The letter-books of the Royal African Company of England form the most substantial and important source of material on English trade in West Africa in the late seventeenth century. The original texts, covering the period 1681-1699, are being published in full in three or four volumes. This first volume contains the letters for the years 1681-1683.

`painstakingly organised and annotated ... includes a concordance, bibliography and detailed index of places, people, ships and selected topics ... This supplemental material is of great value.' Stephen D. Behrendt, African History, Vol.41, 2000. `The English in West Africa, 1681-1683 is an important volume, and Law organises a complex set of documents in a straightforward and accessible manner.' Stephen D. Behrendt, African History, Vol.41, 2000. `This volume will be of value to scholars who analyze alliances between Africans and Europeans, and the impact of the slave and non-slave trades on local societies ... of most interest are the day-to-day marketing arrangements between Africans and Europeans detailed in the correspondence.' Stephen D. Behrendt, African History, Vol.41, 2000. `historians of pre-colonial West Africa and of the Atlantic slave trade have become deeply indebted to Robin Law.' David Richardson, Slavery and Abolition, Vol.30, No.3. `In his latest book, based on the local correspondence in Africa of officers of the Royal African Company ... Law provides us with a further example of his skills as an editor, anotator and interpreter of a major body of historical documents.' David Richardson, Slavery and Abolition, Vol.30, No.3. `Once completed, Laws edition of the Rawlinson manuscripts will place at the disposal of historians a set of materials that provides hitherto unimaginable opportunities to trace the micro-history of commercial relations at the Gold Coast and adjacent areas during the period when the English began to dominate the slave trade with this region.' David Richardson, Slavery and Abolition, Vol.30, No.3. `One looks forward with anticipation to the promised further volumes in this fascinating series.' David Richardson, Slavery and Abolition, Vol.30, No.3. `There is no doubt that this material is of real significance .. its major value for historians of West Africa will be the detailed information about local African traders and rulers who provide the supplies of gold and slaves, and the conditions of local West African society, politics, and warfare.' John Flint, The International History Review, XXI.2 June 1999 `Robin Law ... has undertaken to provide a text edition of these letters, which is certain to increase their value because it will increase their use. This collection of letters is so extensive that the present volume is only the first of three, perhaps even four, that Law proposes to prepare. We can judge the work both as a historical source and as a text edition.' David Henige, The Journal of Imperial and Commonwealth History `this volume returns to the Gold Coast, making available a valuable and hitherto fugitive source for the history of what is already one of the best documented regions of pre-colonial Africa ... The British Academy and Robin Law are to be congratulated on reinvigorating the venerable Fontes Historiae Africanae project, and on the basis of this volume we can only look forward to future publications.' John Parker, Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies `In the age of microfilm... the relative ease of travel to archival sources, and the Internet, does the African historical community need another book of documents? Without hesitation my answer is a resounding Yes! The Rawlinson manuscripts may be the most important source of historical information about this area for the last two decades of the seventeenth century... the great benefit of the very valuable collection of documents in The English in West Africa, 1681-1683, and the collections of primary materials cited in footnote one, is the potential for building an excellent ethnographic and historical picture of many aspects of life on the Gold Coast. Cheers to Robin Law and the British Academy for enhancing the resources in print.' Harvey M. Feinberg, The International Journal of African Historical Studies, Vol.32 No.1