The corporation were willing to undertake the work of plantation if the account given of its advantages should prove to be correct.  With the caution of men of business, they wished to put the glowing representations of the Government to the test of an investigation by agents of their own.  So they sent over ’four wise, grave, and discreet citizens, to view the situation proposed for the new colony.’  The men selected were John Broad, goldsmith; Robert Treswell, painter-stainer; John Rowley, draper; and John Munns, mercer.  On their return from their Irish mission they presented a report to the Court of Common Council, which was openly read.  The report was favourable.  A company was to be formed in London for conducting the plantation.  Corporations were to be founded in Derry and Coleraine, everything concerning the colony to be managed and performed in Ireland by the advice and direction of the company in London.  It was agreed between the Privy Council and the City that the sum of 20,000 l. should be levied, 15,000 l. for the intended plantation, and 5,000 l. ’for the clearing of private men’s interest in the things demanded.’  That 200 houses should be built in Derry, and room left for 300 more.  ’That 4,000 acres lying on the Derry side, next adjacent to the wherry, should be laid thereunto—­bog and barren mountain to be no part thereof, but to go as waste for the city; the same to be done by indifferent commissioners.’

The royal charters and letters clearly set forth the objects of the plantation.  James I., in the preamble of the charter to the town of Coleraine, thus described his intentions in disposing of the forfeited lands to English undertakers:  ’Whereas there can be nothing more worthy of a king to perform than to establish the true religion of Christ among men hitherto depraved and almost lost in superstition; to improve and cultivate by art and industry countries and lands uncultivated and almost desert, and not only to stock them with honest citizens and inhabitants, but also to strengthen them with good institutions and ordinances, whereby they might be more safely defended not only from the corruption of their morals but from their intestine and domestic plots and conspiracies, and also from foreign violence:  And whereas the province of Ulster in our realm of Ireland, for many years past, hath grossly erred from the true religion of Christ and divine grace, and hath abounded with superstition, insomuch that for a long time it hath not only been harassed, torn, and wasted by private and domestic broils but also by foreign arms:  We therefore, deeply and heartily commiserating the wretched state of the said province, have esteemed it to be a work worthy of a Christian prince, and of our royal office, to stir up and recal the same province from superstition, rebellion, calamity, and poverty, which heretofore have horribly raged therein, to religion, obedience, strength, and prosperity.  And whereas our beloved and faithful subjects the mayor and commonalty and citizens of our city of London, burning with a flagrant zeal to promote such our pious intention in this behalf, have undertaken a considerable part of the said plantation in Ulster, and are making progress therein’.