<P> Although cultivation of crops like squash and corn supplemented their diets, these tribes were generally dependent on hunting, gathering and fishing for most of their food supply . Villages consisted of lodges called wigwams as well as long houses, and tribes were led by male or female elders known as sachems . </P> <P> Europeans began exploring the coast of North America in the 16th century, but few attempts were made at permanent settlement anywhere . Early European explorers of the New England coast included the Englishman Bartholomew Gosnold (who named Cape Cod in 1602), Frenchman Samuel de Champlain (who charted the northern coast as far as Cape Cod in 1605 and 1606), and the Englishmen John Smith and Henry Hudson . Fishing ships from Europe also worked in the fish - rich waters off the coast, and may have engaged in trade with some of the natives . The sailors and fishermen brought European diseases which led to the rapid decline of the Indian population before the first large - scale arrival of settlers in the 1630s . Large numbers of natives were decimated by virgin soil epidemics such as smallpox, measles, influenza, and perhaps leptospirosis, against which they had no immunity . In 1617--1619, smallpox killed 90% of the Native Americans in the region . </P> <P> The first English settlers in Massachusetts, the Pilgrims, established their settlement at Plymouth in 1620, and developed friendly relations with the native Wampanoag . This was the second successful permanent English colony in North America, after the Jamestown Colony . Before heading to the New World, they migrated to Holland to escape the harsh treatment from King James for rejecting England's official church . Although they were allowed some religious liberties in Holland, the liberalism and openness of the Dutch to all styles of life horrified them . They approached the Virginia Company and asked to settle "as a distinct body of themselves" in America . In the fall of 1620, they sailed to North America on the Mayflower, first landing near the tip of Cape Cod (modern - day Provincetown, Massachusetts). Blown north off its course, the Mayflower landed at a site that had been named Plymouth . Since the area was not land that lay within their charter, they created the Mayflower Compact, one of America's first documents of self - governance, prior to landing . The first year was extremely difficult, with inadequate supplies . They also suffered grievously from smallpox and malaria . They were assisted, however, in their time of trouble by the Wampanoag under - chief Massasoit . </P> <P> In 1621 (following the one held at Berkeley Plantation in Virginia, 1619), they celebrated their first Thanksgiving Day together to thank God for blessings of good harvest and survival . This Thanksgiving came to represent the peace that existed at that time between the Native Americans and the Pilgrims . Although only about half of the Mayflower company survived the first year, the colony grew slowly over the next ten years, and was estimated to have 300 inhabitants by 1630 . </P>

Where did the colonists of massachusetts come from