The British attack on the French Colony of St Louis, Senegal

A scarce map of the French Fort St Louis, Senegal, published in Raspe's 'Schau Platz des gegenwaertigen Kriegs' (Plates illustrating the Current Wars). It was the first permanent French settlement in Africa, an important trading post for slaves, hides, beeswax & ambergris. As such it became a target for the British during the Seven Years' War. In a plan devised by an American merchant, Thomas Cumming, two warships and 200 men suprised the French and took it without loss, striking a serious blow to the French economy. The British kept St Louis at the end of the war but the French recaptured it in 1779 during the American War of Independence and Britain signed it away in the 1783 Treaty of Paris.