At the time that our story has now reached, there were two projects for Puritan settlement in which members of this clan were particularly interested, that of the island of Old Providence in the Caribbean Sea, and that of the remnants of the Cape Ann fishing attempt, which was mentioned in the preceding chapter. The latter somewhat ill-judged effort, in 1623, to combine as a single enterprise an agricultural colony on land and a fishing business at sea, had been abandoned two years later, with a loss of £3000.[281] Most of the men had been withdrawn, but Roger Conant, with a few others, decided to remain in America, transferring their homes to the location of what was in a few years to be known as Salem. Thinking that something might still be saved from the wreck, a few of the Adventurers in England plucked up courage, and having interested fresh capitalists, including Thomas Dudley, secured the services of John Endicott as local governor, and, in 1628, were granted a patent from the Council for New England.[282] The Puritan character of the new undertaking would be sufficiently evidenced by the names of White and his parishioner Endicott, Humphrey, and Dudley, did we not know also that the Earl of Warwick, who seven years before had secured the patent for the Pilgrims, now acted in obtaining that for the New England Company.[283] Sir Ferdinando Gorges, to whom Warwick applied, gave his consent, provided that the new patent should not be prejudicial to the interests of his son Robert, and distinctly stated that the new colony was to found a place of refuge for Puritans.[284] The grant, which extended from three miles north of the River Merrimac to three miles south of the Charles, conflicted with that bestowed on Gorges and Mason in 1622, as well as with that of Robert Gorges of similar date. As the same limits were confirmed in the royal charter to the Company of Massachusetts Bay in 1629, the seeds of future discord were sown in these conflicting titles.[285] Footnote 281: J. White, _The Planter's Plea_ (Force Tracts), p. 39. Footnote 282: White, _Planter's Plea_, p. 43; T. Dudley, “Letter to the Countess of Lincoln,” in Young's _Chronicles of the first Planters of Massachusetts_ (Boston, 1846), p. 310; _cf._ Osgood, American Colonies, vol. I, p. 130. Footnote 283: There was no uniform designation until the issue of the charter of 1629, the company being variously styled “the New England Company,” “the Company of Adventurers for New England in America,” etc. Thornton, _Landing at Cape Anne_, p. 57 _n._ Footnote 284: Gorges, _Briefe Narration_, p. 80 (written many years later). Footnote 285: Haven, _Lowell Lectures_, pp. 153 _f._