[Rain Man]

Originally Posted by Amnorix

1737. The completion of the Walking Purchase results in the cessation of 1.2 million acres of land by the Lenape (Delaware) tribe of American Indians to Pennsylvania. William Penn had believed fervently in treating fairly with the Indians, which resulted in generally mcuh better relations between him and his colony and the natives, but by 1737 he was long dead. His successors claimed they had a deed from 1680 ceding land equal to what a man could walk in a day and a half. The veracity of this deed is greatly in question, especially as his successors agents had already sold vast swaths of the land in qeustion, and now had to clear it for settlement by colonists. The Encyclopedia Brittanica refers to it as "The Land Swindle". The Indians believed the document was genuine, and since they also believed that about 40 miles was the most a man could walk in a day in a half, they agreed to honor the treaty. The colony then hired the three fastest men in the colony to walk as fast as possible, and with as little sleep as possible, on a prepared trail. They in fact walked 70 miles, obtaining an area roughly the size of Rhode Island in the process.

I hope those three guys were working on commission.