MINUIT, to TWA it. MINUITS, or MINNE WIT, Pt TF12 I An early Governor of New Netherland. lle was horn in Wesel, on the 'Rhine: was a fur a Hine in the Protestant or Walloon Church there. removed to Hol land early in the seventeenth century, and in December, 1625. received from the Dutch West India Company the appointment of Governor and Director-General of New Nether land. Ile reached Manhattan Island May 4, 1626, and soon afterwards purchased the island from the Indians, obtaining it for the sum of sixty guilders talanit dollars). lie built Fort Amsterdam, defended with great Cour age and determination the claim of the Dutch to rightful possession of the island, and adminis tered the affairs of his office judiciously and to the general satisfaction of the colony. The fact that the patriams were successful in establishing titles to enormous tracts of land became tionable to the Dutch \\ e,st India Company, who placed the responsibility on the shoulders of eIinuit. In 1631 he was accordingly recalled by the company, and sailed fur Holland in thee fol lowing spring,. but was driven into Plymouth, En,"land, by a gale. Here he was eharg?II with having prosecuted illegal trading within English dominions. and his vessel was attached on com
plaint made by the Council for New Eng land. In May, howcy4 r, his vessel was leased. _Minuit made every effort to reestablish himself in the favor of the Dutch \Vest India Company, but without smvess, and finally offerol his ,cryjcp, to t !IV i0Y1•11111WIlt of Sweden. Through the influenee of Oxenstiern, then Chan. eellor. a Swedish West India Company was ganized. and :\linnit was commissioned to estab lish a Swedish colony in America. He aecordingly gathered together a sufficient number of Swedes and Finns for this purpose. sailed from the port of Gothenburg. Sweden. in 1637. and. early in built VI rt Christiana, near where the eitv of Wilmington, Del., now stands. The Swedish colonization scheme was bitterly opposed by the Dutch, who threw every obstacle in the way of its sueeess, and eventually Captured the cohmy and annexed it to their possessions in 1633, For a biographical sketch consult Kapp, "Peter Min newet ails Wesel." in Ilistorische Zeitsrhrif t, vats xv. : and Mickley. "some .Account of \Vil. lion Ussclinx and Peter :\linuit." in the Dela irnrc istorieql Socit I it Papers, No. vi. mington.