But Even This Fact Constituted No Moral Or
Legal Bar To Such Action, If Desirable First, Because It Appears Certain
That, whatever the cause, they "broke off" themselves their negotiations
with the Dutch, - whether on account of the inducements offered
By Thomas
Weston, or a doubt of the ability of the Dutch to maintain their claim to
that region, and to protect there, or both, neither appears nor matters.
Second, because the States General - whether with knowledge that they of
Leyden had so "broken off" or from their own doubts of their ability to
maintain their claim on the Hudson region, does not appear - rejected the
petition made to them in the Pilgrims' behalf. It is probable that the
latter was the real reason, from the fact that the petition was twice
rejected.
In view of the high opinion of the Leyden brethren, entertained, as we
know, by the Dutch, it is clear that the latter would have been pleased
to secure them as colonists; while if at all confident of their rights to
the territory, they must have been anxious to colonize it and thus
confirm their hold, increase their revenues as speedily as possible,
and
Third, because it appears upon the showing of the petition itself, made
by the New Netherland Company (to which the Leyden leaders had looked,
doubtless on account of its pretensions, for the authority and protection
of the States General, as they afterward did to the English Virginia
Company for British protection), that this Company had lost its own
charter by expiration, and hence had absolutely nothing to offer the
Leyden people beyond the personal and associate influence of its members,
and the prestige of a name that had once been potential.
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