NEIGHBORS OF NEW NETHERLAND   127
to Holland in 1632, smarting under his dismissal as
Director of New Netherland. He offered his ser-
vices to Sweden for the establishment of a new
colony, and they were accepted. In the opening
of 1638, he arrived in what is now Delaware Bay
with two ships, the Griffin and the Key of Kalmar.
From the Indians he bought large tracts of land
in what is now the State of Delaware, and on the
site of the present city of Wilmington he planted
a fort named Christina.
When news was brought to Kieft that Minuit
had sailed up the South River and planned to raise
the Swedish flag on a fort upon its shores, the
Director promptly dispatched the following letter:
I, Willem Kieft, Director-General of New Netherland,
residing in the island of Manhattan, in the Fort Am-
sterdam, under the government of the High and Mighty
States-General of the United Netherlands and the West
India Company, privileged by the Senate Chamber in
Amsterdam, make known to thee, Peter Minuit, who
stylest thyself commander in the service of Her Majesty,
the Queen of Sweden, that the whole South River of
New Netherland, both upper and lower, has been our
property for many years, occupied with our forts, and
sealed by our blood, which also was done when thou
wast in the service of New Netherland, and is therefore
well known to thee. But as thou art come between our
forts to erect a fort to our damage and injury, which we