When the Dutch settlers arrived in the early seventeenth century, the Canarsee, already weakened by disease, hunger, and warfare, began to sell their land to the settlers and commenced on a long westward migration that would take them as far as Illinois territory.
In the early seventeenth century, when Dutch settlers arrived, the Canarsee people, already suffering from disease, hunger, and conflict, started selling their land to the newcomers and began a lengthy journey westwards that extended all the way to present-day Illinois.