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the statesmen and soldiers whom Gustavus had edu-
cated, had passed from the public service;
Oxenstiern, after adorning retirement by the sublime pursuits of philosophy, was no more; a youthful and licentious queen, greedy of literary distinction, and without capacity for government, had impaired the strength of the kingdom by nursing contending factions, and then capriciously abdicating the throne.
Sweden had ceased to awaken fear or inspire respect; and the
Dutch company fearlessly commanded
Stuyvesant to ‘revenge
their wrong, to drive the Swedes from the river, or compel their submission.’
The order was renewed; and in September, 1655, the
Dutch governor, collecting
a force of more than six hundred men, sailed into the
Delaware with the purpose of conquest.
Resistance had been unavailing.
One fort after another surrendered: to Rising honorable terms were conceded; the colonists
were promised the quiet possession of their estates; and, in defiance of protests and the turbulence of the Scandinavians, the jurisdiction of the
Dutch was established.
Such was the end of New Sweden,
1 the colony that connects our country with
Gustavus Adolphus and the nations that dwell on the
Gulf of Bothnia.
It maintained its distinct existence for a little more than seventeen years, and succeeded in establishing permanent plantations on the
Delaware.
The descendants of the colonists, in the course of generations, widely scattered and blended with emigrants of other lineage, constitute probably more than one part in two hundred of the present population of our country.
At