Plantations whither
they were sent." (Massachusetts History Collection, Vol. V., Second
Series, p. 577.)]

[Footnote 132: The following is a copy of the Royal Commission, in which
the reasons and objects of it are explicitly stated:

"Copy of a Commission from King Charles the Second to Col. Nichols and
others, in 1664.

"Charles the 2nd, by the Grace of God, King of England, Scotland,
France, and Ireland, Defender of the Faith, etc.

"To all to whom these presents shall come, Greeting: Whereas we have
received several addresses from our subjects of several colonies in New
England, all full of duty and affection, and expressions of loyalty and
allegiance to us, with their humble desires that we would renew their
several Charters, and receive them into our favourable opinion and
protection; and several of our colonies there, and other our loving
subjects, have likewise complained of differences and disputes arisen
upon the limits and bounds of their several Charters and jurisdictions,
whereby unneighbourly and unbrotherly contentions have and may arise, to
the damage and discredit of the English interest; and that all our good
subjects residing there, and being Planters within the several colonies,
do not enjoy the liberties and privileges granted to them by our several
Charters, upon confidence and assurance of which they transported
themselves and their estates into those parts; and we having received
some addresses from the great men and natives of those countries in
which they complain of breach of faith, and acts of violence, and
injustice which they have been forced to undergoe from our subjects,
whereby not only our Government is traduced, but the reputation and
credit of the Christian religion brought into prejudice and reproach
with the Gentiles and inhabitants of those countries who know not God,
the reduction of whom to the true knowledge and feare of God is the most
worthy and glorious end of all those Plantations: Upon all which
motives, and as an evidence and manifestation of our fatherly affection
towards all our subjects in those several colonies of New England (that
is to say, of the Massachusetts, Connecticut, New Plimouth, Rhode Island,
and Providence Plantations, and all other Plantations within that tract
of land known under the appelation of New England), and to the end we
may be truly informed of the state and condition of our good subjects
there, that so we may the better know how to contribut