Page:American Historical Review, Volume 12.djvu/521

 Conditions surrounding Scttlaneiit of I 'irginia 5 1 1 of a colonial empire and enthusiasm for the plantation of colonies are not enough ; a practicable plan must be found. English exploitation of America was begun on mistaken and impracticable lines. A large proportion of the expeditions that were sent from England to America in the last two decades of the sixteenth century were sent out by single individuals or small groups of individuals. The first expedition which carried men intended as settlers, that of Sir Humphrey Gilbert in 1578, was a private venture of his own, with the aid of a few friends, and that on which he lost his life five years afterward was on scarcely a broader basis. The contemporary annalist. Camden, speaking of Gilbert's failure and death, says, " learning too late himself, and teaching others, that it is a difihculter thing to carry over Colonies into remote Countreys upon private mens Purses, than he and others in an erroneous Credulity had persuaded themselves, to their own Cost and Detriment " } Or as some one a few years later says, " Private purees are cowlde compfortes to adven- turers, and have ever ben fownde fatall to all interprises hitherto undertaken by the English, by reason of delaies, jeloces and un- willingnes to backe that project which succeeded not at the first attempt." - The multiplicity and extent of costs involved in pro- curing and fitting out vessels, in providing military equipment and all other supplies for mariners and colonists, and in supporting em- ployees and settlers ; the long waiting for any returns ; the slight development of instruments of credit — these made demands beyond the means of any individual gentleman or group of gentlemen, bur- dened as they already were by the living expenses of their rank. The efforts of the Gilberts, the Raleighs, and the Sidneys were along mistaken and hopeless lines. Their efforts were more useful as a warning than as an example. There is no instance of a successful settlement in America carried out by private persons till well to- ward the middle of the seventeenth century. Until the day when settlers for religious or economic reasons went out at their own cost, the only hope of meeting the expenses incident to founding a colony was either to draw on the resources of the whole com- munit}- through the government, or to meet them by the com- bined means and the organized credit and effort of the merchant class. At the close of the sixteenth century the English govern- ment was not in a position financially or politically to furnish the funds for colonization, so the only remaining practical method was ^History of Queen Elizabeth, p. 287. - " Reasons or Motives for the Raising of a Publique Stocke." sect. 5. Printed in Brown, Goiesis of the United States, I. 37.