Basque fishermen and whalers are known to have frequented the waters of the Northeast in the 1500s , so much .
A Basque - based pidgin developed for communication with the Algonquian tribes of the region .
Basque fishermen and whalers are known to have frequented the waters of the Northeast in the 1500s , so much so that a Basque - based pidgin developed for communication with the Algonquian tribes of the region .