The Pensacola journal. (Pensacola, Fla.) 1898-1985, 1915-07-08

" PAcoSC al O4u IT1enuS son ana De |
quit of an obligation 50 easily. Penn
asked for and obtained the land '1y-
ing north of Maryland, on the east
bounded with Delaware river. on the
west limited as Maryland is, and
northward to extend as far as plant
able" into the unclaimed Indian coun-
try; and the king pleased his own
fancy by calling the grant ''Pennsyl-
vania," in honor of the old admiral
whose claim against the crown he
was thus paying off. The grant was
dated March 4, 1881.
There were, when he set up his
gentle rule, scarcely 500 white men,
all told, settled within the territory
Charles had given him; a few tiny
Swedish hamlets, a few Quaker fam
lies who had crossed the river from
West Jersey, stragglers here and
there, looking for good lands. In
August, 1882, Mr.. Penn added to his
first grant from the king the lands
lying about New Castle and below, by
purchase from the Duke of York, to
whom they had passed with the rest
of New Netherland when the Dutch
were ousted; and few hundred more
were thereby added to the number of
his colonists. Dutch as well as
Swedes, and few score scattered
groups of lonely settlers. The very
month of that new grant, August,
1852, he himself took ship for his
province, with a goodly company of
Quakers, to begin the real planting
of the new region. He reached the
colony in October, and during that
autumn and the winter which fol-
lowed (1682-1683) no fewer than
twenty three ships came into the Del
aware bringing immigrants; to be
followed presently by other ships
seeking trade.
Within but little more than, a
single year of his coming, Mr.. Penn
could boast, 81 have led the greatest
colony into America that ever any
man did upon private credit, and
the most prosperous beginning that
ever were in it are to be found among
u.s." BY 1856 there were more than
1000 settlers there.
The chief town of the province was
established at the confluence of the
| two fine rivers Delaware and Schuyl-
kill, and Mr.. Penn named it Phila-
delphia, wishing it to be place of
peace and goodwill. By the end of
the year 1888 there we're no fewer
than $50 dwellings built-frail and
cheap enough, no doubt, but sufficient
until stone and brick could be had,
and time in which to build with them.
The change came very soon. Before
Mr.. Penn sailed for home, in 1854,
! there were already $50 houses erect
ed, some of them several stories high,
built with cellars and decorated with
balconies. Outside the central town,
with its busy 1000 colonists, there
/ were quite fifty hamlets In the thriv-
ing province.
Government did not go quite so
easily after Mr.. Penn returned to
England. The government was lib
eral in all things, and very simple in
its make-up-upon the familiar model
of deputy governor, council, and as
sembly. For one thing, it kept peace
with the Indians as its neighbors
could not. The Quakers everywhere
seemed to win the confidence of the
redmen upon the instant, as Roger
Williams had won it, whose doctrines
and principles of life were so like
1 I,as,. - hxy zor
justice and keeping faith, and Mr..
Penn set them an example which
neither they nor any others who
heard of it we're likely to forget. He
scrupulqusly purchased the land he
occupied of its native owners. The
New Englanders had sought to be
just with the redmen; but the Quak-
ers sought to add gentle kindness
to justice, and their peace was more
lasting than that of the English In
the north.
II Col. Dongan, the new governor OF
New York, had been instructed tc
play a very different role in the in.
ternal government of his province
from that which Andres had played
Despite the very liberal measures
adopted and the sound public spirit
shown by the dukes governors hith,
erto, it was not in English nature tt
/ be satisfied for twenty years together
without such an assembly to speal
and act for the people as every othel
h Il