To provoke open conflict, James sends Holmes,…

To provoke open conflict, James sends Holmes, in service of the Royal African Company, to capture Dutch trading posts and colonies in West Africa.

A slaving company set up by the Stewart family and London merchants once the former retook the English throne in the English Restoration of 1660, the Royal African Company, known initially as the Company of Royal Adventurers Trading to Africa, led by the Duke of York.

Granted a monopoly over the English slave trade, by its charter issued in 1660, it has begun to establish trading posts on the West African coast with the help of the army and navy, and is responsible for seizing any rival English ships that are transporting slaves.

In addition to reconnoitering the coast and the mouth of the Gambia, Holmes constructs a fort here (on Dog Island in the mouth of the river, renamed Charles Island).

Upriver, on St. Andreas Island near Jillifri, he next captures a fort which is nominally the Duke of Courland's, but since 1659 in Dutch hands, and renames the spit of land James Island.