Indicator of distances between Accra and Axim

Title Leupe: Afstandswijzer van Axim tot Hollandsch Accra, gerekend langs het strand enz.

Fort Crèvecoeur in Accra, now known as Ussher Fort, was built by the WIC in 1649 to ensure the safety of its easternmost settlement on the Gold Coast. No maps or plans which give its original appearance survive, nor of what it looked like after the rebuilding in the first half of the eighteenth century. Only at the end of the eighteenth century did Leuthausen and Bartels produce drawings of the already destroyed fort (VEL794-795).

This nineteenth-century distance survey gives an impression of the fort’s surroundings. The adjunct of the Governor named A. Magnin conducted this survey by simply laying in his litter while being carried around. From this vantage point he counted the hours and minutes from one spot to the other. The trip of about sixty-one hours started at Fort Crèvecoeur and crossed 39 fortifications, posts and rivers tot reach Fort. St. Anthoni at Axim. Magin notes that by foot only eighty percent of the time given in the table will be required to reach these distances. British settlements are written down in bold black letters and concentrate at a distance of about nine to thirty hours from Accra.