t the laws--powers, it may be noted, which were exercised in
every royal colony as a matter of course. He suggested that the
commissioners interest themselves in the elections so far as "to gett
men of the best reputation and most peaceably inclined" chosen to the
assembly, but he cautioned them to "proceed very warily" in some of
these things. He had a hope that Massachusetts might be so wrought upon
as to choose Nicolls for her governor and Carr for her major-general,
but in this, as in the pious hope of a return of the Puritans to the
Church of England, he reckoned without a knowledge of the grimness of
the Massachusetts temper.

The commissioners reached Boston, _en route_ for New Amsterdam, late in
July, 1664, asked for troops, and demanded the repeal of the franchise
law. The magistrates took the precaution to conceal the charter; they
were also heartily glad when the commissioners departed on their errand
of conquest and hoped they would not return. The general court, having
modified the franchise law sufficiently to meet the letter of the King's
command, wrote His Majesty that they wished he would recall his
emissaries; and when the magistrates discovered that this impertinent
demand not only failed of its object but drew down upon the colony a
royal rebuke, with characteristic shrewdness they shifted their ground
and prepared to meet the commissioners in fair contest, wearing out
their patience and thwarting their plans by every available device. In
the meantime, the four men were completing the conquest and pacification
of New Netherland, and rearranging the boundary difficulties with
Connecticut. Then Maverick and Cartwright passed on to Boston, where
they were joined in February by Carr, Nicolls remaining in New York. The
three men, making Boston their headquarters, visited Plymouth, Newport,
and Hartford, where they were received, according to their account,
"with great expressions of loyalty"--a statement which, if true, shows
how successfully the colonists suppressed their deeper feelings. Having
taken the King's Province under the royal protection, and postponed for
later consideration the question of the boundary line between Rhode
Island and Connecticut, with new complaints against Massachusetts
ringing in their ears, they returned to Boston to meet the defiant
magistrates. There Nicolls joined them in May.

The Massachusetts mission was hopeless from the beginning. The
magistrates and general court w