The Coney Island was first known as the area of settlement of European colonists in the middle of the seventeenth century. Most of the mainland and the island was actually controlled by the Dutch, however, they chose not to settle on that island and granted a patent to the land to a group of English colonists. There, the English established the town of Gravesend on the mainland. The island was called “Coney Eylant” by the Dutch, when the word "coney" was popular in English at the time as an alternative for "rabbit" or "bunny". When the English took possession of New Netherlands from the Dutch, the new governor reconfirmed the patent for Gravesend to the colonists. Coney Island was used as grazing land for colonists's livestocks and remained essentially uninhabited for the next 150 years.