[3] A Portuguese settlement, San Domingo, was built on the northern bank of Gambia River, opposite St Andrew's Island, in the 15th century.

Major Fock, a Courland soldier, was placed in charge of the first settlement and oversaw the construction of fortifications on St Andrew's Island, which were built following the recognised contemporary rules of military engineering.

There were a number of issues with the expedition, and in December 1652, Treyden wrote to the Duke of Courland describing Moulin as a "light-hearted knave".

Captain Otto Stiel, a Courlander who had previously visited the Gambia, was appointed as its Governor and as Commandant of St Andrew's Island.

As a result of this, the Dutch West India Company made an agreement with the Duke's representative in Holland, Henry Momber, by which it would both resupply and take over St Andrew's Island.

Momber got in touch with Stiel, who had been living in Holland, and he traveled back to St Andrew's Island in a ship provided by the Groningen chamber.

However, when the King of Barra saw Stiel evicted again, he decided to come to his aid by capturing a party of Dutchmen who had landed at Juffure for fresh water.

The Dutch relented after a four-week stand-off, and the commander of the fort left it without provisions and partially destroyed before turning it back over to Stiel and the Courlanders.

The Six-Gun Battery (1816) and Fort Bullen (1826), now included in the James Island UNESCO World Heritage Site and located on both sides of the mouth of the River Gambia, were built with the specific intent of thwarting the slave trade once it had become illegal in the British Empire after the passing of the Slave Trade Act in 1807.

Kunta Kinteh Island is suffering heavy erosion and is now approximately 1/6 of the size it had been during the time when the fort was active.

Ruins of several of the British administrative buildings (including a single cell, apparently used to house the most troublesome captives), a small jetty and a number of skeletal baobab trees remain.

[12] Kunta Kinte, a character described in Alex Haley's book and TV series Roots, has become associated with James Island.