CHAPTER VI 



The Penn Treaty Elm Descendants of the Penn Treaty Elm. 



THE PENN TREATY ELM 



The Penn Treaty Elm stood at Shackamaxon, on the Delaware, 

 a few miles north of Philadelphia, Penn., and was a tree of noble pro- 

 portions, measuring twenty-four feet in circumference at its base, and 

 noted as having a branch one hundred and fifty feet long. Under its 

 spreading shade many a council had been held among the chiefs of 

 the various Indian nations, who either lived in the vicinity, or came as 

 guests, and to this custom the place owed its name of Shachamaxon. 

 Originally, as appears in old records, the spelling was Sachamexing 

 or Sachemexing, derived from the word Sakima, a king or chief, 

 (whence our familiar word Sachem), and the Indian termination 

 "ing" which signified "locality or place where," therefore "place where 

 chiefs resort." 



Naturally enough, it has been thought that the old elm was also 

 the meeting-place of the chiefs and Mr. Markham, William Perm's 

 cousin, who preceded him to the New World, as his representative; 

 and also the three commissioners, sent by the Proprietor to assist in 

 looking after his affairs. They brought with them the following 

 instructions : 



"Be tender of offending the Indians. Let them know that you 

 are come to sit lovingly among them. Let my letter and conditions 

 with my purchasers about just dealing with them be read in their own 

 tongue, that they may see we have their good in our eye, equal with 

 our own interest ; and after reading my letter and the said conditions, 

 then present their kings with what I send them, and make a friend- 

 ship and league with them according to those conditions, which care- 

 fully observe, and get them to comply with you; be grave, they love 

 not to be smiled on." 



The letter referred to, William Penn's celebrated letter to the 

 Indians, is dated October 18, 1681. "I shall shortly come to see you, 

 myself," he writes, "at which time we may more freely and largely 

 confer and discourse on these matters. In the meantime, I have sent 

 my commissioners to treat with you about land and a firm league of 

 peace." 



It was to confirm this "league of peace" that William Penn met 

 the chiefs under the treaty tree, in 1682; perhaps also to endorse the 

 protection promised by his commissioners to the Susquehannas, who 

 were annoyed by troubles in their territory. The belief that there was, 

 on this occasion, any transaction concerning the purchase of land by 

 him, is unfounded, as the earliest authentic record of such a purchase 

 by himself is dated June 23, 1683. So deeply rooted was this idea, 



38 



