Soldiers of the Dutch West India Company land a fleet of fifteen ships at the Castle of Elmina, its Portuguese garrison reinforced by two hundred African allies put in service of the governor Sottomayor by the local caciques.

The Dutch open the battle by bombarding the castle before marching on it but they are ambushed by the Portuguese and their African allies from hidden positions and are almost totally massacred.

Among the dead are the commander-in-chief and all his officers.

The Portuguese have very few casualties and take fifteen, fifteen drums and over on thousand muskets, pikes, pistols and dresses.

The Dutch ships fire over two thousand cannon balls at the castle, but they eventually withdraw.

This defeat, along with the defeats at Bahia and Puerto Rico, is the cause of what is to be a five year lull in Dutch attacks on Spanish and Portuguese colonies.