ustained only by its
own innate power and the inward light.

Chapter II. Penn Sails For The Delaware

The framing of the constitution and other preparations consumed the year
following Penn's receipt of his charter in 1681. But at last, on
August 30, 1682, he set sail in the ship Welcome, with about a hundred
colonists. After a voyage of about six weeks, and the loss of thirty of
their number by smallpox, they arrived in the Delaware. June would have
been a somewhat better month in which to see the rich luxuriance of
the green meadows and forests of this beautiful river. But the autumn
foliage and bracing air of October must have been inspiring enough.
The ship slowly beat her way for three days up the bay and river in
the silence and romantic loneliness of its shores. Everything indicated
richness and fertility. At some points the lofty trees of the primeval
forest grew down to the water's edge. The river at every high tide
overflowed great meadows grown up in reeds and grasses and red and
yellow flowers, stretching back to the borders of the forest and full
of water birds and wild fowl of every variety. Penn, now in the prime of
life, must surely have been aroused by this scene and by the reflection
that the noble river was his and the vast stretches of forests and
mountains for three hundred miles to the westward.

He was soon ashore, exploring the edge of his mighty domain, settling
his government, and passing his laws. He was much pleased with the
Swedes whom he found on his land. He changed the name of the little
Swedish village of Upland, fifteen miles below Philadelphia, to Chester.
He superintended laying out the streets of Philadelphia and they remain
to this day substantially as he planned them, though unfortunately too
narrow and monotonously regular. He met the Indians at Philadelphia, sat
with them at their fires, ate their roasted corn, and when to amuse him
they showed him some of their sports and games he renewed his college
days by joining them in a jumping match.

Then he started on journeys. He traveled through the woods to New York,
which then belonged to the Duke of York, who had given him Delaware; he
visited the Long Island Quakers; and on his return he went to Maryland
to meet with much pomp and ceremony Lord Baltimore and there discuss
with him the disputed boundary. He even crossed to the eastern shore of
the Chesapeake to visit a Quaker meeting on the Choptank before winter
set in, an