ch to vacate
their forts and to abandon the coast within six or seven months[8].
Thereupon he seized the island of Boa Vista, one of the Cape Verde
group claimed by the Dutch since 1621. Later he sent a frigate into
the mouth of the Gambia. Otto Steele, the Courland commander of Fort
St. Andre, unable to discern whether friend or foe was approaching,
fired upon the frigate. Holmes considered this an insult[9], and two
days later sent a note to Steele requiring him to surrender the island
to the English within ten days. At first Steele refused to obey,
maintaining that the fort was the rightful possession of the duke of
Courland. Thereupon Holmes threatened to level the fort to the
ground. Steele realized that with so few men and supplies resistance
was useless, and therefore he complied with Holmes' demands.[10] The
English assumed possession of the island, but after a fire had
destroyed nearly all the fort and its magazine,[11] they chose to
abandon it, and to settle on two other islands which they named
Charles Island and James Island respectively in honor of their royal
patrons. In this way the English gained their first possessions in the
Gambia River.

When Captain Holmes left England the Dutch ambassadors in London
informed the States General that he had gone to the "reviere Guijana"
where he would build a fort, establish a trade and search for gold
mines. This announcement was immediately sent to the West India
Company which had received the more authentic advice that the English
ships were on the way to the Gambia River. The West India Company
urged that the Dutch ambassadors in London be instructed to inquire
more fully as to the purposes of the expedition, and to prevent if
possible anything being done to the prejudice of the company.[12] The
ambassadors learned that the English maintained that all nations had a
right to trade on the Gambia River, and that other nations than the
Dutch had forts there.[13] On the other hand, the West India Company
maintained that it had traded on the Gambia River ever since its
formation and that, since the contract with the duke of Courland, it
had been in complete possession of the river.[14] After receiving this
statement the States General requested their ambassadors in London to
see that the company's forts and lodges in the Gambia River were not
disturbed.[15] When the news of Holmes' exploit and his reported
warning to the Dutch commander to evacuate the entire African