"I bless the Lord," he wrote in a letter, "I am very well, and much
satisfied with my place and portion. O how sweet is the quiet of these
parts, freed from the anxious and troublesome solicitations, hurries,
and solicitations of woeful Europe!"

In the midst of these fair regions, beside the "wedded rivers," the
Delaware and the Schuylkill, in the convenient neighborhood of quarries
of building stone, at a place which the Indians called Coaquannoc, he
established his capital city, calling it Philadelphia,--perhaps in
token of the spirit of brotherly love in which it was founded, perhaps
in remembrance of those seven cities of the Revelation wherein was that
primitive Christianity which he wished to reproduce.

Here he had his rowers run his boat ashore at the mouth of Dock Creek,
which now runs under Dock Street, where several men were engaged in
building a house, which was afterwards called the Blue Anchor Tavern.
Penn brought a considerable company with him. In the minutes of a
Friends' meeting held on the 8th (18th) of November, 1682, at
Shackamaxon, now Kensington, it was recorded that, "at this time,
Governor Penn and a multitude of Friends arrived here, and erected a
city called Philadelphia, about half a mile from Shackamaxon."
Presently, the Indians appeared. They offered Penn of their hominy and
roasted acorns, and, after dinner, showed him how they could hop and
jump. He is said to have entered heartily into these exercises, and to
have jumped farther than any of them.

The governor had already determined the plan of the city. There were to
be two large streets,--one fronting the Delaware on the east, the other
fronting the Schuylkill on the west; a third avenue, to be called High
Street (now Market), was to run from river to river, east and west; and
a fourth, called Broad Street, was to cross it at right angles, north
and south. Twenty streets were to lie parallel with Broad, and to be
named First Street, Second Street, and so on in order, in the plain
Quaker fashion which had thus entitled the days of the week and the
months of the year. Eight were to lie parallel with High, and to be
called after the trees of the forest,--Spruce, Chestnut, Pine. In the
midst of the city, at the crossing of High and Broad Streets, was to be
a square of ten acres, to contain the public offices; and in each
quarter of the city was to be a similar open space for walks. The
founder intended to allow no house to be built