Report on the Gambia / Colonial Office.

Date:
[1955]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Report on the Gambia / Colonial Office. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    Gambia under the command of Major Robert Holmes who had been with Prince Rupert in the Gambia in 1652. Holmes arrived in the river at the beginning of the following year. He proceeded to occupy Dog Island, which he renamed Charles Island, and to erect a temporary fort there. On the 18th March 1661 he sailed up to St. Andrew’s Island and called upon the Courlander officer in command to surrender, threatening to bombard the fort if his request was not complied with. There were only seven Europeans in the garrison and the Courlanders had no alternative but to submit. On the following day Holmes took possession of the fort, which he renamed James Fort after the Duke of York. An attempt was made in 1662 by the Dutch West India Company to gain possession of the fort, firstly, by inciting the natives of Barra against the English, secondly, by offering bribes to certain of the English officers, and lastly by bombarding the fort. None of these measures proved successful and the English remained in possession of the Island. In the meantime the Duke of Courland had lodged a protest against the seizure of his possessions in time of peace. On the 17th November 1664, after protracted negotiations, he relinquished in favour of Charles II all claim to his African possessions and in return was granted the Island of Tobago and the right for himself personally to trade in the River Gambia. In 1677 the Royal Adventurers sublet their rights between Capes Blanco and Palmas to another body of Adventurers, who came to be known as the Gambia Adventurers. These latter Adventurers enjoyed those rights until 1678, when on the expiration of their lease, they reverted to the Royal African Company, which had purchased the rights and property of the Royal Adventurers six years previously. In 1677 the French wrested the Island of Goree from the Dutch. The history of the next century and a half is the history of a con¬ tinuous struggle between England and France for political and com¬ mercial supremacy in the regions of the Senegal and Gambia. By 1681 the French had acquired a small enclave at Albreda opposite James Island. Except for short periods, during which trouble with the natives of Barra or hostilities with England compelled them temporarily to abandon the place, they retained their foothold there until 1857. In the wars with France following upon the English Revolution, James Fort was captured on four occasions by the French, namely, in 1695, 1702, 1704 and 1708, but no attempt was made by them to occupy the fort permanently. At the Treaty of Utrecht in 1713 the French recognised the right of the English to James Island and their settlements in the River Gambia. One of the aftermaths of these wars was an outbreak of piracy along the West African coast. The English trade in the Gambia suffered heavily from the depredations of these pirates. In 1719 one of their number, Howel Davis, captured James Fort. An even more serious disaster ocurred in 1721, when part of the garrison mutinied under the leadership of one of their officers, Captain John Massey, and seizing
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