In 1614, May was the first to sail the Mauritius River, now known as the
Hudson River, where he entered into an agreement with various competing
Indian tribal traders. On October 11, 1614, May became party to the
New Netherland Company, which received an exclusive patent from the
States General of the Netherlands for four voyages to be undertaken for the next three years to territories discovered between the 40th and 45th parallels at the exclusion of all other
Dutch through January 1618. From August 1616 to November 1616, the New Netherland Company tried unsuccessfully to secure a patent for a territory located between the 38th and 40th parallels at
Delaware Bay, which had been surveyed from 1614 to 1615 by Cornelis Hendricksz from Monnikendam on the ship
Onrust. In 1616, Cornelis Hendricksen, sailed the
Onrust up the Zuyd Rivier, now known as the
Delaware River, from Delaware Bay to its northernmost navigable reaches, on a voyage to ransom three fur traders taken from
Fort Nassau on the North River. On behalf of the successor company of the New Netherland Company, May explored and surveyed the Delaware Bay on a ship named called the
Blyde Boodschap, for the exploration of territories to the west of and below Manhattan, and those in as far south as the fortieth degree in Virginia and engaged in trade with the Indians there in 1620. In 1621, he ordered the construction of a factory at
Fort Nassau at the mouth of
Big Timber Creek. Two of the six business partners with two ships,
Blijde Boodschap and
Bever, focused on exploration and trade in the Zuidt Rivier, or Delaware River, were
Thijmen Jacobsz Hinlopen and
Samuel Godijn. Cape Hinlopen, now spelled
Cape Henlopen in
Delaware, is named after Thijmen Jacobsz Hinlopen. Cape Hinlopen was New Netherland's most southern border on the 38th parallel. Godyn's Bay, now Delaware Bay, was named for
Samuel Godyn, one of the first patrons in
New Netherland and a director of the
Dutch West India Company and the Northern Company. ==First colonists of New Netherlands==