qualities, to have transported, ceded and conveyed as lawful, unalienable and free property by virtue and title of sale and in consideration of a certain quantity of goods, which they, the conveyors, acknowledge in their said quality to have received and accepted before the passing of this contract, and they herewith transport, cede and convey, to and in behoof of the Noble Honorable Samuel Godyn and Samuel Bloemmaert (who are absent and for whom they had accepted the hereafter described land subject to the usual reservation) to wit: the east side of Godyn's bay or Cape de Maye, reaching 4 miles from the said cape towards the bay and 4 miles along the coast southward, and another 4 miles inland, being 16 square miles, with all interests, rights and privileges which were vested in themselves in their aforesaid quality, constituting and delegating the aforesaid purchasers in their own stead as real and actual owners thereof and giving and surrendering at the same time to their Honors, full, absolute and irrevocable power, authority and special charge, that tamquam actores at procuratores in rem propriam the Noble Messrs. Godyn. and Bloemmaert or those who might hereafter receive their property, enter upon, possess in peace, inhabit, cultivate, keep, use, do with, trade and dispose of the afore described land as they would do with their own inherited lands and fiefs, without that they, the conveyors, shall have, reserve or keep in the least degree any particle of claim, right or privilege thereon, be it of ownership, authority or jurisdiction, but for the behalf as aforesaid, they herewith entirely and absolutely desist from, give up, abandon and renounce it now and forever, promising further not only to keep, fulfil and execute firmly, inviolately and irrevocably in infinitum this, their contract and what might be done hereafter on the authority thereof, but also to deliver the said tract of land and keep it free against everybody, from any claim, challenge or incumbrance which any body might intend to create; as well as to have this sale and conveyance approved and confirmed by the remainder of the co-owners, for whom they are trustees; all this under the obligations required by law, in good faith, without evil intent or deceit. In testimony whereof this has been confirmed by our usual

signature and our seal appended thereto. Done on the aforesaid Island of Manhattan, at Fort Amsterdam, the 3d of June, A. D. 1631.”

The above patent and one for land on the south side of the bay were issued by Peter Minuit, while Director of New Netherland, and this is the only document found in Holland by Mr. Brodhead, as having come down to the present time from the West India Company, the rest having been sold as waste paper.

Gillis Hosset, or Osset, was a colonist, born in Holland. He was commander of the De Vries expedition, mentioned later. He sailed from the Texel on December 12, 1630, in the ship "Walrus.' He built a house on the Delaware side of the bay, and because of an attempt to play a trick on some Indians was killed by them in December, 1631. The sixteen square miles which was purchased was in the possession of the Lenni-Lenape Indians. This was the first recorded purchase of the natives within the limits of the State.

At the time of Godyn's and Bloemmaert's purchase the marshes of Cape May were very "extensive and the sounds and thoroughfares large. The inland waters were found to abound in oysters, clams, crabs, and other shell fish." Nothing is given in the old Dutch records, however, to prove that a colony was at this time established in Cape May.

The tract for Pauuw was purchased on Staten Island and about Hoboken, while a tract on the Hudson, near Fort Orange, was secured by Van Twiller for Van Renselaer. Godyn's territory was called "Swanwendael."

After Pieter Heyset concluded his purchase of the Cape May county land he entered into the whaling industry.

The impracticability of these great exclusive grants was subsequently discovered and condemned. Their ratification were never obtained by the States-General until they had admitted other directors to participate in the privileges.

In the course of time these directors formed an equal partnership with David Pieterson de Vries, a navigator of enterprise. They immediately planned to colonize the shores of the Delaware, to plant tobacco and grain, and to

establish a whale and seal fishery. Of de Vries it is said that he was wise in counsel, that he conciliated the Indians of Swanwendael and Scheyichbi, and made the way smooth for the following settlers on both shores of the Delaware. In 1631 he entered the Delaware and left a colony at Hoornekill, near Boompjes Hoek (now Bombay Hook). He was the first resident patroon owner of Cape May, and was a religious and devout man. He went back to his Hoornekill colony the next year, but found that they had been massacred by the savages. "Finding the whale fishery unsuccessful, he hastened his departure, and, with the other colonists, proceeded to Holland by the way of Fort Amsterdam" (New York). “Thus," says Gordon, "at the expiration of twenty years from the discovery of the Delaware by Hudson, not a single European remained upon its shores."

De Vries, in his journal, says, "March 29th, 1633, found that our people have caught seven whales; we could have done more if we had good harpoons, for they had struck seventeen fish and only saved seven."

"An immense flight of pigeons is obscuring the sky. The 14th, sailed over to Cape May, where the coast trended E. N. E. and S. W. Came at evening to the mouth of Egg Harbor; found between Cape May and Egg Harbor a slight sand beach, full of small, low sand hills. Egg Harbor is a little river or kill, and inside the land is broken, and within the bay are several small islands. Somewhere further up in the same direction is a beautiful high wood.” This was probably Somer's or Beesley's Point, clothed in its primitive growth of timber.

In 1638 a number of Swedes entered the bay and were ordered off by the officials of the Dutch West India Company. At the time all the Swedes were told to leave their possessions. The Swedes who entered the bay said that they were on their way to the West Indies and had put into "Zuydt" bay to rest after a stormy voyage.

Dr. Beesley says:

"About 1641 Cape May was again purchased by Swedish agents, a short time before the arrival of the Swedish Gov

ernor, Printz Tinicum. This conveyance included all land from Cape May to Narriticon, or Raccoon Creek."

Campanius, a Swedish minister, who resided in New Sweden, on the banks of the Delaware, from the year 1642 to 1648, says, "Cape May lies in latitude 38° 30'. To the south of it there are three sand banks, parallel to each other, and it is not safe to sail between them. The safest course is to steer between them and Cape May, between Cape May and Cape Henlopen."

CHAPTER II.

THE PIONEERS AND WHALING.

Whaling in the Delaware bay was noted as a considerable industry about this time. English colonists from New Haven and emigrants from Long Island, who made whaling their principal industry, must have come to Cape May as early as 1638. The New Havenites were led by George Lamberton. About this time Captain Nathaniel Turner bought of the Indians the land along shore from Cape May to Raccoon Creek, Varcken's kill, Hog creek or Salem river. The price paid was £30, and the deed is dated November 24th, 1638. At different subsequent times New Haven people bought more land and were aided in the purchase by refugee Pequod Indians, who had taken asylum with the Lenni-Lenapes. The New Haven people are said to have paid in the aggregate within five years about £600. Gordon, in his history of New Jersey, says: "Emigrants from New Haven settled on the left shores of the Delaware so early as 1640, some of whose descendants may probably be found in Salem, Cumberland and Cape May counties."

The first account of a visit to Cape May was published in a "Description of New Albion" (New England), written by Sir Edmund Plowden, under the nom de plume of "Beauchamp Plantagenet," which appeared in London in 1648. Plowden reproduced a letter from Lieutenant Robert Evelyn. "Master Evelyn," as Plantagenet calls him, left England with an expedition for the Delaware in 1634, and probably made his exploration of the cape soon after. Others had observed Cape May, he learned, as follows: Hudson in 1609; Argall, 1610; Cornelius Hendrickson, 1616; Dermer, 1619: Mey, 1620; Hossett and Heyssen, 1630, and de Vries, 1631, besides a party of eight sent to x