OF LANCASTER COUNTY. 49 



journalists among tlie Friends incidentally speaks of him as having 

 naturally an excess of levity of spirit for a grave minister." ^ 



Penn immediately after his arrival despatched two persons to Lord 

 Baltimore,'^ to ask of his health, offer kind neighborhood, and agree upon 

 a time of meeting the better to establish it. While they were gone on 

 this errand he went to New York to pay his duty to the Duke, in the 

 visit of his government and colony. He returned from New York 

 towards the end of November. 



To this period belongs the " Great Treaty ^^'' which took place at Shack- 

 amaxon, (now called Kensington), or more correctly Sachamexing, 

 derived from Sahitna or Sachem^ the Delaware for a king or chief, and 

 ing^ the Indian termination indicating locality or the place where; the a: 

 before ing is inserted for euphony's sake. Thus Sakimaxing or Sacha- 

 mexing signifies the meeting place of chiefs. It seems to have been a 

 place of resort for the Indians of different nations to consult together 

 and settle their mutual differences and on this account it was probablv 

 selected by Markham and Penn^ after him as the place for holding their 

 successive treaties. There were at least three Indian tribes present : The 

 Lenni Lenape, living near the Delaware; the Mingoes from Conestogo, 

 and the Shawnees from the Susquehanna. William Penn was accompa- 

 nied by a few friends. 



"It is near the close of November, [1682], the lofty forest trees on the 

 banks of the Delaware have shed their summer attire,* the ground is 

 strewed with leaves, and the Council fire burns brightly, fanned by the 

 autumnal breeze. Under the wide branching elm^ the Indian tribes are 

 assembled, but all unarmed, for no warlike weapon is allowed to disturb 



1 The deponent referred to is the grandmother of Samuel Preston, Esq.. formerly of 

 Bucks county. She died in 1774, at the age of 100 years, in full mind and memory. 

 William Penn and sundry Indians were present at her marriage. She described Penn 

 as of rather short stature, but the handsomest, best looking, most lively gentleman, she 

 had ever seen. There was nothing like pride about him, but affable and friendly with 

 the humblest in life. — Watson's Annals, I. 55. 



2 W. Penn's letter to the Lords of Plantations, &c. 



3 Mem. Hist. Soc. Pa. III. pt. 2. p. 183. 



4 Comi)iled by Janney. 



5 This tree was long revered by the colonists and Indians. During the revolutionary 

 war the British general Sincoe, who was quartered at Kensington, so regarded it, that 

 whilst his soldiers were felling the trees of the vicinity for fuel, he placed a sentinel 

 under this, that not a branch of it might be touched. In 1810 it was blown down, and 

 cups, and workstands, and other articles of furniture, were made from it, to be pre- 

 served as memorials. It was then ascertained to be two hundred and eighty-three 

 years old, having been one hundred and fifty-five years old at the time of the confer- 

 ence. — Notice by Sir B. West, reported by B. Vaux, esq,, member of the Historical Society 

 of Pennsylmnia, 1825 — p. 97 — Clarkson. 



The Penn Society of Philadelphia, at the suggestion of R. Vaux, esq., have erected 

 a marble monument on the spot where the ^^ Treaty Elm'''' stood, on the bank of the 

 5 



