New Netherland was the 17th-century colonial province of the Republic of the Seven United Netherlands on the East Coast of North America. The claimed territories were the lands from the Delmarva Peninsula to extreme southwestern Cape Cod while the settled areas are now part of the Mid-Atlantic States of New York, New Jersey, Delaware, and Connecticut, with small outposts in Pennsylvania and Rhode Island. The provincial capital of New Amsterdam was located at the southern tip of the island of Manhattan on upper New York Bay. This collection of letters and documents show the lives and struggles of the first Dutch inhabitants to colonize Manhattan and Brooklyn in the early 17th century.