504 ULMUS AMERICANA. 



Mr. Javncs Gordon ; though, as Martyn observes, no notice was taken of it, or of 

 any other American ehn, in the edition of Miller's " Dictionary," which was 

 pnbhshed sixteen years afterwards. It has doubtless existed in the arboretum at 

 Kew, and proliably, in the i^rounds at Syon, but it is not to be found of nnich 

 magnitude, at present, in either of these collections. There are trees, however, 

 in the garden of tlie London Horticultural Society, and in the Edinburgh botanic 

 garden, which exceed thirty feet in height. The American elm seldom flowers 

 in t^igland, and never ripens its seeds. 



Seeds of the Ulmus anicricana were sent to France by M. Michaux, in 1HU7, 

 from which several thousand plants were raised ; and, of which, according to 

 the " Nouveaii Du Hamel," there are very fine specimens at Trianon, where 

 they are distinguished from all other elms by the superior beauty of their leaves. 



In America, the "favourite elm,"' and several other native trees, are insepara- 

 bly connected with the history of the country. They forcibly appeal to the 

 imaginations of the people, not only by being associated with the sports of child- 

 hood, the coming and singing of birds, and with the haunts of young men and 

 maidens, fondly and joyously traced in by-gone days ; but they teach lessons of 

 wisdom to aged and hoary-headed men bespeak their country's wrongs their 

 country's glory, and tell them much concerning the mutability of things below. 

 Had these trees the gifts of reason and speech, or could their " leaves form words 

 when shaken by the wind," how many tales of loves and woes of human suf- 

 fering and human joys would they unfold. But, as these ancient tenants of the 

 soil are not endowed with voice and memory, let us be ourselves the oracles, and 

 discourse to our own ears upon some of the events which have transpired withir, 

 the dim vista of two hundred years. 



penn's treaty elm. 



" With kind, assuring words, 

 And answering deeds, he binds the deathless chain 

 Of friendship; and though o'er his silent grave, 

 Time long hath wander'd, still at the blest name 

 Of the beloved Miqunn, starts the tear 

 Of fndian gratitude." 



Traits of the Aborigines. 



Towards the close of the year 1682, the commissioners, who accompanied the 

 first detachment of colonists to Pennsylvania, had, in compliance with the pro- 

 prietary's instructions, negotiated a treaty with the neighbouring tribes of Indians, 

 for the purchase of the lands which they were to occupy, and for the assurance 

 of perpetual peace and friendship between the two races of people. " The relig- 

 ious principles of Penn," says his biographer, " which led him to the practice of 

 the most scrupuloiis morality, did not permit him to look upon the king's patent, 

 or legal possession according to the laws of England, as sufficient to establish his 

 right to the country, without purchasing it by fair and open bargain of the na- 

 tives, to whom it properly belonged. He had instructed commissioners, who 

 arrived in America before him, to buy it of the latter, and to make with them a 

 treaty of eternal friendship. This, those commissioners had done, and now, by 

 mutual agreement between him and the Indian chiefs, it was to be solemnly rati- 

 fied. He proceeded, therefore, accompanied by his friends, consisting of men, 

 women, and young persons of both sexes, to Coaquannoc, the Indian name for 

 the place where Philadelphia now stands. On his arrival, he found the sachems 

 and their tribes assembling. They were seen through the woods, as far as the 

 eye could reach, and looked frightfully, both on account of their number and 

 their arms. The Quakers are reported to have been but a handful in comparison, 

 and without any weapon; so that dismay and terror must have seized them, had 

 they not confided in the righteousness of their cause. It is much to be regretted, 



