216 MISSION TO ASHANTEE. 
native name is Seenna. Col. Starrenberg, who went up the river 
as far as the ruins of Elisa Carthago, the extreme navigable pointy 
for anj but a very small canoe, says, he cannot form any accurate 
idea of the distance, but supposes it was about 20 Dutch miles 
and the course N. E. Meredith says 50 English : he was very 
careless and incorrect in writing, " the French built a fort on the 
right bank of this river, and at about 50 miles from its mouth ; 
where they had a great gold trade, that soon excited the jealousy 
of the Dutch, who expelled them. The Dutch however did not 
long enjoy this acquisition, for the chief got embroiled with the 
natives, and betook himself to the desperate remedy of blowing up 
the fort.'' Elisa Carthago was built by the Dutch governor Ruig- 
haven, who died, as appears by his tomb stone at Elmina, before 
ITOO. The French never had any but a small factory, almost at 
the mouth of the river, and the Dutch officer in charge of Elisa 
Carthago had enjoyed a good trade many years before the cupi- 
dity of the natives reduced him to the act of despair, related by 
Bosman, and still recorded by the natives, who narrated it to Col. 
Starrenberg. The following is from the Latin translation of Dr. 
Reynhaut : " The chief of Elisa Carthago being at variance with 
the natives, who invested the fort, and finding he could not resist 
them any longer" (for as the story goes, he had been reduced to 
fire pieces of rock gold from the want of bullets) " feigned to treat 
with them, and invited them for that purpose into the hall of the 
fort, under which he had placed several barrels of gunpowder, and 
a small boy with a match, ordering him to apply it directly he 
stamped his foot on the floor of the hall above. This he did, after 
reproaching the natives with their cupidity, and they were all 
blown up together. One of the servants of the fort had just before 
contrived to eflfect his escape with most of the papers.'' In 
navigating from the mouth of the Ancobra or Seenna to Elisa 
