These colonists built themselves huts of bark, and lived on terms of cordial friendship with the Indians.

Wassenaar writes, "The Indians were as quiet as lambs, and came and traded with all the freedom imaginable." The Puritans had now been five years at Plymouth.

So little were they acquainted with the geography of the country that they supposed New England to be an island.[1] Floating rumors had reached them of the Dutch colony at the mouth of the Hudson.

Governor Bradford commissioned Mr.Winslow to visit the Dutch, who had sent a ship to Narragansett bay to trade, that he might dissuade them from encroaching in their trade upon territory which the Puritans considered as exclusively belonging to them.

Mr.Winslow failed to meet the Dutch before their vessel had sailed on its return to Manhattan.
Soon after this the Dutch Governor, Peter Minuit, sent secretary De Rassieres to Governor Bradford, with a very friendly letter, congratulating the Plymouth colony upon its prosperity, inviting to commercial relations, and offering to supply their English neighbors with any commodities which they might want.
Governor Bradford, in his reply, very cordially reciprocated these friendly greetings.