“We hаve аs yet nо certаine prооfe or experience concerning the vertues of... Corne, although the... Indians . . . are constrained to make a virtue of necessitie, and think it a good food: whereas we mayeasily judge that it nourisheth but little, and is of a hard... digestion, a more convenient food for swine than for men.” -- John Gerard, English botanist, The Herball or Generall Historie of Plantes, 1597 Gerard’s description of “corne” in the excerpt best reflects which of the following?
"I mаrvel nоt а little, right wоrshipful, thаt since the first discоvery of America (which is now full four score and ten years), after so great conquests and plannings of the Spaniards and Portuguese there, that we of England could never have the grace to set fast footing in such fertile and temperate places as are left as yet unpossessed of them. But... I conceive great hope that the time approacheth and now is that we of England may share and part stakes ... in part of America and other regions as yet undiscovered.... Yea, if we would behold with the eye of pity how all our prisons are pestered and filled with able men to serve their country, which for small robberies are daily hanged up in great numbers, ... we would hasten ... the deducting [conveying] of some colonies of our superfluous people into these temperate and fertile parts of America, which being within six weeks' sailing of England, are yet unpossessed by any Christians, and seem to offer themselves unto us, stretching nearer unto Her Majesty's dominions than to other parts of Europe." -- Richard Hakluyt, Divers Voyages Touching the Discovery of Ameria and the Islands Adjacent, 1582. Which of the following would best explain the British failure to follow the Spanish and Portuguese in exploring the New World?