PENN'S TREATY WITH THE INDIANS

Penn's Own Account.

ONE of the finest pictures that comes down to us from Colonial days is the benign figure of William Penn standing under the great elm tree at Shackamaxon, arranging a treaty with the Indians, which, as Voltaire said, "was never sworn to and never broken."

The "Great Treaty" of neighborliness and friendship to which Penn seems to refer in this account, was one of a series of treaties, most of which dealt with the purchase of land or the regulation of the trade between Whites and Indians. Each side pledged itself to deal with the other "so long as the creeks and rivers shall run, and the sun, moon and stars shall endure."

It is interesting to note that while the Whites kept minutes of their meetings with the Indians, and recorded the proceedings in their archives, the Indians, as usual, kept only oral records, which were exactly remembered and handed down intact without the loss of a syllable.

EVERY king hath his council, and that consists of all the old and wise men of his nation, which perhaps is two hundred people; nothing of moment is undertaken, be it war, peace, selling of land or traffic, without advising with them; and, which is more, with the young men too. It is admirable to consider, how powerful the kings are, and yet how they move by the breath of their people. I have had occasion to be in council with them upon treaties for land, and to adjust the terms of trade.

Their order is thus : the king sits in the middle of an half moon, and hath his council, the old and wise on each hand; behind them, or at a little distance, sit the younger fry, in the same figure. Having consulted and resolved their business, the king ordered one of them to speak to me; he stood up, came to me, and in the name of his king saluted me, then took me by the hand, and told me, "He was ordered by his king to speak to me; and that now it was not he, but the king that spoke, because what he should say, was the king's mind." He first prayed me, "To excuse them that they had not complied with me the last time; he feared there might be some fault in the interpreter, being neither Indian nor English ; besides, it was the Indian custom to deliberate, and take up much time in council, before they resolve ; and that if the young people and owners of the land had been as ready as he, I had not met with so much delay."

Having thus introduced his matter, he fell to the bounds of the land they had agreed to dispose of, and the price; which now is little and dear, that which would have brought twenty miles, not buying now two. During the time that this person spoke, not a man of them was observed to whisper or smile; the old grave, the young reverent in their deportment: they speak little, but fervently, and with elegance: I have never seen more natural sagacity, considering them without the help (I was going to say, the spoil) of tradition; and he will deserve the name of wise, that outwits them in any treaty about a thing they understand.

When the purchase was agreed, great promises passed between us of "kindness and good neighborhood, and that the Indians and English must live in love, as long as the sun gave light." Which done, another made a speech to the Indians, in the name of all the sachamakers or kings ; first to tell them what was done; next, to charge and command them "To love the Christians, and particularly live in peace with me, and the people under my government: that many governors had been in the river, but that no governor had come himself to live and stay here before; and having now such an one that had treated them well, they should never do him or his any wrong." At every sentence of which they shouted, and said, Amen, in their way.

The justice they have is pecuniary: in case of any wrong or evil fact, be it murder itself, they atone by feasts, and presents of their wampum, which is proportioned to the quality of the offense or person injured, or of the sex they are of: for in case they kill a woman, they pay double, and the reason they can render, is, "That she breedeth children, which men cannot do." It is rare that they fall out, if sober ; and if drunk, they forgive it, saying, "It was the drink, and not the man, that abused them."

We have agreed, that in all differences between us, six of each side shall end the matter : do not abuse them, but let them have justice, and you win them: the worst is, that they are the worse for the Christians, who have propagated their vices, and yielded them tradition for ill, and not for good things. But as low an ebb as these people are at, and as glorious as their own condition looks, the Christians have not outlived their sight, with all their pretensions to an higher manifestation: what good then might not a good people graft, where there is so distinct a knowledge left between good and evil? I beseech God to incline the hearts of all that come into these parts, to outlive the knowledge of the natives, by a fixed obedience to their greater knowledge of the will of God; for it were miserable indeed for us to fall under the just censure of the poor Indian conscience, while we make profession of things so far transcending.

For their original, I am ready to believe them of the Jewish race; I mean, of the stock of the Ten Tribes, and that for the following reasons ; first, they were to go to a "land not planted or known," which, to be sure, Asia and Africa were, if not Europe; and He that intended that extraordinary judgment upon them, might make the passage not uneasy to them, as it is not impossible in itself, from the easternmost parts of Asia, to the westernmost of America. In the next place, I find them of like countenance, and their children of so lively a resemblance, that a man would think himself in Duke's Place or Bury Street in London, when he seeth them. But this is not all; they agree in rites, they reckon by moons; they offer their first-fruits, they have a kind of feast of tabernacles; they are said to lay their altar upon twelve stones; their mourning a year, customs of women, with many things that do not now occur.

THE natives I shall consider in their persons, language, manners, religion, and government, with my sense of their original. For their persons, they are generally tall, straight, well-built, and of singular proportion; they tread strong and clever, and mostly walk with a lofty chin: of complexion, black, but by design, as the gypsies in England. They grease themselves with bears' fat clarified; and using no defense against sun or weather, their skins must needs be swarthy. Their eye is little and black, not unlike a straight-looked Jew. The thick lip and flat nose, so frequent with the East-Indians and Blacks, are not common to them; for I have seen as comely European-like faces among them of both, as on your side the sea; and truly an Italian complexion hath not much more of the white, and the noses of several of them have as much of the Roman.

Their language is lofty, yet narrow; but, like the Hebrew, in signification full; like short-hand in writing, one word serveth in the place of three, and the rest are supplied by the understanding of the hearer: imperfect in their tenses, wanting in their moods, participles, adverbs, conjunctions, interjections: I have made it my business to understand it, that I might not want an interpreter on any occasion: and I must say, that I know not a language spoken in Europe, that hath words of more sweetness or greatness, in accent or emphasis, than theirs: for instance, Octocockon, Rancocas, Oricton, Shak, Marian, Poquesien; all which are names of places, and have grandeur in them. Of words of sweetness, anna, is mother; issimus, a brother, netcap, friend, usque oret, very good, pane, bread, metsa, eat, matta, no, batta, to have, payo, to come; Sepassen, Passijon, the names of places; Tamane, Secane, Menanse, Secatereus, are the names of persons. If one ask them for anything they have not, they will answer, Matta ne batta, which to translate is, Not I have, instead of, I have not.

Of their customs and manners, there is much to be said; I will begin with children: so soon as they are born, they wash them in water, and while very young, and in cold weather to choose, they plunge them in the rivers to harden and embolden them. Having wrapped them in a clout, they lay them on a straight thin board, a little more than the length and breadth of the child, and swaddle it fast upon the board to make it straight; wherefore all Indians have flat heads : and thus they carry them at their backs. The children will go very young, at nine months commonly; they wear only a small clout round their waist, till they are big ; if boys, they go a fishing till ripe for the woods, which is about fifteen; then they hunt, and after having given some proofs of their manhood, by a good return of skins, they may marry, else it is a shame to think of a wife. The girls stay with their mothers, and help to hoe the ground, plant corn, and carry burdens ; and they do well to use them to that young, which they must do when they are old; for the wives are the true servants of the husbands; otherwise the men are very affectionate to them.

When the young women are fit for marriage, they wear something upon their heads for an advertisement, but so as their faces are hardly to be seen, but when they please : the age they marry at, if women, is about thirteen and fourteen; if men, seventeen and eighteen ; they are rarely elder.

Their houses are mats, or barks of trees, set on poles, in the fashion of an English barn, but out of the power of the winds, for they are hardly higher than a man; they lie on reeds or grass. In travel, they lodge in the woods about a great fire, with the mantle of duffils they wear by day wrapped about them, and a few boughs stuck round about them.

Their diet is maize, or Indian corn, divers ways prepared; sometimes roasted in the ashes, sometimes beaten and boiled with water, which they call hominy; they also make cakes, not unpleasant to eat : they have likewise several sorts of beans and peas, that are good nourishment ; and the woods and rivers are their larder.