After this voyage came Dutch traders, who established themselves on Manhattan Island and soon spread across the Hudson river into what are now Hudson and Bergen counties.
Peter Minuit, the first director-general, arrived with more colonists in May 1626, and soon afterwards Manhattan Island was bought from the Indians, Fort Amsterdam was erected at its lower end, and the settlement here was made the seat of government.
Howe drove Washington out of it, and forced the abandonment of the whole of Manhattan Island by three welldirected movements upon the American left.
In the spring of 1620 Thomas Dermer, an English ship captain, on his way from Monhegan to Virginia, visited Manhattan Island and told the Dutch traders that they would not be allowed to remain.
On both sides of the entrance to Delaware Bay Samuel Godyn, Samuel Blomaert and five other directors who were admitted to partner ship in the second year (1630) established the manor and colony of Swaanendael; on a tract opposite the lower end of Manhattan Island and including Staten Island, Michael Pauw established the manor and colony of Pavonia; on both sides of the Hudson and extending in all directions from Fort Orange (Albany) Kilian van Rensselaer established the manor and colony of Rensselaerwyck.
In 1653, during the war between England and Holland, the Dutch, fearing an English attack, built a wall, from which the present Wall Street was named, across Manhattan Island at what was then the northern limits of New Amsterdam.
In 1629, chiefly to encourage agriculture, the Company issued its famous Charter of Privileges and Exemptions, which provided that any member might have anywhere in New Netherland except on Manhattan Island his choice of a tract of unoccupied land extending 16 m.
But the freedom of trade promoted dangerous relations with the Indians, and an attempt of Kieft to collect a tribute from the Algonquian tribes in the vicinity of Manhattan Island and other indiscretions of this officer provoked Indian hostilities (1641-1645), during which most of the outlying settlements were laid waste.