Friends there and on Long
Island and in New Jersey. On his return from this journey, he took the
necessary measures to have the chiefs of the tribes of Indians occupying
that portion of the Province which was likely to be soon required by the
settlers, to meet him in council. The place of meeting was in
Shackamaxon, a little north of the city, and on the Delaware River.
There, under the wide-spread branches of a noble elm-tree, was held the
treaty of friendship and perpetual peace, between the natives, the
Governor, and the immigrant Friends, which has become world-renowned as
the _Great Indian Treaty_. Made in good faith and honesty by both
parties, this treaty was defaced by no oath, and remained unbroken so
long as Friends held the reins of power in the government. Under its
provisions, there sprung up a confiding intimacy between the red men and
the white; and so long as the Christian policy inaugurated by William
Penn and his brethren in religious profession was adhered to, there was
no case of wrong or misunderstanding occurred, which was not speedily
settled and removed by resort to the peaceable and just means provided
for in its stipulations.

Thus the benign and peaceable principles of the gospel, as laid down by
Christ and His Apostles, and adopted by Friends, were closely adhered to
and fully tested in the settlement of Pennsylvania; and the experience
of seventy years of uninterrupted peace and prosperity, while the
Province was under the control of Friends, conclusively proves how far
they exceed all other rules and motives of conduct, however devised by
the wisdom of man or enforced by military power. The enlightened and
liberal policy of the settlers, together with the simplicity of manners
and refinement evinced in their domestic and social economy and general
intercourse, contributed to the powerful attraction exerted by the
Colony on all who were disposed to escape from the tyrannous exactions
and almost continuous commotions agitating and embittering civil society
in Europe.

The just and loving manner in which William Penn treated the Indians
from the beginning of his intercourse with them, and the peaceable
principles not only professed, but continually acted on by the settlers,
besides gaining the confidence of the tribe immediately surrounding
them, spread their fame to others more distant; so that during the stay
of the Proprietor, when on his first visit to his Province, he made
treaties of