On February 12, 1(520, its directors addressed to Maurice, Prince of Orange, stadtholder or chief executive of the Netherlands, a petition reciting that " there is residing at Leyden a certain English preacher, versed in the Dutch language, who is well inclined to proceed thither [to New Netherland] to live, assuring the petitioners that he has the means of inducing over four hundred families to accompany him thither, both out of this country and England, provided they would be guarded and preserved from all violence on the part of other potentates, by the authority and under the protection of your Princely Excellency and the High and Mighty Lords States-General, in the propagation of the true, pure Christian religion, in the instruction of the Indians in that country in true doctrine, and in converting them to the Christian faith, and thus to the mercy of the Lord, to the greater glory of this country's government, to plant there a new commonwealth, all under the order and command of your Princely Excellency and the High and Mighty Lords States-General.
" The directors, on their part, offered to the intending emigrants free transportation inthe company's vessels and cattle enough to supply each family, upon the single condition that the government would furnish two warships for the protection of the expedition from pirates. This condition was not complied with, and the scheme fell to the ground. It is a coincidence, and very presumably no accidental one, that this offer was volunteered in the same year that the Pilgrims sailed from Holland in the "Mayflower" and landed at Plymouth. Indeed, it is well known that the original intention of the " Mayflower" company was to proceed to New Netherland, and their landing on the New England coast instead was the result of a change of plan almost at the last moment.