The Beginner's American HistoryMontgomery, D. H. (David Henry)
History
The Beginner's American History
Montgomery, D. H. (David Henry)
United States -- History
Penn wanted the land which had been given him here as a place where
the Friends or Quakers might go and settle. A little later the whole
of what is now the state of New Jersey was bought by Penn and other
Quakers for the same purpose. We have seen[3] that neither the
Pilgrims nor the Catholics had any real peace in England. The Quakers
suffered even more still; for oftentimes they were cruelly whipped,
thrown into dark and dirty prisons where many died of the bad
treatment they received. William Penn himself had been shut up in
jail four times on account of his religion; and though he was no
longer in such danger, because the king was his friend, yet he wanted
to provide a safe place for others who were not so well off as he
was.
[Footnote 3: See paragraphs 62 and 76.]
98. Penn sends out emigrants to Pennsylvania; he gets ready to go
himself; his conversation with the king.--Penn accordingly sent out
a number of people who were anxious to settle in Pennsylvania. The
next year, 1682, he made ready to sail, himself with a hundred more
emigrants. Just before he started, he called on the king in his palace
in London. The king was fond of joking, and he said to him that he
should never expect to see him again, for he thought that the Indians
would be sure to catch such a good-looking young man as Penn was and
eat him. 'But, Friend Charles,' said Penn, 'I mean to buy the land
of the Indians, so they will rather keep on good terms with me than
eat me.' 'Buy their lands!' exclaimed the king. 'Why, is not the whole
of America mine?' 'Certainly not,' answered Penn. 'What!' replied
the king; 'didn't my people discover it?[4] and so haven't I the right
to it?' 'Well, Friend Charles,' said Penn, 'suppose a canoe full of
Indians should cross the sea and should discover England, would that
make it theirs? Would you give up the country to them?' The king did
not know what to say to this; it was a new way of looking at the matter.
He probably said to himself, These Quakers are a strange people; they
seem to think that even American savages have rights which should
be respected.
[Footnote 4: Referring to the discovery of the American continent
by the Cabots, sent out by Henry the Seventh of England, see paragraph
22.]
99. Penn founds[5] the city of Philadelphia; his treaty[6] with the
Indians; his visit to them; how the Indians and the Quakers got on
together.--When William Penn reached America, in 1682, he sailed up
the broad and beautiful Delaware River for nearly twenty miles. There
he stopped, and resolved to build a city on its banks. He gave the
place the Bible name of Philadelphia,[7] or the City of Brotherly
Love, because he hoped that all of its citizens would live together
like brothers. The streets were named from the trees then growing
on the land, and so to-day many are still called Walnut, Pine, Cedar,
Vine, and so on.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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