root there.  New England, on the other hand, was considered too cold.  Popham’s experience was not encouraging.  But the country about the Delaware river afforded an opportunity for erecting an independent colony under the jurisdiction of the London Company, and this seemed the best course to pursue.  Sir Edwin Sandys, the leading spirit in the London Company, was favourably inclined toward Puritans, and through him negotiations were begun.  Capital to the amount of L7000 was furnished by seventy merchant adventurers in England, and the earnings of the settlers were to be thrown into a common stock until these subscribers should have been remunerated.  A grant of land was obtained from the London Company, and the king was asked to protect the emigrants by a charter, but this was refused.  James, however, made no objections to their going, herein showing himself less of a bigot than Louis XIV. in later days, who would not suffer a Huguenot to set foot in Canada, though France was teeming with Huguenots who would have been glad enough to go.  When James inquired how the colonists expected to support themselves, some one answered, most likely by fishing.  “Very good,” quoth the king, “it was the Apostles’ own calling.”  He declared that no one should molest them so long as they behaved themselves properly.  From this unwonted urbanity it would appear that James anticipated no trouble from the new colony.  A few Puritans in America could not do much to annoy him, and there was of course a fair chance of their perishing, as so many other colonizers had perished. [Sidenote:  The Pilgrims at Leyden decide to make a settlement near the Delaware river]

The congregation at Leyden did not think it wise to cut loose from Holland until they should have secured a foothold in America.  It was but an advance guard that started out from Delft haven late in July, 1620, in the rickety ship Speedwell, with Brewster and Bradford, and sturdy Miles Standish, a trained soldier whose aid was welcome, though he does not seem to have belonged to the congregation.  Robinson remained at Leyden, and never came to America.  After a brief stop at Southampton, where they met the Mayflower with friends from London, the Pilgrims again set sail in the two ships.  The Speedwell sprang a leak, and they stopped at Dartmouth for repairs.  Again they started, and had put three hundred miles of salt water between themselves and Land’s End, when the Speedwell leaked so badly that they were forced to return.  When they dropped anchor at Plymouth in Devonshire, about twenty were left on shore, and the remainder, exactly one hundred in number, crowded into the Mayflower and on the 6th of September started once more to cross the Atlantic.  The capacity of the little ship was 180 tons, and her strength was but slight.  In a fierce storm in mid-ocean a mainbeam amidships was wrenched and cracked, and but for a huge iron screw which one of the passengers had brought from Delft, they might have gone to the