Page:Architectural Review and American Builders' Journal, Volume 1, 1869.djvu/143

 1868.1 The Penn Treaty-Ground and a Monument to William Penn. 115 novels of that day, compared with those of this, will show the calculation to be far within bounds Yet it is custom- ary to talk of his having bought the entire State for a paltry sum, lessened by the profits on the goods delivered in payment, of which a great part were (few-saws. In 1683, the year after his arrival, Penn had made himself master of the Delaware language, so as not to need an interpreter. This shows a familiar and frequent intercourse with the tribes. Mr. Oldmixon, the historian, who per- sonally knew William Penn, and in all likelihood had his information direct, remarks : " Mr. Penn stayed in Penn- sjdvania two years, and having made a league of amity with nineteen (19) In- dian nations,* * * * leturned to England." Of the results of the Treaty, Mr. Oldmixon says: "The Indians have been very civil to the English, who never lost man, woman or child by them." These last six paragraphs all refer, allegorically, to the place of the eels. THE TREATY. NOT FOR LAND. Popular estimation of the Treaty re- fers it to the purchase of land. It is shown, however, with scarcely a doubt, by Watson, Yaux, Du Ponceau, Fisher, Granville John Penn, and Henry D. Gilpin, to have been "a great meeting of verbal conference and pledge," the last of a series held at the same point, at no great intervals of time, wherein mutual courtesies were exchanged, and reciprocal solemn promises of lasting friendship pronounced. Or, in the phrase of Du Ponceau and Fisher, it was an " important transaction, which to Penn- sylvania and her illustrious Founder, is a crown of glory that will last to the end of time." PHILADELPHIA Founded in an old White settlement. The site, or great part of the site of the city of Philadelphia now, from con- solidation, a division of the past, but still known to citizens as the "city proper," was bought by William Penn, in exchange for other lands, of the three brothers, Andries, Swen, and Wolle Swenson, [now Swanson, from which family we have Swanson street] The tract was three hundred acres. Acrelius says three hundred and sixty, which may be true, including the usual allow- ance for roads, &c. It covered one mile on the Delaware, extending half a mile westward. The ground on which the Liberties now stand was also the prop- erty of the Swedes. The site of Phila- delphia itself was called by the Dela- wares Goaquanvock, or Co-a-que-na-que. The river, its shores and contiguous lands, for some miles above, and a. num- ber below the confluence of the Dela- ware and the Schuylkill, were termed the freshes of the river Delaware, in- habited by the Swedes as high up as Wicacoa. within half a mile of Phila- delphia. The Delaware itself was styled by the natives, Lenape-wihittuck, or Lenape-Hittuck, the rapid river of the Lenape. Arasapha was another Indian name it bore. The Schuylkill was originally the Manayunk.* It is a pleas- ant pleonasm to add the word river to the modern name, which bears in itself Schuyl-kill, the hidden river, a Dutch fancy, from the difficulty of detecting its mouth when sailing up the Delaware. The Dutch inhabited the lands upon Delaware Bay, which was entitled by the Indians, Poutaxat. where we go to drink." — An unconscious prophecy of the use of the Schuylkill towards ihe city of Philadel- phia. This river was also called Gan'showe-ha-ne, or Ganshowe'han, the stream which maketh a noise, occa- sioned by falls and ripples, Der rauschende Strohm. This proper characteristic is all lost now-a-days, through Fairmount and the many other dams. We may notice here that Wissahickon means catfish creek ; and Wingo- hocking, Frankford creek, fine land for cultivation.
 * This means Tribes.
 * Which means, " our place of drinking," or " the place