Whilst the Pilgrims were taking deep root and extending their borders, various attempts were being made, under grants derived from the Great Patent, to colonise the coast. Sir Ferdinando Gorges, whose name is already familiar to our readers, a friend of Sir Walter Raleigh and a steadfast advocate of colonisation, obtained a grant of territory on the north-west side of Massachusetts Bay, for his son Robert, who was sent over by the English patentees as lieutenant of New England, accompanied by an episcopalian clergyman as superintendent of ecclesiastical affairs; but no success attended him; and instead of establishing a seat of government, he was shortly compelled to retire to Weymouth, already deserted by the “unruly company” of Weston’s men, which he in an equally short time also abandoned. The same year Sir Ferdinando Gorges and John Mason obtained a grant of the whole extent of country included between the sea, the St. Lawrence, the Merrimac and the Kennebec rivers, and great mercantile settlements were projected on the banks of the Piscataqua; but again these attempts failed of success. The soil of New England was evidently not intended for the mere trader or adventurer. In 1628, Mason, alarmed at the progress already made by the Puritan settlers, obtained a new patent for the country between the Merrimac and the Piscataqua, which, without reference to any rights of the natives, was ceded at once to him. This was the patent under which New Hampshire was established. The town of Portsmouth was founded, but neither town nor colony flourished greatly; several years afterwards the town consisted but of about sixty families. In 1635 Mason died, and after his death New Hampshire was left to take care of itself.