Verhulst sailed from the Netherlands in January 1625 on the ship Orangenboom ("Orange Tree") as "provisionally director of the colonists". In April of that year, four more ships sailed out with settlers and farm animals (the ships were named Paert, Koe, Schaep, and Makreel, meaning "horse, "cow", sheep" and "mackerel").^{[1] [2]} He had received detailed instructions from the board of directors. In 1625, Verhulst oversaw the decision to locate Fort Amsterdam, the company's main fortress, and town on the tip of Manhattan Island in the colony of New Netherland. The settlement, which was given the name New Amsterdam, was the first permanent European settlement in what was later called New York City.^[3]

Verhulst was not popular with the Dutch colonists and was quickly replaced by Peter Minuit. He sailed back to the Dutch Republic on the Wapen van Amsterdam ("Arms of Amsterdam") which left September 23 and arrived November 4, 1626 in Amsterdam. He brought with him the news that the colony was doing well and that Manhattan had been bought from the natives for goods valued at 60 guilders, leading some historians to propose that the otherwise obscure Verhulst oversaw this transaction.^[4][5] Although, there is still significant debate over the evidence, whether Minuit or Verhulst had executed the permission of the island of Manhattan.and the traditional version of the story attributes Peter Minuit with conducting and completing the purchase.^[6][7]

• Adrian Jorisszen Tienpoint, Verhulst's deputy

• Goodwin, Maud Wilder (1897). Fort Amsterdam in the days of the Dutch. New York: The Knickerbocker press.
• Shorto, Russell (2004). The island at the center of the world. New York : Doubleday. ISBN 9780385503495.

• Dutch colonization of the Americas
• Dutch Empire
• Fort Wilhelmus
• List of colonial governors of New Jersey
• List of colonial governors of New York