"more particular information on the whole matter".
Again, in June, 1633, the General informed Blount that
he had yet to receive the particulars needed to help him
make a decision in this matter of the American mission.
On August 31, 1633, the information was still lacking
in Rome, though in the meantime, on May 31st, Blount
had written another urgent request for his Superior's
approval of the proposed establishment. Indeed it was
not until very late in 1633, probably in December, that
the information demanded by the General was received
in Rome in the form of the Latin "Declaratio Coloniae",
presented with a formal petition from the English Pro-
vincial for authority to send missionaries with the
Maryland expedition. At this time the printed Declara-
tion in English had been before the public for several
months at the least, and it looks somewhat as if Father
Blount had been compelled to wait for its appearance
before he could supply the information his superior had
so insistently and so reasonably called for in the two
years past. There is reason to believe, indeed, that the
Conditions of Plantation contained in the Declaration
had been finally determined only while the document
was in process of composition, and it may be suggested
that the real reason for Blount's delay in this matter
was Lord Baltimore's unwillingness to give out infor-
mation in regard to his plans until the whole project had
been fully formulated.⁶

   Whether the English version of the Declaration pre-
ceded the Latin or the Latin the English is a question of
relatively small concern in its outcome. The matter in
each is the same, and the document was formulated in
two languages for two distinct purposes at approxi-
mately the same time. It is hardly worth while to go

                      8