The Dutch and Swedes on the Delaware, 1609-64 (review)

72 BULLETIN OF FRIENDS' HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION is the only one who ever told me the truth.' " Reference is also made to Thomas Shillitoe's laborious ministry in America, 1826-1829, at the time of the separation. " He returned a beaten and bewildered man, and lived on to witness another controversy, known as the Beaconite Controversy (1835-6), which nearly rent the seamless robe of his beloved Society in England." (Page 189, and portrait facing p. 184.) The author has well illustrated the great possibilities of local history. He has set a standard that many will admire, but few can emulate. R. W. K. Ward, Christopher. The Dutch and Swedes on the Delaware, 1609-64. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press. 1930. Pp. 393. This book is a good example of first-class historical writing based not upon original research but upon the researches and writings of former workers in the field. The author acknowledges his debt to a goodly list of his forerunners, especially to the scholarly and exhaustive researches of Dr. Amandus Johnson. The author begins with the story of the first explorations and settlements by the Dutch. He then devotes more than a third of his book to the period of Swedish domination, 1638-1655. Finally come " The Dutch Again," ruling the Delaware until 1664, when two English ships came into the river and seized the country for old England. Of course the Delaware region had little experience of Quakers in the period of Dutch rule. One lone Friend (probably Wheeler) came to Altena in 1661. He was not very welcome but was allowed to remain. In the Plockhoy settlement it was definitely planned to keep out " usurious Jews " and also "English stiff-necked Quakers." The local settlers little dreamed that a few years later a great English Quaker would sail up the stately Delaware and claim the whole region in his own right. The author tells his story well, in terse phrase and pointed sentence, with a wealth of curious circumstances and a rich vein of whimsical humor. The colored map reproduced opposite was used as the inside cover of a special edition of the book; the plates were kindly loaned by the University of Pennsylvania Press. The map is based on a map facing page 496, vol. ii, in Amandus Johnson's scholarly book on " The Swedish Settlements on the Delaware." It gives an interesting picture of the country just before Penn's arrival. Holdsworth, L. Violet. The Romance of the Inward Light. London: J. M. Dent and Sons Ltd. 1932. Pp. 191. $2.00. Friends everywhere will welcome this new volume by the author of A Book of Quaker Saints. The first part of the book contains studies of the life of George Fox, Margaret Fell, and Elizabeth Hooton, and an essay on the closing scenes of George Fox's life under the title of " Fully Clear." The second part of the book is meant more particularly for a younger class of readers. It contains four stories, partly imaginative but based upon fact. ...