you will have right and boldness to punish the transgressor. Keep upon the square, for God sees you therefore do your duty, and be sure you see with your own eyes, and hear with your own ears. Entertain no lurchers, cherish no informers for gain or revenge; use no tricks; fly to no devices to support or cover injustice; but let your hearts be upright before the Lord, trusting in Him above the contrivances of men, and none shall be able to hurt or supplant you.'

On the first of September the Welcome weighed anchor at Deal, passed the Foreland with a light breeze. At Deal they shipped a case of small-pox. At first the disease was mild, and they went on; but before they reached the middle of the Atlantic nearly every man, woman, and child, was sick. During two weeks some one died almost every day Of the hundred passengers on board, more than thirty fell. Care, attention, and the Governor's stores, were given without stint. By day and night Penn sat in the cabins of the infected persons, speaking words of comfort to all, giving medicines to such as needed them, and affording the consolations of religion to the dying. In his labours he was much assisted by his friend Pearson, an emigrant from Chester. Want of room and want of fresh provisions were the two chief evils which he could not meet. One boy was born at sea; but many boys and girls, as well as grown-up people, died. The voyage was rather long, and it was deep in October when the low and wooded banks of the Delaware broke on the straining sights

of men still struggling with the mortal fear of death.

October 27, 1682, just nine weeks after quitting Deal, the Welcome moored off the port of Newcastle, in Delaware, the country lately given up to him by the Duke of York.

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CHAPTER XXIV.

IN THE WILDERNESS (1682).

PENN's landing made a general holiday in the town ; for young and old, Dutch, English, Swedes, and Germans, crowded to the landing-place, each eager to catch a glimpse of the man who was said to come amongst them, less as their lord and governor than as their friend.

Next day he called the people together in the Dutch court-house, when he went through the legal forms of taking possession. Deeds were produced and charters read. The agents of the Duke of York surrendered the territory in their master's name by the usual form of giving earth and water. Penn's great powers being legally established, he addressed the people in profoundest silence. He spoke of the reasons for his coming-the great idea which he had nursed from his youth upwards -his desire to found a free and virtuous state, in which the people should rule themselves. He then explained the nature of his powers; assuring those who heard him that he wished to exercise them only provisionally and for the general good. He

P

spoke of the constitution he had published for Pennsylvania as containing his theory of government; and promised the settlers on the lower reaches of the Delaware, that the same principles should be adopted in their territory. Every man in his provinces, he said, should enjoy liberty of conscience and his share of political power. As earnest of his intention to proceed on fixed and just principles in the colony, he ended by renewing in his own name the commissions of all existing magistrates.

The people listened to this speech with wonder and delight. They were but simple husbandmen -soft words were not among the things on which they set much store; but that old northern instinct which had led them from the Rhine, the Elbe, and Zuyder Zee, in search of freedom on the shores of the Delaware, told them that the landing of this English Governor was an era in their lives. They had but one request to make in answer; that he would stay amongst them and reign over them in person. They besought him to annex their territory to Pennsylvania, in order that the white settlers might have one country, one parliament, and one ruler. He promised, at their desire, to take the question of a union of the two provinces into consideration, and submit it to an assembly then about to meet at Upland. So he took his leave.

Ascending the Delaware, enjoying the beauty of nature as every bend in the river brought some charm to sight, and breathing the mild air of that southern climate, the adventurers soon arrived at the Swedish town of Upland, then the place of

chief importance in the province.

Penn was re

ceived and lodged in the house of Wade. The spot where he stepped on shore is still shown to strangers with a patriotic pride. Wishing to mark the fact by some striking circumstance, he turned round to his companion Pearson, a man equally eminent for his free spirit and his humane virtues, and observed, 'Providence has brought us safely here; thou hast been the companion of my toils; what wilt thou that I should call this place?' After a moment's thought, Pearson, whose modesty would not allow him to propose his own name, answered, 'Chester; in remembrance of the city whence I came.' So Penn changed the name from Upland to Chester, and as Chester it is known.

Markham and the three commissioners had done their work so well that in a short time after Penn's arrival, the first General Assembly, elected by universal suffrage, was ready to meet. The Friends' Meeting-house, a plain brick edifice, fronting the creek, and opposite to Wade's house, where Penn remained a guest, was selected for the purpose. Nicolas Moore, an English lawyer, and already chairman to the Free Society of Traders, was elected speaker; and as soon as Penn had given them assurances similar to those which he had made in Newcastle, they proceeded to discuss, amend, and accept the Frame of Government and the Provisional Laws. The settlers on the Delaware sent representatives to this Assembly, and one of their first acts was to declare the two provinces united. The constitution was adopted without important