New Netherland in 1664 and the grant of the Carolinas and
the Bahamas in 1663 and 1670, she completed the chain of her possessions
in America from New England to Barbados. A far-flung colonial world was
gradually taking shape, demanding of the King and his advisers an
interest in America of a kind hitherto unknown. It is not surprising
that so vast a problem, involving the trade and defense of nearly twenty
colonies, should have made the internal affairs of New England seem of
less consequence to the royal authorities than had been the case in the
days of Charles I and Archbishop Laud, when the obtaining of the
Massachusetts Bay charter had roused such intensity of feeling in
England. What was interesting Englishmen was no longer the matter of
religious obedience in the colonies, but rather that of their political
and commercial dependence on the mother country.

As the future of New England was certain to be debated at Whitehall
after 1660, the colonies took pains to have representatives on the
ground to meet criticisms and complaints, to ward off attacks, and to
beg for favors. Rhode Island sent a commission to Dr. John Clarke, one
of her founders and leading men, at that time in London, instructing him
to ask for royal protection, self-government, liberty of conscience, and
a charter. Massachusetts sent Simon Bradstreet and the Reverend John
Norton, with a petition that reads like a sermon, praying the King not
to listen to other men's words but to grant the colonists an opportunity
to answer for themselves, they being "true men, fearers of God and the
King, not given to change, orthodox and peaceable in Israel."
Connecticut, with more worldly wisdom, sent John Winthrop, the Governor,
a man courtly and tactful, with a petition shrewdly worded and to the
point. Plymouth entrusted her mission also to Winthrop, hoping for a
confirmation of her political and religious liberties. All protested
their loyalty to the Crown, while Massachusetts, her petition signed by
the stiff-necked Endecott, prostrated herself at the royal feet, craving
pardon for her boldness, and subscribing herself "Your Majesties most
humble subjects and suppliants." Did Endecott remember, we wonder, a
certain incident connected with the royal ensign at Salem?

Against the lesser colonies no complaints were presented, except in the
case of New Haven, which was charged by the inhabitants of Shelter
Island with usurpation of their goods and territory; b