In 1623 Richard Jobson published an account of a 1620-21 English voyage up River Gambia, during which the party he led penetrated to a point 460 miles up river. The purpose of the voyage was to make contact with the gold trade of the West African interior, but they were not successful. However, his account of the river, its commerce, natural history, peoples, religions and polities, was teh earliest to appear in print. It was also the earliest account of any part of Black Africa by an Englishman.