The King of England gave all the land in Penn-syl-va-ni-a to William
Penn. The King made Penn a kind of king over Penn-syl-va-ni-a. Penn
could make the laws of this new country. But he let the people make
their own laws.
Penn wanted to be friendly with the Indians. He paid them for all the
land his people wanted to live on. Before he went to Penn-syl-va-ni-a
he wrote a letter to the Indians. He told them in this letter that he
would not let any of his people do any harm to the Indians. He said he
would punish any-body that did any wrong to an Indian. This letter was
read to the Indians in their own lan-guage.
Soon after this Penn got into a ship and sailed from England. He sailed
to Penn-syl-va-ni-a. When he came there, he sent word to the tribes of
Indians to come to meet him.
The Indians met under a great elm tree on the bank of the river.
Indians like to hold their solemn meetings out of doors. They sit on
the ground. They say that the earth is the Indian’s mother.
When Penn came to the place of meeting, he found the woods full of
Indians. As far as he could see, there were crowds of Indians. Penn’s
friends were few. They had no guns.
Penn had a bright blue sash round his waist. One of the Indian chiefs,
who was the great chief, put on a kind of cap or crown. In the middle
of this was a small horn. The head chief wore this only at such great
meetings as this one.
When the great chief had put on his horn, all the other chiefs and
great men of the Indians put down their guns. Then they sat down in
front of Penn in the form of a half-moon. Then the great chief told
Penn that the Indians were ready to hear what he had to say.
Penn had a large paper in which he had written all the things that he
and his friends had promised to the Indians. He had written all the
promises that the Indians were to make to the white people. This was to
make them friends. When Penn had read this to them, it was explained to
them in their own lan-guage. Penn told them that they might stay in the
country that they had sold to the white people. The land would belong
to both the Indians and the white people.
Then Penn laid the large paper down on the ground. That was to show
them, he said, that the ground was to belong to the Indians and the
white people to-geth-er.
He said that there might be quarrels between some of the white people
and some of the Indians. But they would settle any quarrels without
fighting. When-ever there should be a quarrel, the Indians were to pick
out six Indians. The white people should also pick out six of their
men. These were to meet, and settle the quarrel.
Penn said, “I will not call you my children, because fathers some-times
whip their children. I will not call you brothers, because brothers
sometimes fall out. But I will call you the same person as the white
people. We are the two parts of the same body.”
The Indians could not write. But they had their way of putting down
things that they wished to have re-mem-bered. They gave Penn a belt of
shell beads. These beads are called wam-pum. Some wam-pum is white.
Some is purple.
They made this belt for Penn of white beads. In the middle of the belt
they made a picture of purple beads. It is a picture of a white man and
an Indian. They have hold of each other’s hands. When they gave this
belt to Penn, they said, “We will live with William Penn and his
children as long as the sun and moon shall last.”
[Illustration: Penn jumping with the Indians.]
Penn took up the great paper from the ground. He handed it to the great
chief that wore the horn on his head. He told the Indians to keep it
and hand it to their children’s children, that they might know what he
had said. Then he gave them many presents of such things as they liked.
They gave Penn a name in their own language. They named him “O-nas.”
That was their word for a feather. As the white people used a pen made
out of a quill or feather, they called a pen “o-nas.” That is why they
called William Penn “Brother O-nas.”
Penn sometimes went to see the Indians. He talked to them, and gave
them friendly advice. Once he saw some of them jumping. They were
trying to see who could jump the farthest.
Penn had been a very active boy. He knew how to jump very well. He went
to the place where the Indians were jumping. He jumped farther than any
of them.
When the great gov-ern-or took part in their sport, the Indians were
pleased. They loved Brother O-nas more than ever.