Only the Best

A multitude of schemes appeared overnight, all of them requiring the recruitment of workers...from all over Europe. The vignerons were French...; the experts in salt manufacture came from "Rochell"; some of the wine producers were brought in from the Rhineland; "Polackers" were hired to make potash, soap, pitch, and tar;...shipbuilders and sawmill operators came from Hamburg; the glassworks were manned by Italians...But the overwhelming number...were English, recruited in desperation..."idle wastrels, petty thieves, and dissolute women,"...the whole lot "a more damned crew hell never vomited." Virginia Company head Sir Edwin Sandys. Barbarous Years (83)