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 gathered a good quantity.”  John Josselyn, who was much of the time in New England from 1638 to 1671 and saw more marvels there than anybody else ever imagined, says, “I have sought for this berry he speaks of, as a man should for a needle in a bottle of hay, but could never light upon it; unless that kind of Solomon’s seal called by the English treacle-berry should be it.”

Towards the last of August, 1614, Smith was back at Plymouth.  He had now a project of a colony which he imparted to his friend Sir Ferdinand Gorges.  It is difficult from Smith’s various accounts to say exactly what happened to him next.  It would appear that he declined to go with an expedition of four ship which the Virginia company despatched in 1615, and incurred their ill-will by refusing, but he considered himself attached to the western or Plymouth company.  Still he experienced many delays from them:  they promised four ships to be ready at Plymouth; on his arrival “he found no such matter,” and at last he embarked in a private expedition, to found a colony at the expense of Gorges, Dr. Sutliffe, Bishop o Exeter, and a few gentlemen in London.  In January 1615, he sailed from Plymouth with a ship Of 20 tons, and another of 50.  His intention was, after the fishing was over, to remain in New England with only fifteen men and begin a colony.