HISTORY OF PENNSYLVANIA. CHAPTER I. DESCRIPTIVE. Of all the political conceptions planted in the AngloAmerican colonies, Penn's "Holy Experiment" is the boldest, the most comprehensive and the most original. The land included in King Charles's grant to Penn is one of the fairest portions of the American continent. The longest line is from Bristol on the Delaware to the western border of the State, 315 miles; the average length is five miles less. It has a uniform width of 158 miles, for the triangle lying above the original northern boundary is a later acquisition. Including the triangle, the State covers 45,086 square miles, or 28,808,443 acres, a country nearly as large as England, nearly half as large as Italy, and a quarter as large as France.' The eastern section forms the western slope of the Valley of the Delaware, bordered by a sinuous stream, and named after an English nobleman, Lord Delaware, 1The five most important early maps of Pennsylvania are Lindström's, published in 1654 and '55; a map by Holme, one of Penn's surveyor-generals, begun in 1681; Evans's map, published in 1749; Nicholas Scull's, published ten years afterward, and the new edition, published by his nephew, William Scull, in 1770. In 1749 appeared Pownall's "Topographical Description of the Middle British Colonies," and in 1776 a new edition. (1) |