The Pequot Mohegan, at that time traditional allies of the English colonists and enemies of the Mattabesett and other local tribes, arrived in the Middletown area in the latter half of the 17th century; conflict between them and local Native American tribes ensued. The Mattabesett and other tribes referred to the Mohegan as "destroyers of men." Sowheag hoped that the colonists would intervene. They did not. Smallpox epidemics caused high mortality among the Mattabesett, reducing their ability to resist and disrupting their cohesion as a tribe. Records show that, over time, Sowheag was forced to sell off most of the Mattabesett property to the local colonists; by 1676 the Puritans owned all but of the former Mattabesett territory. Native Americans suffered similar fates of illness and dispossession at other colonial sites in 17th-century New England.