8 HISTORY OF DELAWARE COUNTY. [1624. 



Nassau at a place called by the natives Techaaclio, — supposed 

 to be near the mouth of little Timber creek in Gloucester County, 

 N. Jersey, and a short distance below the present town of Glou- 

 cester.^ There is some discrepancy as to the precise date of the 

 erection of this fort, but the year 1624 is specified in an official 

 report^ on the condition of the country, made in 1644, and may 

 be regarded as the best authority on the subject. The distinc- 

 tion, at all events, belongs to Captain Mey of being the first 

 European to establish a settlement on the Delaware,^ if the 

 erection of this fort, — a mere trading post, abandoned from time 

 to time, as occasion required — can be regarded as a settlement. 



The seat of government of New Netherland was located at 

 Manhattan Island, now the site of the City of New York, 

 and the superior local officer of the government was styled a 

 Director. Shortly after the commencement of the administration 

 of its affairs by the West India Company, this office was con- 

 ferred on Peter Minuit or Minewit, of Wesel in the Kingdom of 

 Westphalia, who arrived at Manhattan Island in one of two ships 

 dispatched by the Amsterdam department of the West India 

 Company, in 1624, He was assisted in his government by a 

 council of five members and a " Scout Fiscal," whose duties em- 

 braced those now usually performed by a sheriff and district 

 attorney. The authority vested in the Director and his council 

 was ample, being executive, legislative and judicial, and extended 

 to the South as well as the North river. The records of the 

 government, or of the company, give very little information in 

 respect to the administration of Minuit. It lasted till 1632, and 

 is supposed to have been generally successful. It is distinguished 

 by no remarkable event, except the purchase of Manhattan 

 Island from the Indians, which happened in 1626.* The title to 

 this Island, now the site of the City of New York, and estimated 

 to contain 22,000 acres, was acquired for the paltry sum of sixty 

 guilders or 24 dollars. This purchase is important as probably 

 indicating a period when the policy of the Dutch underwent a 

 change ; when from having been merely Indian traders, they 

 began to contemplate a permanent settlement of the country. 



The commencement of the Directorship of Minuit, is fixed by 

 Wassenaer in his history of Europe, (Amsterdam, 1621 to 1632,)' 



1 Edward Armstrong Esq., in a paper read before the New Jersey Historical Society, 

 January 20, 1853, locates Fort Nassau on a tongue of land between Big and Little Tim- 

 ber creeks. 



2 N. Y. Col Doc. i. 149. 



^ Statement of Mattehoorn, an Indian chief. N. Y. Col. Doc. i. 597. 



* N. Y. Col. Doc. i. 37. 



5 For a translation of the " description and first settlement of New Netherland" from 

 that work, see Documentary Hist. N. Y, by E. B. O'Callaghan, M.D. iii. 27-48. 

 The author says Peter Minuit, cam,e out in the Sea Gull which arrived 4th May, 

 1626, and "now sends for his wife thither." 



