Perhaps because the level of exploration involved in the discovery of a new land by previous expeditions and the famous pilgrims, didn´t cause a hard impact on the native Indian communities of New England. The hardship of crude winters and famine alone prevented a major confrontation between the two cultures. It was a slow process that only presented a permanent settlement with the arrival of the pilgrims in December 1620.

"Quote from www.publicbookshelf.com"

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The discovery and settlement of New England was a slow process. It possibly began with the voyages of the Northmen, though the locality of Vinland can never be definitely known. Yet during the sixteenth century no part of it was explored, and no effort made at colonization. Gosnold, in 1602, made an unsuccessful attempt to plant a colony on Martha's Vineyard. Martin Pring made a trading-voyage to the coast in 1603. In 1605 George Weymouth entered the Kennebec or the Penobscot River. About the same time the French essayed to plant a colony on Cape Cod, but were driven off by the Indians. In 1606 the Plymouth and London Companies, for the purpose of planting colonies in America, were formed in London, the patent of the first-named covering the coast of New England, to which a colony was sent in 1607. It landed at the mouth of the Kennebec River, but the colonists became discouraged, and returned on the ships, with the exception of forty-five, who spent a long and severe winter on the coast and returned to England in the following spring. A party of French established themselves on Mount Desert Island in 1613, but were driven off after a few weeks' stay by Captain Argall, of Virginia.

The next effort to colonize this region was made by Captain John Smith, who had already given permanence to the Virginia colony by his shrewdness and energy. He explored the coast in 1614, and made a map of it, giving its present name to the country. But his earnest efforts to found a colony failed, through discouraging circumstances, and despite his persistent endeavors. Other voyages were made, and a trading-party remained on the coast during the winter of 1616-17, but all such efforts to establish trading-colonies ended in failure, and it was not until the arrival of the Puritan agriculturists in 1620 that a permanent colony was formed.
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Source(s):
http://www.publicbookshelf.com/public_html/The_Great_Republic_By_the_Master...


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