To The Gold Coast for Gold Volume II Part 5

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 a.s.suredly 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 pa.s.sing towards the northern town, which is separated from southern Axim by the fort and the gra.s.sy 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 gla.s.s windows and all complete, intended for Axim, and eventually for the District-commissioner, Takwa. 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 n.o.ble 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 Takwa-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-git 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, wors.h.i.+pped 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 Bujia concession, which has been leased for mining purposes to Mr. Irvine. There is a shorter road further north, but it is barred, we were a.s.sured, 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 'was.h.i.+ng' 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 b.u.t.terflies, [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, Impatasi: 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 pa.s.sed over the dry bed of the Bujia 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 b.u.t.t-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 a.s.sayed 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. 4 55' and W. long. (G.) 2 14' 2". Consequently the nearest point from Central Axim is 2,200 yards, and 200 from the sh.o.r.e.

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 Bujia bed. The quadrangle lies between N. lat. 4 53' 56" and 4 55' 56", and W. long. (G.) 2 12' 48" and 2 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, Kwabina Sensense. 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 t.i.tle 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.

Sensense 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 Sensense'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 Bujia 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 n.o.ble 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 sh.o.r.e 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 Abonsa River.

1 10 0 Abonsa to Axim by a boat of thirteen hands carrying five tons 0 3 6 landing at Axim and s.h.i.+pping 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.

CHAPTER XVII.

THE RETURN--VISIT TO KING BLAY; ATaBO AND BeIN.

I spare my readers the slightest description of the troubles that attended our departure from Axim on January 31. Briefly, we began loading at dawn and the loads were not headed before 10 A.M.

The black caravan, or rather herd, was mustered by its guide and manager, the energetic W. M. Grant. His _personnel_ consisted of seven Kruboys from Cape Palmas and forty-three Axim carriers, who now demand eight and sixpence for a trip which two years ago cost a dollar. They stray about the country like goats, often straggling over four miles. As bearers they are the worst I know, and the Gold Coast hammock is intended only for beach-travelling. The men are never sized, and they scorn to keep step, whilst the cross-pieces at either end of the pole rest upon the head and are ever slipping off it. Hence the jolting, stumbling movement and the sensation of feeling every play of the porters' muscles, which make the march one long displeasure. Yet the alternative, walking, means fever for a new comer. On return we cut long bamboos and palm-fronds and made the Krumen practise carrying, Hindu-fas.h.i.+on, upon the shoulder.

The rest of the moving mult.i.tude was composed of the servantry and the camp-followers. One _bouche inutile_ bore a flag, a second carried a gun, and so forth, the only principle being to work as little as possible and to plunder all things plunderable. There were exceptions. Joe (Kwasi Bedeh) of Dixcove, Cameron's old servant, who boasts of being a pagan, and who speaks English, French, and Dutch, a handy and intelligent young fellow, who can cook, sew, carpenter, or lead a caravan--in fact, can serve as factotum--and his accounts, marvellous to recount, are honestly kept. I should want no better servant in these coast-countries and in exploring the far interior. The cook, 'Mister Dawson,' of Axim, is a st.u.r.dy senior of missionary presence: having been long employed in that line, he wears a white tie on Sundays, and I shrewdly suspect him of preaching. A hard worker, beginning early and ending late, he is an excellent stuffer of birds and beasts, and the good condition of our collection is owing entirely to him. His son, Kwasi Yau (Sunday Joe), is a sharp 'boy' in the Anglo-Indian sense. The carpenter, our model idler, who won't work and can't work, receives 3_l_. per mens., when $8 should be the utmost; we cleared him out on return to Axim. Meanwhile he saunters about under an umbrella, and is always missing when wanted for work.

Our companions and body-guards are Bianco and Nero, both bought by Cameron at L'pool for a suspiciously trifling sum. The former is a small smooth-haired terrier, who dearly loves to bark and bite, and who shows evident signs of early training in the cab-line. A dog with all the manners of a doggess, he eventually found a happy home in the fort, Axim.

The second, a b.a.s.t.a.r.d Newfoundland with a dash of the bloodhound, and just emerging from puppyhood, soon told us the reason why he was sold for a song. That animal was a born murderer; he could not sight a sheep, a goat, or a bullock without the strongest desire to pull it down; therefore he had been sold into slavery, African and old-English fas.h.i.+on, instead of being hanged. He had fine qualities--obedience, fidelity, affection, a grand voice, and a ferocious presence. All these good gifts, however, were marred by an over-development of destructiveness. He survived his journeys by pa.s.sing many of his hours in the water, and he was at last 'dashed' to Dr. Roulston, of Takwa.

We took once more the northern road to Brevia, or 'Stink-fish Town,' and crossed its tongue of red clay bounded by the bed of the Anjueri stream.

Here again appeared a large block of greenstone deeply grooved by the grinder. Thence we debouched upon the surf-lashed sh.o.r.e, tripped over by the sandpiper and the curlew and roped by the bright-flowered convolvulus.

Streaks of the auriferous black sand became more frequent and promising as we advanced.

We ran close to Akromasi, or One-tree Point, upon whose flat dorsum linger the bush-grown ruins of a fort. It was named Elisa Cartago by its founders, the Portuguese, who were everywhere haunted by memories of the cla.s.sics. Bowdich [Footnote: Folio, p. 271.] is eminently in error when he places the remains 'at the extreme navigable point of the river,' and opines that the work was built by Governor Ringhaven (Ruyghaver), buried at Elmina in 1700. He was misinformed by Colonel Starrenberg, a Dutch officer who canoed three days up the Bosom Prah River, a fact probably unknown to Commodore Commerell. Bosman [Footnote: Letter I. 1737.] shows 'Elisa Cartago op den Berg Ancober,' crowning the head of Akromasi Point, with a road leading up to the palisades which protect the trade-houses.

Lieutenant Jeekel, [Footnote: Map of the former Dutch possessions on the Gold Coast (districts of Apollonia, Azim, Dixcove, Sekondi, Chama, and El-Mina), by Lieut. C. A. Jeekel, Royal Dutch Navy. Lithographed at the Topographical Depot of the War Office, Major C. W. Wilson, R.R., Director, 1873. It extends only from the Eb.u.mesu to the Sweet River (Elmina) and up the Ancobra valley; and it is best known for the seaboard.] an excellent authority, also places it at the river-mouth. According to some it was taken in early days by the French, who still hold it. Captain Ellis has transferred to this site the story of Fort Eguira, an inland, or rather up-stream, work, destroyed, as Dr. Reynhaut and others tell us, in an 'elendige manier' (a piteous way).

The gallant Mynheer commanding fought the natives till his men were shot down, after using 'rock-gold' (nuggets) for bullets. He rolled sundry powder-barrels under the palaver-hall, and stationed there a boy with a match to be applied when he stamped on the floor. He then flung open the gates, hung out a flag of trace, and invited the bloodthirsty savages, who were bent on killing him by torture, to take the h.o.a.rd of gold for which the attack was made. When all crowded the great room he reproached them with their greed of gain, gave the sign, and blew them and himself into eternity. I am told by a good authority that the natives, whose memories are tenacious on some points, will not show to strangers the ruins which cost their forefathers so dear.

The last village on the sands is Kukakun, where the wreck of a schooner saddens the scene. Within a few hundred yards of Akromasi we bent abruptly eastward and exchanged the sands for the usual stiff soil of red clay. The gut is formed by the point-bluff and a southern block, and the surface is covered with dense second-growth--panda.n.u.s, the false sugar-cane, ferns large and small, and the sloth-tree, the Brazilian _uba_ or Preguica, with tall, thin white trunk and hanging palmated leaves. The African palm-birds (orioles of the _Merulidae_ family), whose two colours, red (_ntiblii_) and golden yellow (_enadsi_), apparently divide them into as many fighting factions, give a touch, a bright colour to the dulness, and chatter over their pensile homes, which strangers would mistake for cocoa-nuts.

Severely hustled and horribly shaken up, we ran down the little valley of the Avin streamlet. It comes from afar, heading, they say, in Abasakasu, a region where gold abounds. In three-quarters of an hour we had cleared the four short miles which separate Axim from the Ancobra ferry. This is the line of a future tramway, which will transport goods from the port to the river; at present they must be s.h.i.+pped in bar-boats, which cost much and carry little. The ground divides itself into three sections--the red clay north of Axim; the sands, whose green-grown upper levels are fitted to support iron-pot sleepers; and the Avin valley, which debouches upon the left bank of the Ancobra. The first and the last divisions are safe for creosoted wood. My friend Mr. Russell Shaw would, I doubt not, take the contract for 4,000_l_., and a macadamised cart-road could be made for 500_l_.

This would be the beginning of a much-wanted change. At present the prices of transport are appalling. The French mines pay from 2_l_. to 2_l_.

10_s_. per ton from England to Axim; from Axim to Takwa, forty miles by river and thirty by land, costs them 600 francs (24_l_.) per ton.

Moreover, native hands are not always forthcoming.

The Ancobra River, the main artery and waterway of this region, must not be written after the Jonesian or modern mode, 'Ankobra' and 'Ankober,' nor with Bosman 'Rio Cobre' (River of Copper). It has evidently no connection with Abyssinian Ankober. To the native name, 'Anku' or 'Manku,' the Portuguese added Cobra, expressing its snaky course. Bowdich, followed by many moderns, calls it Seenna, for Sanma or Sanuma, meaning 'unless a gale (of wind).' The legend is that a savage and murderous old king of the Apollonians, whose capital was Atabo, built a look-out upon a tall cocoanut-tree, and declared that nothing but a storm could lay it low.

Sanma is still the name of the settlement on the right bank near the rivermouth.

We rested at k.u.mprasi, a few huts close to the _embouchure_ of the iron-bedded Avin streamlet and backwater. The little zinc-roofed hut, called by courtesy a store, belonging to Messieurs Swanzy, was closed.

Katubwe, the northern hill on the left bank, had been bought, together with Akromasi Point and the Avin valley, by the late M. Bonnat, who cleared it and began shafting it for gold in the usual routine way. During the last six months it has been overgrown with dense vegetation. Mr.

Walker believes, not unreasonably, that this lode is connected with the Apatim or Bujia reefs.

Ferrying across, we could note the wild features of the Ancobra's mouth.

The bar, which in smooth weather allows pa.s.sage to a load of five tons, not unfrequently breaks at an offing of four miles, and breaks obliquely.

The gape is garnished on either side by little black stumps of rocks, and the general effect is very unpleasant. A fine school of sharks fattens on the fish inside the bar. At this season the entrance narrows to a few feet, the effect of a huge sandspit on the right lip, and carries only six feet of water. During the rains it will rise eleven feet at Sanma, and at Tumento twenty-four feet in a day, falling with the same dangerous rapidity. We shall see more of the Ancobra, which here separates two districts. Between it and Cape Threepoints the land is called Avalawe; and the westward region, extending to Cape Apollonia, is named Amrehia, the Amregia of Jeekel and Dahse, meaning, 'where people meet.'

We halted for breakfast at Sanma, where Messieurs Swanzy have another storehouse, and where the French Company is building one for itself with characteristic slowness. The settlement is ill-famed for the Chigo or jigger (_Pulex penetrans_), unknown in my day upon the West African coast.

It has killed men by causing gangrenous sores. From 'Tabon,' [Footnote: 'Tabon' is evidently corrupted from the popular greeting ''Sta bom?' (Are you well? How d'e do?)] the Brazil, it crept over to So Paulo de Loanda, and thence it spread far and wide up and down coast, and deep into the interior. This fact suggests that there may be truth in the theory which makes the common flea of India an immigrant from Europe.

At 1 P.M. we resumed our way along the beach, under suns.h.i.+ne tempered by the 'smokes.' These mists, however, are now clearing away for the tornado-season, and 'insolation' will become more decided. We ran by sundry little bush-villages: their names will be found in my companion's careful route-survey. I shall notice only those which showed something notable.

There is sameness in the prospect, which, however, does not wholly lack interest. Soon after dawn the village urchins begin disporting themselves among the breakers and billows upon broken bits of boat, while their fathers throw the cast-net nearer sh.o.r.e. The brown-black pigs and piglets root up the wet sand for sh.e.l.l-fish; and, higher up, the small piebald cattle loiter in the sun or shade. From afar the negro-groups are not unpicturesque in their bright red and brimstone yellow sheets, worn like Roman togas. A nearer view displays bridgeless, patulous noses, suggesting a figure of [Symbol: Figure-8 on its side.]; cheek-bones like molehills, and lips splayed out in the manner of speaking-trumpets: often, indeed, the face is a mere attachment to the devouring-apparatus. Throughout the day s.e.xes and ages keep apart. The nude boys perch upon stones or worn-out canoes. Their elders affect the shade, men on one side of the village and women on the other. All the settlements are backed by cocoa-trees in lines and clumps. Those who view Africa biliously compare them with hea.r.s.e-plumes; I find in them a peculiar individuality and likeness to humankind. There is the chubby babe, six feet high; the fast-growing 'hobbedehoy;' the adult, bending away from you like a man, or, woman-like, inclining towards you; there is the bald, shrunken senior; and, lastly, appears death, lean and cold and dry.

Between sea and settlement stand the canoes, flat-bottomed and tip-tilted like Turkish slippers; where the land is low and floods are high, each is mounted upon four posts. Fronting and outside the village stands a wall-less roof of flat matting, the palaver-house. The settlement is surrounded by a palisade of fronds stripped from the bamboo-palm and strengthened by posts; the latter put forth green shoots as soon as stuck in the ground, and recall memories of Robinson Crusoe. The general entrance has a threshold two to two and a half feet high. The tenements are simple as birds' nests, primitive as the Highlander's mud-cabin and s.h.i.+eling of wattle and heather. The outer walls are of bamboo-palm fronds, the part.i.tions are of bamboo-palm matting, and the roofs are of bamboo-palm thatch. Each place has its _osafahin_, or headman, and each headman has his guest-house, built of better material, swish or adobe.