their condition of agreement, were to receive pay and monthly wages; a
part of them also went on their own impulse to try their fortune. For
these it was free to settle and live in the country as long as they
pleased or to leave it, and they were therefore, by way of distinction
from the others, called freemen. At first, also, malefactors and
vicious people were sent over, who were used as slaves to labor upon
the fortifications. They were kept in chains and not allowed to have
intercourse with the other settlers; moreover, a separate place of
abode was assigned to them. The neighboring people and country were
dissatisfied that such wretches should come into the colony. It was
also, in fact, very objectionable in regard to the heathen, who might
be greatly offended by it. Whence it happened that, when such persons
came over in Governor Printz's time, it was not permitted that one of
them should set foot upon the shore, but they had all to be carried
back again, whereupon a great part of them died during the voyage or
perished in some other way. Afterward it was forbidden at home in
Sweden, under a penalty, to take for the American voyage any persons
of bad fame; nor was there ever any lack of good people for the
colony.

Governor Printz was now in a position to put the government upon a
safe footing to maintain the rights of the Swedes, and to put down the
attempts of the Hollanders. They had lately, before his arrival,
patched their little Fort Nassau. On this account he selected the
island of Tenaekong as his residence, which is sometimes also called
Tutaeaenung and Tenicko, about three Swedish miles from Fort
Christina. The convenient situation of the place suggested its
selection as also the location of Fort Nassau,[7] which lay some miles
over against it, to which he could thus command the passage by water.
The new fort, which was erected and provided with considerable