There was an actual deed for the sale of Manhattan but it vanished long ago. Fortunately, a Dutch official was on the dock in Amsterdam in 1626 when a ship from Manhattan arrived. The letter he wrote to his superior is, in effect, New York City's birth certificate:
High and Mighty Lords,
Yesterday the ship the Arms of Amsterdam arrived here. It sailed from New Netherland out of the river Mauritius on the 23rd of September. They report that our people are in good spirit and live in peace. The women have borne some children there. They have purchased the Island Manhattes from the Indians for the value of 60 guilders. It is 13,000 morgens in size. They had all their grain sowed by the middle of May, and reaped by the middle of August. They sent samples of these summer grains: wheat, rye, barley, oats, Buckwheat, canary seed, beans and flax.
The cargo of the aforesaid ship is:
1246 Beaver skins
178½ Otter skins
675 Otter skins
48 Mink skins
36 Lynx skins
33 Minks
34 Muskrat skins
Many oak timbers and nut wood
Herewith, High and Mighty Lords, he commended to the mercy of the Almighty
In Amsterdam, the 5th of November Anno 1636
Your High and Mightiness. obedient
P. Schoghen
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