Royal toleration having been cautiously granted, the next task was to secure financial patronage. It was a task indeed, yet the Pilgrims, as these Separatist Puritans now called themselves, were happy in finding not only creditors who risked loans for mercantile considerations solely, but distinguished persons who were in sympathy with their Christian zeal and purity, as Sir Robert Naunton, Secretary of State to the King, and particularly Sir Edwin Sandys, a most worthy and influential man. For three years, however, the business negotiations dragged on, whose dreary details we will not rehearse, between the Puritans with their friends on one side, and on the other the failing or insecure London and old Plymouth colonial companies, the proffered Dutch sponsors whose kindness nevertheless looked to the Hudson and New Amsterdam, and finally the company of Merchant Adventurers, to whom the enterprising but unscrupulous Thomas Weston introduced the Pilgrims. He was useful to them in this crisis, because he procured their financial backing and made possible the journey to America. This benefit Bradford never forgot, despite all the falsehood, treachery, and ingratitude which Weston developed, who almost caused the ruin of the undertaking after he was weary of it and involved in difficulties through his mismanagement. The colonial plan was that the younger and more able of the Leyden community should go overseas at first, to prepare the way for the others; and it was well that Bradford and the most of his fellow-voyagers had the advantage of youthful prime, for the stern days of pioneering. The parting from their friends, on the embarkation at Delft Haven, was a sad experience, between the doubtful attractiveness of a distant savage land and the fact that it was likely to be, as it proved, a final leavetaking for many. Pastor Robinson, on his knees at the quay, poured out fervent petitions for their comrades about to go, commending them to divine protection. So affecting was the scene, that even the Dutch strangers beholding were moved to tears. Our Forefather wrote concerning this, "so they left the goodly and pleasant city, which had been their resting-place near twelve years; but they knew they were pilgrims, and looked not much on those things, but lift up their eyes to the heavens, their dearest country and quieted their spirits."