The Mayflower and Her Log; July 15, 1620-May 6, 1621 — Volume 3 by Azel Ames
page 12 of 48 (25%)
page 12 of 48 (25%)
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sufficient motive or interest has been declared. That the States General
could have had no wish to reject so exceptionally excellent a body of colonists as subjects, and as tenants to hold and develop their disputed territory--if in position to receive them and guarantee them protection-- is clear. The sole objection that could be urged against them was their English birth, and with English regiments garrisoning the Dutch home cities, and foreigners of every nation in the States General's employ, by land and by sea, such an objection could have had no weight. Indeed, the Leyden party proposed, if they effected satisfactory arrangements with the States General (as stated by the Directors of the New Netherland Company), "to plant there [at "Hudson's River"] a new commonwealth, all under the order and command of your Princely Excellency and their High Mightinesses the States General: The Leyden Pilgrims were men who kept their agreements. The Dutch trading-companies, who were the only parties in the Low Countries who could possibly have had any motive for such a conspiracy, were at this time themselves without charters, and the overtures of the principal company, made to the government in behalf of themselves and the Leyden brethren, had recently, as we have seen, been twice rejected. They had apparently, therefore, little to hope for in the near future; certainly not enough to warrant expenditure and the risk of disgraceful exposure, in negotiations with a stranger--an obscure ship-master--to change his course and land his passengers in violation of the terms of his charter-party;--negotiations, moreover, in which neither of the parties could well have had any guaranty of the other's good faith. But, as previously asserted, there was a party--to whom such knavery was an ordinary affair--who had ample motive, and of whom Master Thomas Jones was already the very willing and subservient ally and tool, and had been |
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