eden. Nor is there any evidence that William Penn had thought of
founding a free Christian state in America until immediately after his
return to England from this tour on the Continent.

Furthermore, the plans of Gustavus respecting his projected colony on
the Delaware were well understood in official circles in England
itself, especially in London, from 1634. John Oxenstiern, brother of
the great chancellor, was at that time Swedish ambassador in London,
and in that year he obtained from King Charles I. a renunciation and
cession to Sweden of all claims of the English to the country on the
Delaware growing out of the rights of first discovery, and for the
very purposes of this colonial free state and asylum first projected
by the Swedish king.

THE SWEDES IN ADVANCE OF PENN.

We are left to our own inferences from these facts. But, however much
or little Penn may have been directly influenced and guided by what
Gustavus Adolphus had conceived and elaborated on the subject, the
wise and noble conception which he brought with him for practical
realization in 1682 was known to the European peoples for more than
fifty years before he laid hold on it. The same had also been one of
the chief sources of the inspiration of Lord Baltimore in the founding
of the colony of Maryland, of which Penn was not ignorant. And the
same, not unknown to him, had already begun to be realized here in
what is now called Pennsylvania full forty-four years before his
arrival.

Shipload after shipload of sturdy and devoted people, mostly Swedes,
animated with the same grand ideas, had here been landed. And so
successfully had they battled with the perils and hardships of the
wilderness, and so justly had they treated and arranged to dwell in
peace and love with the wild inhabitants of the forests, that when
Penn came he found everything prepared to his hand. The Swedes alone
already numbered about one thousand strong. They had conquered the
wild woods, built them homes, and opened plantations; and "the eye of
the stranger could begin to gaze with interest upon the signs of
public improvement, ever regularly advancing, from the region of
Wilmington to that of Philadelphia."

When Penn landed he found a town and court-house at New Castle, and a
town and place of public assemblage at Upland, and a Christian and
free people in possession of the territory, with whom it was necessary
for him to treat before his charter could avail for the plan