Minuit, MIHN yoo iht, Peter (1580-1638), was a Dutch colonial governor who bought Manhattan Island from the Indians in 1626. He paid with trinkets costing 60 Dutch guilders, or about $24 (see Manhattan Island). This purchase legalized the occupation of the island by the Dutch West India Company. Minuit made New Amsterdam, a settlement on the southern half of Manhattan Island, the center of the company's activities. Minuit supervised the building of Fort Amsterdam by company employees. The fort was designed primarily to protect the Hudson River mouth, a vital highway for the fur trade. New Amsterdam became an important trade center under the Dutch. The English later renamed the colony New York.