WILLIAM PENN
(1644-1718).

96.  King Charles the Second gives William Penn a great piece of land, and names it Pennsylvania.—­King Charles the Second of England owed a large sum of money to a young Englishman named William Penn.  The king was fond of pleasure, and he spent so much money on himself and his friends that he had none left to pay his just debts.  Penn knew this; so he told His Majesty that if he would give him a piece of wild land in America, he would ask nothing more.

[Illustration:  WILLIAM PENN AT THE AGE OF 22.]

Charles was very glad to settle the account so easily.  He therefore gave Penn a great territory[1] north of Maryland[2] and west of the Delaware River.  This territory was nearly as large as England.  The king named it Pennsylvania, a word which means Penn’s Woods.  At that time the land was not thought to be worth much.  No one then had discovered the fact that beneath Penn’s Woods there were immense mines of coal and iron, which would one day be of greater value than all the riches of the king of England.

[Footnote 1:  Territory:  any very large extent of land.]

[Footnote 2:  See map in paragraph 97.]

97.  William Penn’s religion; what he wanted to do with his American land.—­Penn belonged to a religious society called the Society of Friends; to-day they are generally spoken of as Quakers.  They are a people who try to find out what is right by asking their own hearts.  They believe in showing no more signs of respect to one man than to another, and at that time they would not take off their hats even to the king himself.

[Illustration:  Map of eastern Pennsylvania and surroundings.]

Penn wanted the land which had been given him here as a place where the Friends or Quakers might go and settle.  A little later the whole of what is now the state of New Jersey was bought by Penn and other Quakers for the same purpose.  We have seen[3] that neither the Pilgrims nor the Catholics had any real peace in England.  The Quakers suffered even more still; for oftentimes they were cruelly whipped, thrown into dark and dirty prisons where many died of the bad treatment they received.  William Penn himself had been shut up in jail four times on account of his religion; and though he was no longer in such danger, because the king was his friend, yet he wanted to provide a safe place for others who were not so well off as he was.

[Footnote 3:  See paragraphs 62 and 76.]

98.  Penn sends out emigrants to Pennsylvania; he gets ready to go himself; his conversation with the king.—­Penn accordingly sent out a number of people who were anxious to settle in Pennsylvania.  The next year, 1682, he made ready to sail, himself with a hundred more emigrants.  Just before he started, he called on the king in his palace in London.  The king was fond of joking, and he said to him that he should never expect to see him again, for he thought