1. S. P. l'Honoré Naber and K. Ratelband. Although l'Honoré Naber's editions of Brun, de Marees, Hemmersam, and Ruiters require revision in the light of recent research, they are still of great help to historians.

2. E.g., Ardener, Edwin, “Documentary and Linguistic Evidence for the Rise of the Trading Polities Between Rio del Rey and Cameroons, 1500-1650” in Lewis, I. M., ed., History and Social Anthropology (London, 1968), 81–126Google Scholar; Hair, P.E.H., “Barbot, Dapper, Davity: a Critique of Sources on Sierra Leone and Cape Mount,” HA, 1(1974), 25–54Google Scholar; the series “Sources on early Sierra Leone,” published by Hair, P.E.H. in the Africana Research Bulletin since 1974Google Scholar; the series of articles published in BIFAN by G. Thilmans, N.I. de Moraes, and others since 1969; the series “English Bosman and Dutch Bosman: a Comparison of Texts,” published by van Dantzig, Albert in HA since 1975.Google Scholar

3. I am involved in the preparation of critical English translations of de Marees, Pieter, Beschryvinghe ende Historische Verhael van het Gout Koninckrijck van Gunea (Amsterdam, 1602)Google Scholar (in collaboration with Albert van Dantzig) and John Barbot's manuscript “Description des Côtes d'Affrique” (in collaboration with P.E.H. Hair and others). Among other works which need editing are: Dapper, Olfert, Naukeurige Beschrijvinge der Afrikaensche Gewesten (Meurs, 1668)Google Scholar; de Bellefond, Nicolas Villault, Relation des Costes d'Afrique apellées Guinée (Paris, 1669)Google Scholar; and Tilleman, Eric, En liden enfoldig Beretning om det Landskab Guinea (Copenhagen, 1697).Google Scholar A rather poor translation of part of Tilleman's book already exists: SirNathan, Matthew, “The Gold Coast at the End of the Seventeenth Century Under the Danes and Dutch,” Journal of the African Society, 4(1904/1905), 1–32.Google Scholar

4. Jones, Adam, German Sources for West African History, 1599-1669 (Wiesbaden, forthcoming).Google Scholar I am indebted to the Alexander von Humboldt-Stiftung for its generous support during my work on this book.

5. A draft by Ulsheimer was rewritten by a clerk under his supervision and completed in 1616, but was not published. A copy made by his brother in 1622 was published in 1879: Crecelius, W., “Josua Ulsheimers Reisen nach Guinea und Beschreibung des Landes,” Alemannia, (1879), 97–120.Google Scholar Both manuscripts have been lost, but Herr Wilhelm Schneider of Tübingen has kindly allowed me to consult his photocopy of the 1616 manuscript. His photocopy was also the basis of an edition of Ulsheimer's complete autobiography published in 1971: Ultzheimer, Andreas Josua[sic], Warhaffte Beschreibung Ettlicher Reisen in Europa, Africa, Asien und America 1596-1610, ed. Werg, Sabine (Tübingen and Basel, 1971).Google Scholar In this edition the spelling and wording are frequently altered to make the account more intelligible and it is not very reliable for academic purposes.

6. De Marees, Beschryvinghe. Two German translations were published in 1603: Sechster Theil dess Orientalischen Indien (Frankfurt, 1603) (published in April)Google Scholar; Siebende Schiffahrt in das Goldreiche Konigreich Guineam (Frankfurt, 1603).Google Scholar Further German editions appeared in 1606, 1624, and 1630.

7. One possible exception is Ulsheimer's description of ennoblement ceremonies on the Gold Coast (Crecelius, , “Reise,” 111)Google Scholar, which bears some resemblance to Marees, de, Beschryvinghe, 85b–86b.Google Scholar

8. Samuel Brun, des Wundartzet und Burgers zu Basel Schiffarten (Basel, 1624)Google Scholar; ed. S.P. l'Honoré Naber (Hague, 1913); facsimile, ed. E. Sieber (Basel, 1945); facsimile, with introduction by W. Hirschberg (Graz, 1969). See Guebels, L., “Le séjour de Samuel Braun à Soyo en 1612,” Bulletin des Séances de l'Académie Royale des Sciences d'Outre-Mer, 1(1955), 429–46Google Scholar; Henning, Georg, “Samuel Brun aus Basel. Der erste deutsche wissenschaftliche Afrikareisende,” Verhandlungen der Naturforschenden Gesellschaft in Basel, 13(1902), 1–141.Google Scholar

9. van den Broecke, Pieter, Reizen naar West-Afrika (1605-1614), ed. Ratelband, K. (Hague, 1950)Google Scholar; idem, Korte Historiael ende Journaelsche Aenteyckeninghe…nae Cabo Verde, Angola &c… (Haarlem, 1634).

10. Brun, , Schiffarten, 18.Google Scholar

11. De Marees, , Beschryvinghe, 89b.Google Scholar

12. Like de Marees, Brun wrongly believed that sika-fútúru (“gold-dust”) meant “gold from Fetu”: Brun, , Schiffarten, 67Google Scholar; de Marees, , Beschryvinghe, 95a.Google Scholar Brun's comparison of Guinea-worms with the strings of a viol and his statement that patients with Guinea-worms took three months to recover (80) may have been derived from de Marees, , Beschryvinghe, 100b.Google Scholar

13. Hemmersam, Michael, Guineische und West-Indianische Reissbeschreibung de An. 1639 biss 1645 von Ambsterdam nach St Joris de Mina (Nuremberg, 1663)Google Scholar; ed. S.P. l'Honoré Naber (Hague, 1930).

14. The entry in the National Union Catalog for the edition of 1669 states: “First edition, 1647.” I have found no evidence to support this.

15. Other works written or edited by Dietherr, included Orationes Quinque Varii Argumenti (Nuremberg, 1659)Google Scholar (a set or orations delivered in Latin in the 1640s); Rebuffi, Pierre, Tractatus de Decimis tam feudalibus, quam aliis…denuo in lucem revocati opera C.L. Dietherri (Frankfurt, 1670–1677).Google Scholar

16. Henning, , “Brun,” 85.Google Scholar

17. Hemmersam claimed to have been told by some Africans of an ambush in which many Frenchmen had once been killed: Reissbeschreibung, 95-96. His account resembles a similar story in Brun, , Schiffarten, 68–69Google Scholar, but according to Brun it was the Portuguese who were ambushed. De Marees, , Beschryvinghe, 45b–46aGoogle Scholar, mentions such an ambush as having taken place in 1570, but he does not appear to have been Brun's or Hemmersam's source. Possibly all three men really did receive oral information.

18. Müller, Wilhelm Johann, Die afrikanische auf der guineischen Gold-Cust gelegene Landschafft Fetu (Hamburg, 1673)Google Scholar; facsimile of the third edition (Hamburg, 1676) with introduction by Jürgen Zwernemann (Graz, 1968). See also Birmingham, David, “A Note on the Kingdom of Fetu,” Ghana Notes and Queries, no. 9(1966), 30–33.Google Scholar

19. Müller, , Fetu, 31.Google Scholar

20. Villault, , Relation, 235.Google Scholar

21. De Marees, , Beschryvinghe, 14a–b.Google Scholar

22. Villault, , Relation, 211, 332.Google Scholar

23. It is possible that Villault merely made notes on de Marees' work during the five weeks he spent in Amsterdam before going to Africa (ibid., 20) and did not have a copv in front of him when he wrote his own book later. Villault was commissioned to reconnoiter the prospects for developing French trade in Lower Guinea. This was dominated by the Dutch and, to a lesser extent, by the English. Anglo-French rivalry was acute, and virtually the only way Villault could execute his commission was by enlisting Dutch help and chartering a Dutch vessel. Thus he must have spent a lot of time talking to Dutch sailors and merchants whose perceptions of West Africa would have belonged to a tradition of which de Marees had been the foremost literary exponent. Furthermore, Villault must be presumed to have done some homework, and an obvious thing to do would have been to read de Marees (of whom a French translation was published in Amsterdam in 1605), perhaps during the five weeks he spent in Amsterdam before going to Africa (Villault, , Relation, 20Google Scholar). Thus anything he wrote would have been moulded by a ‘traditional Dutch perception’ of which de Marees was the classic literary example. It is impossible to tell whether Villault actually had a translation of de Marees in front of him when he wrote, but the parallels between the two books are numerous. I am grateful to John Fage for sharing his views on Villault with me.

24. Eich, Hans Jacob Zur, “Africanische Reissbeschreibung in die Landschaft Fetu, auf der guineischen Gold-Cüst gelegen” in Simler, Johann W., ed., Vier Löblicher Statt Zürich Verbürgter Reissbeschreibungen (Zurich, 1677–1678), 2:91–174.Google Scholar See the note by Sieveking, Heinrich in Hamburgische Geschichts- und Heimatsblädtter, 10(1937), 76–77.Google Scholar

25. von der Groeben, Otto Friedrich, Guineische Reisebeschreibung, nebst einem Anhange der Expedition in Morea (Marienwerder, 1694)Google Scholar; facsimile, with postscript by C. Grotewold (Leipzig, n.d. [1913]).

26. See especially Mattiesen, Otto Heinz, Die Kolonial- und Überseepolitik der kurlandischen Rerzoge im 17. und 18. Jahrhundert (Stuttgart, 1940).Google Scholar This contains some primary material, but the editing leaves much to be desired; for example, Mattiesen went to some lengths to interpret a map of the Gold Coast forts (ca. 1653) as if it were a map of the north bank of the River Gambia (ibid., 276). Since many of the important documents concerned with this enterprise were written in Dutch, I have not included it among the German sources.

27. Schück, Richard, Brandenburg-Preussens Kolonial-Politik unter dem Grossen Kürfursten und seinen Nachfolgern (1647–1721), (2 vols.: Leipzig, 1889), 2:135.Google Scholar

28. The first half, Orientalische Reisebeschreibung; described an earlier journey to the Mediterranean and Middle East.

29. Ruiters, Dierick, Toortse der Zee-Vaert (1623), ed. Naber, S.P. l'Honoré (Hague, 1913).Google Scholar

30. Des edlen Bergone und seiner tugendhafften Areteen denckwürdige Lebens- und Liebes-Geschichte (Danzig, 1700).Google Scholar

31. Oettinger, Paul, ed., Unter Kurbrandenburgischer Flagge. Nach dem Tagebuch des Chirurgen Johann Peter Oettinger (Berlin, 1886)Google Scholar, published originally in Schorers Familienblatt, 6(1885), 134-37, 150-57, 180-83, 262-64, 398-99, 412–15.Google Scholar

32. This applies to such sentences as: “The punishments on ships in those days were by modern standards very harsh and cruel” (ibid., 65) and perhaps to the pious expressions of sympathy with the slaves (61, 63, 70-71).

33. Ibid., 58.

34. Bosman, Willem, Nauwkeurige Beschryving van de Guinese Goud-, Tand- en Slave-kust (Utrecht, 1704)Google Scholar; Phillips, Thomas, “Journal of a Voyage to Cape Monseradoe…, (1693-4)” in Awnsham, and Churchill, John, ed., A Collection of Voyages and Travels, (6 vols.: London, 1704–1732), 6:214–27.Google Scholar

35. Schück, , Brandenburg-Preussen, IGoogle Scholar; Hofmeister, , Die maritimen und aolonialen Bestrebungen des Grossen Kurfürsten, 1640 bis 1688 (Emden, 1886)Google Scholar; Brandenburg-Preussen auf der West-küste von Afrika, 1681-1721 (Berlin, 1885).Google Scholar For translations of a few items from these books see Welman, Charles W., Native States of the Gold Coast, No. 2: Ahanta (London, 1930).Google Scholar

36. See Reindorf, Joe, Scandinavians in Africa: Guide to Materials relating to Ghana in the Danish National Archives, ed. Simensen, Jarle (Oslo, 1980), esp. 25–28Google Scholar; Sieveking, Heinrich, “Die Glückstädter Guineafahrt im 17. Jahrhundert. Ein Stück deutscher Kolonialgeschichte,” Vierteljahrschrift für Sozial- und Wirtschaftsgeschichte, 30(1937), 19–71.Google Scholar

37. E.g., Kup, A.P., A History of Sierra Leone, 1400-1784 (Cambridge, 1961)Google Scholar; Vogt, John, Portuguese Rule on the Gold Coast, 1469-1682 (Athens, Ga., 1979)Google Scholar; Daaku, Kwame, Trade and Politics on the Gold Coast, 1600-1720 (Oxford, 1970)Google Scholar; Ryder, A.F.C., Benin and the Europeans, 1485-1897 (London, 1969)Google Scholar; Ly, Abdoulaye, La Compagnie du Sénégal (Paris, 1958).Google Scholar Vogt cites Brun and makes some dubious deductions from Hemmersam, but he ignores Ulsheimer.

38. India Orientalis: Anhang der Beschreibung dess Konigreichs Congo (Frankfurt, 1625)Google Scholar; Samuelis Brunonis…prima navigatio … (Frankfurt, 1625)Google Scholar; Samuel Brauns…erste Reyss… (Frankfurt, 1628)Google Scholar; Die Neuntzehende Schiffarth, Inhaltendt, Fünff Sahiffarthen S. Brauns… (Frankfurt, 1626).Google Scholar

39. Dapper, , Beschrijvinge, 512–16Google Scholar; Davity, Pierre, Description Générale de l'Afrique, Seconde Partie du Monde (3rd ed., rev. de Rocoles, J. B.; Paris, 1660), 442–51.Google Scholar I have not seen the first or second edition.

40. The reference to a “French battery” at São Jorge da Mina in Dapper, , Beschrijvinge, 437Google Scholar, may have come from Hemmersam, , Reissbeschreibung, 95Google Scholar, but he probably had a different source. Dapper's other sources included de Marees, Beschryvinghe; Algemeen Rijksarchief, VEL 743 (map dated 25 December 1629); Leiden, Konigkl. Inst. v. Taal-, Land- en Volkenkunde, H65, Valckenburg, September 1659.

41. Franciscus, Erasmus, Guineischer und Americanischer Blumen-Pusch…Nebenst beygedrucktem Anhang der hiebey zugleich neuauffgelegten Michael Hemmersams sel. Guineisch- und West-Indianische Reisebeschreibung (Nuremberg, 1669).Google Scholar

42. Hemmersam, Michael, West-Indianisk Reese-Beskriffning, fran ahr 1639 till 1645 (Wijsingzborg, 1674).Google Scholar

43. Tilleman, , Beretning, 70–75Google Scholar: cf. Müller, , Fetu, 9–19.Google Scholar It is alleged in the Allemeine Deutsche Biographie (Leipzig, 1885), 22:683Google Scholar, that much of Müller's work was incorporated in Isert, Paul E., Reise nach Guinea und den Caräbaischen Inseln in Columbien (Copenhagen, 1788)Google Scholar, but I have found no evidence that Isert read Müller.

44. Groeben, , Reisebeschreibung (2nd ed.: Danzig, 1779)Google Scholar; Voorname Scheeps-togt van Jonkheer O.F. van der Greuben (Leiden, 1707)Google Scholar; van der Aa, P., Naukeurige Versameling der…Zee- en Land-Reysen, Vol. 124 (Leiden, 1707)Google Scholar; idem, De aanmarken-wardigste…Zee- en Land Reizen der Portugeezen… (Leiden, 1772).

45. E.g., Isert, Reise; Oldendorp, G.C.A., Geschichte der Mission der Evangelischen Brüder auf den Caraibischen Inseln S. Thomas, S. Croix und S. Jan (Barby, 1777).Google Scholar

46. Works on Germany's African past published between 1880 and 1890 included: Hofmeister, Bestrebungen; Schück, Brandenberg-Preussen; Oettinger, Unter Kurbrandenburgischer Flagge; Brandenburg-Preussen an der Westküste; Diederichs, Heinrich, Herzog Jakobs von Kurland Kolonien an der Westküste von Afrika (Mitau, 1890)Google Scholar; Paulitschke, P., Die Afrika-Literatur in der Zeit von 1500 bis 1750 n. Chr. (Vienna, 1882)Google Scholar; Stubenrauch, Korvettenkapitän, “Besuch der Ruinen des Brandenburgischen Forts Gross-Freidrichsburg,” Marineverordnungsblatt, 51(1884).Google Scholar Typical of this renaissance of interest was a poem extolling the heroism and loyalty of the so-called Brandenburg caboceer, Conny, Jan, in the years 1716–1720: Schorers Familienblatt, 6(1885), 415.Google Scholar