86 HISTORY OF 



by plausible inductions, that they were the ten dispersed 

 tribes of Israel.* He travelled into the country, visited 

 them in their cabins, was present at their feasts, conversed 

 with them in a free and familiar manner, and gained their 

 affections by his affability, and repeated acts of generosity. 

 On public occasions, he did not forget the dignity of his 

 station; he always received them with ceremony, trans^ 

 acted business with solemnity and becoming order. 



In one of his excursions in the winter, he found a chief 

 warrior sick, and his wife preparing to sweat him^ in the 

 usual manner, by pouring water on a heap of heated 

 stones, in a closely covered hut, and then plunging him 

 into the river, through a hole cut in the ice. To divert 

 himself during the sweating operation, the chief sang the 

 exploits of his ancestors, then his own, and concluded his 

 song with this reflection: Why are we sick, and these 

 strangers well? It seems as if they were sent to inherit 

 the land in our stead ! Ah ! it is because they love the 

 Great Mannitto — ^the Great Spirit, and we do not! — 

 The sentiment was rational, and such as often occurred 

 to the sagacious among the natives. It cannot have 

 been disagreeable to Penn, to hear such sentiments uttered^ 

 whose view it was to impress them with an idea of his 

 honest and pacific intentions, and to make a fair bargain 

 with them. Some of their chiefs made him a voluntary 

 present of the land which they claimed ; others sold it at 

 a stipulated price. Penn himself described one of these 

 interviews in a letter to a friend of his in England.! 



The same year Penn arrived, there was quite an ac- 

 cession; between twenty and thirty ships landed with 

 passengers, and the two next succeeding years settlers 

 from London, Bristol, Ireland, Wales, Holland, Germany, 



♦Proud, I. 25^. fBelknap, II. 413. 



