A Dutch factorij (trading post) had been established at Ponckhockie, at the junction of the Rondout Creek and the Hudson River, where Kingston, New York stands today, in 1614.

The Dutch traded European goods with the Lenape and Mahican for the furs their trappers collected.

Only five years earlier, Henry Hudson, exploring the river that bears his name in 1609, had encountered many natives who had never seen white men before; some, in fact, were unaware that there were any other people in the world, so they find the Dutch settlement disturbing.

This land had been occupied by the Esopus tribe of Lenapes, who had used it for farming.

They soon destroyed the post and drove the settlers back to the south.

A new settlement had been established there in 1652, but the feelings of the Esopus tribe had not changed and the new colonists had again been driven out.