It was soon seen that the rights of the Indians must be respected, as being superior to any European right of discovery and occupation. Minuit, therefore, very justly opened negotiations with them for the purchase of Manhattan Island, and they relinquished their claims thereto " for the value of sixty guilders," which was equivalent to about twenty-four dollars of our money In the light of subsequent events this sum seems most absurdly insignificant, but, under the circumstances, the amount was reasonable and the transaction honorable.

The West India Company wisely encouraged emigration. They brought over horses, cattle and poultry for the use of the settlers. Their farms, called " boweries," showed prosperity. An English observer wrote that the emigrants, "though they be not many, are well chosen, and known to be useful and serviceable, and they (the company) second them with seasonable and fit supplies, cherishing them as carefully as their own families." But the enterprise drew heavily upon the company's treasury, and they soon began to devise means by which private parties might be induced to aid emigration on their own account. At length, for this purpose, it was concluded to endeavor to plant in America a modified feudalism. The feudal system had not flourished in Holland. The free spirit and intelligence of its people were adverse to it. True, the land was mainly in the hands of great owners, but those who occupied them paid a rental, instead of military service, and regarded the owner merely as a landlord, and not as a master. With the increase of wealth from trade and manufactures, the rich merchants were unable at home to satisfy their desires for landed estates, and hence it was proposed to offer them lands in New Netherland. On June 7, 1629, the West India Company issued its " Charter of Privileges and Exemptions," by which any member of the company who should purchase land of the Indians, and found a colony of fifty persons over fifteen years of age, should have a grant of sixteen miles along one bank or eight miles on each bank of any navigable river, and as far inland as the situation would permit.