Distinguished Guests

Distinguished Guests

Q. I know that Giovanni da Verrazano discovered New York Harbor in 1524 and that Henry Hudson explored the Hudson River in 1609. But who was the first non-Indian to stay in Manhattan?

A. The first non-Indian known to have stayed on Manhattan Island was Jan (or Juan) Rodriguez, from San Domingo in what today is the Dominican Republic, according to “Unearthing Gotham: The Archaeology of New York City” by Anne-Marie Cantwell and Diana diZerega Wall.

He was dropped off in 1613 by a Dutch captain, Thijs Mossel, presumably to negotiate with the Munsee Indians for future trade. That fall, two other Dutch vessels arrived, and Rodriguez signed on to work for one of them.

Plagued by fire and mutiny, the three Dutch captains — Mossel, Adrian Block and Hendrick Christiaensen — and their loyal crewmen had to stay on Manhattan in the winter of 1613-14 and are the first Europeans known to have wintered there.

In 1916, the charred remains of what some historians believed may have been Block’s ship, the Tijger, were discovered during subway construction at Greenwich and Dey Streets.