For a kettle and other trifles Minuit bought enough land from a local sachem to erect a couple of houses, emplace some cannon and palisade “Fort Christina”--which was named in honor of the Queen of Sweden and which was the beginning of Wilmington, Delaware. Then, he managed to attract a few other Lenape chieftains from up and down the Delaware who were perfectly willing to cede all the land that he wanted for New Sweden in return for the colorful merchandise he offered. There was some argument later about these “deeds,” that is, after they were “lost.” Not only was their geographical extent challenged, which the Swedes claimed to be the west side of the Delaware from Duck Creek up to the Schuylkill; but other purchasers, in particular the Dutch to whom the Lenape were equally accommodating, laid claim to identical grants from the Indians. The English did too, in at least one case. Of course the Hollanders came down the river from Fort Nassau, shortly after the Swedes arrived, to find out what was going on. But Minuit, experienced in handling them, gave it out that he was only stopping in Minquas Kill for wood and water on his way to the West Indies. In this he was telling the truth, strictly speaking, for he and both of his ships were moving on to that part of the new world to exchange their liquor for tobacco and to try for Spanish prizes before returning to Europe. What he neglected to say was that he was building a fort to be left garrisoned with 24 men, collecting return cargoes of furs and leaving a sloop on the river to collect more. Peter May, at the time in charge of Fort Nassau during Jan Jansen’s absence at Fort Amsterdam, learned the truth when Minuit’s little trading boat tried to slip past the Dutch outpost to barter for pelts. May wouldn’t let the sloop ascend the river, and he sped Indian runners overland to Manhattan with news of the Swedish invasion. Whereupon newly-arrived Governor Kieft dispatched Commissary Jansen back to his South River headquarters with many loud protests and threats against the Swedes, but not much in the way of force to back up his fulminations. The New Netherland governor even issued a menacing proclamation. In view of the close political and economic ties between Sweden and his country, he couldn’t believe that the Swedish queen had authorized Minuit to build forts “or to trade in peltries on the South River,” but in any event, he proclaimed, the Dutch West India Company would defend its rights by bloodshed if the Swedes did not withdraw. Peter Minuit was undeterred by all of this however. He went about finishing his fort and collecting his peltries, and there wasn’t really anything the Dutch could do about it. They claimed that he “drew all the skins to him by his liberal gifts,” and that as a result of his “underselling” their losses ran to 30,000 guilders.