Under date of July 11, 1681, Penn published _Certain Conditions or
Concessions to be agreed upon by William Penn, Proprietary and Governor
of the Province of Pennsylvania, and those who may become Adventurers and
Purchasers in the same Province_. These conditions relate to dividing,
planting, and building upon the land, saving mulberry-and oak-trees, and
dealing with the Indians. These documents were circulated, and imparted
sufficient knowledge of the country and its produce, so that purchasers at
once appeared, and Penn went to Bristol to organize there a company called
"The Free Society of Traders in Pennsylvania," who purchased twenty
thousand acres of land, and prepared to establish various trades in the
province.
Yet further to mature his plans, and to begin with a fair understanding
among all who might be concerned in the enterprise, Penn drew up and
submitted a sketch of the frame of government, providing for alterations,
with a preamble for liberty of conscience. On the basis of contracts and
agreements thus made and mutually ratified, three passenger ships, two from
London and one from Bristol, sailed for Pennsylvania in September, 1681.
One of them made an expeditious passage; another was frozen up in the
Delaware; and the third, driven to the West Indies, was long delayed. They
took over some of the ornamental work of a house for the proprietor.
The Governor also sent over three commissioners, whose instructions we
learn from the original document addressed to them by Penn, dated September
30, 1681. These commissioners were William Crispin, John Bezar, and
Nathaniel Allen. Their duty was that of "settling the colony." Penn refers
them to his cousin Markham, "now on the spot." He instructs them to take
good care of the people; to guard them from extortionate prices for
commodities from the earlier inhabitants; to select a site by the river,
and there to lay out a town; to have his letter to the Indians read to them
in their own tongue; to make them presents from him--adding, "Be grave;
they love not to be smiled upon"--and to enter into a league of amity with
them. Penn also instructs the commissioners to select a site for his own
occupancy, and closes with some good advice in behalf of order and virtue.
These commissioners probably did not sail until the latter part of October,
as they took with them the letter to the Indians, to which Penn refers.
This letter, bearing the date October 18, 1681, is a beautiful expression
of feeling on the part of the proprietor. He does not address the Indians
as heathen, but as his brethren, the children of the one Father. He
announces to them his accession, as far as a royal title could legitimate
it, to a government in their country; he distinguishes between himself and
those who had ill treated the Indians, and pledges his love and service.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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