GOLD AND IVORY.
THOSE valuable commodities, gold and ivory (the next objects of our
inquiry), have probably been found in Africa from the first ages of the
world. They are reckoned among its most important productions in the
earliest records of its history.
It has been observed that gold is seldom or never discovered except in
_mountainous_ and _barren_ countries—nature, it is said, thus making
amends in one way for her penuriousness in the other. This, however, is
not wholly true. Gold is found in considerable quantities throughout
every part of Manding, a country which is indeed hilly, but cannot
properly be called _mountainous_, much less _barren_. It is also found
in great plenty in Jallonkadoo (particularly about Boori), another hilly,
but by no means an unfertile, country. It is remarkable that in the
place last mentioned (Boori), which is situated about four days’ journey
to the south-west of Kamalia, the salt market is often supplied at the
same time with rock-salt from the Great Desert and sea-salt from the Rio
Grande; the price of each, at this distance from its source, being nearly
the same. And the dealers in each, whether Moors from the north or
negroes from the west, are invited thither by the same motives—that of
bartering their salt for gold.
The gold of Manding, so far as I could learn, is never found in any
matrix or vein, but always in small grains nearly in a pure state, from
the size of a pin’s head to that of a pea, scattered through a large body
of sand or clay, and in this state it is called by the Mandingoes _sanoo
munko_ (gold powder). It is, however, extremely probable, by what I
could learn of the situation of the ground, that most of it has
originally been washed down by repeated torrents from the neighbouring
hills. The manner in which it is collected is nearly as follows:—
About the beginning of December, when the harvest is over and the streams
and torrents have greatly subsided, the mansa or chief of the town
appoints a day to begin _sanoo koo_ (gold-washing), and the women are
sure to have themselves in readiness by the time appointed. A hoe or
spade for digging up the sand, two or three calabashes for washing it in,
and a few quills for containing the gold dust, are all the implements
necessary for the purpose. On the morning of their departure a bullock
is killed for the first day’s entertainment, and a number of prayers and
charms are used to insure success, for a failure on that day is thought a
bad omen.
The mansa of Kamalia, with fourteen of his people, were, I remember, so
much disappointed in their first day’s washing that very few of them had
resolution to persevere, and the few that did had but very indifferent
success: which indeed is not much to be wondered at, for instead of
opening some untried place they continued to dig and wash in the same
spot where they had dug and washed for years, and where, of course, but
few large grains could be left.
The washing of the sands of the streams is by far the easiest way of
obtaining the gold dust; but in most places the sands have been so
narrowly searched before, that unless the stream takes some new course
the gold is found but in small quantities. While some of the party are
busied in washing the sands, others employ themselves farther up the
torrent, where the rapidity of the stream has carried away all the clay,
sand, etc., and left nothing but small pebbles. The search among these
is a very troublesome task. I have seen women who have had the skin worn
off the tops of their fingers in this employment. Sometimes, however,
they are rewarded by finding pieces of gold, which they call _sanoo
birro_ (gold stones), that amply repay them for their trouble. A woman
and her daughter, inhabitants of Kamalia, found in one day two pieces of
this kind; one of five drachms and the other of three drachms weight.
But the most certain and profitable mode of washing is practised in the
height of the dry season, by digging a deep pit, like a draw-well, near
some hill which has previously been discovered to contain gold. The pit
is dug with small spades or corn-hoes, and the earth is drawn up in large
calabashes. As the negroes dig through the different strata of clay or
sand, a calabash or two of each is washed by way of experiment; and in
this manner the labourers proceed, until they come to a stratum
containing gold, or until they are obstructed by rocks, or inundated by
water. In general, when they come to a stratum of fine reddish sand,
with small black specks therein, they find gold in some proportion or
other, and send up large calabashes full of the sand for the women to
wash; for though the pit is dug by the men, the gold is always washed by
the women, who are accustomed from their infancy to a similar operation
in separating the husks of corn from the meal.
As I never descended into any one of these pits, I cannot say in what
manner they are worked underground. Indeed, the situation in which I was
placed made it necessary for me to be cautious not to incur the suspicion
of the natives by examining too far into the riches of their country; but
the manner of separating the gold from the sand is very simple, and is
frequently performed by the women in the middle of the town; for when the
searchers return, from the valleys in the evening, they commonly bring
with them each a calabash or two of sand, to be washed by such of the
females as remain at home. The operation is simply as follows:—
A portion of sand or clay (for the gold is sometimes found in a
brown-coloured clay) is put into a large calabash and mixed with a
sufficient quantity of water. The woman whose office it is, then shakes
the calabash in such a manner as to mix the sand and water together, and
give the whole a rotatory motion—at first gently, but afterwards more
quickly, until a small portion of sand and water, at every revolution,
flies over the brim of the calabash. The sand thus separated is only the
coarsest particles mixed with a little muddy water. After the operation
has been continued for some time, the sand is allowed to subside, and the
water poured off; a portion of coarse sand, which is now uppermost in the
calabash, is removed by the hand, and, fresh water being added, the
operation is repeated until the water comes off almost pure. The woman
now takes a second calabash, and shakes the sand and water gently from
the one to the other, reserving that portion of sand which is next the
bottom of the calabash, and which is most likely to contain the gold.
This small quantity is mixed with some pure water, and, being moved about
in the calabash, is carefully examined. If a few particles of gold are
picked out, the contents of the other calabash are examined in the same
manner, but in general the party is well contented if she can obtain
three or four grains from the contents of both calabashes. Some women,
however, by long practice, become so well acquainted with the nature of
the sand, and the mode of washing it, that they will collect gold where
others cannot find a single particle. The gold dust is kept in quills
stopped up with cotton; and the washers are fond of displaying a number
of these quills in their hair. Generally speaking, if a person uses
common diligence in a proper soil, it is supposed that as much gold may
be collected by him in the course of the dry season as is equal to the
value of two slaves.
Thus simple is the process by which the negroes obtain gold in Manding;
and it is evident from this account that the country contains a
considerable portion of this precious metal, for many of the smaller
particles must necessarily escape the observation of the naked eye; and
as the natives generally search the sands of streams at a considerable
distance from the hills, and consequently far removed from the mines
where the gold was originally produced, the labourers are sometimes but
ill-paid for their trouble. Minute particles only of this heavy metal
can be carried by the current to any considerable distance; the larger
must remain deposited near the original source from whence they came.
Were the gold-bearing streams to be traced to their fountains, and the
hills from whence they spring properly examined, the sand in which the
gold is there deposited would no doubt be found to contain particles of a
much larger size; and even the small grains might be collected to
considerable advantage by the use of quicksilver and other improvements,
with which the natives are at present unacquainted.
Part of this gold is converted into ornaments for the women, but in
general these ornaments are more to be admired for their weight than
their workmanship. They are massy and inconvenient, particularly the
earrings, which are commonly so heavy as to pull down and lacerate the
lobe of the ear; to avoid which, they are supported by a thong of red
leather, which passes over the crown of the head from one ear to the
other. The necklace displays greater fancy, and the proper arrangement
of the different beads and plates of gold is the great criterion of taste
and elegance. When a lady of consequence is in full dress, her gold
ornaments may be worth altogether from fifty to eighty pounds sterling.
A small quantity of gold is likewise employed by the slatees in defraying
the expenses of their journeys to and from the coast, but by far the
greater proportion is annually carried away by the Moors in exchange for
salt and other merchandise. During my stay at Kamalia, the gold
collected by the different traders at that place for salt alone was
nearly equal to one hundred and ninety-eight pounds sterling; and as
Kamalia is but a small town, and not much resorted to by the trading
Moors, this quantity must have borne a very small proportion to the gold
collected at Kancaba, Kankaree, and some other large towns. The value of
salt in this part of Africa is very great. One slab, about two feet and
a half in length, fourteen inches in breadth, and two inches in
thickness, will sometimes sell for about two pounds ten shillings
sterling; and from one pound fifteen shillings to two pounds may be
considered as the common price. Four of these slabs are considered as a
load for an ass, and six for a bullock. The value of European
merchandise in Manding varies very much according to the supply from the
coast, or the dread of war in the country; but the return for such
articles is commonly made in slaves. The price of a prime slave, when I
was at Kamalia, was from twelve to nine minkallies, and European
commodities had then nearly the following value:—
18 gun-flints, one minkalli.
48 leaves of tobacco,
20 charges of gunpowder,
A cutlass,
A musket, from three to four minkallies.
The produce of the country and the different necessaries of life, when
exchanged for gold, sold as follows:—
Common provisions for one day, the weight of one _teeleekissi_ (a black
bean, six of which make the weight of one minkalli); a chicken, one
teeleekissi; a sheep, three teeleekissi; a bullock, one minkalli; a
horse, from ten to seventeen minkallies.
The negroes weigh the gold in small balances, which they always carry
about them. They make no difference, in point of value, between gold
dust and wrought gold. In bartering one article for another, the person
who receives the gold always weighs it with his own teeleekissi. These
beans are sometimes fraudulently soaked in shea-butter to make them
heavy, and I once saw a pebble ground exactly into the form of one of
them; but such practices are not very common.
Having now related the substance of what occurs to my recollection
concerning the African mode of obtaining gold from the earth, and its
value in barter, I proceed to the next article of which I proposed to
treat—namely, ivory.
Nothing creates a greater surprise among the negroes on the sea-coast
than the eagerness displayed by the European traders to procure
elephants’ teeth, it being exceedingly difficult to make them comprehend
to what use it is applied. Although they are shown knives with ivory
handles, combs and toys of the same material, and are convinced that the
ivory thus manufactured was originally parts of a tooth, they are not
satisfied. They suspect that this commodity is more frequently converted
in Europe to purposes of far greater importance, the true nature of which
is studiously concealed from them, lest the price of ivory should be
enhanced. They cannot, they say, easily persuade themselves that ships
would be built and voyages undertaken to procure an article which had no
other value than that of furnishing handles to knives, etc., when pieces
of wood would answer the purpose equally well.
Elephants are very numerous in the interior of Africa, but they appear to
be a distinct species from those found in Asia. Blumenbach, in his
figures of objects of natural history, has given good drawings of a
grinder of each, and the variation is evident. M. Cuvier also has given
in the _Magasin Encyclopédique_ a clear account of the difference between
them. As I never examined the Asiatic elephant, I have chosen rather to
refer to those writers than advance this as an opinion of my own. It has
been said that the African elephant is of a less docile nature than the
Asiatic, and incapable of being tamed. The negroes certainly do not at
present tame them; but when we consider that the Carthaginians had always
tame elephants in their armies, and actually transported some of them to
Italy in the course of the Punic wars, it seems more likely that they
should have possessed the art of taming their own elephants than have
submitted to the expense of bringing such vast animals from Asia.
Perhaps the barbarous practice of hunting the African elephants for the
sake of their teeth has rendered them more untractable and savage than
they were found to be in former times.
The greater part of the ivory which is sold on the Gambia and Senegal
rivers is brought from the interior country. The lands towards the coast
are too swampy and too much intersected with creeks and rivers for so
bulky an animal as the elephant to travel through without being
discovered; and when once the natives discern the marks of his feet in
the earth, the whole village is up in arms. The thoughts of feasting on
his flesh, making sandals of his hide, and selling the teeth to the
Europeans, inspire every one with courage, and the animal seldom escapes
from his pursuers; but in the plains of Bambarra and Kaarta, and the
extensive wilds of Jallonkadoo, the elephants are very numerous, and,
from the great scarcity of gunpowder in those districts, they are less
annoyed by the natives.
Scattered teeth are frequently picked up in the woods, and travellers are
very diligent in looking for them. It is a common practice with the
elephant to thrust his teeth under the roots of such shrubs and bushes as
grow in the more dry and elevated parts of the country, where the soil is
shallow. These bushes he easily overturns, and feeds on the roots, which
are in general more tender and juicy than the hard, woody branches or the
foliage; but when the teeth are partly decayed by age, and the roots more
firmly fixed, the great exertions of the animal in this practice
frequently cause them to break short. At Kamalia I saw two teeth, one a
very large one, which were found in the woods, and which were evidently
broken off in this manner. Indeed, it is difficult otherwise to account
for such a large proportion of broken ivory as is daily offered for sale
at the different factories, for when the elephant is killed in hunting,
unless he dashes himself over a precipice, the teeth are always extracted
entire.
There are certain seasons of the year when the elephants collect into
large herds, and traverse the country in quest of food or water; and as
all that part of the country to the north of the Niger is destitute of
rivers, whenever the pools in the woods are dried up the elephants
approach towards the banks of that river. Here they continue until the
commencement of the rainy season, in the months of June or July, and
during this time they are much hunted by such of the Bambarrans as have
gunpowder to spare. The elephant-hunters seldom go out singly—a party of
four or five join together, and having each furnished himself with powder
and ball, and a quantity of corn-meal in a leather bag sufficient for
five or six days’ provision, they enter the most unfrequented parts of
the wood, and examine with great care everything that can lead to the
discovery of the elephants. In this pursuit, notwithstanding the bulk of
the animal, very great nicety of observation is required. The broken
branches, the scattered dung of the animal, and the marks of his feet are
carefully inspected; and many of the hunters have, by long experience and
attentive observation, become so expert in their search that as soon as
they observe the foot-marks of an elephant they will tell almost to a
certainty at what time it passed and at what distance it will be found.
When they discover a herd of elephants, they follow them at a distance,
until they perceive some one stray from the rest and come into such a
situation as to be fired at with advantage. The hunters then approach
with great caution, creeping amongst the long grass, until they have got
near enough to be sure of their aim. They then discharge all their
pieces at once, and throw themselves on their faces among the grass; the
wounded elephant immediately applies his trunk to the different wounds,
but being unable to extract the balls, and seeing nobody near him, he
becomes quite furious and runs about amongst the bushes until by fatigue
and loss of blood he has exhausted himself, and affords the hunters an
opportunity of firing a second time at him, by which he is generally
brought to the ground.
The skin is now taken off, and extended on the ground with pegs to dry;
and such parts of the flesh as are most esteemed are cut up into thin
slices, and dried in the sun, to serve for provisions on some future
occasion. The teeth are struck out with a light hatchet which the
hunters always carry along with them, not only for that purpose, but also
to enable them to cut down such trees as contain honey; for though they
carry with them only five or six days’ provisions, they will remain in
the woods for months if they are successful, and support themselves upon
the flesh of such elephants as they kill and wild honey.
The ivory thus collected is seldom brought down to the coast by the
hunters themselves. They dispose of it to the itinerant merchants who
come annually from the coast with arms and ammunition to purchase this
valuable commodity. Some of these merchants will collect ivory in the
course of one season sufficient to load four or five asses. A great
quantity of ivory is likewise brought from the interior by the slave
coffles; there are, however, some slatees of the Mohammedan persuasion
who, from motives of religion, will not deal in ivory, nor eat of the
flesh of the elephant, unless it has been killed with a spear.
The quantity of ivory collected in this part of Africa is not so great,
nor are the teeth in general so large, as in the countries nearer the
Line: few of them weigh more than eighty or one hundred pounds, and upon
an average a bar of European merchandise may be reckoned as the price of
a pound of ivory.
I have now, I trust, in this and the preceding chapters explained with
sufficient minuteness the nature and extent of the commercial connection
which at present prevails, and has long subsisted, between the negro
natives of those parts of Africa which I visited and the nations of
Europe; and it appears that slaves, gold, and ivory, together with the
few articles enumerated in the beginning of my work—viz., bees’ wax and
honey, hides, gums, and dye-woods—constitute the whole catalogue of
exportable commodities. Other productions, however, have been
incidentally noticed as the growth of Africa, such as grain of different
kinds, tobacco, indigo, cotton-wool and perhaps a few others; but of all
these (which can only be obtained by cultivation and labour) the natives
raise sufficient only for their own immediate expenditure; nor, under the
present system of their laws, manners, trade, and government, can
anything further be expected from them. It cannot, however, admit of a
doubt that all the rich and valuable productions both of the East and
West Indies might easily be naturalised and brought to the utmost
perfection in the tropical parts of this immense continent. Nothing is
wanting to this end but example to enlighten the minds of the natives,
and instruction to enable them to direct their industry to proper
objects. It was not possible for me to behold the wonderful fertility of
the soil, the vast herds of cattle, proper both for labour and food, and
a variety of other circumstances favourable to colonisation and
agriculture—and reflect, withal, on the means which presented themselves
of a vast inland navigation without—lamenting that a country so
abundantly gifted and favoured by nature should remain in its present
savage and neglected state. Much more did I lament that a people of
manners and disposition so gentle and benevolent should either be left as
they now are, immersed in the gross and uncomfortable blindness of pagan
superstition, or permitted to become converts to a system of bigotry and
fanaticism which, without enlightening the mind, often debases the heart.
On this subject many observations might be made, but the reader will
probably think that I have already digressed too largely; and I now,
therefore, return to my situation at Kamalia.