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. Robin Law is to be commended for editing the Rawlinson collection in an important, scholarly, three-volume set.