156    THE FATHERS OF NEW ENGLAND
evidence of London merchants and by at least
one West Indian governor, who knew the colony
and had no personal interests at stake.
In October, 1676, Massachusetts sent over two
of its leading men, William Stoughton, a magis-
trate, and Peter Bulkeley, speaker of the House
of Representatives, to ward off, if possible, the
attack on the colony, but with characteristic
short-sightedness gave them no authority to
discuss officially anything but the Mason and
Gorges claims. For more than two years these
men, representative rather of the moderate party
than of the "old faction" in the colony, remained
in England, frequently appearing before the Lords
of Trade, where they were subjected to a searching
examination at the hands of a not very sym-
pathetic body of men. The meetings in the Coun-
cil Chamber in Whitehall, where the committee
sat, were occasions full of interest and excite-
ment. At one of them, on April 8, 1677, Stough-
ton, Bulkeley, Randolph, Mason, and Sir Edmund
Andros, Governor of New York for the Duke, were
all present, and the agents must have found the
situation awkward and embarrassing. The com-
mittee expressed its resentment at the colony's
habit of disobedience and evasion, and showed