that flowed into his mighty Delaware. He gives much space to the Indians and their customs, which he had studied minutely. They would never give any trouble. It was the easiest thing in the world to manage them. Simply be just. He tells us of the elk and all the animals of the woods, the wild turkeys, the pheasants, the pigeons, the swans, brant, ducks, snipe, and curlews in vast numbers; the large oysters down the bay; and he enumerates the shad and all the fish we have long known in the river. When he makes his only mistake it is not his own, but because he quotes the report of others, as when he writes, "Some say salmon above the Falls.” *

He was determined to enjoy to the full the wild nature which he took so much pleasure in describing, and he had a country place, which he called Pennsbury, laid out for himself on the river about twenty miles above Philadelphia, near where Bristol now stands. But as it was scarcely finished in time for him to live there during this visit we must defer the description of it to another chapter.

Soon after writing the letter to the Society of Traders he had to return to England. The most pressing reason for his going seems to have been the controversy with Lord Baltimore about the Maryland boundary. They had failed to agree on a compromise, and the question must be argued before the Committee of Trades and Plantations of the Privy Council. Lord Baltimore had already set out,

* The Falls were the rapids in the Delaware where Trenton now stands.

concealing his departure from Penn so as to get the start of him and make interest before he arrived.

Penn also had a reason for returning in his desire to see his family again. He may possibly have been influenced by the thought that he ought to return to his old life of protecting the Quakers from persecution in England. He received from one of his old friends, William Crisp, a whining letter, such as overgood people sometimes write, telling him in a sort of indirect way that he was neglecting the interest of truth and the testimony of God for the sake of governing a colony, and rather implying that he was seeking his own selfish interests.

But Penn had, I think, too much sense to be led by anything this pious goose would say to him. In any event, he had to go home for the boundary dispute, and leave the wholesome pleasures and interests of his province, which would have been better and always was the better for his immediate presence. So home he sailed, August 16, 1684, on a little ship of a kind called in those days a ketch. She was not so slow, however, for her size and the times, for she made the passage in seven weeks.

XVII

RETURNS TO ENGLAND AND BECOMES A COURTIER

WHEN he arrived in England the officious Stephen Crisp was quick to inform him of the talk among the Quakers that he had sanctioned military proceedings in Pennsylvania, was growing very rich, had deprived the Swedes of their land, and other tales which always delight the gossips of both sexes. But Penn took notice of such stuff only to deny it. More important matters demanded his

attention.

He found his people as hard pressed by the laws as ever. He talked to the king and the duke only to find them sour and stern. They believed that the opposition which made their government uneasy came from dissenters of all sorts, and they would make such people yield or break them. Under these circumstances Penn found himself in a curious position.

"One day I was received well at court as proprietor and governor of a province of the crown and the next taken up at a meeting by Hilton and Collingwood and the third smoakt and informed of for meeting with the men of the whig stamp."

In leaving Pennsylvania he had, with characteristic carelessness, neglected to bring with him the most important papers in the boundary case; or, rather, he had instructed one of his servants to bring them,

and neglected to see that he did it before sailing. He wrote a very angry letter on the subject, for the delay of many months in sending across the ocean for the papers was both exasperating and dangerous. Meantime, he comforted himself by writing instructions for improving his country seat, Pennsbury, which he had taken such pleasure in establishing in the province. He took great delight in sending out seeds for Ralph, the gardener, and in writing all manner of directions to his steward, James Harrison, whom he had left in charge of the place. Among other things he sent him wine and beer, some to be sold for his account and the rest to be stored at Pennsbury to improve by age.

"I

For serious public occupation he set to work on his old subject, liberty of conscience. There was no use in arguing or striving for a general liberty with the government in such a morose temper. therefore," he says, "sought out some bleeding cases, which was not hard to do." One in particular he devoted himself to, the case of Richard Vickris, a very quiet man who was under sentence of death for his religion, for refusing to swear, and for violating statutes for the suppression of dissenters. Penn appealed on his behalf to the duke, and the duke to the king; and Penn succeeded. Vickris was pardoned.

Penn relates that he had to proceed carefully in public matters, lest by offending the government he might injure his case against Lord Baltimore. But he went so far as to write out an argument to show that in the violent party heats, and the factions into

which the kingdom was nearly equally divided, the crown should gratify neither extreme party, but rule wisely over all. This argument he presented to the king in manuscript, for the times, he tells us, were "too set and rough for print;" and they must have, indeed, been very rough if Penn was unwilling to print his opinions.

In the winter of 1684-85 Charles II. died of a stroke of apoplexy, as most historians tell us. But Bishop Burnet always insisted on believing that he was poisoned by the Jesuits because he was on the eve of breaking away from them and allowing some liberal reforms. We cannot, however, discuss here the bishop's interesting proofs on this subject. The gay, careless king was dead, and his brother, the Roman Catholic Duke of York, took the throne as James II.

Penn wrote an account of these events to Thomas Lloyd, in Pennsylvania, and in this letter mentioned that he had thus far lost by the province £3000, while the speculators who had bought land from him were growing rich. The next year he announces that he has lost £5000. He hoped, however, to return to his colony in the autumn.

With his own particular friend and his father's friend, the Duke of York, on the throne, Penn was in a stronger and more influential position than ever. He could now go directly to the crown for favors, and be tolerably well assured of success. But there was in this intimacy and success, as we shall soon see, a great danger. James II. was by no means disposed to keep his Romanism a secret,