kingdom to attend her.
But he does not expect the English to indulge in such noble ambitions
unless he can show a profit in them.

"I have not [he says] been so ill bred but I have tasted of plenty and
pleasure, as well as want and misery; nor doth a necessity yet, nor
occasion of discontent, force me to these endeavors; nor am I ignorant
that small thank I shall have for my pains; or that many would have the
world imagine them to be of great judgment, that can but blemish these
my designs, by their witty objections and detractions; yet (I hope) my
reasons and my deeds will so prevail with some, that I shall not
want employment in these affairs to make the most blind see his own
senselessness and incredulity; hoping that gain will make them affect
that which religion, charity and the common good cannot.... For I am
not so simple to think that ever any other motive than wealth will ever
erect there a Commonwealth; or draw company from their ease and humours
at home, to stay in New England to effect any purpose."

But lest the toils of the new settlement should affright his readers,
our author draws an idyllic picture of the simple pleasures which nature
and liberty afford here freely, but which cost so dearly in England.
Those who seek vain pleasure in England take more pains to enjoy it than
they would spend in New England to gain wealth, and yet have not half
such sweet content. What pleasure can be more, he exclaims, when men are
tired of planting vines and fruits and ordering gardens, orchards and
building to their mind, than "to recreate themselves before their owne
doore, in their owne boates upon the Sea, where man, woman and child,
with a small hooke and line, by angling, may take divers sorts of
excellent fish at their pleasures? And is it not pretty sport, to pull
up two pence, six pence, and twelve pence as fast as you can hale and
veere a line?... And what sport doth yield more pleasing content, and
less hurt or charge than angling with a hooke, and crossing the sweet
ayre from Isle to Isle, over the silent streams of a calme Sea? wherein
the most curious may finde pleasure, profit and content."

Smith made a most attractive picture of the fertility of the soil
and the fruitfulness of the country. Nothing was too trivial to be
mentioned. "There are certain red berries called Alkermes which is worth
ten shillings a pound, but of these hath been sold for thirty or forty
shillings the pound, may yearly be gath