Description of Penn’s Domain—Negotiations with the Indians by Penn’s
Agent—Death of Penn’s Mother—Final Instructions to his Family—Departure
of the Welcome
This newly acquired territory, which was henceforth to absorb all Penn’s
attention, lay to the north of Maryland and west of New Jersey, of which
Penn was now joint owner, reaching from the Delaware River on the east
to the Ohio on the west, and north as far as Lake Erie. The eastern and
western boundaries were well defined by these two rivers, but on the
north and south the lines had yet to be agreed upon with the owners of
the adjoining colonies—no easy matter where the land was largely
primeval forest, untrodden by human foot save for the Indians who
traversed it on their hunting expeditions. The greater part of the tract
was occupied by the various ranges of the Allegheny Mountains, whose
bare rocky peaks offered no very inviting prospect and held out few
hopes as to a favorable climate. But wherever trees could find
nourishment for their roots, dense forests extended, untouched as yet by
any axe, while verdant meadows lined the countless streams that
descended from the mountain heights to empty their waters into the
Allegheny and Susquehanna Rivers which flowed through the middle of the
State. The only outlet to the ocean was through the Delaware River,
which opened into Delaware Bay, where there was a good harbor.
The climate of the country was a diversified one. While in the mountain
regions the winters were severe, the eastern slopes toward the Atlantic
Ocean, as well as those in the northwest toward the Ohio River and Lake
Erie, enjoyed a temperate climate with often great heat in the summer.
In these regions the soil was rich and fruitful, promising bountiful
returns to the settler after he had once succeeded in clearing the land
and making room for the plough. The forests, almost impenetrable in
places with masses of sumach bushes and climbing vines, furnished almost
every kind of wood already known to the English colonists: cedar,
cypress, pine, and sycamore, as well as the full-blooming tulip tree,
which flourished in sheltered spots. Game of all sorts abounded and the
streams were full of fish. The most delicious grapes and peaches,
chestnuts and mulberries grew wild in protected places, and flowers of
tropical gorgeousness greeted the eyes of astonished settlers. The gold
and silver of which King Charles had been so careful to reserve a share
were not found in the province, but there was plenty of iron and an
inexhaustible supply of the finest coal. Also there were valuable salt
springs, as well as those useful materials, lime, slate, and building
stone. In short, it was a country well fitted to supply every need of
the settler and offering magnificent prospects for the future.
To be sure, it was inhabited by several tribes of Indians, chief of
which were the Lenni Lennapes in the southern part and the Iroquois in
the northern, but if they were disposed at first to regard with
suspicion this invasion of their domains, they soon found the newcomers
fair and honest in their dealings with them and willing to pay for the
right to settle there, like the New Jersey colonists. Indeed these
semi-savage natives seemed to place little value on the permanent
possession of the land over which they claimed sovereignty. They had no
fixed abiding place, but roamed about at will, settling down for a time
where the hunting was especially good or the streams promised to fill
their nets with fish. So long as they were free to hunt and fish as they
chose and their women had a small piece of open ground in which to
prepare the maize cakes that served them for bread, no hostile attacks
were to be feared from them.
Penn himself little suspected that he had received an empire in exchange
for his claim against the crown, nor did he realize as long as he lived
the full value of his newly acquired territory. The idea of enriching
himself or his family was as far from his thoughts as it had been close
to his father’s. With him it was purely a question of obtaining a home
for his ideal Commonwealth, and he refused all the offers to purchase
rights of trade there that poured in upon him as soon as the patent had
been granted, even though he was in great need of money at the time and
although the sale of such rights was not only perfectly legitimate, but
no more than any other in his position would have done without
hesitation. One merchant, for instance, offered him six thousand pounds,
besides two and a half per cent of the yearly profits, for the exclusive
right to trade in beaver hats between the Delaware and Susquehanna
Rivers. Penn was resolved that trade in his colony should be no more
restricted than personal liberty or freedom of conscience, and the more
widely his principles of government became known, the larger grew the
number of would-be emigrants who wished to settle there. He soon found
himself so overrun with agents wishing to consult him as to the sale of
lands or the formation of trading companies that he scarcely knew which
way to turn. There was hardly a city in the three kingdoms that did not
send messengers or petitions, while offers came even from Holland and
Germany, where Penn was so well known.
Emigration companies were also formed for the foundation of settlements
on a larger scale. To one of these, in Frankfort-on-the-Main, Penn
deeded a tract of fifteen thousand acres along the banks of a navigable
river, with three hundred acres in the interior on which to found the
capital of the new State. A trading company in Bristol concluded a
contract for the purchase of twenty thousand acres and set to work at
once to fit out a ship, while in London, Liverpool, and Bristol
emigrants gathered in such numbers that Penn soon had no fear as to the
settlement of his colony. Among these, it is true, were many adventurers
in search of a fortune only, which they hoped to make more quickly and
easily under Penn’s form of government than elsewhere. But by far the
greater number were victims of oppression, seeking to escape the endless
persecutions to which they were subjected at home on account of their
religious opinions, and taking with them little but good resolution and
a pair of useful hands.
Immediately on receiving the patent Penn despatched his cousin, Colonel
Markham, with three ships to take possession of the new province in his
name, to arrange with Lord Baltimore as to the doubtful boundary lines
on the south, and above all to make friends with the Indians by
concluding a formal treaty with them for the purchase of such lands as
they laid claim to. The kindliness of his nature made it impossible for
him to treat the unfortunate natives as other Europeans had done,
driving them ruthlessly from their own hunting grounds wherever the land
was worth taking possession of and forcing them as far as possible into
slavery. The Spanish explorers especially, in their insatiable thirst
for gold, had even robbed them of all the precious metals and pearls
they had and endeavored by the most shameful cruelty to extort from them
knowledge of the location where they found the gold of which their
ornaments were made. If they offered the slightest resistance or took up
arms to defend themselves or regain their liberty, they were hunted like
wild beasts by bloodhounds trained for that purpose, or fell in heaps
before the murderous bullets against which their arrows were of no
avail. Even the Puritan settlers of New England, who should have
practised the Christian virtues of justice and humanity, were guilty of
many acts of cruelty and treachery toward the red men, with whom they
were perpetually at warfare in consequence.
Penn hoped, by the use of gentler methods, to win the confidence of the
Indians, who must have already discovered from the New Jersey settlers
that all white men were by no means like those with whom they had first
come in contact. It was necessary, in fact, if his colony were to enjoy
permanent peace and security, and in spite of the ridicule which such
humane ideas was likely to evoke, Markham was charged with the strictest
instructions in this regard. He was a bold and determined man, devoted
to his kinsman Penn, the wisdom and purity of whose ideas he fully
appreciated in spite of his soldierly training. On his arrival in
Pennsylvania he lost no time in concluding a treaty with the chiefs or
sachems of the principal tribes, conveying to Penn for a fixed sum all
lands claimed by them with the solemn assurance in his name that no
settler should ever molest or injure them. The next two ships which came
over from England brought three agents authorized to make further
treaties of peace and friendship, thus strengthening the work begun by
Markham, and also an address written by Penn himself to be read to the
Indians, expressing it as his earnest wish “by their favor and consent,
so to govern the land that they might always live together as friends
and allies.”
Markham was less fortunate, however, in his negotiations with Lord
Baltimore concerning the doubtful boundary lines, which, if not
definitely fixed, were likely to prove a source of much contention. The
existence of a Quaker colony adjoining his own province was by no means
pleasing to the Catholic nobleman, who, if left to himself, would have
done all in his power to prevent its foundation. The matter was only
settled by the King’s personal interference in Penn’s behalf, and then
only a temporary decision was arrived at, the Duke of York’s influence
having finally to be brought to bear before everything could be arranged
satisfactorily for the future prosperity of the new State. Pennsylvania,
as already mentioned, had but one direct outlet to the Atlantic Ocean.
Should this be cut off or obstructed at any time by enemies, it would be
ruinous to the trade of the colony. Penn therefore determined to acquire
if possible a strip of land forming the west shore of Delaware Bay on
the peninsula extending between Delaware and Chesapeake Bays, the
possession of which was indispensable for the protection of
Pennsylvania’s trading vessels. After much negotiation this was
accomplished with the Duke of York’s aid and the sovereign rights to
this piece of coast granted to Penn and his heirs forever. This removed
the last obstacle to his undisputed possession of the new territory and
its successful development, and he was now free to cross the Atlantic
and assume the government in person.
Just at this time, however, a great misfortune befell him in the sudden
death of his mother, that tender guardian of his childhood, friend and
mediator of his troubled youth, and devoted sharer of the hopes and
plans of his manhood, whose support and sympathy had never failed him.
So overwhelmed with grief was he by this loss that for a time his health
was seriously affected and it was many weeks before he recovered his
peace of mind. This sad event also added to Penn’s difficulties. Being
unwilling to take his wife and children with him on this first voyage,
he had hoped to leave them under his mother’s wise and experienced
guardianship, in which case he could have parted from them with good
heart, feeling sure that all would be well during his absence. This was
now no longer possible, however, and another anxiety was added to his
load.
In these days of swift and luxuriously appointed steamships, when the
voyage from Europe to America is so quickly and comfortably made, it
seems strange to think of regarding it with so much anxiety and
apprehension; but in Penn’s time steamships were unknown and travellers
had to depend on clumsy sailing vessels, entirely at the mercy of the
winds, while the passage, now made easily in from five to seven days,
then required at least six weeks, and sometimes, with contrary winds,
double that. And aside from the dangers of such a sea voyage, what
unknown experiences awaited them in that distant land, where homes must
be hewed out from the wilderness, where privation and hardships of every
sort must be endured, where death indeed by Indian tomahawk or knife was
possible at any moment! Under these circumstances even so brave and
resolute a man as William Penn might well feel anxiety over such a
voyage and its outcome. For a time he did think of taking with him the
wife and children from whom he found it so hard to part, that he might
watch over them himself; but the giant task awaiting him beyond the sea
claimed all his mind and strength and he feared the care of a family at
such a time might defeat the whole purpose of his journey, to say
nothing of his dread of exposing them to the dangers and uncertainties
of a life of which he had heard more than enough from those who had
already experienced it. But Penn had firm faith in God and in the
righteousness of a cause which aimed not at personal gain but the bodily
and spiritual welfare of thousands, and which if it succeeded must
result in the creation of a veritable earthly Paradise. He therefore did
all that lay in his power to further it and left the issue in the hands
of Providence.
Before leaving he made a sort of testament containing his parting
instruction’s to his dear ones, to be kept ever before their eyes. In
this he laid particular stress on the proper education of his children,
who, if all went well, would one day be called to govern the State of
Pennsylvania, and charged his wife to live as economically as possible
in other respects, but to spare nothing to this end. The two sons,
Springett and William, were to be thoroughly grounded in all branches of
knowledge necessary to their future position, especially in agriculture,
shipbuilding, surveying, and navigation. The only daughter, Letty or
Letitia, was to receive also a suitable training in all domestic
affairs. Above all, they were to be taught piety and the fear of God and
to strive with all their strength to attain these virtues. “Let your
hearts be righteous before the Lord and put your trust in Him,” he
concluded; “then no one will have power to harm or injure you.”
Autumn was already approaching before the _Welcome_, which was to carry
Penn across the ocean, was ready to set sail. It was a fine vessel of
three hundred tons and larger than most ships crossing the Atlantic in
those days, but even its capacity was taxed to the utmost, for more than
a hundred colonists, mostly of the wealthier class, were eager to make
the voyage with the owner of the new province, and each had to carry
sufficient provisions to last possibly for twelve or fourteen weeks.
Even then many who had been accustomed to a life of ease and luxury were
forced to content themselves with scanty rations lest the supply give
out. The quantity of luggage of all sorts required by so many persons
was also no small matter, although no one was allowed to carry any
material for house fittings, such as doors or windows, but Penn himself,
who also took with him a horse. The hold of the ship was full and even
the deck lined with chests and boxes when at last, on the first of
September, 1682, the _Welcome_ was ready to start on her journey. As
soon as Penn had come on board after parting with his family, the anchor
was lifted and the good ship sailed away from Deal, followed by the
prayers and benedictions of thousands.
It was already late in the season and a dangerous, trying winter voyage
was before them, should the passage prove a long one. The winds were
fair, however, and all promised well, when the alarming discovery was
made that an unmarked and unwelcome guest was on board; namely, the
smallpox, one of the worst diseases that could have broken out, since on
a crowded vessel it was impossible to prevent infection by isolating the
patients. At first the epidemic seemed so mild it was not thought
necessary to turn back, but it gradually grew more and more malignant
and raged to such an extent that for three weeks deaths were of daily
occurrence and more than half of the ship’s company were swept away.
There was no physician of any kind on board, but Penn labored heroically
to relieve the sufferers, placing all his supplies at their disposal,
watching by their bedsides, and endeavoring to banish by the word of God
the deadly fear that accompanies contagious diseases. But it was of no
avail. Day after day death continued to claim its toll. After the
horrors of such an experience, it may be imagined with what joy and
rapture the first sight of the shores of America was hailed by those who
had survived that terrible nine weeks’ voyage.