The territory which Penn now had in mind, therefore, had belonged to the crown since the dissolution of the Plymouth Company and was again at the disposal of the King. As to Penn’s confidence in his ability to obtain possession of it without difficulty, it will be remembered that he had inherited from his father a claim of fifteen thousand pounds against the royal exchequer. As neither the King nor the Duke of York were able to repay this sum, the unpaid interest on which, during the ten years since the admiral’s death, amounted to more than a thousand pounds, Penn felt sure the King would welcome a proposal to cede this tract of land in America as payment of his claim—certainly a simple method of releasing himself from this large debt. But the affair was not to be so easily settled after all, for the time was past when the sovereign had absolute power to dispose of crown possessions as he would, the privy council now having a voice in the matter, and to obtain their consent was difficult, Penn’s ideas in regard to the government of this new State being regarded not only as preposterous, but also as dangerous to itself and to the crown. He was urged, therefore, by his friends to make no mention of his real purpose in his petition to the King, lest he be forced to renounce his long-cherished plan. Although he accepted this prudent advice, there were still many obstacles to overcome, owing to the difficulty of defining any exact boundaries in that trackless wilderness and the precautions necessary to incorporate in the patent all possible security for the maintenance of crown prerogatives. While the matter was still before the council and the result by no means certain, Penn took advantage of an opportunity which offered itself of becoming a joint owner of New Jersey, by which, even should his petition be refused, his plans could still be carried out in that province, if only on a small scale. Sir George Carteret, tired of his colonial possessions, offered to sell his ownership, and Penn, with a number of others, concluded the purchase. Again the public confidence in him and his enterprises was shown by the haste with which hundreds of families, especially from Scotland, took advantage of the liberal terms offered to emigrants in his published prospectus and enrolled their names as future colonists. At length, after much deliberation, and owing largely to the influence of the Duke of York, to whom Penn had again applied for assistance, the council agreed to comply with his proposal, partly also, perhaps, from the fear that in case they refused Penn might insist upon the payment of his debt, for which at the moment no means were available.