26 HISTORY OP 



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^ m 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 yeai-s settlers 

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



*Proud, I. 259. fBelknap, II. 413. 



