and fixed, according to the laws of the province; and by assessments
formed by the assessors, who are yearly chosen by the people, and
whose office obliges them to take either an oath or an affirmation.
Two thirds of the magistrates they have here are of the society of
Friends.

Before I enter into the further detail of this people's government,
industry, mode of living, etc., I think it accessary to give you a
short sketch of the political state the natives had been in, a few
years preceding the arrival of the whites among them. They are
hastening towards a total annihilation, and this may be perhaps the
last compliment that will ever be paid them by any traveller. They
were not extirpated by fraud, violence, or injustice, as hath been
the case in so many provinces; on the contrary, they have been
treated by these people as brethren; the peculiar genius of their
sect inspiring them with the same spirit of moderation which was
exhibited at Pennsylvania. Before the arrival of the Europeans, they
lived on the fish of their shores; and it was from the same
resources the first settlers were compelled to draw their first
subsistence. It is uncertain whether the original right of the Earl
of Sterling, or that of the Duke of York, was founded on a fair
purchase of the soil or not; whatever injustice might have been
committed in that respect, cannot be charged to the account of those
Friends who purchased from others who no doubt founded their right
on Indian grants: and if their numbers are now so decreased, it must
not be attributed either to tyranny or violence, but to some of
those causes, which have uninterruptedly produced the same effects
from one end of the continent to the other, wherever both nations
have been mixed. This insignificant spot, like the sea-shores of the
great peninsula, was filled with these people; the great plenty of