Samuel De Champlain

Before this was New England, it was known by the French as New France. In 1605, a French expedition under the leadership of Sieur de Monts, with Champlain as cartographer, sailed from St. Croix, in Acadia, to find a more suitable location for the struggling French colony. The voyage of exploration took them south along the New England coast until July 20, 1605, when they dropped anchor at Port de Mallebarre-or Nauset Harbor. It was a provident world. The soil supported cultivated crops, fresh water was at hand, and, if one knew how, the bay yielded a rich harvest. The Nausets reaped this concentration of energy, and, over the years, used it to build their extensive settlement.

Champlain carefully prepared a map of the harbor on which he noted Indian villages, fish traps, corn fields, etc. As his map of 1605 shows, Nauset Harbor was entirely surrounded by little houses around each one of which was as much land as the occupant needed for his support ... Before reaching their cabins, we entered a field planted with Indian corn ... (which was) five and a half feet high-their cabins are round and covered with heavy thatch made of reeds.