62 The Wrst Iadt't Company and the Walloons. 



vided they carried themselves peaceably." It seemed wisest to proceed 

 on these terms; so in the spring of 1619, Brewster and Cnshmau were 

 appointed commissioners to procure the patent from the Virginia 

 Company, and to complete the arrangements with these London 

 merchants who had agreed to advance the funds necessary for the 

 undertaking. 



The granting of the patent was somewhat delayed by the internal 

 affairs of the Virginia Company ; but was finally granted on the 19th 

 of June, 1619, not however to the Puritans as a body or association, 

 but in the name of John Wincot (or Whincot), who is described by 

 Bradford as " a religious gentleman then belonging to the countess of 

 Lincoln, who intended to go with them. " The reason for this, no doubt 

 was, that granting a patent to an individual would not cause so 

 much remark or opposition as would be the case, if granted to the 

 Puritans in their own names; but the patentee never went with them 

 and is never heard of again. The patent being granted, the next step 

 was to secure the financial aid promised by the London merchants, 

 and here was the delay; for the London merchants were more prompt 

 in their promises than in the keeping of them. And while they were 

 endeavoring to arrange this matter, a proposition was made to them 

 from another quarter, by their old friends the Dutch, who had given 

 them a home for twelve years and who, in that time, had learned to 

 appreciate the sterling integrity of their guests and their value as 

 citizens and settlers of a new country. The States General had passed 

 an ordinance declaring it to be " honorable, useful and profitable to 

 discover new countries, and promising to those who did so the exclusive 

 right of navigating to the new country for four voyages."* 



The directors of the New Netherland Company, who claimed to be 

 the discoverers and first finders of the countries between New France 

 and Virginia, had enjoyed this privilege under the above general pro- 

 vision, but their charter having expired by its terms, every one was at 

 liberty to sail there and to engage in trade; and in order to secure 

 again for themselves the sole privilege of this profitable trade, a peti- 

 tion was sent by the New Netherland Company to the Prince of Orange 

 stating "that there was residing at Leyden a certain English preacher, 

 versed in the Dutch language, who is well inclined to proceed hither 

 to live, assuring the petitioners that he ha3 the means of inducing 

 over four hundred families to accompany him thither, both out of this 

 country and England, provided they would be guarded and preserved 

 from all violence on the part of other potentates, by the authority and 

 * Brodhead's His. N. Y., vol. 1 p. 60. 



