THE PRIMITIVE SETTLEMENT. "I trace thy tale To the dim point where records fail." Ir should be grateful to a contemplative and feeling mind, especially to a descendant of the pilgrim settlers of Philadelphia, to revive in the imagination such picturesque facts and scenic pictures, as may give to the mind's eye the striking incidents of that eventful period. We need not resort to fiction" to adorn our moral or to point our tale;" for, facts, scattered throughout the following pages, will amply sustain the primal scene herein attempted. We are to transport the fancy back to the original site of Coaquanock, so called from its border line, along the margin of the river bank, of lofty spruce-pines, rivalling in majesty the adjacent common wood-land foliage of oaks and underbrush; thus giving to the place a peculiarity and rarity, even in the eyes of the untutored savage, which lovers of the marvellous might now regard as something propitious. There we must see the busy landing of families from the anchored barks, and witness their chastened joy at once more feeling their conscious tread on terra firma,-then a gravelly strand basing the front of the precipitous river bank. There their pious minds felt solemn emotions of gratitude and praise to Him, beneath whose eye their voyage had sped-their hearts tendered, they knelt, and praised, and prayed!† The beholder might then innocently smile to see the unskilled efforts of men, women and children, scrambling up the acclivity to attain the level of the elevated platform. The river banks then, like the woody banks at "the Bake-house,"-now near Poquesink creek"All shagg'd with wood, Where twisted roots, in many a fold, Such impediments overcome, they gathered beneath the dark ever-greens; there they meet the welcome salutations of the red natives, both in mutual wonder stand, and ruminate, and gaze Then the exploring eye, ranging on objects all around, beholds behind them interminable woods and hanging grape vines, &c.,-" a The Indians called it Quequenaku, which means, the “grove of tall pines.” This, for sake of euphony, we have contracted into Coaquanock. Such pines among other forest trees is an admitted rarity. The Astrological signs of Philadelphia, by Taylor, will be given in another place. He says: "A city, built with such propitious rays, Will stand to see old walls and happy days." †The wife of the Governor, Thomas Lloyd, as soon as she landed, knelt down, and earnestly prayed the blessings of heaven on the future colony. boundless contiguity of shade," and below them, on the limpid stream, their own ships amid the paddling canoes of the Indians. All has the air of novelty and surprise. Their spirits feel many stirring emotions-joy for safe arrival,-a lively sense of inhaling a new and genial air, so necessary after the restrictions and sickness of sea life ;- -even a momentary sadness might agitate the bosom from the sense that they were devoid of all the wonted accommodations and comforts of former home and civilization; but the prevalent sense of escape from "woful Europe," was an antidote, always at hand, to repress any murmurings. Sustained by a predetermined courage to subdue all difficulties, and animated by future hopes of domestic comforts and of social prosperity and happiness, all join in a ready resolution to give mutual aid to every enterprise for individual or general benefit. Huts and caves are promptly resolved on as of paramount consideration. To this object, trees and underwood must be levelled. At the moment of such a beginning, we can readily imagine that some pious leader, like christian David, at the first settlement of his christian community, strikes his axe into the first tree, exclaiming, "Here hath the sparrow found an house and the swallow a nest for himself, even thine altars, O Lord God of Hosts!" Here, in the "sweet quiet," freed from the hurries and perplexities of "woful Europe," as feelingly expressed by the founder, they could not but consider themselves escaped from persecution,-no longer like their fathers, "Vex'd from age to age, By blatant bigotry's insensate rage." Preliminaries thus settled, the men and boys choose out their several grounds for their temporary hut or cabin, called a cave. While some dig into the earth about three feet at the verge of the river bank, others apply the axe to clear away the underwood or to fall trees, whose limbs and foliage may supply sides and roofs to their humble dwellings. In other cases, some dug sods, and of them formed the sides of their huts. To these, chimnies of grass and kneaded clay were set up,-and lo! their rude house was finished! Meanwhile, the women, equally busy in their sphere, had lighted their fire on the bare earth, and having "their kettle slung between two poles upon a stick transverse," thus prepared the meal of homely and frugal fare for the repast of the diligent builders. With good cheer and kindly feelings, all partake of the sylvan feast. Thus refreshed, they speedily bear off their unsheltered furniture and goods to their several cabins, and feel themselves housed and settled for a season, "Where homes of humble form and structure rude * Some of these huts were so well constructed as to last for several years afterwards,— not only serving the wants of succeeding emigrants, but in several cases, used by some of base sort, in aftertime, as homes good enough for low minds. In due time, the mind, devoted to better accommodation, seeks for its permanent settlement. Then the busy, bustling era begins! First, the surveyor, with much labour, by falling of trees and drawing off brush-wood, forms a way through which to draw his "lengthening chain," whereby the city plot is made. Lots are then to be covered with houses; and much of their material is to be found on the spot. Soon, therefore, the echoing woods resound with the labouring axe and the crash of falling trees. The wondering population of the forest are amazed at this first break of their long-long silence, and starting here and flying there,-beasts and birds,-excellent for diet and a luxury to Europeans living under the prohibition of "game laws,"—are shot down at frequent occasions,-even while the main design was to clear away the deep embarrassments of the soil. Even the reptiles, deadly and venomous, here first felt the assault of the primeval curse, and "the serpent's head is crushed!" But although the astonished tenants of the forest thus feel and fear the busy stir of man throughout the day, and find in him an enemy before unknown, we may suppose they were not immediately to be driven from their favourite haunts, but long and frequent would they linger round their wonted securities in the darkness and silence of night. It was therefore no strange thing with the primitive population to hear occasionally at safe distances," the fox's bark, or wolf's lugubrious howl." When buildings had thus been generally started, and the "clearings" and the "burnings" of the "brushwood" and "undergrowth," had begun to mark, in rude lines, the originals of the present paved and stately streets, we may well imagine the cheerful greetings which passed among the settlers as they met, or surveyed each others progress. Often they must have reciprocally lent each other aid in "raisings" and the heavy operations requiring many hands. How busy then the brick makers,-what perpetual burnings of their smoking kilns,-what frequent arrivals and departures of small craft from the Jerseys, previously settled,-of boards and slabs from their saw-mills, ere the Pennsylvania mills began. We know there were many inequalities in the surface of the city plot then, which we do not perceive now. Some hills were to reduce, and several low or miry places to fill up or drain off. In many places, the most delightful rural beauties, formed by arboreous clumps, Trere utterly effaced by "clearings and burnings." Even solitary rees of sublime grandeur were not spared, from the then prevalent pinion, that dense foliage and shades would conduce to fevers. So eneral was the havoc in process of time, that none remained of all he crowded forest, save a cluster of black walnut trees, which, till Pastorius' MS., in my possession, expressly says, he was often lost in the woods and brush, in going from his cave, to Bom's house, south-east corner of Chestnut and Third streets, where he procured his bread. of late years stood opposite the State house on Chestnut street, and guided the stranger to that once venerable edifice. In that day, the greater part of the houses first built lay south of High street, and northward of Dock creek, then called "the Swamp," because of the creek which flowed through it, having had near its mouth a low and swampy margin, covered with swampwhortleberries, &c. The creek itself was supplied by several springs flowing into it. At the mouth of this creek was a ferry, at the Blue Anchor Inn, for conveying passengers over to the opposite declining bank, called "Society Hill." It continued in use until they formed a "causeway" along the line of Front street across the Dock creek swamp. The same inn was memorable as the landing place of the illustrious founder, who came there in a boat from Chester, and first set his foot ashore on the "low sandy beach" then there, and long afterwards occupied as the "public landing" for the general uses of the city. Their first bridge, and their then first means of a cart-road leading to the west, was a wooden structure laid across the Dock creek,where the tide then ebbed and flowed, at Hudson's alley and Chestnut street. The creek at the same time traversed the grounds called "a deep valley," leading to Fourth and High street, and on the northern side of High street, westward of Fourth street, it formed a great pond, filled with spatterdocks, and surrounded with natural shrubbery. This pond was a great asylum for wild ducks and geese,— "there the wild duck squadrons ride!"-and often they were shot. Fish too, coming up with the high tides, were occasionally angled there. Another great duck pond lay in the rear of Christ Church, and thence extended beyond the rear of the first Baptist-meeting. At that pond, as well founded tradition relates, an Indian feast was celebrated. On that occasion the Indians, to amuse William Penn, and to show their agility in running and leaping, performed a foot race round the entire pond. Diverging from Dock creek, (at Girard's bank, once a place for small vessels,) ran a water course through what was afterwards called "Beek's Hollow," near Fourth and Walnut streets, and thence, by the African church in Fifth street, through the "Potter's-field," to the site of the present Doctor Wilson's Church, where it terminated in another duck pond. As buildings and comforts progressed, soon they turned their attention to public edifices. The Friends' meeting, built at the Centre Square, lay far beyond the verge of population, and often, when the early settlers were visiting it by the usual cart-road from the town, they saw it traversed before them by deer and wild turkeys. The last of these, which stood in front of J. Ridgway's office, was cut down in 1818. I have preserved a relic of it. The locality of several of those springs I have elsewhere designate... The writer has now an Urn of oak, made from a piece of the butment wharf, which lay there, six feet under the present surface, 140 years. Their first prison was "the hired house of Patrick Robinson," in Second Street, a little north of High Street;-and the first that the city held in fee simple, was situated on the site of the present Jersey Market, a little eastward of Second Street. Between it and Front Street was once a 66 grassy sward, close cropt by nibbling sheep," retained there till slain and sold, by one Crone, from the moveable shambles set there on market days. Near there stood Penn's low two-story house, in Lætitia Court; before which was the "Governor's Gate," where the proclamations of the day were made by "public outcry." Edward Shippen, the first city Mayor, surpassed his contemporaries in the style and grandeur of his edifice and appurtenances; for "crossing the water" he located himself in that venerable building, afterwards called "the Governor's House," and now superseded by "Waln's Row," in south Second Street. Its site was then "on the hill" " near the towne." There he had his "great and famous orchard." In the lawn before the house, descending to the Dock Creek, "reposed his herd of tranquil deer." The whole river scenery was then open to the view, and afforded a most picturesque and grateful prospect. Contemporaneous with the structures before named rose the first part of Christ Church, under the mission of the Rev. Mr. Clayton. Pre-eminent in the grandeur of that day, and often visited as a curiosity then, was the present antiquated Swedes' Church and steeple at Wiccaco, built in 1700, to replace the former log church, wherein were loop-holes for fire arms in case of emergency from the Indians. "The "Slate House," as it was called, wherein Governor Penn dwelt in the year 1700, still standing in humble guise at the south east corner of Second Street and Norris' Alley, was once an edifice with "bastions and saliant angles" like a fortress, and having behind it a great garden enclosure adorned with a lofty grove of trees. The "Coffee-house" of that day belonged to Samuel Carpenter, in the neighbourhood of Front and Walnut Streets, near which he had also erected the first crane, and built the first bake-house, and first wharves for the accommodation of ships. At this time the only places of "common landing" were at the "low sandy beach," open till lately on the north side of the Drawbridge. Another was at the " Penny Pot-house" on the north side of Vine Street. The third and last was at a great breach through the high hill at Arch Street, over which an arched bridge extended, thus letting carts and people descend to "the landing" by passing under the arch. We must conceive that in the earliest days, the Indians were more or less constantly present, either as spectators of the improvements thus progressing, or, as venders of their game and venison from the neighbouring woods. New England barks too, were early allured to bring in their supplies of provisions. The Swedes and Dutch, as |