He gave the
place the Bible name of Philadelphia,[7] or the City of Brotherly
Love, because he hoped that all of its citizens would live together
like brothers. The streets were named from the trees then growing
on the land, and so to-day many are still called Walnut, Pine, Cedar,
Vine, and so on.
Penn said, "We intend to sit down lovingly among the Indians." On
that account, he held a great meeting with them under a
wide-spreading elm. The tree stood in what is now a part of
Philadelphia. Here Penn and the red men made a treaty or agreement
by which they promised each other that they would live together as
friends as long as the water should run in the rivers, or the sun
shine in the sky.
[Illustration: PENN MAKING THE TREATY WITH THE INDIANS.]
Nearly a hundred years later, while the Revolutionary War was going
on, the British army took possession of the city. It was cold, winter
weather, and the men wanted fire-wood; but the English general
thought so much of William Penn that he set a guard of soldiers round
the great elm, to prevent any one from chopping it down.
Not long after the great meeting under the elm, Penn visited some
of the savages in their wigwams. They treated him to a dinner--or
shall we say a lunch?--of roasted acorns.
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