As noted in other posts on this timeline, the Dutch East India company hired Henry Hudson, an English Explorer, to find an alternative passage to India.  Having failed to find a Northeast Passage over Europe, Hudson spent 1609 searching in his ship, the Half Moon, along the North Eastern coast of North America. In August of that year, he discovered the mouth of what is now Delaware Bay, sailed in, and proceeded up the River of the same name.  The Bay and river, which turned out to be too shallow for the Half Moon, would become known for treacherous shallows. Because of these, Hudson concluded that this river could not be a passage to Asia, and he turned around.

This short excursion into what is now known as Delaware Bay was enough for the Dutch to lay claim on the region, so they later established a series of forts and settlements. Over the next half century, this region would be called the South River.