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I believe there is a theory that between the Vikings visit and the Pilgrims arriving, the north american continent was devastated by a plague that may have wiped out as much as 90% of the indigenous population. There are records from European visitors that describe city like areas with cultivated parks, etc.

It may explain why the Viking and earlier records describe a formidable force to contend with, while by the time the Pilgrims got here, the Indians were a pushover.

And if that is actually true, it’s possible that the Vikings brought that plague with them. Just a thought.

There are a couple of theories involving DeSoto’s Journey.

The first is that he and his men spread euro disease across the south.

The second is that the herd of pigs that DeSoto drove along with him infected the native deer population with disease which spread and wiped out the main native protein source.

There is a 100+ year gap between the numbers of inhabitants observed by DeSoto and those reported by the first French voyagers who penetrated the interior of the continent.

100 years later there were far fewer natives.

It isn't clear that the Vikings made it as far south as New England. I read once that a Norwegian coin was found at an Indian archaeological site in Maine (13th or 14th century, I forget which), but perhaps it got there by trade with other Indians closer to Newfoundland.

The English claim to the New World, like Spain's, was because of an Italian seafarer.

Re: “...it’s possible that the Vikings brought that plague with them. Just a thought.”

It’s possible the Vikings encountered indigenous people in Greenland or Iceland, but I can’t recall ever reading about that.

However, as far as I know, there are no written records at all of Viking interaction with the native population in northeast Canada.

As I recall, two Viking settlements in Labrador have been excavated, and no locally made artifacts were found in either one.

Personally, I have always been very skeptical that 90%-95% of indigenous Americans were killed by European diseases.

If true, such a death rate, ranging across millions of square miles, has no equal in the 3,000 years of medical history in the Old World.

It is likely that the Great Plagues of Europe, which may have killed up to 25% of the population, were imported from Asia.

However, in Asia, those same plagues killed less than 5% of the population.

Weather, and famine, often played a vital part in plagues.

People who are cold and hungry die at a much higher rate.

I can’t recall any Great Plagues sweeping through central and southern Africa, and I assume that warmer weather, plus better record keeping by the European slave traders, might be the reason that did not happen.