Hundreds of settlers hastened to the new colony. When Penn reached Newcastle on the Delaware in the fall of 1682 he met a hearty welcome from scores of happy people who were already enjoying their long-wished-for religious freedom.
One of Penn's first acts was to call a meeting of the colonists to talk over their government. This pleased the people greatly, for although the land was Penn's he not only gave them land for their houses and farms, but he also gave them the right to choose their own rulers and to make their own laws.
WILLIAM PENN'S TREATY WITH THE INDIANS
After the painting by Benjamin West, which hangs in Independence Hall, Philadelphia
The founding of Philadelphia
Penn next turned his attention to founding the great Quaker city to which he gave the name Philadelphia, signifying brotherly love—a name truly expressing Penn's feeling toward other men. He marked off the streets right in the midst of a great forest, and called them Walnut, Mulberry, Chestnut, and so on, after the trees that grew there. Some of the streets in Philadelphia are still so named.
Some settlers lived in caves
But the settlers came faster than houses could be built, and some families had to live in caves dug in the banks along the river. Philadelphia grew faster than the other colonial towns, and soon led them all.