Читать книгу The Beginners of a Nation - Eggleston Edward - Страница 13

Character of the emigrants. The people sent over in the first years were for the most part utterly unfit. Smith's Gen. Hist., iii, c. i and c. xii. Of the first hundred, four were carpenters, there was a blacksmith, a tailor, a barber, a bricklayer, a mason, a drummer. There were fifty-five who ranked as gentlemen, and four were boys, while there were but twelve so-called laborers, including footmen, "that never did know what a day's work was." Advertisements for Planters of New Eng., p. 5. The company is described by one of its members as composed of poor gentlemen, tradesmen, serving men, libertines, and such like. Comp. Briefe Declaration in Pub. Rec. Off., Sainsbury i, 66; and New Life of Va. "A hundred good workmen were better than a thousand such gallants," says Captain Smith. Of the moral character of the first emigrants no better account is given. Essay on Plantations. It was perhaps with these men in view that Bacon declared it "a shameful and unblessed thing" to settle a colony with "the scum of the people."