For hundreds of years before the arrival of European settlers, the area from the northern Chesapeake Bay up to New York was home to the aggressive Susquehannock native tribes. In 1600 the population was estimated as high as 7,000. By 1700 war (mostly among other warring tribes), disease and tribe dispersement had devastated the population to a few hundred. The last remaining Susquehannock people were killed in a 1763 massacre.