Comment by bsder

> Less than a decade later, separatist Pilgrims landed in New England, and by contrast, grew crops immediately, and cultivated diplomatic relations with their neighbors.

And, as I understand it, settled into areas which had previously been cleared and cultivated by the natives but had been relatively recently abandoned.

https://discover.hubpages.com/education/The-Pilgrims-and-the... "The Pilgrims decided to establish their colony in an area that had been cleared and abandoned by the Patuxet Indians. One colonist remarked, “Thousands of men have lived here, which died in a great plague not long since; and pity it was and is to see so many goodly fields, and so well seated, without men to dress and manure the same."

That's one amazing head start. And, had they not had it, the Pilgrims probably would have died, too.