Page:Architectural Review and American Builders' Journal, Volume 1, 1869.djvu/149

 1868.] Tfie Penn Treaty-G-round and a Monument to William Penn. 121 from your heart, that your mind may be as easj' as in times of peace. Brother, blood has been spilt. With this string of wampum I clean the blood from off 3'our beds, that you may sleep easily ; and from off your council seats, that you may sit with pleasure in council with your brethren. Brother, I am come here to this council-fire to gather together the dead bodies and the scat- tered bones, and to join with you in prayers to the Good Spirit ; and, when peace is made, I will put both my hands into the chain of friendship. To confirm my words, I give you this string of wampum.' " When Washington, then but a youth of twenty-one, was intrusted, by the Colonial Governor of Virginia, with a mission to the western wilds of Penn- sylvania, where the French, from Canada, were then penetrating, and had already established, as was believed, four posts within our limits, and were seeking to unite the natives in alliance against us, he arrived at the banks of the Ohio, having made the journey — let me say in parenthesis — from the capital of Vir- ginia in five and twenty days, the rate of ti'avelling thither in those times. Gathering the Indians around him, he found that such an alliance had indeed been formed. He found that they had exchanged with the French, as its solemn S3'mbol, a wampum-belt, on which four houses were rudely embroidered — the representations of the posts, which were to be defended, even at the risk of war. Influenced by his remonstrances, the Indian sachems consented to withdraw from the alliance ; but they declared, that the belt of wampum must be re- turned before the agreement could be abolished ; and one of the sachems re- paired to the French commander, in order to restore to him the token of the warlike compact, and to proclaim the intention of the red men to take no part in the impending struggle. " This Wampum-Belt, which you now place in our archives — this symbol of a peaceful and confiding alliance — never was recalled, nor was its counterpart returned. Embroidered with the rude but significant emblems, which describe the nature, and proclaim the impor- tance of the compact it was meant to bind — the clasped hands of Penn and an Indian chief — it has been preserved, as it was delivered, nearly two centuries ago. By Penn it was carried to Eng- land, and retained by him as a cherished memorial of the event ever present in his thoughts, up to the last moment of his life. When the Indians heard of, and bewailed his death, they exclaimed, that the cove- nant made between them still remained untarnished, and they only besought, that the compact made at Shackamaxon should be kept by his successors, as he had kept it, through all future time." INDIAN CEREMONIAL. " Eveiy [Indian] king has his coun- " cil, consisting of all the old and wise " men of his nation, which, perhaps, is "200 people; and the young men, too, " are consulted upon any matter of " moment. It is admirable to consider, "how powerful the kings are, and yet " how they move bj' the breath of their " people. I have had occasion to be " in council with them, upon treaties for "land and to adjust terms of trade. " Their order is thus : the king sits in " the middle of a half-moon ; and has his " council, the old and the wise on each " hand. Behind them, at a little dis- " tance, sit the younger fry in the " same figure. Whilst speaking is going " forward, on either side, not a man "throughout the assembly either whis- " pers or smiles. On one of these occa- " sions, a young man made a speech to " me in the name of the king, stating " that the reason they had not given "me a definite answer, at the time of "the previous meeting on the same " subject, was, that they were not cer- " tain that all the Indians then present, " understood it. Anyhow, that they " wanted time to deliberate ; but were