They petitioned for liberty to organize a church.

Stuyvesant, a zealous Calvinist, declined, saying that he was bound by his oath to tolerate no other religion openly than the Reformed.

In this intolerance he was sustained by the Company in Holland.
Oliver Cromwell now decided to carry the war against Holland into the New World.

He sent word to the governors of the New England Colonists that he was about to dispatch war ships to the coasts of America, and he called upon them to give their utmost assistance for gaining the Manhattoes and other places under the power of the Dutch.
Four armed ships were soon crossing the Atlantic.

The expedition was entrusted to Major Sedgwick and John Leverett.