CHAPTER II.

THE INTERCOURSE AND DEALINGS OF WILLIAM PENN WITH THE INDIANS.-THE IMPRESSION MADE UPON THEM. -PENN'S DESCRIPTION OF THE INDIANS AS HE FOUND THEM.

THE dealings between William Penn and the Indians are an exception to the general statement in the preceding chapter, standing out isolated and alone in our early history. That great man resolved that in the management of his affairs with the natives in the Province of Pennsylvania, which he held by a royal charter, strict justice should at all times govern his conduct. He was, by his charter, made true and absolute lord of the province. He had authority to raise troops, make war, pursue his enemies by land and sea, and, "by God's assistance, to vanquish and take them." He sent over a colony in 1681, to take possession of the province, and followed himself in 1682. His first care was to establish friendly relations with the Indians. In this regard, he dealt justly and with great kindness. He did not ignore the rights of the natives, and rely upon his grant, sweeping as it was, for a perfect title to the country, but purchased it from the Indians, and paid them for it. In a treaty made under the "Old Elm Tree," on the banks of the Delaware, he established such relations, and thereafter lived up to them in such good faith, as preserved peaceful and friendly intercourse for more than half a century. During all this time, there was not a fort built or a hostile gun fired.

In commenting on this treaty, Voltaire said it was the only one made without an oath, and the only one that had not been broken. Penn's conduct toward the natives was such as to give him an affectionate remembrance among all the Indian nations. Many, to this day, refer to it. He did more than satisfy the Indians for their lands. He paid for some of them twice. At a conference held at Lancaster, Pennsylvania, in 1744, upward of sixty years after Penn's treaty with the In

dians on the Delaware, one of the chiefs of the Six Nations said:

"When our brother Onas (the name given to Penn by his red brothers), a great while ago, came to Albany to buy the Susquehannah lands from us, our brother, the governor of New York, who, as we supposed, had not a good understanding with our brother Onas, advised us not to sell him any land, for he would make a bad use of it; and, pretending to be our friend, he advised us, in order to prevent Onas, or any other persons, imposing on us, and that we might always have our land when we wanted it, to put it into his hands; and he told us he would keep it for our use, and never open his hands, but keep them close shut, and not part with it, but at our request. Accordingly, we trusted him, and put our lands into his hands, and charged him to keep them safe for our But, some time after, he went to England and carried our land with him, and there sold it to our brother Onas for a large sum of money. And when, at the instance of our brother Onas, we were minded to sell him some lands, he told us we had sold the Susquehannah lands already to the governor of New York, and that he had bought them from him in England; though, when he came to understand how the governor of New York had deceived us, he very generously paid us for our lands over again."

use.

Red Jacket, a Seneca chief, was one of a delegation of New York Indians that visited Philadelphia in 1792. These were received and welcomed by the governor of Pennsylvania, and addressed by him at the council chamber. There was suspended on the wall a fine picture of William Penn, and to it the governor referred in his speech in an appropriate manner. This delegation was some time in the city, and, some days after the reception, there was a second interview, at which several of the chiefs spoke in response to the speech of welcome. Red Jacket spoke as follows:

"Brother Onas, governor (the Indians continued this name, and applied it to Penn's successors), open unprejudiced ears to what we have to say. Some days since, you addressed us, and what you said gave us great pleasure. This day, the

Great Spirit has allowed us to meet you again in this council chamber. We hope that your not receiving an immediate answer to your address will make no improper impression on your mind. We mention this, lest you might suspect that your kind welcome and friendly address has not had a proper effect upon our hearts. We assure you it is far otherwise. In your address to us the other day, in this ancient council chamber, where our fathers have often conversed together, several things struck our attention very forcibly. When you told us this was the place in which our fathers often met on peaceable terms, it gave us sensible pleasure, and more joy than we could express. Though we have no writings, like you, yet we remember often to have heard of the friendship that existed between our fathers and yours. The picture to which you have drawn our attention (the portrait of Penu) brought fresh to our minds the friendly conferences that used to be held between the former governors of Pennsylvania and our tribes, and showed the love which your forefathers had for peace, and the friendly disposition of our people. It is still our wish, as well as yours, to preserve peace between our tribes and you, and it would be well if the same spirit existed among the Indians to the westward. Your disposition is that for which the ancient Onas governors were remarkable. As you love peace, so do we also; and we wish that it could be extended to the most distant part of this great country. We agreed in council, this morning, that the sentiments I have expressed should be communicated to you before the delegates of the Five Nations, and to tell you that our cordial welcome to this city, and the good sentiments contained in your address, have made a deep impression on our hearts, and given us great joy; and from the heart I tell you so. This is all I have to say.

This speech was made one hundred and ten years after the date of Penn's treaty, and though the Indians "have no writings" by which events are recorded, and thus kept fresh in the minds of those who succeed the actors in them, Red Jacket showed that he was not ignorant of what transpired in 1682, between William Penn and the Lenni Lenapes and other Indians, on the banks of the Delaware, more than one

hundred years previous. Some twenty-five years since, a venerable chief of the Delawares, Capt. Ketchem, in a conversation with the author in the (then) country of those Indians, in relation to the events of the past, said: "We have no books like our white brothers in which to record these things, but they are written on our hearts, and are transmitted to our children, and by them to theirs, and thus they are preserved." In the same conversation the old chief referred to Penn's council on the Delaware, and to the treaty made with his ancestors by the United States, at Fort Pitt, when the "thirteen fires (the United States) were young' (1778), and the pledge of the Indians to aid and assist by supplies and warriors in the revolutionary war. At the close of

a very interesting and earnest conversation, the venerable man said with deep feeling: " When you return to Washington, say to our Great Father, that we desire him and his white children so to act toward us red men, who are also his children, that when all have done acting here (pointing to the earth), we shall meet up yonder" (pointing to the heavens).

Having referred to the dealings of William Penn with the Indians in the province of Pennsylvania, and the harmony that existed between him and his successors and them for more than half a century, it seems appropriate in this connection to embody the principles which governed him in his intercourse with the natives, as well as his opinion of them. Having obtained his grant from the king, he appointed his relative, William Markham, temporary deputy governor, and the latter, in the fall of 1681, set sail with three ships loaded with colonists and supplies for Pennsylvania. Penn did not come over until the following year. He designed Markham for his secretary when he himself should visit the country. From the colonists he selected judicious commissioners, who had instructions to form a league with the Indians on their arrival. They were directed to be just and candid with the natives, and they were intrusted with an open letter addressed to the Indians, of which the following is a copy:

"LONDON, 18th of 8th mo., 1681. "MY FRIENDS:-There is a great God and power that hath made the world and all things therein, to whom you, and I,

and all people, owe their living and well-being, and to whom you and I must one day give an account for all that we do in the world. This great God hath written his law on our hearts, by which we are taught to love and help one another. Now this great God hath been pleased to make me concerned in your part of the world; and the king of the country where I live hath been pleased to give me a great province therein, but I desire to enjoy it with your love and consent, that we may always live together as brothers and friends, else, what would the great God do to us, who hath made us, not to devour and destroy one another, but to live soberly and kindly in the world. Now I would have you well observe that I am very sensible of the unkindness and injustice that hath been too much exercised toward you by the people of these parts, who have sought themselves, and to make great advantages of you, rather than to be examples of goodness and patienceunto you, and caused your grudging and animosity, sometimes to the shedding of blood, which has made the great God angry. But I am not such a man, as is well known in my own country. I have great love and regard for you, and. desire to win and gain your love and friendship by a kind, just, and peaceable life, and the people I send to you are of the same mind, and shall, in all things, behave themselves accordingly; and if in anything, any shall offend you, or your people, you shall have a speedy satisfaction for the same by an equal number of just men on both sides, that by nomeans you shall have just cause of being against them. I shall shortly come to you myself, at which time we may more fully confer together and discourse this matter; in the meantime I have sent my commissioners to treat with you about land, and to form with you a firm league of peace; let me desire you to be kind to them and their people, and to receive these presents and tokens which I have sent you as a token of my good will to you, and my resolution to live justly, peace-ably, and friendly with you.

"I am your loving friend,

" WILLIAM PENN."

During the fall of 1681, in writing to a particular friend in England, in relation to his enterprise, Penn said: "For my