I.

1684.

thousand pounds; in acting as a minister among the CHAP. quaker colonists, and arranging the frame of their sectarian usages and discipline; and in impelling and directing the progress of his favourite city of Philadelphia. He saw his religious society and principles established in a land where they were likely to take a vigorous root, and expand with unbounded freedom; and institutions rising around him that promised to illustrate his name with a lasting and honourable renown. In fine, he beheld the people who acknowledged his supremacy happy and prosperous, and seemed himself to enjoy his transatlantic retirement 4. The only sources of uneasiness that had yet arisen from his colonial labours, were, his dispute with Lord Baltimore, and the failure of all his efforts to guard the Indians from that destructive vice which the vicinity of Europeans has always contributed to diffuse among them. A law had been passed against supplying these savages with spirituous liquors: but the practice had been introduced by the colonists of Delaware, long before Penn's arrival, and his attempts to suppress it proved utterly ineffectual. The Europeans acknowledged the cruelty and injustice of this traffic, and the Indians confessed their experience of its baneful effects; but neither could be persuaded to refrain from it. It was attended with the additional evil of confirming the Indians in their roving habits of life; as the peltry they acquired in hunting was the only commodity they were able to exchange with the colonists for rum and brandy. The more valuable possessions and advantages by which the colonists were distinguished, were either lightly esteemed by the Indians, or reckoned unworthy of the laborious habits that were requisite to procure

4 In a letter to a friend in England, he says, "Oh how sweet is the quiet of these parts, free from the anxious and troublesome solicitations, hurries, and perplexities, of woeful Europe: and God will thin her; the day hastens upon her." Proud, i. 209.

VII.

1684.

BOOK them. In answer to the advice of the Europeans, that they should betake themselves to a life of regular industry, one of the Indians begged to hear some satisfactory reason why he should labour hard all his days to make his children idle all theirs 5.

return to

Penn's In the midst of a scene of felicity as unmixed, England perhaps, as any community of human beings has ever exhibited, Penn resolved upon returning to England, in order to enforce, by personal solicitation, the interest which he possessed at the English court, and which he was desirous to employ in aid of his controversy with Lord Baltimore, as well as for the relief of a number of his quaker brethren who were suffering in the parent state from an increased strictness in the execution of the penal laws against nonconformists 6. In preparation for this measure, he entrusted the administration of his proprietary functions to the provincial council, of which he appointed Thomas Lloyd, a quaker, to be president, and his own kinsman, Markham, to be secretary; and committed the execution of the laws to Nicholas Moore and four other planters, whom he constituted the provincial judges. On the eve of his departure, and having already embarked, he addressed, to Lloyd and others of his more intimate associates, a valedictory letter, which he desired them to communicate to all his

June;
and farewell
to his

people.

Oldmixon, i. 164. 171. Proud, i. 255. 284-286. S. Smith, 142.

6 The unfortunate consequences that attended Penn's withdrawment at this period from the quiet of America, to plunge again into the solicitations of woeful Europe, have rendered the cause of this step a subject of some importance. Oldmixon, who derived his information from Penn himself, says, that he was determined, much against his will, to return, by tidings of the persecution of the quakers and other dissenters in England; and that "He knew he had an interest in the court of England, and was willing to employ it for the safety, ease, and welfare of his friends," i. 171. But Proud, who is by far the best autho rity on points of early Pennsylvanian history, declares that "the dispute between him and the Lord Baltimore before-mentioned was what mainly occasioned Penn's return to England," i. 288. In a letter written shortly after his arrival in England, Penn says, that "He had seen the king and the Duke of York. They and their nobles had been very kind to him, and he hoped the Lord would make way for him in their hearts to serve his suffering people, as also his own interest as it related to his American concerns.' ." Clarkson, i. 426.

"Dear CHAP.

friends in Pennsylvania and Delaware.
friends," he declared to them, "my love and my
life is to you, and 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 be-
loved of me, and dear to me beyond utterance. I
bless you in the name and power of the Lord; and
may God bless you with his righteousness, peace,
and plenty, all the land over. Oh that you would
eye him in all, through all! and above all, the works
of your hands." After admonishing those to whom
he had committed the rule, to consider it as a sacred
function and heavenly trust, he thus apostrophizes
his favourite city: "And thou, Philadelphia, the
virgin 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
preserve thee from such as would abuse and defile
thee! Oh that thou mayest be kept from the evil
that would overwhelm thee! that, faithful to the
God of thy mercies in the life of righteousness, thou
mayest be preserved to the end. My soul prays to
God for thee, 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. My love to thee
has been great, and the remembrance of thee affects
mine heart and mine eyes! The God of eternal
strength keep and preserve thee to his glory and thy
peace."
So, dear friends," he thus concludes,
my love again salutes you all, wishing that grace,
mercy, and peace, with all temporal blessings, may
abound richly among you :-So says, so prays, your
friend and lover in the truth, William Penn."

66

At the period of the proprietary's departure from the province, Philadelphia already contained three hundred houses, and the population of Pennsylvania

I.

1684.

VII.

BOOK amounted altogether to six thousand souls 7. Of the increase which the inhabitants of the Delaware territory had undergone, no memorial has been pre

1684.

served.

7 Oldmixon, i. 170, 171. Proud, i. 285–290.

CHAPTER II.

Penn's Favour at the Court of James the Second.-Dissensions among the Colonists-their Disagreement with Penn about his Quit Rents.—He appoints Five Commissioners of State.-Rumour of an Indian Massacre.-Penn dissatisfied with his Commissioners - appoints Blackwell Deputy Governor.-Arbitrary Conduct of Blackwell.— Displeasure of the Assembly.-Dissension between the People of Delaware and Pennsylvania.-Delaware obtains a separate Executive Government.-George Keith's Schism in Pennsylvania.-Penn deprived of his Authority by King William.-Fletcher appointed Governor.-Penn's Authorityrestored.-Third Frame of Government.-Quaker Accession to War.-Penn's Second Visit to his Colony.Sentiments and Conduct of the Quakers relative to Negro Slavery.-Renewal of the Disputes between Delaware and Pennsylvania. Fourth and Last Frame of Government. -Penn returns to England.-Union of Pennsylvania and Delaware dissolved.-Complaints of the Assembly against Penn.-Misconduct of Governor Evans.-He is superseded by Gookin. - Penn's Remonstrance to his People.-State of Pennsylvania and Delaware at the Close of the Seventeenth Century.

II.

vour at the

James the

BIDDING adieu to the peaceful scenes of Penn- CHAP. sylvanian life, Penn transferred his exertions to the very dissimilar theatre of the court of England. Here 1685. the interest which he possessed was soon increased to Penn's fa such a degree, by the advancement of his own patron court of and his father's friend, the Duke of York, to the Second. throne, that, in the hope of employing it to his own advantage, and to the general promotion of religious liberty, he abandoned all thoughts of returning to America, and continued to reside in the neighbourhood, and even to employ himself in the service, of the court, as long as James the Second was permitted to wear the crown:-a policy that, in the sequel, proved equally prejudicial to his reputation in England and his interests in America. The first fruit of