King Charles. WELL, friend William! I have sold you a noble province
in North America; but still, I suppose you have no thoughts of going
thither yourself ?

Penn. Yes, I have, I assure thee, friend Charles; and I am just come to bid
thee farewell.

K. C. What! venture yourself among the savages of North America!
Why, man, what security have you that you will not be in their war
kettle in two hours after setting foot on their shores?

P. The best security in the world.

K. C. I doubt that, friend William; I have no idea of any security against
those cannibals but in a regiment of good soldiers, with their muskets and
bayonets. And mind, I tell you beforehand, that, with all my good will
for you and your family, to whom I am under obligations, I will not
send a single soldier with you.

P. I want none of thy soldiers, Charles: I depend on something better
than thy soldiers.

K. C. Ah! what may that be?

P. Why, I depend upon themselves; on the working of their own hearts;
on their notions of justice; on their moral sense.

K. C. A fine thing, this same moral sense, no doubt; but I fear you will
not find much of it among the Indians of North America.

P. And why not among them as well as others?

K. C. Because if they had possessed any, they would not have treated
my subjects so barbarously as they have done.

P. That is no proof of the contrary, friend Charles. Thy subjects were the
aggressors. When thy subjects first went to North America, they found
these poor people the fondest and kindest creatures in the world. Every
day they would watch for them to come ashore, and hasten to meet them,
and feast them on the best fish, and venison, and corn, which were all
they had. In return for this hospitality of the savages, as we call them,
thy subjects, termed Christians, seized on their country and rich
hunting grounds for farms for themselves. Now, is it to be wondered at,
that these much injured people should have been driven to desperation
by such injustice; and that, burning with revenge, they should have
committed some excesses ?

K. C. Well, then, I hope you will not complain when they come to treat
you in the same manner.

P. I am not afraid of it.

K.C.  Ah! how will you avoid it ? You mean to get their hunting grounds,
too, I suppose ?

P. Yes, but not by driving these poor people away from them.

K. C. No, indeed ? How then will you get their lands ?

P. I mean to buy their lands of them.

K. C. Buy their lands of them? Why, man, you have already bought them
of me!

P. Yes, I know I have, and at a dear rate, too; but I did it only to get thy
good will, not that I thought thou hadst any right to their lands.

K. C. How, man? no right to their lands?

P. No, friend Charles, no right; no right at all: what right hast thou to
their lands ?

K. C. Why, the right of discovery, to be sure; the right which the Pope
and all Christian kings have agreed to give one another.

P. The right of discovery? A strange kind of right, indeed. Now suppose,
friend Charles, that some canoe load of these Indians, crossing the sea,
and discovering this island of Great Britain, were to claim it as their own,
and set it up for sale over thy head, what wouldst thou think of it?

K. C. Why why why I must confess, I should think it a piece of great
impudence in them.

P. Well, then, how canst thou, a Christian, and a Christian prince, too, do
that which thou so utterly condemnest in these people whom thou callest
savages ? And suppose, again, that these Indians, on thy refusal to give
up thy island of Great Britain, were to make war on thee, and, having
weapons more destructive than thine, were to destroy many of thy
subjects, and drive the rest away - wouldst thou not think it horribly cruel?

K. C. I must say, friend William, that I should; how can I say otherwise?

P. Well, then, how can I, who call myself a Christian, do what I should
abhor even in the heathen? No. I will not do it. But I will buy the right of
the proper owners, even of the Indians themselves. By doing this, I shall
imitate God himself in his justice and mercy, and thereby insure his
blessing on my colony, if I should ever live to plant one in North America. 
 

DEFINITIONS. Can'ni bals, human beings that eat human flesh. Re g'i 
ment, a body of troops, consisting usually of ten companies.

Aggress'ors, those who first commence hostilities. Ven'i son (pro. ven'i zn,
or ven'zn), the flesh of deer. Ex cess'es, misdeeds, evil acts. Con demn'est
(pro. kon dem'est), censure, blame.

NOTES.  Charles II. was king of England from A.D. 1660 to 1685.
William Penn (b. 1644, d. 1718) was a noted Englishman who belonged to
the sect of Friends. He came to America in 1682, and founded the
province which is now the state of Pennsylvania. He purchased the
lands from the Indians, who were so impressed with the justice and good
will of Penn and his associates, that the Quaker dress often served as a
sure protection when other settlers were trembling for their lives.