Tlie West India Company and the Walloons. 63 



protection of your princely excellency, in the propagation of the pure, 

 true Christian religion, in the instruction of the Indians of that coun- 

 try in true learning and in converting them to the Christian faith, 

 and then through the mercy of the Lord, to the greater glory of their 

 country's government to plant there a new Commonwealth. All under 

 the order and command of your princely excellency and the high and 

 mighty Lords States General. And whereas they, the petitioners, 

 have experienced that his majesty of Great Britain would be disposed 

 to people the aforesaid lands with the English cation, and by force to 

 render fruitless their possession and discovery, and there deprive this 

 State of its right, and apparently with ease surprise the ships of this 

 country which are there, wherefore they the petitioners pray and re- 

 quest that your princely excellency may benignly please, to take all 

 the aforesaid into favorable consideration, so that for the preservation 

 of this country's rights, the aforesaid minister and the four hundred 

 families may be taken under the protection of this country, and that 

 two ships of war may be provisionally despatched to secure to the State 

 the aforesaid countries, inasmuch as they would be of much import- 

 ance whenever the "West India Company is established, in respect to 

 the large abundance of timber fit for ship building, etc., as may be 

 seen by the accompanying report."* 



This petition, in which the true foreign missionary spirit was so re- 

 markably blended with territorial aggrandizement and mercantile ac- 

 tivity, was after due consideration, rejected (April 11, 1620), it would 

 seem from the record, upon the ground of furnishing the ships of 

 war; but it is more likely that the real reason was the formation of the 

 West India Company, whose charter was granted in a little more than 

 a year afterward. But before the Pilgrims knew of the unfavorable 

 answer to the petition of the Dutch on their behalf, a new proposition 

 was made to them on behalf of the Virginia Company. The negotia- 

 tions with the Dutch were broken off and the Pilgrims, acoepting the 

 terms proposed, set sail and landed on Plymouth Rock instead of on 

 the island of Manhattan. 



The successful departure of the Pilgrims stirred up the Walloons in 

 Holland to make an attempt to secure a home in this country; and in 

 less than a year after the sailing of the Speedwell from Delft Haven 

 the British minister at The Hague was approached on the subject by a 

 delegate from the Walloons. The minister, Sir Dudley Carleton, 

 wrote home as follows: "Here hath been with me of late a certaine 

 Walon, an inhabitant of Leyden, in the name of divers families, men 

 * N. Y, CoLXew Holland Doc,, vol. 1, p. 22. 



