Nevertheless next year the Manhattan correspondent, Secretary Isaac de Rasier, came to the Monumet station with trumpeters and a retinue, and was conveyed to Plymouth by a boat sent to meet him. After several days' entertainment, he returned to his ship under escort, having been permitted to accomplish his unprofessed purpose, to observe the condition of the fortified English Colony, of which he delivered a description, still extant, to his superiors at New Amsterdam. In 1633 Bradford also sustained the British claim in the Connecticut valley above the Hollanders' holdings, sending a vessel up the river to the navigable limits, past the threatening Dutch fort at Hartford, and establishing a trading post at present Windsor. Both New Amsterdam and Massachusetts had repeatedly encouraged them to do this, but repented. This mercantile base was embarrassed by a wide-spread plague among the Indians, most of whom were unfriendly. After this reverse it was taken up by a party from Dorchester and, on Bradford's protest, only a sixteenth share in it was returned to Plymouth. The matter caused some feeling in the Old Colony toward its newer northern neighbor. Such rivalries and questions of debate between the two English sections made evident the need of the inter-colonial union which later arose. Harmony was sought and usually prevailed. Captain John Endicott, the new Governor of Massachusetts Bay residing at Salem, proceeded promptly to recognize Plymouth's head in this truly fraternal manner (his spelling modernized): "To the worshipful and my right worthy friend, William Bradford, Esq. Governor of New Plymouth, these. "Right Worthy Sir, "It is a thing not usual, that servants to one master and of the same household should be strangers; I assure you I desire it not, nay to speak more plainly, I cannot be so to you: God's people are marked with one and the same mark, and sealed with one and the same seal, and have for the main one and the same heart, guided by one and the same spirit of truth; and where this is, there can be no discord, nay, here must needs be sweet harmony; and the same request (with you) I make unto the Lord, that we may, as Christian brethren, be united by an heavenly and unfeigned love, bending all our hearts and forces in furthering a work beyond our strength with reverence and fear, fastening our eyes always on him that only is able to direct and prosper all our ways." In the following summer of 1629 the sincere and cultured pastors at Salem, Higginson and Skelton, though ordained clergymen, wished to be set apart anew. To this religious assembly William Bradford and other delegates from the Plymouth church were invited. Adverse winds delayed their arrival by sail, and even the days of the stagecoach were then in the future; but happily they were in time to give the right hand of fellowship to their brethren of the Bay.