Having reached the Netherlands, they saw many fine fortified cities, strongly walled, and guarded with troops of armed men; and they heard a strange and uncouth language, and beheld the different manners and customs of the people, with their strange fashions and attire—all so far differing from their own plain country villages wherein they were bred and had lived so long, that it seemed they had come into a new world. But these were not the things they gave much attention to. They had other work in hand, and another kind of war to wage. For though they saw fair and beautiful cities, flowing with abundance of all sorts of wealth and riches, it was not long before they saw the grim and grisly face of poverty coming upon them like an armed man, with whom they must buckle and encounter, and from whom they could not fly; but they were armed with faith and patience against him and all his encounters; and though they were sometimes foiled, yet, by God’s assistance, they prevailed and got the victory. When Mr. Robinson, Mr. Brewster, and the other principal members had arrived,—they were among the last, having stayed to help the weakest over,—such things were deliberated as were necessary for their settling and for the best ordering of the church affairs. When they had lived at Amsterdam about a year, Mr. Robinson, their pastor, together with the most discerning of the others, seeing that Mr. John Smith and his followers had already fallen out with the church which was there previously, and that nothing could avail to end the quarrel, and also that the flames of contention were likely to break out in the parent church itself (as afterwards, alas, came to pass); they thought it best to move, before they were in any way involved, though they knew it would be to their worldly disadvantage, both at present and probably in the future,—as indeed it proved to be. For these and other reasons, then, they removed to Leyden, a fair and beautiful city, of a sweet situation, made famous by its university, in which recently there had been so many learned men. However, lacking seafaring trades, which Amsterdam enjoys, it was not so favourable in providing means of livelihood. But being settled here, they fell to such trades and employments as they best could, valuing peace and their spiritual comfort above any other riches whatever; and at length they came to raise a competent and comfortable living, though only by dint of hard and continual labour.