Governors Island was initially much smaller than it is today. It originally contained multiple inlets along its shoreline, as well as groves of hardwood trees, from which the island's native name is derived. There is insufficient evidence as to whether Governors Island contained any permanent Lenape settlements, or was used mainly for hunting and gathering. In 1524, Giovanni da Verrazzano was the first European to observe what was then called "Paggank", becoming the first European in record to do so. Exactly one hundred years later, in May 1624, Noten Eylandt was the landing place of the first settlers in New Netherland. They had arrived from the Dutch Republic with the ship "New Netherland" under the command of Cornelius Jacobsen May, who disembarked on the island with thirty families in order to take possession of the New Netherland territory. For this reason, the New York State Senate and Assembly recognize Governors Island as the birthplace of the state of New York, and also certify the island as the place on which the planting of the "legal-political guaranty of tolerance onto the North American continent" took place.