I am working on thesis about Komenda wars, fought on African Gold coast, over trading rights in the city of Komenda between the Dutch West Indian Company and the English Royal African Company. As part of the work, i got my hands on letters written by English and Dutch heads of the forts, and in my opinions it makes for an interesting story, so i decided to share the timeline i made, while trying to leave out the boring parts, for anybody who is interested in some reading.
English already started building trading fort in Komenda decade earlier, but had to abandon it because of the rising tension with the Dutch. Now army seargant Thomas Wilson arrives in Komenda to re-establish the fort. English are supported by Cabess, who had several disputes with the Dutch lately so he is glad he gets some backup for oficial conflict. Also at this time, England and Netherlands were under personal union under Cromwell, so there officially wasn’t any conflict between those two companies, the heads of the forts often met and discussed the ongoing events in a „friendly manner“.
Picrelated is screenshot of Google Maps with marked position of the former forts.
Julian Bailey
Following is a summary of content of letters that were sent by chief of the English fort in Komenda to the headquarters of RAC in Cape Coast castle, about twenty miles east of Komenda.
30th of November 1694 At five o’clock in the morning, Wilson arrives in Komenda and goes to meet with John Cabess and gets a „warm welcome“. Cabess is eager to re-build the English fort, and asks for powder and shots to fight the Dutch interlopers and an English flag to hoist. Wilson also sends a messenger to Taggee. For the moment, Cabess settles the English people in some of his houses just beyond the city.
4th of December 1694 John Cabess with his men and several english (black) soldiers on his own accord attacked a Dutch mining post called „Money hill“ just beyond the city, initiating the hostilities.
6th of December 1694 Cabess‘ and Kings men are skulking around the bushes near the Dutch fort, and asking Wilson to give them more weapons, so they can attack it. Dutch fort fires few shot over the old English fort. Wilson is justifying his smoking habit because he has to live „...in a nasty smoking hole, where i can neither lie, stand nor walk in, and with constant ruckus around, so i would allow myself an ounce per day... PS: They are continually at me for rum, John Cabess says he drinks none, but it is for the people.“
17th of December 1694 The Dutch are bribing Twifo (one of neighboring kingdoms) so they would attack Eguafo.
13th of December 1694 „I would beg the favor of your worship in living at the Companies‘ fort (...) for i lie among a parcel of blacks, who all night long makes fire and such smoke that they almost stifle me...“
19th of December 1694 Great Tagee comes down to Komenda and oficially promises „... that he will always be our friend and that nobody would molest us.“
Adam Williams
For the next few months the work on the fort continues. Wilson keeps asking for more material and slaves, and Taggee and Cabess are sending him workforce to be finished as soon as possible (and the workforce is mostly getting paid by rum). Around the fort are new houses being build, where workers at the fort live. These houses will later be known as „British Komenda“, same as there is „Dutch Komenda“ – houses in vicinity of the Dutch fort. The combat is limited to gathering allies (English and Dutch are both trying to bribe local kingdoms) and panyarring (kidnapings). In February, Cabess‘ unkle gets panyarred.
8th of February 1694 Edward Searle, the official Companies embassador arrives and takes over the lead.
17th of February 1694 Great Taggee starts gathering men for his army and Searle hears of rumors that the same thing is happening in Twifo. Both kingdoms are getting ready for war.
18th of February 1694 „Your messenger has just come from the king of Eguafo, and he says he expects the Twifo people to fight him in 8 days time.“ Searle is stressing how unprepared the fort is for an actual combat. „We are in no manner able to defend our selves, nor can i think of any protection if Taggee will be beaten.“
20th of February 1694 English are bribing Denkyria, another nearby kingdom. Denkyria threatens Twifo that if they attack Eguafo, Denkyria will attack them.
27th of February 1694 Dutch overbid the English and Denkyria allows Twifo free passage again.
28th of February 1694 Ship arrives at the shore of Komenda and some dutchmen go ashore. Cabess goes out to welcome them, something goes wrong and they start shooting. Cabess claims the whitemen fired first. At least two Dutch get killed.
1st of March 1694 Dutch burned the "Dutch Komenda" - shacks around their fort.
Austin Young
2nd of March 1694 „The blacks began to fight the Dutch fort last night at about 8 o’clock.“ John Cabess with about 30 men stormed the front and the gunfire was „as thick as hail“ for five hours straight, until they had to retreat. Two black soldiers were killed, one of which was trying to chop down the doors from the fort with an axe. (Willem Bosman, who was commanding the Dutch fort at the time, describes this attack: „Our enemies attacked us by night. I had but a very sorry garrison, not fully 20 men, half of which were not capable of service. And yet i forced them to retire with loss after a fight of five hours. It was wonderful and no small sign of divine protection, that we lost only two men.)
3rd of March 1694 „The Dutch last night came ashore with all their boats, and by force landed their men just against the fort. They leaped out of their boats and got up the rocks, at least thirty whitemen and three blacks, which swam before them to show them the way (...) (our) blacks were firing at them, but had no heart to advance, since the shots were very thick.“
4th of March 1694 Taggee has sent a messenger to Searle, saying he should better go to a different fort for some time, until the war is over. Searle obviously refuses and stays.
15th of March 1694 Large areas of Komenda have been burnt to ground. Searle finds out it was done by Twifo scouts.
Adam Johnson
Rest of the month and for most of April, the war between Eguafo and Twifo takes form of small skirmishes, with no decisive battle. Meanwhile panyarring becomes more and more common, even some white englishmen were kidnapped and ransomed. Dutch and English are continuing their bidding war for allies (mostly Dankyria, where the Dutch eventually won and got them on their side, they also managed to bribe Adom and Asebu, English manage to bribe kingdom of Akron).
9th of April 1694 Searle gets sick and has to leave the fort. Howseley Freeman takes charge of the fort.
The final battle happened on 1st of May, with united forces of Taggee, Akron and Cabess winning.
And thus ended the first part of Komenda wars.
Also picrelated is map of Gold Coast at the time.
Ian Powell
28th of May 1694 The rain season starts. „... the rain has beaten down one end of the house where i lived, so now i am forced to sleep in a shack in the castle, nor can i secure myself from the weather...“
16th of June 1694 Freeman is coming down with a fever, sends for some skilled black medics.
26th of June 1694 Cabess and Bosman (head of Dutch fort) meet on the beach to talk. „John Cabess having six men and the Copeman ten. After some time spent seated in their chairs and some discourse past, the Copeman, having two pistols in his pocket, drew one out and fired at John Cabess, who perceiveing fell out of the chair upon the sand before the pistol went off.“ After the shootout, both parties retreat, Bosman being alledgedly stabbed in the thigh by one of Cabess‘ men.
Half a year passes without any significant event. Any hostilities are limited to panyarring, Freeman recieves specific orders to capture any Dutch canoes he can. Freeman’s sickness is getting worse and at the end of November he has to leave the fort. Seargant Thomas Wilson takes charge again.
21st of January 1695 Fleet of fifty canoes reach the shores of Komenda, with Dutch and bloody red flags. All the people living in „English Komenda“ start panicking and run hide to the fort. The canoes just stay near the shore, few of them coming to the Dutch fort, and in the evening they sail eastwards for the Dutch headquarters. Wilson heard rumors it is because „Little Taggee (younger brother of the king) was to fight Great Taggee.“.
Joseph Wilson
22nd of January 1695 The dutch canoe fleet came back and is now guarding the shore, panyarring any canoe trying to leave the town. Cabess gets intel from inland and confirms that Little Taggee has risen up against his older brother and is trying to usurp the throne with help of Asebu (nearby kingdom). Little Taggee is supported by Dutch and if he wins, he will drive the English out. He is appealing on the English so they would bribe Asebu not to fight.
26nd of January 1695 All the inhabitants of „English Komenda“ ran away.
13th of February 1695 English managed to bribe Asebu to stay out of it, but Little Taggee gets support from Adom.
19th of February 1695 After a tornado storm, the Dutch tried assaulting the English fort, but were forced to retreat with no casualties.
From this battle onwards Wilson starts intensely stressing out how little men he has and how little he is prepared for combat. On 3rd of March, he writes „The Dutch are very strong here, having a great many of white men and black soldiers and a good fort. We on the contrary have but few white men and not above ten old blacks, and four canoe men and the town, and an open fort (the fort was still not finished)...“
10th of March 1695 „The other night came a great parcel of the Adomes. We could see them by the moonlight, but couldn’t tell the quantity. Their horns played a pretty while at the Dutch fort, and then went to the Little Taggees camp. Last Sunday we heard in the night many small pieces go off, as if they would be nearby. In the morning we saw about 12 or 14 black (...) which suddenly vanished into the bushes. (...)“ Wilson forbids his people to leave the town. Some worker disobeys, goes to get potatoes in the bush, and never returns.
Logan Fisher
20th of March 1695 This morning at six o’clock, we heard them begin their fight, and about eight o’clock, Little Taggee‘s camp was set on fire. At four o’clock came a great parcel of Great Taggee’s people, who brought in the joyfull tidings of Great Taggee’s victory, of which i was heartily glad.“
Before the Great Taggee’s soldiers arived, many routed soldiers from Little Taggee’s army stormed through Komenda to the Dutch fort and hid there.
24th of March 1695 Wilson describes the events of 20th of March on the rebound. After the celebration of the victory, Great Taggee’s and Cabess‘ people started shooting at the fort. After a while they gave up and disappeared to destroy and burn the homes of the hiding soldiers. Ever since then, the Dutch are hiding in their fort, only sending slaves out, which are turned back by Cabess‘ people waiting outside.
26th of March 1695 Bosman meets Wilson, asking him to say Cabess‘ to let his slaves free passage. Wilson gets smug as fuck, saying its none of his issue and that he can’t order Cabess around.
31th of March 1695 140 Adomese soldiers are returning to Adom through Komenda. After they leave, Wilson realizes he is missing some of his slaves.
Jace Carter
The conflict went on and lasted until 1700, mainly until the succession on Eguafo throne was resolved.
If anybody actually read all this shit and is interested, i can do similar timeline to the rest of the conflict, but i was too lazy now.
Eli Myers
>England and Netherlands were under personal union under Cromwell
This was suggested but never happened.
Or are you talking about William III seeing the dates.
Mason Butler
I'll just give this a few bumps
I spent hour and half writing this shit out, i hope at least somebody will read it. Any questions or tips are welcome.
Levi Edwards
Oh right, i mean Orange. I always get these two mixed up, dunno why.
Grayson Young
Also sorry for my shit English, i hope it won't ruin the read. I can understand seventeenth century English, but can't speak for shit.
Nathan Evans
Picture is modern photograph of Elmina Castle
Originally build by the Portugese and named "El mina" because of the nearby gold mines, it was later taken over by the Dutch and became the headquarters of Dutch WIC on Gold Coast, as it was during Komenda wars.
It lies "cannon shot away" from Komenda, about ten miles east.
Brody Lopez
And this is Cape Coast Castle
Build by English, it was the headquarters of English RAC during Komenda wars, though in the picture it is many times reconstructed. Mostly became famous because it was also English center of slave trade in Africa.
It lies about twenty miles east from Komenda.
Liam Phillips
This is the plan of how the English fort looked when finished
Jonathan Foster
Fuck
In the top picture you can actually see English and Dutch fort both.
Leo Hill
These are the threads his really needs, thank you so much for sharing!
David Evans
Some random sketches of forts by Bosman
He actually wrote a book, when he got back to Netherlands "The new and accurate description of the coast of Guinea", which became kind of popular, mainly since how exotic West Africa sounded. The book is actually comprised of letters he was sending back to Netherlands, so it includes the letters describing Komenda wars.
Henry Brown
Thanks a lot!
But i can't blame people for not reading them, if they wanted to read history, they would go to wikipedia. I just thought this subject is exotic and fascinating enough to make someone interested.
Christopher Perry
I've read part of it.
I recall him writing about the Englishmen drinking punch
Isaac White
Yeah, it sometimes gets funny how incredibely biased towards English he is. Can't really blame him, since they wanted him dead for several years.
Luke Parker
This is awesome OP, I read it all. We need more stuff like this on Veeky Forums
Only thing that would have made it more clear was a descriptive "cast of characters" at the beginning, and more photos (but it seems like you are posting them now)
Anthony White
Thanks a lot mate, i really appreciate it. Noted about the cast.
>We need more stuff like this on Veeky Forums That would require Veeky Forums to actually study history, not just watch youtube videos of Argon of Kakad and call yourself "historian"
Camden Phillips
A while back there was a series of threads on /k/ about planes that were kind of like that. Might be neat to see a similar format for Veeky Forums.
