This sad unfitness was not confined to the rulers. More than half the men were ranked as “gentlemen,” which in those times meant persons who did not do manual labor. The wild rumors of the abundance of gold in the New World drew them across the ocean. They believed that it would take only a short time to load the three vessels with the yellow metal, when they would return to England and live in luxury for the rest of their days. You naturally find that most of those who toiled for a living were jewelers and gold-refiners.