To The Gold Coast for Gold Volume II Part 9

In the afternoon we pushed through a wild thunderstorm of furious tropical rain, which pitted the river-face like musket-b.a.l.l.s. It arose in the south; but throughout the Ancobra valley wet weather apparently comes from all directions. Chief Apo gravely ascribed it to our taking the wrong side of the Fetish-Rocks. I have heard, even in civilised lands, sillier post-hoc-erg-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 Nanwa 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 mora.s.s, 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 Nanwa stream. A quarter of an hour's walk from the landing-place placed us in the Nanwa 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. p.r.i.c.k-eared curs, ducks, and fowls compose the b.e.s.t.i.a.l 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, Kwako 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 hyaena-like bursts of laughter.

It is very difficult to 'love one's neighbour as oneself' when he appears in this form under these circ.u.mstances.

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 Apo of Asanta and Juma of Nanwa 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.

a.s.suming 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 emanc.i.p.ation of slaves and 'p.a.w.ns' 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 Nanwa 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 pa.s.sage boasted tree-trunks, and after that all was leaping. The Nanwa 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 'bus.h.i.+ness.' 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 Tuako Hill, at whose southern base lies the Nanwa 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 Nanwa, here flowing south. It is bounded by two rises, tree-grown from foot to head. That on the left bank is the Tuako, 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 was.h.i.+ng.

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-buka and the Nanwa-buka, which define the course of the rivulet. The distance from Nanwa 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 Eugenie 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 G 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 superst.i.tion is that the Ananu (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 c.o.c.kroaches.

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, _Entek.u.ma_, &c.]

The upper shaft had been sunk, as it should be, in the eastern flank of the hill, which faces north 71 east, and which runs north 3 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 a.s.sayed, 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 Nanwa 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 Nanwa and took leave of Chief Apo; 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, a.s.sociate of the School of Mines, found a crystal which he strongly suspected to be a diamond. It was taken to Axim, where its gla.s.s-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 a.s.sini and proposed to canoe up the Tando River to the Takwa 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 a.s.sociate 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 a.s.semble 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 Takwa mine; the four stages can be covered in twenty hours. [Footnote: Mr. Gillett, who had lately pa.s.sed 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 Dompe (nine hours slow); No. 3 to Abrafu, on the Abonsa River, one march south of the Abonsa 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-' (Jyacho) '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 employes will find the place healthy. The up-sloping ground behind the house could be laid out in a pottage-garden; and, as Bahama-gra.s.s 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 sc.r.a.ped in many places by the gold-washer, and it promises an ample harvest when properly worked. We left on the left hand Safahin Sensense's village, a cl.u.s.ter 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 92 (F.), and often rose to 96; in the Rains it falls to 72, 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 5 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 a.s.sayed. 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 employes. 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 was.h.i.+ng. 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 a.s.sisted 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 windla.s.s. 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 gra.s.s 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 40. We pa.s.sed 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 22 east, the western 355, and the eastern north 37 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-k.u.ma(?), 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: _Anglice_ 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 was.h.i.+ngs,' shows signs of hard work, probably dating from the days when every headman had his gang of 'p.a.w.ns'

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 Sensense'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 _detour_. After a short hour's walk we ascended a banana-grown hillock, upon which lay the ruins of the little mining-village Abeseba. 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 Sensense 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: a.s.suming 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 Sensense received his pay, a host of rival claimants started up. In these lands there is no law against trespa.s.s; 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.

Sensense's claims were contested by three chiefs--Kofi Blay-chi, Kwako Bukari, who brought an acute advocate, Ebba of Axim, and Kwako Jum, a fine specimen of the sea-lawyer; this b.u.mptious black had pulled down the board which marked the Abeseba 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, Sensense 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 doc.u.ment, 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 t.i.tle 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. Sensense, for instance, is nephew (sister's son) to Blay-chi, which relations.h.i.+p 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'Opera_ 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 a.s.sistants, 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 employes 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 pa.s.sage 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 'Ill.u.s.trated,' 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 cuc.u.mbers, 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.