agreed, “That a sum of money should be raised out of the Province and Territories for the Proprietary and Go→ vernor, in order to a supply for the support of the Government;" but when they came to confer upon the raising of it, they could not agree upon what should be the proportion between the Province and Territories. Whatever was proposed, the members of the Territories voted to a man exactly the reverse of the members of the Province. In this awkward situation the supply would never have been carried at all, had it not been for the wisdom of William Penn, who, after having entered into all the objections on both sides, hit upon a measure in which both the parties could concur.

CHAPTER XXIV.

A. 1701.

WHILE Penn was with his wife and family at Pennsbury, he received news that a riot had taken place in East Jersey, during which some of the persons concerned in it had taken arms. It appears that a criminal had dared to put insolent questions to a magistrate in court, and that the commotion had arisen because the magistrate had refused to answer them. On the receipt of the intelligence, William Penn hastened to Philadelphia, and there selected twelve of the most respectable of his own society, who set off with him to assist the Government in East Jersey, but being informed on his way that the matter had been settled, he returned home. From a letter which he sent to his friends in that Government, it is plain that men must either give up their notions that war is unlawful, or decline the place and the work of civil governors.

Soon after this, he left Pennsbury for Philadelphia again. There he met Connoodaghtoh, king of the Susquehanna Indians; Wopaththa, king of the Shawanese;

Weewhinjough, chief of the Ganawese; and Ahookassong, brother of the emperor of the five nations, with about forty Indians in their retinue, who came to renew the good understanding which had subsisted between him and them, by one general treaty for the whole. He received them in council, and many kind speeches passed between them, and it was agreed that there should be for ever after, a firm and lasting peace between him and his heirs, and the said kings and chiefs and their successors; that they should be as one head and one heart; and that they should at no time hurt, injure, or defraud each other, or suffer each other to be hurt, injured, or defrauded; but that they should be ready at all times to do justice, and perform all acts and offices of friendship and good-will to each other, &c., &c.

Soon after this, in conformity with the said treaty, Penn conferred with his council as to the best means of preventing impositions on the Indians in the way of trade. After due deliberation it was resolved, that persons should be selected for their integrity, who should form a sort of company, with a joint stock, and who should be authorized by the Government to hold a commercial intercourse with them. These were to be instructed to take care to keep from them all spirituous liquors as much as possible. They were also to use all reasonable means to bring them to a true sense of the value of Christianity, particularly by setting before them examples of honesty and candour. This was probably the first time that trade was expressly made subservient to morals, and to the promotion of the Christian religion. Alas! that professors of Christianity should not always make it a means of promoting the improvement and happiness of their race !

In the month of July, having received a letter from the King, urging him to bring the Province and Territories into union with the other Proprietary Governments for their mutual defence, he called together the Assembly. They met accordingly on the 1st of August. He informed them in substance, that the occasion of his calling them together at this time was to lay before them the

King's letter, requiring three hundred and fifty pounds sterling from the Government towards the fortifications intended on the frontiers of New York, and, though he might have some other matters to lay before them, yet he deferred all the rest till they had considered this point.

This message, which it must have been difficult for William Penn as a Quaker to communicate, as well as for those who professed the same religious faith to accede to, almost paralysed the Assembly. They scarcely knew what to do. They seemed to be willing to do any thing rather than to come to a conclusion upon it. They first asked to see the letter itself. When it had been shown them, they observed that it was dated some time back. They therefore sent to the Governor to know if he had received from the King any information since. He said, No. They then requested that he would send them a copy of his own speech, which they themselves had heard. He replied that it had not been his way so to do. They renewed their request. He then sent them his speech in substance. They applied to him to give it them more fully, for it was somewhat short of what they apprehended needful to ground their intended address upon, no particular mention being made in the copy sent them either of the King's letter, or of the sum to be raised. He returned for answer, that his speech had been delivered extempore, and that he had sent them the substance of what he recollected of it; but if they thought the particular insertion of the King's letter needful, he would order it to be inserted. After this, both parties having been in a state of unpleasant parley for four days, the assembly sent an address to Penn, in which they stated their loyalty; but represented among other things, that, "after having taken into consideration the poverty of their constituents, and the great weight and pressure of the taxes, and having reason to believe that the adjacent provinces had hitherto done nothing in this matter, they thought it right to adjourn the further consideration of the King's letter till more emergent occasions should require

their proceedings therein. In the mean time they earnestly desired he would candidly represent their situation to the King, and assure him of their readiness, according to their abilities, to acquiesce in and answer his commands, so far as their religious persuasions would permit, as it became loyal and faithful subjects to do." The next afternoon the Assembly was dissolved, at their own request, after a sitting only of six days.

On Penn's return to Pennsbury, another tribe of Indians, which had not gone down to Philadelphia with those which have been mentioned before, came to him to renew the treaty which he had made with them after his first voyage to these parts. John Richardson, a Yorkshire Quaker, who was then travelling in America as a minister of the Gospel, was at Pennsbury at the time, and witnessed what was done on the occasion, and has given an account of it in his journal.

One of the Indians observed, that they never first broke their covenants with other people; for, smiting his hands upon his head three times, he said, they did not make them there in their heads, but, smiting his hand three times on his breast, said, they made them there in their hearts. I am sorry to learn from this account of John Richardson, that Penn gave the Indians some brandy and rum to drink, thus countenancing the greatest bane both of civilized and savage people. But Penn had not learned that what is called the moderate use of those drinks as a beverage, inevitably leads to drunkenness and ruin among savage, and, in many cases, among civilized people as well. He lived under the old dark dispensation on this subject, before the light of the temperance reformation had dawned.

John Richardson wished to converse with them about Christ's manifesting himself to the inward senses of the soul by his Light, Grace, or Holy Spirit, but the interpreter could find no terms in their language to make the matter intelligible to the Indian's. How should they? The Quakers had not got the right dialect to reach the understandings of the Indians.

William Penn said, he understood they owned a superior power, and asked the interpreter, what their notion was of God. The interpreter answered by making several circles on the ground with his staff, the last one of a small circumference, placing, as he said, the Great Man (as they termed God) in the middle circle, so that he could see over all the other circles, which included all the earth. We asking what they owned as to a future state, the interpreter said, they believed, when such died as were guilty of theft, swearing, lying, adultery, murder, and the like, they went into a very cold country, where they had neither good fat venison, nor match-coats (pieces of cloth like blankets or bed-coverings) to cover themselves with; but those who died clear of the aforesaid sins, go into a fine warm country, where they had good fat venison, and good match-coats.

About this time Penn received news from England which was very distressing. The Proprietary Governors in North America, such as Penn and his associates, had begun to be unpopular with the Governors at home. The truth is, the Governors at home were jealous of their increasing power, and had therefore formed the plan of buying them off, and of changing their governments into regal, under their own immediate control. Conformably with this idea, but under the pretence of great abuse on the one side and of national advantage on the other, a Bill was brought into the House of Lords. Such of the owners of land in Pennsylvania as were then in England, represented the hardship of their case to Parliament in the event of such a change, and solicited a respite of their proceedings till Penn could arrive in England to answer for himself, as one of those whose character the Bill in question affected. They accordingly dispatched to him an account of the whole affair, and solicited his immediate return to England.

Penn was very much grieved at this intelligence. He was only then, as it were, beginning his intended improvements. To be called away therefore at this juncture was peculiarly distressing. Yet to stay, would be to subject