George Bancroft, History of the United States from the Discovery of the American Continent, Vol. 2, 17th edition.

[358] the men of peace, arrived in America, Andros, the

Chap. XVI.} 1677.

governor of New York, claimed jurisdiction over their territory. The claim, which, on the feudal system, was perhaps a just one, was compromised as a present question, and referred for decision to England. Meantime lands were purchased of the Indians; the planters numbered nearly four hundred souls; and already at Burlington, under a tent covered with sail-cloth, the Quakers began to hold religious meetings.¹ The Indian kings also gathered in council under the shades of the Burlington forests, and declared their joy at the pros-

1678.

pect of permanent peace. ‘You are our brothers,’ said the sachems, ‘and we will live like brothers with you. We will have a broad path for you and us to walk in. If an Englishman falls asleep in this path, the Indian shall pass him by, and say, He is an Englishman; he is asleep; let him alone. The path shall be plain; there shall not be in it a stump to hurt the feet.’²

Every thing augured success to the colony, but that, at Newcastle, the agent of the duke of York, who still possessed Delaware, exacted customs of the ships ascending to New Jersey. It may have been honestly believed, that his jurisdiction included the whole river; when urgent remonstrances were made, the duke freely referred the question to a disinterested commission.

The argument of the Quakers breathes the spirit of Anglo-Saxons.

An express grant of the powers of government

1678 to 680.

induced us to buy the moiety of New Jersey. If we could not assure people of an easy, free, and safe government, liberty of conscience, and an inviolable possession