try and entertainment I got in it; for I find that particular
content, which hath always attended me, where God in his providence
hath made it my place and service to reside. You cannot imagine my
station can be at present free of more than ordinary business; and, as
such, I may say it is a troublesome 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 men's duty to
plow, some to sow, some to water, and some to reap, so it is the
wisdom as well as the duty of a man to yield to the mind of
providence, and cheerfully as well as carefully embrace and follow the
guidance of it.

[1] Penn had already been part proprietor of West Jersey when in
1681 he received the grant of Pennsylvania, as compensation for a
claim of his father's estate against the English Government. He
came out in person to America in 1682, made his famous treaty with
the Indians and founded Philadelphia. He returned to England in
1684, and again visited Pennsylvania in 1699-1701. His account is
printed in Hart's "American History Told by Contemporaries."

II

PENN'S TREATY WITH THE INDIANS

(1683)

HIS OWN ACCOUNT[1]

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 traffic,
without advising with them, and, which is more, with the young men,
too. It is 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
has his council, 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 the 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
who spoke, because what he should say was the king's mind. He first
prayed me to excuse them, that they had not complied with me the last
time. He feared there might be some fault in the interpreter, being
neither Indian nor English. Beside