History Of The Gold Coast
Archaeological evidence from the Gold Coast region suggests that there were Aboriginal people living here for approximately 23,000 years before the area was settled by Europeans. The first Europeans to reach the Gold Coast were sailing under the command of Captain Cook in 1770, although the area was not settled until 1823, when an explorer, John Oxley, landed at a beach that he named after his ship, the Mermaid. Colonization did not begin seriously until after about 1840, when charts of the Gold Coast were drawn up.