When Penn realized that he could not succeed in a direct approach to Baltimore, he tried flanking movements. Like the Dutch, he put his trust in purchases from the native owners of the soil. Let us pause for a moment to examine the importance that Penn attached to such purchases. Both his motives and his good sense have been illunderstood. That he expressed benevolence toward the Indians is demonstrated amply by the prices he paid, which were far higher than those given by other Europeans. But Penn also demonstrated great practicality and a deeper knowledge of Indian customs than he has been credited with. Though questions have been raised about the value of Indian deeds because various Indians seem to have sold the same tract of land several times over, Penn, who had the most reason to complain about double purchase, understood the reason for it. He wrote: It hath been the Practice of America, as well as the Reason of the thing itself, even among Indians and Christians, to account not taking up, marking and (in some degree) planting a Reversion of Right; for the Indians do make People buy over again that land [which] the People have not seated in some years after purchase, which is the Practice also of all those [colonial] Governments towards the People inhabiting under them .¹²⁵

Such an attitude, revealing as it is, might not have supported Penn's hopes to acquire the Chesapeake property, for sparse settlement had already been made at the head of the bay. But the murky history of Maryland and the Susquehannocks gave Penn an exceptional opportunity. The second Lord Baltimore had purchased from the Susquehannocks all the land on the west side of the Chesapeake up to the mouth of the Susquehanna, and had also purchased all the land on the east side of the bay almost up to the east bank of the Susquehanna. Unhappily for Maryland's claims, there was a considerable gap between the two purchases. There may be some significance in the fact that Jacob Young's trading post was located in that gap.¹²⁶   Be that as it may, the strategic head of the bay remained unpurchased only so long as it took Penn to find the Indian who claimed ownership. On 18 October, 1683, Penn bought "from Maclaloha, owner of said lands," the tract "lying between Delaware, Chesapeake bay and Susquehannah river," consummating the transaction "in the presence of many Indians."¹²⁷

Maryland protested, as was to be expected, and just possibly Maryland may have been justified. But Baltimorehaving warred upon the Susquehannocks and refused them recognition for a peace was in an awkward position to compete for the purchase of Susquehannock lands. The Marylanders fell back on an assertion that the Indians who sold the land to Penn were not Susquehannocks at all, but Lenape. Very likely this was so, but there is no way of knowing now what sort of arrangements had been made between the Lenape and the Susquehannocks resident among them. It is worth noting that no counter claimants appeared Even the Iroquois, for all their false brag about winning the Susquehanna valley by conquest, did not claim below the location of the Susquehannocks' home fort, and that lay well to the north of Penn's purchase. We may note well also that many Indians witnessed Penn's Chesapeake transaction, and the Indians of Chesapeake and Delaware bays had become well aware of the pecuniary possibilities in land claims. In any case, Penn scored a point. He had bought from native claimants their rights to the land at the head of Chesapeake Bay, and Baltimore had no deed to match his.¹²⁸

Being a practical man, Penn provided against the possibility that his Chesapeake claim might fail, as it ultimately did. His real concern was to get independent access to the sea, wherever he had to go for it. Lacking guarantees on the Chesapeake, he moved to acquire them on the Delaware. His method was utterly simple: using an early variant of the installment plan, he bought the bay colony. That is to say, he acquired possession from the Duke of York in consideration of paying half the colony's annual revenue to the Duke. What rage must have possessed Lord Baltimore can only be guessed. For thirtyfive years the Calverts had connived and fought to lay hands on the Delaware Bay. Now an interloperand a Quaker!accomplished in a minute what decades of costly intrigue had failed to do. Baltimore's consolation was only that Penn could be fought more openly and more hopefully than the brother of the King.¹²⁹

Baltimore had some show of justification for his anger. Though Penn's offers to negotiate disputed points were undoubtedly sincere, they came a little late. Even before coming to America, Penn had sent a letter to settlers on the upper Chesapeake to refrain from paying taxes or assessments "by any order or law of Maryland." Baltimore's furious rebuttal included a doortodoor personal canvass of the residents of Marcus Hook on the Delaware, "prohibiteing the inhabitants to pay any more quitt rents to Mr. Penn."¹³⁰