USA > Delaware > Narratives of early Pennsylvania, West New Jersey and Delaware, 1630-1707 > Part 18
USA > New Jersey > Narratives of early Pennsylvania, West New Jersey and Delaware, 1630-1707 > Part 18
USA > Pennsylvania > Narratives of early Pennsylvania, West New Jersey and Delaware, 1630-1707 > Part 18
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37
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XIX. But in Liberality they excell, nothing is too good for their friend; give them a fine Gun, Coat, or other thing, it may pass twenty hands, before it sticks; light of Heart, strong Affections, but soon spent; the most merry Creatures that live, Feast and Dance perpetually; they never have much, nor want much: Wealth circulateth like the Blood, all parts par- take; and though none shall want what another hath, yet exact Observers of Property. Some Kings have sold, others pre- sented me with several parcels of Land; the Pay or Presents I made them, were not hoarded by the particular Owners, but the neighbouring Kings and their Clans being present when the Goods were brought out, the Parties chiefly concerned con- sulted, what and to whom they should give them? To every King then, by the hands of a Person for that work appointed, is a proportion sent, so sorted and folded, and with that Grav- ity, that is admirable. Then that King sub-divideth it in like manner among his Dependents, they hardly leaving themselves an Equal share with one of their Subjects: and be it on such occasions, at Festivals, or at their common Meals, the Kings distribute, and to themselves last. They care for little, be- cause they want but little; and the Reason is, a little con- tents them: In this they are sufficiently revenged on us; if they are ignorant of our Pleasures, they are also free from our Pains. They are not disquieted with Bills of Lading and Ex- change, nor perplexed with Chancery-Suits and Exchequer- Reckonings. We sweat and toil to live; their pleasure feeds them, I mean, their Hunting, Fishing and Fowling, and this Table is spread every where; they eat twice a day, Morning and Evening; their Seats and Table are the Ground. Since the European came into these parts, they are grown great lovers of strong Liquors, Rum especially, and for it exchange the richest of their Skins and Furs: If they are heated with Liquors, they are restless till they have enough to sleep; that is their cry, Some more, and I will go to sleep; but when Drunk, one of the most wretchedst Spectacles in the world.
XX. In sickness impatient to be cured, and for it give any thing, especially for their Children, to whom they are extreamly natural; they drink at those times a Teran or Decoction of some Roots in spring Water; and if they eat any flesh, it must be of the Female of any Creature; If they dye, they bury them
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with their Apparel, be they Men or Women, and the nearest of Kin fling in something precious with them, as a token of their Love: Their Mourning is blacking of their faces, which they continue for a year; They are choice of the Graves of their Dead; for least they should be lost by time, and fall to com- mon use, they pick off the Grass that grows upon them, and heap up the fallen Earth with great care and exactness.
XXI. These poor People are under a dark Night in things relating to Religion, to be sure, the Tradition of it; yet they believe a God and Immortality, without the help of Meta- physicks; for they say, There is a great King that made them, who dwells in a glorious Country to the Southward of them, and that the Souls of the good shall go thither, where they shall live again. Their Worship consists of two parts, Sacrifice and Cantico. Their Sacrifice is their first Fruits; the first and fattest Buck they kill, goeth to the fire, where he is all burnt with a Mournful Ditty of him that performeth the Ceremony, but with such marvellous Fervency and Labour of Body, that he will even sweat to a foam. The other part is their Cantico, performed by round-Dances, sometimes Words, sometimes Songs, then Shouts, two being in the middle that begin, and by Singing and Drumming on a Board direct the Chorus: Their Postures in the Dance are very Antick and differing, but all keep measure. This is done with equal Earnestness and Labour, but great appearance of Joy. In the Fall, when the Corn cometh in, they begin to feast one another; there have been two great Festivals already, to which all come that will: I was at one my self; their Entertainment was a green Seat by a Spring, under some shady Trees, and twenty Bucks, with hot Cakes of new Corn, both Wheat and Beans, which they make up in a square form, in the leaves of the Stem, and bake them in the Ashes: And after that they fell to Dance, But they that go, must carry a small Present in their Money, it may be six Pence, which is made of the Bone of a Fish; the black is with them as Gold, the white, Silver; they call it all Wampum.
XXII. Their Government is by Kings, which they call Sachema, and those by Succession, but always of the Mothers side; for Instance, the Children of him that is now King, will not succeed, but his Brother by the Mother, or the Children
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of his Sister, whose Sons (and after them the Children of her Daughters) will reign; for no Woman inherits; the Reason they render for this way of Descent, is, that their Issue may not be spurious.
XXIII. Every King hath his Council, and that consists of all the Old and Wise men of his Nation, which perhaps is two hundred People: nothing of Moment is undertaken, be it War, Peace, Selling of Land or Traffick, without advising with them; and which is more, with the Young Men too. 'Tis admirable to consider, how Powerful the Kings are, and yet how they move by the Breath of their People. I have had occasion to be in Council with them upon Treaties for Land, and to adjust the terms of Trade; their Order is thus: The King sits in the middle of an half Moon, and hath his Coun- cil, the Old and Wise on each hand; behind them, or at a little distance, sit the younger Fry, in the same figure. Having consulted and resolved their business, the King ordered one of them to speak to me; he stood up, came to me, and in the Name of his King saluted me, then took me by the hand, and told me, That he was ordered by his King to speak to me, and that now it was not he, but the King that spoke, because what he should say, was the King's mind. He first pray'd me, To excuse them that they had not complyed with me the last time; he feared, there might be some fault in the Interpreter, being neither Indian nor English; besides, it was the Indian Custom to deliberate, and take up much time in Council, before they resolve; and that if the Young People and Owners of the Land had been as ready as he, I had not met with so much delay. Having thus introduced his matter, he fell to the Bounds of the Land they had agreed to dispose of, and the Price, (which now is little and dear, that which would have bought twenty Miles, not buying now two.) During the time that this Person spoke, not a man of them was observed to whisper or smile; the Old, Grave, the Young, Reverend in their Deportment; they do speak little, but fervently, and with Elegancy: I have never seen more natural Sagacity, con- sidering them without the help, (I was agoing to say, the spoil) of Tradition; and he will deserve the Name of Wise, that Out- wits them in any Treaty about a thing they understand. When the Purchase was agreed, great Promises past between
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us of Kindness and good Neighbourhood, and that the Indians and English must live in Love, as long as the Sun gave light. Which done, another made a Speech to the Indians, in the Name of all the Sachamakers or Kings, first to tell them what was done; next, to charge and command them, To Love the Christians, and particularly live in Peace with me, and the People under my Government: That many Governours had been in the River, but that no Governour had come himself to live and stay here before; and having now such a one that had treated them well, they should never do him or his any wrong. At every sentence of which they shouted, and said, Amen, in their way.
XXIV. The Justice they have is Pecuniary: In case of any Wrong or evil Fact, be it Murther it self, they Attone by Feasts and Presents of their Wampon, which is proportioned to the quality of the Offence or Person injured, or of the Sex they are of: for in case they kill a Woman, they pay double, and the Reason they render, is, That she breedeth Children, which Men cannot do. "Tis rare that they fall out, if Sober; and if Drunk, they forgive it, saying, It was the Drink, and not the Man, that abused them.
XXV. We have agreed, that in all Differences between us, Six of each side shall end the matter: Don't abuse them, but let them have Justice, and you win them: The worst is, that they are the worse for the Christians, who have propagated their Vices, and yielded them Tradition for ill, and not for good things. But as low an Ebb as they are at, and as glorious as their Condition looks, the Christians have not out-liv'd their sight with all their Pretensions to an higher Manifestation: What good then might not a good People graft, where there is so distinct a Knowledge left between Good and Evil? I be- seech God to incline the Hearts of all that come into these parts, to out-live the Knowledge of the Natives, by a fixt Obedience to their greater Knowledge of the Will of God, for it were miserable indeed for us to fall under the just censure of the poor Indian Conscience, while we make profession of things so far transcending.
XXVI. For their Original, I am ready to believe them of the Jewish Race, I mean, of the stock of the Ten Tribes, and that for the following Reasons; first, They were to go to a
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Land not planted or known, which to be sure Asia and Africa were, if not Europe; and he that intended that extraordinary Judgment upon them, might make the Passage not uneasie to them, as it is not impossible in it self, from the Easter-most parts of Asia, to the Wester-most of America. In the next place, I find them of like Countenance and their Children of so lively Resemblance, that a man would think himself in Dukes-place' or Berry-street1 in London, when he seeth them. But this is not all, they agree in Rites, they reckon by Moons: they offer their first Fruits, they have a kind of Feast of Taber- nacles; they are said to lay their Altar upon twelve Stones; their Mourning a year, Customs of Women, with many things that do not now occur.
So much for the Natives, next the Old Planters will be con- sidered in this Relation, before I come to our Colony, and the Concerns of it.
XXVII. The first Planters in these parts were the Dutch, and soon after them the Sweeds and Finns. The Dutch ap- plied themselves to Traffick, the Sweeds and Finns to Hus- bandry. There were some Disputes between them some years, the Dutch looking upon them as Intruders upon their Purchase and Possession, which was finally ended in the Surrender made by John Rizeing, the Sweeds Governour, to Peter Sty- vesant, Governour for the States of Holland, Anno 1655.
XXVIII. The Dutch inhabit mostly those parts of the Province, that lie upon or near to the Bay, and the Sweeds the Freshes of the River Delaware. There is no need of giving any Description of them, who are better known there then here; but they are a plain, strong, industrious People, yet have made no great progress in Culture or propagation of fruit-Trees, as if they desired rather to have enough, than Plenty or Traffick. But I presume, the Indians made them the more careless, by furnishing them with the means of Profit, to wit, Skins and Furs, for Rum, and such strong Liquors. They kindly received me, as well as the English, who were few, before the People concerned with me came among them; I must needs commend their Respect to Authority, and kind Behaviour to the English; they do not degenerate from the Old friendship between both Kingdoms. As they are People
" Then as now these streets were in the centre of a Jewish quarter.
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proper and strong of Body, so they have fine Children, and almost every house full; rare to find one of them without three or four Boys, and as many Girls; some six, seven and eight Sons: And I must do them that right, I see few Young men more sober and laborious.
XXIX. The Dutch have a Meeting-place for Religious Worship at New Castle, and the Sweedes three, one at Chris- tina, one at Tenecum,1 and one at Wicoco, within half a Mile of this Town.
XXX. There rests, that I speak of the Condition we are in, and what Settlement we have made, in which I will be as short as I can; for I fear, and not without reason, that I have tryed your Patience with this long Story. The Country lieth bounded on the East, by the River and Bay of Delaware, and Eastern Sea; it hath the Advantage of many Creeks or Rivers rather, that run into the main River or Bay; some Navigable for great Ships, some for small Craft: Those of most Eminency are Christina, Brandywine, Skilpot,' and Skulkill; any one of which have room to lay up the Royal Navy of England, there being from four to eight Fathom Water.
XXXI. The lesser Creeks or Rivers, yet convenient for Sloops and Ketches of good Burthen, are Lewis, Mespilion,' Cedar, Dover,' Cranbrook," Feversham," and Georges,' below, and Chichester,8 Chester, Toacawny,' Pemmapecka, Port- quessin, Neshimenck and Pennberry in the Freshes; many lesser that admit Boats and Shallops. Our People are mostly settled upon the upper Rivers, which are pleasant and sweet, and generally bounded with good Land. The Planted part of the Province and Territories is cast into six Counties, Phila- delphia, Buckingham,1º Chester, New Castle, Kent and Sussex,
1 Tinicum Island. Wicaco was the Swedish settlement, at what is now Front Street and Washington Avenue, Philadelphia.
' Shelpot Creek. " Mispillion Creek.
'Now Murderkill Creek.
" Now St. Jones Creek, in Kent County, Delaware.
" Not definitely identified, but probably between St. Jones and St. Georges Creek, in Kent County, Delaware. Feversham is a place-name in the county of Kent, England, not far from Penn's home in Sussex.
7 St. Georges Creek. 8 Now Marcus Creek.
·Tacony Creek, Philadelphia County. The next three are Pennypack, Poquessing, and Neshaminy Creeks, respectively:
10 Bucks County.
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containing about Four Thousand Souls. Two General As- semblies have been held, and with such Concord and Dispatch, that they sate but three Weeks, and at least seventy Laws were past without one Dissent in any material thing. But of this more hereafter, being yet Raw and New in our Geer: However, I cannot forget their singular Respect to me in this Infancy of things, who by their own private Expences so early consider'd Mine for the Publick, as to present me with an Impost upon certain Goods Imported and Exported: Which after my Ac- knowledgements of their Affection, I did as freely Remit to the Province and the Traders to it. And for the well Govern- ment of the said Counties, Courts of Justice are establisht in every County, with proper Officers, as Justices, Sheriffs, Clarks, Constables, etc., which Courts are held every two Moneths: But to prevent Law-Suits, there are three Peace-makers chosen by every County-Court, in the nature of common Arbitrators, to hear and end Differences betwixt man and man; and Spring and Fall there is an Orphan's Court in each County, to inspect, and regulate the Affairs of Orphans and Widdows.
XXXII. Philadelphia, the Expectation of those that are concern'd in this Province, is at last laid out to the great Con- tent of those here, that are any wayes Interested therein; The Scituation is a Neck of Land, and lieth between two Navigable Rivers, Delaware and Skulkill, whereby it hath two Fronts upon the Water, each a Mile, and two from River to River. Delaware is a glorious River, but the Skulkill being an hundred Miles Boatable above the Falls, and its Course North-East toward the Fountain of Susquahannah (that tends to the Heart of the Province, and both sides our own) it is like to be a great part of the Settlement of this Age. I say little of the Town it self, because a Plat-form' will be shewn you by my Agent, in which those who are Purchasers of me, will find their Names and Interests: But this I will say for the good Provi- dence of God, that of all the many Places I have seen in the World, I remember not one better seated; so that it seems to me to have been appointed for a Town, whether we regard the Rivers, or the conveniency of the Coves, Docks, Springs, the
" The map or plan of Philadelphia made by the surveyor general Thomas Holme, in 1683, and first published the same year at the end of this pamphlet, as A Portraiture of the City of Philadelphia. See it, opposite p. 242.
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loftiness and soundness of the Land and the Air, held by the People of these parts to be very good. It is advanced within less than a Year to about four Score Houses and Cottages, such as they are, where Merchants and Handicrafts, are following their Vocations as fast as they can, while the Country-men are close at their Farms; Some of them got a little Winter-Corn in the Ground last Season, and the generality have had a handsom Summer-Crop, and are preparing for their Winter-Corn. They reaped their Barley this Year in the Moneth called May; the Wheat in the Moneth following; so that there is time in these parts for another Crop of divers Things before the Winter- Season. We are daily in hopes of Shipping to add to our Num- ber; for blessed be God, here is both Room and Accommoda- tion for them; the Stories of our Necessity being either the Fear of our Friends, or the Scare Crows of our Enemies; for the greatest hardship we have suffered, hath been Salt-Meat, which by Fowl in Winter, and Fish in Summer, together with some Poultery, Lamb, Mutton, Veal, and plenty of Venison the best part of the year, hath been made very passable. I bless God, I am fully satisfied with the Country and Enter- tainment I can get in it; for I find that particular Content which hath alwayes attended me, where God in his Providence hath made it my place and service to reside. You cannot imagin, my Station can be at present free of more than ordinary business, and as such, I may say, It is a troublesom Work; but the Method things are putting in, will facilitate the Charge, and give an easier Motion to the Administration of Affairs. However, as it is some mens Duty to plow, some to sow, some to water, and some to reap; so it is the Wisdom as well as Duty of a man, to yield to the mind of Providence, and chearfully, as well as carefully imbrace and follow the Guidance of it.
XXXIII. For your particular Concern, I might entirely .refer you to the Letters of the President of the Society;1 but
1 The Free Society of Traders in Pennsylvania, a joint stock company, which had been planned and discussed in London throughout the year 1681, and of which great results were expected, received a liberal charter from Penn in March, 1682. Over two hundred persons in the British Isles, largely from among those most interested in the new colony, became subscribers to the stock, which had reached £10,000 in June, 1682. A purchase of 20,000 acres of land in the province was made. The first officers were Dr. Nicholas More, of London.
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this I will venture to say, Your Provincial Settlements both within and without the Town, for Scituation and Soil, are with- out Exception; Your City-Lot is an whole Street, and one side of a Street, from River to River, containing near one hundred Acers, not easily valued, which is besides your four hundred Acers in the City Liberties, part of your twenty thousand Acers in the Countery. Your Tannery hath such plenty of Bark, the Saw-Mill for Timber, the place of the Glass-house so conveniently posted for Water-carriage, the City-Lot for a Dock, and the Whalery1 for a sound and fruitful Bank, and the Town Lewis by it to help your People, that by Gods bless- ing the Affairs of the Society will naturally grow in their Repu- tation and Profit. I am sure I have not turned my back upon any Offer that tended to its Prosperity; and though I am ill at Projects, I have sometimes put in for a Share with her Officers, to countenance and advance her Interest. You are already informed what is fit for you further to do, whatsoever tends to the Promotion of Wine, and to the Manufacture of Linnen in these parts, I cannot but wish you to promote it; and the French People are most likely in both respects to answer that design: To that end, I would advise you to send for some
president, at a salary of £150 per annum, John Simcock, of Cheshire, deputy, and James Claypoole, of London, treasurer, the latter two at £100 per annum. These officers removed to Pennsylvania, the president with about fifty servants of the society arriving at Philadelphia in the ship Geoffrey in October, 1682. The principal trading house and offices were erected on the Society tract in the infant city, on the west side of Front Street-the main street-near the south side of Dock Creek, and at the foot of Society Hill, so named from the location of the company. Thence the society's city tract of about one hundred acres extended westerly in a tier of lots from Front Street on the Delaware to the Schuylkill, flanked by Spruce Street on the north and Pine Street on the south. This main station was the centre for the various activities of the society. From here whalers went fishing for whales to the entrance of Delaware Bay, preparing their oil and whalebone on the shore near Lewes. At Frankford a grist-mill and a saw-mill on Tacony Creek, a tannery, brick kilns, and glass-works were conducted. Car- goes of English goods were brought in and sold at & profit, but collections being difficult, and the officers tending to look after their private affairs to the detriment of those of the society, it suffered severe losses, and in a few years practically went out of business except as an owner of real estate.
1 " Advise what commodity whale oyl may be with you [in Barbados] for we [the Free Society of Traders] have 24 men fishing in the [Delaware] bay that are like to make a good Voyage." James Claypool's letter, dated Philadelphia, 10 Mo (December) 2, 1683.
-
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[1683
Thousands of Plants out of France, with some able Vinerons, and People of the other Vocation: But because I believe you have been entertained with this and some other profitable Subjects by your President, I shall add no more, but to assure you, that I am heartily inclined to advance your just Interest, and that you will always find me
Your Kind Cordial Friend,
WILLIAM PENN.
Philadelphia, the 16th of the 6th Moneth, call'd August, 1683.
A Short Advertisement upon the Scituation and Extent of the City of Philadelphia and the Ensuing Plat-form thereof, by the Surveyor General.1
The City of Philadelphia, now extends in Length, from River to River, two Miles, and in Breadth near a Mile; and the Governour, as a further manifestation of his Kindness to the Purchasers, hath freely given them their respective Lots in the City, without defalcation of any their Quantities of purchased Lands; and as its now placed and modelled be- tween two Navigable Rivers upon a Neck of Land, and that Ships may ride in good Anchorage, in six or eight Fathom Water in both Rivers, close to the City, and the Land of the City level, dry and wholsom: such a Scituation is scarce to be parallel'd.
The Model of the City appears by a small Draught now made, and may hereafter, when time permits, be augmented;
1 Captain Thomas Holme (1624-1695), the first surveyor general of Penn- sylvania, probably of a gentle Yorkshire family of the name, apparently went over from England to Ireland in Cromwell's army, and by 1655 was living in Limerick. Later he removed to Waterford. By 1657 he had become a Quaker, and subse- quently was fined and imprisoned. He was a First Purchaser of 5,000 acres of land in Pennsylvania, and a subscriber to £50 of stock of the Free Society of Traders. Early in 1682, with his commission as surveyor general, he came over to Pennsylvania with his family in the Amity, and laid out country lands and the city of Philadelphia, the latter as exhibited in the Plat-Form here referred to, published in 1683, and reproduced in this volume, opposite this page. By 1686 he had gathered connected surveys of the lands as granted, and compiled an im- portant map of the province, which was sent to London and printed in 1687. He was a member of the first assembly, and of the provincial council.
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and because there is not room to express the Purchasers Names in the Draught, I have therefore drawn Directions of Reference, by way of Numbers, whereby may be known each mans Lot and Place in the City.
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