Reply #17: Actually, they purposefully did it on land inhabited by Native Americans.. [View All]

[Maddy McCall]

The environment on the East Coast had already been "tamed" by Native Americans, and that is why the Pilgrims on the Mayflower basically hijacked the ship and took it to the indian-tamed coast north of where the ship had initially been intended to land. In the plymouth region, native americans had cleared land, planted corn, built homes, etc, but were wiped out recently by smallpox, so the Pilgrims had a head start in setting up a new colony there. They CHOSE it; they were not blown off course--they chose a land preoccupied and then depopulized, and they thanked god for smallpox when they landed.

Even dug up American INdian bodies and stole grave goods. They were some unethical bastards, those Pilgrims.