It could have had no better name. The country was covered with thick woods, and the settlers had gained it through the kindness of William Penn.
He came to Pennsylvania the year after the first settlers reached it. He did not try to rule over his people. He said they should make their own laws. He told them he wished the new home to be free to all. It did not matter what a person believed. He should live in Pennsylvania in peace and happiness.
He helped the Friends to lay out a city which they called Philadelphia. That meant the city of Brotherly Love.
They had no trouble with the Indians. Penn sent word to the near-by tribes that he wished to meet their chiefs. He said he meant no harm to them. He would punish anyone who did a wrong to an Indian. He was willing to pay them for the land where his people had settled.
One by one the chiefs arrived. They were all well armed and grand with paint and feathers. They sat in a half-moon under a large elm tree. Penn stood in their midst. He had no weapons whatever. The branches of the tall elm tree waved gently overhead while the Quaker talked with the Red Men and smoked the peace-pipe with them. He said:
"I will not call you my children, because fathers sometimes whip their children. I will not call you brothers, because brothers sometimes quarrel. But I will call you the same as we say of the white people,—Friends."
He told them he and his people would treat them honestly. They wished for peace always, and would do nothing to break it.
Before the meeting was over, the Indians promised to keep that peace and to harm no Quaker. They gave Penn a belt of wampum. Wampum was very precious to the Indians. It was made of peculiar shells. Penn's belt was made of white ones. It had a picture in the middle made with purple shells. This picture showed a white man and an Indian shaking hands.
The Red Men kept their promise. When they became old and ready to die, they repeated it to their children, who also promised. Thus the Friends lived in peace with the Indians, and Pennsylvania was the happy home of many people.
Penn stayed a long time with his settlers. He often went to visit the Indians in their villages. He joined them in their feasts. He played with their children. The Red Men loved and trusted him.