ABSTRACT
The English company already had a footing on the coast, and Swedes, Danes, French and Germans soon came to share in the scramble for wealth. The Swedes, having emerged from their Thirty Years’ War while the English Parliament was still negotiating with its captive King, were first in the field. Peace was made with the Dutch in 1654; but there was no peace on the Guinea coast; then, as in Portuguese days, peace treaties lost their force south of the Tropic of Cancer. In 1662 the English trade with the Gold Coast was placed on a new footing by the formation of a new company called the Company of Royal Adventurers of England Trading to Africa, which included James, Duke of York, brother of Charles II and afterwards himself king. The States of Holland were likely to submit to this treatment.
