Sir George Calvert, who had been private secretary to Lord Cecil in Queen Elizabeth's reign, and also held office under King James, upon retiring was created Baron of Baltimore in Ireland, and purchased part of Newfoundland, which he called Avalon. He sent out a colony and afterwards visited Avalon; but, being discouraged by the cold climate, he abandoned the colony, and persuaded the next king, Charles I., to give him land on both sides of Chesapeake Bay north of the Potomac. Before the deed was signed, however, Baron Baltimore died, and his son, Cecilius Calvert, succeeded him and received the grant. This was one of the greatest gifts of land ever made, extending northward from the Potomac River, including all Maryland, a broad strip of what is now Pennsylvania, all of Delaware, and a good deal of West Virginia. The charter made the grant a Palatinate, giving Lord Baltimore and his heirs absolute control of the country, freedom to trade with the whole world and make his own laws, or allow his colonists to do this. The price was the delivery of two Indian arrows a year at the Castle of Windsor, and one-fifth of all the gold and silver found. This grant was dated on June 20, 1632, and the name first intended by Calvert for his colony was Crescentia; but in the charter it was styled _Terra Mariæ_, after Queen Henrietta Maria, or "Mary's Land." The expedition came out the following winter, leaving the Isle of Wight in November in two vessels, named the "Ark" and the "Dove," under command of Leonard Calvert, Cecil's brother, there being two hundred emigrants, nearly all Roman Catholics, like their chief, and mostly gentlemen of fortune and respectability. While the colony was Catholic, Cecil Calvert inculcated complete toleration. In his letter of instructions he wrote: "Preserve unity and peace on shipboard amongst all passengers; and suffer no offence to be given to any of the Protestants; for this end cause all acts of the Roman Catholic religion to be done as privately as may be;" and he also told his brother, the Governor, "to treat all Protestants with as much mildness and favor as justice would permit," this to be observed "at land as well as at sea." In March, 1633, they entered the Chesapeake and sailed up to the Potomac River, landing at an island and setting up a cross, claiming the country for Christ and for England.