The only drawback that appears in the character of the philanthropic legislator of Pennsylvania, is at the same time so incongruous with the spirit of his life and actions, that it seems to stand forth in startling deformity. This refers to negro slaves, whom he held apparently without much sense of injustice. True, he used his influence to insure the slave “moral and religious culture, and the rights and comforts of domestic life,” yet, when he was unsuccessful in so doing, he continued to hold slaves, as, indeed, did other Friends. The poor Germans, “the little handful of Friends from the highlands above the Rhine,” in accordance with the doctrines of George Fox, were the only body in Pennsylvania who at that time saw clearly that it was not lawful for Christians to keep slaves. The unlettered Swedes, half a century before, who settled on the western bank of the Delaware, and now were numbered among William Penn’s people had, however, early borne their testimony against slavery. “The Swedes,” said they, arguing from the sound principle of human nature, “will gain more with a free people, with wives and children, than by slaves, who labour with reluctance and soon perish by hard usage.” The simple wisdom of these peasants was, in this respect, superior to the wisdom of more elevated men whether of that age or the present. CHAPTER XXII. NEW FRANCE.—DISCOVERIES IN THE REGION OF THE GREAT LAKES. We have already spoken of the early French discoveries in Canada, or New France, the settlements on the Bay of Fundy and the St. Lawrence, the founding of Quebec and Montreal, of Champlain’s expeditions southward, and his discovery of the lake which still bears his name. The English colonists, from Maine to South Carolina, whom we have seen firmly plant themselves on the new soil, occupied as yet, comparatively speaking, merely the sea-coast, and engaged as they were in agriculture and maritime trade, had little time or inclination for inland exploration. For three-quarters of a century their knowledge of the interior was derived from the Indians and from French discoverers. Besides, as regarded the New England States, the formidable belt of the Iroquois territory, or the territory of the Five Nations, which formed their western boundary, effectually prevented them whilst in their earlier stage from advancing far in that direction. This most powerful of the Indian confederacies consisted of the five nations of Senecas, Cayugas, Onondagas, Oneidas and Mohawks, who occupied a vast extent of country between the St. Lawrence, Lake Champlain, and the upper waters of the Hudson, including the great lakes of Ontario and Erie, as far north as Lake Huron and the Georgian Bay. It was this formidable barrier which, while it prevented the Dutch from exploring the Hudson to the north, had already prevented the French from descending the same river, when Champlain had discovered the heads of the stream.