GOLD ABOUT AXIM, ESPECIALLY AT THE APATIM OR BUJIÁ CONCESSION.
Any one who has eyes to see can assure himself that Axim is the threshold
of the Gold-region. It abounds in diorite, a rock usually associated with
the best paying lodes. After heavy showers the naked eye can note spangles
of the precious metal in the street-roads. You can pan it out of the
wall-swish. The little stream-beds, bone-dry throughout the hot season,
roll down, during the rains, a quantity of dark arenaceous matter, like
that of Taranaki, New Zealand, and the 'black sand' of Australia, which
collects near the sea in stripes and patches. The people believe that
without it gold never occurs; and, if they collect the common yellow sand,
it is to extract from it the darker material. If the stuff does not answer
the magnet, it is probably schorl (tourmaline), hornblende, or dark
quartz. Strangers have often mistaken this emery-like rock for tin, which
occurs abundantly in the northern region. It is simply titaniferous iron,
iserine, pleonaste, ilmenite [Footnote: Or peroxide of iron, with 8 to 23
per cent, of blue oxide of titanium.] and degraded itabirite, the iron and
quartz formation so called in the Brazil; and it is the same mineral which
I found so general throughout the gold and silver fields of neglected
Midian. It is found striating white sandstone about Tákwá and other places
in the interior. The surface-stone is decomposed by the oxide of iron, and
thus the precious dust with its ingrained gold is dissolved and separated
from it. At a greater depth the itabirite will be found solid; and the
occurrence of these oldest crystalline formations in large layers is a
hopeful sign. When Colonel Bolton was interested in the Gold Coast
diggings I advised him to send for a few tons of this metal, and to test
it as 'pay-dirt.' A barrelful was forwarded from the coast to the Akankon
Company: it was probably thrown away without experiment.
At Axim, as at Cape Coast Castle and other parts of the shore, women may
be seen gold-gathering even on the sea-sands. They rarely wash more than
40 lbs., or a maximum of 50 lbs., per diem; and they strike work if they
do not make daily half a dollar (2_s_. 3_d_.) to two dollars. They have
nests of wooden platters for pans, the oldest and rudest of all mechanical
appliances. The largest, two feet in diameter, are used for rough work in
the usual way with a peculiar turn of the wrist. The smallest are stained
black inside, to show the colour of gold; and the finer washings are
carried home to be worked at leisure during the night. This is peculiarly
women's work, and some are well known to be better panners than others;
they refuse to use salt-water, because, they say, it will not draw out the
gold.
The whole land is impregnated with the precious metal. I find it richer in
sedimentary gold than California was in 1859. Immediately behind the main
square of Axim a bank of red clay leads eastward to a shallow depression,
the old valley of the Besáon, a swamp during the rains backed by rising
and forested ground to the east. On the inland versant a narrow native
shaft has been sunk for gold by Mr. Sam, now native agent under Mr.
Crocker. We pounded and panned the rock, which yielded about twopence per
2 lbs., or one ounce to the ton. Observing its strike, we concluded that
it must extend through Mr. Irvine's property. Throughout the Gold Coast
auriferous reefs ran north-south, with easting rather than westing; the
deviation varies from 5º west to 15º-22º east; and I have heard of, but
not seen, a strike of north-east (45º) to south-west. This confirms the
'meridional hypothesis' of Professor Sedgwick, who stated, 'As some of the
great physical agencies of the earth are meridional, these agencies may
probably, in a way we do not comprehend, have influenced the deposit of
metals on certain lines of bearing.' We may also observe that all the
great mineral chains of the old and new world are meridional rather than
longitudinal, striking from north-east to south-west. The geologist's
theory, combined with the knowledge that the noble metal is 'chiefly found
among palæozoic rocks of a quartzose type,' is practically valuable on the
Gold Coast. Every mound or hillock of red clay contains one or more
quartz-reefs, generally outcropping, but sometimes buried in the subsoils.
They can always be struck by a cross-cut trending east-west. The dip is
exceedingly irregular: some lodes are almost vertical, and others
quasi-horizontal.
We now take the main road leading to the Ancobra. After crossing the fetid
Besáon by its ricketty bridge of planks, we find on the right hand, facing
Messieurs Swanzy's, a fine bit of rising ground, which I shall call, after
its proprietor, 'Mount Irvine.' Over the southern slope runs a cleared
highway, which presently becomes a 'bush-path;' it is named the 'Dudley
Road,' after an energetic District-commissioner. This is the first Tákwá
line, whose length is described to be about fifty miles, or four days'
slow journey for laden porters. Mr. Gillett, who had covered twenty-six
(sixteen?) miles of it, describes the path as unbroken by swamps or
streams. Further north, according to the many native guides whom I
questioned, travellers pass two rivulets, and finally they are ferried
over the Abonsá, or Tákwá River. The second road follows closely the left
bank of the Ancobra: it is used by the Hausá soldiers, but only in the
heart of the Dries, and it must be impassable during the Rains. Dr. J.
Africanus B. Horton, who contributes to a characteristic paper, [Footnote:
The _African Times_, January 2, 1882. The paper is full of inaccuracies;
it begins by placing Tomento (Tumento) ninety-five miles (for thirty)
along the river-course from the mouth, and he makes steam-launches 'take
from two to four days (say one) to go up to it.'] has never heard of the
former when he says 'from Axim to Taquah (Tákwá) there is no direct
route,' and he justly deprecates the latter. But he cries up the Bushua or
Dixcove-Tákwá line, upon which he has large concessions. I shall return to
this subject in a future chapter.
On the north side of Mount Irvine is a second nullah, the Eswá, which
flows, like the Besáon, through the dense growth of bush covering the
eastern uplands. A few minutes' walk along the right bank leads to a
broadening of the bed, a swamp during the Rains and a field of cereals in
the Dries. Thence we plunge into the jungle, and after a couple of hundred
yards come upon signs of mining. In the Eswá bed, where the gulch is
choked by two mounds or hillocks, appear the usual 'women's washings,'
shallow pits like the Brazilian _catas_, whence the pay-dirt has been
extracted. On the right bank, subtending the bed, their husbands have sunk
the usual chimney-hole to scratch quartz from the bounding-wall of the
reef. These rude beginnings of shafts reach a depth of 82 feet, and
perhaps more. All are round, like the circular hut of the African savage;
similarly in Australia the first pits were circular or oval. They are
descended in sweep-fashion by means of foot-holes, and they are just large
enough for a man to sit in and use his diminutive tool. The quartz is sent
up to grass by a basket, and carried to the hut. After a preliminary
roasting, the old custom of Egypt, it is broken into little bits and made
over to the women, who grind it down upon the cankey-stone which serves to
make the daily bread. In some parts of Africa this is men's work, and it
is always done at night, with much jollity and carousing.
I named this place the 'Axim Reef.' It had been taken by Dr. J. Ogilby
Ross, formerly district medical officer, Axim, and now preparing to
explore the regions behind the Ancobra sources. He allowed, however, his
prospecting term to elapse, and thus it has been secured by Mr. Grant for
Mr. J. Irvine. It taught us three valuable lessons.
1. Wherever _catas_, or 'women's washings,' are found, we can profitably
apply the hydraulic system of sluicing and fluming not by an upper
reservoir only, but also from below by a force-pump. Water is procurable
at all seasons by means of Norton's Abyssinian tubes, [Footnote: The
Egyptian campaigners seem to have thought of these valuable articles
somewhat late in the day. Yet two years ago I saw one working at
Alexandria.] and the brook-beds, dammed above and below, will form
perennial tanks. I am surprised that English miners on the Gold Coast have
not borrowed this valuable hint to wash from the people who have practised
it since time immemorial. Wherever we read, as on Mr. Wyatt's map,
'Gold-dust found in all these streams;' 'Natives dive for gold in the
dry,' and 'Old gold-shafts all along this track,' we should think of
'hydraulicking.'
2. The natives, here and elsewhere, prospect for and work the bank-reefs
after the subtending gutter-bed has proved auriferous. There is, however,
no connection between the two, and the precious metal in the subsoil is
either swept down by the floods or washed out of the sides, as we shall
see on the Ancobra River.
3. The negroes, who ignore pumps and steam-navvies, have neglected the
obvious measure of deep-digging in all the stream-beds, where much
detrital gold and even nuggets will assuredly be found. This should be
done either by shafting or by opening with 'steam-navvies' the whole
course of the channel during the 'Dries.'
Regaining the main road and passing towards the northern town, which is
separated from southern Axim by the fort and the grassy drill-ground, we
cast a look at a heap of rotting cases at last stored under a kind of
shed. Though labelled 'Akim' by the ungeographical manufacturer, they
contain a board-house, with glass windows and all complete, intended for
Axim, and eventually for the District-commissioner, Tákwá. But, with a
futility worthy of the futile African, certain authorities at
Head-quarters, after buying and landing the proposed bungalow, which
probably cost 500_l_., discovered that they could not afford the expense
of sending it to its destination. Consequently it was made over to the
white ants, and it has now duly qualified for fuel.
At the end of the northern town a noble bombax notes the last
resting-place of Europeans; and on it hangs a tale deserving a place in
'Spiritualistic prints.' A certain M. Thiebaut, transport-manager to the
French Tákwá-Company, died at Axim, and was here buried in July 1881. Many
persons, including Mr. Grant's mother and wife, declare that they saw
during broad daylight his 'spirit' standing over his grave. And no wonder
if he walked; a decent 'ghost' would feel unhappy in such a 'yard,' then a
receptacle for native impurities. We represented the case to Mr. Alexander
Allan, who succeeded poor Captain O'Brien, and that active and energetic
'new broom' at once took steps to abate the nuisance. The 'ghost' has not
been seen since its last home has been surrounded by a decent paling and
inscribed 'Ci-gît Thiebaut.' The same pious service was then done for one
of our countrymen, Mr. Crawford who died at Axim in the same year.
Leaving on the left a neat bungalow, the 'Effuenta House,' we see to
seaward of it the wooded knoll Bosomato. [Footnote: Abosom, Obosom or
Bosom, vulg. Bossum, are imaginary beings, guardians and so forth,
worshipped by the people and called 'fetishes' by Europeans. The word
'fetish' is properly applied only to charms, philters, amulets, and all
that genus. See p. 78, _Wit and Wisdom from West Africa_, London,
Tinsleys, 1865.] Here a thatched hut shows where the late M. Bonnat
proposed to build a trading establishment, and to disembark his goods
despite rock and reef. A few yards further the road is crossed by the
Breviya ('where life ends'), another foul lagoon-stream, haunted by sirens
and crossed by a corduroy-bridge. It leads to a village of the same name,
which the Anglo-African calls 'Stink-fish Town,' [Footnote: As usual it is
a translation; the natives call the preserve 'bomom,' from 'bon,' to
stink.] alluding tersely and picturesquely to its sun-dried produce.
From this knot of huts and hovels we turn sharp to the east, or inland,
and presently enter the Apatim or Bujiá concession, which has been leased
for mining purposes to Mr. Irvine. There is a shorter road further north,
but it is barred, we were assured, by a bad swamp. Our path, fairly open,
ran up and down a succession of round-topped, abrupt-flanked hills, thrown
together without system, and showing no signs of a plateau. They are
parted by creek-valleys, gulches, and gullies, thick with tangled
vegetation and varying in depth from a few feet to two and even three
hundred. Many of them carry water even in the driest season. The country
is remarkably like that behind Cape Coast Castle, where the Home
Government, during the last Ashanti war (1873-74), proposed to lay down a
tramway.
The land is not heavily timbered, but there is wood sufficient for
everyday purposes. Its chief growth is the spiny bombax, whose timber is
hardly durable enough for permanent shafting. Here, however, and in all
the mines upon and near the seaboard, carpenter-work should be imported
from England; it will be at once cheaper and better. The country is
everywhere seamed with reefs and ridges of naked quartz, beginning near
the coast and striking in the right direction. There must be many more
underground, and all will be bared by 'washing' the country. Mr. R. B. N.
Walker, whose energy and enterprise obtained this, as well as other
concessions, tells me that during a second visit one of his company
'picked up two or three small pieces of quartz showing "free gold" among
the refuse around the native pits.'
We progressed slowly enough, as we delayed to botanise, to net
butterflies, [Footnote: Our large collection all came to grief, because we
had neglected to carry camphor. The hint may be useful to those who follow
us.] and to shoot for specimens. The path crossed and recrossed the Impima
rivulet, which in parts was dammed and double-dammed; its bed of
quartz-gravel and red ironstone again suggested deep digging. After a two
hours' stroll we traversed the snaking course by a rude bridge, and
presently came to the half-way plantation, Impatási: it is faced by a
dwarf clearing, and we noted a fine clump of bamboo-cane. The next village
was Edu-Kru, marked upon the maps 'Edu.' We then passed over the dry bed
of the Bujiá wady, which looked as 'fit' as the Impima; and, at about
twenty-five yards north of the bed we breasted the rough ascent of the
Apatim Hill.
Here we turned to the right and found Mr. Grant's trial-shaft. It had been
sunk amongst a number of round holes dug by the native miner, and it
appeared to us that they had been working the southern butt-end of the
eastern reef. He had preferred it to another pit sunk a little distance
from the centre by a man named Jones, whose venture yielded the poorest
results. Cameron drew my attention to the necessity of 'hydraulicking'
this hill-side; and from three pounds of its yellow clay, gathered at
random, we washed about fourpence worth of gold-dust, upwards of 8_l_. a
ton. Other specimens assayed 1 oz. 13 dwts. and 13 grains. The quartz at a
little lower than a fathom had yielded poorly, [Footnote: Messieurs
Johnson and Matthey found only 0.650 oz. gold and 0.225 silver.] but
better results were expected from a deeper horizon.
A few minutes of uphill-walk led us to the little Apatim village, our
objective. We had spent three hours and a half over a distance which would
be easily covered in two. The march may be about two and a half miles
(direct geographical) from Axim, and five along the native path. During
the night my companion took a good observation of Castor and Pollux, and
with the aid of his chronometer laid down the position of the Apatim
village at N. lat. 4º 55' and W. long. (G.) 2º 14' 2". Consequently the
nearest point from Central Axim is 2,200 yards, and 200 from the shore.
The north-western angle runs clean across the Ancobra River. [Footnote:
Mr. Walker wrote to me, 'I am inclined to believe that the concession will
be found to extend to the River Ankobra on the west and north-west sides.
But I do not feel certain that this would be of any material advantage,
the distance from Axim by land being so short, and the road between that
port and the property being capable of improvement, so as to render
transport a matter of small expense.'] The concession measures 4,000
square yards, the centre being an old native shaft a little north of the
Bujiá bed. The quadrangle lies between N. lat. 4º 53' 56" and 4º 55' 56",
and W. long. (G.) 2º 12' 48" and 2º 14' 48". The lease costs 12_l_. per
annum, paid quarterly, and 120_l_. when the works shall open. Its lessor
had forbidden his fraudulent people to prospect or to mine, because, as
usual, they systematically robbed him of his royalty. This universal
practice has made the kings and chiefs throughout the country ready and
even anxious to sell mining-lands for small sums which will be paid
honestly and regularly. They are also fully alive to the prospective
advantages of European staffs settling amongst them. Like them we shall
find the systematic dishonesty and roguery of the natives a considerable
drawback; the fellows know good stone at sight and can easily secrete it.
The cure for this evil will be the importation of labour, especially of
Chinese labourers.
At Apatim, the name of the district as well as the village, we were
civilly received by the chief, Kwábina Sensensé. He is also lessor of the
unfortunate Akankon concession, and his right to sell or to let either of
them has been seriously disputed. This practice, again, may lead, unless
checked, to serious difficulties. When the local government shall have
established a regular department and a staff of Gold-commissioners, every
owner should be compelled legally to prove his title to the land. West
Africans know nothing of yards and fathoms; they have hardly any words to
express north or south. [Footnote: The four points are taken from the
buried body, the feet being to the east and the head lying west.]
Consequently they will sell, either wittingly or in their ignorance of
dimension and direction, the same ground, or parts of it, to two or three
purchasers. Indeed, they would like nothing better, and consequently
'jumpers' must be expected.
Sensensé is a dark man, apparently on the wrong side of fifty. His grizzly
beard, grown comparatively long, his closely-trimmed mustachios, and his
head-cloth, worn like a turban, made me take him at first sight for a
Moslem. He has a cunning eye, which does not belie his reputation. His fad
is to take money and to do no work for it; he now wants us to pay for the
clearing of an uncleared path. The villagers fear him on account of
certain fetish-practices which, in plain English, mean poison; and he
keeps up their awe by everywhere displaying the outward signs of magic and
sorcery. A man with this gift can rise at night when all sleep; cast off
his body like a snake's slough; become a _loup-garou_; shoot flames from
eyes and ears, nose, mouth, and arm-pits; walk with his head on the ground
and kill man either by drinking his blood or by catching his _kra_
(_umbra_), which he boils and devours. Here the sign of 'fetish' is mostly
the _koro_, or pot full of rubbish. At Axim and Akankon we shall find our
chief a mighty bore, each visit being equivalent to a bottle of gin.
After a restful sleep in the cool and pleasant air of Apatim, we proceeded
to visit the valley east of the settlement, despite Sensensé's warning
that the ground was 'fetish.' He had made the same objection to M. Bonnat,
his evident object being to keep the rich placer for private use or for
further sale. There are evil reports about the origin of the Frenchman's
fatal illness after disregarding this and similar warnings. The deep and
steep-banked depression runs north-south, and is apparently the head of
the Bujiá stream. The vegetation, especially near the water, which flows
some 300 feet below the village, was exceedingly dense and tangled, except
where the ground had been cleared for bananas, maize, or ground-nuts. The
bottom, especially at the sharp corners, gave the idea of exceeding
richness; and there were many old works apparently deserted. The
'fetish-pot' stood everywhere, filled with oil, water, and palm-wine,
leaves, cowries, eggs, and all manner of filth. This stuff, stirred by the
_komfo_ diviner, answers questions and enables man to soothsay. It also
corresponds with the _obeah_ of the West Indies, the _ubio_ of the Efik
race, a charm put into the ground to hurt or kill. How hot the rich hole
was! What a perspiration and what a thirst came out of the climb!
In the evening we walked about half a mile to the south-west of the
village, and prospected the central shaft, whence the measurements were
made. Here it is sunk in a western reef, palpably running parallel with
the eastern, which we first inspected. And this visit gave us a fair idea
of the property. It consists of at least three ridges of clay running from
north to south, and each containing one or more meridional walls of
quartz. Some of the latter may turn out to be 'master lodes.'
I regret that this fine Apatim concession was not thrown into the market
before the so-called 'Izrah.' The distance from Axim to the mining-ground
is so small that provisions and machinery could be transported for a
trifle. The village lies 220 feet above sea-level; and a hillock in its
rear, perhaps 80 feet higher, commands a noble view, showing Axim Bay: it
could be used as a signal-station. The rise is a fine, healthy position
for the dwellings to be occupied by the European staff, and in such air
white men could work for years.
Moreover, the short distance from the shore offers peculiar advantages for
'hydraulicking.' Flumes and sluices could carry the golden subsoil to the
sea and discharge it into a series of tanks and cisterns, which would be
cradled for 'pay-dirt.' Finally, it will be easy to baffle the plundering
negro workman by sending all stone containing free gold to be worked in
England, where superior appliances extract more than enough to pay
transport-costs. Indeed, it is a question with me whether, despite great
expenses, reduction at home even of inland produce will not be found
preferable. [Footnote: Mr. C. H. Creswick, of the Gold Coast Mining
Company, kindly drew up for me the following table of expenses from
Abontiyakon (his diggings) to England, and the costs of reducing a ton of
ore.
_l s. d._
3 15 0 canoe-transport to the Abonsá River.
1 10 0 Abonsá to Axim by a boat of thirteen hands carrying five tons
0 3 6 landing at Axim and shipping on board steamer.
1 15 0 freight and landing charges at Liverpool.
0 15 0 carriage to reduction-works.
2 12 6 costs of reduction.
----------
8 11 0 which practically would rise to 9_l_. or 10_l_.
For local reduction Mr. Creswick calculates the outlay at 2_l_. per ton,
including interest on prime cost of machinery, allowance for wear and
tear, and labour-pay.] This remark applies only to rich ore; the poorer
can be worked upon the spot.
We returned to Axim with the highest opinion of 'Apatim,' and I rejoiced
to hear that the mine will be opened without delay.