Why did the English in Holland begin to long for still another home? Living so contentedly, why were they not satisfied to remain so? There seem to have been two reasons for their feeling as they did. To begin with, there was grave danger of their becoming a part of the Dutch nation. They were afraid of losing their speech, customs, religion--everything that made them English Separatists. Then, too, when they had attempted to spread their doctrines by means of printing, King James had interfered and taken possession of the types. When such tyranny as this could exist even in kindly Holland, they thought it was high time to seek a home elsewhere. “No home for these!--too well they knew The mitered king behind the throne; The sails were set, the pennons flew, And westward, ho! for worlds unknown.” The rest of the story of the “Pilgrim Fathers” we all know--how they crossed the water, battled against famine, disease and poverty, and succeeded slowly but surely in building up a settlement at Plymouth. Years passed before they had any neighbors. At last, in 1628, the little settlement of Salem was formed by the Massachusetts Bay Company. This was followed two years later by a big migration of Puritans to New England under John Winthrop which led to the founding of Boston and several smaller towns. The colony which embraced these different settlements was called Massachusetts Bay Colony. Meanwhile, things had been going from bad to worse in England. King Charles was now on the throne and his subjects were discouraged to find that he was even more of a tyrannical master than James, his father. How could anybody expect justice or fairness from a ruler who believed that because he was a king, he could do no wrong? It grew more and more uncomfortable for the Puritans every day, even in the established church. One of Charles’ chief advisers, Archbishop Laud, was busy ridding the country of all “heretics” and other offenders against the royal will and law. If Roger Williams had now taken notes in the Star Chamber as he did when a boy, he would have recorded many undeserved punishments, such as heavy fines, whippings and worse. But he was now a man and looking with longing eyes across the ocean, as so many of his countrymen had before him. As to Roger Williams’ true place among the different sects of his time, he was without doubt a Separatist. More than one passage in his letters points to this as the truth. There was no half-way to a man of his decided character. Believing as he did, there was only one thing for him to do--seek a refuge in the New World. “And truly it was as bitter as death to me,” he wrote in after years, “when Bishop Laud pursued me out of this land, and my conscience was persuaded against the national church, and ceremonies, and bishops.”