the aforesaid lands with Englishmen; to destroy your petitioners’ possessions and discoveries, and also to deprive this State of its right to these lands, while the ships belonging to this country, which are there during the whole of the present year, will apparently and probably be surprised by the English.”

The petitioners therefore prayed that the request of Mr. Robinson might be favorably regarded; that the contemplated colony should be taken under the protection of the Dutch government, and that two ships of war should be sent out for the defence of the infant settlements.

The Dutch government was then upon the eve of a war with Spain, and all its energies were demanded in preparation for the conflict.  They therefore quite peremptorily refused to entertain the petition of the New Netherland Company.  Thus the destination of the Puritans was changed.  Though they were not encouraged to commence their colonial life at New Netherland, still it was their intention when they sailed from England, to find a home somewhere in that vicinity, as England, as well as Holland, claimed the whole coast.  A note, in the History of New Netherland, by E.B.  O’Callaghan, contains the following interesting statement upon this subject: 

“Some historians represent that the Pilgrims were taken against their will to New Plymouth, by the treachery of the captain of the Mayflower, who, they assert, was bribed by the Dutch to land them at a distance from the Hudson river.  This has been shown, over and over again, to have been a calumny; and, if any farther evidence were requisite, it is now furnished, of a most conclusive nature, by the petition in behalf of the Rev. Mr. Robinson’s congregation, of Feb. 1620, and the rejection of its prayer by their High Mightinesses.

“That the Dutch were anxious to secure the settlement of the Pilgrims under them, is freely admitted by the latter.  Governor Bradford, in his History of the Plymouth Colony, acknowledges it, and adds that the Dutch for that end made them large offers.

“Winslow corroborates this in his ‘Brief Narrative,’ and adds that the Dutch would have freely transported us to the Hudson river, and furnished every family with cattle.  The whole of this evidence satisfactorily establishes the good will of the Dutch people towards the English; while the determination of the States-General proves that there was no encouragement held out by the Dutch government to induce them to settle in their American possessions.  On the contrary, having formally rejected their petition, they thereby secured themselves against all suspicion of dealing unfairly by those who afterwards landed at Cape Cod.  It is to be hoped, therefore, that even for the credit of the Pilgrims, the idle tale will not be repeated.”

There were many indications that a conflict would ere long arise between the Dutch and the English.  The English repudiated entirely the Dutch claim to