curity against those cannibals but in a regiment of good soldiers, with their muskets and bayonets. And mind I tell you before hand, that, with all my good will for you and your family, to whom I am under obligations, I will not send a single soldier with you."

"I want none of thy soldiers," answered William. "I depend on something better than thy soldiers."

The king wished to know what that was.

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Why I depend on themselves-on their own moral senseeven on that grace of God which bringeth salvation, and which hath appeared unto all men."

"I fear, friend William, that that grace has never appeared to the Indians of North America."

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Why not to them as well as all others?"

"If it had appeared to them," said the king, "they would hardly have treated my subjects so barbarously as they have done."

"That is no proof to the contrary, friend Charles. Thy subjects were the aggressors. When thy subjects first went to North America, they found these poor people the fondest and kindest creatures in the world. Every day they would watch for them to come ashore, and hasten to meet them, and feast them on their best fish and venison and corn, which was all that they had. In return for this hospitality of the savages, as we call them, thy subjects, termed christians, seized on their country and rich hunting grounds, for farms for themselves! Now is it to be wondered at, that these much injured people should have been driven to desperation by such injustice; and that, burning with revenge, they should have committed some excesses?'

"Well, then, I hope, friend William, you will not complain when they come to treat you in the same manner.'

"I am not afraid of it," said Penn.

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Aye! how will you avoid it? You mean to get their hunting grounds too, I suppose?

"Yes, but not by driving these poor people away from. them."

"No, indeed! How then will you get their lands?

"I mean to buy their lands of them."

"Buy their lands of them! why, man, you have already bought them of me."

"Yes, I know I have, and at a dear rate too; but I did it only to get thy good will, not that I thought thou hadst any right to their lands."

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"Zounds, man! no right to their lands!"

"No, friend Charles, no right at all: What right hast thou to their lands?”

"Why, the right of discovery; the right which the Pope and all Christian kings have agreed to give one another."

"The right of discovery! a strange kind of right indeed. Now suppose, friend Charles, some canoe loads of these Indians, crossing the sea, and discovering thy island of Great Britain, were to claim it as their own, and set it up for sale over thy head, what wouldst thou think of it?”

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Why-why-why" replied Charles, "I must confess I should think it a piece of great impudence in them."

"Well, then, how canst thou, a CHRISTIAN, and a CHRISTIAN PRINCE too, do that which thou so utterly condemnest in these people whom thou callest savages? Yes, friend Charles, and suppose again that these Indians on thy refusal to give up thy island of Great Britain, were to make war on thee, and, having weapons more destructive than thine, were to destroy many of thy subjects and to drive the rest away; wouldst thou not think it horribly cruel?"

The king assenting to this with strong marks of conviction, William proceeded-" Well, then, friend Charles, how can I, who call myself a christian do what I should abhor even ia heathens! No, I will not do it.-But I will buy the right of the proper owners, even of the Indians themselves. By doing this I shall imitate God himself, in his justice and mercy, and thereby insure his blessing on my colony, if I should ever live to plant one in North America."

Weems' Life of William Penn. As light advances the character of William Penn shines brighter and brighter; and his just and benignant policy towards the American Indians is continually rising in public estimation. While he was expressing his confidence in the power of justice and beneficence for security among the savages, the king doubtless regarded him as a fanatic, about to expose himself to perish by the tomahawk. But events proved that Penn had more correct views of the Indian character than his sovereign. Had the spirit and policy of this philanthropist been displayed by all the emigrants from Europe to America, how vast would have been the saving of human blood and human wo! In that case we should not indeed have heard so much of the bravery of our ancestors in destroying the natives; but we should have heard of deeds

unspeakably more to their honor, and on which posterity might have reflected without horror or regret.

Who is not struck with the force of Penn's reasoning on the pretended "right of discovery," and with the folly of popes, kings, and christians, in asserting such a right! Yet what are called "the rights of conquest" and "the rights of war," have, if possible, less claim to respect than the "right of discovery." They are but the rights of robbers; and the progress of christian philanthropy will exhibit them as wrongs instead of rights. Who gave kings or any other rulers a right to injure their fellow men? Happy will be the day when christian princes shall have ceased to claim a "right" to do what they would condemn as felony in a private robber, or as cruelty in a savage. It is an undeniable but lamentable fact, that the most celebrated christian princes obtained their renown, not by advancing the happiness of their subjects, but by sacrificing them by thousands in perpetrating on an immense scale the worst crimes of the worst of men.

CAPTAIN SMITH AND GOVERNOR PENN.

WEEMS, in his Life of William Penn, exhibits a contrast which deserves the attention of all politicians and philanthropists. Penn's humane policy in respect to the Indians in Pennsylvania, is contrasted with the policy of Capt. John Smith in Virginia. Smith came to Virginia with a company of emigrants. established himself at a place which was afterwards called James Town, relying on fortresses and weapons of death for defence against the Indians. Penn came to Pennsylvania, and founded the city of Philadelphia, resolving to make no use of military weapons for defence against the natives, believing that a spirit of peace, justice, and beneficence, would afford more security. We shall now give an abstract from Mr. Weems, of the opposite effects of these two species of policy.

Capt. Smith, having invaded the rights of the Indians in Virginia, sought for safety in his soldiers, cannon, forts and loop-holed churches. But William Penn saved all this expense, and proved that a city of brotherly love needs neither soldiers nor cannon for its defence. Capt. Smith and his party in James Town could not sleep without sentinels and guards. Penn and his followers, though surrounded by thousands of savages, could sleep sweetly, without even bars or bolts to Vol. IV. No. 7.

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their doors. At James Town, an Indian was not suffered to come in without being strictly searched. At Philadelphia, the Indians went in and out familiarly, without exciting any alarm. In Virginia, the Indians were so desirous to drive away the English, that they withheld provisions; and it was not without difficulty and hazard that Capt. Smith could obtain food,—and of 120 persons a considerable number actually starved to death. But in Pennsylvania, in consequence of the humanity and justice of the Governor, the hearts of the Indians were so opened, that they brought in an ample supply of provisions for himself and nearly 3000 followers. Capt. Smith, while walking along the shores, not far from James Town alone, but armed with a broadsword, came near to losing his life by an assault from a single Indian. Penn, with his broad brimmed hat and a staff in his hand, could walk through the country with safety; the Indians, instead of assaulting him, would throng about him to shake hands, calling him brother! brother! and, taking him to their cabins, would feast him with the best provisions they had. "Capt. Smith and the Indians were always in hot water, and often in bloody wars, which never ended but in the extermination of the latter. William Penn and the Indians lived so perfectly in the spirit of brothers, that, during the seventy years which he and the Friends had the rule in Pennsylvania, there was never known a single instance of murder. Capt. Smith's city, Old James Town, built on violence and blood, has been so swept from the face of the earth, that there is scarcely a tombstone remaining to tell where it stood. But William Penn's city, Philadelphia, established in justice and brotherly kindness, has grown up to be the glory of this western world."

INTERESTING STORY OF CAPTAIN ASGILL.

THOSE of our countrymen who were born after the war of the American Revolution, have very imperfect ideas of the perils and distresses of that period, and of the mortal enmities which were indulged between the two parties, denominated Whigs and Tories. In some of the Southern States the parties were so nearly equal, and their hatred to each other so great, that it added much to the calamities of the contest. While General Green commanded in that region, he wrote as follows:

"The animosity between the Whigs and Tories of this State, renders their situation truly deplorable. Not a day passes but there are more or less who fall a sacrifice to this savage disposition. The Whigs seem determined to extirpate the Tories, and the Tories the Whigs. Some thousands have fallen in this way in this quarter; and the evil rages with more violence than ever. If a stop cannot be soon put to these massacres, the country will be depopulated in a few months more,--as neither Whig nor Tory can live."

Speaking of a certain party on our side, he says:

"This party plunders without mercy, and murders the defenceless people, just as private pique, prejudice, or personal resentment dictates.".

A similar spirit prevailed to a great extent between the two parties in the regions near the city of New York; and this was the occasion of the affecting affair of Capt. Asgill,-a captive British officer.

Those of the Tories who fled for protection to New York, while the British army were in possession of the city, were called refugees. Many of them took up arms against their countrymen, and aided the Britons in distressing the inhabitants of New Jersey, and other places. A party of these refugees took a New Jersey-man by the name of Capt. Huddy. After he was a captive, he was barbarously hanged, with an insulting label affixed to his breast. Intelligence of this excited general indignation; and the people of New Jersey presented a "memorial to General Washington, claiming justice for the murder of one of their fellow citizens, or retaliation in case justice should be refused." General Washington immediately wrote to General Clinton on the subject," and assured him that unless the perpetrators of the murder were delivered up, he should be under the painful necessity of retaliation." To a council composed of all the general officers and the commanders of regiments, the following questions were proposed by the Commander in Chief. 1st, Shall resort be had to retaliation for the murder of Capt. Huddy? 2nd, On whom shall it be inflicted? 3d. How shall the victim be designated ?"

The council were unanimous in the opinion that there should be retaliation, that the victim should be of equal rank with Capt. Huddy, and designated by lot. The lot fell on Capt. Asgill, the only son of a British nobleman, and but nineteen years of age. The news of his situation reached Europe, and interested many in his behalf. When the tidings came to his family in England, his father was so near to death, that he