First uses of the adjective American referenced European settlements in the New World. Americans referred to the indigenous peoples of the Americas and subsequently to European settlers and their descendants. English use of the term American for people of European descent dates to the 17th century, with the earliest recorded appearance being in Thomas Gage's "The English-American: A New Survey of the West Indies" in 1648. In English, American came to be applied especially to people in British America and thus its use as a demonym for the United States derives by extension.