troduced for travelling and letters; and at the trials, at which Penn presided, ideas of witchcraft were, in a day when witches were still tried and burnt, dispelled by his plain sagacity. But the difficulty of all colonies is how to deal with the native race. The early settlers of America proved this. We have experienced it in our later colonies; and have not yet escaped from its hazards in Australia. We are struggling with it in our South African colonies. Penn's system was his own; and its success attracts our notice. His triumphs were due to his Christianity-to the equity of his principles, and the. gentleness of his spirit. He felt towards these rude children of the forest a fatherly affection. He enquired into their faith, he looked curiously into their customs, and, while providing for their future well-being, he speculated on their origin; convinced himself that they were of the scattered tribes of Israel, and threw the interest of a romantic origin around the children of the forest.

But, whatever his romance, his practical friendship was true. He sought them in their fastnesses, alone and unattended; he walked with them in their forests; he joined in their feasts, and partook of their acorns and hominy; he sat with them on the ground under their ancient oaks, to watch, in the glade, the sports of their young men; he joined in their exercises; and the graceful form and sinewy person of the Saxon were found more than a match for the force

of the swarthy Indian. Thus he won their hearts; and, when he told them, that by force not a rood of their hunting-ground should be taken; that what was ceded by them should be paid for by him; and that, if any dispute arose, a jury of six Indians and six English should settle it,-the Indian chiefs presented the belt of peace, and declared "that they would live in peace with Onas and his children, so long as the sun and moon shall endure."

Close by the new capital, on the banks of the Delaware, rose a gigantic elm, which had weathered a century and a half. Standing out from the deep mass of the forest, it threw its boughs over an open sward, which rose behind, in natural steps, into a green amphitheatre. Here the Indians, the Iroquois and Lenni Lenape, were wont to meet for their conferences. They named it the Place of Kings. On this spot Penn met the Indian tribes: on the one side came the old Sachem, honoured as their chief, wearing on his head the natural chaplet, symbol of royalty, surrounded by his chiefs ; behind him, in rows, sat the warriors of the tribe. On the other side stood Penn, in that picturesque dress which belonged to the court of Charles, the slashed and ribboned hose, and graceful hat, with a blue sash which he always wore; then of the age of thirty-eight, and full of grace and beauty; behind him gathered a small group of faithful friends. There he rose, and addressed the Indians, in words ever memorable, as between these

wild tribes and his followers they fixed the basis of a lasting peace; long remembered by them with grateful hearts, when, contrasting their treatment with that which they met with from other settlers, they used, with dwindled ranks and narrow boundaries, to spread, under the shade of a tree, the scroll on which were written the words of the Great Onas. This they used to read aloud, with reverence, to the youth of their tribe. Penn addressed them, in their own speech, in a few words, attesting the. Great Spirit, who was their common Father, that he and his came to their land to live with them as brothers, and in peace, helping one the other, doing no harm, and feeling no fear, and having one law-the law of the Great and Just Spirit. Then he unrolled before them the scroll, on which the treaty of friendship was inscribed, whose covenants were good-will and help and kindness; and, in case of difference, the judgment of a common tribunal.

The Indians received the treaty, as it was offered; and on their part kept it: "Yea, yea," as the caustic Voltaire says, being "better than an oath; for, though never sworn to, it was never broken."

Penn found, indeed, his sturdy colonists harder to deal with than the Indians. The second Assembly requested from him the power to revise and recast the constitution; intending by this to diminish the checks retained by the executive, and concentrate further power in the hands of the Assembly. Penn's desire, forecast

M

ing the possible evils only on one side, had been to prevent abuse of power by those who should rule after him. He did not sufficiently provide for the wholesome control of government. There was no grudging or self-seeking in his policy, but a generous wish for the welfare of the people; and when, in 1683, sad tidings from England-the illness of his wife, the death of Algernon Sydney, the triumph of despotism and the downfall of his visions of liberty, together with the need of protecting himself against the encroachments of Lord Baltimore-forced him to return to England, it was with a true feeling and a just retrospect, that he could convey, to those he left behind, his parting words : 'My love and my life is with you, and no water can quench it, nor distance wear it out, or bring it to an end. I have been with you, cared over you, and served you, with unfeigned love, and you are beloved of me and near to me, beyond utterance. And thou Philadelphia, the larger settlement of this province, named before thou wert born, what love, what care, what service, and what travail has there been to bring thee forth, and to preserve thee from such as would abuse and defile thee." "My soul prays to God for thee, Philadelphia, that thou mayest stand in the day of trial, that thy children may be blessed of the Lord, and thy people saved by His power."

CHAPTER VI.

PENN A COURTIER.

SOON after Penn's arrival in England, Charles II. died; and on the 6th of February, 1684, the eventful reign of James II. began. Penn was compelled to attend at court, to meet the rival claims of Lord Baltimore, and to entreat from the royal influence a settlement of the long-pending question (which now threatened the worst results) of the doubtful boundaries between Pennsylvania, and Maryland. But his presence at court, and his influence with a king who had shewn him much kindness, was necessary on other grounds. During Charles's reign, no less than 15,000 Quakers (such was Penn's estimate) had been stripped of their property for conscience sake; four thousand had rotted and died in gaol; twelve hundred were still in prison. It was time that Penn should again appeal in their behalf, and appeal the more confidently for justice, that James,

* Such was Penn's influence that he was admitted to long audiences when nobles were kept waiting.