NEW JERSEY.

When the first Dutch settlers built their fort on Manhattan Island, in 1614, they also built a redoubt on what is now the New Jersey shore, opposite; and they afterwards claimed the whole region as a part of New Netherlands. Danish settlers also came very early, and settlers came from the English and Swedish colonies; but this the Dutch did not approve: so they first used the help of the Swedes in driving out the English, and then drove out the Swedes themselves, sending most of them back to Europe. When the English got possession of New Netherlands, in 1664, and the king gave it to his brother, the Duke of York, he in turn sold the southern part of it to two English noblemen, Lord Berkeley and Sir George Carteret. The latter had been. governor of the Island of Jersey in the British Channel; and so he chose that name for the colony. His wife was named Elizabeth; and he named a village Elizabethtown, after her. His part was called East New Jersey, and Lord Berkeley's was West New Jersey; and the colony was commonly called "The Jerseys," for many years. The whole region was gradually purchased by the Society of Friends, or Quakers, and was chiefly settled by them. Other persecuted people came there also, especially Presbyterians from Scotland. They had perfect liberty of conscience; and their charter said, "No person shall at any time, in any way, or on any pretence, be called in question, or in the least punished and hurt, for opinion in religion." At last, in 1702, the colony was given up by the proprietors to Queen Anne, that a royal governor might be appointed.

The two provinces were then made into one, though they had separate legislatures for a long time. Free schools were introduced; and the College of New Jersey, now Princeton College, was founded in 1746. The colony remained quiet and at peace, down to the time of the American Revolution. "In all its borders," said a traveller, "there is not a poor body, nor one that wants."

CHAPTER XII.

THE FRIENDS IN PENNSYLVANIA, AND THE SWEDES IN DELAWARE.

PENNSYLVANIA.

PENNSYLVANIA

was founded in a different way from any of the other colonies, for it was entirely planned by one great and good man, who was the proprietor of the soil where the colony was established. His name was William

Penn. He was a young
Englishman, highly
educated, and rich.
He had studied at Ox-
ford University, and
at a college in France;
but he was expelled
from Oxford for tak-
ing part in Quaker

meetings, and in some trouble that grew out of them;

ΙΟΙ

and he was afterwards imprisoned several times for the same offence. He became a very thoughtful and conscientious man. It was said as a joke, among his former fashionable friends, that "William Penn was a Quaker, or some very melancholy thing." He spent his money freely in aiding those who were punished for conscience' sake; and finally he resolved to found a colony in America, where such persecuted people could take refuge.

It happened that his father, who was a famous admiral in the English navy, had left, at his death, a claim for a large sum of money which he had lent to Charles II. before he came to the throne; and William Penn proposed to the king to give him a province in America, instead of that money. This the king was very glad to do; for he had plenty of American lands, and very little of English gold and silver. So William Penn became the sole proprietor of a great tract of country, on condition of paying two beaver-skins annually to the king. Penn wished to have this territory named Sylvania, because it was covered with forests (sylva being Latin for "a forest "); but his name was added to the word, against his wish, by the king; and the whole region was called Pennsylvania. It had been visited by the Swedes and Finns in 1627, and had afterwards submitted to the Dutch of New Netherlands, and had passed, with all the Dutch possessions, into English hands. William Penn sent out some emigrants in 1681, and came in person the year after. He was received with great enthusiasm. It seemed very appropriate that he should come in the ship "Welcome." It was right that he should be welcomed; for

he had permitted every poor emigrant to settle on this land which the king had given to Penn himself: and he had promised to secure freedom of thought and speech to all. He called it a "free colony for all mankind," and wrote to the people, “You shall be governed by laws of your own making. I shall not usurp the right of any, or oppress his person.” So when the

Quaker King, as he was sometimes called, had landed, the English, Dutch, and Swedish settlers came together: the deeds given William Penn by the king were publicly read; and he addressed the people, who heard him with delight. The next year he bought the ground for his chief city from some Swedes, who had bought it from the Indians; and he laid out the city, and gave it the name "Philadelphia," which means "brotherly love.” He built it on the plan of the ancient city of Babylon; and he wished to have it "a faire and greene country towne." At first it consisted of three or four little cottages; and some of the people lived in hollow trees; but in three years it gained more than New York gained in fifty, though New York has since outstripped it, being far better situated for commerce.

William Penn remained only two years in his colony, and then went back to England, where he staid a long time. During almost all this time, the people governed themselves, choosing their own officers, and making their own laws. There was no tax to support the poor, because none was needed. Every man who paid a tax for other purposes had a right to vote, without regard to religious belief, or to nationality. No oath was required of witnesses in court. Theatrical exhibitions were forbidden; and some other laws were