The bigotries of the seventeenth century were indeed unreasoning. But they were very real to the Virginians in their lonesome outpost of civilization. To them Spaniard and Catholic were one. Now into their midst came Lord Baltimore! Had he not once connived with Gondomar, the hated Spanish ambassador, to bring about the marriage of the baby Prince Charles to the Infanta Maria of Spain? Maybe he was in league now with Spain under some subtle arrangement made by King Charles himself. Anything was possible to the fear-ridden colonists on the James. To dispose of this unwelcome intruder, without the risk of too greatly offending the king, they had to have something fool-proof on which to hang their collective hats. In the end, they offered Baltimore the prescribed oath of allegiance and supremacy, making it mandatory for him to subscribe to the supreme authority of the English sovereign in all matters ecclesiastical and spiritual. He refused to take the oath and so was ordered to leave the colony. * * * * * Always in the front rank of the opposition to Lord Baltimore of course had been the merchants who foresaw the loss of their tidewater trade, but even more especially William Claiborne and his followers with their own grand plan for colonization and trade on the backside of Virginia. Working for them in addition to fear and prejudice during this clash of rival plans was the rising sense of political independence in the colony, an increasing determination to fight for the sovereignty of possessed land and for “democrattical rights.” The Virginians did actually have something of a legal brake that they could apply on royal or noble license. They had their House of Burgesses, which had been sitting since 1619 as the first popular legislative assembly in America. Even after the king took over the colony from the company the colonists had been successful in retaining their little parliament. Somehow, with this bulwark of democracy, it was easier to face up to the crown or to court favorites like Lord Baltimore when impossible demands were in the making. And that is exactly what happened, for the House of Burgesses backed the merchants in every move they made to thwart the great lord’s plans, both in Virginia and in England after he returned there. Meanwhile, Captain Claiborne himself went to London where he obtained additional backing for his project through the merchant adventurer, William Cloberry. This wealthy man, together with Maurice Thompson and other merchants, subscribed for the major share of the joint-stock in the trading adventure. All agreed enthusiastically that through Claiborne’s plantation it would be possible to drain off much of the fur trade of the French in Canada. Cloberry well knew the potentialities of the “backside of Virginia,” as he had formerly adventured with the Kirkes in Canada.