Neverland has always been there just waiting to be discovered by those with imagination seeking adventure. It has always been and always will be. Not to say that Neverland doesn't change. It does with every person who steps on its shores or mind has brushed the impossible land.
I'm sure everyone knows Wendy's story by now. I'm sure she thought her version was true and it is. But all versions of adventures that one experiences in Neverland are true. Hook's story many thought ended with the crocodile. This is true only in the fact that that was all Wendy knew. She, John, Michael, Tootles, Twins, Slightly, Nibbs, and Curly left Neverland so did not see what had really happened to Hook. Those foolish children decided it would be better to return to the Mainland.
That though has yet to happen. Right now, Neverland is still quite young and barely explored. The mermaids were the first to find it, or perhaps they had always been there. The same could be said for the fairies. They might have found Neverland because the Mainland was becoming too unsuitable for them. The braves didn't know how they had come to Neverland. Upon their arrival they had at first thought they had come to the Happy Hunting Grounds.
Peter's arrival changed a great many things. Firstly, there never was a cockier boy then Peter Pan. He believed he was in Neverland before the pirates. This may or may not be true. For Peter did not come to Neverland as a baby as he thinks he did, but as a small child. He first had flown to Kensington Gardens without the aid of fairy dust. Even back then as naught but a babe he was so sure of himself. Of course at the time he flew away from home he had thought he was a bird.
The pirates as you know lived to plunder and sail the seas. Hook, before he became Hook was the very same. Like many, he too wished to carve a name for himself. (He should have been careful what he wished for.) The first time he and his miscreants came ashore of Neverland they knew it to be a queer place. They had yet to find out exactly how much. They would soon learn that the passage of time was not something you could keep track of. A year could be a month or a day a year.
When one sees pirates, naturally you assume they are in the wrong. They are pirates. And Peter believing this also began his assault on them. Neverland was his, and the pirates did not belong. It would also be a grand adventure. And Peter did so love adventure. And this is where our story starts....