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Fine 18th Century view of the Fort St. Anthony (San Antonio), engraved in London by Johannes Kip.
In 1503, the Portuguese established a trading post at Axim, near the River Ankobra. The post was inhabited briefly, before it was abandoned due local attacks. By 1515, Portuguese constructed a massive triangular fort on a small promontory in the same area, which the named ‘Santo Antonio’, the second Portuguese fort on the Gold Coast, after St. George’s Castle (Elmina Castle)
Fort St. Anthony survived a number of attacks, even after the fall of Elmina to the Dutch in 1637, allowing the Portuguese to exploit the surrounding gold-rich lands of the Ankobra and Tano River valleys, and gold traders from Adanse and Denkyira frequently visited the fort. Between 1670 and 1720, rival forts east of Axim, were established and Portuguese trade monopoly was ruined.
By the 1720s, St. Anthony was taken by the Dutch The fort is reported to have amassed ‘more gold at Axim than anywhere else together’ , especially after the dissolution of the Brandenburg Company and the death of John Conny (see Fort Gross Fredericksburg). The area was also an important source of timber and cotton for Dutch plantations.
![[ Africa. ] Tabula IIII. Aphricae. Hae Sunt E Cognitis Totius Orbis . . . (title on verso)](https://storage.googleapis.com/raremaps/img/small/103154.jpg)
