A small number were also Palestinians.[16][17] According to historian Philip Hitti, approximately 900,000 "Syrians" arrived in the United States between 1899 and 1919.[1] An estimated 1,000 official entries per year came from the governorates of Damascus and Aleppo, which are governorates in modern-day Syria, in the period between 1900 and 1916.[18] Early immigrants settled mainly in Eastern United States, in the cities of New York, Boston and Detroit and the Paterson, New Jersey area.