FROM AXIM TO INGOTRO AND AKANKON.
After a long palaver with the three claimants to the Akankon
mining-ground, Kofi Blaychi (Little Blay), Kwáko Jum, and Safahin Sensensé
(the lessor), we left Axim once more (February 24) to inspect the head of
the Ancobra river. At the sleeping-place, Kumprasi, we were visited by Mr.
Cascaden, District-commissioner for Tákwá, a fine-looking man of fifteen
stone, pulled down to twelve by dysentery. He was speedily followed to
England by his _remplaçant_, Dr. Duke.
Next morning, when the thick white fog, which made the smoking river
resemble Father Rhine in autumn, had been licked up by fiery rays, we
embarked, together with Chief Apó, of Asánta, the honest old owner of the
'Ingotro concession.' Our conveyance was the _Effuenta_, a steam-launch
attached to the mine of that name, bought second-hand, and a fine specimen
of what launches ought _not_ to be. Built by Messieurs Dickenson, of
Birkenhead, she is much too small (36 feet by 8) for a river which, even
in the depth of the dries, averages two fathoms, and rarely runs less than
ten feet. The engines are over far from the boiler, and the long raking
stern swells out into a big belly worthy of a manatee or a Dutch hoy. Her
boiler had been replaced with the usual inconsequence. She had been
repaired by an 'intelligent artisan,' Mr. Emery; but, as he was allowed no
tools and no time, he contented himself with reporting her in good working
order. Consequently after every half-hour we had to unscrew the
safety-valve, let off steam, and fill the boiler with a funnel and a tin
pot. Pleasant three hours under a thin board-awning, in a broiling sun,
off a poisonous mangrove-swamp! Presently she had to be started by the
surf-boat lashed to one side, and a large canoe to the other. Finally,
after a last breakdown, we saw steam-launch _Effuenta_ lying high and dry
upon the beach at Sánmá.
We had nothing to complain of the engineer, Mr. William George, a Sá
Leonite, and of the helmsman, Kwámina Ekum, a Gold Coast man. Both did
their best with the heavily laden trio of boats. Cameron established
himself--compass, log, lead, and dredge--in the steamer stern. His
admirable geographical labours in 'Crossing Africa' are, after a few years
of a swift-moving age, lapsing Lethe-wards; and
To _have_ done is to hang
Quite out of fashion, like a rusty nail
In monumental mockery.
Now he has another opportunity of doing valuable service, none of these
positions having been established by observations, and of showing
travellers how topography should be worked. He has before him for
correction the Hydrographic chart, which pretends to nothing within the
Coast, and the 'River Ankobra and Tarquah(!) Gold Mines,' printed in 1878
by Captain Louis Wyatt, then District-commissioner for Axim. This first
attempt at a regular survey is meritorious for an amateur; but of course
it cannot compare with the produce of a scientific and experienced naval
surveyor. We had Lieut. Jeekel, before alluded to, but his scale,
1:250,000, is too small for details. I did not see, till long after our
return from this excursion, the then unfinished map by M. Paulus Dahse, a
veteran West-Coaster, who has spent years in travelling through the
interior. My fellow-voyager also was the first to show me the various
cartes printed and published by the late M. Bonnat. [Footnote: _Carte des
Concessions de 'The African Gold Coast Company_,' par M. J. Bonnat. Paris,
August 1879. Beginning south at Tumento, it does not show the southern
fork of the Bonsá or Abonsá River, which falls into the Ancobra's left
bank; and it ends a little north of Asseman, the cemetery of the 'kings.'
M. Bonnat had already printed in 1877 a _Chart of the River Ankobra_,
extending north as far as the 'Gold Mines of Aodoua.']
The Ancobra is an enlarged copy of the Yenna or Prince's River. There are
the same swampy borders and 'impenetrable forests,' as Captain Wyatt
entitles them; while the mangrove never quite disappears from this true
lagoon-stream. The monotonous fringe of rhizophores is broken, about two
miles from the mouth, by bamboo-palms and hibiscus-beds, then by the
bombax, the rubber-vine, the locust-tree (_inga_), and the
banana-plantation. The mounds and hillocks on either side, beginning with
the Akromasi and Kabudwe mounds, near the mouth, are evidently parts of an
ancient archipelago built by the mangrove and silted up to mainland. The
long and curious reaches are shown in my companion's map, and I shall
notice only those details which claim something of general interest.
After about eight miles' steaming up a huge loop to the west, and a bend
easterly, we passed the Kwábina Bosom, or Fetish-Rocks, two wall-like
blocks, one mangrove-grown and the other comparatively bare. Contrary to
native usage, we chose the fair way between the latter and the left bank,
for which innovation, said our escort, we shall surely suffer.
Beyond the Fetish-Rocks the right bank shows a cleared mound ready for
immediate planting: this concession once belonged to Dr. Ross, of Axim.
Opposite it the mining-ground has been leased for prospecting by Messieurs
Gillett and Selby. The notable feature of the river is now the
prawn-basket, a long cone closed at the blunt apex: the Ancobra is a
'Camarones,' supplying a first-rate article for curries. This is the work
of the uninteresting little villages, scatters of mere crates built in
holes worn in the bush; all disappear during the floods, and are rebuilt
in the dry season for growing rice and tapping palm-trees. Besides a few
humans they contain nothing save lean dogs and etiolated poultry; cattle,
sheep, and even pigs are wholly unknown.
In the afternoon we pushed through a wild thunderstorm of furious tropical
rain, which pitted the river-face like musket-balls. It arose in the
south; but throughout the Ancobra valley wet weather apparently comes from
all directions. Chief Apó gravely ascribed it to our taking the wrong side
of the Fetish-Rocks. I have heard, even in civilised lands, sillier
post-hoc-ergò-propter-hocs.
There were two landing-places for the large Ingotro concession, both on
the right bank. The lower leads, they say, over dry land, but the way is
long and hilly. That up stream is peculiarly foul, and to us it was made
fouler by the pelting shower. At low water, in the dry season, the little
Nánwá creek, subtending the higher ground on the north, becomes too
shallow for the smallest dug-out; and we had to wade or to be carried over
an expanse of fetid and poisonous mangrove-mud festering in the sun, and
promising a luxuriant growth of ague and fever. The first rise of sandy
yellow loam showed the normal Gold Coast metalling of iron-stone and
quartz-gravel, thinly spread with water-rounded pebbles. Then the path,
very badly laid out, merged into a second foul morass, whose depths were
crossed by the rudest of bridges, single and double trunks of felled or
fallen trees. Nothing easier than to corduroy this _mauvais pas_.
A second rise showed a fine reef of white and blue quartz, which runs
right through the settlement to the banks of the Nánwá stream. A quarter
of an hour's walk from the landing-place placed us in the Nánwá village,
now popularly known as Walker-Kru. It consists of a few mean little
hovels, the usual cage-work, huddled together in most unpicturesque
confusion. Prick-eared curs, ducks, and fowls compose the bestial
habitants, to which must be added the regiments of rats (and ne'er a cat)
which infest all these places. There were no mosquitoes, but the sand-fly
bit viciously on mornings and evenings between the dark and sunlit hours,
confining one to the dim cage and putting a veto upon the pleasant lounge
or seat in the cool open. We found lodgings in the guest-hut of the
headman, Kwáko Juma, like most of his brethren, a civil man and a greedy.
But the Krumen, boatmen and carriers, were also lodged in the little
settlement, and these people always make night hideous with their songs
and squabbles, their howling voices, and hyæna-like bursts of laughter.
It is very difficult to 'love one's neighbour as oneself' when he appears
in this form under these circumstances.
By times next morning we woke too soon the villagers, who enjoy long talks
by night and deep slumbers in early day. They appear much inclined to
slumber again. But both Apó of Asánta and Juma of Nánwá were exceedingly
anxious to know when mining-works would begin, and, that failing, to
secure as much 'dash' as possible.
The Ingotro concession, the largest we have yet seen, measures 3,000
fathoms square, the measurements being taken from the central shaft.
Assuming every thousand fathoms roughly to represent a geographical mile,
the area would be of nine square miles. This will evidently admit of being
divided and sub-divided into half a dozen or more estates. As yet little
of its wealth has been explored, chiefly owing to the dense growth of
forest. As Mr. Walker remarks, 'Although timber is a great desideratum on
a mining-estate, the thick woods have the disadvantage of concealing many
rich deposits of gold, and I have very little doubt that the diminution of
the population, and the consequent overgrowth of the bush or jungle, has
much to do with the great falling off in the production and export of gold
from this region.'
The emancipation of slaves and 'pawns' would have in Africa no other
effect. Free men will not work, and 'bush,' unless kept down, will grow
with terrible ferocity.
When Indian file was duly formed, we descended the Nánwá hillock, which
takes its name from the stream. Here the little rivulet, deeply encased,
bore a fine growth of snowy water-lilies. It had been newly bridged with
corduroy. The next passage boasted tree-trunks, and after that all was
leaping. The Nánwá must rise near the trial-shaft, which we are about to
visit, and it snakes through the property in all directions with a general
rhumb from west-north-west to east-south-east. At this season there is
little or no flow, and the bed is mostly a string of detached pools, where
gold has been washed and will be washed again. Thus the facilities for
'hydraulicking' are superior, and the number of shallow native pits at
once suggests the properest process.
We then struck across the heavily timbered country, which is the wildest
state of 'bushiness.' A few paces led to 'King's Croom,' a deserted
mining-village in a dwarf clearing rapidly overgrowing with the Brazilian
_Catinga_. Hereabouts we saw nothing save 'hungry quartz.' Then we struck
across three several ridges, whose slopes were notably easier on the
eastern, and more abrupt on the western side. The people had sunk several
pits in places likely to yield 'kindly quartz,' and they had made no
mistakes as to the overlay of the lode, its foot-wall or its hanging-wall.
Cameron presently made an offset to the north, and, cutting his road,
walked ten minutes up the tail of Tuáko Hill, at whose southern base lies
the Nánwá bed. Here, guided by Mr. Grant, who knew the place well, he
found a native shaft thirty feet deep and a lode of disintegrated quartz
in red or yellow ferruginous clay, the surface looking as rich as the
stone it overlies.
A few paces further and a third drop led us again to the swampy valley of
the Nánwá, here flowing south. It is bounded by two rises, tree-grown from
foot to head. That on the left bank is the Tuáko, the husband, along whose
skirt we have been walking; the other, on the opposite side, is Jama, the
wife. From their conjugal visits the gold is born. Some attempts had been
made to blast a rock in the skirt of Jama's garment; but all had notably
failed. The reeking, unwholesome bottom showed extensive traces of digging
and washing.
Following the water, we came to the second little mining-village, also
deserted. The name 'Ingotro' means a broad-leaved liliaceous plant, the
_wura-haban_ (water-leaf) of the Fantis, used for thatching when
palm-fronds are not found. From this place an old bush-path once led
directly to the lands we call 'Izrah,' but it has long been closed by
native squabbles. A few yards further placed us in an exceedingly rich
bottom, honeycombed by native workers. Hard by it appeared the central
shaft, lying between two hills, the Ingotro-buká and the Nánwá-buká, which
define the course of the rivulet. The distance from Nánwá village may have
been three miles, but we had spent more than three hours in making
collections.
Amongst the insects was the silk-spider, a large arachnid of
sulphur-yellow tint, with three black transverse bars. It weaves no web,
but spins a thread of the strongest texture and the richest golden hue. I
had sent from Fernando Po several pounds of this fine silk, intending to
experiment upon it in a veil or lace shawl; and afterwards I learned that
the Empress Eugénie had a dress made of it, which cost a fabulous number
of francs. Bacon and other old writers talk of 'spider's silk' like
gathering moonbeams. [Footnote: The _Ananse_ or _Agya ananse_ (father
spider), as the Oji-speaking peoples call the insect, is with them either
a creator of man (corresponding so far with the scarabeus in the Nile
valley) or a representative of the evil principle. Bosman (Letter xvii.),
describing a 'great hideous hairy species,' says, 'The negroes call this
spider _ananse_, and believe that the first men were made by that
creature; and, notwithstanding some of them by conversation with the
Europeans are better informed, there are yet a great number that remain of
that opinion, out of which folly they are not to be reasoned.' The people
have a number of fables called _Anansesem_, such as _Spider and Spiderson
and the Three Ghosts_; in these spider-stories the insect, like the fox
with us, is the most intelligent of animals (the late Rev. J. Zimmermann's
_Akra or Gã Grammar_, Stuttgart, 1858). It is represented as speaking
through the nose like the local 'bogy,' and its hobbling gait is imitated
by the story-teller. Another superstition is that the Anánu (the Akra form
of the word) injures children sleeping in the same room with it. At
Fernando Po I found another valuable spider which preys upon cockroaches.
When a cruiser was particularly afflicted by the _blatta_, a couple of
these insects would effectually clear chests and drawers in a few days.
There are other species, _Entekuma_, &c.]
The upper shaft had been sunk, as it should be, in the eastern flank of
the hill, which faces north 71º east, and which runs north 3º west (both
true). The surface and subsoil are the usual sandy loam scattered with
gravel of quartz and ironstone, and the spoil-banks showed blue and white
quartz. The clay-slate, dark, soft, and laminated, appeared everywhere.
Lower down, on the same slope, Mr. Grant had dug a second shaft, somewhat
smaller than the upper: both were full of rain-water. Mr. Walker mentions
a large native pit near the centre, whence rich stone had been taken. He
picked up from the refuse several pieces of quartz showing free gold,
which gave, when assayed, 2.6 oz. gold and 0.3 oz. silver per ton. This
was from a depth of only ten feet. His own trial-shaft, when he left the
Coast, was not more than three feet deep; but every sample showed traces
of gold, and an Australian miner of thirty years' experience declared that
the 'stuff' promised a rich yield below. Like ourselves, he found the
whole country 'impregnated with gold.' On the path within fifty yards of
the Nánwá village we knocked off some pieces of quartz that displayed the
precious ore to the naked eye.
The slope in which the two shafts had been sunk fell into a depression
between the hills which indicated the richest surface-diggings. Here a
number of detached sinkings had been run together by the recent rains into
a long miry pool. Mr. Walker also speaks of a 'very large number of
shallow native pits.' No one could see this exceedingly rich 'gulch'
without determining that it should be washed upon the largest scale. It
will be time to sink shafts and make deep diggings here when sluicing and
surfacing shall have done their work.
From Ingotro we marched back to Nánwá and took leave of Chief Apó; his
parting words were a request that work might be begun as soon as possible,
and that at any rate his concession should be properly marked out. The
limitation must not be neglected, but the exploitation of the diggings is
another affair. The ground is exceptionally rich in gold, and it offers
every facility for extracting the metal. But the climate of the lowlands
presents difficulties. In so large an area of broken ground, however,
there are eminences that command a prospect of the sea and which are
within the influence of the sea-breeze. The conditions will, doubtless,
improve when the adjacent mining-grounds, Inyoko and Izrah, shall have
been opened and the country cleared and ventilated. In the meantime light
works and hydraulicking on an extensive scale might be begun at once,
especially during the rainy season, under seasoned and acclimatised
overseers. An amelioration must be the result, and even before the rich
surface has been washed it will be possible to set up heavy machinery for
deep working, shafting, and tunnelling.
Embarking about 3 P.M. on board _Effuenta_, we steamed up the Ancobra,
which here looks more like a river and less like a lagoon. The settlements
become more important, the first being Nfia-kru, or the 'dog-village.'
There were many influents, which showed like dark breaches in the rampart
of verdure. Such was the Ahema (Huma), a creek that breaks the left bank.
This name may become memorable. Upon its upper course Messieurs Gillett
and Selby have a small mining concession, and in its golden gravels Mr. O.
Pegler, Associate of the School of Mines, found a crystal which he
strongly suspected to be a diamond. It was taken to Axim, where its
glass-cutting properties were proved. Unfortunately during one of these
trials the setting gave way, and the stone fell into a heap of rubbish,
where it could not be found. Many have suspected that these regions will
prove diamantiferous; and it is reported that an experienced French
mineralogist, who has visited the South African diggings, landed at Assini
and proposed to canoe up the Tando River to the Tákwá mines, prospecting
in search of his specialty.
A portentous cloud ahead growled its thunder and discharged thin rain,
while the westing sun shone clear and bright. In Dahome the combination
suggests the ghosts of Kutomen going to market, [Footnote: The Akra-men
make Sisaman, their Kutomen, Scheol or Hades, a town on one of the Volta
holms or somewhere beyond. The Gold Coast has three species of departed
'spirits' (_asamanfo_)--the shades of men who fell in fight or by accident
(as by a tree-fall); common spirits, and lingering spirits, so called
because they do not enter Shade-land, but hover about man's dwellings. The
slain never associate with the commonalty; they walk about rubbed with
white clay and clad in white; nor are they afraid of, whereas the others
fly from, and are unwilling to be seen by, the living. 'It is said in the
Dead-land below the earth there are kings as well as slaves. If you have
been long sick in this world you will recover health there after three
years, but one killed in battle or by accident will be well in a month or
so. It is said that Dead-land is below (earth); others declare it is above
(the sky). About this there is no certainty. Where one is taken to when he
dies there his spirit is; when they die and take you to the spirits'
grove, then your spirit is in the grove. The town (or land) of the
departed spirits is not in the grove, but in the earth; it is a large
town, and going there a mountain has to be climbed. The way of one who
died a natural death is dark in heaven; but if one who died in battle or
by accident take that way, some of the white clay with which he is rubbed
falls down; therefore his way (_via lactea_) appears white. In the
spirits' grove the departed spirits do not stay always; only on certain
days they assemble there for eating, drinking, and playing.' Yet these
'spiritualists' (_with_ the spirits) have scant pleasure in contemplating
the future. Their proverb is, 'A corner in the world of matter is better
than a world of spirits,'--Page 407, _Dictionary of the Asante and Fante
Languages_, by Rev. J. G. Christaller.] in Fanti-land the hunchback woman
becoming a mother, and in England his Satanic Majesty beating his wife.
Off the Eketekki village we saw, for the first time, bad snags, which will
require removal. About sunset the Aka-kru settlement, the largest yet
noted, appeared on the left bank. Here the Akankon Mining Company has a
native house of wattle and dab, looking somewhat better than the normal
mud-cabin. It had been unceremoniously occupied by natives, who roared
their laughter when ordered to turn out. From Aka-kru there is a direct
line to the Effuenta, within an hour's walk of the Tákwá mine; the four
stages can be covered in twenty hours. [Footnote: Mr. Gillett, who had
lately passed over it, gave me these notes on the line. No. 1 stage from
Aka-kru crosses virgin land, the property of the 'King' of Axim, to
Autobrun (three hours); No. 2 leads over fine level ground to Dompé (nine
hours slow); No. 3 to Abrafu, on the Abonsá River, one march south of the
Abonsá station (three hours); No. 4 to the Effuenta mine (five hours).]
At 6.30 P.M. we saw, a little above Aka-kru, and also on the left bank,
Jyachabo, or 'Silver-' (Jyácho) 'stone.' Of this settlement Captain Wyatt
notes, 'It is said that a silver-mine was formerly worked here by the
Dutch and Portuguese.' Hard by the north of it lie the ruins of the old
Hollanders' fort, St. John, which the natives have corrupted to
'Senchorsu;' the people, however, did not seem to know their whereabouts.
We determined to push on to Akankon, despite the ugly prospect of a dark
walk through the wet bush, and of deferring the survey to another time.
Suddenly we saw on the right bank the black silhouette of a house,
standing high and lone in its clearing, and we made fast to a good
landing-place, an inclined plane of corduroy. It was an unexpected
pleasure; both had been put up after Cameron left the mine by the native
caretaker, Mr. Morris.
We slept soundly through a cool and pleasant night at 'Riverside House.'
The large building of palm-fronds, with a roof like the lid of a
lunch-basket, contains three rooms, and will be provided with outhouses.
Inside and outside it is whitewashed above and blackwashed below. The
coal-tar was suggested by my nautical companion; and, for the first time
on the Ancobra River, we exchanged the _bouquet d'Afrique_ for the smell
of Europe. The big crate stands high upon the right bank, here rising
about twenty feet, and affording a pleasant prospect of breezy brown
stream deeply encased in bright green forest. The draught caused by
flowing water keeps the clearing clean of sand-flies, the pest of the
inner settlements, and European employés will find the place healthy. The
up-sloping ground behind the house could be laid out in a pottage-garden;
and, as Bahama-grass grows fast, there will be no difficulty about
disposing of the under-growth.
Next morning (February 27) we were joined by Mr. Morris, who told the long
tale of his grievances. He had been in charge of ten men for five months,
during which he had not received a farthing of pay. Consequently his gang
had struck work. Thus chatting we followed the cleared path leading up the
right bank of the little Akankon creek: now dry, it is navigable for
canoes during the rains, and falls into the Ancobra under a good corduroy
bridge near the landing-ramp. A line of posts showed the levels which had
been carefully marked by Cameron. It was a pleasure to see the bed; it had
been scraped in many places by the gold-washer, and it promises an ample
harvest when properly worked. We left on the left hand Safahin Sensensé's
village, a cluster of huts surrounded by bananas; we crossed the shallow
head of the creek, all a swamp during the rains; we walked up a dwarf
slope, and after half an hour we found ourselves at 'Granton.'
The position of Granton is not happily chosen. Though the hill-side faces
south it is beyond reach of the sea-breeze; the damp and wooded depression
breeds swarms of sand-flies, and being only forty feet above the river, it
is reeking hot. The thermometer about noon never showed less than 92º
(F.), and often rose to 96º; in the Rains it falls to 72º, and the nights
are cold with damp. It will be a question which season will here prove the
safest for working. On the coast I should say the Rains; in the higher
lands about the Effuenta mine I am told that the Dries must be preferred.
Granton is, or was, composed of eight tenements disposed to form a hollow
square. Five of them are native cages of frond and thatch, which I should
have preferred on a second visit. The rest are planks brought from Europe,
good carpentry-work, and raised a little off the ground. Unfortunately the
bulkheads are close above, instead of being latticed for draught. The
items are two boxes--sleeping-room and store-room--with a larger lodging
of four rooms which sadly wants a flying-roof. The offices are kept in
good order by the penniless caretaker, who has been left entirely without
supplies, and who is obliged to borrow our ink-bottles.
We lost no time in visiting the 'Akankon' reef, a word appropriately
meaning 'abandoned' or 'left alone.' The people, however, understand it in
the sense that, when a miner has taken possession of the ground, and has
shown a right to it, his fellows leave him to work and betake themselves
elsewhere. Immediately behind the huts we came upon a broad streak
cochineal-red, except where tarnished by oxygen, where it looked
superficially like ochre. The strike ran parallel with the quartz-reef,
north 5º east (true). Cameron had broken some of the stone into chips,
subjected it to the blow-pipe, and obtained bright globules of
quicksilver. Veins of sulphide of mercury, cinnabar, or vermilion have
been found in other parts of the Protectorate: we suspected their presence
at Apatim, and collected specimens, still to be assayed. The natives have
an idea that when 'the gold turns white' it is uncanny to work the place;
moreover, silver is always removed from the person when miners approach
the gold-diggings. I should explain the phenomenon by the presence of
mercury.
A good road, with side-drains, running about half a mile to the north, has
been kept open by the care-taker. To its right is a manner of hillock,
evidently an old plantation, in some places replanted. From the top a view
to the west shows three several ridges, the Akankon proper, Ijimunbukai,
and Agunah, blue in the distance. Northwards the Akankon hog's-back is
seen sweeping riverwards from north to north-east, rising to the hill
Akankon-bukah. Here Mr. Amondsen, a Danish sailor long employed in
Messieurs Swanzy's local sailing craft, and lately sent out by the
Company, informed me that he proposed to transfer the quarters for
European employés. He has, however, I am told, changed his mind and built
upon 'Plantation Hillock.' On the left or western side of the road the
Akankon ridge is subtended by a hollow, the valley of a streamlet in rainy
weather. This supply, which can easily be made perennial, will greatly
facilitate washing. The highway ended in a depression, where stood the
deserted 'Krumen's quarters.' The only sign of work was a peculiar
cross-cut made by Mr. Cornish, C.E., one of the engineers.
From this point, turning abruptly from north to west, we took the steep
narrow path which climbs the Akankon ridge, rising 78 feet above the
river. A few paces led us to the prospecting shaft, a native pit squared
and timbered by Mr. Cornish. He was assisted by Mr. James B. Ross,
'practical miner, working manager, and mine-owner for the last twenty
years in Queensland, Australia.' He thus describes himself in the very
able report which he sent to his company; and I am glad to hear that he
has returned to the Gold Coast. The shaft, 40 feet from 'the outcrop,' and
50 from the hill-base, is bottomed at the depth of 52 feet. Unfortunately
it is only box-timbered, and much of the woodwork was shaken down by the
blasts. The sinking through stiff clay, stained with iron, cobalt,
manganese, and cinnabar, was reported easy. But where the hanging and foot
walls should have been, fragments of clay, iron, and mica-slate showed
that the former lie still deeper. My companion proposed a descent into the
shaft by bucket and windlass. I declined, greatly distrusting such
deserted pits, especially in this region, where they appear unusually
liable to foul. Two days afterwards a Kruboy went down and was brought to
grass almost insensible from the choke-damp; his hands clenched the rope
so tightly that their grip was hard to loose.
We then mounted to 'the outcrop' near the ridge-summit, 100 yards
north-north-east. This reef-crest is a tongue of quartz and quartzite
veining grey granite: it was found dug out and cleared all round by the
people. Mr. Cornish had contented himself with splitting off a fragment by
a shot or two.
When the whole hill shall have been properly washed, the contained reefs
will present this wall-like appearance. The dimensions are ten feet long
by the same height and half that thickness, and the slope shows an angle
of 40º. We passed onwards to the top of the ridge, winding among the pits
and round holes sunk by the native miners in order to work the casing of
the reef. One of these, carefully measured, showed 82 feet. About sixty
yards to the north-north-east we reached the crest of what Mr. Ross calls
'Ponsonby Hill.' He notices that the strike of the quartz, which shows
visible gold, is from north-north-east to south-south-west, and its
underlie to the south-east is at the ratio of one inch in twelve. Cameron
found that near the head of the descent, 120 feet to the plain below,
three, and perhaps four lodes meet. The true bed, with a measured
thickness of 157 feet, strikes north 22º east, the western 355º, and the
eastern north 37º east (true). All radiate from one point, a knot which
gives 'great expectations.' The natives have opened large man-holes in
search of loose gold, and here, tradition says, many nuggets have been
found. A greater number will come to light when the miners shall dig the
'blind creek' to the east, and when the roots of the secular trees
crowning the summit shall be laid bare by the hose. I would wash down and
sluice the whole of the Akankon ridge.
Next day we proceeded to inspect two other reefs lying to the south-west
and to the south-east. The first, Asan-kumá(?), lies a few yards from
Granton, on the left of the path leading to our landing-place. The ground
was covered with deep bush, and painfully infested with the _Nkran_, or
_enkran_, [Footnote: _Anglicè_ the 'driver,' a small black formica which
bites severely, clears out houses, destroys the smaller animals, and has,
it is said, overpowered and destroyed hunters when, torpid with fatigue,
they have fallen asleep in the bush. The same horrible end, being eaten
alive, atom by atom, has befallen white traders whose sickness prevented
their escape. 'Accra,' which calls itself Ga, is known to the Oji-speaking
peoples as 'Enkran,' and must be translated 'Land of Drivers,' not of
White Ants.] which marched in detached but parallel lines. It rises gently
in slopes of yellow clay towards the west, and doubtless it covers
quartz-reefs, as the lay is the usual meridional. The talus, pitted with
the shallow pans called 'women's washings,' shows signs of hard work,
probably dating from the days when every headman had his gang of 'pawns'
and slaves. Rising at the head of the creek, itself a natural gold-sluice,
its bed and banks can carry any number of flumes, which would deposit
their precious burden in cisterns near the river. I need hardly say they
must be made movable, so as to raise their level above the inundation.
Here the one thing wanted would be a miner accustomed to 'hydraulicking'
in California or British Columbia, Australia or South Africa. I hope that
the work will not be placed in inexperienced hands, whose blunders of
ignorance will give the invaluable and infallible process a bad name.
Retracing our steps, we made the chief Sensensé's village, and persuaded
him to guide us. The short cut led through a forest and a swamp, which
reeked with nauseating sulphuretted hydrogen. We avoided it on return by a
_détour_. After a short hour's walk we ascended a banana-grown hillock,
upon which lay the ruins of the little mining-village Abesebá. A few paces
further, through a forest rich in gamboge and dragon's blood (not the _D.
draco_), in rubber and in gutta-percha (?), where well-laden lime-trees
gave out their perfume, placed us upon the great south-eastern reef. It
was everywhere drilled with pits, and we obtained fine specimens from one
which measured twenty feet deep. Several of them were united by rude and
dangerous tunnels. I have heard of these galleries being pierced in other
places; but the process is not common, and has probably been copied from
Europeans.
On March 1 was held a formal palaver of headmen and elders. The Akankon
concession had been bought by Messieurs Bonnat and Wyatt from Sensensé of
the fetish, whose ancestors, he declared, had long ruled the whole
country. The rent, they say, was small--$4 per mensem and 15 pereguins
(135_l_. [Footnote: Assuming at 9_l_. the pereguin, which others reduce at
8_l_. and others raise to 10_l_.]) per annum--when operations began. I
have heard these gentlemen blamed, and very unjustly, for buying so cheap
and selling so dear--17,000_l_. in cash and 33,000_l_. in shares. But the
conditions were well worth the native's acceptance; and, if he be
satisfied, no one can complain. The apparently large amount included the
expenses of 'bringing out' the mine; and these probably swallowed a half.
When Sensensé received his pay, a host of rival claimants started up. In
these lands there is no law against trespass; wherever a plantation is
deserted the squatter may occupy it, and popular opinion allows him and
his descendants the permanent right of using, letting, or selling it. I do
not think, however, that this rule would apply to a white man.
Sensensé's claims were contested by three chiefs--Kofi Blay-chi, Kwáko
Bukári, who brought an acute advocate, Ebba of Axim, and Kwáko Jum, a fine
specimen of the sea-lawyer; this bumptious black had pulled down the board
which marked the Abesebá reef, and had worked the pits to his own profit.
After many meetings, of which the present was our last, the litigants
decided that hire and 'dashes' should be shared by only two, Sensensé and
Kofi Blay-chi. Energetic Jum, finding his pretensions formally ignored,
jumped up and at once set out to 'enter a protest' in legal form at Axim.
The crowd of notables present affixed their marks, which, however, they by
no means connected with the 'sign of the Cross.' We witnessed the
document, and a case of trade-gin concluded an unpleasant business that
threatened the Apatim as well as the Akankon concession. I repeat what I
have before noted: too much care cannot be taken when title to ground in
Africa is concerned. And a Registration Office is much wanted at
head-quarters; otherwise we may expect endless litigation and the advent
of the London attorney. Moreover, the people are fast learning foreign
ideas. Sensensé, for instance, is nephew (sister's son) to Blay-chi, which
relationship in Black-land makes him the heir: meanwhile his affectionate
uncle works upon the knowledge that this style of succession does not hold
good in England.
The eventful evening ended with a ball, which demanded another
distribution of gin. The dance was a compound affair. The Krumen had their
own. Forming an Indian file for attack, they carried bits of board instead
of weapons; and it was well that they did so, the warlike performance
causing immense excitement. The Apollonians preferred wide skirts and the
_pas seul_ of an amatory nature; it caused shrieks of laughter, and at
last even the women and wees could not prevent joining in the sport. Years
ago I began to collect notes upon the dances of the world; and the
desultory labour of some months convinced me that an exhaustive monograph,
supposing such thing possible, would take a fair slice out of a man's
life. I learnt, however, one general rule--that all the myriad forms of
dancing originally express only love and war, in African parlance
'woman-palaver' and 'land-palaver.' However much the 'quiet grace of high
refinement' may disguise original significance, Nature will sometimes
return despite the pitchfork; witness a _bal de l'Opéra_ in the palmy days
of the Second Empire.
The Kruman ball ended in a battle royal. The results were muzzles swollen
and puffed out like those of mandrills, and black eyes--that is to say,
blood-red orbits where the skin had been abraded by fist and stick. As
they applied to us for justice and redress, we administered it, after
'seeing face and back,' or hearing both sides, by a general cutting-off of
the gin-supply and a temporary stoppage of 'Sunday-beef.'
I cannot leave this rich and unhappy Akankon mine without a few
reflections; it so admirably solves the problem 'how _not_ to do it.' The
concession was negotiated in 1878. In April 1881 Cameron proceeded to open
operations, accompanied by the grantee and four Englishmen, engineers and
miners. He was, however, restricted to giving advice, and was not
permitted to command. The results, as we have seen, were a round shaft
made square and a cross-cut which cut nothing. As little more appeared
likely to be done, and harmony was not the order of the day, my companion
sent the party home in June 1881, and followed it himself shortly
afterwards. Since that time the Company has been spending much money and
making _nil_. The council-room has been a barren battle-field over a
choice of superintendents and the properest kind of machinery, London-work
being pitted, for 'palm-oil' in commission-shape, against provincial work.
And at the moment I write (May 1, 1882), when 7,000_l_. have been spent or
wasted, the shares, 10_s._ in the pound paid up, may be bought for a
quarter. I can only hope that Mr. Amondsen, who met me at Axim, may follow
my suggestions and send home alluvial gold.
Cameron's most sensible advice concerning the local establishment required
for Akankon was as follows:--
He laid down the total expenditure at 21,000_l_. per annum, including
expenses in England. This sum would work 100 tons per diem with 350 hands
(each at 1_s_. hire and 3_d_. subsistence-money) and sixteen cooks and
servants. The staff would consist of six officers. The manager should draw
800_l_. (not 1,200_l_.), and the surgeon, absolutely necessary in case of
accidents, 450_l_. with rations. This is the pay of Government, which does
not allow subsistence. The reduction-officer and the book-keeper are rated
at 500_l_., and the superintendent of works and the head-miner each at
240_l_. The pay of carpenters and other mechanics, who should know how to
make small castings, would range from 180_l_. to 150_l_. The first native
clerk and the store-keeper would be paid 100_l_.; the time-keeper, with
three assistants, 70_l_. and 65_l_. The manager requires office,
sitting-room, and bedroom, and the medico a dispensary; the other four
would have separate sleeping-places and a common parlour. Each room would
have its small German stove for burning mangrove-fuel; and a fire-engine
should be handy on every establishment. All the white employés would mess
together, unless it be found advisable to make two divisions. The house
would be of the usual pitch-pine boarding on piles, like those of Lagos,
omitting the common passage or gallery, which threatens uncleanness; and
the rooms might be made gay with pictures and coloured prints. The natives
would build bamboo-huts.
Cameron, well knowing what _ennui_ in Africa means, would send out a
billiard-table and a good lathe: he also proposed a skittle- or
bowling-alley, a ground for lawn-tennis under a shed, an ice-machine and
one for making soda-water. Each establishment would have its library, a
good atlas, a few works of reference, and treatises on mining, machinery,
and natural history. The bulk would be the cheap novels (each 4_d_.) in
which weary men delight. In addition to the 'Mining Journal,' the
'Illustrated,' and the comics, local and country papers should be sent
out; exiles care more for the 'Little Pedlington Courant' than for the
'journal of the City,' the 'Times.'
Gardening should be encouraged. The vegetables would be occros
(_hibiscus_) and brinjalls, lettuce, tomatoes, and marrow; yam and sweet
potatoes, pumpkins, peppers and cucumbers, whose seeds yield a
fine-flavoured salad-oil not sold in London. The fruits are grapes and
pine-apples, limes and oranges, mangoes and melons, papaws and a long list
of native growth. Nor should flowers be neglected, especially the pink and
the rose. The land, fenced in for privacy, would produce in abundance
holeus-millet, rice, and lucern for beasts. There would be a
breeding-ground for black cattle, sheep, goats, and pigs, and a
poultry-yard protected against wild cats.
The routine-day would be as follows: At 5.15 A.M. first bell, and notice
to 'turn out;' at 5.40 the 'little breakfast' of tea or coffee,
bread-and-butter, or toast, ham and eggs. The five working-hours of
morning (6-11 A.M.) to be followed by a substantial _déjeuner à la
fourchette_ at 11.30. Each would have a pint of beer or claret, and be
allowed one bottle of whisky a week. Mr. Ross, the miner, preferred
breakfast at 8 A.M., dinner at 1 P.M., and 'tea' at 5 P.M.; but these
hours leave scant room for work.
The warning-bell, at 12.45 P.M., after 1 hr. 45 min. rest, would prepare
the men to fall in, and return to work at 1 P.M.; and the afternoon-spell
would last till 5.30. Thus the working-day contains 9 hrs. 30 min. Dinner
would be served at any time after 6 P.M., and the allowance of liquor be
that of the breakfast. An occasional holiday to Axim should be allowed, in
order to correct the monotony of jungle-life.