 They were to exploit the Rivers Gambia, Sierra Leone, and Sherbro.This group of adventurers enjoyed these rights for only a year, when, on the expiration of their lease, they reverted to the Royal African Company, which had purchased the rights and property of the Royal Adventurers six years earlier.In 1677, the French wrested the island of Gorée from the Dutch.This began a century and a half period of struggle between England and France for political and commercial supremacy in the regions of Senegal and the Gambia.