In 1621 the Dutch West India Company was founded. Its first object was trade, but it also was directed "to advance the peopling" of the American lands claimed by the Dutch. Colonists now came over; they settled at New Amsterdam, on the southern end of Manhattan Island, and also on the western end of Long Island. By 1628 there were four hundred colonists in New Netherland. But the colony did not grow rapidly, so the Company tried to interest rich men in the scheme of colonization, by giving them large tracts of land and large powers of government. These great land owners were called patroons. Most of them were not very successful. Indeed, the whole plan was given up before long, and land was given to any one who would come out and settle.

The worst of the early Dutch governors was William Kieft. He was a bankrupt and a thief, who was sent to New Netherland in the hope that he would reform. At first he did well and put a stop to the smuggling and cheating which were common in the colony. Emigrants came over in large numbers, and everything seemed to be going on well when Kieft’s brutality brought on an Indian war that nearly destroyed the colony. The Indians living near New Amsterdam sought shelter from the Iroquois on the mainland opposite Manhattan Island. Kieft thought it would be a grand thing to kill all these Indian neighbors while they were collected together. He sent a party of soldiers across the river and killed many of them. The result was a fierce war with all the neighboring tribes. The Dutch colonists were driven from their farms. Even New Amsterdam with its stockade was not safe. For the Indians sometimes came within the stockade and killed the people in the town. When there were less than two hundred people left in New Amsterdam, Kieft was recalled, and Peter Stuyvesant was sent as governor in his stead.