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The Komenda Wars, 1694–1700: a Revised Narrative

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  09 May 2014

Robin Law
Robin Law*
Affiliation:
University of Stirling
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Extract

Since 1990 I have been working on a critical edition of records of the Royal African Company of England (hereafter RAC), preserved in the Rawlinson collection of the Bodleian Library, Oxford. This material comprises letter-books containing correspondence received at the RAC's West African headquarters, Cape Coast Castle, mainly from the Company's other factories on the Gold Coast, during the period from 1681 to 1699 (though with some gaps). Two volumes of this correspondence, covering the years 1681-83 and 1685-88, were published in 1997 and 2001; a third and final volume, presenting correspondence from 1691-99, is now published.

Although attention was drawn to this material in the 1970s, only limited use has hitherto been made of it by historians. The only substantial published study of the Gold Coast which makes extensive use of the Rawlinson material is that by Ray Kea (1982), which deals with general social and economic structures and their transformations, rather than with the detailed course of events. The general neglect of this material has undoubtedly been due, in large part, to its user-unfriendly arrangement, the letters being entered according to the date of their receipt at Cape Coast, without regard for geographical provenance, which makes the process of locating documents which relate to any particular locality extremely tedious—an obstacle which its publication has now removed. The potential utility of this material in the detailed reconstruction of events on the Gold Coast is illustrated here by the case of the “Komenda Wars” of 1694-1700.

Type
Research Article
Information
History in Africa , Volume 34 , 2007 , pp. 133 - 168
Copyright
Copyright © African Studies Association 2007

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References

1 Rawlinson mss, C.745-747.

2 Law, Robin, ed., The English in West Africa 1681-1683:the Local Correspondence of the Royal African Company of England 1681-1699, Part 1 (London, 1997)Google Scholar; idem., The English in West Africa 1685-1688: the Local Correspondence of the Royal African Company of England 1681-1699, Part 2 (London, 2001); The English in West Africa 1691-1699: the Local Correspondence of the Royal African Company of England 1681-1699, Part 3, (London, 2006)Google Scholar: cited hereafter as “vol. i,” “vol. ii,” and “vol. iii.”

3 Henige, David, “A New Source for English Activities on the Gold Coast, 1681-99,” THSG, 13/2(1972), 257–60Google Scholar.

4 Kea, Ray A., Settlements, Trade and Polities in the Seventeenth-Century Gold Coast (Baltimore, 1982)Google Scholar.

5 For Eguafo see Chouin, Gérard, Eguafo: un royaume africain “au coeur françois” (1637-1688): mutations socio-économiques et politique européenne d’un État de la Côte de l’Or (Ghana) au XVIIe siècle (Paris, 1998)Google Scholar. In European usage the kingdom was called either “Eguafo” or “Komenda;” its former capital is nowadays called Eguafo, its coastal port Komenda.

6 Daaku, Kwame Yeboah, Trade and Politics on the Gold Coast 1600-1720: a Study of the African Reaction to European Trade (Oxford, 1970), 83Google Scholar.

7 References in contemporary sources to “Cabess Terra” have caused confusion among modern historians. It probably represents a Portuguese translation (cabeça terra, “head land”) of the name of Etsi (from Fante tsi, “head”), as suggested by van Dantzig, Albert, Les Hollandais sur la Côte de Guinée à l’époque de l’essor de l’Ashanti et du Dahomey (Paris, 1980), 129Google Scholar. The identification is confirmed by the Rawlinson correspondence, in which a war fought by Fante in 1693 is reported in some letters as against Cabess Terra (vol. iii, nos. 549, 706, etc.: Thomas Smith, Anashan, 25 November 1693; Edward Searle, Anomabu, 22 November 1693, etc.) but in others as against “Attee,” i.e., Etsi (nos. 946 etc.: William Cooper, Egya, 3 October 1693, etc.).

8 Bosman, William, A New Account of the Coast of Guinea (London, 1705), 26–41Google Scholar; subsequent references to this work are given within the main text. For discrepancies between this English translation and the original Dutch edition, see Van Dantzig, Albert, “English Bosman and Dutch Bosman: a Comparison of Texts,” HA 2(1975), 185–216Google Scholar.

9 Lawrence, A.W., “Some Source Books for West African History,” JAH 2(1961), 227–34CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

10 National Archives, London (hereafter, NA), T70/5, abstract of letters of Charles Keyes, Cape Coast Castle, 29 August 1705, 29 January, and 1 March 1706.

11 See Henige, David, “John Kabes of Komenda: an Early African Entrepreneur and Statebuilder,” JAH 18(1977), 1–19CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

12 Daaku, , Trade and Politics, 83–89Google Scholar; Van Dantzig, , Hollandais, 106–12Google Scholar.

13 Unfortunately, only a few of the relevant documents are included in van Dantzig, Albert, ed., The Dutch and the Guinea Coast 1674-1742: a Collection of Documents from the General State Archive at The Hague (Accra, 1978)Google Scholar.

14 Published (in part), ibid., no.86: Resolutions of Council, Elmina, 18 March 1700.

15 NA, T70/11, Abstracts of letters received, for the Committee of Correspondence of the RAC, 1683-99. Daaku also cites entries in the financial accounts of Cape Coast Castle, in T70/374, Journals of Cape Coast Castle, 1696-9.

16 Henige, , “New Source,” 259Google Scholar.

17 vol. iii, no. 276: Thomas Wilson, Komenda, 16 December 1694. The spelling of Rawlinson documents is modernized in quotations in this paper.

18 vol. iii, nos. 365, 373: idem., 21 January, 27 February 1696.

19 vol. iii, nos. 319, 370, 374: Edward Searle, Komenda, 25 March 1695; Thomas Wilson, Komenda, 7 February, 3 March 1696.

20 NA, T70/11, Chief Merchants, Cape Coast Castle, 12 May 1688; for the evacuation of the Fetera, see also vol. ii, nos. 334, 971: Robert Elwes, Komenda, 18 April 1688; John Bridges, On board the Guinea Frigate, Komenda, 18 April 1688. For the status of the Fetera in Eguafo as “the rank closest to the king” cf. Barbot, Jean, Barbot on Guinea: the Writings of Jean Barbot on West Africa, 1678-1712, ed. Hair, Paul, Jones, Adam, and Law, Robin (2 vols.: London, 1992), 2:595Google Scholar.

21 Chouin, , Eguafo, 171–81Google Scholar.

22 Ibid., 174-76.

23 vol. ii, no. 309, 317: Robert Elwes, Komenda, 22 December 1687, 31 January 1688: the latter reporting that “[t]he Wassawes have lately defeated the Adoomes.”

24 vol. ii, nos 309, 326, 334: idem., 22 December 1687, 11 March and 18 April 1688.

25 vol. iii, nos 263: William Ronan, Komenda, 30 November 1691.

26 Daaku, , Trade and Politics, 81Google Scholar; Van Dantzig, , Hollandais, 103–04Google Scholar; NA, T70/11, Chief Merchants, Cape Coast Castle, 12 May 1688.

27 Chouin, , Eguafo, 184–85Google Scholar.

28 Kea, , Settlements, 223Google Scholar, counts no fewer than five Takyis in sources for the 1680s and 1690s.

29 vol. i, nos. 110, 112: David Harper, Komenda, 26 April, 8 May 1683.

30 Cf. another reference in the Rawlinson correspondence (relating to Cabess Terra) to the king's “cousin that is his heir”: vol. iii, no. 918: Charles Salmon, Anomabu, 3 July 1698.

31 vol. ii, no. 206: William Cross, Komenda, 8 December 1686.

32 Van Dantzig, Hollandais, 60n114. Kea, , Settlements, 223Google Scholar, appears to read this name as “Afferij Takij.”

33 vol. ii, nos. 270, 313, 320: Robert Elwes, Komenda, 12 August 1687, 15 January. and 5 February 1688.

34 NA, T70/11, Chief Merchants, Cape Coast Castle, 12 May 1688.

35 Barbot, , On Guinea, ii, 593, 595, 597Google Scholar. Barbot understood that the Fetera was chosen from among the sons of the previous king, but this may be an error. Chouin, , Eguafo, 68–73, 186–87Google Scholar, cites this and other contemporary references to patrilineal succession in Eguafo to posit a conflict between matrilineal and patrilineal principles of inheritance. This is an attractive hypothesis, but an alternative possibility is that these represent merely uncritical European projections of their own cultural norms.

36 The alternative name also occurs once in the Rawlinson correspondence as “Abba Taggee:” vol. iii, no. 381: Thomas Wilson, Komenda, 26 March 1696.

37 Daaku, , Trade and Politics, 81Google Scholar.

38 NA, T70/11, Chief Merchants, Cape Coast Castle, 12 May 1688, 12 February 1689. In 1691 Takyi Panin still claimed an outstanding debt from the English for his expenses in “the last Fetue war”: vol. iii, no. 265: William Ronan, Komenda, 2 December 1691.

39 NA, T70/169, f. 122, Protest of Chief Merchants, Cape Coast Castle, 11 January 1692; vol. iii, nos. 263-65: William Ronan, 30 November, 30 November, and 2 December 1691.

40 NA, T70/169, Chief Merchants, Cape Coast Castle, 22 August 1692 (also summarized in T70/11). The projected settlement was on this occasion not at Komenda itself, but at Kotobrai, further west.

41 NA, T70/11, Chief Merchants, Cape Coast Castle, 2 March 1694; cf. a later letter in the Rawlinson corpus from the Dutch Director-General, referring to his intention to call a conference involving the king of Komenda, among other rulers, to end the Akani-Cabess Terra dispute: vol.iii, no.1437: Johan Staphorst, Elmina, 6 April 1694.

42 Van Dantzig, Dutch, no.79: Resolutions of Council, Elmina, 24 November 1693.

43 NA, T70/11, Chief Merchants, Cape Coast Castle, 2 August 1694; also vol. iii, no. 743, Edward Searle and William Cooper, Anomabu, 2 August 1694, reporting a Dutch approach to Fante, which the English suspected was “to get the Fantines to assist Great Taggee of Aguaffo against the Quifferas.”

44 Daaku, , Trade and Politics, 83Google Scholar.

45 Cf. Van Dantzig, , Hollandais, 107Google Scholar (giving the date inexactly as 1685); the episode is recorded in the Rawlinson correspondence, vol. ii, nos. 180, etc.: William Cross, Komenda, 16 September 1686, etc.

46 vol. iii, nos 266, 269-70: Thomas Wilson, Komenda, 30 November, 4, and 5 December.

47 NA, T70/11, Chief Merchants, Cape Coast Castle, 24 November 1694.

48 vol. iii, no. 275: Thomas Wilson, Komenda, 16 December 1694. This probably relates to the payment of ransom for the release of the captured gold miners, as recalled in a later Dutch account (Van Dantzig, , Hollandais, 107Google Scholar).

49 It is possible that Bosman was himself personally involved in this dispute: as noted later, he was chief of the Dutch fort at Komenda by February 1695, but it is not known when he was originally appointed.

50 vol. iii, no. 271: Thomas Wilson, Komenda, 6 December 1694.

51 vol. iii, nos. 275, 277, 283-84: idem., 16 and 17 December 1694, 23 and 24 January 1695.

52 Van Dantzig, , Hollandais, 107–08Google Scholar.

53 vol. iii, no. 1444: Johan Staphorst, Elmina, 1 March 1695.

54 vol. iii, nos. 291, 293-94: Edward Searle, Komenda, 17, 18, and 18 February 1695.

55 Van Dantzig, Dutch, no.97: W. de la Palma, Elmina, 26 June 1702.

56 vol. iii, nos. 289, 296: Edward Searle, 14 and 21 February 1695. Following a further dispute with the Dutch in 1696, Aban took refuge in Cape Coast Castle and entered the service of the RAC: NA, T70/11, Chief Merchants, Cape Coast Castle, 6 January and 11 May 1696. Dutch sources also record 2 imprisonments of Aban and his flight to Cape Coast: see Van Dantzig, , Hollandais, 108Google Scholar (who, however, wrongly assumes that both incidents occurred after the defeat of the Twifo invasion in April 1695).

57 vol. iii, nos. 300, 302, 320: Edward Searle, Komenda, 24 and 27 February, 1 April 1695.

58 vol. iii, nos. 251, etc.: Thomas Johnson, Sekondi, 9 June 1694, etc. Bosman records (pp. 18-19) the capture of the Sekondi fort, but without mentioning the Dutch involvement.

59 vol. iii, nos. 298, 300, 307: Edward Searle, Komenda, 23 and 24 February, 4 March 1695.

60 vol. iii, nos. 309, 313: idem., 7 and 12 March 1695.

61 vol. iii, no.790: John Rootsey, Anomabu, 13 March 1695.

62 vol. iii, nos. 791, 794: idem., 15 March, 3 April 1696; no. 585, William Gudge, Anashan, 21 March 1695; nos. 1104, 1106: William Cooper, Winneba, 18 March, 6 April 1695. Akron was not formally part of Fante, but under its “protection” (Bosman, 61).

63 vol. iii, no. 1105: William Cooper, Winneba, 31 March 1695.

64 vol. iii, nos. 303, 305: Edward Searle, Komenda, 28 February, 2 March 1695.

65 Van Dantzig, , Hollandais, 108Google Scholar, wrongly assumed that the attack on the Dutch fort followed the defeat of the Twifo on 28 April 1695.

66 NA, T70/11, Chief Merchants, Cape Coast Castle, 14 May 1695.

67 The return of soldiers to Komenda, followed by John Cabess himself, is reported, without comment, in vol. iii, nos. 328-29: Howsley Freeman, Komenda, 1 and 4 May 1695.

68 vol. iii, nos. 76, 806: John Pink, Dixcove, 8 May 1695; John Rootsey, Anomabu, 27 May 1695.

69 vol. iii, nos. 76, 329, 331-2, 337, 342: John Pink, Dixcove, 8 May 1695; Howsley Freeman, Komenda, 4, 18 and 21 May, 8, and 26 June 1695.

70 Van Dantzig, Dutch, no 97: W. de la Palma, Elmina, 26 June 1702. Van Dantzig wrongly assumed that Bosman's attempted murder of John Cabess occurred in 1696, after the Dutch-Eguafo peace in September of that year (Hollandais, 109).

71 vol. iii, nos. 84, 318: John Pink, Dixcove, 25 July 1695; William Ronan, Anomabu, 2 August 1695.

72 vol. iii, nos. 317-18: William Ronan, Anomabu, both 2 August 1695.

73 NA, T70/11, Chief Merchants, Cape Coast Castle, 8 October 1695.

74 vol. iii, nos. 816-19: John Rootsey, Anomabu, 30 July 1695; William Ronan, Komenda, 2, 2 and 3 August 1695.

75 The alternative name also occurs once in the Rawlinson correspondence, as “Taggee Ancram”: vol. iii, no. 915: Charles Salmon, Anomabu, 4 June 1698.

76 vol. iii, nos. 263, 806, 813: William Ronan, Komenda, 30 November 1691; John Rootsey, Anomabu, 27 May and 18 July 1695.

77 The peace treaty made after the second Dutch-Eguafo war (1696) provided for recognition of Takyi Kuma as “second person in the kingdom,” which probably refers to the office of Fetera (Van Dantzig, , Hollandais, 109Google Scholar).

78 vol. iii, no. 365: Thomas Wilson, Komenda, 21 January 1696.

79 Van Dantzig, , “English Bosman,” 201Google Scholar; the English text (p. 33) names only the Adoms.

80 vol. iii, nos. 371, 375, Thomas Wilson, Komenda, 13 February, 10 March 1696. Asirifi is named among those who, after their defeat, took refuge in the Dutch fort at Komenda: no. 378: idem., 20 March 1696.

81 Diki, as well as Adom Asirifi, took refuge in the Dutch fort: for his connections with Kormantin and the Akani, see vol. iii, nos. 864, 1017: John Brown, Anomabu, 24 April 1697; John Brown, Egya, 14 March 1696.

82 vol. iii, no. 378: Thomas Wilson, Komenda, 20 March 1696.

83 vol. iii, no. 859: John Rootsey, Anomabu, 25 March 1696.

84 vol. iii, no. 378, 380: Thomas Wilson, Komenda, 20 and 24 March 1696.

85 vol. iii, no. 380: idem., 24 March 1696.

86 NA, T70/11, Chief Merchants, Cape Coast Castle, 18 June 1696.

87 Van Dantzig, Hollandais, 109n94; but Daaku, Trade and Politics, 85n1, gives 24 October 1696.

88 Cf. Daaku, ibid., 84: “a time-buying device.”

89 As noted in 1694 by Phillips, Thomas, “A Journal of a Voyage Made in the Hannibal of London” in Awnsham, and Churchill, John, Collection of Voyages and Travels (6 vols,: London, 1732), 6:202Google Scholar.

90 Cf. Daaku, , Trade and Politics, 84Google Scholar.

91 Van Dantzig, Dutch, no. 86: Resolutions of Council, Elmina, 10 March 1700.

92 So also interpreted by Daaku, , Trade and Politics, 85Google Scholar.

93 NA, T70/11, Chief Merchants, Cape Coast Castle, 1 October, 16 December 1696; also letters from John Rootsey, Komenda, 10 December 1696 and 11 January 1697, in T70/169, ff. 128-128v.

94 The Cape Coast accounts include a note of expenditure of gunpowder by the factor at Komenda, “when attacked by Little Taggee:” NA, T70/374, Journal, Cape Coast Castle, 30 June 1697.

95 Daaku, , Trade and Politics, 86Google Scholar.

96 Davenant, Charles, Reflections upon the Constitution and Management of the Trade to Africa (1709), Part II, chapter 3Google Scholar in The Political and Commercial Works of … Charles D'Avenant, ed. SirWhitworth, Charles (5 vols.: London, 1771), 5:198–99Google Scholar. A later letter in the Rawlinson correspondence confirms that the Captain of Kwaman had taken money from the Dutch “to help Little Taggee”: vol. iii, no. 878: Richard Sheldon, Anomabu, 9 November 1697.

97 Van Dantzig, , Hollandais, 109Google Scholar.

98 NA, T70/11, Chief Merchants, Cape Coast Castle, 6 April 1697.

99 Ibid., 25 February 1697.

100 vol. iii, nos. 864, 871-73, 875: John Brown, Anomabu, 24 April, 15, 16 June, n.d., and 12 July 1697.

101 vol. iii, nos. 864-65, 872, idem., 24 and 28 April 1697.

102 vol. iii, nos 114, 118: Henry Vincent, Dixcove, 4 June, 5 August 1697.

103 NA, T70/374, Journal, Cape Coast Castle, 16 July 1697. A subsequent (31 August 1698) reference to the rebuilding of the town, following its being “burn’d by Great Taggee … in the last war,” is presumably a mistake for “Little Taggee.”

104 vol. iii, nos. 397, 399: Gerard Gore, Komenda, 25 and 31 May 1697.

105 vol. iii, no. 408: idem., 28 July 1697; NA, T70/11, Chief Merchants, Cape Coast Castle, 30 July 1697.

106 vol. iii, no. 412: Gerard Gore, Komenda, 18 August 1697.

107 NA, T70/11, Chief Merchants, Cape Coast Castle, 9 September 1697.

108 vol. iii, no. 877: John Brown, Anomabu, 3 September 1697. These gifts are also referred to in NA, T70/374, Journal, Cape Coast Castle, 31 August and 11 September 1697; Daaku, , Trade and Politics, 87Google Scholar (misquoting the reference as 1 September) says that these gifts were sent to “the Dey” (which by implication was the title held by the Captain of Abora), but this seems to be a misreading of the text.

109 vol. iii, no. 878: Richard Sheldon, Anomabu, 9 November 1697.

110 The original Dutch text makes explicit that the Brafo was in fact killed; “they had him murdered:” Van Dantzig, , “English Bosman,” 202Google Scholar.

111 NA, T70/374, Journal, Cape Coast Castle, 29 and 30 September 1697. Cf. also NA, T70/11, Chief Merchants, Cape Coast Castle, 27 September 1697, reporting “their good success against the design of the Del Mina people” and “the benefits hoped for by the said treaty,” the latter being presumably an agreement made with the new Brafo of Fante.

112 Cf. NA, T70/374, Journal, Cape Coast Castle, 30 March 1698, “Capt. of Abra als. new Braffoe of Fanteen.” The new Brafo is named as “Aquashee” (ibid., 12 January 1698), which was also given as the name of the Captain of Abora earlier (vol. iii, no. 1017: John Browne, Egya, 14 March 1696).

113 vol. iii, nos. 414, 417: Gerard Gore, Komenda, 4 November, 13 December 1697.

114 NA, T70/374, Journal Cape Coast Castle, 23 October 1697; cf. also T70/11, Chief Merchants, Cape Coast Castle, 18 December 1697, reporting that the Akani were “holding off from the peace.”

115 NA, T70/374, Journal, Cape Coast Castle, 8 and 28 December 1697. A later Dutch account recalls that “when there was war between Abetecki and Teckiankan,” Director-General Van Sevenhuysen sent money to Twifo, “to march out in aid of the mentioned Teckiankan”: Van Dantzig, The Dutch, no.99: Testimony of Makelaer Akoe to Fiscal J. Rademacher, Elmina, 10 June 1702.

116 vol. iii, no.416: Gerard Gore, Komenda, 4 December 1697; NA, T70/11, Chief Merchants, Cape Coast Castle, 18 December 1697.

117 NA, T70/11, Chief Merchants, Cape Coast Castle, 2/6 April 1698; vol. iii, no.420: Gerard Gore, Komenda, 9 February 1698.

118 NA, T70/11, Chief Merchants, Cape Coast Castle, 2/6 April, 28 May 1698; T70/374, Journal, Cape Coast Castle, 6 April 1698. The letters from the Chief Merchants refer to “an accident in Aguaffo's camp,” which it was feared “might draw them from the Company's interest,” but which was “made up” by an advance of gold to the king. Daaku, , Trade and Politics, 8 n22Google Scholar, appears to relate this to the murder of Takyi Panin, but this occurred later (October 1698). In fact entries in the Cape Coast Journal for 6 and 22 April show that it refers to the accidental killing of the chief of “Aqua” (north of Fante), who was allied with Eguafo.

119 A later Dutch source recalls the occasion when “King Abetecki of Commanie had come into the garden of Elmina in order to make a new peace”: Van Dantzig, Dutch, no. 99: Testimony of Makelaer Akoe, 10 June 1702.

120 vol. iii, nos 431, 1038: Gerard Gore, Komenda, 27 May 1698; Charles Salmon, Egya, 18 April 1698.

121 Van Dantzig, Dutch, no. 86: Resolutions of Council, Elmina, 10 March 1700.

122 vol. iii, nos 430, 438, 440: Gerard Gore, Komenda, 17 May, 21 June, 1 July 1698.

123 vol. iii, nos 426, 440, 442-43, 451: John Cabess, Komenda, 17 April 1698; Gerard Gore, Komenda, 1, 7, and 11 July 1698; Howsley Freeman, Komenda, 27 August 1698.

124 Van Dantzig, , Hollandais, 110Google Scholar.

125 vol. iii, nos 260-61, William Gabb, Sekondi, 23 and 27 May 1698; nos. 431-32: Gerard Gore, Komenda, 27 May and 3 June 1698; no. 128: Henry Vincent, Dixcove, 31 May 1698.

126 vol. iii, nos. 433-35: Gerard Gore, Komenda, 2, 3, and 3 June 1698.

127 Chief Merchants, Cape Coast Castle, n.d. [25 February 1697], in Davenant, , Reflections, 199Google Scholar.

128 vol. iii, nos. 909-10, 913-14, 918: Charles Salmon, Anomabu, 8, 10, and 27 May, 3 June, 3 July 1698. Some of the Fante (together with Asebu) had assisted Akani against Denkyira.

129 Chief Merchants, Cape Coast Castle, n.d., in Davenant, , Reflections, 199Google Scholar.

130 vol. iii, nos. 913, 916: Charles Salmon, Anomabu, 27 May, 7 June 1698.

131 vol. iii, no. 915: idem., 4 June 1698.

132 Van Dantzig, Dutch, no.96: Instruction for David van Nyendael, 9 October 1701.

133 Daaku, , Trade and Politics, 87Google Scholar.

134 Fynn, J.K., Asante and Its Neighbours 1700-1807 (London, 1971), 39Google Scholar, citing Jan van Sevenshuysen, Elmina, 1 March 1699.

135 vol. iii, nos. 444, 448: Gerard Gore, Komenda, 13 July, 15 August 1698.

136 vol. iii, no. 924: Charles Salmon, Anomabu, 29 August 1698.

137 Journal of James Barbot, in Barbot, , On Guinea, 2:343Google Scholar.

138 NA, T70/374, Journal, Cape Coast Castle, 26 October 1698, recording a payment to the Brafo of Fante “to make a new league with the English and L[ittle] Taggee.” Daaku, , Trade and Politics, 67Google Scholar, also cites this Journal as recording the receipt of a message from the King of Denkyira inquiring as to “the reason for deposeing the King of Aguaffoe” on 2 November (implying that this had occurred some days earlier), but the date should in fact be 7 December.

139 vol. iii, no. 1179, Thomas Buckeridge, Winneba, 20? January 1699.

140 NA, T70/11, Chief Merchants, Cape Coast Castle, 1 November 1698, 3 January 1699. The former makes no mention of Komenda affairs, the latter merely reports “country in wars and no trade.” The RAC later complained that in the Chief Merchants’ account of the war, “a great part of the occasions and reasons for it, you have conceal’d”: T70/51, RAC to Chief Merchants, 29 August 1699.

141 NA, T70/51, RAC to Chief Merchants, 6 February 1700.

142 Van Dantzig, , Hollandais, 110Google Scholar, assumes that this means that Takyi Kuma helped lure his brother to Cape Coast Castle. This is possible, though, in the light of earlier events, it is not clear why Takyi Panin should have trusted his brother, any more than the English.

143 As assumed by Van Dantzig, ibid.

144 Ibid., citing Van Sevenhuysen, 1 March 1699.

145 But Van Sevenhuysen's letter, ibid., refers only to Asebu and Cabess Terra.

146 Van Dantzig, Dutch, no. 92: Van Sevenhuysen, Elmina, 15 April 1700.

147 vol. iii, nos. 927-28, 1040: Gerard Gore, Anomabu, 21 and 22 January 1699; Charles Salmon, Egya, 10 January 1699.

148 vol. iii, nos. 929, 931, 1042: Gerard Gore, Anomabu, 5 and 7 February 1699; Charles Salmon, Egya, n.d..

149 Van Dantzig, Dutch, no. 92: Van Sevenhuysen, Elmina, 15 April 1700.

150 Ibid., no. 86: Resolutions of Council, Elmina, 10 March 1700.

151 vol. iii, no. 451: Howsley Freeman, Komenda, 13 January 1699.

152 Van Dantzig, , Hollandais, 110Google Scholar, citing Van Sevenhuysen, 1 March [19 February OS] 1699, but this evidently does not exclude that fighting occurred subsequently to this report.

153 vol. iii, nos. 438, 447: Gerard Gore, Komenda, 21 June and 3 August 1698. Gore's successor as factor later reported that “there hath been some difference between Mr Gore and John Cabess”: no. 449: Howsley Freeman, Komenda, 20 August 1698.

154 Gerard Gore, Komenda, 8 February 1700, in Davenant, , Reflections, 205–06Google Scholar; Van Dantzig, Dutch, no. 85: Resolutions of Council, Elmina, 23 February 1700.

155 In his 1700 report Bosman claimed that the Eguafos were the aggressors, by capturing some persons from Elmina, and “continu[ing] to perpetrate new acts of wantonness, which compelled the D[irector]-G[eneral] to attack them again,” but in his later published account, although alluding vaguely to “injuries” perpetrated by the Eguafos against the Dutch, he cast doubt on the truth of the pretext of the alleged attack on the Elminas and condemned the Dutch attack on the Fetu traders as “perfidious and detestable:” Van Dantzig, Dutch, no. 86: Resolutions of Council, Elmina, 10 March 1700); Bosman, , Description, 38–40Google Scholar.

156 The blaming of Akim for van Sevenhuysen's errors of policy was also endorsed by his successor as Director-General: Van Dantzig, Dutch, no. 98: W. de la Palma, Elmina, 26 June 1702.

157 Ibid., Minutes of Council, Elmina, 23 February 1700.

158 Van Dantzig, , Hollandais, 112Google Scholar. Daaku, , Trade and Politics, 88Google Scholar, says “September 1699,” which cannot be correct.

159 The English fort fired on the Dutch fort and its “village” after people from the latter seized water barrels belonging to an English ship: Van Dantzig, Dutch, no. 94: van Sevenhuysen, Elmina, 30 May 1701.

160 Daaku, , Trade and Politics, 89–90Google Scholar; Van Dantzig, , Hollandais, 174–76Google Scholar.

161 John Snow, 31 July 1705, in Davies, K.G., The Royal African Company (London, 1957), 369Google Scholar.