At this time Penn was much interested in the progress of a house which was being built for him under Markham’s supervision at a place afterward known as Pennsburg, which was to be his family mansion when he brought his wife and children out from England. Anxious as he was, however, that all about it should be according to his wishes, the troublesome boundary dispute called him away to Newcastle, where it was hoped the matter might be finally settled. But no agreement was reached and Lord Baltimore soon afterward sailed for England to lay his claims before the King. Reluctant as he was to leave America, and necessary as his presence was there at that time, Penn realized, therefore, that in order to protect his own rights he would be forced to follow the same course and carry his case to England likewise. This decision was hastened by the arrival of letters from home informing him not only of the dangerous illness of his wife, but also of the outbreak of fresh persecutions against all dissenters, and especially the Quakers. The Friends wrote urging his return and beseeching him to use his influence at court once more in their favor, as he had so often done in the past. Moreover, his enemies had circulated various calumnies against him which could only be refuted by himself in person. There seemed no choice left him. He must put the Atlantic Ocean between him and his province, for which he had labored so zealously and so successfully for more than a year and a half. But before he sailed he once more summoned the Indian chiefs to bid them farewell and urge them even more strongly than before to keep faith with him and observe their treaty with his “children.” During his absence the business of government was entrusted to a few chosen citizens on whom he could depend to carry out his ideas and principles. How hard it was for him to leave in spite of his anxiety to be at the bedside of his sick wife, and how much at heart he had the welfare of his province, is shown by the fact that even after he had boarded the ship he took time before it sailed to write a parting letter of instructions to his deputies, urging them to maintain the peace he had striven so hard to establish and invoking the blessing of God on the new settlement.