The island and its environs were first inhabited by bands of Lenape, an Algonquian-speaking tribe that occupied territory along both sides of Long Island Sound, and through coastal areas through present-day New Jersey and down to Delaware. The first known European believed to set foot in the area that would become Gravesend was Henry Hudson, whose ship, "the Half Moon", landed at Coney Island in the fall of 1609. The Dutch claimed this land as part of their New Netherland Colony.