Dutch colonization of the Americas In 1624, the first colonists, mostly Walloons and their slaves-bound servants, arrived to New Netherland by the shipload, landing at Governors Island and initially dispensed to Fort Orange, Fort Wilhelmus and Kievets Hoek. In 1626, Director of the WIC Peter Minuit purchased the island of Manhattan from the Lenape natives and started construction of Fort Amsterdam, which grew to become the main port and capital, New Amsterdam. The colony expanded to outlying areas at Pavonia, Brooklyn, Bronx, and Long Island. On the Connecticut River, Fort Huys de Goede Hoop was completed in 1633 at present day Hartford. By 1636, the
Lenape Ontario. The name Lenni Lenape, also Leni Lenape and Lenni Lenapi, comes from their autonym, ', which may mean "genuine, pure, real, original," and ', meaning "Indian" or "man" (cf. Anishinaabe, in which ', cognate with ', means "man" or "male"). Alternately, "" may be translated as "man." The Lenape, when first encountered by Europeans, were a loose association of related peoples who spoke similar languages and shared familial bonds in an area known as Lenapehoking, the Lenape traditional territory, which spanned what is now eastern Pennsylvania, New Jersey, southern New York, and eastern Delaware. The tribe's common name "Delaware"