Roanoke Colony (1584-1590)

In 1582-Sir Humphrey Gilbert established a brief fishing village in

Newfoundland. In 1585, Sir Walter Raleigh sent a second  expedition to
present day North Carolina, and named the region “Virginia"    after the
virgin Queen, Elizabeth. The settlers attacked Roanoke Indian villages in
1586 and eventually the colonists returned to England. Another
colonization effort occurred  again in 1588, however the settlement was
found abandoned in 1590. 

The only clue of their disappeared was the word “Croatoan” (the name of
a neighboring tribe) scratched in the doorpost of the fort. Four almost
400 years the disappearance of these colonists remained a mystery; it
was believed that these English colonists were:  1) killed by Spanish
pirates sailing from Florida  2) killed by nearby Indians  3) adopted by
nearby Indians.  None of these explanations were very satisfactory,
however, in 2013 the mystery may have been solved for good. See
modules.
The Dutch had a vast trading empire that spanned the globe as early as
the 1600s.  The Netherlands set up colonies in North America during the
early 1600s.  The Dutch dominated the slave trade and established
colonial outposts that encompassed present day New York, New Jersey,
Delaware, Connecticut and portion of Rhode Island, and Pennsylvania--it
was called New Netherland (pop. 9,000).

Henry Hudson, navigates Hudson River Valley (1609) and the Dutch
purchase Manhattan Island from Algonquin Indians  in 1626.  They wisely
allied themselves with the  Iroquois who happened to be the most
powerful tribe in the Northeast and whose influences spanned from
present day Maine to Ohio.
New Amsterdam (future site of New York City), pop. 200