Toward the close of September, 1627, Isaac de Rasieres was dispatched from New Amsterdam on an embassy to the English colony at New Plymouth. Being of a trading turn, he carried with him in his vessel among other merchandise about L50 in wampum which he managed to dispose of there.[28] Wampum was as yet comparatively unknown in Massachusetts Bay, and the colonists were ignorant of its uses. This purchase made with great reluctance, they sent to their trading house at Kennebeck, where "when the inland Indians came to know it, they could scarce procure enough for many years together." Everywhere in New England, as in the Dutch provinces, wampum soon became a leading article in the Indian trade, and added greatly to its profits. Seven years after its introduction to Kennebeck, Mr. Winslow carried thence into England about twenty hogsheads of beaver, "the greater part whereof was traded for wampampeage" during the year. By 1636 this trade had grown to such proportions in Massachusetts colony that the standing colony were authorized to farm it out for the increase of the public revenues, and to establish the severest penalties for any infringement of the privileges thus granted. The traders of New England were now ranging the forests in all directions and often plunged into them for hundreds of miles to the great alarm of the Dutch who feared that the English would monopolize all the profits of the trade, and that "they should be obliged to eat oats out of English hands."[29] From the north the French descended in great numbers, eager to share in the gains of this traffic, and often encroached upon the domains of other nations. The solitudes of the wilderness thus resounded every where to the tread of the adventurous white man, who, lured on by the hope of gain, thought not of the dangers that beset his path. It doubtless afforded the Indian no little satisfaction to welcome the haughty foreigner to his wigwam, and while dictating his own terms, to receive in payment the honored currency of his fathers. When he took his pay, he measured it off after his own fashion, the unit being the distance from the elbow to the end of the little finger. According to one authority it made no difference whether a short or tall man measured it.[30] Adrian Van Tiedhoven, clerk of the court at the South river, however tells a different story, complaining bitterly "because the Indians always take the largest and tallest among them to trade with us."