would hardly have treated my subjects so barbarously as they have done."

"That is no proof to the contrary, friend Charles. Thy subjects were the aggressors. When thy subjects first went to North America, they found these poor people the fondest and kindest creatures in the world. Every day they would watch for them to come ashore, and hasten to meet them, and feast them on their best fish, and venison, and corn, which was all they had. In return for this hospitality of the savages, as we call them, thy subjects, termed Christians, seized on their country and rich hunting grounds, for farms for themselves! Now can it be wondered at, that these much injured people should have been driven to desperation by such injustice; and that, burning with revenge, they should have committed some excesses ?"

"Well then, I hope, friend William," said the king, "you'll not complain when they come to treat you in the same manner." "I am not afraid of it," replied William. "Aye! how will you avoid it? You mean to get their hunting grounds too, I suppose."

"Yes; but not by driving these poor people away from them," said William. "How then will you get their lands ?" asked Charles. "I mean to buy their lands of them," replied William, firmly. "Buy their lands of them!" said the king; "Why man, you have already bought them of

me."

"Yes, I know I have; and at a dear rate too," said William; "but I did it only to get thy good will; not that I thought thou hadst any right to their lands." "Zounds,

man! no right to their lands!" said the king, hastily. "No, friend Charles, no right at all. What right hadst thou to their lands ?"

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Why, the right of discovery-the right which the Pope and all Christian kings have agreed to give one another." "The right of discovery!" replied William, half smiling, a strange kind of right, indeed! Now, suppose, friend Charles, some canoe loads of these Indians, crossing the sea, and discovering thy island of Great Britain, were to claim it as their own, and set it up for sale over thy head, what wouldst thou think of it?"

"Why-why-why," replied Charles, blushing, "I must confess I should think it a piece of great impudence in them."

I

"Well then, how canst thou, as a Christian, and a Christian prince too, do that which thou so utterly condemnest in these people, whom thou callest savages?"

The king being rather too much staggered to make a reply, William thus went on ;-" Yes, friend Charles, and suppose again, that these Indians, on thy refusal to give up thy island of Great Britain, were to make war on thee, and having weapons more destructive than thine, were to destroy many of thy subjects, and to drive the rest away, wouldst thou not think it horribly cruel ?"

The king with strong marks of conviction, agreeing to this, William thus proceeded: "Well then, friend Charles, how can I, who call myself a Christian, do that which I should abhor, even in heathens. No, I will not do it. I will not use the right to their land, tho I have bought it of thee, at a dear rate. But I will buy the right of the proper owners, even of the Indians themselves. By doing this, I shall imitate God himself, in his justice and mercy, and thereby ensure his blessing on my colony, if I should ever live to plant one in North America."

The event proved his wisdom and his justice. When he and his associates came to this country, they brought with them the pacific policy of the Prince of Peace; and this policy was preserved in all their intercourse with the native inhabitants. At the first interview with the natives, whom Penn had called together for the purpose, he addressed them in the language of kindness, benevolence and peace, and as the rightful owners of the soil on which they lived. Tho they appeared in vast numbers, armed with bows and arrows, and in all the habiliments of war; so that it appeared to the Quakers on shipboard, as tho the woods were all alive with them; yet William Penn was in no wise daunted with this formidable appearance. At mid-day, which was the time appointed to meet, "he got into the boat and went on shore, with a countenance serene and pleasant, as if he had been going to dine with his friends."

The place of their meeting was on the western, banks of the Delaware, " on a fine green, near the pleasant villages of Shakamaxon and Coaquanoc, where Kensington now stands. As if purposely formed to be the theatre of that memorable event, an elm tree, of extraordinary size, lifted high its towering top, and from its giant arms threw far and wide a refreshing shade over many a grassy acre. Seeing the Indians, men, women and children, assembled under this tree, William Penn, attended only by a few of his Quakers, ad

vanced towards them, with no other mark of rank but a sash of blue silk, which is still seen in the Penn families in England. The Indians were struck at his presence. A stranger advancing towards them, with no guards around his person, no weapons of war in his hands, and no armour of defence but the majestic sweetness of his own looks, was a spectacle that impressed them all with veneration."

With these impressions in his favor, they readily obeyed his signal to sit down, and were soon all seated, in a semicircular form, on the ground. William Penn then addressed them, through an interpreter, in language so plain, simple and intelligible to their understanding; and yet so kind, benevolent and conciliatory, that it quickly awakened all the tender sensibilities of these untaught children of the forest. In his speech, he fully convinced them of his pacific disposition, and of his sacred regard for justice and truth, and clearly manifested his exalted veneration for the Supreme Ruler of the universe, and his great love for all his fellow creatures, of whatever clime or color. Indeed there was so much of a God-like benevolence in his discourse, that he seemed like a heavenly messenger of good things, sent from the Great Spirit, to teach them kindness and love, justice and truth, and to show them how to practice these heavenly principles, in all their intercourse and dealings with their fellow beings. He also displayed before their gazing eyes the various articles of good things, which he had brought over the great water, to give them for their lands; and he taught them the use of these things, among which were many implements of husbandry, and mechanic tools of various kinds.

In short, these wild children of the woods were so delighted and elevated with their white brothers, and especially with father Onas, as they called William Penn, that they were ready to oblige him in any thing he desired of them. They told him, that if he saw they had looked angry at first, it was because they had heard from their friends, the Chesapeakes, and Mussawomecs, and Susquehannocks, that the white men beyond them, had killed the red men, and had taken their land and deer, And also that their neighbors, the Passaicks, and Manhattans, had told them how the white men, with bows and arrows of fire, had killed many Indians there too. "Bad white men!" said they, shaking their heads" bad white men, to kill their red brothers! But you no bad white man! Oh no; you good white man! You all the same as red man! You one brother! You bring red

men good things! We love you much! We give you land, and deer, and turkies plenty! You live with us, all brothers together as long as the sun and moon give light."

After many expressions of simple, heart-felt joy, on the part of the natives, and some further conference between Penn and the chiefs, he entered into a treaty with them for lands, in exchange for goods, which was executed according to the usual formalities of the natives, and to the mutual satisfaction of both parties. Penn made no military preparations for defence; but treated the natives with humanity and justice, and enacted laws to protect their just rights and privileges, as well as those of the whites. By these means, he preserved their confidence and friendship, and left no room for the operation of hostile passions, nor any ground of complaint. Thus he saved all the expense and hazard of war, and preserved the lives, both of his own people, and the natives. And so complete was the conquest which he gained over these savages of the wilderness, by this pacific course of conduct, that, even to this day, the Quakers are highly respected by them, and have more influence over them, especially over those tribes who are acquainted with them, than all the armies and military authorities of the United States.

Far different was the conduct of the settlers in all the other colonies. They came to this country with those ideas of worldly policy which require a military attitude, as the only means of protection and safety; and accordingly, made it their first object to prepare for defence against the savage inhabitants. Tho they were, in general, strict professors of the Christian religion; yet they had not learned that the art of war was utterly incompatible with the religion of Christ. Like the great body of Christian professors of the present day, they blended their religion with their principles of war; and so acted on the system of defensive preparation, upon the supposition that, among the savage tribes of America, it was absolutely necessary for their safety and protection. Whenever they settled down, they were careful to build forts, and fortify their habitations with stockades or palisadoes; to be well provided with arms and ammunition; and, tho unmolested, to keep a nightly guard. Considering themselves in an unsettled wilderness, filled and surrounded with a warlike race of savages, they supposed these measures the best policy they could pursue in their new situation. Thus they put themselves in the attitude of war, tho no injury had then been offered by the natives.

At length complaint was made, that some of the settlers had been killed by the Indians. New orders were immediately issued ;--the murderers must be pursued, and greater preparations made for defence. Tho we have had many accounts of the Indian depradations and murders, we hear very little about the provocation given them by the whites. But admitting that the whites, as individuals, had given the Indians no provocation; it certainly must have been very alarming to them, to see these strange foreigners come and settle themselves in their country, with all these signs and symptoms of war. What could excite their fears and their jealousy more than this? They could not suppose these warlike preparations were made without some object;-and what object could they have in view, but to kill and drive the red men from their native soil and take it to themselves?

So reasoned the savages; and what other inference could they draw from these warlike preparations? Certainly they could draw no inference in favor of a peaceable disposition, on the part of the settlers. War followed of course. Many were slain, and captives taken on both sides. Those taken by the Indians were barbarously treated; nor could such treatment from savages be wondered at: for they considered it a war of extermination, in which every thing was at stake with them; and they could see no better treatment, on the part of the whites, towards their countrymen. They beheaded the chiefs whom they took in war; killed the male captives, and enslaved the women and children. Such treatment as this naturally increased the enmity of both parties; so that war followed war, and cruelties increased upon cruelties, attended with vast expense of property, and the loss of thousands of lives. We find through the whole history of the settlement of the American colonies, where this war policy was pursued, it produced one continued scene of warfare between the settlers and the natives; and the enmity produced thereby is not eradicated from the breasts of the savages, even to this day.

The expense of obtaining these bloodstained colonies, was perhaps a hundred fold greater, in proportion to the extent of territory acquired, than that by which William Penn, and his pacific followers, obtained the province of Pennsylvania; without reckoning the numerous lives that were lost, and the enormous load of guilt incurred by these professed Christian settlers, for their horrid injustice to these wild children of nature, who were in fact, the primitive and rightful owners of the soil.