ABSTRACT
The political ideas and methods of the small states along the western coast should be of interest to all those, especially, who may have imagined that pre-colonial Africans did not know how to govern themselves in peace and prosperity. Some of these early states of Senegambia were monarchies, others were ruled by councils of chiefs. The estuary and lower reaches of the River Gambia have a special history of their own, because it was here that Europeans found particularly favourable trading opportunities, and safe anchoring ground for their ships. The eighteenth century was filled with wars between the British and the French, fighting each other for supremacy at sea; and most of the forts and trading states of Western Guinea changed hands several times. The British at that time were especially interested in the Gambia river, rightly believing that this could prove a good channel for trade with the inland country.
