USA > Delaware > Narratives of early Pennsylvania, West New Jersey and Delaware, 1630-1707 > Part 17
USA > New Jersey > Narratives of early Pennsylvania, West New Jersey and Delaware, 1630-1707 > Part 17
USA > Pennsylvania > Narratives of early Pennsylvania, West New Jersey and Delaware, 1630-1707 > Part 17
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sions of the second assembly of Pennsylvania, and at the instance of that body issued a second Frame or Constitution, which lessened the number of representatives in the council and assembly.
Penn's first residence was at Chester, but with the develop- ment of the capital town he took up his abode in a house which had been especially erected for him there; he made occasional visits, however, to Pennsbury, a country-seat he was estab- lishing on the shores of the Delaware in Bucks County.
The movement of population to Pennsylvania under Penn was truly remarkable; in no previous period had it reached such proportions. Beginning with the spring of 1682 a steady stream of immigration had set in. More than thirty ships bringing to the province several thousand settlers arrived in the next twelve months, so that in a little while the older inhabitants of Swedish and Dutch origin were far outnumbered. A fringe of settlement, in some instances reaching several miles into the interior, notably along the tributary rivers and creeks, now extended, at the date of this Letter, along the Delaware from Lewes to above the Falls. The majority of the newcomers were English Quakers; but an initial wedge of Welsh settlement, which in the general advance was destined in after years to cleave the English area of population in twain, had found lodgment west of the falls of the Schuylkill.
This Letter, which is in Penn's characteristic, descriptive style, is very properly regarded as the most important and interesting of his series of Pennsylvania pamphlets. He had but recently returned from a general tour of his dominions and he had also been much occupied for some months in treating with the Indians for their lands. He was thus fully informed by personal observation of the events and conditions which he here so faithfully and vividly chronicles.
The original draft of the Letter is still preserved in the col- lection of the Historical Society of Pennsylvania. This manu-
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script is a folio of thirty pages, of which twenty-three pages (pp. 3-24 and 29-30) are in the handwriting of Penn himself; the first part (pp. 1-2) and the latter part (pp. 25-27) are in two other hands. The Letter was published the same year in which it was written, 1683, in London (a folio of ten pages), apparently in two editions, since to one copy is appended a list of property-owners in the city of Philadelphia, with num- bers affixed to the names designating the lots on the accompany- ing plan of the city.1 The next year, 1684, the Letter was pub- lished in three continental languages: in Dutch as Missive van William Penn? (two editions), at Amsterdam; in German,' as a translation of the latter, included in Beschreibung der in America neu-erfundenen Provinz Pensylvanien, issued at Ham- burg; and in French, as translated with the other pieces of Beschreibung, under the title, Recueil de Diverses pieces con- cernant la Pensylvanie,‘ printed at the Hague.
Reprints of the Letter-in some instances not in full-have appeared in Richard Blome's Present State of his Majesty's Isles and Territories in America (London, 1687), pp. 91-111; the Works of William Penn (London editions, 1726, 1771, 1782, 1825); Edward Rack, Caspipina's Letters (Bath and London, 1777), I. 154-209; Robert Proud's History of Penn- sylvania (Philadelphia, 1797), I. 246-264; Thomas Clarkson's Memoirs of William Penn (London, 1813), I. 375-406; Samuel Hazard's Register of Pennsylvania (Philadelphia, 1828), I. 433-
" This plan is reproduced in the present volume, opposite p. 242.
' A contemporary manuscript copy in Dutch from the Könneken manu- scripts of the Ministerial Archives at Lubeck, Germany, is reproduced in facsimile, at pp. 10-19 of Julius F. Sachse's Letters Relating to the Settlement of German- town (Philadelphia, 1903).
' Another early German translation in manuscript was found by Professor Marion Dexter Learned, in 1909, in the Royal Privy Archives in Munich, and printed by him in German American Annals, new series, VIII. 51-75, (March and April, 1910); also by Emil Heuser in Pennsylvanien im 17. Jahrhundert und die ausgewanderten Pfälzer in England (Neustadt a. H., 1910).
'See English translation by Samuel W. Pennypacker in Pennsylvania Magasine, VI. 311-328 (1882).
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437; Samuel M. Janney's Life of William Penn (Philadelphia, 1852), pp. 227-238; Thompson Westcott's History of Philadel- phia (Sunday Dispatch) chapter xxv .; and Old South Leaflets, no. 171. A facsimile of the original English edition of 1683 was produced by James Coleman, of London, in 1881, and from this the text which follows is taken.
A. C. M.
LETTER FROM WILLIAM PENN TO THE COMMITTEE OF THE FREE SOCIETY OF TRADERS, 1683
A Letter from William Penn, Proprietary and Governour of Pennsylvania in America, to the Committee of the Free Society of Traders of that Province, residing in London.
Containing a General Description of the said Province, its Soil, Air, Water, Seasons and Produce, both Natural and Arti- ficial, and the good Encrease thereof, of the Natives or Abor- igines, their Language, Customs and Manners, Diet, Houses or Wigwams, Liberality, easie way of Living, Physick, Burial, Religion, Sacrifices and Cantico, Festivals, Govern- ment, and their order in Council upon Treaties for Land, etc., their Justice upon Evil Doers, of the first Planters, the Dutch, etc., and the present Condition and Settlement of the said Province, and Courts of Justice, etc.
To which is added, An Account of the City of Philadelphia, newly laid out, its Scituation between two Navigable Rivers, Delaware and Skulkill, with a Portraiture or Plat-form thereof, wherein the Purchasers Lots are distinguished by certain Numbers inserted, directing to a Catalogue of the said Purchasors Names, and the Prosperous and Advan- tagious Settlements of the Society aforesaid, within the said City and Country, etc.
Printed and Sold by Andrew Sowle,1 at the Crooked-Billet in Holloway-Lane in Shoreditch, and at several Stationers in London, 1683.
1 Andrew Sowle (1628-1695) was the Quaker printer and bookseller in Lon- don for the Friends of England. He had just removed in this year, 1683, to the above location from his old shop in Devonshire New Building, without Bishops- gate. Upon his retirement in 1691 his daughter, Tacie Sowle, carried on the business. Another daughter, Elizabeth, married her father's apprentice, William Bradford (1663-1752), who brought his wife over to Pennsylvania, and in 1685 established his printing-press in Philadelphia, the first in America south of New England and north of Mexico.
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My Kind Friends;
The Kindness of yours by the Ship Thomas and Anne, doth much oblige me; for by it I perceive the Interest you take in my Health and Reputation, and the prosperous Beginnings of this Province, which you are so kind as to think may much depend upon them. In return of which, I have sent you a long Letter, and yet containing as brief an Account of My self, and the Affairs of this Province, as I have been able to make.
In the first place, I take notice of the News you sent me, whereby I find some Persons have had so little Wit, and so much Malice, as to report my Death, and to mend the matter, dead a Jesuit too. One might have reasonably hop'd, that this Distance, like Death, would have been a protection against Spite and Envy; and indeed, Absence being a kind of Death, ought alike to secure the Name of the Absent as the Dead; because they are equally unable as such to defend themselves: But they that intend Mischief, do not use to follow good Rules to effect it. However, to the great Sorrow and Shame of the Inventors, I am still Alive, and No Jesuit, and I thank God, very well: And without Injustice to the Authors of this, I may venture to infer, That they that wilfully and falsly Re- port, would have been glad it had been So. But I perceive, many frivolous and Idle Stories have been Invented since my Departure from England, which perhaps at this time are no more Alive, than I am Dead.
But if I have been Unkindly used by some I left behind me, I found Love and Respect enough where I came; an universal kind Welcome, every sort in their way. For here are some of several Nations, as well as divers Judgments: Nor were the Natives wanting in this, for their Kings, Queens and Great Men both visited and presented me; to whom I made suitable Returns, etc.
For the Province, the general Condition of it take as fol- loweth.
I. The Country it self in its Soyl, Air, Water, Seasons and Produce both Natural and Artificial is not to be despised. The Land containeth divers sorts of Earth, as Sand Yellow and Black, Poor and Rich: also Gravel both Loomy and Dusty; and in some places a fast fat Earth, like to our best Vales in England, especially by Inland Brooks and Rivers, God in
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his Wisdom having ordered it so, that the Advantages of the Country are divided, the Back-Lands being generally three to one Richer than those that lie by Navigable Waters. We have much of another Soyl, and that is a black Hasel Mould, upon a Stony or Rocky bottom.
II. The Air is sweet and clear, the Heavens serene, like the South-parts of France, rarely Overcast; and as the Woods come by numbers of People to be more clear'd, that it self will Refine.
III. The Waters are generally good, for the Rivers and Brooks have mostly Gravel and Stony Bottoms, and in Number hardly credible. We have also Mineral Waters, that operate in the same manner with Barnet1 -and North-hall,' not two Miles from Philadelphia.
IV. For the Seasons of the Year, having by God's goodness now lived over the Coldest and Hottest, that the Oldest Liver in the Province can remember, I can say something to an Eng- lish Understanding.
1st, Of the Fall, for then I came in: I found it from the 24th of October, to the beginning of December, as we have it usually in England in September, or rather like an English mild Spring. From December to the beginning of the Moneth called March, we had sharp Frosty Weather; not foul, thick, black Weather, as our North-East Winds bring with them in England; but a Skie as clear as in Summer, and the Air dry, cold, piercing and hungry; yet I remember not, that I wore more Clothes than in England. The reason of this Cold is given from the great Lakes that are fed by the Fountains of Canada. The Winter before was as mild, scarce any Ice at all; while this for a few dayes Froze up our great River Dela- ware. From that Moneth to the Moneth called June, we en- joy'd a sweet Spring, no Gusts, but gentle Showers, and a fine Skie. Yet this I observe, that the Winds here as there, are more Inconstant Spring and Fall, upon that turn of Nature, than in Summer or Winter. From thence to this present
1 Chipping Barnet, or High Barnet, a town in Hertfordshire, eleven miles north of London, having on the town common a mineral spring, the water of which contains a considerable portion of calcareous glauber, with a small portion of sea salt.
? Northaw, in Hertfordshire, about four miles northeast of Chipping Barnet, has a fine saline spring, formerly much resorted to.
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Moneth, which endeth the Summer (commonly speaking) we have had extraordinary Heats, yet mitigated sometimes by Cool Breezese. The Wind that ruleth the Summer-season, is the South-West; but Spring, Fall and Winter, 'tis rare to want the wholesome North Wester seven dayes together: And what- ever Mists, Fogs or Vapours foul the Heavens by Easterly or Southerly Winds, in two Hours time are blown away; the one is alwayes followed by the other: A Remedy that seems to have a peculiar Providence in it to the Inhabitants; the multi- tude of Trees, yet standing, being liable to retain Mists and Vapours, and yet not one quarter so thick as I expected.
V. The Natural Produce of the Country, of Vegetables, is Trees, Fruits, Plants, Flowers. The Trees of most note are, the black Walnut, Cedar, Cyprus, Chestnut, Poplar, Gumwood, Hickery, Sassafrax, Ash, Beech and Oak of divers sorts, as Red, White and Black; Spanish Chestnut and Swamp, the most durable of all: of All which there is plenty for the use of man.
The Fruits that I find in the Woods, are the White and Black Mulbery, Chestnut, Wallnut, Plumbs, Strawberries, Cran- berries, Hurtleberries and Grapes of divers sorts. The great Red Grape (now ripe) called by Ignorance, the Fox-Grape (be- cause of the Relish it hath with unskilful Palates) is in it self an extraordinary Grape, and by Art doubtless may be Culti- vated to an excellent Wine, if not so sweet, yet little inferior to the Frontimack, as it is not much unlike in taste, Ruddiness set aside, which in such things, as well as Mankind, differs the case much. There is a white kind of Muskedel, and a little black Grape, like the cluster-Grape of England, not yet so ripe as the other; but they tell me, when Ripe, sweeter, and that they only want skilful Vinerons to make good use of them: I intend to venture on it with my French man' this season, who shews some knowledge in those things. Here are also Peaches,
1 Andrew Doz, Penn's French vigneron, with his wife Ann, were among the Huguehot exiles naturalized by royal letters patent at Westminster, London, March 8, 1682. They were brought over to Pennsylvania that same year, and he was placed in charge of Penn's vineyard, on the east bank of the Schuylkill, north of Fairmount, in the manor of Springettsbury, on what is now Lemon Hill, in Fairmount Park, Philadelphia. "Be regardfull to Andrew Doze the french man," writes Penn, in 1685, "he is hott, but I think honest and his wife a pretty
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and very good, and in great quantities, not an Indian Plan- tation without them; but whether naturally here at first, I know not, however one may have them by Bushels for little; they make a pleasant Drink and I think not inferior to any Peach you have in England, except the true Newington. 'Tis disputable with me, whether it be best to fall to Fining the Fruits of the Country, especially the Grape, by the care and skill of Art, or send for forreign Stems and Sets, already good and approved. It seems most reasonable to believe, that not only a thing groweth best, where it naturally grows; but will hardly be equalled by another Species of the same kind, that doth not naturally grow there. But to solve the doubt, I intend, if God give me Life, to try both, and hope the consequence will be as good Wine as any European Countries of the same Latitude do yield.
VI. The Artificial Produce of the Country, is Wheat, Bar- ley, Oats, Rye, Pease, Beans, Squashes, Pumkins, Water- Melons, Mus-Melons, and all Herbs and Roots that our Gar- dens in England usually bring forth.1
VII. Of living Creatures; Fish, Fowl, and the Beasts of the Woods, here are divers sorts, some for Food and Profit, and some for Profit only: For Food as well as Profit, the Elk,
woman in her disposition." The vineyard with 200 acres of land was patented to Doz in 1690, he paying the Proprietor 100 vine cuttings yearly on demand. His grandson, Andrew Doz, was a well-known citizen of Philadelphia. The Vine- yard Hill was occupied from 1770 to 1798 by "The Hills," the country mansion of Robert Morris, the Financier of the American Revolution, and later by the Lemon Hill mansion which yet remains.
1 "Note, that Edward Jones, Son-in-Law to Thomas Wynn, living on the Sckulkil, had with ordinary Cultivation, for one Grain of English Barley, seventy Stalks and Ears of Barley; And 'tis common in this Country from one Bushel sown, to reap forty, often fifty, and sometimes sixty. And three Pecks of Wheat sows an Acre here."
The above foot-note appears in the original text. Dr. Edward Jones (1645- 1737), from near Bala, in Merionethshire, Wa' first company of Welsh settlers, which, sailing arrived in the Schuylkill River in August, 16€ on a tract of 5,000 acres of land, stretching from Tobo . of Merion Meeting House (built 1695), in the Montgomery County. Dr. Thomas Wynne ( not Flintshire, Wales, came over to Pennsylvania i Penn, in 1682. He was speaker of the first p delphia.
mentioned in 1683!
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as big as a small Ox, Deer bigger than ours, Beaver, Racoon, Rabbits, Squirrels, and some eat young Bear, and commend it. Of Fowl of the Land, there is the Turkey (Forty and Fifty Pound weight) which is very great; Phesants, Heath-Birds, Pidgeons and Partridges in abundance. Of the Water, the Swan, Goose, white and gray, Brands, Ducks, Teal, also the Snipe and Curloe, and that in great Numbers; but the Duck and Teal excel, nor so good have I ever eat in other Countries. Of Fish, there is the Sturgeon, Herring, Rock, Shad, Catshead, Sheepshead, Ele, Smelt, Pearch, Roach; and in Inland Rivers, Trout, some say Salmon, above the Falls. Of Shelfish, we have Oysters, Crabbs, Cockles, Concks, and Mushels; some Oysters six Inches long, and one sort of Cockles as big as the Stewing Oysters, they make a rich Broth. The Creatures for Profit only by Skin or Fur, and that are natural to these parts, are the Wild Cat, Panther, Otter, Wolf, Fox, Fisher, Minx, Musk-Rat; and of the Water, the Whale for Oyl, of which we have good store, and two Companies of Whalers, whose Boats are built, will soon begin their Work,1 which hath the appear- ance of a considerable Improvement. To say nothing of our reasonable Hopes of good Cod in the Bay.
VIII. We have no want of Horses, and some are very good and shapely enough; two Ships have been freighted to Bar- badoes with Horses and Pipe-Staves, since my coming in. Here is also Plenty of Cow-Cattle, and some Sheep; the People Plow mostly with Oxen.
IX. There are divers Plants that not only the Indians tell us, but we have had occasion to prove by Swellings, Burnings, Cuts, etc., that they are of great Virtue, suddenly curing the Patient: and for smell, I have observed several, especially one, the wild Mirtle; the other I know not what to call, but are most fragrant.
X. The Woods are adorned with lovely Flowers, for colour, greatness, figure, and variety: I have seen the Gardens of London best stored with that sort of Beauty, but think they may be improved by our Woods: I have sent a few to a Person of Quality this Year for a tryal.
Thus much of the Country, next of the Natives or Abor- igines.
" The whaling activity centred about the entrance to Delaware Bay.
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XI. The Natives I shall consider in their Persons, Language, Manners, Religion and Government, with my sence of their Original. For their Persons, they are generally tall, streight, well-built, and of singular Proportion; they tread strong and clever, and mostly walk with a lofty Chin: Of Complexion, Black, but by design, as the Gypsies in England: They grease themselves with Bears-fat clarified, and using no defence against Sun or Weather, their skins must needs be swarthy; Their Eye is little and black, not unlike a straight-look't Jew: The thick Lip and flat Nose, so frequent with the East-Indians and Blacks, are not common to them; for I have seen as comely European-like faces among them of both, as on your side the Sea; and truly an Italian Complexion hath not much more of the White, and the Noses of several of them have as much of the Roman.
XII. Their Language is lofty, yet narrow, but like the Hebrew; in Signification full, like Short-hand in writing; one word serveth in the place of three, and the rest are supplied by the Understanding of the Hearer: Imperfect in their Tenses, wanting in their Moods, Participles, Adverbs, Conjunctions, Interjections: I have made it my business to understand it, that I might not want an Interpreter on any occasion: And I must say, that I know not a Language spoken in Europe, that hath words of more sweetness or greatness, in Accent and Em- phasis, than theirs; for Instance, Octorockon,1 Rancocas,' Ozicton,' Shakamacon,' Poquerim, all of which are names of Places, and have Grandeur in them: Of words of Sweetness, Anna, is Mother, Issimus, a Brother, Netap, Friend, usque ozet, very good; pone, Bread, metse, eat, matta, no, hatta, to have, payo, to come; Sepassen," Passijon, the Names of Places;
1 Doubtless Octorara Creek, an eastern affluent of the Susquehanna.
' Rancocas Creek, in Burlington County, New Jersey.
" Oricton, in Penn's handwriting in the original manuscript, i. e., Orectons, now Biles Island, was near to the Falls of Delaware, and to Penn's country-seat, Pennsbury, in Bucks County.
'Shackamaxon, now in Kensington, Philadelphia, where Penn lived in the house of Thomas Fairman, early in 1683, and where he is said to have held treaties with the Indians.
· Sepassing Land was the name applied to that part of what is now Bucks County which included Penn's manor and country-seat of Pennsbury.
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Tamane,1 Secane,' Menanse, Secatereus,' are the names of Per- sons. If one ask them for anything they have not, they will answer, mattá ne hatta, which to translate is, not I have, in- stead of I have not.
XIII. Of their Customs and Manners there is much to be said; I will begin with Children. So soon as they are born, they wash them in Water, and while very young, and in cold Weather to chuse, they Plunge them in the Rivers to harden and embolden them. Having wrapt them in a Clout, they lay them on a straight thin Board, a little more than the length and breadth of the Child, and swadle it fast upon the Board to make it straight; wherefore all Indians have flat Heads; and thus they carry them at their Backs. The Children will go very young, at nine Moneths commonly; they wear only a small Clout round their Waste, till they are big; if Boys, they go a Fishing till ripe for the Woods, which is about Fifteen; then they Hunt, and after having given some Proofs of their Manhood, by a good return of Skins, they may Marry, else it is a shame to think of a Wife. The Girls stay with their Mothers, and help to hoe the Ground, plant Corn and carry Burthens; and they do well to use them to that Young, they must do when they are Old; for the Wives are the true Ser- vants of their Husbands: otherwise the Men are very affec- tionate to them.
XIV. When the Young Women are fit for Marriage, they wear something upon their Heads for an Advertisement, but so as their Faces are hardly to be seen, but when they please: The Age they Marry at, if Women, is about thirteen and four- teen; if Men, seventeen and eighteen; they are rarely elder.
1 Tamany is the form in the original manuscript draft of the Letter in Penn's own handwriting, but other variations, as appearing in Indian deeds and official documents for the period, 1683-1697, are Tamene, Tamine, Tamina, Tamanee, Tamanen, Tamanend, and Taminent. During the above period, to which his authentic history is confined, he was one of the leading chiefs of the Lenni Lenape for the region of Bucks County, Pennsylvania.
' Siccane, the form in Penn's hand in the original draft of the Letter, but usually Secane. He was one of the two chiefs granting the region between Schuyl- kill River and Chester Creek to Penn in 1683. In 1685 Penn writes that he sends a cap as a present for "Shikane."
" Secatareus, in the original manuscript draft of the Letter, in Penn's hand. To "Secetareus," Penn was sending a cap as a present in 1685.
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XV. Their Houses are Mats, or Barks of Trees set on Poles, in the fashion of an English Barn, but out of the power of the Winds, for they are hardly higher than a Man; they lie on Reeds or Grass. In Travel they lodge in the Woods about a great Fire, with the Mantle of Duffills they wear by day, wrapt about them, and a few Boughs stuck round them.
XVI. Their Diet is Maze, or Indian Corn, divers ways pre- pared: sometimes Roasted in the Ashes, sometimes beaten and Boyled with Water, which they call Homine; they also make Cakes, not unpleasant to eat: They have likewise several sorts of Beans and Pease that are good Nourishment; and the Woods and Rivers are their Larder.
XVII. If an European comes to see them, or calls for Lodg- ing at their House or Wigwam they give him the best place and first cut. If they come to visit us, they salute us with an Itah which is as much as to say, Good be to you, and set them down, which is mostly on the Ground close to their Heels, their Legs upright; may be they speak not a word more, but observe all Passages: If you give them any thing to eat or drink, well, for they will not ask; and be it little or much, if it be with Kind- ness, they are well pleased, else they go away sullen, but say nothing.
XVIII. They are great Concealers of their own Resent- ments, brought to it, I believe, by the Revenge that hath been practised among them; in either of these, they are not ex- ceeded by the Italians. A Tragical Instance fell out since I came into the Country; A King's Daughter thinking her self slighted by her Husband, in suffering another Woman to lie down between them, rose up, went out, pluck't a Root out of the Ground, and ate it, upon which she immediately dyed; and for which, last Week he made an Offering to her Kindred for Attonement and liberty of Marriage; as two others did to the Kindred of their Wives, that dyed a natural Death: For till Widdowers have done so, they must not marry again. Some of the young Women are said to take undue liberty before Marriage for a Portion; but when marryed, chaste; when with Child, they know their Husbands no more, till delivered; and during their Moneth, they touch no Meat, they eat, but with a Stick, least they should defile it; nor do their Husbands fre- quent them, till that time be expired.
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