Civilization of the Indian Natives / or, a Brief View of the Friendly Conduct of William Penn Towards Them in the Early Settlement of Pennsylvania

The corrections in the errata on page 120 have been incorporated into the original.
Our readers have, no doubt, perused with satisfaction the numbers which have appeared from time to time in this periodical, respecting the Seneca Indians—their habits, superstitions, &c. The facts which these articles embraced, were rendered the more interesting, by the late difficulties which had been manifested between the United States, and several southern and western tribes, upon the subject of their lands, and the right by which they held them in possession.
Since the conclusion of these interesting numbers, we have been favoured by the writer with a more enlarged and particular narration, respecting the situation of the Indians, in the early settlement of this country—in which a concise view is presented of the proceedings of William Penn, in relation to them at the period of the first settlement of Pennsylvania. A very particular description is also given of the proceedings of the Yearly Meeting of Friends of Pennsylvania, New Jersey, &c. touching the means adopted to increase their happiness, and improve their moral and physical condition. Many speeches, highly characteristic and beautiful, delivered by distinguished chiefs, in council, will be found interspersed through the narrative.
Having concluded, in our last number, the works of William Shewen, we think we cannot better occupy, for a few weeks, the pages heretofore devoted to that work, than by appropriating them to the interesting subject, of which the above is an outline, and which the writer has kindly given us permission to publish. It may then be preserved in the same manner as the works just completed, and will form a small but valuable book for all classes.
Believing that some account of the measures pursued by the Society of Friends, towards the Indian natives, may prove an auxiliary in the cause of humanity, and probably interest the serious and benevolent mind in behalf of the aborigines of our country, whom we consider as children of one universal parent, who is no respecter of persons, but regards with equal care all nations, whether of a fair complexion or a tawny skin; I am, therefore, induced to believe that every thing relating to their history may prove interesting to posterity, when they shall be told that such a race of men, who may then have passed away, once inhabited this populous country. And having acquired considerable knowledge of some of the Indian tribes, and of the progress some of them have made in the arts of civilized life, I am induced to offer a concise view of the friendly intercourse that has subsisted between the society of Friends and the aborigines of our country, from the time the illustrious William Penn, and some of his cotemporaries first landed on the American shores, and exhibited to the world, the singular spectacle of establishing a new model of government, amidst a mixture of persons of different nations, and different civil and religious opinions, surrounded by savage tribes of Indians, without recourse to any coercive measures—which has since been the wonder and admiration of mankind.