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whose hands the dignity of the government certainly suffered no diminution. Did he encourage contraband traders? Stript of malice, the State Papers still contain evidence which would satisfy most juries; it is certain that he behaved imprudently to those whom he believed to be engaged in a malicious conspiracy against his cousin and himself. He refused to pass the Jamaica act against pirates or smugglers, though he had received it directly from Whitehall, with a request from the Board of Trade that it should be made law. He sent Randolph, one of the commissioners, to prison; he allowed David Loyd, attorney-general for the colony, to use some expressions in open court which were considered as an insult to the King's person. Quarry made the utmost of his imprudent acts. Penn's agents, he said, entered the King's store-houses by force; they carried away the goods which had been lawfully seized from pirates; they protected smugglers coming into the Delaware from New York; they tried to ruin the Admiralty officers, and even threatened to take away their lives. A pirate vessel, he said, had come into the river; Markham had lent no aid in capturing her. Such pirates as were taken prisoners were lodged in a tavern; Quakers not being willing to send them to a jail. The Council, not unwilling to assert the King's authority, made an order depriving Colonel Markham of his powers.

Popple had prepared Penn to expect this measure; and Penn had signified his intention of starting for Philadelphia in a few weeks. On the same

day, therefore, in which Markham was deposed, another Order in Council was made, approving of suggestions from the Board of Trade, and recommending them to Penn's attention. Hoping to remain in America, Penn prepared to take his wife and family—excepting his son William, who would not go with the domestic and personal conveniences desirable in a new country and a permanent home. He left the care of his public interests to the faithful Lawton; and his private business to the faithless Ford.

Embarking at Cowes, in the Canterbury, they sailed on the 9th of September, 1699, on a three months' voyage. About the time he left England the yellow fever broke out in Philadelphia, and carried off great numbers; but when he arrived at Chester, things were looking brighter than they had been. A settler named Beaven dragged an old Swedish cannon from a yard and fired it off in honour of the day. The cannon burst, and Beaven had his arm shot off.

Some Quakers said but Penn took up

it was a judgment on his sin; the man, and put him under medical care, and charged himself with all the cost of curing him. Poor Beaven lingered for some months and then broke down. Penn's cash-book shows the course of his decay to B. Beaven, 10s. 8d.; to a woman watching Beaven, 6s.; to F. Jervais (a surgeon), 21. 10s.; to a grave-digger, 3s. 4d. Beavan had fired his piece and shot himself. When the Canterbury reached Philadelphia, Penn went first of all to visit his cousin, Colonel Markham, and then

repaired to the meeting-house to see the inhabitants. His reception was enthusiastic. The people in general had long mourned over his absence, says Thomas Loyd, one of the deputies; and now believing that he would never leave them again to become the dupes of faction and the prey of designing men, they were filled with joy.

Instructions were sent out by the Council for his guidance on the two vexed questions of piracy and revenue; and his first public act on assuming the reins of government was to send forth proclamations against pirates and contraband traders. Not content with proclaiming, he informed his officers and Council that, as they were anxious to preserve his rights and their own honour, they must use every endeavour to put down this illegal trade. He placed himself in friendly communication with Colonel Quarry— who had received from the Admiralty an order to pay the Governor great respect-and discussed with him the best course of proceeding, with a view to re-establish harmony. The revenue agent, mollified by this courtesy, entered readily into his plans. No more complaints were sent to London; and in less than three months from Penn's landing in the Delaware, Quarry had become his friend. The change was marvellous. In his letters to the Lords of Trade and Plantations, he reported that Penn's arrival had completely changed the state of affairs, that offending officers had been displaced, that the pirates were being pursued with rigour, and that two acts had been passed which would meet all evils in the future.

Anxious to put an end to the dispute, Penn called the members of his Council and the general Assembly together some weeks before the usual time. As yet there was no law in Pennsylvania against piracy; and when the Quakers had refused to commit pirates to the common jail, they could quote their code of laws in justification of their refusal. Here there was an evil to be met. So soon as they had passed two enactments, one against pirates and one against contraband trade, which they did on the Governor's remonstrance,-though reluctantly -he dismissed them for the winter. Now that he was legally armed, he found the task of putting down the pirates much more easy. By the end of February, 1700, he was able to lay before Secretary Vernon and the Board of Trade a statement of his doings; and in due time received from Whitehall an assurance that his conduct was satisfactory to the

crown.

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CHAPTER XXXII.

PENNSBURY (1700).

PENN had leisure to settle his family in the place which he had meant to be their future home. Pennsbury was an ancient Indian royalty. It had been chosen as the abode of chiefs on account of its situation. Arms of the great river, which were bent no less than three times round it, had in ruder ages of warfare made an almost impregnable defence. When the estate was first laid out Markham, it consisted of 8431 acres ; but a portion of the ground was left in forest state as a park; and the proprietor from time to time reduced its size by grants to different men. On this land his agent Markham had begun to build, even before his first arrival in the country, a mansion worthy of the owner of a great province; and during his absence in England it had been completed. The front of the house, sixty feet long, faced the Delaware, and the upper windows commanded views of the river and of the opposite shores of New Jersey. The depth of the manor-house was forty feet, and on either wing outhouses were disposed so as to produce

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