[1] The first written account of this area was by Samuel de Champlain in 1605, in which he described sailing into a bay surrounded by the wigwams of the Nauset tribe (see map, right).

The account detailed the settlement's crops (e.g. corn, beans, squash, tobacco), housing (round wigwams covered with thatched reeds), and clothing (woven from grasses, hemp, and animal skins).

De Champlain's map also depicts one of their fishing methods, using a conical weir constructed of saplings and grass rope, designed to capture fish swimming from the marsh into a pond.

[1] After 1620, English colonists from the settlement at Plymouth visited Nauset many times to buy food and trade.

In 1639 about half of the English from Plymouth relocated to the Nauset area, settling the town that is now Eastham.