the woodland creatures for their skins; hunting for fur-bearing animals in South Jersey over two centuries ago, they could hardly go amiss. The bison or buffalo, the black bear, the panther, the wolf, the catamount, and the deer, were the largest of the wild beasts of Cape May; of the smaller species there were opossums, raccoons, foxes, minks, otters, and, most valuable of all, the beaver. Some half-dozen kinds of squirrels filled the trees, muskrats infested the streams, rabbits were plenty, and the skunks, in bad odor, were numerous, waiting a change of fashion to give value to their handsome pelt. Twenty years ago a half-dozen black bears in an autumn would perchance be killed in the Cape May County swamps, a few deer would also be taken; the beaver is probably extinct; the opossum, the raccoon, the rabbit, the pclecat, the squirrel, the otter, and an occasional fox are the remaining animals of Cape May. The agents of the Dutch patroons gave little attention to the flowers which adorned the lands they bought, yet a botanist would have gathered them with delight. The same causes which make Cape May the resort of the ornithologist and ichthyologist have rendered all South Jersey a vast botanical garden famous on both sides of the Atlantic, some of its plants being peculiar and local. In 1748 and 1749 Peter Kalm, botanist to the King of Sweden, made a collection in South Jersey, the sight of which made Linnaeus forget an attack of gout; the Kaluiia, a species of laurel, was so called by Linnaeus in honor of Kalm. As recent authorities in the botany of South Jersey, Maurice Beesley, M.D., Samuel Ashmead, and Mary Treat, of Vine- land, have been extensively quoted. § The aboriginal Indian was a savage and a pagan; the mistake of most Christian colonists was to consider themselves saints, and the red man a natural devil. The valleys of the Delaware and Schuylkill were inhabited at the time of the Dutch settlements by the tribe of Lenni Lenape, a name which signified "the original people." The Lenni Lenape were divided into Mantaunaks or Delawares, and LENNI LENAPE SEWAN. 21 Muncccs, Munseys, or Mincees ; the last lived above the Sankitan, Stankekan, or Sanhickan falls, near Trenton, and toward the Hudson. The Lenni Lenape were a superior tribe; they came from beyond the Mississippi, and conquered their way to the Atlantic. Subsequently, by the terms of a treaty made with the Hodensaunee Konoshion, or Iroquois Confederation, they abandoned war, becoming "women," that is to say, non-combatants, and, as the Indian matrons were, referees and peacemakers. Hendrick Aupaumut, chief of the Muheconuck, Mohican, or Mohegan tribe, of Stockbridge, Massachusetts, in his report of his mission as the embassador of the United States to the Western tribes (Mem. Hist. Soc. Pa., vol. ii.). calls the Delawares " Grandfethers," and adds that the British and Five Nations depended upon them to make peace, as " this nation had the greatest influence with the South- ern, Western, and Northern nations;" also that the Lenni Lenape, since about 1600, had been grandfathers or "wise ones," to whom the tribes looked as judges in arbitration. The general traits of American Indians, aside from the usages of war, characterized the Lenni Lenape; one notable habit of theirs was peculiar to such tribes as inhabited the shores of New Jersey and New York, or lived elsewhere near localities like Cape May. The Indians used no salt, but preserved their fish and meats by drying and smoking; at the shore they boiled, strung, and dried clams, which were used to season their insipid fare. The manufacture of this Indian delicacy left behind an immense quantity of shells, those of the common clam, the Venus mercenaria, which the Indians called Pequonuck or Quahaug. These shells, in a broken state, are to be found in great heaps on the shores of the sounds and water-courses in the vicinity of Sea Grove. The fragmentary condition of the shells distinguishes the shell heaps of Indian creation from the beds and mounds of shells which owe their origin to natural causes, or to the bivalve-consuming propensities of white men. The Indian resorted to the shore of the Atlantic, not alone for health and comfort, but to make viomy. Near Sea Grove, as on the shores of Sewan-hacky (Sewan-land), Long Island, New York, an aboriginal " mint" was kept in operation, and the circulating medium of exchange there issued was current at a fixed value all over the continent. This Indian money was called variously sewan, suckauhock, wampum, wampompcague, peague, etc., and was coined in the form of beads, from shells, and strung on strings some- what after the manner of Chinese "cash." There were two kinds of sewan. The black — " the gold of the In- dians" — was made from the black portion of the clam-shells, and called suckauhock. It was rated at double the value of the white, called wampum, which was made from the stem of the periwinkle {Liitoniuc)\ hence the shell heaps the Indians have left along the shore of Cape May contain mostly the white part of clam-shells, broken in small 22 SCHEYICHDI AND THE STRAND. pieces to secure the black and valuable portions. Aside from the color of the wampum, it was criticised by the natives as to its form and finish, and the usages of aboriginal commerce required that the beads should be uniform in size and shape, and bored in the centre. To test sewan, the Indians drew the strings of beads deftly across their noses; if they found them smooth, uniform, and well strung, they passed at par; the worn or imperfect were discounted or rejected. The sewan was used not only as currency, but as jewelry and material for orna- mentation. " The Dutch, at Albany," says Kalm, " made and sold a great deal of sewan in their extensive trade with the Five Nations. There were at one time sixty or seventy shops in Albany where sewan was made, and the Iroquois called the town Laaphanachking, — i.e., "the place of stringing wampum." Sewan was also made in other places, " by poor people," and the Indians suffered the inconvenience of " an inflated currency" after a time. The New Netherlands accepted sewan in trade themselves, good wampum being in some colonies as current as silver; it was voted "to goe six a penny in New Haven in 1640." Sewan, or wampum, was the currency of New Netherlands in 164 1 ; afterwards the contributions to the churches were paid in it. At New Amsterdam " four beads of good black, well-strung wampum, or eight of the white," were reckoned as one stuyver, — a Dutch coin about a cent in value. In 1650, " there being at present no other specie," sewan was made lawfully current, at the rate of three black or six white beads of "commercial .sewan," or four black and six white of the "base strung," for one stuyver, the rate ordered "to goe" in Nieu Haven. By this the drain of " specie" into New England was checked. The Indian had no banks, and was innocent of " corners," " bonuses," "divvies," brokerages, commissions, margins, "puts and calls," and " irregularities," yet he was a financier in his way, and managed " ex- change" for his own benefit. In heavy transactions, sewan, either suckauhock or wampum, was counted by the fathom, measured by the spread arms of an Indian. Commissary Hudde, of Fort Nassau, in 1648, complained that the Cape May tribe made barter "rather too much against them," as " the Indians always take the largest and tallest among them to trade with us," by which means the long-armed " tel- lers" compassed a long price for their clansmen's beaver-skins. " In 1756," says Dr. Beesley, " Jacob Spicer, of Cape May, advertised to barter goods for all kinds of produce and commodities, and, among the rest, particularly designated wampum (suckauhock). He offered a reward of five pounds to the person that should manufacture the most wampum. He succeeded in procuring a quantity of the wampum, and, before sending it off to Albany and a market, weighed a shot-bag full of silver coin, and the same shot-bag full of wampum, and found the latter (by weight) most valuable by ten per cent." After the fall of Oswego he chronicles the decline of the wampum traffic. The Narra- DE VRIES'S FIRST VOYAGE TO THE DELAWARE. 23 gansetts and Pequods, who were able to produce sewan on their shores, kept themselves rich and powerful by the possession and use of it. The Cape May Indians held similar advantages, and the accumulated refuse of their work shows that they were not neglectful of their op- portunities. Such, two and a half centuries ago, were the people, such the sur- roundings, among which lay the assumed territories of the High and Mighty Dutch West India Company, and the intended manors of the would-be patroons, Godyn and Blommaert. § The unfair advantage Godyn, Blommaert, and a few others had conspired to take of the Charter of Privileges and Exemptions gave great offense, and partisan feeling became bitter against the patroons and those who defended their claims. Director-General Minuit, who was cognizant of the operations of the patroons, was recalled from his office, but Minuit had simply carried out the laws and orders of the company. Sensible of the injustice done him, Minuit transferred his authority to the Manhattan Council, and sailed for Holland to vindi- cate himself, in March, 1632, bearing with him not only his own trou- bles, but sad news for the patroons and the friends of the colonists at Swaanendael. The first accounts from Swaanendael received by the patroons, some time after the Walvis left that colony, reported that all had been well, and that the colony was pleasantly prosperous. The ill luck of the Walvis had discouraged the proprietors somewhat, but Godyn was still sanguine about the whale fishery, and, in February, 1632, it was agreed that a ship and yacht should be fitted out, with De Vries himself as patroon and commander, to fish in the South Bay during the winter of 1633. This ship and the yacht Squirrel were accordingly fitted out for a whaling voyage, and were ready to sail the last of May. On the 24th of May, just before De Vries got off, news was received at Amsterdam, having been brought by Director-General Minuit, by the way of Ports- mouth, that Swaanendael had been destroyed by the Indians. De Vries, though distressed by the news, put to sea, but an unskill- ful pilot ran his ship on the sands off Dunkirk; she with difficulty got into Portsmouth the 25th of May. The ship was made seaworthy, and sailed the ist of August, in company with the great ship "New Netherland, of six or eight hundred tunncs," which had been built at Manhattan, in 163 1, and was then returning from her first voyage to Holland. De Vries arrived on December 5th, in the offing of Godj'n's Baai. As he neared the coast he saw no beacon kindled to give warning of his approach ; he heard no resounding and reassuring gun ; no signal waved to denote his looked-for arrival, and give the sign for joyous welcome. An ominous silence brooded everywhere, — only the waves dashed mournfully, and the tall cedars soughed in the blast of Decern- 24 SCHEYICHBI AND THE STRAND. ber, as if they chanted a requiem. No Indians appearing, a well-armed boat was sent into the Horekill the next day, to open communication. Finding none of the savages about, the boat pushed on, and landed at Swaanendael, where discoveries were soon made which justified the worst apprehensions of De Vries. The colony had disappeared, — buildings, gardens, plantations, fishing-stations, whale-boats, all were gone. Only ashes and fire-blasted ruins remained, surrounded by the wolf-gnawed and bleaching bones of his comrades and servants. In despondency De Vries returned to his yacht, and a gun was fired to call in the Indians. The next morning a smoke was seen arising from near the ruins of Swaanendael. The boat went into the creek, and a few of the savages were seen prowling about. They were shy, and the crew of the boat distrustful. The yacht gave more protection from treacherous arrows than the open boat, and so De Vries ran her into the creek. The Indians soon came to the shore, but for some time none could be persuaded to come on board. Finally one venture- some fellow made bold to dare the vengeance of the Swannekins, and came alone among the Dutch. De Vries gave him a " cloth dress," and sent word by him to his chief that he wished to make a peace. The Indians at once became more familiar, and that night one of them stayed on board, and was induced to give the particulars of the tragic fate of the colony. According to the story of the Indian on the yacht, Gillis Hossett had considered it requisite to post the arms of Holland, painted on a sheet of tin, by attaching them to a pillar he set up, the site of which the Indian pointed out. An Indian, attracted by the sheen of the metal, " not thinking he was doing amiss," carefully removed the shield for his own purpose. Hossett took much to heart the insult to the Bata- vian Republic, and angrily denounced the tribe for the offense of a person, as if it were some mighty matter. It was a great fuss to make about a bit of tin, but the Indians took it for earnest, and soon pre- sented Hossett the scalp of the culprit, to his avowed astonishment, chagrin, and disgust. Rebuked, humbled, thrown off, hurt in feeling, the jealous, vindictive sons of the forest returned to their wigwams, but not to live in peace. The Indians had a custom like that of the Jews, in " the avenger of blood." If a relative were slain, it was an obligation to avenge his fall unless " atonement" were made by the offender. This could be done by his paying, after the manner of the ancient Greeks, " blood-money," to " cover the graves of the dead." " If a l)iother bleed. On just atonement we remit the deed ; A sire the slaughter of his son forgives, The price of blood discharged, the murderer lives." (Pope: liiaJ, ix.) THE FATE OF SWAANENDAEL. 25 The Indian who had been killed at Swaanendael was a sachem. — vengeance could not be allowed to sleep. The aggrieved Indians held Hossett accountable as the cause of the murder, still he could at any time have purchased exemption for a few guilders' worth of goods; this he unwisely neglected to do, and was accordingly condemned to die, and the colony that harbored him was to share his fate. One day Hossett was sick and remained in the house, but one of his men, a housekeeper, being with him, when a lurking war party of Indians came near the place. In the yard a large bull-dog, or Dutch mastiff, was chained ; had he been loose, they would not have dared approach the house. Suddenly three Indians presented themselves, and offered a small lot of beaver-skins for sale. Learning that no others were near, they set upon Hossett and his servant and killed them at once. With the dog, " which they feared most," they had more trouble, and the Indian related with wonder and admiration that the brave guardian of the threshold never ceased to fight, and died only when pierced by twenty-five arrows. But for his chain, as they knew, the Dutch mastiff would have taught the bloody savages the difference between a dog of his breed and keep and one of their own skulking, mangy little curs. The men of the colony were at work in the adjacent gardens and cornfields ; they were approached in a friendly manner, and a treacherous attack made upon them. Whatever of courage they manifested, whatever of desperate heroism (for the Dutch were brave), is unknown, as it was unavailing ; one by one rap- idly they fell, far from their beloved " Faderlandt," among barbarous foes, perishing victims to the folly of their Governor and the revenge- ful passions of cruel savages. Shocked, saddened, disappointed, and involved in financial loss, De Vries was not discouraged, and made no useless attempt at revenge. The Indians were glad to make a formal treaty of peace with De Vries, which was brought about by his tact and coolness the following day. Receiving various presents, the bewildered Nanticokes departed in great joy to hunt for beaver-skins to trade with the prudent and reti- cent Hollander. Such is the awful story of the first bloodshed in the settlement of Delaware, and thus were the possessions of the Dutch " sealed with blood, and dearly enough bought." To De Vries the honor is due, that from that time war between the races was unknown, and bloodshed extremely rare in all the country round about Swaan- endael. Mindful of the plans and interests of his partners, De Vries tried the whale fishery; he had anticipated "royal work," but, from the imper- fection of their gear, the Dutchmen were not very successful. To eke out his supplies, De Vries, in his yacht, the Squirrel, with seven men made a trip up the Poutaxit, as the Indians called Zuydt, South, Godyn's, or Delaware Bay ; and above into the Lcnape-ittuck, Mack- 26 SCHEYICHBI AND THE STRAND. erish-kitton, or Arasapha, as the red men had named the Zuydt, South, Godyn's, Prince Hendrick's, or Delaware River. It was New Year time, and the Dutch hoped to "buy some beans of the Indians." The bay and river were full of floatin^^ ice ; working his yacht through this, De Vries came, on the 5th of January, to Fort Nassau, finding none but Indians. The natives advised De Vries to go up the Timmer Kill, or Timber Kill, for his supplies; but a Sankitan, or Stankekan squaw warned the Dutch to keep out of the creeks, or the river Indians would murder them, as they had recently killed the crew of an English shallop, in " Count Ernest's River." Avoiding the creeks, therefore, De Vries went on up to Red Hook, or Mantes. There some forty Indians came on board, offering to barter beaver skins, and " playing on reeds to allay suspicion." Unaware that the Dutch were informed of their murder of the English crew, some of them wore the jackets of the men they had butchered. De Vries told them their " Maneto" had revealed their treacherous plans to him, and, driving them all on shore, returned to Fort Nassau. There several chiefs came on board the yacht, some of whom had worn the jackets at Red Hook, but now they were dressed in robes of fur. The Indians sat down in a solemn circle on the deck, and stated they had come to make a long peace ; a long ceremony, during which ten beaver-skins were presented, one after another, by the Indians, ratified the formal compact. For the skins presented in their ceremonies the Indians refused any compensation whatever. De Vries, however, bought other beaver-skins, and, procur- ing a small supply of corn and beans, sailed for his ship, and was on board the 13th of the month. Five days after, De Vries again started to coast along the shore and visit Fort Nassau. On the way he was a fortnight frozen into "Vine- yard Creek," where the Dutch shot a multitude of turkeys, "weighing from thirty to thirty-six pounds" each. It was the 3d of February before the yacht could be got up to its destination. By that time a war had broken out between the Minquas and the Sankitans, and no corn could be had. After much trouble from the ice, the yacht was got back to the ship, where a joyous welcome was given the long absent and adventurous voyagers by their anxious shipmates. Still short of [)rovisions, and ambitious to be the first Hollander to visit the Chesapeake, De Vries sailed on the 5th of March for Virginia. He visited Sir John Harvey, Governor of Virginia, and was courteously entertained by that noble knight. De Vries made Governor Harvey acquainted with the Dutch operations on the Delaware, and was able to identify the English crew whose murder he had heard of at Fort Nassau as one of eight men which Governor Harvey had sent the previous September into the Delaware, in a sloop, "to see if there was a river there." The Governor imagined his men "to have been swal- THE FIRST HOUSE IN PHILADELPHIA. 2/ lowed up in the sea," having heard nothing from them until the sad news by Dc Vries made him acquainted with their fate. The patroon of Swaanendael and Cape May remained a week at Jamestown, and then, with an abundant supply of provisions, and a present of goats for Manhattan, where Governor Harvey had heard there were none, he returned to his fishermen in Zuydt Baai. Once more warmly welcomed by his company, the patroon learned that several whales had been captured, but more lost after being struck, the harpoons being defective. De Vries had, however, become satisfied that the whale fishery was less profitable than the fur trade, and pro- posed to carry out his original intention of a voyage to Newfoundland and the Saint Lawrence for fish and peltries. VVishing to examine the coast, De Vries sailed on board his yacht for Manhattan the 14th of April, and, coasting northward for two days, arrived safely at Fort Am- sterdam, leaving Swaanendael, Godyn's Baai, and the Arasapha once more to the whales, the savages, and the aboriginal wildness of nature. § When De Vries arrived in New Amsterdam, on the i6th of April, 1633, he found the new Director-General, Wouter Van Twiller, on board the ship Soutberg, which had just arrived in the harbor. The information which De Vries gave Van Twiller aroused him to take measures to hold possession of Zuydt Baai, and the fur trade in the country adjoining; accordingly Arendt Corssen was appointed com- missary, and instructed to purchase a tract of land on the Schuylkill for a plantation and trading post, for both of which purposes the loca- tion there was highly esteemed. Corssen bought " for certain cargoes," from "the right owners and Indian chiefs," a tract called " Armen- veruis," lying about and on the Schuylkill. The Indian title being thus secured, the Dutch took formal possession of Pennsylvania, and established a trading house there, which, though soon abandoned for a time, was afterwards enlarged to a post or station and called Bevers- rede, being situated within the present bounds of Philadelphia. Among the improvements ordered by Van Twiller for the year 1633 was " one large house," to be built at Fort Nassau on the Delaware. The work must have been neglected, for in 1635 a small party of Eng- lish from Point Comfort, Va., under the leadership of Captain George Holmes, and, as some have said, in the interest of Sir Edmund Plowden and his associates, took possession of Fort Nassau, which they found vacant. Thomas Hall, one of Holmes's men, deserted at F'ort Nassau, and, reaching Manhattan, gave information to Van Twiller. A Dutch force soon captured Holmes and his party, and took them to hort Amsterdam, from whence they were sent, " pack and baggage," back to Virginia. The Dutch, after the affair with Holmes, repaired and gar- risoned Fort Nassau, and gave more attention to the valley of the Dela- ware. The administration of Wouter Van Twiller ended early in the spring of 1638, he being superseded by William Kieft. 28 SCHEYICHBI AND THE STRAND. § Although the Dutch were the first to "occupy" the Delaware, Governor Sir John Harvey, of Virginia, had sent an unfortunate expe- dition there in 1632; and before the patent for Maryland was sealed that year, Sir John Lawrence, Sir Edmund Plowden, and others applied to King Charles I., of England, for a grant of Long Island and thirty miles square on the mainland, which they proposed to call " Syon." After the death of the first Lord Baltimore, before the full execution of the formalities of the grant of Maryland made to him, Plowden and his associates made a second application ; this time asking for Long Island, and the small isles between the thirtieth and fortieth degrees of north latitude, within six leagues from the mainland near Delaware Bay, and forty leagues square of the adjoining coast; to be held as a County Palatine, and called New Albion, " with the privileges as heretofore granted to Sir George Calvert, late Lord Baltimore, in Newfoundland." The king confirmed the grant made Lord Baltimore to his son and heir, but one month after the sealing of the Maryland patent the king (says Neill), on July 24th, 1632, ordered Sir John Coke to issue a patent for Long Island and the adjacent country to Plowden and his asso- ciates. On the 23d of September, 1633, Captain Thomas Young, gentleman, received a special commission from the King of England to organ- ize an expedition and explore in America. This expedition sailed in the spring of 1634, and with it came Master Robert Evelyn, Captain Young's nephew, as lieutenant. The voyage of Captain Young was in connection with the enterprise of Plowden for the settlement of New Albion, but from stress of weather, or lack of a pilot, his course led him into the Chesapeake ; there desertion weakened the company, but Young fitted out a shallop or pinnace at Jamestown, in July, and sailing to the Delaware with about fifteen men, established as the head- quarters of New Albion a post he called Eriwomeck, near the mouth of the Schuylkill, at Fort Ikwersrede, which the Dutch had just aban- doned. In September, as has been noted, George Holmes seized for the New Albion Company the vacant Eort Nassau, from which he was soon ousted by the Dutch. Lieutenant or " Master" Robert Evelyn went to England, early in 1635, upon some errand from which he soon returned; in 1637, he was appointed a surveyor by the Governor and Council of Virginia, but missed confirmation; he was afterwards proxy for St. George's Hundred, in the Maryland Assembly, but was again in England in 1641. At that time P2vel)'n and others published " a card," describing the valley of the Delaware as a fine place, where the English had traded since 1527, and where Evelyn himself had been stationed for four years with fifteen men, trading and exploring in safety. On Evelyn's return from luigland he was commissioned, June 23d, 1642, to command and drill the militia, at Piscataway, four miles below Washington. The identity and character of Evelyn are PL O WD EN AND NEW ALBION. 29 important in this history, as he was the first recorded explorer and geographical describer of Sea Grove and Cape May, as is elsewhere related. Captain Young continued his explorations about the Delaware for about eighteen months, hoping to find there the entrance of a passage to India ; he became satisfied of the importance of the inland or back country, and, in 1636 or the year after, returned to England and asked for himself and his company a grant of whatever inland regions he might discover and explore. Sir Edmund Plowden remained in America until 1648, trying to settle the territories of New Albion, of which he was Earl Palatine; he did not succeed in this, owing to the opposition of the Dutch and others along the Delaware. Having ex- hausted his fortune during his stay of "about seven years" in this country, Plowden returned to England, by the way of New Amsterdam and Boston, "for supply." In London, in 1648, under the name of Beauchamp Plantagenet, Plowden published his " Description of New Albion," an inaccurate pamphlet, a copy of which remains in the Phila- delphia Library. Beyond elaborating and publishing a remarkably liberal, just, and worthy plan of government, the enterprise of the New Albion asso- ciates achieved nothing of note. Sir Edmund Plowden himself was the descendant of an eminent jurist; he was as unhappy in domestic life as unfortunate in business; his wife Mabel, daughter of Peter Mariner, of Wanstead, Hampshire, England, left him after a married life of twenty-five years, alleging abuse as her cause. Sir Edmund came to Virginia, and was at Erivvomeck, as Earl Palatine of Albion, in 1642, — "the fort given over by Captain Young and Master Evelyn," He was visited in London by some Marylanders in 1652, but he never left England again. Made poor by his outlay in behalf of his scheme of colonization, Plowden's fortunes became desperate; he was arrested for debt, and died in the debtors' prison in 1655. There is a pathos about the fate of the earnest Palatine of New Albion, which is made more effective by a statement of the social ideas by which he and his asso- ciates proposed to be governed. The pioneers of New Albion raised less tobacco and sold less rum for beaver-skins than their neighbors, but they were the first to com- prehend the vast width of the continent; and in evidence of their culture and character, they presented the world with an illustrious example of political sagacity in a model form of fiee and liberal government. While kings and ecclesiastics conspired in Europe to enslave the bodies and the souls of men, while Boston and New Haven fostered despotism, and called it theocracy, Roger Williams, divichng his land with all who needed, founded a state purely on the will of the majority, with God alone as the Ruler of Conscience; and Sir Edmund Plowden, beside the Delaware, sought to establish a more liberal, wise, and perfect 3 30 SCHEYICHDI AND THE STRAND. organization of society than the world had ever known. Rhode Island became a more complete " Democracie," and fortunate Connecticut grew to love freedom by experience, but New Albion formulated the principles of political order, and put forward her ideal proposition, at once and entire. Of little consequence now are the " Manors, dignified by well chosen names, giving titles to each of the Earl's family"; of less account, the "Albion Knights of the Conversion of the Twenty- three Kings"; less still the mere ghost of an established church, barely provided for in a document which might have been quoted as the cleath warrant of state religions! Guarding against demagogue usurpation, the institution of New Albion enfranchised the people, and deferred to popular intelligence; obedient to British usages, it still insisted upon independence and freedom, and thereto obtained the sanction of the throne. Mildness, humanity, and justice were characteristics of the whole constitution of the intended state, and, most glorious of all, entire religious freedom was guaranteed; dissent was not amenable for punishment, and heresy to be proceeded against only by education ; with the proviso, that " t/iis argument or pcrsttasion in religion, ceremonies, or church discipline, should be acted in mildness, love, charity, a7id gentle language f § As early as 1626, Gustavus Adolphus, the illustrious King of Sweden, the champion of Protestantism in his time, undertook to found a Swedish colony on the shores of the Delaware; this was first suggested to him by the same William Usselinx, of Holland, who in 1590 proposed the Dutch West India Company to his countrymen. Usselinx waited upon Gustavus, and being a learned man, unusually well informed upon matters in America, he convinced the king and his nobles of the desirability of a Swedish-American colony, and of the feasibility of a great Swedish trading corporation to establish such a province. The company was organized duly, "to trade to Asia, Africa, and the Straits of Magellan," and on July 2d, 1626, the king issued an edict at Stockholm, " in which he offered to people of all conditions liberty of shares by subscription, according to their ability or inclina- tions. The proposal was received with general satisfaction," say the "Annals of the Swedes." Gustavus took for himself stock to the amount of four hundred thousand dollars, at equal risk. The king's mother, and Prince John Cassimir, his brother-in-law; the members of his majesty's council; many civil and military officers of high rank; the bishops and other clergymen; many merchants and citizens; country gentlemen and farmers, became subscribers; ships were fitted out, and all requisites for trade and a colony provided ; an admiral, vice-admiral, commissioners, merchants, and other proper persons were appointed, and a few vessels started for America. The Swedish cannon were the speakers and champions whose elo- CUSTAVUS, HIS CANNON AND COLONIES. 31 quence clinched the arguments of the Lutheran Reformation, and recast the destinies of a thousand years ; but for Gustavus and his guns, the Protestant movement would have ended in the beginning. This hero king and philanthropist, whose mind was as practical as it was comprehensive and brilliant, who in defense of religious freedom invented and victoriously used modern artillery, was not inclined to hesitate in an enterprise which he declared to be " for the benefit of the persecuted," for the security of " the honor of the wives and daughters" of those made fugitives by war and bigotry, for "the good of the common man," for the blessing of " the whole Protestant world," and " the advantage of all oppressed Christendom," through undue deference to the dubious and conflicting claims of ambitious potentates, or the greed and avarice of monopolizing corporations. Neither was the King of Sweden careful, like the States General of Holland, to avoid direct responsibility for colonies. " Every inch a king," after the best manner of his times, his charter declared that " politics lie beyond the profession of merchants," and reserved the government of all future Swedish colonies to a Royal Council. Thus the formidable cannon of Sweden and the invincible sword of Gustavus were pledged to the protection of the emigrant. The privileges of the Swedish Compan)^ were open to all, and colonists were invited from every nation of Europe; slaves were discarded, as a laborious and intelligent Swedish population, with wives and children, it was wisely thought, would be quite as profitable and more to the honor of the state. In Sweden all was in readiness for the colony, when, through the influence of the papal power, war was provoked, and broke forth suddenly. Gustavus found himself compelled to invade Germany " to vindicate the rights of conscience," establish toleration, and se- cure German liberty by defending the principles of the Reformation. The fight was for the safety of Protestant Christendom. In the emer- gency the funds of the new trading company were, as a military necessity, diverted for a time to the purposes of war; yet the king abated not at all his zeal for the American enterprise even on the field and in camp, and from Nuremberg, October i6th, 1632, he communi- cated to Oxenstiern, his great minister, enlarged and most liberal plans for the proper setting of that "jewel of his kingdom," even in case of his death. At the battle of Lutzen, November 3d, 1632, Gustavus fell. His death changed the course of European politics; the project of Swedish colonies was temporarily postponed. The little squadron which left Sweden for America, perhaps on private account, about the time of the formation of the Swedish Commercial Company, as Swedish ships may have done before, was attacked at sea by Spaniards, some of the ships being captured; but there is reason to believe that others escaped and reached the Delaware, where their factors engaged in trade with the 32 SCHEYICHBI AND THE STRAND. Indians, and that from that time there were always a few Swedes and Finns in the valley, who finally located among the aborigines, well up the river. Peter Minuit, finding partisan influence too strong for justice in the Dutch West India Company, visited Oxenstiern and the court of Sweden, and offered to conduct a Swedish colony to the unoccupied west shore of the Delaware. In the spring of 1638, a man-of-war, named the Key of Calmar, and a tender, the Griffin, from Gottenburg, Sweden, with about fifty emigrants, under command of Peter Minuit, as Governor by commission of Queen Christina, put in at Jamestown, Virginia, to " refresh with wood and water," being bound for Delaware Bay, which is the confines of Virginia and "New England," "to make a plantation." The Treasurer of Virginia desired to have a copy of Minuit's commission, but the Swedish Governor declined to show his charter, unless he could arrange for the purchase of tobacco for ship- ment to Sweden ; but the colonial laws of England did not permit such a traffic, and so Minuit, after spending ten days in the Chesapeake, pursued his voyage, and entered " Zuydt Baai" early in April. The Swedes soon after disembarked at Missipillion Point, twenty miles up the bay, on the western shore. Emigrating from an almost arctic climate, the Swedes were delighted by the Eden-like airs which, in April, are the atmosphere of the capes of Delaware, and which linger over them through the balmy summers. Enchanted with the climate, and charmed by the scene, they gave their landing-place the name of " Point Paradise." It may have been an ex- travagant appellation ; but as the lover of natural beauty sits quietly at Sea Grove, and sees the glorious summer sun sink amid his clouds, in the waters of the bay, above Henlopen and far-away Missipillion, he need not be a poet to imagine that the scene is somewhat too fair to be all of earth. § When, in 1623, the French attempted to take possession of the Del- aware, they were prevented " by the Dutch settlers there ;" so, in 1635, the Dutch from Manhattan ousted the party of P^nglish under Holmes. In 1638 they were in the river, and equally ready to repel the Swedes. Soon after the Swedes arrived in the Delaware they were visited by some officials of the Dutch West India Company, who notified them of the claims of Holland thereabouts, and warned them out of the bay. The Swedes, in answer to this challenge, stated that they were on their way to one of the West India islands, and had put into Zuydt Baai but for refreshment after a prolonged and stormy voyage, which they should continue as soon as they supplied themselves with fresh meat, water, wood, and a few necessaries. Not inhospitable, the Dutch con- sented to this delay, trusting to the representations which had been made to them. But Minuit, who well understood the Dutch policy and the extent THE FIRST GARDEN IN DELA WARE. 33 of their jurisdiction, merely moved his expedition up stream, beyond the limits of that which had been Godyn and Blommaert's purchase in 1629, and at Paghacking, or Minquas, Creek, near Wilmington, Dela- ware, made a second landing. There, from a local sachem, named Matteehoorn, a plantation was bought, " between six trees," " a kettle and a few trifles" being paid in consideration. The Swedes won Mat- teehoorn by the promise of the half of a crop of tobacco, to be raised on the ground he conveyed to them. Between Matteehoorn and the Swedes some document, memorandum, or deed was drawn up; "as no Swede could yet interpret Indian," and no Indian understand Swedish, the paper " was written in low Dutch." The Indians could /rc?<^ neither language, and were, it seems, induced to sign a deed of the land from Cape Henlopen to Trenton, or " Sankekan" Falls, and as far inland as the Swedes might gradually require, under the impression they were conveying a mere patch of ground to raise tobacco on " at halves." The Swedes, says Indian tradition, never divided the tobacco, but held the Indians to the letter of the fraudulent deed. The mouth of the Paghacking was but twenty-five miles from the Dutch Fort Nassau, and messengers were soon sent to learn Minuit's intentions; these he cajoled with courtesy and fine words, and they went back to their fort. In a few days the people of Fort Nassau came down again, and found the Swedes " had done more," — buildings were begun, goods disembarked, and a small garden made. The Dutch asking what it meant, Minuit made various excuses and pretenses, still declaring his intention to soon depart. As soon as the Swedish colony was safely established, Minuit revealed his purpose by sending his small vessel, the Griffin, up the river for Indian trade. She was not allowed to pass Fort Nassau, and Peter May, the sub-commissary, boarded her and demanded her commission. The Swedish master re- fused to show his papers, and defended the establishment of a Swedish colony on the Delaware, saying his queen had as good a right to build a fort there as the Dutch West India Company. Of all this the people at Fort Nassau took note, and at once forwarded the particulars to Manhattan. Director-General Kieft protested against the Swedish colony, and warned them to depart at once, as all that part of the world, especially the Delaware, belonged to the Hollanders, it having been for a long time " beset with forts and sealed with the blood of the Dutch." But the epistle had little influence with Minuit, and Kieft, who was as " economical" as he was " testy," was too prudent to attack the colony of a nation as gallant and victorious as the Swedes. There were but fifty souls in the first expedition under Minuit, and of these many were " bandits," condemned to penal servitude. Yet, notwithstanding the opposition from the Hollanders, the little colony "between six trees" was prosperous. On the north bank of the Paghacking, two miles from the Delaware, a fort was erected, and the 34 SCHEYICHBI AND THE STRAND. name of Christina given to it and the creek, — the arms of Sweden being carved with the royal monogram on the boundary posts of the station. Besides, a plantation was made, where corn, beans, squashes, and the profitable tobacco, grew as they long had grown in the same region, except that they showed, by their unexampled productiveness, the difference between the bone paddle of the overtaxed squaw and the heavy steel mattock of the athletic Scandinavian. Not only were all the Indian products improved by Swedish culture, but the seeds of Europe were introduced, and soon made evident, by prolific increase, the proverbial fertility of the soil of Delaware and the influence of a genial climate. Meantime, commerce was not neglected; the goods brought for barter were soon disposed of, for the Swedes undersold the Dutch, and it is recorded that the beaver-skins taken to Sweden the first year of Minuit's administration damaged the Dutch trade on the Delaware more than thirty thousand guilders. About midsummer the vessels which brought the colony returned to Sweden, but Minuit and twenty-four men, with a good supply of mer- chandise and provisions, remained at Fort Christina. There was great delay in the coming of further supplies from Sweden, and in the win- ter of 1640 the Swedes were so much in want they decided to abandon their plantation, and merge themselves in the settlement at Manhattan. But early in the spring, the day before the Swedes had decided to give up Fort Christina, a ship named the Fredenburg, Captain Jacob Powel- son, of Utrecht, Holland, arrived with a company of Hollanders, who, under the Dutchman Joost De Bogaredt as a commander for Sweden, had been sent out by Henry Hockhammer, according to grant and agreement with the Swedish Government, to settle as Swedish colonists on the Delaware. The distress of the resident Swedes was relieved by De Bogaredt, and they continued at Fort Christina. Another colony was begun a few miles below, and soon the trade of the Dutch West India Company on the South River was " entirely ruined." In the fall of 1640 Peter Hollendare came from Gottenburg to Fort Christina as Deputy Governor of the Swedes in America ; two vessels soon followed, and "a new treaty was made with the Indians for more land." Tlie Swedes called their territory Nya Swerige, or New Sweden, and to Zuydt Riviere they gave the title of New Swedeland Stream. Nye Swerige was more foitunate than Swaanendael ; it had become a successful colony, — the first pcrvianent settlement on the Delaware. Minuit had proved a good guide and a sagacious, even if crafty, commandant; but his work was done. In 1641, according to Acrelius, the Swedish historian, he died at Fort Christina, while Peter Hollendare continued the government. The colonists of Virginia, as early as 1629, extended by Nathaniel Basse an invitation to such of the people of New PLngland as preferred a fertile soil and mild climate, to come and settle in the Valley of the jVEIV haven colony on the DELAWARE. 35 Delaware. The matter was discussed among the Puritans, but the first adventurers sent to the Delaware by them were from New Haven, in 1638, the year that colony was founded. The traders of New Haven, George Lamberton and others, led the way. The project of emigra- tion was O'-iginated by a few enterprising persons, who soon formed a company that finally sold out its interest to the community at large, which, as a Church, desired to establish a mission among the Dela- wares, and found a prosperous colony where all should li\'e in godly order, and their children after them "should continue to abide under the wings of Christ." Captain Nathaniel Turner bought of the Indians, for ^^"30, the land along shore from Cape May to Raccoon Creek, Varcken's Kill, Hog Creek, or Salem River; the deed was dated November 24th, 1638. At different times during the next two years additional lands were purchased by and for the New Haven adventurers. They were helped in their negotiations by a refugee sachem of the Pequods, and repre- sented that their lands cost t'hem iJ"6oa in all. (A^. H. Col. Rcc) In April, 1641, an expedition of some twenty families, or sixty or more persons, sailed for the Delaware in Lamberton's bark, or ketch, under command of Robert Cogswf^ll. Vo\'aging by the way of Man- hattan, they were detained by Kieft ; but promising allegiance to the Dutch if they settled in Dutch territories, they were allowed to go on. The New Haven people landed on Varcken's Kill, near Salem, New Jersey, and " on the Schuylkill." Trading houses and habitations were erected on Varcken's Kill. The Schuylkill settlement was at or near Fort Eriwomeck, the headquarters of New Albion; the Dutch " Bevers- rede," the Indian Armenveruis, or Passyunk, at Philadelphia. These plantations were to be governed " in combination" with New Haven, and Captain Turner was furloughed from New Haven and authorized to go to the Delaware, "for his own advantage, and the public good in settling the affairs thereof." Tiiough the New Haven people were intruding upon territories claimed by both the Dutch and Swedes, yet such was the confusion of titles that their claim may have been supposed by them as good as any; besides, they found Sir Edmund Plowden in the bay, with an English grant of New Albion, and gave allegiance to him as Earl Palatine. Kieft, however, considered that Cogswell had purposely deceived him, and the Swedes were ready, as they had agreed, to co- operate to "keep out the English." In May, 1642, two sloops, the Real and Saint Martin, with thirty men, under Jan Janscn Van Ilpen- dam, of Fort Nassau, were sent by Kieft's orders to break up the English settlements on the Delaware. Fort pj-iwomeck was first visited ; there were some Marylanders at that place of the rougher sort, and accounts differ as to the result of Kieft's proclamation, which was read to them. One author asserts that the English were so 36 SCHEYICHBI AND THE STRAND. violently blasphemous and threatening, that Jansen drew off his sloops and made the best of his way out of the Schuylkill ; but others declare the colony there was broken up. From the Schuylkill Jansen sailed to Varcken's Kill. There, meet- ing no resistance, he burned the English buildings, took possession of all the goods, and bore away most of the people as prisoners to Fort Amsterdam, at Manhattan. Their goods were restored to the New Haven people, and they proceeded home to Connecticut. The colony on Varcken's Kill had been very unfortunate ; the members had come on foot from Boston to New Haven, where they remained but a short time before moving to the Delaware ; the winter they spent on Varcken's Kill was excessively cold, and the summer had been very sickly ; their time, their trouble, the cost of their lands, all were lost, as well as damage done their goods. Still the undaunted Lamberton continued to trade in the Delaware from New Haven, though annoyed and interrupted at times; the New Haven people also attempted, though in vain, to renew their colony, being turned back at Manhattan. The records of New Haven for a few years show the public and private loss from the Delaware enterprise. The sufferers applied to the Com- missioners of New England, to Oliver Cromwell, to Richard, his son, and finally, to Nichols, — when he first came out, — for restitution at the expense of the Dutch. Their losses were more than a thousand pounds sterling, but, from one cause and another, nothing was ever realized by them in return. There was no original and permanent colony from New England on the Delaware until the whalemen, who first appear on record in 16S5, settled at Cape May. Although Plowden, who never had many men with him, had been unable to defend his earldom, or protect the people who recognized him as their lord, and although the colony was driven out to return no more, still members of the Calvinistic community were left behind, and the fame of the Delaware was spread abroad by the quarrels which followed. In the settlements of the following generation around the bay, the Yanokies (silent men), as the Mais Tchusaeg, or Massachusetts Indians, called the New Englanders, had their full share of action, influence, and honor, as is usual everywhere. Comparing a record of the early settlers of New Haven and Cape May, about one-fifth of the family names from the Cape May list arc inscribed on the older New Haven document. § Peter HoUendare remained as the successor of Govcrner Minuit but eighteen months. On the 15th of February, 1643, after Hollen- dare's return to Sweden, Colonel John Printz arrived at Christina, and at once assumed office by virtue of his commission as Governor for the Queen of Sweden. Governor Printz came out in the ship Fame, attended by the Svan or Stork, and by the Charitas — all armed vessels. The instructions of the new Governor were full and explicit. About a PRE- HISTORIC RUINS IN NEW JERSEY. t^-j hundred soldiers came with hitn, as well as many colonists, the royal council having appropriated over two million dollars annually for the support of his administration. Printz was directed to keep on good terms with the Dutch and cultivate trade with the English of Virginia, and especially to see that the Indians were treated with consideration and justice, as the original owners of the soil. Still, the Swedes were to assume control of the Delaware, " that the river may be shut," and in case of aggression on the west side they were commanded to " repel force by force;" Printz was thus "to take care" of his jurisdiction. On Tenacong, now Tinicum Island, Printz built the fort. New Got- tenburg, of" vast logs," and erected Printz Hall for his residence. To shut up the river, a fort was built on Varcken's Kill, called Helsing- borg or Elsingburg; it had three angles, and mounted eight twelve- pound guns. The Rev. John Campanius, of Stockholm, came with Printz as chaplain; Reorus Torkillus had served in that capacity at Christina from the first. He died the 7th of September following the arrival of his colleague, being but thirty-five years old, still memorable as the first Lutheran missionary in the Delaware Valley, if not in all America. There is a well-authenticated tradition related by the Swedish botanist, Peter Kalm, in 1748, upon the authority of Moons Keen, one of the ancient Swedes, regarding Fort Helsingborg. When work was begun upon the fort, the builders found traces of ancient occu- pants in certain wells, which were bricked up to a depth of twenty feet or more under ground ; there were vessels and fragments of pottery, with broken and displaced brick also found near by, giving unmistakable evidence of the civilization of former residents. The situation of the wells and the position of the other relics was in a meadow near the river, where all the surroundings indicated the absolute antiquity of the pre-historic settlement. The Indians, who had occupied the ground for generations, had no knowledge or tradi- tion of people who dug wells and used bricks and pottery in a civilized manner, but assured the Swedes the relics had certainly been where they found them for more than a hundred and fifty years, — ever since the voyages of Columbus. Were these wells the work of Lief PLrik- son, and the Norwegian Christians, a.d. 996 to a.d. looo? Were they dug by the men who built the round tower at Newport? § In October of 1643, the year Helsingborg was established, De Vries again visited South River, putting in as he was on his way to Virginia. As the craft came abreast of P'ort Helsingborg, a gun was fired for her to strike her flag and "come to." Blanck, the schipper, asked advice of De Vries. " If it were my ship I should not strike," said De Vries, " for I am a patroon of New Netherland, and the Swedes are mere intruders in our river." The schipper, however, 38 SCHEYICHBI AND THE STRAND. " had a desire to trade," and lowered his colors. A boat came on board the vessel at once, and she sailed up to Tinicum that after- noon. The Dutch were welcomed to Fort Gottenburg by the Governor, who " was named Captain Printz, a man of brave size, who weighed over four hundred pounds." Being informed of the position of De Vries and his doings on the Delaware, Printz drank his health in "a great romer of Rhine wine." The Dutch traded confectionery and Madeira wine for beaver-skins at the fort for five days, and then visited Fort Nassau, where a garrison of Dutchmen was found. Re- turning to Tinicum, De Vries went with Printz to Fort Christina, " where there were now several houses," and spent the night with the Governor, who " treated him well." On parting from the Swedes the Rotterdam vessel fired a salute in honor of their hospitahty, and sailed away for Virginia. Thus De Vries, who forebore his vengeance upon the feeble Nanticokes, and ever counseled justice and peace in dealing with the bow-bearing Indians of Manhattan, was brave enough of himself to defy a battery of cannon in an unarmed vessel, and court- eous enough to- win the favor of a supposed enemy and competitor. Patroon De Vries spent the winter of 1643 in Virginia, and sailed from there for Holland, where he arrived in June, 1644. De Vries had given his best efforts for a dozen years to New Netherland, but the petulance of Hossett, the mismanagement of Van Twiller, and the stub- born folly of Kieft, had thwarted his sagacious endeavors, and to him the memory of his sojourn in the New World was a sad retrospect of losses and tragical disappointments ; he seems never to have revisited America. David Pietersen De Vries was one of the finest characters of New Netherland history. A man of the people, he was ever a foe to des- potism, injustice, and cruelty. In Manhattan, where he resided so long and honorably, he was, as Chairman of the Citizens' Committee, the acknowledged head of the Dutch democracy. The Indians trusted De Vries as a Swannekin " who never lied like the others," and his influ- ence with the aborigines, with his characteristic tact and discrimination, more than once saved the province from destruction. To the folly and mismanagement of Van Twiller De Vries opposed the coolness of practical sense and the courage of a hero. When the fool- hardy and barbarous Director Kieft ordered the massacre of his Indian refugee guests, De Vries gave earnest warning, and the revengeful ruin which followed came upon Manhattan despite the protest of the deitio- cratic leader. Firm and perhaps overbearing in maintaining his own rights as a citizen and privileged proprietor among his equals, even at the cannon's mouth, he forebore revenge upon the ignorant savage trespasser, and ever counseled and practiced honesty and humanity in all dealings with his Indian neighbors. Wise in council, prudent in action, De Varies stood firm for right, palliated the evils he could not TRANSLATION OF THE LUTHERAN CATECHISM. 39 avert, and constantly manifested that self-control and magnanimity which won the affection of the Indians from Fort Orange to Sandy Hook, and conciliated the barbarians of Swaanendael and Scheyichbi, making smooth and peaceful the ways of his successors on the Dela- ware. Though filling a merely subordinate position, De Varies was by nature and experience equally commendable as a man, a citizen, a commander, a diplomat, or a statesman. It would be untrue to history and unjust both to him and his creed not to record, in addition, the fact that the first resident patroon and owner of Cape May was a man of religious sentiments, in principle, after the best ideal, a devout and consistent Christian. § On the i6th of May, 1648, the Rev. John Campanius returned to Sweden. He had been chaplain of New Sweden since the year 1642, and was a man of much earnestness and application. In addition to his duties as chaplain, Campanius kept a copious journal of his vo)'age to America and his observations in New Sweden. The Indians fre- quented the house of Campanius, who never wearied in discussing with them the tenets of his Church, and recorded that he found them able to comprehend the doctrines of his creed. Struck with the patience, aptness, and docility of his pupils, Campanius studied their language, and translated the Lutheran Catechism into the Lenni Lenape dialect of the Algonquin tongue. This book was printed by royal command at Stockholm, in Indian and Swedish, in 1696, in one volume, 160 pages, i2mo; to the text a vocabulary is added, with examples, dia- logues, etc. There is a copy of this Swedish-Indian Lutheran Catechism in the possession of the American Philosophical Society of Philadelphia, and one was owned by Peter S. DuPonceau, LL.D., of the Pennsylvania Historical Society. Clay, in his Swedish Annals, suggests "that the Swedes may claim the honor of having been the first missionaries among the Indians, at least in Pennsylvania; and that, perhaps, the very first work translated into the Indian language in America was the translation of Luther's Catechism, by Campanius." Presumably, the author of the "Annals" refers to Protestant mission- aries ; for, not to mention the Spanish priests who came over even with Columbus, and soon made converts, the French Catholics at " Port Royal" (Annapolis, N. S.) began teaching the Micmacs and Abcnckis as early as 1605 ; and the Jesuits were there at public expense as mission- aries to the Indians in 161 1. De Saussaye founded the mission of St. Sauveur. on the Penobscot, in 161 3, which, in August of the same year, Argall, of Virginia, piratically destroyed. There was a mission to the Hurons by Brebeuf, Daniel, and Lallemand; the Jesuit " Fathers," in 1634, and an amply endowed Indians' hospital at Quebec, in 1635. A.n Indian seminary was founded at Quebec, with money and teachers, 40 SCHEYICHBI AND THE STRAND. the same year, and about the time the Swedes came to "Zuydt River" an Ursuline convent school for Indians was established there," Five years before EHot preached to a tribe six miles from Boston, Charles Raymbault and Isaac Jogues, under Jesuit direction, penetrated in 1641 to the outlet of Lake Superior, and preached " Christ and him crucified" to a congregation of two thousand wild aborigines. " Not a cape was turned, nor a river entered," says Bancroft, "but a Jesuit led the way." Dissent is free, thank God ! Even dissent from dissent, at last; but history must crown with a just award those to whom, what- ever the dogma, the cross meant obedience, patience, and self-denial, — who bore the symbol of a divine humanity to savage men, and, in the speechless death-agony of Indian tortures, offered their cruel execu- tioners the sign of universal love, mercy, and forgiveness ! Campanius and Eliot began labor in the same field at about the same time, and though the work of Eliot was the greatest and most success- ful, the purpose was identical, and the honor due each is of the same nature. The Swedish chaplain acquired the " Renni Rennappi" lan- guage during the six years of his stay on the Delaware, but his trans- lation of the Lutheran Catechism was not put to press until 1696. Eliot began to preach in Indian October 28th, 1646, the Mohegan New Testament was printed in Boston in 1661, and the whole Bible two years later — fifteen years after Eliot began the translation. The printer's work on this Mohegan Bible — the first Bible published in America — was slowly done by an Englishman, and John Printer, an Indian youth. The work included a catechism, and the Psalms of David in Indian verse. Fifteen hundred copies were printed, at a cost of two thousand dollars ; several of them, richly bound, being presented to King Charles of England. " Eliot's Bible" may be seen in the Phila- delphia Library, in the library of Harvard College, and a few other like places : {q.\\ as these copies are, those who can read them are fewer still. To give an example of the difficulties encountered by Campanius in his translation, it is said that, as the Indians used no bread, he was compelled to translate the Lord's Prayer: "Give us this day a plentiful supply of venison and corn." Eliot, in translating the Biblical account in which the mother of Sisera is described as looking through the "lattice," described a lattice to his Indian assistants, upon whom he was compelled to depend for a word: what must have been his chagrin to find, afterwards, that he had made "the mother of Sisera look out of the window through a wicker-basket trap for eels !" A thorough scholar like Eliot was needed to deal with the synthetical difficulties of a language in which, as no unconverted Indian knelt, the phraes " kneeling down unto him" is of necessity translated and printed Wutappessttukgussunnoohwehtunkguok ; yet l^liot translated several works into Mohegan, notably a Mohegan grammar, and an " Indian Logick Primer." THE PRAYING INDIANS. 41 It required the labor of years, says Loskiel, the Moravian mission- ary, to make the Delaware dialect capable of expressing abstract truth. A new language had to be forged out of existing terms, by circumlo- cutions and combinations. " Eliot caught the analogies of nature to convey moral truth in his Indian Bible." Each Indian tongue and dialect was a perfectly organized language, expressive of all material things, but there were few words to express aught else; no terms for continence, justice, gratitude, or holiness. It was impossible to trans- late the doxology into the purely synthetic, absolutely definite Indian tongue, and hence the Onondagas were taught to sing: "Glory be to our Father, and to His Son, and to Their Holy Ghost." Cotton Mather, who based his orthodoxy on witchcraft, gravely stated that he tested the demons around him, who made a pretense of being linguists, with the Indian tongue. These imps, Mather says, frequented his premises, and could well manage Latin, Hebrew, and Greek with ease, but at the Mohegan dialect they shrank back in dismay. The pleas- ing inference is that the Indians were a people unknown in hell ; but the cruel old witch-hunter did not tell the story as a compliment to the Mohegans, but honestly as a fact, — one worthy the most fortunate spiritualist. Both the Mohegans and Delawares were appreciative of the work done for them by their apostles and catechists. Eliot had three thou- sand six hundred praying Indians, whom he led like a flock, until King Philip's Indian war, when the men of Massachusetts, mad with terror and despair, turned upon even the inoffensive, praying Indians, broke up their unarmed civilized towns, and drove their innocent red fellow-Christians through suffering to foreign slavery. So perished the hope of John Eliot. The Swedish missionaries sent out by the King and Church of Sweden to the Delaware in 1696 wrote back: "The Indians and we are as one people. They are also very fond of learning the catechism, which has been printed in their language. They like to have it read to them, and they have engaged Mr. Charles Springer to teach their children to read it." And these same people protested alike to Swedes, Dutch, and English everywhere against the sale of rum to their young men. Few, if any, of the Indians of the Delaware became Christians in the time of Campanius, but afterwards, when broken as a tribe by contact with the whites, the Moravians became the kindly guardians of a part of their people, and many of them joined that church, and settled peacefully and prosperously at " Conestoga," only to be driven from their last home in Pennsylvania by the murderous " Paxton boys," who, coveting their land, killed many of them in 1762. Under the able leadership of their chief, the educated, pious Isaac Still, the remnant of the Delawares emigrated to the valley of the Wabash, " far away" then, as they desired to be, " from war and rum." The last party of 42 SCHEYICHBI AND THE STRAND. about forty started in the fall of 1775. The great tribe had left the banks of the Poutaxit forever. In 1803 Hanna Hannah, last of the Lenapees in the east, died in Chester County. So passed away the peaceful, wise, and influential " original people." " In their dealings with the white man," says Colonel Wm. B. Sipes, in his sketch of the Pennsylvania Railroad, " they were scrupulously honest, and many of them became strongly attached to the early settlers. The treaties they made, which cost them so much and profited them so little, were never broken, and when they had dwindled away, before the advancing tide of civilization, to a mere remnant of a mighty race, they \dX the burial places of their fathers in search of new homes without a stain upon their honor." Regretting that the limits of his work prohibit more extended recog- nition of the faithful Lenni Lenape, the author has chosen a word from their language to grace his title-page, " Scheyichbi" having been the ancient Indian name of New Jersey. § The Swedes' Governor, John Printz, writes Governor Winthrop, of New England, in his history, " was a man very furious and passionate, cursing and swearing, and also reviling the P^nglish of New Haven as runnigates." The Swedish policy brought Printz into a series of quarrels with the Dutch of Fort Nassau, and they found no exemp- tion from his bad manners. For all that, the Governor of the Swedes was an able man, and not only managed well in the fur trade, but so overslaughed and undermined the power of the Dutch, that in 1649, about ten years after the settlement by Minuit at Paghacking, the Swedes were supreme on the Delaware. On the iith of May, 1647, Peter Stuyvesant succeeded Wilhelmus Kieft as Director-General of New Netherland. For several years affairs at Manhattan restrained and preoccupied him, but in 165 1 decided measures were taken to reassert the claims of the Dutch on South River, where Stuyvesant proceeded in person. After un- satisfactory negotiations with Printz, the Dutch bought of certain Indians lands five miles below Fort Christina, and at Newcastle, Delaware, they built a fort which they called Kasimir, Fort Nassau being demolished. P'ailing to receive the reinforcements he demanded, Printz returned to Sweden, November 7th, 1653, leaving John Papegoia in charge of the colony. But Sweden had not forgotten her colony, but entrusted it to a "General College of Commerce," and in 1653 John Rising, Governor of New Sweden, in command of a strong military force, entered the Delaware, where there had been for some time less than a score of Swedish soldiers. Rising managed to gain possession of Fort Casimir without fighting, and at once fully rcstablished the power of Sweden, and soon concluded a just 'peace with the Indians. When Peter Stuyvesant learned of tlic " dishonorable surrender of CONQUEST OF NEW SWEDEN. 43 the fort" made by Gerrit Bikker, and of his officers' desertion to tlie Swedes, with a third of his men, his rage was mighty, and he at once reported the affair to Amsterdam, where his anger was equaled by that of the directors. A Swedish ship, the Golden Shark, entering Man- hattan Bay soon after by mistake, was detained " until a reciprocal restitution shall have been made." Meantime, however. Rising wrote home an account of his success, saying that whereas he found but seventy persons in New Sweden, there were then three hundred and sixty-eight who acknowledged his authority, " including Hollanders and others." On Sunday, September 5th, 1655, "after the sermon," Peter Stuy- vesant, with seven powerful vessels and about seven hundred men, sailed from Manhattan, under orders from Amsterdam, for the sub- jugation of New Sweden. The next (Monday) afternoon the fleet was off Helsingborg, then in ruins; on the lOth of the month the Dutch forces landed near Casimir, which, being much overpowered, surrendered without defense. Rising shut himself up in Fort Christina, and, though closely invested from the 15th, held out until the 25th of September. The Swedish town having been sacked. New Sweden ravaged, and Christina invested by an overwhelming force, Rising, to avoid an exterminating bombardment, surrendered, and the flag of Sweden, which in defense'of freedom had waved victoriously in Europe, sank to rise no more in America. The Dutch forces were recalled to Manhattan in haste to repel an Indian invasion. The conquerers had been in New Sweden three weeks — a body of men twice the number of the entire Swedish popu- lation living on the country. Consequently, on the 1 8th of December, 1655, when John Paul Jacquet arrived at Zuydt Riviere as Vice- Director for Stuyvesant, out of an original population of nearly four hundred but a dozen families remained, and, besides. Fort Casimir was no better than a ruin. On July 12th, 1656, the Dutch West India Company conceded the land from Boomtjes Hcuken to Cape Hen- lopen to Amsterdam, for seven hundred thousand guilders ($266,000); this territory became a colony of that municipality of Holland, under the name of Nieuwer Amstel, the capital being at the present New- castle. New Amstel was ruled with much rigor; to desert the colony was punishable with death, yet the numerous emigrants sent out by the city could not be retained. A trading post and small garrison were kept up at the Horekill, where in 1662 an Anabaptist " Men- nonist" community of twenty-five families settled under the leadership of Peter Cornelis Plockhoy. The Mennonists were a liberal, catholic, tolerant people, and their co-operative institutions were very free and democratic. For several years, owing to disagreements between the authorities of Manhattan and New Amstel, and between both of them and the Governors of Maryland, confusion and distress continued west 44 SCHEYICHDI AND THE STRAND. of the Delaware, and the dissatisfied people were scattered abroad by repeated alarms and panics. § The glorious rise and progress of the Batavian Republic astonished the world; the commercial and manufacturing greatness of Holland aroused the bitter and ignoble jealousy of the English. In 1664, in a time of peace and progress, Eingland made a treacherous attack upon the Dutch. On the 8th of September, Manhattan and New Netherland were peaceably but unavoidably surrendered to a piratical expedition which Charles II. of England sent out to place his brother James, Duke of York, in possession of the province of the Hollanders. Sir Robert Carr was sent to take possession of the Delaware. Some de- fense was made at New Amstel by Hinoyssa the Governor; the place was captured, however, the Dutch soldiers sold into Virginian slavery, and the people plundered, even of their farms in some cases. A boat was sent to the Horekill and the colony there was robbed ; among the goods carried off was "what belonged to the Quaking Society of Plock- hoy, to a very naile." The court of England tried in vain to justify these acts before the world ; they merited the scorn of mankind. Nine years after, even Charles II. repented of his buccaneering; then Hol- land opened her dikes, and aided by the flood defeated two hundred thousand French troops with twenty thousand man; infinitely bold against desperate odds, the Dutch, at the same time, day after day outfought the fighting ships of Britain, until the shattered fleet, sailing as from an infernal scourge, hid behind the strongest forts, while the revengeful guns of De Ruyter and Tromp bellowed in insolent triumph along the shores of England. By the overthrow of the power of the Dutch West India Company and the States of Holland in North America, James, Duke of York, became Governor of Ne-w Netherland. Before tlie sailing of the expe- dition for the conquest of Manhattan, James appointed Nicolls, its commander, his deputy, to act as such after the subjugation of the Dutch colony. Nicolls had been gone from England but a month when, on the twenty-third of June, the Duke of York, well knowing the success of the enterprise was assured by the treachery which con- ceived it, sold to Lord John Berkeley, Privy Councillor and Baron of Stratton, and Sir George Carteret, of Sattrum, Devon County, Knight, a native of the Isle of Jersey, all the territory now included in the State of New Jersey, which then received the name of " New Jersey," or Nova Caesaria. James was one of the worst bigots of the I^nglish line of kings ; all his good qualities, as a man, a prince, a king, were foiled with glaring defects, yet in his honor the name of Manhattan was changed hy Nicolls to " New York," the west of the Hudson was called "Albania," and Long Island received the appellation of "Yorkshire;" thus all the various titles of the Duke were foisted upon the country at once — the force of flattery could no farther go. THE ADMINISTRA TION OF NICOLLS. 45 The flag of Britain now covered the coast of the Colonies which became the thirteen original United States ; freedom and progress were served by injustice in the end, but the people of New York, who imagined the privileges of Englishmen were to be added to the secure possession of their property, soon had reason to sigh for the honest despotism of Stuyvesant, to save them from the extortions of their new and rapacious governors; while the Duke of York and his agents were presently forced to realize in disappointment that the profitable despotism they had planned was impossible among such a people as those they fancied they had made their victims and servants. By his sale to Berkeley and Carteret, the Duke of York prefigured the outlines of the State of New Jersey, and unwittingly forecast the destiny of a free Commonwealth. The change of government which had made Colonel Nicolls Governor of New York and " Albania" and, as President of the Royal Commission, presumptive potentate of New England, was of vital importance to the people of the Colonies, especi- ally those near New York ; and the new administration, appreciative of its opportunities, was not slow to energetically assert its powers. The citizens of New Haven, who had paid six hundred pounds for lands on the Delaware, and perhaps lost as much more in fruitless expeditions thither, who had remonstrated with Kieft, quarreled with Stuyvesant, and sought the aid of Cromwell, through their General Court, by letter, detailed their grievances to the Royal Commissioners; but the new Governor was too busy to pause to nicely adjust the scales of justice. Ignoring the investitures of the past and the equities of the present, heedless of its own engagements, the government of New York devoted itself to the illegal profit of its officials and the assidu- ous and flattering service of its ducal patron. Governor Nicolls, in ignorance of the sale to Berkeley and Carteret, made more than two months before the capture of New Netherland, named New Jersey and the western bank of the Hudson Albania, in compliment to the Scottish title of the Duke of York. This ter- ritory he was exceedingly anxious to populate. Tracts of land on Hackensack Neck and elsewhere were granted to parties from New England, who, as required by Nicolls, satisfied the claims of the Indian residents. The Dutch, in 1663, had given a party of Puritans liberty to settle in " Nova Belgia" (New Jersey), with an almost independent charter for a local government, and the settlements under Nicolls were largely the outworking of similar plans by other " Yankee" asso- ciations. The pioneers from New Haven, and those who soon followed them from the east, brought to their new homes the same dogmatic temper and theocratic ideas which characterized the ecclesiastical tyrannies of early New P^ngland ; but with them they brought also the inflexible resolution and unceasing industry for which the people of that section 4 46 SCHEYICHBI AND THE STRAND. have ever been distinguished. The New Enghmd emigrants soon ac- quired the influence in New Jersey their pertinacious habits guaranteed from the first, and if the constitution and laws of the new Common- wealth were more favorable to liberty than the primitive enactments of M.issachusetts and Connecticut, it was not the fault of the conscien- tiously stubborn Puritans ! Wliile Nicolls by every means encouraged the settlement of Albania, and noted with pride the multiplying farms and increasing villages from Bergen to Sandy liook, news came that the action of the dull James of York had disparted his Colony, and conceded the fairest and most promising portion to overreaching speculators. In August, 1665, Philip Carteret entered New Jersey, and by virtue of the provision which, in English law, vested the Proprietary of a colony with juris- diction, assumed the office of Governor, under the warrant of his father and Lord Berkeley. Governor Nicolls was much vexed at the unexpected turn thus given affairs, and tried, but in vain, to induce the Duke of York to compel the reconveyance of the territories he had parted with in ignorance of their value. Berkeley and Carteret remained in possession and control, but it was a long time before the duke or his agents, who assumed to hold by feudal tenure, ceased to claim rightful jurisdiction, customs, rights, and paramount sovereignty under the King. The {t\ o o 111 neighborhood for Indian corn. When the mutton was cooked and the corn boiled, an appetite would have accumulated sufficient to make these viands seem like the ambrosia of Olympus. Those were fine, heart-hold times, and when our predecessors at Cape May went down for a lark, they meant it and they had it. At night, when dead- tired after the fiddling and the contra-dances, the barn-like hall was partitioned off into two sleeping-rooms by a drapery of sheets. '1 he maids slept tranquilly on one side the curtains, the lads on the other. Successive days brought other sports, — fishing in the clumsy boats, 74 SCHEYICHBI AND THE STRAND. rides in hay-wafrons over the deep white roads, the endless variety- being supplied, after all, by the bathinf:r, which was always the same and ever new. These primitive bivouacs were succeeded by a steady service of steamers on the Delaware and the erection of substantial and civilized hotels." Thomas H. Hughes, Jonas C. Miller, R. S. Ludlam, and the Messrs. McMakin were among the first to erect large and commodious board- ing-houses. Increasing custom demanded multiplied conveniences, and a host of varied places of entertainment grew up, from the small and modest restaurant to the monster hotel with its fifteen hundred guests at once. Meantime private cottages became numerous, the resident population enlarged, and a city was built up " where," says a writer in 1856, "a few years ago corn grew and verdure flourished." It would be a pleasant task to note the particulars of such a progress in full, and the reader could not fail of interesting information, but the work is left for another pen, or a future time. Material increase and prosperity is not the final test of development, and the scope of the present discussion demands attention to other and important matters. § Man is a religious being; the impulse to worship, an ineradicable instinct of his undying soul. Tyranny is the trait of the brute; it is the bestial element in man which offends against the prerogative • of reason, and seeks, in intolerance, despotism over the spirit. Ambition and avarice enlarged their efforts to aggrandize themselves in the colonization of New Jersey; but, after all, the settlement of the State is found to be due, through persecution, to the love of liberty and the principles of religion. "America," says an eminent historian, "was secured from bigotry by lier welcome to every sect ; each rallied round a truth, their collision could but eliminate error. The eclectic American mind struggled for universality while it asserted freedom. The Old World looked to the American Colonies for the benefit of commerce, for mines, for natural productions, but received revolutions, — the consequence of moral power." At Cape May, in as great a degree as in any other place, influences were early at work tending to hospitality of opinion and a broad and catliolic spirit. Counting the whalemen as the pioneers of the county, Calvinism was the form of faith earliest introduced, but the Swedish Lutherans soon exerted an influence upon the community, and the Baptists and Quakers, not long after, were added as a powerful element. The English Cluirch was strong on the shores to the west of the bay, where, for a time, the Reverend William Becket, an author and poet, held a broad parish. It had its adherents at Cape May also, but its connection with the monarchy, as an established Church, weak- ened its influence at the Revolutionary period. The Baptists are said, in " Benedict's History of the Baptists," to have arrived at Cape May from England and formed a church as early "THE SCUM OF THE REFCRMATIONr as 1675. Johnson, in his sketch of Salem, says the same; but Dr. Beesley supposes a mistake in the date, as there is no record of a white popuLation until 1685, none of a Baptist church until 1711. I'.lse- where the doctor writes, " History throws no light on the original occupiers of the soil. Conjecture only can be consulted on the sub- ject." It is quite probable that some of the Mennonist Baptists of Plockhoy's colony may have escaped to Cape May, from the spoliation of Carr, in 1664, with Swedes and Dutch from Christina and New Amstel, — refugees for the same cause. The Baptists, "the scum of the Reformation," as they were called, were the democrats of the Protestant Church; the Calvinists aspired for theocracy, and made the Church dominant in the State ; the Church of England took " submission" to royal prerogative as a " badge," and Luther taught that it was " a heathenish doctrine ; that a wicked ruler may be deposed." But, plebeians themselves, the Baptists were consist- ent, and unflinchingly dealt with the relations of life, threatening an end to kingcraft, priestcraft, and feudalism. Hosts of the peasantry of Germany perished in the persecutions against the Baptists ; arrogantly they were trodden under foot, and scorn and reproach heaped upon tlieir memory. As might be expected, wherever the Baptists found shelter in America, in Rhode Island, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, they became a power, witnessing for independence, republicanism, and free religion. One of the early pastors of the Baptists at Cape May was Nathaniel Jenkins, a Welshman, born in Cardiganshire in 1678. He arrived in America in 1710, and assumed his position in the church at Cape May in 1712. Mr. Jenkins was a man of character and ability, with fair education ; from 1 723 to 1 733 he was a member of the Assembly ; he was also a trustee in the Loan Office, and a local deputy and attorney of Governor Hamilton, in all of which positions he served with honor. Not long after the Baptist pastor became a legislator he had the oppor- tunity of doing the state some service and distinguishing his princi- ples. The emigrants from New England, accustomed to puritanical rigor, quite conscientiously strove for a long time to engraft their perse- cuting policy upon the institutions of New Jersey. When Mr. Jenkins was first a member, a bill was brought into the Assembly to punish such as denied the doctrine of the Trinity, the divinity of Christ, the inspiration of the Holy Scriptures, etc., etc. This the Baptist legislator opposed with all a Welshman's zeal and action. " I believe the doc- trmes in question," said he, "as much as the promoter of that ill- designed bill, but will never consent to oppose the opposers with law, or with any weapon save that of argument." "Accordingly, the bill was suppressed, to the great mortification of those who wanted to raise in New Jersey the spirit which so raged in New England." The Baptist church was from six to seven miles north of Sea Grove, 76 SCHEVICHDI AXD THE STRAND. at what is now the district of Cape May Court-House; there Mr. Jen- kins died and there is his grave. The early presence and work of the Baptists at Cape May perhaps left fewer to adhere to the Quakers. There were a number of Friends at the Cape in the early days, but they never became as numerous as in Cumberland and other counties. Neither tiie Friends nor any others have been persecuted at Cape May. Quakers generally went where they were not wanted, but needed ; sometimes their peculiar principles subjected them to loss, even at Cape May, but no persecution appears to have been intended. Thomas Learning, who came to Cape May in 1692, and became a whaleman, and then a farmer, seems to have been a Quaker; among other things he records : " In 1706, I built my house. Samuel Matthews took a horse from me worth £"] , because I could not train." " Training" would have prevented the levy, and paying the fine for contempt would liave saved the horse from sale; Quaker prin- ciples forbade one and the other; it was hard upon Thomas Learning, but what could Samuel Matthews do with a Christian who would not fight — nor swear ! Within the memory of the elder people of this generation, a Quaker meeting-house stood in the northern part of Cape May County, and there the tradition is that year after year, every First-day, two old Quakers got together, and silently sat out the hours ; furthermore, these Friends were not friendly, not on speaking terms, and so spake not at all. By and by one of the old men died, and then the survivor sat alone, scarcely more solitary, no whit more silent, until at last he too came no more. But the part the Quakers took in founding Cape May County has not been without a permanent effect for good, — and there are men to-day everywhere who, could they but learn to hold their tongues as faithfully as the two in the above story, " the world would be the better for it ! ' Pre-eminently, Calvinism has appealed to the human intellect. The Democratic State, Free Church, and Common School arose together. The Church which invoked thought, as a co-worker with zeal and faith, gave guarantees to progress; the Antinomians of Massachusetts ad- vanced beyond Geneva, and in Connecticut, where Calvinism enjo}-ed a hundred years of peace, Massachusetts was left behind. There reli- gious pride was forgotten ; predestination was less considered than philanthropy ; persecution was abandoned, and reason and charity were made the basis of law. "Virtue," said the great Connecticvit Presby- terian divine, Jonathan Edwards, " consists in universal love." From the churches of Connecticut were drawn the men and women who planted Presbyterianism at Cape May; there also freedom and peace favored the finest developments, and the influence of Calvinism may be recognized in the stability, thoroughness, and intelligence which have characterized the people. \ t: HISTORY OF COLD SPRING CHURCH. yy The first Presbyterian church in Cape May County was estabhshed at Cold Spring, two miles to the north of Sea Grove; its earliest chronicles have disappeared, but it is recorded that the first minister was the Rev. John Bradner, a native of Scotland. Mr. Bradner was a candidate for the ministry when invited to Cold Spring, but Rev. Allen H. Brown, in his "Outline History of the Presbyterian Church in West South Jersey," says he had no authority to preach, and it marks the unorganized state of Church affairs at the time, that Messrs. Davis, Hampton, and Henry, the three nearest ministers, took the re- sponsibility of examining and licensing him in March, 17 14, he being ordained May 6th, 1715. In 1721 Mr. Bradner was removed to Goshen, Orange County, New York, still keeping, however, his connection with the Presbytery of Philadelphia. Mr. Bradner died before September, 1733. The estate now occupied as the parsonage, consisting of some two hundred acres, was conveyed by him, for the use of the pastor of this Church, to Humphrey Hughes, George Hand, John Parsons, Joseph Weldon (Whilldin), James Spicer, and twenty-seven others. Mr. Bradner was succeeded by Rev. Samuel P'inley, who. as a resident at Cape May, often officiated, though not settled there. Mr. Finley was distinguished for learning and personal holiness; the great revival among the Presbyterian and Baptist churches from 1740 to 1743 was regarded as, in a large degree, God's blessing upon his labors; in 1761 he became President of Princeton College ; he was made a doctor of divinity, by the University of Glasgow, in 1763, and, after an active and useful life, died in remarkable peace and happiness, at Philadelphia, July i6th, 1766, being then fifty-one years of age. P>om 172 I to 175 I the Cold Spring Church had no settled minister; Messrs. Beatty, Dean, Davenport, and others, were a temporary supply. The Rev. Daniel Lawrence was at last installed, June 20th, 1754. Of his ministry little is known, except that in addition to his labors at Cape May he was often at the Forks of Brandywine, and, in 1755, went to preach at " New England over the mountains." Mr. Law- rence ministered to the Cold Spring Church twelve years ; he died in 1766; his grave is at Cold Spring. After the decease of Mr. Law- rence, the Rev. John Brainerd supplied the Cold Spring pulpit in 1769 and 1770, and there is a report that a Mr. Schcnck, a progenitor of the Hon. Robert Schenck, preached at Cape May, probably about this time. Mr. James Watt was the next minister ; the tombstone records his death November iQlh, 1 789, aged 46 years. Mr. Watts is said to have been a man remarkable for disinterested kindness, integrity, and ability; he was of the First Presbytery of Philadelphia, and represented that body in the General Assembly of I7''^9. The sombre manners of some of the stern New England forefathers gave reason for an accusation trite as untrue, that Presbyterians were 78 SCHEYICHBI AND THE STRAND. always an austere, sour, morose set of ascetics ; the biographical anec- dotes of the Rev. Mr. Watt might be quoted in refutal. Like the apostle Peter, Mr. Watt was much inclined to " go a-fishing," and of all fish the devil-fish was the one he most delighted to pursue. " The devil" is often a large, powerful fish, its capture rough sport. On one occasion, while accompanied by two other clergymen, Mr. Watt har- pooned a devil-fish in Delaware Bay, so large and strong that it rapidly drew the boat toward the sea. Amid the apprehension felt by all, but especially by his guests, Dr. Watt, as he was familiarly called, broke out in hearty laughter. He assured his companions that he could not conceal his amusement at the idea of three clergymen of the orthodox Church being run away with by the Devil ! Mr. Watt was succeeded by the Rev. Abijah Davis, of whom there is no record. The Rev. David Edwards followed him, dying in 1813. After 1808, the church-record has been preserved. The Rev. Isaac A. Ogden was installed 1817; he resigned and went West in 1825. His successor was the Rev. Alvin H. Parker, installed June 19th, 1825, on the occasion of the first meeting of the Presbytery at Cold Spring. The elders composing the session were Matthew Whillden (Whilldin), John Stites, Jacob Foster, Jesse Hughes, and Jacob R. Hughes. Moses Williamson was ordained and installed at Cold Spring in 183 1 ; he founded a successful academy there. Under his ministry the church prospered; he resigned in 1872, being now an honored resident of Cape May City. The pastor at Cold Spring is the Rev. Thomas S. Dewing, to whom, with the Rev. Dr. Alfred E. Nevins, thanks are due for items of this history. Mr. Dewing began his labors October 1st, 1873, and was installed May 6th, 1874. The Cold Spring Church has two hundred members; the Sabbath-school two hundred and fifty scholars ; a chapel has been built near the Cape, and the church improved, the means tberefor being derived from a legacy by Hon. Matthew Marcy. The Presbyterian church at Cape Island was erected in 1845, as "the visitors' church;" there the Rev. Mr. Williamson, before men- tioned, preached on Sabbath and Tuesday evenings, until 1851, when the Cape Island Presbyterian Church was organized. The Rev. E. P. Shields is now in charge, and under his " diligent culture" and "judicious oversight," says Dr. Nevins, the society is prosperous. There is also an P^piscopal, a Methodist, and a Baptist church at Cape May City. In the Cold Spring church-yard, and in another burying-place near the bay, above the steamboat landing, are entombed the aslies of many of the pioneers of Cape May, and of the generations which followed them. The tombstone is the only record of some who, once active and conspicuous, arc now no more regarded ; their names, their memory, obsolete, except among the venerable few. THE SAFE BASIS OF PROGRESS. -o But an enlightened faith dwells not in tombs, and recognizes death only as an incident of life; they whose bodies went down into the grave at Cape May came to their earthly consummation in a land where the hope of a happy immortality was part of the common creed. Strong in religious faith, upheld by a consciousness of spiritual things, the hour of their departure was to many of them an hour of triumph. One and all, they lived — they died; their example still remains: in high or low degree they filled the sphere they found, " whereunto they were appointed." The soul scorns the history that ends at the grave; as we stand amid the trampled dust of by-gone myriads, it lifts its voice within, to assert the presence of the angelic hosts and pro- claim over all the just and loving providence of God. Considering thus briefly the history of the churches of Cape I\Iay, regarding especially the Presbyterian organization, it is noticeable that while Calvinism has been influential, it has by no means been the sole creed of the people ; the author follows the record of Presbyterianism at greatest length, because the past history of that church and the recent action of Presbyterians at Sea Grove are strikingly pertinent to his argument, that freedom and equality are the safe basis of ma- terial and spiritual progress. Society, as some imagine, depends upon despotism, and religion they think a tender plant, thriving best in the shadow of a throne, hedged by bayonets ; grafted, at least, upon some constitution, and guarded by facile courts. The Presbyterian Church is a free, a self-governing republican church. New Jersey has been democratic in the extreme, and absolutely tolerant. At Cape May Presbyterianism has had free- dom, continuity, scope, and time, without isolation; it is fair to accept the outgrowth as a test of democratic republicanism and of the ten- dency of Calvinism in the United States. To learn this requires, in addition to a survey of the past, an observation of the novel yet characteristic developments of the present. § In passing from that which has become historical in relation to the Presbyterians of Cape May to an observation of the present, one thing may be remarked of peculiar interest and significance: the faith of the forefathers has, as it were, become hereditary; the names of prominent Presbyterians to-day are those found in the old church chronicles and traditions. Thus, Joseph Weldon (Whilldon, VVhilldcn, or Whilldin) was one of the original trustees of Cold Spring Cliurch. Matthew Whillden (Whilldin), with John Stites and Jesse and Jacob R. Hughes, were elders of the session in 1 825, and to-day Alexander Whilldin, after serving his church for a full generation as an elder, is now President of the Sea Grove Association. Of the above officers of the church, Mr. John Stites and Matthew Whilldon each held the position of "active and ruling elders" for fifty years or more; they were contem- poraries, and their terms of office were nearly coincident. So SCHEYICHBI AND THE STRAND. The organization over which Mr. Alexander Whilldin presides, having both secular and religious purposes, is Presbyterian in its antecedents and affiliations, though not exclusively sectarian in its constituency and designs, yet its work has been one of the most striking manifestations of character and tendency given by Presby- terians for many years ; and hence the value of the history of the Association, and its force as evidence in establishing the assumptions which are embodied in the first paragraphs of this work, and which are the conclusion of its argument. Following the course of our narrative and the discussion together, the history of Sea Grove becomes repuisite, and immediately in order. No account of the Sea Grove Association, its origin and operations, can be at all complete without some sketch, more or less circumstantial, of the gentleman who presides over the business of that corporation ; hence the necessity of reference to him in the succeeding paragraphs. The founder of Sea Grove is a native of Philadelphia, having been born in that city in i8o8; his father was a sea-captain, and a native of New Jersey. In 1812, leaving France on a return voyage to this country, he never reached our shores, no tidings of his fate ever coming to relieve the suspense of the bereaved family. This sad event left Alexander Whilldin an orphan at the early age of four years. The widow with her son and two daughters left Philadelphia, and went to reside at the old homestead in Cape May County. There, on the old farm near the Court-House, Alexander lived for twelve years, receiving only the meagre education that the country school-house of that day could give. In his sixteenth year he returned to Philadelphia and entered a store, where, without grumbling, he performed the duties of youngest clerk, including making the fires, sweeping the store, running of errands, and other things too often counted as drudgery nowadays. He was not too proud to work, and he worked earnestly, industriously, faithfully. He remained here as clerk eight years, rising from one position to another, gaining the confidence of his employer and of all about him. In 1832 he started business for himself, as a commission merchant in cotton and wool, the first year with a i)artner who brought in needed capital, and after- wards alone. His career as a business man now began in earnest. He soon de- veloped those traits which mark the solid man of business wherever you find him. He was prudent, sound in judgment, courteous, self- reliant, industrious, and of indomitable energy and persistence. He at once gave proof of great executive ability, and of capacity to direct extensive and complicated affairs. With such a power at the helm, his business rapidly grew to large proportions ; and although at one time embarrassment surrounded him, his native resources of energy, sagacity, and superior judgment enabled him finally to extricate him- ALEXANDER WHII.LKIN, KOUNDKU OK SEA C.KOVE. AN AMERICAN CITIZEN. 8r self honorably, to meet every obligation he had assumed, and to build himself up on the experience of his trials upon a broader and surer basis than ever. The peculiar talents of such a merchant could not of course remain the exclusive possession of his own large business. Mr. Whilldin was sought in commercial and financial circles, and was for many years President of the American Life Insurance Company of Philadelphia, and prominently interested in the management of other pecuniary trusts. His philanthropic sympathies, known generosity, and the personal interest he has always taken in educational, benevolent, and religious enterprises have made him prominent also in many noble public charities of Philadelphia; his upright character, and wisdom in counsel, making him invaluable as a leader in his own church denomi- nation, and very efficient as a manager in the American Sunday-school Union, Presbyterian Hospital, and other worthy educational and phil- anthropic institutions. A truthful likeness of Mr. Whilldin is included in the illustrations of this work. Although nearing his seventieth year after a laborious life, he enjoys the reward of ever temperate habits in an eye as clear, a step as elastic, and a mind as vigorous as most men of fifty. He is still actively at the head of his extended business, which is conducted in company with his three sons, and remains, as he has been for a full half-century, a respected and useful citizen of the great city where he was born. Though so long a resident of Philadelphia, the experienced merchant has never outworn his fondness for the scenes of his boy- hood, or failed to appreciate the advantages of an annual sojourn at the old familiar sea-side places. It has been for many years his delight to escape from the cares of business, and seek beside the waters of Cape Alay the recreation which nowhere else seemed as grateful and complete. For half a century, e.xcept one season in Europe, he has been there every summer. Not only as a visitor to Cape May, but as the holder of considerable real estate there, Mr. Whilldin has watched with interest the growth and peculiar prosperity of the county ; desirous, as a philanthropist, that all should enjoy and be benefited by the natural peculiarities of the place, he has seen, with regret, the increase of a bad fashion which renders the season for rest and health-giving resort to nature but a wearying round of dissipation. " More than twenty years ago," says the founder of Sea Grove, " I had this subject under consideration." Many beside Mr. Whilldin had long deplored watering-place extrava- gance, and several denominations had established quiet places of con- genial resort for their members, but none existed among Presbyterians. Providentially, as some of his friends declare, Mr. Whilldin was in possession of a most convenient location, whose great but long-reserved natural advantages invited occupation; besides, he had the courage, 82 SCHEYTCHBI AND THE STRAND. the means, and the influence, to make successful whatever he con- sidered it his duty to undertake. Tlie site of Sea Grove was purchased of " The West New Jersey Society in England," by Jonathan Pyne the elder, through Jeremiah Basse as agent; being inherited by Jonathan Pyne (2d) and Abigail Pyne, it was deeded by them and Robert Courtney, Abigail Pyne's husband, to Henry Stites, in 17 12. The property remained in the Stites family until the marriage of Jane G. Stites with Alexander Whill- din, in 1836, and was by them conveyed to the Sea Grove Association, March 15th, 1875, having been in Presbyterian hands one hundred and sixty-thi-ee years. "I have come," said Mr. Whilldin, " to consider it the providence of God that we have been led to retain this Presbyterian ground all these years, to become a subject of special consecration at last." To him it seemed little less than desecration to appropriate the place he loved to the use for which nature had pre-eminently fitted it — that of a superior sea-side resort — if it must be done in the ordinary manner. Yet it seemed a pity so fine a place as Sea Grove should benefit so i^v^^, es- pecially when scores of thousands in the great cities not far away needed every summer the comfort and help of the ocean air, and yet found themselves repelled and excluded from most popular resorts by the crowding, the confusion, the mad revelry, and recklessness which more and more characterized them. Under the circumstances, Mr. Whilldin took counsel in the first place, as has been stated, of his own thoughts and inspirations, for some time considering the matter; then, like a wise and practical man, he conferred with his wife. "We," said he, " laid the matter before Qod;" and then, feeling as if Heaven intended to bless the work, the Presby- terian man of business conferred with his brethren. His suggestions were generally approved, and it was decided to utilize the choice loca- tion at the point of Cape May, and "furnish a Moral and Religious Sea- side Home for the glory of God and the welfare of Man, zvhere lie may be refreshed and invigorated body and soul, and better fitted for the highest and noblest duties of life." In furtherance of this object an organization was effected the i8tli of February, 1875, which was chartered, with liberal franchises, by the Senate and General Assembly of the State of New Jersey the same year. This corporation was styled the " Sea Grove Association," and its Board of Directors was made to consist of Alexander Whilldin. Dr. V. M. D. Marcy, Downs Edmunds, J. Newton Walker, and John Wana- maker. Section 6th of the charter vests the Board of Directors with the power of regulation and control in the following terms : " 6. And be it enacted, That a majority of the directors for the time LAW AND ORDER AT SEA GROVE. 83 being shall form a board for the transaction of the business of said corporation, and shall have power to make such by-laws, ordinances, and regulations as shall seem necessary and convenient for the man- agement and disposition of the stock, effects, and concerns of the said corporation, and for the purpose of restricting nuisances and of compel- ling a uniform system of improvements; the said company are hereby authorized and invested with power to incorporate into any deed or conveyance made by them, whether in fee simple or otherwise, a clause or condition forbidding the sale upon the premises of any spirituous or intoxicating liquors, and to require of any grantee of said company to make and maintain such style and character of improvement on said lots so conveyed, or on the streets fronting thereon, as to the said com- pany may seem best for securing a uniform system of development and improvement throughout the said settlement ; and the board of directors of said company shall have the power to appoint such peace officers as they may deem necessary for the purpose of keeping order on the premises, which officers shall be paid by the said company, but shall have when on duty the same power and authority and immunities which constables and other peace officers under the laws of this State possess or enjoy when on duty as such, and they shall have the same power to enforce obedience to any rule and regulation of said corporation for the preservation of quiet and good order on the premises of said corporation and their grantees; provided, that such by-laws or regulations are not contrary to the laws or constitution of the United States or of this State." Subsequently the officers of the Association were elected, with Alex- ander Whdldin, President and Treasurer, 20 South Front Street, Phila- delphia; J. C. Sidney, Secretary, 204 South Fifth Street, Philadelphia; Downs Edmunds, Assistant Secretary, Cape May Point. The Directors of the Sea Grove Association adopted a series of by- laws and regulations which provided for the systematic and business- like conduct of its affairs, according to the terms of its charter. Of these regulations the 12th, 13th, and 15th are special and significant in character, and by their nature or general interest, and are therefore here inserted : " 12. All buildings and other improvements will be subject to the approval of the directors or to an agent appointed for that purpose by them. " 13. All deeds will contain a clause for the purpose of restricting nuisances and of compelling a uniform system of improvement, forbid- ding the sale or keeping for sale any spirituous or intoxicating liquors, and generally providing for the submission to such rules and regulations as the Board may from time to time direct. Neither the holder of a lot, stockholder, or other person shall permit any amusement or act incon- sistent with the character of the place and the objects of the Association, as set forth in the charter. ******** 84 SCHEYICHBI AND THE STRAND. " 15. The Pavilion is intended for religious or other meetings. Parties desiring to occupy it will not be permitted to do so without the authority in writing of the President, or in his absence of the majority of the Board, who shall first ascertain the character of the intended meeting, refusing the use thereof to all such as are not compatible with the objects and purposes of the Association." The stock of the company being taken up at once, operations began, and were pushed with great energy. After the manner of the Calvinist Puritans of New England long ago, the first structure in the new settle- ment was an edifice for the purposes of education and religion. " The Pavilion," though vastly different from the comfortless churches in which the Pilgrims delighted, was yet the creation of the same spirit, though working under vastly different circumstances. As a building, it is well adapted to the purpose for which it has been constructed. In whatever respect it may fall short of the too great splendor of some city sanctuaries, it has one excellence in which many costly churches are deficient : as seen by the view on another page, it admits of perfect ventilation. Completed late in the spring of 1875, the history of the Sea Grove Pavilion is evidently brief; still, as the centre of Sea Grove enterprise, it has already attracted much attention, and been the scene of several memorable gatherings. For the ensuing record and description of the first season of Pavilion meetings the author is indebted to the Rev. Alfred E. Nevins, D.D., the superintendent and friendly manager of the services. Though a distinguished array of clerical talent of various denominations was always available through the season, yet to the supervision and care of Dr. Nevins was due much of the regularity and success of those assemblies. In connection with the regular Pavilion services on Sunday, a Sabbath-school was organized, and conducted with decided success by Mr. S. E. Hughes, a member of the Methodist church. Recounting the already stated objects of the Sea Grove Association, Dr. Nevins proceeds to remark: " During the season of 1875, it was truly gratif)'ing to see how this 'object' was kept in view, appreciated, and carried out. I^arly in July, in the attractive structure set apart for Divine service, and standing where but a few months before were seen the dense and dark forest, liundreds of visitors were summoned from the commodious hotel and handsome cottages by the clear and sweet tones of the bell, ringing through the grove and along the beach, to engage in the worship of their common Creator and Redeemer. And on every succeeding Sabbath was the same invitation given and accepted. A pleasing spectacle it was, on such occasions, to behold those who, though differing in some points of faith, yet agreed in the essential elements of our holy religion, the veteran and the child, the stranger and the familiar friend, all mingling their voices and uniting their liearts in praise and prayer to the God and Father of our Lord <5 ymm \ipn\m^^ RELIGIOUS SERVICES IN THE PAVILION. g^ Jesus Christ, and listening with eager ear and ardent interest to the exposition of His most excellent Word. Still more pleasant, if possi- ble, was it to see several hundreds of representative ministers and lay- men of the various evangelical denominations, who had been invited to convene for the consideration of great moral and religious subjects, on the 25th of August, engage for several days in the noble Pavilion in earnest devotions and discussions, and then on the holy Sabbath unite in celebrating the love of Him who ' died for our sins, according to the Scriptures,' who prays that His followers 'all may be one,' and who has gone to prepare for them a place where they shall dwell together in blissful fellowship through an endless existence. There is some- thing in the magnitude and grandeur of the ocean, as it is gazed upon, a great symbol of eternity, to overwhelm the mind, and cast minor matters into the shade. The very sight of it, in this view, tends to magnify the essentials of Christianity and to minify its circumstantials. And this effect was evidently realized in no small degree by the visit- ors at Sea Grove. May the flame that was kindled on the ' shore' — a spot which, in another land, Jesus so much delighted to frequent — send its light and heat throughout the country and the world! " 'One sole baptismal sign, One Lord, below, above. Zion, one faith is thine, One only watchword — Love. From different temples thougii it rise, One song ascendeth to the skies. " ' Oh, why should they who love One Gospel to unfold, Wlio seek one home above, On earth be strange and cold? Wliy, subjects of the Prince of Peace, In strife abide, and bitterness? •• ' Head of the church beneath, The catliolic — the true — On all her members breathe — Her broken frame renew ! Then shall Thy perfect will be done, When Christians love ami live as one.' " While the Pavilion was going up, a heavy force of men were grading the streets, avenues, and boulevards of Sea Grove. In the " Bird's-eye View of Sea Grove" which illustrates this book, the plan appears as laid out by Mr. Sidney, the architect. At the same time, the founda- tions of the "Sea Grove House" were laid, and the building pushed with great energy, being ready for use and thronged with hundreds of guests the same season. Simultaneously, many cottages arose here and there, all neat and attractive, and some ornately elegant ; notably that of the Whilldin family, illustrated, with the original Sea Grove House, in the view of " Atlantic Beach," from a photograph taken upon the 86 SCHEYICHBI AND THE STRAND. completion of the first buildings of Sea Grove. Besides, as early ex- amples of fitness and characteristic good taste, might be mentioned the cottage of John Wanamaker; one for Mr. Stockton, an Episco- palian divine; several built on account of J. Newton Walker, M.D. ; those constructed by Mr. Hughes, etc., as shown in the bird's-eye view. Episcopalians, Lutherans, Methodists, and Christians of other de- nominations were already owners of the soil, and began to build; be- sides, people, not members of any church, were drawn by the promise of order and morality to seek a resting-place in the borders of the new, fast-growing town. The frontispiece represents Cape May Point, the site of Sea Grove, as it appeared in 1776; the picture of "Sea Grove Beach by Moonlight" is a sketch of the same locality, from a different point of view, just before the lighthouse was moved inland, the constant action of the sea having worn away the low bluff until the tower would soon have been in danger of a fall into the encroaching waves. These engravings are essentially accurate, except that in the original paintings, from which both of them were copied, the artist, Mr. Charles W. Knapp, of Philadelphia, well known by his fine authentic American landscapes, though reproducing faithfully and beautifully from older sketches and various data the natural features of each scene, has in- troduced, for artistic effect, more figures of men and women than often gathered on " Barren Beach" in those days. The lighthouse being moved back in 1847, the scene remained without much change until 1875, when the improvements of Sea Grove began. The "Bird's-ej'e View" is reduced from a design by Armitage, of Mr. Sidney's office, and gives the appearance of Sea Grove in the spring of 1876. Studied thus in connection and contrast, these pic- tures are more expressive than any words the writer can command. The other views in this volume, being from sketches by David B. Gul- ick, of New York, are, of course, reliiible pictures ; they present ar- tistically the actual features in a peculiar landscape, and, as will soon be seen, are significant of the remarkable influence of changing phases of religious sentiment upon general progress. Let the reader look at the picture of the gateway of Sea Grove, at the view of Lake Lily, and at the architecture of all the buildings in the various scenes, and then com- pare the liberality, taste, and good sense of Presbyterians to-day, with the temper manifested by the conscientiously ugly and uncomfortable "meeting-houses" of New England Calvinists two hundred years ago! §"A sea-side resort," say the Directors of the Sea Grove Associa- tion, in one of their publications, " is generally associated in the mind with lavish display, extravagant living, dissipation, and consequent ex- pense, to be regretted when the apparent pleasure is past and gone. To families of quiet habits, and who visit a summer resort, even where expense is no object, the glitter and show do not compensate for the health lost or for bad habits formed, especially by the young. SUMMER HOMES BESIDE THE SEA. 87 The fashionable hotel at a watering place may afford at enormous prices some luxuries and some exciting amusements, but attending these are generally small, inconvenient rooms, dissipation of every kind, a mixed, often immoral, company, the irreverent element preponder- ating over the moral and religious." In view of these facts, they ex- plain that their enterprise has been undertaken " with the idea of afford- ing a sea-side resort, and sea-side homes, with their economies and pleasures, as well as the influences arising from a religious sentiment, good order, and a freedom from all dissipation attending the merely fashionable watering places." To encourage home life and influences at the sea-side, the greatest inducements are extended to those who build at Sea Grove. Aside from all other advantages of ready-made and perfectly graded streets, etc., each builder of a cottage will be entitled to a free pass over the West Jersey Railroad for one, two, or three years, agreeably to cost of im- provement ; and all materials will be carried at a reduced rate. The Association, to facilitate transit from Cape May City and the steam- boat landing to Sea Grove, have constructed a horse railroad between those places. Good-sized lots at Sea Grove have been put at moderate prices, and, to prevent monopolizing speculation, none are sold except to those who agree to build within three years. The observer can de- tect neither overreaching greed or insane fanaticism in the develop- ments of Sea Grove ; the enterprise is no crusade, no pilgrimage to some " holy" but unhealthy sacred place, at the command of super- stition. Presbyterians to-day expect God's blessing of health only as they conform to natural laws, the dictates of sanitary science, and good sense. Speaking of the site of their enterprise, the Directors announce : "The land is sufficiently rolling to afford good drainage in every di- rection, and there are many building-sites rising twenty-five feet above the level of the ocean. There is no swamp on the tract, and the whole plot is available for building purposes. Water for drinking and culin- ary purposes, of the purest quality, is obtained on any part of the ground at a depth of sixteen feet from the surface." Hospitable religion, broad boulevards, perfect drainage, pure, jilen- tiful water, hygienic living; this is the Presbyterian programme to-day. Not very long ago, moody, mistaken " saints," of varied sects, counted religion, or the madness they called such, godliness enough, leaving cleanliness and care for the body to be regarded almost as a vice; herein is evident improvement. Progress involves no shifting of the grounds of principle, no change in the immutable basis of truth ; it is a matter of perception and receptivity. It is mankind that is " con- verted from the error of its way," to grow in intelligence, in morals, in spiritual unfolding, to the measure of a perfect life! Peculiar in its origin, remarkable in its development, .striking in its 88 SCHEYICHBI AND THE STRAND. results, as a work of high civilization, as an index of progress, Sea Grove commands attention by the liberality, skill, and judgment every- where evinced, but is equally a display of good taste, a substantial re- cognition of the claims of the beautiful. Calling to mind the " crop-eared boors" of Marston Moor, the " Roundheads" of Cromwell's army, the parliament of" Praise God Barebones," the grim Puritans of Salem and Boston, the Pilgrim Fathers, "the Saints" of New Haven, the Cove- nanters of Scotland, and the early Presbyterians of New Jersey, with all the stern dogmatists of a persecuted denomination whose members were accused of regarding propriety and comeliness as a " wile of the wicked one," how strange, how inconsistent seem the works and ways of their lineal descendants in the spirit — the inheritors of the faith, the Presbyterians of to-day. Yet, whatever may, at first thought, seem to be the case, Sea Grove is a coherent outgrowth of Geneva, and Calvinism as much at home there as it was with the democratic and catholic Pilgrim. leathers aboard the Mayflower and at Plymouth, or amid the privations, gloom, austerity, and exclusiveness of the per- secuting Puritans during the first years of Salem and Boston. To make it still more plain that the principles, good manners, and morals of the elder generations of Calvinists are essentially preserved, and their foibles alone omitted, by the people of Sea Grove, the following, from the pen of an experienced, observing, orthodox minister, is here added: "Throughout the season a bright, cheerful, and sociable spirit prevailed. Innocent and agreeable amusements abounded. Cultured and friendly intercourse was cherished. Guests, without any constraint to do so, had an opportunity of attending family worship morning and evening, as well as public Divine service on the Sabbath. Nothing oc- curred of any kind to mar the pleasure of the visitors from North, South, East, and West, and every sign indicated a brilliant and useful future for Sea Grove. It was evident to all who visited the place for a day, a week, or a month, that it is just the resort that is needed, one where fashion and dissipation do not hold sway, where extravagance finds no sphere for display, where guests, without an affected pretense of piety or of devotional services, may enjoy the means of grace to which the inmates of Christian homes are accustomed in their church relations, and where, whilst religious advantages are supplied and cherished, everything like sectarianism and bigotry is eschewed. It was a joy to the writer that, during a visit of a number of weeks at Sea Grove, whilst witnessing much cheerful enjoyment, and sharing in it, he nei- ther saw a card or glass of liquor, nor heard a profane word. And this was peculiarly gratifying, as so many young persons were present, who could not but be benefited by so much exemption from evil influences, while under the power of others of an opposite character, genial, cheer- ing, manly, and eminentlj; salutary." § It has been stated that not only Presbyterians, but Episcopalians, EPISCOPALIANS AT SEA GROVE. 8g Lutherans, IMethodists, and others were attracted to Sea Grove. To show how some of these people re<^ard the place and its arrange- ments leads the author directly to the point of his perhaps too long land circumstantial argument. The subjoined paragraphs are from an 'Episcopalian in training and by long affiliation a liberal man and a reformer, one familiar with great enterprises, and to whom some of the most remarkable acts of the Senate of the United States owe their conception. This gentleman made a careful examination of the affairs of Sea Grove at an early date, and in a letter from thence to a friend, but for publication, he wrote, — "Another visit to this delightful spot demonstrated the fact that the success of the enterprise is assured. "Although somewhat surprised at the rapid advancement of the work as it appeared a few weeks ago, the sight presented last Saturday seemed quite bewildering. " The place, considering the brief interval, had assumed the air of a lively little village, with evidences on all sides of the greatest activity and healthy progress. Cottages are springing up as if under the inspiration of magic, the commodious hotel recently begun is now open, the beautiful wide avenues are being graded and graveled, the sidewalks gently elevated above the smooth, level drives, and the busy workmen finishing their labors give hopeful note of preparation for the coming season. " The excursionists last Saturday appeared to enjoy the visit very much ; after taking a bird's-eye view of Sea Grove from the lofty steeple of the Pavilion, they strolled off along the beach, and visited the numerous objects of interest, as the clear fresh-water lake, the new hotel, the cottages, and grounds. "A sign of the progressive times is the fact that men of large ex- perience, keen sagacity, and ample means are attracted to South Jersey partly from its superior natural advantages, and, in some measure, from the moral tone and growing sentiments of the people u[)on the vital questions of temperance and prohibition, without which no community can reach the highest degree of moral development and material wealth. " The Sea Grove Association, composed of such men as Messrs, Alexander Whilldin, John VVanamaker, J. C. Sidney, and others of like earnestness and capacity, recognizing these principles, has founded this new settlement on the basis of morality, religion, and temperance, and procured such legislation as will effectually banish, within the cor- porate limits, the sale and traffic of intoxicating liquors. Built on this superstructure, with its natural advantage of position, health, accessi- bility, moral tone, and religious sentiments, the future of Sea Grove is assured. " The temperance feature is one which your valuable journal cannot too highly commend. The beneficent result which will soon be ap- 90 SCHEYICHBI AND THE STRAND. parent from the practical workings of the prohibitory provision will furnish you additional arguments and illustrations to continue the manly fight made in Pennsylvania against the rum traffic and in favor of prohibition throughout the State. " The party returned to the city about eight o'clock without acci- dent, seemingly well pleased with the day's enjoyment." But all the world are not Presbyterians, all are not Episcopalians ; some are not members of any church, and yet are people of discrim- ination, at least in secular matters. John Calvin, in Geneva, could not raise himself above the persecuting spirit of his age altogether. The Calvinists in Holland, in England, in Massachusetts, were by the record held guilty of conscientious bloodshed for the offenses of con- science. Coming down the tide of time, what spirit ruled at Sea Grove? The hospitality, tolerance, and courtesy of the Sea Grove Christians were early put to a test, and as to the manner in which they bore the trial, the evidence of the one who gave whatever provocation may have been felt shall be admitted. The letters here quoted from were published at Boston, Massachu- setts, in the " Banner of Light," an old, ably-conducted Spiritualist journal, much respected by its supporters, and of world-wide circula- tion. Addressing the editor as a personal friend, the correspondent at Sea Grove freely comments as follows : "While your various correspondents are sending you cheerful notes from different points where the thousands of liberal souls congregate and enjoy the satisfaction of a refined society and philosophical teach- ings, I add my scribble from another locality, where it may seem that I am out of place and ought to be uncomfortable. " Sea Grove is a creation, and a creation by Presbyterians. If you take your United States map, and let your pen-handle run down the coast of the Atlantic southwardly until you reach Cape Henlopen, you will be fourteen miles beyond where I am. Still, Cape Henlopen light, shining across the entrance of Delaware Bay, threw its rays into my window last night, for I slept at the very end of Southern New Jersey, on the shore of the actual Cape May. The long-established watering- place of that name is north of here, in a much less desirable locality, not on a cape at all — hence, in our American way, its name. " On the point of the Cape a few Presbyterian gentlemen and capitalists have laid out in noble style a small town, building, as their forefathers in the faith in New England did, a church first, and then, as the pilgrim fathers did not, a comfortable hotel, with modern improvements, next! Nor this alone, but they have leveled the sand banks, improved the shores of a small fresh-water lake, and multiplied streets, roads, ave- nues, and boulevards in every direction. Eine cottages have been erected, and the place is rapidly developing characteristics of material order and beauty. DISINTERESTED EVIDENCE. pi "The Abraham, the Moses, the Solomon of this enterprise is Alex- ander Whilldin, Esq., a wealthy wool merchant of the city of Philadel- phia, in whose family the land hereabouts has been a legacy for genera- tions. Presbyterianism has descended in the same line as the property, but it must not be understood that the large fortune of Mr. W. was all inherited, or that he is of that class of men who accept their creeds ready-made from their ancestors. On the contrary, he is a thorough man of business, as liberal in his charities as thoughtfully tolerant in his adhesion to his sect. In association with him is the famous Napo- leon of clothiers, John Wanamaker, of the same city. Both these persons are remarkable in the same way — men whose broad views and ceaseless energies, coupled with catholic sympathies, make mere sec- tarianism seem impertinent, and exalt our conception of human nature as we observe their philanthropic activity and eminent public spirit. " The plan of this sea-side paradise, this New Jerusalem in the sand, as well as the public improvements, reflects credit upon the taste and skill of Mr. J. C. Sidney, another Philadelphian, and an architect of repute. Under his superintendence, backed by abundant means, the growth of this place has been exceedingly rapid, and yet substantial completeness is everywhere evident. " Under the favorable laws of this State (New Jersey), the regulations of this new town are as peculiar as the old Presbyterian Blue Laws of Connecticut ; in fact, they smack somewhat of their character. I should hesitate long before I consented to such laws for a State or large city, but here, and now, very possibly they are excellent ; anyway, those who disapprove can go to — Cape May, or even Long Branch, which is worse. " For my part I am glad to get to a place where rest and health and personal improvement seem really to be the object of those around me. I am rejoiced to be, even for a week, where my eyes are not offended by the emblazonry with which the rum traffic decorates so many fronts in town, and where the tippler tippleth not and the drunk- ard Cometh not. Continual swearing \m others) is not essential to my happiness, while slang and obscenity, such as I often hear in some re- sorts, make me crawl all over with disgust. Sea Grove has no rum traffic — never will have ; it has no scenes of riot, and moreover is clean and decent in every way. I don't know how rigid the regulations are, but I do know they will be enforced, whatever they may be; and that now the result is every way satisfactory if health and rest are really desired. " It seems queer to see the people of a hotel convene twice a day for family prayers, where various clergymen 'address the throne of grace,' and a fine quartette like this of the Hayes family leads the singing; yet such is the fashion here, and I, wishing to be in style, followed the fashion. I cannot detect any demoralization in myself in consequence 92 SCHEYICHBI AND THE STRAND. of this self-indulgence, and if I think my own thoughts the while prayer and music go on, I do not think I am surrounded by a company of mere hypocrites and canting, pretentious formalists ! I am sure some people I know would be surprised to learn how much of real human goodness unspoiled there is in all the churches. The danger here seems to be that so much piety and propriety, 'taken straight,' may become dull from monotony, and so efforts have been made to avoid sanctimo- niousness. A very distinguished Presbyterian divine organized a minstrel troupe from the kitchen and the dining room, and they gave an entertainment. Then last evening there was in the parlor an exhi- bition of sleight-of-hand by * Professor Giieriiella and lady.' He belongs to the assumed exposers of Spiritualism, and I have to say that he was decent in his remarks and clever in his tricks, but his imitation was as much like spirit phenomena as the pantomime of the deaf and dumb is like the eloquence of Wendell Phillips; and so as before the facts of Spiritualism remain, as Gncrnclla says, to ' puzzle longer heads than mine.' " To-day, after the teachings of Guernella, that ' we should attribute nothing to supernatural causes because we don't understand it,' we had a sermon from the Rev. Mr. Nevins upon the stilling of the sea by Jesus. He took occasion to inculcate 'muscular Christianity,' saying salvation was incomplete without health, and that Jesus healed the sick. He then told us that the storm on Galilee was the work of demoniacal spirits, as were all storms, earthquakes, and other destructive outbreaks of nature ! It was cheap science, even if good theology ; anyhow, it showed Gncrnclla had not effaced the idea that somehow good or bad spirits had much to do with our life and its environment. Nevins is an elderly Presbyterian minister. To-night, at 5 o'clock, we listen to the Rev. Mr. Stockton, an PLpiscopalian of reform tendencies, but still in full communion. From conversation with him, I expect liberal things." Disagreeing radically and frankly with those around him, the writer of the above states, in the further course of his correspondence, that candor and courtesy were the only concessions made by him in frequent conversations and debates with both laymen and ministers; and yet he declares that nowhere was he ever so cheerfully tolerated, never treated with greater kindness, " not even in the radical Israel." §Such has been the course taken by the Presbyterian managers of Sea Grove, and such is the concurrent testimony of various parties as to the order, morality, and liberal tolerance of those who frccjucnt the place; yet there resides and rules the same Calvinism which was believed in by the Puritans, who sanctioned the death of dissenters in 'England and Massachusetts a few generations ago. Since then, how much of growth in grace ! Divorced from the entanglements of state ecclesiasticism, the free ^^♦4a"^ COXCLUSION OF THE HISTORIC ARGUMENT. ^3 Prcsb}'terian Church, hkc oilier Christian or^^inizations, has escaped from potent influences of corruption and gained in spiritual life. De- livered from persecution, endowed with freedom, resting secure, that Church has outgrown the old-time Puritan arrogance, intolerance, and cruelty. This is not a change in Calvinism, but it is progress among men. It was not the creed, but the fears of the Puritans, which made them exclusive and proscriptive. The progress made manifest by the success of the Presbyterians in New Jersey has been shared by the Episcopalians of Virginia as well, and has extended to every Christian denomination in our country. It is the fruit of religious freedom, of security, prosperity, and culture; the expression of the spirit of the nineteenth century, the outgrowth of the republican institutions of the United States of America. " Calvinism ran to seed in Massachusetts," it is said ; its thorns it put forth in Europe in defiance — a defense against its persecutors. After two hundred years ot tolerance and liberty, it blooms at Sea Grove ; the humanities, the cour'.esies, the graces of life, blossom in beauty on the same rugged stock which so long has nourished the sterner virtues. Freedom is the natural basis of civilization, progress, and a true life. Religion needs no establishment except in the hearts of the devout. The only legitimate rule is the law of equal rights, "a government of the people, by the people, and for the people" — " never to perish from the earth." Such are our conclusions. Such the lesson of New Jersey and Sea Grove; the historic argument of Scheyichbi and the Str-^nd. GEOLOGICAL OUTLINES AND ITEMS. A FACT IN NATURE IS AN ACT OF GOD." The course of nature is the art of God." Young. Cape May Lighthouse is at the southern end of the State of New Jersey, and. according to the United States Coast Survey Reports, is in 38° 55' 50" .42 north lati- tude, and in 74° 57' 15" .57 west longitude; high- water mark by the same observation was 11 88 feet due south of it, or in lati- tude 38° 55' 39". 65 north, and longitude 74° 57' 15" .57 west. The light is one hundred and sixty-seven and three-eighths miles from the northern limit of New Jersey, and between Delaware Bay and the At- lantic Ocean. Immediately west is located the settle- ment of Sea Grove, includ- ing the United States Signal Station at the extreme point of Cape May. Both the light and the settlement, as well as the long-famous resort of Cape May City, and the country thirty- two miles north, are included in Cape May County. Geologically, this county, in common with all the southern portion of the State, belongs to the Tertiary and recent formation of the Ceno- zoic period, and is characterized by deposit, drift, and alluvium. The whole county is very low, level, and uniform, and, in the absence of mines, quarries, or other deeo excavations, geological examinations have been 94 THE ANCIENT SHORES. ^5 confined to the surface, and tlie deposit to the depth of three hundred and thirty-five feet beneath it. The best opportunities for observations have been afforded by the boring of several artesian wells at different points. § Not very long ago — as time is counted in geology — tl>? ocean shore of Southern New Jersey extended from Trenton, on the D. 'aware, to Woodbridge, on Staten Island Sound, running nearly along the ^^resent railroad from Trenton to Metuchen, Middlesex County, and from thence eastward a short distance. This was the southern limit of the appear- ance of the red sandstone of the Triassic formation. All the land between there and Cape May, to a depth of about seven hundred and forty-two feet, in the Cretaceous formation, and one thousand or more deep the rest of the distance, has been "made" either by deposits from the sea and from vegetable growth, or by " drift" and wash of materials. The Cretaceous formation extends from the southern line of the Triassic southwardly about sixty miles along the Delaware as far as AUoway's Creek, Salem County, and from thence northeastwardly to Shark River Inlet, on the Atlantic coast, eight miles below Long Branch. Clayton Station, on the West Jersey Railroad from Philadel- phia to Cape May City and Sea Grove, is near the southern border of the Cretaceous formation. The Tertiary formation covers all the surface of Southern New Jersey south of the line from Shark River Inlet to AUoway's Creek, except a narrow margin of recent formation along the shores. Owing to the nature of their materials, and the agencies which have operated upon them through successive ages, it is very difficult to definitely outline the field of these two formations. The Tertiary overlies the Cretaceous in the north, and runs irregularly into the recent formation along the shore. Beyond the Cretaceous, to the north, appears the Triassic formation, composed of the red sandstones and others, the trap and conglomerate rocks. North of the Triassic rise the mountains which stretch across the State of New Jersey in its northwestern portion. These mountains are composed of gneiss rocks and crystalline limestone, or marble, but mostly of gneiss; these are the outcrop of the metamorphic rocks of the Azoic time, and are metamorphic, igneous, or primitive in character, — that is to say, they are geologically the most ancient rocks, and owe their character to the action of fire. The valleys among these mount- ains are limestone localities, and all the territory of New Jersey beyond the mountains to the northwest is a limestone region, and of the Paleozoic division of geologic structure and time. § It being known that the metamorphic rocks of the Azoic period are primitive, igneous, or Plutonic rocks, it is understood that they are the oldest, and, if retained in place, would be the deepest buried, of all the 96 SCHEYICHBI AND THE STRAND. strata, lying as an ever-shrinking shell of granite upon the fiery lava which forms the liquid pulpy heart of the globe. All the strata, were they " in place," would be piled one on another above this heated granite floor. First would come the Azoic or Metamorphic rocks; then the Silurian, Devonian, Carboniferous, Permean, Triassic, Jurassic, Creta- ceous, Tertiary, Post-Tertiary; and last and uppermost of all, the Recent formations. This would place Southern New Jersey geologically where some of its residents declare it is to be found in every respect, — "at the top of the heap ;" but, since the central fire of the planet first began to cool, and islands of red-hot stone floated upon the incandescent ocean, there has been many a commotion and violent shaking-up of things in this world, and geologists are not the only people who, in order to learn the truth, are compelled to follow with painstaking care the clue of fact through what seems a labyrinth of confusion before they catch a view of the system of nature, comprehend in part the laws of the universe, and realize with reverence the glory of the Infinite God ! The geologic strata are first formed, and then upheaved or depressed, crushed, crumpled, and distorted, disintegrated, mixed, and distributed, in a thousand ways and positions, by the action of known but incon- ceivable forces. The shrinkage of the earth's crust crowds up enormous ridges of granite or other rocks, which in cragged wedges slowly pierce upwards through the superincumbent mass, or else the crash of earth- quake explosions produces effects in a few moments otherwise the work of ages. The variations of condition and character thus introduced in the geologic elements by the causes described create an appearance of utter confusion bewildering to the uninformed and heedless. It seems to the superficial observer that the rocks and earths, the sands and the soils, are jumbled together without sequence or significance, and such persons, if induced to consider the subject at all, are inclined to surren- der the use of their senses and reason, and atone for tlieir imbecility and unf:iithfulness by the acceptance of some superstitious, heathenish, and wicked pretension of a revealed Cosmogony. Thus they give up the study, appalled by the difficulties which surround it, content to know no more scientifically of the wondrous world they mysteriously inhabit than did the saurian reptiles whose fossil remains enrich the marl beds and banks of fossil shells. Such a course is blindly impious, and dis- graceful to human nature. It is true the Bible asserts that God made the world, but it gives only the most exceeding vague intimation as to how or when the Creation announced was effected ; whatever may or may not be re- vealed in si)iritual things, we are left to study geology hammer in hand, knocking hard at the rocky doors of science. Yet we need not be dis- couraged nor afraid ; the difficult is not of necessity impossible, and although geology is an infant science compared to astronomy and SCIENCE AND TRUTH. 97 mathematics, and only a child beside even chemistry, yet the clue has been discovered, the system made plain, and only diligence and cour- age are required for the conquests of the future. The practical eco- nomic value of geology is immense, and besides, it must ever be a high gratification to read in the record of the rocks the history of the evo- lution and progressive development of our home, the earth. Tiiere is no danger the facts of Geology can annul, or even obscure, the truth of religion. Men of science are not always scientific, but while we trace the process by which that which is has been brought about, it need not be that we become process mad, and unable to see in and behind the unfolding the infinite spirit, which movc«5 in the wheels of existence. Here, are phenomena ; there, is law, process, and evolution; the spirit is everywhere, all in all. There is no pebble so small but lazu constrains it, no material so inert but evolution compels its progress; the smallest grain of sand has being in an infinite order; omnipotence overtops the loftiest crag, underlies the deepest primitive strata, and sustains the central fire. Facts cannot disprove truth ; the idea of God science can displace from the minds of candid and tho- rough students is but the myth of morbid imagination, the shadow of the fetich of barbarian ignorance. § New Jersey contains the out-crops of all the geologic formations except, unfortunately, the carboniferous. In the absence of the coal- bearing strata there are, however, other rich and rare mines and de- posits in the State, notably those of zinc; as well as an abundance of iron, of lime, of valuable clays, of building materials, and natural fer- tilizers. The remarkable geologic characteristics which have marked the region, are the evident recurrent upliftings and subsidences of a large part of the surface, and the effects of denudation and drift. The Cretaceous formation of New Jersey, which with the Tertiary covers the whole southern part of the State, was once the bottom of a shallow and quiet ocean; it is evident from its stratification that the surface of the land rose and fell with comparative regularity, so that the sea would advance at times and cover it, and then the bottom would be uplifted and the .sea recede. Vegetation would .start up upon the marshes and upland, which would after a time by subsidence of the land be overwhelmed in the waves, and then buried by degrees in the sea sediment. In proof of all this, the immense quantities of fossil shells in this formation are found unbroken, and the bones of reptiles lying together undisturbed near where they lived and died ; this would not be the ca.se if the sea which covered them had been turbulent and stormy. That marine shells and sea sediments are found both above and brlow various beds or layers of vegetable fossils and the bones of land rep- tiles shows that alternately the land was submerged, and then for an a^ie emerged from the waters. Yet all this time the land must have 98 SCHEYICHBI AND THE STRAND. been subsiding on the whole ; for a regular stratified formation some eight hundred feet thick was thus aggregated, and the topmost layer of shells was of course under the tide when it grew. This subsidence was followed by an elevation of the whole coast to about four hundred feet above the level of the sea, which was effected bodily; but the up- lift seems to have been greatest in the northwest, so that the strata slope or " dip" toward the southeast at present. This upheaval was before the " drift period." When it came, the process of denudation reduced the land to nearly its present level and configuration. The name of the Cretaceous formation is derived from England, and is significant of the great amount of chalk which characterizes it. The constituents of the formation in New Jersey are all earthy, except where in a few detached spots the material has become cemented by oxide of iron into a kind of sandstone or conglomerate. The strata are the upper marl bed, the yellow sand ; the middle marl bed, the red sand ; the lower marl bed, clay marls, and plastic clay. These last are of fresh-water origin, and are supposed to have originated from, the decomposition of gneiss rock; they are the underlying strata when in place, but in actual situation crop out on the surface on the northern edge of the formation at Woodbridge, Perth Amboy, South Amboy, Washington, and Trenton ; they are also used as potters' clay at sev- eral other places. The other strata came to the surface one after another as distance increases towards the south, until at the commencement of the Tertiary formation the upper marl beds appear while the other strata are mostly subterranean. Next to the evidences of denudation and drift presented by the sur- face of the Cretaceous district, the vast quantities of fossil shells and bones are remarkable. The shells of the clay beds are of fresh- water origin (such as the genus U)iio, as fresh-water mussel and others), and may have grown at the bottom of lakes before the subsidence, or the fresh water may have been kept from the sea by hills and ridges. The green sand which abounds in the Cretaceous formation is sup- posed to have become granulated by forming inside very small shells, and is of chemical origin, and evidently a deposit from salt water, as the vast amount of fossil marine shells contained in it demonstrates. One species of these shells, the Tcrclnxtitla Harlaui, forms a layer ninety miles long, over a mile wide, and about a }'ard in thickness in the middle marl bed. This layer is made up almost entirely of this species, of shell, closely packed together. Immediately beneath the Tcrcbatitla Harlaiii shell layer is another equally large, made up of shells of the Pycnodonta convcxa. Many other kinds of shells exist 'in great quantities in the Cretaceous formation at various places. Of these over three hundred varieties have been classified and described, with no certainty that the work is complete. In some marl beds a FIRST USE OF THE MARL. ^^ dozen or twenty varieties might be found in comparatively small space, and then again, as before described, beds of one kind of shells, a mile wide and several feet thick, are scores of miles in length. The plastic cla}'s of the Cretaceous formation of New Jersey are highly valuable to the potter and to the maker of fire-brick ; the com- mon clays are useful too for ordinary brick-making ; the gneiss of the Azoic formation, and the red sandstone or " brown stone" of the Triassic strata, and, very generally, the various colored limestones of the Paleozoic district of the State, are used in building ; the brown sand- stone of southern New Jersey serves the same purpose. The Triassic trap rock and sandstone is used in paving, and its slates for roofing. Iron and zinc mines are very rich in New Jersey, the iron produced being of the best; the zinc ore is generally rare elsewhere, yet ten years ago twenty- five thousand tons of it were dug yearly in Sussex County. This ore yielded seven thousand tons of "zinc white," and five hundred tons of metallic zinc; this was seven-tenths of all the zinc white manufactured in the United States, and about one-fourth of all the spelter produced. Yet it is probable the marl beds of the Creta- ceous formation, used alone as fertilizers, or in combination with its shell and stone lime, and the muck and peats of the region, are or might be made worth more than all the quarries and mines within the Commonwealth. The green sand marl was first used as a fertilizer, in Monmouth County, in 1768, when "an Irishman" ditching for Peter Schenck " threw out a substance he called ' marl.' " It was spread over an acre and a half of land, where its good effects were visible for many years; " but," says the record, " this circumstance attracted no particular notice until 181 1, when the farm came into the possession of John II. Smock ;" then notice was taken of the effect of the marl, and the use of it began in the neighborhood. It had been used somewhat at that time in other places, but at no place in this country was the use of marl general before the present century began. The discovery and use of the marl have raised thousands of acres of lands from sheer barrenness to remarkable fertility ; worn-out farms, where a family could not be supported, are now making their culti- vators rich by their productiveness. Bare sands are made to grow clover, and then crops of corn, potatoes, and wheat. " Pine barrens," by the use of marl, have been made into fruitful lands, and thus whole districts have been saved from depopulation, and the inhabitants of others increased. Fifty-five years ago the six southern counties of New Jersey were described by Morse as four-fifths waste and barren land; this consti- tuted two-fifths of the entire State: now, large portions of this desert are under high and profitable culture, and the land in farms in the six southern counties is worth an average of over fifty dollars an acre. lOO SCHEYICHDI AND THE STRAND. The Irishman who spread the first marl in New Jersey deserved more honor than many a conquering warrior ; a monument erected to his memory would be more in keeping than to have him referred to in the State Geologist's Report merely as "an Irishman!" In the marl-beds of the Cretaceous formation are abundant and extraordinary remains of extinct reptiles. They were of the orders Thecodon'tia, Sauropterygia, Testudinata, Crocodilia, and Dino- SAURIA, A fine specimen of the last order is preserved in the Museum of the Academy of Natural Sciences at Philadelphia, and is classified as the HadrosaiiTus Foulkii. It was a gigantic reptile, about twenty- eight feet long. The hind legs were very long, more than double the length of the fore limbs. The reptile walked on his hind legs as a man uses his legs, and ate foliage and vegetable food. It was a heavy unwieldy monster, living on land or in the marshes. There were carnivorous reptiles also, some of them forty feet long, some only about twenty-five feet long, with a body as large round as an ox, and a long neck. These steered themselves by flippers like those of a whale, and propelled themselves by their tails. Some of them had flattened tails, and sculled themselves along as a boatman uses a single oar ; some of them had great conical teetli : they ate fish probably; such were the Cimoliasaurus, the Elasmosaurus, the Mosa- saurus, and the Clidastes; the last, however, was more serpent-like, and fifteen feet long. There have been more than twenty kinds of Tortoises, Turtles, or Terrapin found. One of them, the Eiiclastcs, was full six feet long, and very strongly constructed. Others were as large, and some had ex- ceedingly thick shells, notably the Adoctis Pctrosiis and Adocus Firmus. The Crocodiles, Alligators, and Gavials were very numerous ; three- fourths of the bones found are of this order, and the wonder is what such swarms of them lived on, as they have left no remains of their feasts to tell the story so far as yet seen. These horrid brutes were twenty feet long in some cases, but they varied in size, some being four feet long only. The Dinosauria, of which order is the Hadrosaurus Foulkii, were the highest order of reptiles, and in some characteristics resembled birds. Many of them were as large as Mastodons and Elephants. Some of them squatted; some jumped like the Kangaroo; some, with great long legs, stalked around flopping their half-useless arms, and over- looking the levels with bird-like eyes set in a " bony visage," as if their face was trying to become a beak ! Such were the monsters of the Cretaceous land, such the shells once alive, when it was under the sea. These reptiles, and the vegetable remains in conjunction with them, indicate a torrid climate; but the bones of IValrus have been found in the neighborhood of Long Branch, and it is otherwise evident that their long summer was, in the " drift DENUDATION AND DRIFT. 10 1 period." turned, and perhaps suddenly, too, into an equally long and appalling winter. § The phenomenal efifects of Denudation and Drift are not confined to any geologic formation or geographic locality, but may be observed throughout many extensive sections, and indicate the force of several agents acting at separate times upon diversified materials in different directions, and by various modes and in distinct degrees. These agents are evidently three, — wind, water, and ice, — and the mode of action by each is unlike. Exposure to the heat of the sun and the effects of cold and frost disintegrates the rocks and subjects them to the effect of drift- creating forces. The common variations of climate and season are efficient in this respect, but special causes in different ages have vastly intensified the influences of temperature and weather. The influence of wind and of water is constant ; but the vast effects of the ice-drift are referable to the geologic " Drift Period." The force of wind is active not alone in wearing away rocks, by whirling grit and transporting great quantities of. sand, and building dunes and beaches along low shores, but in some places it wafts the sands of shores and deserts far over fertile fields and even forest hills, thus sadly increasing the -area of sterility. In the African deserts the awful simoom blights vegetable growth and suffocates animals and men, then lets fall over the dead caravan thick layers and hills of sand for their winding-sheet and grave. On the Western American plains, and among the mountains of that region, the winds have cut countless cavities into solid stone; these cuttings vary from small orifices and hollows to large channels and openings; in fact, in some localities the most of the strata has been worn away, and only small isolated elevations of fantastic form remain to denote the former level of the surrounding territory. On loose sand the operation of wind is obvious: the finer earth and dust is lifted and bodily conveyed to a distance in proportion to the strength of the blast, while the coarser sand and gravel is rolled, slid, and drifted along the surface, often up steep inclines and considerable elevations. As a gale grows in violence, the power of wind increases in the same degree to an unknown limit: typhoons and c\'clones exhibit its force in Indian seas, the West Indies are often devastated by hurricanes, and in portions of the United States whirlwinds and tornadoes sometimes level giant forests in their path, demolish strong buildings, and hurl the ruins far through the air. A hurricane in the West Indies broke down a very heavy wall, and rolled stones weighing hundreds of pounds along the ground ! Bv forcing a blast of air through a nozzle, and charging it with sand, made to impinge upon flint glass, artisans abrade, cut, gruid, and en- grave the glass most rapidly. In a similar way, the wind, forcing itself through rocky canyons, notches, passes, defiles, fissures, and crevices 102 SCHEVICHBI AND THE STRAND. among the mountains, and sweeping over rainless plains, takes up the gritty debris and sharp sand and, whirling them along, drives them in an enormous rotating sand-blast against the rocks. Gneiss and adamant could not resist the impact and continued friction. The effects of water and ice in the Drift Period have been closely studied and elaborately stated by the geologists, but it is possible the effects of winds have not been as fully observed and noted. By some commentators it is supposed that the destruction of the Assyrians (II. Kings, 35) was accomplished through the agency of a simoom, which certainly would be a sufficient natural cause for the death of even that host. However it may have been in this case, there is evi- dence throughout the scriptures of the Old and New Testament, but not confined to the Bible or any book, of the power of spiritual beings who, under Providence, use the forces of nature as their instruments to do the will of Heaven. No marvelous work is belittled or made less wonderful because we are enabled to discern the agencies and the method by and through which the Eternal Power is made manifest. The evidence of the former submergence of vast areas which are now the elevated portions of continents, and of tremendous floods which have deluged the surface since it has been uplifted, appears almost everywhere, and seems to be amply convincing : tradition among savages, and the poems and mythological records of many races, refer to such phenomena, ascribing them generally to the action of the gods. The Bible account of the deluge, it is thought by some, finds corrobo- ration in these legends and poetical allegories of antiquity. Certain it is that water, in showers, floods, and oceans, has been the potent cause of distribution and change in geologic materials. When porous stones are exposed to rain and severe frost, they rapidly disorganize : the water penetrates the pores of the stone and is frozen there, the expan- sion of water changing to ice bursts the cells of the stone by the exertion of one of the most potent natural forces, and the rock soon crumbles from the effect of such weathering. Some rocks, when submerged or long subjected to the action of water, become " rotten stone," the cementing material in their composition being oxidized or dissolved away. In turbulent torrents the stones are dashed against each other and broken, they are ground together and pulverized, and, after tritura- tion, are borne away to form the sediment of quieter waters. Thus the winds, the rains, the streams, and the waves co-operate, and through their action, in time, the rocky mountains are reduced to a bed of sand, to be drifted about by every flood or borne away before the wind. The influence of changing weather and seasons is incessant: every warm day, every wandering wind, every passing shower, is active in changing the surface of the earth, while geologic indications prove that not only have icy oceans rolled over what are now the mountain-tops of temperate climes, but glai:ier-like formations of ice, during the winter THE EFFECT OF THE DIUFT. 10- ages, crept down from the pole, submerging tlie life of the zone beneath a curtain of frozen death. Gripping inimensc boulders of flinty rock in their icy flow, the frigid seas dragged them for hundreds of miles, firm fixed in the icebergs as a glazier's diamond in steel. Grinding heavily on the bottom of shallow seas, these enormous tools in the hands of Nature have scratched and scored the granite mountains, the trap dikes, and the various ridges, until they have, in some cases, been utterly worn away under the long-continued and terrific abrasion and their debris scattered far and wide. From astronomical causes diver- gences are supposed to occur in the polarities of the earth, producing excessive and sudden but persistent changes in climate, or, as is known, comparatively slight deflections of constant winds and currents grad- ually bring about the same result. In the far north mastodons by thousands are to be found imbedfjed in ice, where and as they stood when the torrid climate congenial to them passed away at once, and paralyzing frost and overwhelming snow descending upon them estab- lished most abruptly the conditions of Arctic winter. § The Drift of New Jersey indicates not only a grand movement of the agencies of denudation from the northwest, but counter, or rather divergent, currents of a similar nature, due to local elevations or other secondary causes; the main line of advance however being toward the southeast. The Paleozoic formation to the northwest of the mountains was of course the first affected by the southward tending drift. The amount of material displaced is almost incredible. One body of drift in the Paleozoic district is one hundred miles or more long, from ten to fifty miles wide, and two to three thousand feet in depth. The drift action in the Azoic formation has also been immense, and the evidence of it is to be seen not only among the gneiss-crowned mountains, but all over the State, as the disintegrated granite appears everywhere in almost every foot of gravel bed. On the lower margin or southern border of the Triassic formation a belt of gneiss rock is exposed ; this was drift from Azoic outcrops in the mountains, and has aggregated in its present place and concreted into stone, and then again has been in part abraded, disintegrated, and carried away. The most common soil of the Azoic formation is drift, deposited among the eneiss rocks and mountain ranjres. There are limestone boulders in the neighborhood of the gneiss which weigh two thousand tons each, and which have drifted a mile at least, and perhaps several miles, and have been lifted one or two hundred feet. On Sparta mountain, twelve hundred feet above the sea, are found boulders which weigh a hundred tons, which have been carried there from an unknown distance. Boul- ders of ore have been carried into distant deposits far from the original strata, and have misled those who found them into the idea that iluy were indications of mines in the place where they were discovered. 104 SCHEYICHDI AND THE STRAND. It is in the Triassic formation, however, that the greatest signs of drift action appear ; there the red sandstone has in many places been worn away from two to five hundred feet. The Newark marshes have been dug out by drift action, and the excavation was carried below the level of the sea, resulting in bays now but partly filled by mud, grass, roots, etc., etc. Boulders of various kinds appear in this formation. There is a boulder of five hundred tons' weight on the northwest slope of First Mountain, near the Newark and Mount Pleasant turnpike, which has been carried by the drift current full thirteen miles. There is another boulder near Woodbridge, more than twenty miles from its parent strata, which must weigh two hundred and fifty tons. There are trap and sandstone boulders everywhere in the Triassic formation, and considerable deposits of limestone in loose masses. Paleozoic fos- sils are also found scattered with the drift into Triassic beds. The Cretaceous formation has been worn away and changed by denu- dation nearly as much as the Triassic strata; Naversink Highlands, and the Mount Pleasant Hills of Monmouth County, have perfect sea- shore pebbles upon their summits ; yet they are about four hundred feet high, their valleys being one hundred feet above the sea-level. In the Cretaceous beds and layers, the forces of the drift encountered only friable materials, as the stratification was comparatively recent, and the elevation referred to in a former page still later ; hence, when these forces became active among the shell layers and the loose sands which had been imported from other formations and not concreted, the uni- form surface of the u[)lifted land was worn into valleys, or washed away entirely for large areas, to the depth of three or four hundred feet. Thus were created the broad low plains now visible in South Jersey, and the low hills with their shallow valleys between them, which there mark the Cretaceous area. The sides of these hills, and the bottoms of the valleys, afford excellent opportunities for geologic observation. The sand, loam, and general mass of material dislodged, was carried away toward the south. The drift action continued a long time, and thus were the abraded constituents of all the strata to the north mixed with the materials of the Cretaceous sediment, swept out to sea and deposited there, creating the Tertiary formation. That extensive areas should rise and fall, and even " the sit-fast and immovable hills" appear and disappear, grow and waste away, seems incredible to the untaught, and is wonderful to all ; and yet in geologic ages continents emerge from the sea and then sink again beneath the ocean ; Himalayas, Alps, Andes, and Sierras swell aloft by the action of geologic forces, and then subside into the subterranean, or are sculp- tured into picturesque forms and worn away by dcnudatioti. Geology gives time; and in time, the sun, the rain, the wind, and the frost, as has been demonstrated, will humble the head of the hii^hest mountain that lifts its granite top above the clouds I Then again by THE EARLILST LIFE ON EARTH. 105 Sitddcn or by gradual sliiftings of tlic balance and polarities of the earth, tremendous and sometimes abrupt changes of climate have been in- duced, and vast floods and moving fields of ice have been the conse- quence. These awful forces, tji tunc, work out the grandest results and most radical changes. The whole solid crust of the earth, moreover, is no thicker in com- parison to its liquid, fiery mass than the shell of an egg to its contents ; therefore any changes ot the surface are not unnatural, or, in view of the facts, a matter of amazement. The perpetual miracle and admirable wonder is that, with such forces always in action in some form, the uni- versal equipoise is maintained, and the conditions of human life and happiness evolved, with Infinite wisdom, from the perturbations of nature ! § Formerly, the names of Primitive, Transition, Secondary, and Tertiary, were applied to various kinds of rocks, in geological classifi- cartion ; modern usage substitutes the technical terms of Azoic, Paleo- zoic, Mesozoic, and Cenozoic, to define periods marked by peculiar stratifications and fossils. The rocks themselves are now called Meta- morphic, Silurian, Devonian, Carboniferous, Permian, Triassic, Jurassic, Cretaceous, and Teitiary; the last significator being retained and adopted from the old terminology; besides, the phrase Post Tertiary is used, meaning since the Ternary. The rocks are named with regard to their constituents and character, or derive their titles from 'geographic localities where they especially abound, or where they were first scientifically observed. The Azoic rocks are supposed to have been formed before vegetable or animal life existed on this planet, and until the last few years it was sujiposed that no form of life was known below the lower Silurian rocks, that is to say, in Azoic time, before the Paleozoic period. American geologists are disposed to admit that the recently investigated "eozoon" found below the Silurian is the fossil of an animal form ; if they are right, the history of life on earth must be antedated, and carried back very far in time, and an Eozoonic age be recognized between the Azoic and Silurian. The Paleozoic period was the age of Mollusks or shell-fish, and their fossil remains abound in the limestones of the Silurian division. The Devonian sandstones and shales contain shells and the fossil remains of vertebrate fishes. The Carboniferous division of the Paleozoic time has no place in the geology of New Jersey, it is exceedingly develoj^ed in Pennsylvanian coal measures ; in its time land plants flourished beyond comparison; these fossil plants are coal at present. In the Triassic, the Jurassic, and Cretaceous divisions of the Mesozoic time there was an enormous development of Reptilian life, and the bones of monster reptiles are plentifully found as fossils in the rocks of those layers. The Mammals, which are warm-blooded quadrupeds, appear I06 SCHEYICHBI AND THE STRAND. as fossils first in the Tertiary rocks and strata, and the human period, the time in which man has inhabited the earth, is included in the Post Tertiary. The divisions of the Tertiary formation are the Eocene, the Miocene, the Pliocene, and the Post Pliocene, including the recent ; in New Jersey it constitutes the formation of the territory south of the Cretaceous strata, being bounded on the north by an irregular line from Shark River to AUoway's Creek. The Recent formation lies along the sea- shore and the banks of various streams, and generally includes all lands less than twelve feet above the level of the tide. None of the boundaries of the Tertiary fields are sharply defined like those of the rocky strata; the drift and wash has intermixed the materials of the formation, merging the outlines of the various beds and layers. Though the earthy nature of the Tertiary formation sub- jects its surface to change from storms and streams, by which the beds are mixed together or discolored, yet the mineral substances therein are undisturbed in their original places of deposit and not petrified, while even the lowest Tertiary strata contain fossils of existing species, proving the modern origin of the whole. The upper marl bed is in the Eocene division of the Tertiary formation, and is the lowest layer of its stratification. In a well bored at Winslow, Camden County, New Jersey, there was found : First 5 feet of surface earth. Then — 15 feet blue and black clay, 95 " glass sand. 35 " miocene clay, 107 " micaceous sand. 43 " brown clay. A gum log one foot thick. ( ! ) 20 feet green sand, marl, white shells, teeth, etc. 15 " pure green sand. At which point water rose from the bottom of the green sand. This gives a good general idea of the structure of the Tertiary formation in New Jersey. Loamy clay, white quartz pebbles, silicified fossils, feldspathic rock, etc., intermixed with sand, the materials of the drift, overlie the other beds unless the surfiice has been washed away. This drift varies much in constituency from pure clay to clean sand ; it is generally reddish yellow from oxide of iron, often fertile and retentive as a soil, and makes good roads, packing into a solid, smooth, durable bed, even when spread over loose sand. The excellence of the road-bed of the avenues of Sea Grove is due to the liberal use of this material upon them. The glass sand underlies the drift gravel to the depth of ninety-five FORMATION OF THE STRAND. 107 feet, and is pure white quartzose sand, except when it comes to the surface or at the bottom of the bed in places, then it is sometimes discolored. Its use in glass-making is very common and important, and this sec- tion, from which much glass sand is now shipped, contains enough of this valuable material to supply the world for a thousand ages ! The sandy plains of South Jersey are the exposures of this bed of sand where the drift gravel has been washed away. The Miocene clays and marls of South Jersey, so largely and suc- cessfully dug as fertilizers, contain numerous fossils, and are a source of wealth as well as a matter of geologic interest. The Micaceous sand, one hundred and seventeen feet deep, found in the well at Win- slow, does not crop out at the surface anywhere, and is in place below the sea level. The same is true of the brown clay found as described. Thus the layers of the Tertiary were formed, being deposited as drift from the more ancient strata. Mixed with the Tertiary layers, or distributed through them, may be found constituents of all the older formations in the State; thus thrown together, they have, by chemical action and reaction upon one another, entered into new combinations and produced new substances ; these in turn, with all the rest, sub- jected for thousands of years to the play of elementary forces, have been variously manipulated and chemicalized continually, while all the time impelled by the floods and streams toward the sea, along whose shallow margin they have been deposited, forming in " Recent" ages still another new shore to the ceaseless waves. § As the Tertiary formation is marked by drift and earthy deposit, so alluvium characterizes its Recent division. In the Tertiary we find clay, sand, gravel, loose pebbles, and some boulders, most of which arc from distant strata; the beds of the Recent are made up of finer sands and clays, loams, mud, peat, etc., derived from adjacent deposits or the remains of vegetable production. The fossils of the Recent are all identical with existing species ; among them human remains and relics are frequent. The Recent formation in New Jersey borders tiie Atlantic from Sandy Hook to Cape May, and forms the shore of Del- aware Bay up to Salem, also the banks of some of the rivers and creeks. The sand beaches, the marshes, the cedar swamps, and an in- definite amount of upland border in the State are recognized as being included in this formation, and are in process of formation and change. The general surface soil of the upland border is a fine sandy loam with but little gravel, and contains organic matter enough to render it pro- ductive and fertile ground. An example of such border land is to be seen adjoining Sea Grove, and forms the Stitcs farm. The farm has been for some time occupied by the Hon. Downes ICdmunds, and has been worked in places constantly and successfully for a hundred or more years without any manure or dressing whatever, and yet has not been at all impoverished. The land thus cultivated is so full of shells I08 SCHEYICHBI AND THE STRAND. in spots as to make ploughing difficult ; the sub-soil is a deep, black, sandy mould. The tide marshes of the Recent formation of New Jersey are a re- markable feature; there are about three hundred thousand acres of such marshes in the State, and Cape May County alone, with a total area of one hundred and seventy thousand one hundred and seventy- one acres, has fifty-eight thousand eight hundred and twenty-four acres of tide marsh, including ten thousand four hundred and forty-three acres of sounds, bays, inlets, etc. The marshes are but little above ordinary tide level, and covered with grass, reeds, and coarse sedge, but treeless. Beneath the surface of the marsh there is from a yard to forty feet of nmd or soft earth, with an average depth of twenty feet. The marsh is deepest back from the beach and from the banks of streams, water-courses, etc. The body of the marsh is merely a bed of fibrous roots; near the beach, sand is intermixed with the roots, and along the streams and water-courses mud has been deposited, and is retained among them. The marshes enlarge by encroachment in places upon the wooded upland, and by growing into the sounds and waters they enclose ; at the same time the sea and bay have during the last century cut away many acres of the marshes, which have become exposed to the waves by the demolition and shifting of the sand dunes and beaches. The surface of the marsh, when enclosed by beaches, or by the clayey banks of streams, sinks slowly, by the decay and compression of the fibrous mass of which it is mostly composed. The wash of streams and the drift of the sea sand landward tends to solidify the marsh, as vege- table growth and deposit elevates the surface; however, shutting the water off from a true marsh causes it to sink, as it is really afloat, in and through the water, and it is so unsubstantial that many cubic feet of it when burned make but a very small quantity of ashes ; the marsh is, in fact, a sound or cove choked full of fibrous roots and vegetable deposit. Many hundreds of acres of that which was cedar swamp is now salt or tide marsh ; the trees having been killed by the encroach- ment of the sea water, have fallen, and are now buried, but undecayed, in the deep mud, the surface growth flourishing evenly above them, § In treating of the Cretaceous formation, on a former page, it was stated that alternate elevations and depressions of the shore line had taken place, until finally, before the drift period, the surface of the whole formation was lifted several hundred feet above the sea, from which it has been degraded by denudation and drift down to its present level and configuration. It can be readily and definitely shown that similar but less extensive fluctuations have taken place in the Tertiary and Recent formations and are now operative along the present shores. How far inland the action may reach, or in what degree affect the interior, \ii more difficult to decide. ALTITUDE OF CAPE MAY COUNTY. 109 In various elevated positions in the Recent formation marine shells of the common species, or casts of them, arc to be seen in their natural attitude; on the banks of Maurice River, at Tuckahoe, and elsewhere along shore, they lie from eight to twelve feet above high-water mark, and indicate an elevation before the depression now going on; and as the amount of subsidence at present is about seventeen feet on an average, as estimated by measurement from tide level to the lowest points where buried and submerged trees are found in the places in which they grew, the former elevation must have raised the surface from twenty-five to thirty feet. The highest land of Cape May County is but about forty feet above the level of the sea, and that only at a few points of very limited extent, the average elevation being but eleven feet; so that when the shells now from eight to twelve feet above tide mark were at the level in which they grew, the greater part of Cape May County must have been submerged. The last elevation carried the shore line at least seventeen feet above where it now is. The operations of the Sea Grove Association in clearing and grading the remarkable sea-side resort they have so well begun, have obliterated some of the most interesting and characteristic traces of geologic action to be found in the State. Between the gateway of Sea Grove and the bay, and lying along the shore, were formerly a number of well- defined parallel ridges of drift sand. These were the evidence of a former uprising of the shore, and of the consequent receding of the water of the sea, which must have washed the gravel bank or fast land ; the ridges were created, one behind another, by the wind, which, blowing across the ancient strand, would raise the innermost ridge first, and then, as the shore widened toward the sea, another between it and the water, and so on. The beach ridges, having been formed long since, were covered with a heavy growth of black oak timber, which has been in part removed by the Sea Grove improvements ; the parallel ridges have ceased to advance seaward, but Mr. Alexander VVhilldin, a close observer, affirms that at present Cape May Point is growing out into Delaware Bay, by the deposition of sand upon it from the ocean front, and by the action of the wind piling up dunes or sand-hillocks. Almost entirely along the shore of New Jersey, the main or " fast land" is separated from the sea by salt marshes of three miles or less in width; outside of these, next the sea, occurs a row of long, narrow, somewhat elevated, and more or less wooded islands, or "beaches." These are the Old beaches; they are more ancient than the marsh, and are supposed to have been formed during a former period of depression. The waves beating upon a friable shore of earth and sand, such as then existed, would wear a channel next tlie shore, and pile up a shoal outside the surf; a scries of such shoals would 8 no SCHEYICHBI AND THE STRAND. thus be formed parallel to one another, and when the next elevation occurred they would appear above water, and form the basis of the present beaches. Shrubs and trees would soon grow upon these ridges, saving them from drifting away, and causing them to retain all the sand the wind blew from the strand upon them. The lower grounds between the ridges would finally rise above water, and pres- ently become covered with vegetation, until a subsequent depression again carried them below tide level, when they would become salt marshes, filling with mud by the action of the tides, and keeping their surface at high-water mark, by the growth of peat, just as one hun- dred and seventy-eight thousand two hundred and forty-wo acres of such formation, lying all the way from Long Branch southward along the shore to Cape May, are now doing. Fresh marshes form in the broad shallow valleys of the slow- moving rivers and creeks of South Jersey ; as at Tuckahoe, and on Great Egg Harbor Rivers. The salt marshes on Delaware Bay shore have been formed as fresh marshes in the valleys of the streams which flow through them to the bay, and are supposed to hav^e had beaches between them and the bay, which have gradually been washed away; in the same way a large portion of the marsh itself has gone. § The landward beaches which join the marsh are developed in long, parallel lines, and, where the timber has not been removed, are covered with a very old growth of it ; the open spaces in the depressions between the beaches are called savannas ; in wet seasons they are saturated or more or less covered and filled with fresh water; they are then called slashes, and are the haunts of numerous water-fowl and game-birds, which makes them favorite resorts of discriminating sportsmen. The Old beach ridges are not over a rod in width, and not more than five or six feet high ; yet they, with the savannas beside them, may be a mile or two long. The Old beaches contain a small portion of clay with their sand, which partly saves them from drifting with the wind, and [)romotes the growth of the timber. The Old beach varies in height, increasing in elevation toward the sea; part of the low landward ridges have become submerged, and yet can be traced in places by the lines of dead trees standing in the marsh. At Sea Grove the marsh disappears from the Delaware Bay front, and the Old beach has formed back directly over the marsh or against and upon the upland. Lily Pond, or Lake Lily as it is now called, occupies the place of what might be a marsh, and yet is a fresh-water pond, from which water was formerly taken for shipping. The water of Lake Lily had connection with the sea by a water-course which ran from the shoreward end of the lake, between the strand and the lighthouse, and along the foot of the upland, to the west of Cape Island, and so into Skillinger's Creek and under the bridge to Cape Island DESCRIPTION OF LAKE LIL V. 1 1 1 Sound, and out by Cold Spring Inlet to the Atlantic. Now the sand drift has filled and covered the water-course near the lighthouse, and the Sea Grove Association have obliterated the natural features of the lake. In their zeal for improvement they have detracted very much from the scientific interest and value of the original pond, which is less to be regretted however, as there are enough indications all around of the same purport, and the engineers, by grading the shore of the pond to a fine drive, putting up ornate boat-houses, etc., have succeeded in making a very pretty miniature lake of what was a somewhat unsightly even if pure and interesting sheet of fresh water. Since its improvement as above stated, Lake Lily has become one of the attractions of attractive Sea Grove, and is a great addition to the pleasure of visitors. When the water-course referred to was open, it was not very uncommon for the sea, in storms, to throw its waters across the beach into it, making the waters of the lake brackish; but now the natural and artificial filling in of the southern end of the water-course and the lake prevents such an occurrence, so the lake has been care- fully cleaned out, and stocked with valuable fish. The waters of Lake Lily are solely from the rainfall ; they percolate slowly down and out from the bed of the lake, displacing the salt water which infiltrates the sand, yet not mixing much with it. Similar effects are produced among all the beaches. The different gravity of salt and fresh water has an influence upon the phenomena ; the fresh water being lightest, remains at the surface, and can be obtained by digging a few inches beneath the sand, anywhere between the beach ridges. Lake Lily is the only simi- lar body of water on the Cape below Cold Spring. § The Recent formation of New Jersey, especially in the southern part of the State, is noted for extensive swamps and marshes. Those of the interior are heavily wooded, but none of Uiem are much above tide level; the more elevated and solid are "timber swamps," and not only furnish good and desirable lumber, but might in many cases be improved by clearing and culture, and thus make valuable farms. It seems remarkable more has not been done for the agricultural develop- ment of the interior of South Jersey, but the original .settlers looked to the sea for their highway, and to a great degree for their harvest too; for which reason they made their homes along the upland of the shore. Of late, through the enterprise of several parties, notably that of Charles K. Landis, of Vineland, the interior of the State has been better appreciated, and, being extensively and judiciously advertised, has attracted many intelligent and industrious settlers, who have suc- cessfully planted many fine vineyards, orchards, and farms. The cedar swamps, which are extensive on the banks of the rivers and around their sources, are overflowed, not stable land like the timber swamps ; the White Cedar (the Qtpressus thuyoides of the botanical nomenclature), which holds exclusive possession of them, flourishes 112 SCHEYICHBI AND THE STRAND. only in submerged or saturated soils. In many places in South Jersey it grows in a peaty stratum, where there is neither clay, gravel, loam or mud, but only a compact mass of fibrous roots, and the debris of its own fallen growth. In such localities, as well as where more substan- tial components partly form a true soil, the white cedar grows densely, and in its young growth rapidly; afterwards it becomes crowded, and grows tall, but increases more slowly in diameter. The vegetable remains which fall from the swamp trees into the wet mass are shaded from the sun by the evergreen foliage, and thus kept cool and saved from rapid decomposition. Settling gradually down, they become submerged and then buried, from which time their decay is almost imperceptible. In this way the surface of the swamp is gradually elevated; a layer of more than a foot thick has thus been formed in sixty years. The original growth of cedars were sometimes seven feet or more in diameter, and immensely high ; the average size of the full-grown trees, however, was but about two feet and six inches. There are none of these great trees left, and as the whole area of Cedar Swamp is cut over every second generation, or every sixty years, a living cedar tree a hundred years old is now a rare specimen ; still, the natural term of the tree is a lifetime of successive centuries. Various parties have counted the annual rings in the logs and stumps of cedars, and various witnesses affirm the existence of from five himdred to over a thousand of them in a single specimen. Sir Charles Lyell, F.R.S., quoting a newspaper article of Dr. Beesley, of Dennisville, says (Second Visit to United States, vol. i. page 34) that " Dr. Beesley, of Dennis Creek counted 1080 rings of annual growth, between the centre and outside of a large stump six feet in diameter;" this grew atop of a previously fallen tree, which was half as old; thus fifteen centuries were registered in a couple of logs on the surface of a swamp, which has been sounded in places from eight to ten or even eleven or more feet deep, and xsfull of fallen logs to the very bottom. The white cedar, though a very tall, slim tree, sends no roots down into the firm soil underneath the swamp, but spreads them laterally in the shallow, soft, black, peaty, wet earth which is its congenial place of growth. The timber standing in a natural ancient cedar swamp is but a fraction of the quantity which has fallen and become subterranean. The living timber thus buried is apparently indestructible, and has been viitied from its place of deposit buoyant and sound, and used for the best quality of lumber, many hundreds and perhaps thousands of years after it had grown. This mining of timber has been carried on as a regular business in the swamps about Dennisville; between nine and ten thousand dollars' worth of shingles, at fifteen dollars a thousand, have been manufactured in a year from logs thus exhumed. The pro- duction of shingles did not consume all the timber taken, as a part of CEDAR MINES AT CAPE MAY. 113 it was large, fine logs, more valuable for boards, into which it was sawn. More than forty thousand dollars' worth of cedar rails and lumber are produced by these cedar swamps every year, and an acre of good swamp, fifty years in growth, is worth from five hundred to a thousand dollars. The cedars are mined not alone in the growing swamps, but in meadows where only stumps and dead roots break the surface, and in places where a smooth turf entirely hides all traces of wood from surface observation, as well in a part of the tide marshes, which were once cedar swamps, but where the growth of timber has been stopped by the encroachments of salt water in consequence of the subsidence of the swamps along the shore. Of course many of the buried trees are unfit for use. Those which grew when the swamp was shallow and the roots of the trees touched the gravel bottom, are so gnarly -as to be unfit for splitting. Some of the trees fell only from extreme age, deadness, and partial decay: these are worthless; some were prostrated and grew long after they fell : these are hard and boxy on one side, hence undesirable. The trees wanted by the miners are those not of the bottom layer, which were broken dozvn by the wind or otherwise, and buried at the perfection of their growth. The first tool of the miner is an iron sounding-rod; with this he probes the mud of the swamp, finding often that the logs lie so thickly across one another beneath the surface that it is only after repeated efforts that he can pass his rod among them. The miner judges of the value of the log he comes in contact with after examination with his probe, by signs known to an expert only; he feels out the size, shape, and position of it, and judges of the work required to secure it; he cuts down to the log through die peat with a sharp spade, and manages to get a chip from it ; by smelling of this chip he can tell whether he is dealing with a zvindfall or a breakdown, the latter being most likely to be sound lumber. Removing the peat, mud, roots, and rubbish-timber as far as necessary, the miner then saws off the log at the ends, his saw working without injury, the soil being free from grit. The log maybe thirty feet long, but is generally shorter. Having sawn the log off, the miner uses levers to loosen it from its place and to throw off superincumbent timber; this being done, the log floats upward with perfect buoyance ; the under side being most buoyant, the log, as it floats free, always turns over. The logs for shingles are sawn into bolts or blocks, and rived and shaved into shingles on the ground. The ground is gone over again and again with success by the miners, as the logs, once disturbed, continually work toward the surface. An inch of vegetable matter is deposited by the fall of foliage, twigs, etc., upon the surface of a cedar swamp in about five years, but as this fresh layer is itself buried it partly decays and diminishes in bulk pro- gressively very much by compression and other causes, so that no clue can be had from it as to the age of these remarkable swamps. Such a 114 SCHEYICHDI AND THE STRAND. clue is found, however, in the buried cedars, which by annular rings tell, like a calendar, their own individual age, and by their relative positions demonstrate the successive generations of growth which must have taken place, before they could have appeared where they were left centuries since, superimposed and grown, one above another, in many layers. The attempt to estimate the age chronicled by interwoven logs is confusing, but the certainty of thousands of years is evident, and even ten or twelve generations of such trees as Dr. Beesley examined may have grown and died since the oldest swamp began; and yet the age thus recorded is occupied by the most modern layer of a formation which is, in all and at the oldest, but the very latest evolvement of the most extremely short and insignificant of all the geologic periods. If the record of ten thousand years can be preserved in mud and perishable wood, what is the chronology of the cycle in which obdu- rate gneiss and granite grows and disintegrates, crumbles and is recomposed of the old material, again and again, until the Azoic rocks develop into mineral wealth and fertile alluvium, tower into- forests, bloom into flowers, ripen into golden harvests, nourish the beasts and birds, redden the blood of the animal world, and give strength and vigor to the body of man; the fitting tabenacle of the immortal soul? § Outside the Old beach, and immediately next the strand, are found irregular hillocks of shifting sand of various elevations, but all less than forty feet high. They are composed almost exclusively of fine white quartzose sand without clay or metallic admixture ; some few fragments or particles of shell can be found, but the mass of the beach is almost absolutely pure quartz. Red cedar trees, of which many are dead, are scattered among the hillocks, and are often found buried to the tops where the constantly shifting sands have drifted upon them. These hillocks, downs, or dunes, are denominated tlie Little or Young Beach; the ntethod by which they originate is obvious. Shoal shores at ebb of tide are exposed in wide strands, which rapidly dry under the influence of the sun and wind. Where a wide sandy strand is thus left bare, the wind sweeps the fine sand before it upon the beach and beyond the reach of the returning tide, and then deposits it in the forms described as characteristic of the Young Beach. The sea washes up additional sand, which takes the place of that taken off by the wind, and so the process continues which, though counter- acted by various agencies, has built up thousands of acres of Young Beach in the State. The continuity of the beaches on the sea front is broken by a series of inlets, through which the waters of the ocean flow into a number of bays or sounds which lie behind the beaches or within the marshes, and, communicating with one another by inside channels or thorough- PHENOMENA OF THE INLETS. IIS fares, make an available still-water navigation for a hundred miles north- ward from Cape Island to the head of Barnegat Bay. These bodies of water are from fiv^e to six miles across in several places, though not on an average more than one-third as wide, having, according to survey and careful estimate, an area of but one hundred and seventeen thou- sand two hundred and thirty-two acres, excluding the Raritan Bay and adjoining waters. The most of the inlets themselves are narrow, and, although the tides in the neighborhood of Sea Grove and along shore rise but from a little above four feet in the neap tides to six feet in the spring tides, yet the capacity of the sounds and their adjuncts is so great compara- tively that the sea ebbs and flows through the inlets with considerable force, especially when heavy seas run with the incoming tides. In consequence, the bays and sounds are constantly invaded by silt and sand, which, being caught by the abundant growth of grassy marsh roots along their margins, is retained and consolidated in quantities and to a degree which has much decreased the area and depth of those remarkable waters. The outgoing tide of the sounds cuts away the banks of the inlet and the adjoining shores, throwing the sand out upon the bars, from whence the shore currents and waves convey it along the strand; in this way shoals are added to the southwest of the beaches which crowd the inlets to the south, against the northeast and highest ends of the beaches ; presently a new inlet forces its way during a storm across the beach to the northwest of the old one, which may be closed up at the same time. The new inlet is then subjected to the same action as the other one, and with like results; in this way the inlet is continually shifted, wearing its way to the southward for a mile or more at an un- certain rate, and then forcing its way as may be back again to its ex- treme position toward the north. Northeast of Barnegat, the inlets move in an opposite manner to the one described as peculiar to those south of that place. The movement of the sands along the New Jersey ocean shore is immense, and due to causes operating on a vast scale in prolonged time. These causes are not fully understood, nor is the scope of their operation fully deter- mined. The theory of the subsidence itself — which, conceding a de- pression of one-fourth of an inch per annum, would submerge half or more of Cape May County in five hundred and twenty-eight years — has, notwithstanding the facts presumed to demonstrate it, been strenuously disputed by official geologists. However confident of a conclusion we may feel to be on the basis of facts in our possession, true courage of opinion is not obstinate, and a partial suspense of judgment leaves room for hospitality to the result of enlarged observation, maturer experience, and more deliberate com- parison and reflection. Galileo was certain the world moved, and it is Il6 SCHEYICHBI AND THE STRAND. equally certain the sands shift. They are carried away from one point or another it may be, but are deposited as well in another place ; shoals are created thus, and currents changed, changes of current bring change of drift, and so the transported sands may be shifted back again. Only long-continued observation can establish the fact of a persistent ten- dency, and still more care must be taken to verify the rate and extent of a movement, the evolution of which is completed only in centuries and ages of time. § Beside the quartzose sand composing the beaches along the ocean front of New Jersey, there are an abundance of various kinds of peb- bles washed up from the sea. They are of small size, and every year a great quantity of them are conveyed to Philadelphia, and used in roofing buildinys and for other purposes. Quartz is exceedingly abun- dant in South Jersey ; the young beach is pure quartz sand, the old beach has but a very small percentage of clay, and the plains or bar- rens of Burlington and Ocean Counties have from ninety to ninety- eight per cent, of quartz in their soil. Pebbles of pure, transparent quartz abound in the gravel beds and at the shore of Sea Grove and Cape May; being washed clean and bright in the waves, they are often collected by bathing parties and other visitors, under the name of Cape May Diamonds. If the collectors have not gained great wealth in their gems, they have often found the treasure of health in their recreative amusements, and some of the pebbles, when well polished and set in gold, form handsome mementos of pleasant summer excur- sions and peaceful days beside the surf upon the sandy shore, as well as characteristic specimens of a remarkable geologic formation. Geologic research has, in caves, in mines, in tunnels, and other en- gineering excavations of submarine nature, been conducted under the sea with interesting and important results, but the present study may end properly and appropriately upon the strand of the open ocean, the type of the unfathomable and infinite. Divesting ourselves of fear, of conceit, of prejudice, of pride ; alone with the sand, the waves, the wind, and the breeze — the simplicity and grandeur of nature, our eyes become more clear, the reasoning soul sweeping with one flashing and intuitive glance the old levels and horizons, sees over sea and land a light not born of either, yet luminous as heaven, " which lighteth every man that cometh into the world," revealing even in geologic ruins the love and glory of Our Father, and lighting the way to peace, righteous- ness, progress, and eternal happiness ! y, c > *^ "^ FINIS. •^ -5-.. .s= ^^ ....-il v^. av ■^/^ * .0 N ^ V^-' ^^, .-^^ :f .V oV -^^ ^^. v^" o 0' o'?- \' . . „ xV -/ <^''-. •-^.. .~^^ -^ vOc-^ ■-..^^ v\>' -0- 'oo^ -/•y -A^'~ ••>t,_ » 1/ , ^ ^\ ^' " *., '^b. '^-', .V ^>^ V ^\^ ^^ -%