CAPE COAST, a port on the Gold Coast, British West Africa, in 5° 5' N., i° 13' W., about 8om. W. of Accra. The pop ulation (193 I) totalled 17,685, of whom the Europeans numbered about 1 oo. The town is built on a low bank of gneiss and mica ceous slate which runs out into the sea and affords some protec tion at the landing-place against the violence of the surf. This bank was the Cabo Corso of the Portuguese, whence the English corruption of Cape Coast. The castle faces the sea.
The first European settlement on the spot was that of the Portuguese in 161o. In 1652 the Swedes established themselves here and built the castle, which they named Carolusburg. In 1659 the Dutch obtained possession, but the castle was seized in 1664 by the English under Captain (afterwards Admiral Sir) Robert Holmes, and was held by them in spite of an attack by De Ruyter in 1665, a French attack in 1757, and various as saults by the native tribes. Next to Elmina it was considered the strongest fort on the Guinea coast. Up to 1876 the town was the capital of the British settlements on the coast, the Administra tion being then removed to Accra. This and, later, the opening of a railway from Sekondi to Kumasi deprived it of much of its importance. Formerly it was the starting-point for the north.
See A. Ffoulkes "The Company System in Cape Coast Castle" in Jnl. African Soc. vol. vii. (1908) ; see also GOLD COAST.