Native Americans were present in southern New England by about 9500 bc. When European explorers and settlers arrived in the early 16th century, they found several Algonquian-speaking peoples inhabiting the region. The Wampanoag dominated the east side of Narragansett Bay, but their numbers were severely reduced by an unknown epidemic that ravaged the Native Americans of Cape Cod and elsewhere in Massachusetts in 1616–19. On the west side of the bay, the Narragansett, nearly 5,000 strong, ruled about two-thirds of what is now Rhode Island state; in the 1620s they actually expanded their realm at the expense of weaker groups, ...(100 of 7331 words)