friendship and amity with nearly twenty different tribes.
Nor were the expenditures for the land purchased a mere nominal sum,
palmed upon the ignorant natives, easily caught with showy goods, and
unaccustomed to estimate things at their real value. From the accounts
preserved of these bargains and sales, it appears that, during his
lifetime, the Proprietor expended over twenty thousand pounds in the
purchase of that portion of the soil which was ceded to him by the
aborigines; and yet they were not required to abstain from hunting or
fishing within its boundaries, and the laws were so framed as to give
them the protection of citizens.

The influx of settlers was unprecedented; the forest began to be
cleared, and dwellings were put up rapidly. The soil yielded
abundantly, and no calamity occurred for years to check the rapid
increase of inhabitants, or create doubts and dissatisfaction as to the
course they had taken in removing from their native country. New
meetings for worship were established, as the new-comers took up lands
in the counties contiguous to the city; so that, in 1684, William Penn
wrote, there were eighteen in all, and all were brought within the order
of church government, as laid down in the discipline then adopted.

Shortly after witnessing the prosperous beginning of his new colony,
William Penn returned to England, and for a number of years continued to
reside in or near London. He had provided for the affairs of the
Province during his absence; but such was his unceasing solicitude for
the spiritual welfare of the Friends he was about leaving, that, after
he had embarked, he addressed them a letter from the ship, in which he
says: "Now you are come to a quiet land, provoke not the Lord to trouble
it, and as liberty and authority are with you, and in your hands, let
the government be upon His shoulders in all your spirits; that you may
rule for Him, under whom the princes of this world will one day esteem
it their honor to govern and serve in their places. I cannot but say,
when these things come mightily upon my mind, as the apostle did of old,
'What manner of persons ought we to be in all holy conversation and
godliness?'

"And thou, Philadelphia, the virgin settlement of this Province, named
before thou wert born, what love, what care, what service, and what
travail has there been, to bring thee forth and preserve thee from such
as would abuse and defile thee.

"Oh that thou mayst be kept f