The Dutch East India Company sent Henry Hudson to explore the area where New York City is now in the years 1609. There formed a colony named New Holland and its capital was New Amsterdam. The Puritan religion came with the Quakers and Amish, who settled along the Delaware River; also the Baptists and Mennonites came from Eastern Europe. The new Pennsylvania town grew rapidly with the German farmers of the Rin River region and with the Irish-Scots who later arrived. Thus, religion had the influence of the Puritans, who brought with them the value of work, simple life, far from the sin of old Europe, and with their customs, folklore, legends and even music, like polyphonic religious music.
