East of the Mississippi The first European settlers to arrive in North America found a sparsely inhabited coast that gave them the opportunity to settle and succeed where others had previously failed . As many pilgrims were seeking religious freedom, they saw a land that their god had prepared for them by exterminating the natives through plague and disease. The fact is that the plague of disease that wiped out more than 90 percent of the original inhabitants of the northeast coast was brought by European fishermen around 1617, who were fond of cod in the Massachusetts Bay area. These fishermen would come ashore for firewood, fresh water, and to occasionally kidnap natives to sell into slavery, and unknowingly left behind Old World diseases. The immune system of the indigenous people was in no way prepared to deal with diseases such as viral hepatitis, smallpox, chickenpox, measles and influenza as the Europeans were. These diseases originate in densely populated areas with close contact with domesticated animals, both to the natives of North America but not to the Europeans who brought the disease. When the Plymouth Rock Pilgrims arrived in 1620, few Natives remained along the north coast and those who did greeted the newcomers hospitably, unlike the reception of previous attempts in 1606 and 1607 which ended with the Natives which chased away settlement attempts. The Europeans were not the only ones to attribute the disease to divine intervention, the natives began to believe that their gods had abandoned them, which facilitated their conversion to Christianity. The result of this unplanned biowarfare attack against the natives was that for nearly 50 years early European settlers... middle of paper... liquor, Europeans had developed a greater tolerance to the drink while it had proven to be a nuisance curse for the natives. These three elements, the organizations, and the spirit of manifest destiny of the young American settlers were instrumental in the continued westward expansion and continued gathering of native populations from place to place. While it is difficult to imagine that such atrocities were committed in the not-so-distant past, the history of modern America is not unique in its brutality towards Native populations. Similar examples of conquering nations exist throughout the world, and while it is no justification for the actions of the white Protestant Angelo-Saxons, it helps to understand their motivations. The above information was learned from Lies My Teacher Told Me by James Lowen, Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee by Dee Brown, and Wikipedia.org