This Country of OursMarshall, H. E. (Henrietta Elizabeth)
History
This Country of Ours
Marshall, H. E. (Henrietta Elizabeth)
United States -- History
Then Penn spoke to the gathered Indians reminding them that the
Great Spirit wished all men to live in love and brotherhood, and
as the Redman listened his heart went out in love to this White
Chief who had friendship in his eyes, and kindliness in his voice.
And there under the spreading branches of the great elm tree they
swore to live in peace and brotherly love "as long as the rivers
shall run, and while the sun, moon and stars endure."
These Indians never broke their word and for the next seventy years
there was peace in Pennsylvania between the Redman and the White.
The Indians gave Penn the name of Onas which is the Algonquin
word for Feather. Ever afterwards too they called the Governor of
Pennsylvania Onas, and whoever and whatever he was, for them he
was great and good.
But Penn was not only the great Chief Onas, he was also Father
Penn. For he roamed the woods with the Indians, talking with them,
and sharing their simple food like one of themselves. This greatly
delighted the Indians, and to show their pleasure they would perform
some of their wild dances. Then up Penn would spring and dance with
the best of them. So he won their hearts. They loved him so much
that the highest praise they could give any man was to say "he is
like the great Onas," and it was said that any one dressed like a
Quaker was far safer among the Indians than one who carried a gun.
Life seemed so easy in Pennsylvania that in the first years thousands
of colonists came flocking to the new colony. It grew faster than
any other colony, so fast indeed that houses could not be built
quickly enough. So for a time many of the new settlers had to live
in caves dug out of the banks of the Delaware River. It was in one
of these caves that the first baby citizen of the city of brotherly
love was born.
Pennsylvania prospered and grew fast, but there were constant troubles
with Lord Baltimore about the border line between his province and
Penn's. The British Kings in those days gave land charters in the
most reckless fashion and over and over again the boundaries of
one province overlapped those of the others. Then of course there
was trouble. This had happened with Virginia and Maryland. Now it
happened with Maryland and Pennsylvania.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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