laid waste the Palatinate with fire and sword, and reduced the wretched inhabitants, to famine, distress, and ruin. (Wars of Lewis XIV. with the empire.)

The increase of population arising from these multiplied emigrations filled the colony so fast, upon the banks of the Delaware, Schuylkill, and in that vicinity, that many old people, as well as others, felt the want of bread, yet they did not suffer; such were their habits of industry and economy, and such were the means of support arising from fish, wild game, &c. that they were preserved from those distresses which we have witnessed in New England, and in the colonies of the south. By this rapid influx of settlers, the lands near the great River Delaware, were soon cleared, so far as to begin to become productive; but the country back from the river was a pathless desert, without even one trace of the footsteps of man; and yet even here the settlers penetrated, explored the country, located their lands, purchased the soil of the Indians, built log huts, planted their families, and made war; not with the natives; but with the forest; here the sturdy strokes of the woodman, made the wilderness ring with the repeated strokes of his axe; the crash of the falling trees, made the distant hills reverberate the sound. Born in affluence, and educated in habits of elegance and ease, as many of these adventurers had been in England; these were to them new and untried, or even uncontemplated scenes, yet such was their confidence in their leader, such the climate and the soil, and such those bonds of friendship, and social religion, that they persevered with patience and fortitude, overcame the common enemy, the tall oakes of the forest, cleared their lands, cultivated their farms, enjoyed their religion, and through this peace, uninterrupted peace with the natives, and thus planted a colony, that shines with conspicious lustre amongst the bright constel

lations of America. Although the proprietary enjoyed his own seat, near the great falls of Trenton; yet he consulted the best interest of the colony, in not laying the foundations of his city of brotherly love, near to or about his own residence, but purchased of the Swedes that neck of land lying between the Schuylkill and Delaware, as being better adapted for the scite of his capital city, and therefore most for the interest of the colony.

In 1682, he caused the city to be surveyed into lots, and at the same time many small huts or houses were built, and thus the metropolis of Pennsylvania, from an assemblage of log huts, grew up upon the plan of the ancient city of Babylon, and has now become one of the first commercial cities in the United States of America.*

The province was now divided by the proprietary into three counties, viz. the counties of Bucks, Philadelphia, and Chester; these with the counties of New-Castle, Kent, and Sussex, mentioned before, made up six counties, for which the proprietary appointed sheriffs and other officers, and then issued writs of election to call a General Assembly, agreeable to the constitution at that time. The council was convened on the first month of 1683, at Philadelphia, and the assembly two days after, and the proprietor presided in council. And Thomas Wynne was chosen speaker. The council and assembly consisted of twelve out of each county, eighteen of which were of the council, and fifty-four of the assembly.

This number did not meet the demands of the charter; but as the population was so thin, the people thought it sufficient, and requested the acceptance of the gov enor, and he complied; and assured them of his readiness to meet their wishes in such alterations as might

The plot is level, and the streets are laid out at right angles, between the two rivers, after the manner of ancient Babylon.

be found best for the public good. On the 20th of the same month, the governor and council received the speaker and two members of assembly, when he submitted to them this question-Whether they chose to have the old charter or a new one? they unanimously replied, a new one, with such amendments as had already been debated, and agreed upon; to which the governor consented, in a speech to both houses; and the assembly expressed their grateful acknowledgments to the governor for his condescension and goodness. A new charter was accordingly drawn up by a special committee, appointed for the purpose, and on the 30th of the same month, the charter was prepared, read, accepted, signed, sealed and delivered by the governor, to three members of assembly, who returned the old one, with the thanks of the house to his excellency. This charter continued until 1696, when it was again renewed, and continued until the great charter of privileges in 1701.

The governor and council appointed the sheriffs, and established a seal for each county, and the assembly was closed, after a session of twenty days.

In the third month of this year, certain persons were arrested and tried for passing counterfeit money, which was the occasion of calling the first jury. The persons indicted were found guilty, and sentenced as follows, viz. John Pickering, who was principal, for coining and stamping counterfeit silver money, to make full satisfaction for this high crime and misdemeanor, in good current money, to every person who should, within the space of one month, bring in any of this base, false, counterfeit money, (agreeable to proclamation then issued,) according to their respective proportions, and that the money brought in should be melted down before it was returned to him; and that he should pay forty pounds towards the building of a court

house; stand committed until the same was paid, and afterwards find security for his good behaviour."

The next object of importance that interested the attention of the governor, was his favourite city, a short description, of which may not be uninteresting in this place.

PHILADELPHIA.

This city is situated on the 40th degree of north latitude, and about 75 degrees of west longitude from London, on the west side of the river Delaware, which is about one mile broad, at the distance of about one hundred twenty miles from the sea, along the course of the river and bay. The river Schuylkill, which is a branch of the Delaware, and here runs nearly parallel to the Delaware, at the distance of about two miles to the westward, is broad and deep enough for large ships at this place; but their passage is obstructed by a sand bar at its mouth, where it enters the Delaware, about four miles below the city. It is also obstructed by falls about five miles above the city, at the head of tide waters. No boats can ascend this fall; but in times of freshet they often descend, loaded with articles from the country above. The tides at Philadelphia generally rise about six feet, and flow up to Trenton falls, twenty-six miles above the city, where large ships often go. Philadelphia extends from the Delaware to the Schuylkill, two miles, and upon each river between one and two miles. Nine streets extend from river to river, these are intersected by twenty-three others, at right angles, and running parallel to each other north and south. Their breadth is from fifty to one hundred feet. Five squares within the city were assigned by the governor for the public use of the city, the largest square in the centre of the city contains ten acres, and the others eight. [For a more minute view of the plan of this city, see Appendix marked 1.]

Having thus given a sketch of the outlines of the city of Philadelphia, I will next give William Penn's description of the province at full length.

"For the province, the general description of it take as follows:

"I. The country itself, its soil, air, water, seasons, produce, both natural and artificial, are not to be despised. The land containeth divers sorts of earths, as sands, yellow and black, poor and rich; also gravel, both loamy and dusty; and in some places a fast fat earth, like our best vales in England; especially by inland brooks, and rivers ; God in his wisdom having ordered it so, that the advantages of the country are divided, the back lands being generally three to one richer than those that lie by navigable rivers; we have much of another soil, and that is of a black házel mould, upon a stoney or rocky bottom.

II. The air is sweet and clear, the heavens serene, like the south part of France, rarely overcast : and as the woods come, by numbers of people, to be more cleared, that itself will refine.

* III. The waters are generally good; for the rivers and brooks have mostly gravelly and stoney bottoms, and in number hardly credible. We have also mineral waters, that operate in the same manner with Barnet and Hall, not two miles distant from Philadelphia.

"IV. For the season of the year, having now by God's goodness lived over the coldest and hottest, that the oldest liver in the province can now remember, I can say something to an English understanding.

First of the fall, for then I came in; I found it from the - 24th of October to the beginning of December, much as *we have it England in September, or rather like an English mild spring. From December to the beginning of the month called March, we had sharp frosty weather; not