COLONIES WERE VASTLY EXPENSIVE ENTERPRISES, always soaking up sums far greater than the original investors ever imagined. Plantations were begun in exaggerated hopes of rich commodities; expectations of fabulous returns were particularly elevated in the case of southern regions. The correspondence between planters in the early English colonies and their backers in England always took on a semihysterical tone in consequence, as the investors urged the settlers to send them products of value, and quickly. Planters were caught in a classic bind: They praised the richness and fertility of their land to keep backers committed to the project; but when the promised products failed to appear and adventurers' costs mounted alarmingly, recriminations against the settlers inevitably followed.

Much of the mythology of development focused on the engendering power of heat. Not only rich crops but minerals as well were thought to be generated by the sun's rays in the hot regions of the earth. Minerals such as gold and silver were thought to grow or form in the earth and then to be drawn to the surface by the magnetic power of the sun. Moreover, analysts argued that hot climates were most fruitful and the crops produced in them most rich; the “Sun with his masculine force” fructified the “teeming” feminine earth.

Many writers whose credibility was fortified by firsthand experience argued that lucrative trades could be set up with southern regions almost from the very beginning of plantation. For example, Robert Harcourt, whose experience in Guiana dated back to 1609, wrote A Relation of a voyage to Guiana (London, 1613), which was republished in 1626.