On 4 May 1626 Peter Minuit landed on Manhattan Island and on 23 September he was named as director general of the colony of Manhattan by the Dutch West India Company. He purchased the island from a meeting of Indian sachems for 60 guilders and set about building New Amsterdam.
Please log in to consult the article in its entirety. If you are a member (student of staff) of a subscribing institution (see List), you should be able to access the LE on campus directly (without the need to log in), and off-campus either via the institutional log in we offer, or via your institution's remote access facilities, or by creating a personal user account with your institutional email address. If you are not a member of a subscribing institution, you will need to purchase a personal subscription. For more information on how to subscribe as an individual user, please see under Individual Subcriptions.
46 words
Citation: Editors, Litencyc. "Dutch found New Amsterdam on Manhattan Island". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 12 December 2007 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/stopics.php?rec=true&UID=2115, accessed 10 June 2026.]

