[1] The "Freshes" of the Delaware were the low-lying meadows along the river. The Swedes built their homes on the upland portions and pastured their cattle in the low lands. Their interest centered on the river which provided them with a seemingly inexhaustible supply of fish and game, and on the rich grass of the river meadows where no trees had to be cleared away to provide pasture-land. CHAPTER X TROUBLOUS DAYS IN ENGLAND Penn found himself in a curious position when he arrived in England. He was a great man, the governor of a large colony which was reputed to be extraordinarily rich, and at the same time he was one of the leaders of a sect which was once more frowned upon and disliked by both the king and the court. As he himself said, "One day I was received well at court as proprietor and governor of a province of the crown, the next taken up at a meeting by Hilton and Collingwood, and the third smoakt" [smoked out or hunted out] "and informed of for meeting with the men of the whig stamp." He went to see King Charles and the Duke of York, but, though they were glad to see their former friend, they both now felt that the troubles besetting their government were largely due to dissenting religious parties, and that the Quakers were among the chief of these dissenters. Penn saw that he must not lose the good opinion of the king if he were to have any success in his dispute with Lord Baltimore, a nobleman who had great influence at court; at the same time he found that many Quakers were being ill-treated for their religion and felt called upon to help them. The case of one man in particular appealed to him, Richard Vickris, a quiet man who had been sentenced to execution because he refused to take an oath and who had broken certain statutes for the suppression of dissenters. This case Penn appealed to the Duke of York, and the latter finally secured Vickris's pardon from the king. In the midst of this confused state of affairs in England, the easy-going, pleasure-loving Charles II. died, and his brother, the Duke of York, became king as James II. The new king could make fair promises to his friends, and when William Penn spoke to him about the Quakers, the king promised to show all sorts of favors to them. He had a great deal to say about liberty and about religious toleration. When the Quakers sent him a petition for clemency, setting forth that there were then thirteen hundred of their creed in prison in England, and that hundreds had died of prison hardships in the past few years, the king was much concerned, and showed his concern by setting free all dissenters who were in prison, including both the Quakers and the Roman Catholics. Probably the king thought to strengthen himself on the throne by this act of clemency; certainly it was providential for the Quakers who had been separated from their families and friends for years, and undoubtedly it made Penn feel very grateful to his sovereign.