Four Hundred Years in America is the story of the first immigrant settlers in New Netherland, the seventeenth-century Dutch colony in North America. It is the story of strangers in a strange land, individuals and families who struggled to make a clearing in the wilderness to build a home and make a life. They were the founders of the New York metropolis and the ancestors of millions of Americans. The author reconstructs the lives of selected ancestors from the documents they left behind, from contemporary writings, and from the historical accounts of those who came after. The story that emerges is incomplete and fragmented, but it records the voices of our ancestors, reminding us of our immigrant heritage.