Elmina, Or St. George Da Mina, a British settlement on the Gold coast, Ashantee, Africa, at the mouth of the river Beyah, about 6 m. W. of Cape Coast Castle; lat. 5°5' N., Ion. 1° 20' W.; pop. about 15,000. The native town is large, irregular, and very dirty. The inhabitants are chiefly fishermen, traders and their servants, and slaves employed as mechanics; but there are a few mulattoes who are wealthy. In the neighborhood are some handsome country residences and cultivated farms. The surrounding country is undulating and thickly wooded. The town is defended by a castle built on a low rocky peninsula extending from the E.bank of the river. The point is surrounded by a bed of rocks, on which the sea breaks with great violence. The castle, the oldest European settlement on the Guinea coast, was begun by the Portuguese about 1481, and was 80 years in building; it is secure against an attack from any native force. There is another large defensive work, the fort of St. Jago, which commands the castle; but its climate is reputed to be fatal to Europeans. - Elmina was captured by the Dutch in 1637, and was ceded to them by Portugal in 1641. In 1872 it was transferred together with the other Dutch settlements on the coast to Great Britain. This transfer resulted in a war with the Ashantees in 1873; and on June 13 the native king's quarter of Elmina was bombarded and burned by the British, because the inhabitants had supplied the Ashantees with munitions of war.