RICHARD EBURNE
A PLAINE PATH-WAY TO PLANTATIONS: That is,
A Discourse in generall, concerning the Plantation of
our English people in other Countries.
Wherein
Is declared, That the Attempts or Actions, in themselves are
very good and laudable, necessary also for our Country of
England. Doubts thereabout are answered: and some meanes
are shewed, by which the same may, in better sort than hitherto,
be prosecuted and effected.
Written
For the perswading and stirring up of the people of this Land,
chiefly the poorer and common sort to affect and effect these
Attempts better then yet they doe. With certaine motiues for a
present Plantation in New-found land above the rest.
Made in the manner of a Conference, and divided into three
Parts, for the more plainnesse, ease, and delight
to the Reader.
By
RICHARD EBURNE of Hengstridge in the Countie
of Somerset.
Printed by G.P. for Iohn Marriott. 1624.
Contents
Dedicatory epistle to Arthur, Lord Bishop of Bath and Wells, and Robert, Lord
Bishop of Bristol
"To the courteous and Christian readers"
"The Sum or Principal Contents of the Whole Book"
The First Part
Dedicatory epistle to Sir George Calvert
The Second Part
The Third Part
************
To the Right Reverend Fathers in God and Honorable Lords, Arthur, Lord
Bishop of Bath and Wells, and Robert, Lord Bishop of Bristol, Richard Eburne
wisheth all health and happiness external, internal, and eternal
ONSIDERING, Right Honorable, and not without grief of mind and sorrow of heart
viewing, the great misery and encumbrance of this our goodly country, the
country of England--which heretofore admirably flourished in plenty and
prosperity--by reason of the excessive multitude of people which therein at this
present do swarm and superabound, the many fair opportunities which God in His
gracious providence often hath and at this instant doth offer unto it for a
present, a speedy, and an infallible remedy thereof, and yet the notorious
neglect and wayward unwillingness of the people of this land, our English
nation, to regard and accept such offers and to seek and take their own good: I
thought I might do a work worth the labor and in all likelihood grateful and
useful to my country and countrymen to write something, and the rather for that
none that I know hath yet travailed this way, that might stir and encourage
them, specially the common and meaner sort of them, as whom chiefly and most of
all it doth concern, to make better use of these fair, worthy, and necessary
opportunities.
The sum of the whole treatise
Whereupon I have in a plain and familiar manner, as one that intended to submit
himself to the capacity and understanding even of the meanest for whom specially
this my labor I intended, first, declared and justified these kind of
attempts--plantations--to tend notably to the glory of Almighty God, the
enlargement of the King's Majesty's dominions, and the manifold and inestimable
benefit of this whole land, the realm of England, and to be in their own nature
lawful and just, ancient and usual; secondly, I have showed some particular
means or inferior courses how and whereby both men and money, the two
principal things that must plentifully be had for plantations, may easily and
speedily be raised and procured in and out of our land for this purpose; and,
thirdly, I have given and set down some particular instructions and observations
touching these actions, not unworthy, haply, the notion and consideration of
many such as yet are little acquainted with them, and added some special motives
for a present plantation in Newfoundland before and above any other place of
plantation yet attempted. Withal, in every of these passages I have answered all
such either real--or rather regional--or personal objections as commonly are
made against the enterprises themselves why they should not be regarded, or by
persons that should employ themselves in the enterprises why they should not
adventure therein.
These plain, but I hope plausible and profitable, labors of mine I am bold, and
humbly desire your Lordships both that I may be bold, to present to the open
view and consideration of this land under the patronage and protection of your
honorable names, the one of you being my much and worthily honored diocesan, the
other my worthy and favorable patron, both special fautors of all good
learning and furtherers of all goodly endeavors, and therefore such as I hope
and presume will vouchsafe these labors of mine and these worthy, pious, and
religious--if they be worthily, piously, and religiously handled--these notable
attempts, and for our land at this present most necessary and expedient, your
best furtherance and countenance, not doubting but that thereby both my
endeavors shall the better be respected and received and the actions themselves
the more advanced and followed; I shall be shielded from the malicious envy of
the carping caviler, that takes more delight and can be content to bestow more
labor and time in depraving what others have done than in setting forth and
publishing, I say not any better but any like and as good of his own; and they
(the actions) shall be shrouded from the canine unkindness of those lazy lurdans
that will neither take the good of them themselves nor suffer by their good will
any other to do it.
One reason more particular hath moved me to tender to your Lordships these my
labors, and that is for that the one of you is resident in that city as in his
proper and episcopal see, the other in the next neighboring both city and
country, which either by itself in general or by a certain number of the
worshipful citizens thereof in particular hath already begun and at this present
continueth a plantation in Newfoundland, which I therefore hope will be an
occasion that may move your good Lordships both this way to do to the places of
your own abode--which, truly, by reason of the number of people wherewith they
are cloyed and overlaid, do as greatly need these helps as any cities or
counties in England--much good and benefit. Which thing, I am persuaded, you may
easily and greatly effect if you will be pleased but to show yourselves, in
countenancing and assisting me and others that do and will employ ourselves in
them, to approve and favor, to allow and like of these kind of labors and
endeavors, and, namely, that wherein your own people and so near neighbors are
already so far interessed and proceeded.
The Lord Jesu, the high bishop of our souls, vouchsafe unto your Lordships, whom
He hath called to principal pastors in this His Church of England, such
plentiful store of His heavenly gifts, and so guide you by His holy spirit,
that you may sincerely set forth His Gospel and seek His glory in this
world, and in the world to come be crowned by Him with celestial and eternal
glory.
Amen.
Your Honorable Lordships'
ever to command in the work of the Lord,
RICHARD EBURNE
To the courteous and Christian readers, especially the common people of this
realm of England
THER men, divers, have labored severally in describing and commending, one this
country, another that: as Captain Whitbourne, Newfoundland; Captain Smith, his
New England; Master Harcourt, Guiana; and some others--more than one or
two--Virginia. And every of these hath used sundry motives for the advancement
of a plantation in the place by him most affected, all tending to this main end:
to move our people of England to plant themselves abroad and free themselves of
that penury and peril of want wherein they live at home. But none that I know
hath handled the point in general, viz., to show the benefit and the good, the
lawfulness and the ancient and frequent use, the facility and necessity--that
is, indeed, if I may so speak, the doctrine--of plantations. That task,
therefore, have I undertaken, which how I have performed I leave to others to
judge, requesting this at your hands, benevolent and courteous readers, that you
observe and consider, first, that I am the first that hath broken this ice and
searched out this way, and that therefore it must needs be to me more rough and
rude than if I had passed a smooth water and gone along in an usual and beaten
path; secondly, that my whole purpose and intent is, principally and specially,
to do some good this way for and with the meaner sort of our people, to whose
capacity, therefore, it was fit and, more than fit, necessary that I should fit
and frame my speech. That observed, I doubt not but you will not only bear with
but also approve of my plainness as best befitting my purpose to work and my
subject to work upon. The more learned and judicious sort I freely and
ingenuously acknowledge myself more desirous to ...
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