His family were Walloon Protestant refugees who fled the Spanish Empire, hence his French name. The town where he was born, Wesel, is now in Germany, but his last job was working for Queen Christina of Sweden. He was hired by Samuel Blommaert in 1638 to establish a colony called New Sweden around what is now Wilmington, Delaware, but died in a hurricane on his way back to Sweden. This was six years after he was dismissed 
His family were Walloon Protestant refugees who fled the Spanish Empire, hence his French name. The town where he was born, Wesel, is now in Germany, but his last job was working for Queen Christina of Sweden. He was hired by Samuel Blommaert in 1638 to establish a colony called New Sweden around what is now Wilmington, Delaware, but died in a hurricane on his way back to Sweden. This was six years after he was dismissed and succeeded by Woulter van Twiller in a post further north. A monument in Battery Park commemorates the most famous action of, for ten points, what governor of New Amsterdam who gave the Canarsie Indians trade goods in exchange for Manhattan Island?
His family were Walloon Protestant refugees who fled the Spanish Empire, hence his French name.
Peter {Minuit}