e Spanish West Indies. He put Penn in charge of
the fleet, and made Venables general of the army. The two commanders,
without conference one with the other, sent secret word to Charles II.,
then in exile on the Continent, and offered him their ships and
soldiers. This transaction, though it seemed for the moment to be of
none effect, resulted years afterward in the erection of the Colony of
Pennsylvania. Charles declined the offer; "he wished them to reserve
their affections for his Majesty till a more proper season to discover
them;" but he never forgot it. It was the beginning of a friendship
between the House of Stuart and the family of Penn, which William Penn
inherited.

The expedition captured Jamaica, and made it a British colony; but in
its other undertakings it failed miserably; and the admiral, on his
return, was dismissed from the navy and committed to the Tower.

About that same time, the admiral's young son, being then in the twelfth
year of his age, beheld a vision. His mother had removed with him to the
village of Wanstead, in Essex. Here, as he was alone in his chamber, "he
was suddenly surprised with an inward comfort, and, as he thought, an
external glory in his room, which gave rise to religious emotions,
during which he had the strongest conviction of the being of a God, and
that the soul of man was capable of enjoying communication with him. He
believed, also, that the seal of Divinity had been put upon him at this
moment, or that he had been awakened or called upon to a holy life."

While William Penn the elder had been going from promotion to promotion,
sailing the high seas, and fighting battles with the enemies of England,
William Penn the younger had been living with all possible quietness in
the green country, saying his prayers in Wanstead Church, and learning
his lessons in Chigwell School.

Wanstead Church was devotedly Puritan. The chief citizens had signed a
protest against any "Popish innovations," and had agreed to punish every
offender against "the true reformed Protestant religion."

The founder of Chigwell School had prescribed in his deed of gift that
the master should be "a good Poet, of a sound religion, neither Papal
nor Puritan; of a good behaviour; of a sober and honest conversation; no
tippler nor haunter of alehouses, no puffer of tobacco; and, above all,
apt to teach and severe in his government." Here William studied Lilly's
Latin and Cleonard's Greek Grammar, together