Penfyfoania, Philadelphia* 47 



force people to come and fettle here ; on the con- 

 trary, foreigners of different languages have left 

 their country, houfes, property, and relations, 

 and ventured over wide and ftormy feas, in order 

 to come hither. Other countries, which have 

 been peopled for a long fpace of time, complain 

 of the final! number of their inhabitants. But 

 Penfyfoama> which was no better than a defart 

 in the year 168 J, and hardly contained five hun- 

 dred people, now vi.es with feveral kingdoms in 

 "Europe in number of inhabitants. It has re- 

 ceived numbers of people, which other coun- 

 tries, to their infinite lofs, have either neglefted 

 or expelled, 



A WRETCHED old wooden building, on a hilL 

 near the river fomewhat north of the WickakQ 

 church, belonging to one of the Sons of Sven, of 

 whom, as before mentioned, the ground was- 

 bought for building Philadelphia upon, 19 pre~ 

 ferved on purpofe, as a memorial of the poor 

 ftate of that place before the town was built on 

 it. Its antiquity gives it a kind'of fuperiori.ty 

 over all the other buildings in town, though m 

 itfelf the worfl of all. This hut was inhabited, 

 whilft as yet flags, dejers, elks, and beavers, at 

 broad day-light, lived in the future flreets, 

 church-yards, and market-places of ~ Philadelphia. 

 The noife of a fpinning wheel was heard in this 

 houfe, before the manufactures now eflabliihed 

 were thought of, or Philadelphia built. But with 

 all thefe advantages, this houfe is ready to fall 

 down, and, in a few years to come, it will be as- 

 difficult to find the place where it flood, as it was 

 unlikely at the -time of its ereition, that one of 



the 



