Opportunely, the West India Company invited settlers to New Netherland. Considerable numbers embraced the offer, and thus the Walloons became the first permanent residents upon the shores of the Hudson, and the first tillers of the soil. They spoke the French language, and were chiefly united with the Hollanders in their common hatred of the Spanish rule. They came here to establish homes for themselves and their children, while the Dutch were chiefly interested in the profits of the fur trade. It thus occurred that the first New Netherland settlement was in its character more Walloon than Dutch.

The refugees from the southern provinces, with a number of Huguenots from France, at first desired to join one of the English settlements in America, and made overtures to this end, but these were not favorably received. When the West India Company gladly accepted them as emigrants to their domain, speedy jjreparations were made for their departure, and in March, 1623, the new ship "New Netherland," under Captain May, sailed from the Texel with a company of thirty families on board. They reached their destination early in the month of May, in good time to plant such crops as would supply them with necessary food. The few huts erected by Block, ten years before, afforded them shelter. Having the interest of the fur trade more in view than the welfare of the colonists, the members of the company were, unfortunately, dispersed, some going to the South, or Delaware River, and others to Castle Island, near Albany, where Fort Nassau was soon afterward built. May had been appointed Director. The settlers who went to the South River soon returned. Other Walloons came from Holland. In December, 1625, Peter Minuit, himself a Walloon, was appointed Director-General, and Manhattan Island and the adjacent lands soon contained an energetic colony of about three hundred souls.