Page:Africa by Élisée Reclus, Volume 3.djvu/288

 The actual priority of possession is one of the most warmly discussed questions in historical geography. In 1666 the traveller Villant de Bellefond, who had reached the Grain Coast, for the first time alluded to the Dieppe navigators who were supposed to have made settlements on the Gold Coast in the second half of the fourteenth century. But the undoubted discovery of this region dates only from 1470 or 1471, when it was first explored by the Portuguese navigators, Santarem and Escovar. About twelve years later King had the fort of Sam Jorge de la Mina erected on a headland of the coast, and by his orders the transports were scuttled which had accompanied his ships of war. This was done in order that foreigners might suppose the Guinea waters unnavigable except for vessels of Portuguese build.

Nevertheless other nations also in due course found their way to the Gold Coast. The Dutch made their appearance towards the close of the sixteenth century, and after expelling the Portuguese, purchased the Brandenburg settlements founded in 1682 on Cape Three Points. The Dutch were in their turn driven out by the English, who in 1850 claimed the whole coast, except a few Danish and Dutch factories. The former were purchased by the English, the latter and acquired in exchange for the rights possessed by the British to certain territories in Sumatra. But the surrender of the Dutch factories in 1871 involved the English in hostilities with the natives, which terminated with an expedition against the Ashantis and the destruction of their capital. Since then the whole country has been traversed by surveyors and pioneers, and even in the conterminous territories the routes of explorers are continually expanding.