Ghana, Abandze, Fort Amsterdam Dapper, 1676, Kasteel van Cormantin / The Castle Cormantine

Large 17th century copper engraved view of Fort Amsterdam in Ghana from the water with multiple ships on the foreground.

Fort Amsterdam is a former slave fort in Abandze, Central region, Ghana. It was built by the English between 1638 and 1645 as Fort Cormantin or Fort Courmantyne, and was captured by admiral Michiel de Ruyter of the Dutch West India Company in 1665, in retaliation for the capture of several Dutch forts by the English Admiral Holmes in 1664. It was subsequently made part of the Dutch Gold Coast, and remained part of it until the fort was traded with the British in 1868. The Fort is located at Abandze, on the north-east of Cape Coast in the Mfantseman District of the Central Region of Ghana.

Published in the 1676 Dutch edition of Olfert Dapper´s "Naukeurige Beschrijvingen der Afrikaensche gewesten en Naukeurige beschrijvinge der Afrikaensche Eylanden", popularly known as ´Description of Africa´.

Olfert Dapper’s ‘Description of Africa’ was an ethnographic book which offered a detailed description of the parts of Africa known to Europeans in the mid-seventeenth century. Despite the work being regarded as one of the most important and detailed seventeenth-century publications on Africa, Dapper himself never actually visited the continent. Instead, he relied on the reports of Jesuit missionaries and Dutch explorers. The ‘Description of Africa’ was first published in 1668 by Jacob van Meurs in Amsterdam

Good condition. Very nice hand coloring. Title in Dutch and English. Some small repairs in the central fold, only minimally affecting the image. Otherwise excellent. Clean and strong paper with clear watermark.

Image 24x33,5cm, page 31,5x37cm