Zwaanendael Colony
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Zwaanendael was a settlement established in 1631 by Dutch settlers in the area of present-day Lewes, Delaware. In 1632 the settlement at Zwaanendael was destroyed and all colonists killed in a dispute with the Nanticoke, the local Native American tribe. In present day Lewes a Zwaanendael Museum and Zwaanendael Inn exist, although all of the original structures were destroyed with the massacre of the settlers.
[edit] History
In 1629 a group of patroons, organized under Samuel Godyn in Amsterdam, planned to buy and settle land along the South River. They chose the west bank, chartering land between Bombay Hook (the original Dutch name was "Bompties Hoek") and Cape Henlopen along the Delaware Bay. Godyn and several other men hired the Dutch navigator David Pietersen de Vries, a native of Hoorn, Holland, to lead a group of colonists to establish a new colony. In 1631, de Vries and the colonists set sail for North America under the command of Captain Peter Heyes in a ship called the Walvis (Whale). They arrived in the spring, and the colonists began setting up a new colony, meant to be a center for farming, ranching, trading, and whaling. A town site was established and named Zwaanendael. A nearby creek was named "Blommaertkill" (after Samuel Blommaert, one of the patroons), and the Delaware Bay was dubbed "Godyn's Bay." The fledgling colony was established by just 33 men with enough supplies to begin new homes and new lives. The 28 colonists brought by de Vries were joined by five more from New Amsterdam, including Giles Hosset who became the leader of the colony. De Vries left the men shortly afterward and returned to Holland. Most would never be seen again.
In 1632, Peter Minuit informed the West India Company that the Zwaanendael colony had been obliterated by native tribes in the area. All men but one had been killed, with their bodies left to rot and their houses and supplies burnt and livestock taken. The only survivor was a man named Thunis Willemsen, who escaped and made it to New Amsterdam. De Vries returned to the South River by way of the Indies, and arrived late in 1632. Upon arriving, he met with the local native tribesmen to find out what happened. Apparently one of the local native chiefs had taken a tin coat of arms from one of the Dutch buildings. Hosset handled the theft very badly, though the details of what happened aren't known. But whatever he did, the natives attacked Zwaanendael, razing its buildings and killing its inhabitants. De Vries and the other patroons didn't bother sending a new expedition, and eventually the Dutch West India Company bought out their title to the land. Unfortunately, it seems the Dutch experience at Zwaanendael wasn't unique, as they apparently got along poorly with the native peoples surrounding the New Amsterdam colony as well. The Dutch returned to Delaware in force in the later 1640's and 1650's, eventually taking over the Swedish colony before they themselves were finally forced out of North America by the English.
Though the name Zwaanendael, or Swanendael, stuck as part of the town folklore, by the time William Penn and the English took over the region the town was rebuilt and renamed Lewes. Today, the only remnant of the first colony is the name. However, to honor the tercentenary of the first European colony in Delaware in 1931, the state of Delaware built Zwaanendael House, a smaller replica of the town hall in the Dutch town of Hoorn, in honor of de Vries. It still stands and is open to the public; it houses a museum of regional history, though most of the contents are from the later English colonial and early United States history. Zwaanendael House is located near the intersection of Savannah Road and King's Highway in Lewes. The museum is open Tuesday-Sunday, and admission is free.
