s which it was hunting down in England
seemed a most unlikely event. Nothing but unusual influence at Court
could bring it about, and in that quarter the Quakers had no influence.

Penn never forgot the boyhood ideal which he had developed at college.
For twenty years he led a varied life--driven from home and whipped by
his father for consorting with the schismatic; sometimes in deference
to his father's wishes taking his place in the gay world at Court; even,
for a time, becoming a soldier, and again traveling in France with some
of the people of the Court. In the end, as he grew older, religious
feeling completely absorbed him. He became one of the leading Quaker
theologians, and his very earnest religious writings fill several
volumes. He became a preacher at the meetings and went to prison for his
heretical doctrines and pamphlets. At last he found himself at the age
of thirty-six with his father dead, and a debt due from the Crown of
16,000 pounds for services which his distinguished father, the admiral,
had rendered the Government.

Here was the accident that brought into being the great Quaker colony,
by a combination of circumstances which could hardly have happened
twice. Young Penn was popular at Court. He had inherited a valuable
friendship with Charles II and his heir, the Duke of York. This
friendship rested on the solid fact that Penn's father, the admiral,
had rendered such signal assistance in restoring Charles and the whole
Stuart line to the throne. But still 16,000 pounds or $80,000, the
accumulation of many deferred payments, was a goodly sum in those days,
and that the Crown would pay it in money, of which it had none too much,
was unlikely. Why not therefore suggest paying it instead in wild land
in America, of which the Crown had abundance? That was the fruitful
thought which visited Penn. Lord Berkeley and Lord Carteret had been
given New Jersey because they had signally helped to restore the Strait
family to the throne. All the more therefore should the Stuart family
give a tract of land, and even a larger tract, to Penn, whose father
had not only assisted the family to the throne but had refrained so long
from pressing his just claim for money due.

So the Crown, knowing little of the value of it, granted him the most
magnificent domain of mountains; lakes, rivers, and forests, fertile
soil, coal, petroleum, and iron that ever was given to a single
proprietor. In addition to giving Penn the