Existing comment:
Encounters with Adventurers:
When the first Europeans arrived in this area, they found ongoing competition and armed warfare between the different Native American towns, villages, and confederations. Early European settlers often took advantage of the conflict to strengthen their own positions. Captain John Smith was the first to explore the region. Between 1607 and 1609 he led a party of soldiers, adventurers, and settlers who established a settlement at Jamestown, Virginia.
Captain Henry Fleet, another adventurer, arrived in the area around 1621. He intended to make his fortune through trade with a local population of Native Americans. The Nacotchtank captured Fleet during a raid in 1623 and held him for five years. After he left them, he used the knowledge he gained of local languages and cultures to begin a successful trading enterprise of exporting beaver pelts to Europe. At that time in Europe, the beaver hat was a high-fashion accessory in great demand, but the European beaver had been largely killed off. By the early 1800s, the population of American beaver had also been decimated by the export to Europe of beaver pelts.
By the end of the 1600s, the Nacotchtank and other members of the Piscataway Confederation had lost most of their land. Warfare (with European settlers and with other Native Americans, particularly the Susquehannock) and diseases brought over from Europe destroyed Piscataway villages and forts in the area. The European system of private land ownership also helped push the Piscataway from their traditional lands. |