Peter Minuit, having been Director-General of the…
August 1638 CE
Peter Minuit, having been Director-General of the Dutch colony of New Netherland from 1626 until 1633, and the predecessor of current Director William Kieft, knows the status of the lands on either side of the Delaware River.
He knows that the Dutch had established deeds for the lands east of the river (present New Jersey), but not for the lands to the west (present Maryland, Delaware, and Pennsylvania).
Minuit, who is to become the first governor of the newly established colony of New Sweden, mainly stationed in Delaware, makes good on his appointment by landing on the west bank of the river and gathering the sachems of the local Delaware tribe.
Sachems of the Susquehannocks are also present.
The colonists hold a conclave in Minuit’s cabin on the Kalmar Nyckel, and persuade the sachems to sign some deeds he has prepared for the purpose to solve any issue with the Dutch.
This deed has not survived.
The Swedes say the segment of land purchased includes the land on the west side of the South River from just below the Schuylkill; in other words, today's Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, southeast Pennsylvania, Delaware, and Maryland.
The Delaware sachem Mattahorn, who is one of the participants in the transaction, states that only as much land as is contained within "six trees" had been purchased and the rest of the land occupied by the Swedes has been stolen.
Director Kieft objects to the landing of the Swedes, but Minuit ignores his missive because he knows that the Dutch are militarily impotent at the moment.
Minuit finishes Fort Christina during 1638, then departs to return to Stockholm for a second load, and makes a side trip to the Caribbean to pick up a shipment of tobacco for resale in Europe to make the voyage profitable.
Minuit dies while on this voyage during a hurricane at St. Christopher in the Caribbean.
The official duties of the first governor of New Sweden are carried out by Lieutenant (raised to the rank of Captain) Måns Nilsson Kling, until the next governor can be chosen and brought in from mainland Sweden, two years hence.
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