Primarily, I would argue that the most powerful advantage the Europeans had was their immunity to diseases not found in America. Like a biological weapon, simply the presence of large numbers of Europeans could infect hundreds of Indians with fatal diseases. It became evident to the Native inhabitants that the Europeans came to America seeking habitable territory to colonize, not to explore. .
Calloway describes the arrival of the colonists" ships in Manhattan as the Indians saw it, thinking it was the "Supreme Being" coming to pay them a visit. " [The Indians] concluded it to be a large canoe or house, in which the great Mannitto himself was, and that he probably was coming to visit them. By this time the chiefs of the different tribes were assembled on York Island, and were counseling on the manner they should receive their Mannitto on his arrival." After some time of European co inhabitance, it became obvious that the Whites were eventually planning to take over all of the land, as they frequently asked for more and more, moving slowly through the Indian's territory and up to the Hudson River. .
The Indians had many ways of dealing with the Whites" apparent mission to convert or kill. If there were not a common ground that could be met by Indian compromise, then death or enslavement would soon occur. A passage of an autobiography of an Indian minister found in Calloway relates these times. "The Mohegan Indians of Connecticut had lost huge tracts of land to English colonists by the early eighteenth century, and it had become increasingly difficult to practice their traditional economy of hunting, fishing, and gathering. Confronted with apparently insurmountable pressures on their old ways and beliefs, many sought escape from their new world by turning to alcohol. Others turned to Christianity and education as offering hope for survival.
