Excerpt from the Planters Plea
Two things withal may be intimated by the way: the first, that the very project itself of planting by the help of a fishing voyage can never answer the success it seems to promise, which experienced fishermen might easily have foreseen beforehand, and by that means have prevented divers ensuing errors. Whereof, amongst divers other reasons, these may serve for two: first, that no sure fishing place in the land is fit for planting, nor any good place for planting found fit for fishing, at least near the shore; and, secondly, rarely any fishermen will work at land, neither are husbandmen fit for fishermen but with long use and experience. The second thing to be observed is, that nothing new fell out in the managing of this stock, seeing experience hath taught us that, as in building houses, the first stones of the foundation are buried under ground and are not seen, so in planting colonies, the first stocks employed that way are consumed, although they serve for a foundation to the work .