finger to it"; the site of St. Mary's City, the first settle-
ment, "as good ground as I suppose is in all Europe."²⁸
Sometimes he indulged in flights of fancy such as the
grandiose scheme he sent to Lord Baltimore in 1639 for
multiplying population and profits in Maryland. Yet,
Father White was also schooled to strict obedience that
did not allow deviation from established policy, regard-
less of need. Indeed, he made a point of telling Lord
Baltimore that Governor Calvert had not obeyed all his
brother's instructions upon the arrival of the expedition
in Virginia, without comment on the fact that the out-
come was successful.²⁹

   Not all Father White's Jesuit contemporaries re-
garded him as qualified to lead, although his love of
God and missionary zeal were never in question. Henry
More, the English Provincial in the late 1630s, found
him a man of excellent talent but not excellent judg-
ment, a man with prudence "of medium grade."³⁰ In
1637 Thomas Copley replaced Father White as head of
the mission. White then concentrated his efforts on con-
verting the local Indians, the "glorious Enterprise" of
the Declaration, at which he evidently excelled.

   His sojourn in Maryland ended after eleven years
with a disaster not of his making. In 1645 Richard Ingle
took him to England in chains after provoking a Prot-
estant rebellion in the colony. There, at the age of 67,
Father White was once more imprisoned, tried, and
banished from English territory to which he was not to
return until shortly before his death some years later.

   How did Father White behave as the spiritual Catho-
lic leader of the expedition that sailed in the Ark! Was
he careful to converse primarily with the Catholic gen-
tlemen and obey his Baron's instructions to keep Cath-