In 1626, the Dutch colonial Director-General Peter Minuit, acting for the Dutch West India Company, bought the island of Manhattan from the "Canarsie", a small Lenape band. He paid "the value of 60 guilders" (about $900 in 2018). A false story says that Manhattan was bought for $24 worth of glass beads. 1626 was also the year the Dutch began to bring black slaves there.