E X T E N S I O N NORTH AMERICA: FROM COLUMBUS TO THE REVOLUTION After the discovery of North America by Columbus, people from all over Europe began to settle1 in this new land, the British in particular. Their first permanent settlement was in 1607, in a region they called Virginia after Queen Elizabeth, the Virgin Queen . Some years later, in 1620, the ship Mayflower reached Massachusetts with nearly 100 puritans (the Pilgrim Fathers ) who had left England because of religious persecution. There, they found very friendly native Indians who taught them how to survive in the new land. After all their useful help, the Governor of the region set up a banquet to thank God and invited the Indians, too. That was the first Thanksgiving day in the history of America. It was only later, when the newly arrived settlers began pushing the Indian tribes to the west, that conflicts started, finally causing bloody wars and the killing of almost all native Indians. Irving s stories are set in an area mostly dominated by Dutch colonists, New Netherland. It was a 17th-century colonial province located on the East Coast, which began as a private business project to exploit the North American fur2 trade. During the 1650s, the colony grew rapidly and became a major port for trade in the North Atlantic. The Dutch depended on the local population to obtain furs, and though their first years together were quite peaceful, conflict soon started: the Dutch wanted to get the land from the Indians and obtain 1. settle: to inhabit; to take up residence in a place. The nouns are settler and settlement . 2. fur: the soft, thick, hairy coat of a mammal. 35