While Minuit was still on the Delaware that spring of 1638 he sent the _Grip_ down to Jamestown to try to barter liquor for tobacco. However the Governor of Virginia, Sir Francis Wyatt, who probably looked askance at the usurpation of English claims on the Delaware, diplomatically found excuses for not trading with the Swedes. He said he would refer the matter to his king, and that ended it. The _Grip_ returned to Minquas Kill, transferred the liquor to the _Kalmar Nyckel_ and set out in search of a fat Spanish galleon. Soon thereafter, the _Kalmar Nyckel_ also took aboard 710 beaver, otter and bear pelts, which had been collected from the Indians, and laid a course for the West Indies to trade the liquor for tobacco. Peter Minuit sailed in this ship. He left Mans Kling in command of Fort Christina, with Hendrick Huygen as commissary in charge of the provisions, merchandise and Indian trade. Huygen maintained excellent relations with the Indians and would appear to have opened up trade with the Minquas. He bartered for food as well as furs, and the first permanent white settlement in the present State of Delaware was able to sustain itself for two years before any further relief came from Sweden. In the meantime, New Sweden’s founder had lost his life in the West Indies. While the _Kalmar Nyckel_ was in harbor at St. Christopher’s Island, Minuit went aboard a ship out of Rotterdam as the guest of its skipper. A hurricane came up suddenly and drove this ship out to sea. It was never heard of again. Peter Minuit’s untimely death was an irreparable loss to the Swedes. He would have made a capable governor for their colony in America, which might have turned out quite differently had he remained in charge. After a fruitless year on the track of the silver fleet the _Grip_ returned to New Sweden in the spring of 1639, took on a miscellaneous lot of over 1,500 fur skins and sailed for Sweden. All the skins were reshipped to Holland for merchandising, where the _Kalmar Nyckel_ had already unloaded its cargo of pelts. Altogether, these first furs from New Sweden brought 15,426:13:8 florins into the coffers of the company according to Dr. Amandus Johnson, the American-Swedish historian. The Dutch West India Company, at last awakening to the perils facing New Netherland from foreign encroachment, now took more positive steps to encourage immigration. The directors promised land and free trade in the colony to private persons and made their promise firm by an official proclamation. It was announced that anyone could henceforth trade in pelts, as well as other merchandise, upon payment of fifteen per cent tax and freight charges on all exports.