tion did persist as policy in the colony for fifty-five
years, a remarkable achievement in the seventeenth-
century Western world.⁹

   As Lord Baltimore set out to find men and women
who would join him in his colonizing venture, the conse-
quences of his plan were as yet unseen. His immediate
problem was to find any investors, whatever their relig-
ion. He circulated a pamphlet, A Declaration of the
Lord Baltemore's Plantation in Mary-Land. It de-
scribed the advantages of Maryland—mild climate,
bountiful resources—and presented his incentives. Like
any promoter of the time Lord Baltimore paid lip ser-
vice to God and king. People who ventured to Maryland
would extend the kingdom of Christ and the English
empire to new parts of the world, a glorious enterprise
in itself. But the Declaration's major stress was on per-
sonal gain to the investor—the 2,000-acre manor and
shares in the joint-stock fur trade venture. At this stage
Lord Baltimore ignored those who were willing to go
but could not afford to bring others too poor to pay for
themselves. His promotion was aimed at those wealthy
enough to fill a ship with able workmen who had the
skills to build the first settlement.¹⁰

   In the end, seventeen "Gentlemen Adventurers"
sailed on the Ark and the Dove, and six others either
joined the joint-stock fur trade venture or sent settlers
without going themselves. There also were a few "silent
partners," or secret investors, who were attracted by the
promise of wealth, but not the notoriety, of a Catholic
colony. The Jesuit order contributed two priests and a
lay brother and nearly one fifth of the servants and their
supplies. Finally Lord Baltimore himself invested heav-
ily in his venture.