The Puritans left England for Leiden in the Netherlands because they were not being tolerated, then they wanted to leave Leiden because they were being tolerated and they were worried that their children would be assimilated in a tolerant society. They were barely a majority on the Mayflower but just enough so they would win any vote among the Pilgrims. When they got to America their contract was for an area near New York instead of where they actually settled in Massachusetts. When the Mayflower arrived in mid November they spent an entire month looking for a spot to settle before they settled near what is now known as Plymouth Rock. It was only months later that they discovered Boston harbor but by then they decided that they had spent too much time and effort on their current location. The coastal areas had no Native Americans because the thousands who had lived there had died from the diseases brought by the Europeans in the previous hundred years.

(Book – Mayflower – Nathaniel Philbrick)