The southern flank of New Netherland was left unprotected, and in 1651 New Haven once more endeavored to plant a colony on the Delaware.  The failure of the former attempt bore heavily upon the wealthy merchants of the town, and they had ill luck in another adventure.  In January, 1646, they sent an agent to England to solicit a charter from the English government.  The ship in which he sailed carried seventy other prominent citizens of the place and a cargo valued at L5000.  A great storm ensued after the ship’s departure and she was lost at sea.[25] So disheartening was this misfortune that many at New Haven entertained the idea of removing to the West Indies or Ireland.

Now, in 1651, under a commission from Governor Eaton, fifty men from New Haven prepared to sail for the Delaware.[26] Their ship touched at New Amsterdam, and Stuyvesant arrested both passengers and officers, and only released them on their promise to return home.  The adventurers appealed to the commissioners, and these officials wrote a letter to Stuyvesant protesting against his course.[27]

Next year war broke out between Holland and England, and the war spirit spread to this side of the ocean.  Rumors got afloat that the Dutch and Indians had conspired against the English, and Connecticut and New Haven became hysterical for war; while Rhode Island commissioned John Underhill, lately escaped from the Dutch, to take all Dutch vessels he could find.[28] Stuyvesant indignantly denied the charge of conspiring with the Indians, and proposed to refer the examination of the facts to any impartial tribunal.  Nevertheless, all the old complaints were revived.

In 1652 the federal commissioners resolved on hostilities,[29] but the Massachusetts general court, which had all along taken a position in favor of peace, refused to be bound by a vote of six commissioners representing Plymouth, Connecticut, and New Haven.[30] On the other hand, the commissioners of the three smaller colonies protested against the conduct of the court of Massachusetts as violating the confederation.[31] New Haven and Connecticut took measures to wage war on their own account,[32] and in April, 1654, Connecticut sequestered the Dutch fort at Hartford.[33]

When, in June, 1654, a fleet despatched by Cromwell, in response to appeals made to him, appeared in Boston harbor, Connecticut and New Haven were overjoyed, and proceeded with alacrity to make arrangements for an attack on the hated Dutch.  Massachusetts refused to raise troops, although she gave her citizens privilege to enlist if they chose.  Yet her policy of peace prevailed in the end, for before the preparations described could be completed a stop was put to them by the news that a treaty of peace had been signed between England and Holland April 5, 1654.[34]

Massachusetts had successfully nullified the plain provisions of the articles, and for a time it looked as if the dissolution of the confederacy would be the consequence.  New Haven voted at first not to choose commissioners, but finally decided to do so,[35] and meetings of the commissioners went on apparently as before.  Nevertheless, the effect of the action of Massachusetts was far-reaching—­from that time the respective colonies diverged more and more, till the hope of a permanent intercolonial bond vanished.