Dog Island is a small island, situated on the

Gambia River The Gambia River (formerly known as the River Gambra) is a major river in West Africa, running from the Fouta Djallon plateau in north Guinea westward through Senegal and The Gambia to the Atlantic Ocean at the city of Banjul. It is navigable f ...

in the Republic of

the Gambia The Gambia,, ff, Gammbi, ar, غامبيا officially the Republic of The Gambia, is a country in West Africa. It is the smallest country within mainland AfricaHoare, Ben. (2002) ''The Kingfisher A-Z Encyclopedia'', Kingfisher Publicatio ...

about 13 kilometres from the mouth of the river to the

Atlantic Ocean The Atlantic Ocean is the second-largest of the world's five oceans, with an area of about . It covers approximately 20% of Earth's surface and about 29% of its water surface area. It is known to separate the " Old World" of Africa, Europe ...

. The area of the island is less than 3.5

hectare The hectare (; SI symbol: ha) is a non-SI metric unit of area equal to a square with 100-metre sides (1 hm2), or 10,000 m2, and is primarily used in the measurement of land. There are 100 hectares in one square kilometre. An acre is a ...

s. During

low tide Tides are the rise and fall of sea levels caused by the combined effects of the gravitational forces exerted by the Moon (and to a much lesser extent, the Sun) and are also caused by the Earth and Moon orbiting one another. Tide tables can ...

the island is connected to the mainland, but during high tide it is separated by about 150 metres from the headland of Dog Island Point on the north bank of the river. The island is named after the sound made by the resident

baboons Baboons are primates comprising the genus ''Papio'', one of the 23 genera of Old World monkeys. There are six species of baboon: the hamadryas baboon, the Guinea baboon, the olive baboon, the yellow baboon, the Kinda baboon and the chacma ba ...

, which from a distance sounds like dogs barking.

History

The first European known to land on the island was

Alvise Cadamosto Alvise Cadamosto or Alvise da Ca' da Mosto (, also known in Portuguese as ''Luís Cadamosto''; c. 1432 – 18 July 1488) was a Venetian explorer and slave trader, who was hired by the Portuguese prince Henry the Navigator and undertook two known ...

, a Venetian captain in the service of the Portuguese Prince

Henry the Navigator ''Dom'' Henrique of Portugal, Duke of Viseu (4 March 1394 – 13 November 1460), better known as Prince Henry the Navigator ( pt, Infante Dom Henrique, o Navegador), was a central figure in the early days of the Portuguese Empire and in the 15t ...

in 1456, who named the island ''Ilha de Santo André'', on account of a deceased crew member named "André" who they buried there."Original Journals of the Voyages of Cada Mosto and Piedro de Cintra to the Coast of Africa, the former in the years 1455 and 1456, and the latter soon afterwards", as reprinted in R. Kerr, 1811, ''A General History of Voyages and Travels to the end of the 18th century, vol. 2'', Edinburgh: Blackwood
p.248
/ref> (In 1651,

colonists A settler is a person who has migrated to an area and established a permanent residence there, often to colonize the area. A settler who migrates to an area previously uninhabited or sparsely inhabited may be described as a pioneer. Settle ...

from the

Duchy of Courland The Duchy of Courland and Semigallia ( la, Ducatus Curlandiæ et Semigalliæ; german: Herzogtum Kurland und Semgallen; lv, Kurzemes un Zemgales hercogiste; lt, Kuršo ir Žiemgalos kunigaikštystė; pl, Księstwo Kurlandii i Semigalii) was ...

built a fort a little upriver on what is now called

Kunta Kinteh Island Kunta Kinteh Island, formerly called James Island and St Andrew's Island, is an island in the Gambia River, from the river mouth and near Juffureh in the Republic of the Gambia. Fort James is located on the island. It is less than 3.2 km ...

and was then called "St. Andrews island"; evidently, Cadamosto's name got transferred from Dog island to Kunta Kinteh island sometime in the interim.) In 1661, the English captain Robert Holmes arrived on behalf of the

Royal African Company The Royal African Company (RAC) was an English mercantile (trade, trading) company set up in 1660 by the royal House of Stuart, Stuart family and City of London merchants to trade along the West Africa, west coast of Africa. It was led by the J ...

to establish an English presence in the Gambia river (and, less explicitly, to eject the Courlanders from the area). Holmes built the first English installation, a small fort on Dog island, which he named Charles Island, after King

Charles I of England Charles I (19 November 1600 – 30 January 1649) was King of England, Scotland, and Ireland from 27 March 1625 until Execution of Charles I, his execution in 1649. He was born into the House of Stuart as the second son of King James VI of ...

. It was abandoned in 1816, with the erection of another fort on St. Mary's Island (now

Banjul Banjul (,"Banjul"
(US) and ), officially the City of Ba ...

island). Dog Island served as a quarry for the construction of Banjul, and has remained uninhabited since. Currently, tourists are occasionally ferried from Banjul to Dog Island to observe the

dolphins A dolphin is an aquatic mammal within the infraorder Cetacea. Dolphin species belong to the families Delphinidae (the oceanic dolphins), Platanistidae (the Indian river dolphins), Iniidae (the New World river dolphins), Pontoporiidae (t ...

swimming in the Gambia River estuary.

References

{{coord, 13, 21, 50, N, 16, 30, 37, W, type:isle, display=title History of the Gambia 1661 establishments in the British Empire Gambia River River islands of the Gambia Former English colonies