To The Gold Coast for Gold Volume II Part 8

We resolved to shoot the banks going, and to collect botanical specimens on return. The land appears poor in mammals, rich in avifauna, and exceedingly abundant in insect life. Of larger animals there are leopards, cat o' mountains and civet-cats, wild hog and fine large deer; we bought a leg weighing 11-1/2 lbs., and it was excellent eating seasoned with 'poor man's quinine,' _alias_ garlic. Natives and strangers speak of the jungle-cow, probably the Nyare antelope (_Bos brachyceros_) of the Gaboon regions, the _empaca.s.so_ of the Portuguese. Two small black squirrels, scampering about a white-boled tree, were cunning enough never to give a shot. We sighted only small monkeys with white beards and ruddy coats. 'He be too clever for we,' said the Kruboys when the wary mannikins hid in the bush. I saw nothing of the _kontromfi_, cynocephalus or dog-faced baboon, concerning whose ferocity this part of Africa is full of stories. Further north there is a still larger anthropoid, which the natives call a wild man and Europeans a gorilla. The latter describe its peculiar whoop, heard in the early night when the s.e.xes call to each other.

Our results were two species of kingfishers (_alcedo_), the third and larger kind not showing; a true curlew (_Numenius arquata_), charming little black swallows (_Wardenia nigrita_), the common English swallow; a hornbill (_buceros_), all feathers and no flesh; a lean and lanky diver (_plotus_), some lovely little honeysuckers, a red oriole, a fine vulture (_Gypohierax angolensis_), and a grand osprey (_hali[oe]tus_), which even in the agonies of death would not drop his prey. Many other birds were given over to Mr. Dawson, who worked from dawn till dusk. Mr.

Grant dropped from the trees three snakes, one green and two slaty-brown. The collection found its way to the British Museum after the usual extensive plunder, probably at a certain port, where it is said professional collectors keep customhouse-men in pay. Mr. R. B.

Sharp was kind enough to name the birds, whose shrunken list will be found at the end of the volume.

Cameron, observing for his map, was surprised by the windings of the bed; we seemed ever within hearing of the sea. Where a holm of rock and bush splits the course its waters swarm with fish, as shown by the weirs and the baskets, large and small; some of its cat-fish (_siluri_) weigh 10 lbs. Every shoal bred oysters in profusion, young mangroves sprouted from the submerged mollusk-beds, and the 'forests of the sea' were peopled with land-crabs.

At first the vegetation of the banks was almost wholly of rhizoph.o.r.es, white and red; the wood of the latter burns like coal, and the bark is admirable for tanning. In places their long suckers, growing downwards to the stream, resembled a cordwainer's walk set on end. A bush of yellow-flowered hibiscus clothes the banks that are less level; and, higher still, grows a tall and beautiful mimosa with feathery web and pendent pods of brightest green and yellow. Then came the brabs and palms, fan-, cocoa-, oil-, and bamboo-, with their trunks turned to nurseries of epiphytes and air-plants. The parasites are clematis and a host with hard botanical names.

Towards evening, as the stream narrowed, the spectacle was imposing. The avenues and trees stood up like walls, but living walls; and in places their billowy bulges seemed about to burst upon us like Cape-rollers.

Every contrast was there of light and dark, short and tall, thick and thin; of age and death with l.u.s.ty youth clinging around it; of the cocoa's drooping frond and the aspiring arm of bombax, the silk-cotton-tree, which rains brown gossamer when the wind blows; of the sloth-tree with its topping tuft, and the tangled mantle of the calamus or rattan, a palm like a bamboo-cane. The bristly pod of the dolichos (_pruriens_) hangs by the side of the leguminosae, from whose flattened, chestnut-coloured seeds snuff-boxes are made further east. It was also a _floresta florida_, whose giants are decked with the tender little blossoms of the shrub, and where the bright bracts and yellow greens of this year's growth light up the sombre verdure of an older date. The type of this growth is the red camwood-tree, with its white flower of the sweetest savour. Imagine an English elm studded with pinks or daisies, gardenias or hyacinths. There is nothing more picturesque than the shiftings and changes of aspect upon these African streams, which at first seem so monotonous. After dawn the smoking water, feeling tepid to the hand and warmer than the atmosphere, veils the lower levels and makes the forest look as if based on air. Noon brings out every variety of distance with startling distinctness, and night, especially moonlit night, blurs with its mists long tracts of forest, rains silver over the ridges, and leaves the hollows in the blackest shade. Seen from above, the sea of trees looks like green water raised to waves by the wind, and the rustling in the breeze mimics the sound of distant surf.

A catamaran of four cork-trees, a cranky canoe, the landing-place of a bush-road, a banana-plantation, and a dwarf clearing, where sat a family boiling down palm-nuts for oil, proved that here and there the lowland did not lack lowlanders. The people stared at us without surprise, although this was only the fourth time they had seen a surf-boat. The river-bed, grid-ironed with rocky reefs, showed us twenty-two turns in a few miles; some were horseshoe-bends, sweeping clean round to the south, and one described a curve of 170. After slow and interrupted paddling for an hour and a half, at 6 P.M., when night neared, we halted at the village of Esubeyah, or 'Water-made;' [Footnote: The radical of water is 'su,'

curiously corresponding with Turkish and with that oldest of the Turkish tongues, Chinese.] and my companion made sure of his distances by a lat.i.tudinal observation of Canopus.

Next morning we had 'English tea' for the first and last time in West Africa; usually we preferred the Russian form, drunk in a tumbler with a slice of lime that sinks or of lemon that floats. Mr. Gillett had given us a bottle of 'Romanshorn' from the Swiss farm, an admirable preparation which also yields fresh b.u.t.ter. The price is high, 1_s_. 6_d_. a bottle, or, for the case of forty-eight imperial pints, 72_s_.; this, however, is the Coast, not the cost figure. For invalids, who are nauseated by the sickly, over-sugared stuff popularly called 'tin-juice,' and who feel life put in them by rum and milk, it is an invaluable comfort.

We left Esubeyah in the 'lizard's sun' at 7 A.M., and found the river changed for the worse. The freshets had uptorn from the banks the tallest trees, which in places formed a timber-floor; and the surf-boat gallantly charged, till she leaked, the huge trunks, over which she had often to be lifted. Nothing would be easier than to clear away these obstacles; a few pounds of gun-cotton would remove snags and sawyers, and dredging by boats would do the rest. Then Prince's River would become an excellent highway.

An hour and a half's slow paddling placed us at the landing-place of Bekai (a village in general), the usual hole in the bush. Here navigation ends in the dry season. We walked to and through the mean little settlement, and established ourselves at Anima-kru, [Footnote: The English 'croom' is a corruption of _kru-mu_ or _krum_, 'in the village.' Properly speaking 'kru' and 'man' are the town, or common centre of many _akura_ (plantation-hamlets), in which the owners keep their families and _familiae_.] a mile from the landing-place on the Yenna, or Prince's River. It faces a splendidly wooded mound upon the right or opposite bank.

Mra Kwami, the headman, received us hospitably, cleared a house, and offered us the usual palm-wine and snuff: the powder, composed of tobacco, ginger, and cloves, is boxed in a round wild fruit.

The village contained only two men; the rest were drinking, at Prince's town, the proceeds of a puncheon of palm-oil. The plantations still showed fruits and flowers probably left by the Portuguese--wild oranges, mangoes, limes, pine-apples, and the 'four o'clock,' a kind of 'marvel of Peru,'

supposed to open at that hour. The houses, _crepi_ or parget below and bamboo above, are mere band-boxes raised from the ground; the smaller perfectly imitated poultry-crates. All appeared unusually neat and clean, with ornamental sheets of clam-sh.e.l.ls trodden into the earth before the thresholds. 'Fetish' was abundant, and so was that worst of all plagues the sand-fly.

After breakfasting we set out north over a sandy level, clearly reclaimed from the sea, and in a few minutes struck the true coast. Here begins the St. John mining-ground, conceded for prospecting to Messieurs Gillett and Selby. A fair path runs up hillocks of red-yellow clay, metalled with rounded quartz and ironstone-gravel, roped with roots and barred with trees; their greatest elevation may have been 120 feet. Two parallel ridges, trending north-north-east, are bisected by torrents pouring westward to the river: now dry, they have rolled down huge boulders in their frequent floods. These 'hard-heads,' which try the hammer, show a revetment of cellular iron upon a solid core of greenstone and bluish trap. Some fragments not a little resembled the clay-slates of the Brazilian gold-mines. Such was the concession which we named So Joo do Principe.

Presently the chief, Mra Kwami, announced to us that we had reached the northern boundary-line of the estate. He now would have left us, as it is not customary, when gold is in question, for one head-man to enter another's country. We succeeded, however, in persuading him to show us the other side of the river. A short walk up and down hill led to the ford of the 'Yenna,' the native name, probably a corruption of 'St. John.' It lies a little above the d.y.k.e where the stream breaks into a dwarf fall, and below the crossing where a ferry formerly plied. We now found a regular river, no longer a lagoon-stream; the clear water, most unlike the matter-suspending and bitumen-coloured fluid of the lower bed, was beautified by lilies with long leaves and broad flowers of virgin white.

We rode the Kruboys pick-a-back across the broken reef through which the stream bursts and brawls, and walked a few paces up the left bank to the k.u.masi [Footnote: The Ashantis translate the word 'under the k.u.m-tree;'

the Fantis make it mean 'slay all.'] village. It had been lately deserted; but we found there Kwako Benta, headman of Ajamera, who had spent a week in forcing the deserters to rejoin the corps. He was the reverse of cordial, probably wishing at once to prove importance and to give our guide the cold shoulder: we persuaded him, however, to show us the Muku concession, granted to Messieurs Lintott and Spink.

The ground which fronts the reef-ford reflects that of the left bank, and is pitted with diggings, large and small. In a dry torrent-bed, running north-south, was an oblong shaft, a native copy of European work, four feet by six, and timbered in the usual negro way. Its further bank was a high and steep slope of yellow clay with a midway step, containing another and a similar shaft: to the north and west were many other signs of exploitation. The rich-looking quartz of the lode is white and sugary, with black streaks and veins: its strike is nearly meridional, between north 20 and 25 east, and the dip 40-45 east. A glance shows that _Fluthwerk_ and 'hydraulicking' would easily wash down the whole alluvial and auriferous formation to the floor of grey granite which has supplied the huge 'cankey-stones' [Footnote: This proto-historic implement, also called a 'saddle-quern,' is here made out of a thick slab of granite slightly concave and artificially roughened. The muller, or mealing-stone, is a large, heavy, and oval rolling-pin used with the normal rocking and grinding motion. These rollers are also used for crushing ore, and correspond with the stone _polissoirs_ of ancient date.] littering the village. Cameron, who had before visited the site, and had remarked how vigorously the placer-gravels had been attacked by the natives, would 'hydraulick' by means of the St. John's River. This might also be done by damming up and tapping the adjacent bottom. And, if routine work be wanted, it would cost little to construct upon the topmost crest a large reservoir with channels to conduct the rains, and thus secure a fair fall for the water.

We slept once more at Anima-kru; and here Cameron made sure of his position by Jupiter and Procyon, and by his valuable watch-chronometer, the gift of his brother-officers: it worked peculiarly well. The St.

John's mine lies in north lat. 4 49' 44", and in west long. (G.) 2 6'

44". While the owners would place it seven miles from the sea, it is distant only 2.2 from 'old Fort Brandenburg.' Early next morning we packed and prepared for return, the chief Mra Kwami insisting upon escorting us.

And now the difference of travel in Africa and England struck me forcibly.

Fancy a band of negro explorers marching uninvited through the Squire's manor, strewing his lawn and tennis-ground with all manner of rubbish; housing their belongings in his dining- and drawing- and best bed-rooms, which are at once vacated by his wife and family; turning his cook out of his or her kitchen; calling for the keys of his dairy and poultry-yard, hot-houses, and cellar; and rummaging the whole mansion for curios and heirlooms interesting to the negro anthropologist. Fancy also their bidding him to be ready next morning for sporting and collecting purposes, with all his pet servants, his steward and his head-gardener, his stud-groom and his gamekeeper; and allowing, by way of condescension, Mr.

Squire to carry their spears, bows, and arrows; bitterly deriding his weapons the while, as they proceed to whip his trout-stream, to pluck his pet plants, to shoot his pheasants, and to kill specimens of his rarest birds for exhibition in Africa. Fancy their enquiring curiously about his superst.i.tions, sitting in his pew, asking for bits of his East window, and criticising his 'fetish' in general, ending with patting him upon the back and calling him a 'jolly old c.o.c.k.' Finally, fancy the Squire greatly enjoying such treatment, and feeling bitterly hurt unless handled after this fashion. Paddling down stream, we collected for Kew. But the hopelessness of the task weighs upon the spirits: a square mile of such flora would take a week. There is a prodigious variety of vegetation, and the quant.i.ty of edible berries, 'fowl's lard,' 'Ashanti-papaw,' and the Guinea-peach (_Sarcophalus esculentus_) would gladden the heart of a gorilla. Every larger palm-trunk was a fernery; every dead bole was an orchidry; and huge fungi, two feet broad, fed upon the remains of their victims. Climbers, chiefly papilionaceous, and llianas, bigger than the biggest boa-constrictor, coiled and writhed round the great gloomy trees which rained their darkness below. In the sunlight were pretty jasmines (_J. grande_), crotons and lantanas, with marantas, whose broad green leaf.a.ge was lined with pink and purple. Deep in shadow lay black miry sloughs of sickening odour, near which the bed of Father Thames at low water would be scented with rose-water; and the caverns, formed by the arching roots of the muddy mangrove, looked haunts fit for crocodile and behemoth and all manner of unclean, deadly beasts. And there are little miseries for African collectors. 'Wait-a-bit' thorns tear clothes and skin. Tree-snakes turn the Kru-boys not pale but the colour of boiled liver; their 'bowels fail them,' as the natives say. Each tree has its ant, big or small, black or red; and all sting more or less. We see their armies marching up the trunks, and the brush of a bough brings down a little shower. Monstrous mangrove-flies and small brown-coloured 'huri,'

most spiteful biters, and wasps here and there, a.s.sail the canoe; and we are happy if we escape a swarm of the wild bees: their curious, treacle-like honey is enjoyed by the people.

We landed in due time at 'Prinsi,' whose civilised chief had laid out a clean path, lined with umbrella-figs backed by a bush of self-sown guavas.

A good upper-storied house was found for us, with standing bedsteads, sofa, table, and chairs. It belonged to one of the _penins_, or elders.

The chapel, with its three front and five lateral windows, is the best we have yet seen. The schoolmaster, Mr. Sego, lives in a house hard by; and the adjacent school, a wattled cottage, echoes to the voices of some thirty to forty scholars. The town looks prosperous. Building is easy; oysters and other sh.e.l.ls supply lime; the clay dug to the north makes good adobes, and stone is easily quarried from the old fort.

We found Prince's in a state of unusual jollity, drinking the proceeds of their three puncheons, dancing and playing what Sa Leone calls 'warry.' [Footnote: A game with counters and holes in the ground or a board hollowed with cups. The same, called _bao_, or tables, is found in East Africa (Zanzibar) and Cameron traced it extending clear across the Dark Continent.] The bell and the psalm blended curiously with the song and the palm-clapping that announces negro terpsich.o.r.e. Of course 'fetish' was present, in the shape of a woman peculiarly ornamented. Her very black face was dazzlingly chalked, lines by threes running from hair-roots to nose-bridge and meeting others drawn across the temples; the orbits of the eyes were whitened, and thence triple streaks stretched up the nose and across the cheeks. Hung to the extensive necklace of beads and other matters were ta.s.sels of dry white fibre; her forearms carried yellow bunches of similar material, and she held a broom of blackened bamboo and the metal bell familiar to Unyamwezi. Whilst the juniors danced and sang the elders drank and gambled.

After a cool and comfortable night we visited the ruins which Bosman calls Casteel Groot Frederiksburg tot Pocquesoe (Prince's). Our Hydrographic Chart has 'old fort Brandenburg,' which is at Cape Threepoints. Others declare that it was the only good establishment owned by the Elector; and the best authority, Lieut. Jeekel, terms it G Friedrichsburg (Hollandia).

I may note that 'Prinsi 'Ollandia' is still the native name. These buildings interest us greatly, because in the coming days of immigration they will serve for hospitals, stores, and barrac.o.o.ns. Ascending a few feet of bushy hill, called in books 'Mamfra,' and once evidently an island, we came upon the eastern flank, three substantial bastions and a cavalier, with masonry knitted by creepers. We then wound round by the southern or sea side, and, turning the angle, made the eastern flank. The gateway, stockade, and belfry shown in Bosman ('Eerste Brief,' 1737) have disappeared; so also has the slave-court, but the double doorway remains.

The s.p.a.cious centre, planted with bananas almost wild, would make a grand garden; the walls are built to stand for ages; and, although the floors of the upper stories have been torn down, there would be no difficulty in restoring them. As steps and stairs are absent, it was not possible to reach the battlements. These are luxuriant with vegetation, of which I should preserve a portion for shade and coolth. A fine arched cistern now affords a shelter to bats; and a building which appears to be the chapel remains on the northern side. Old iron guns still c.u.mber the embrasures and the ground.

Issuing by the northern face, which has been torn down for ashlar, we set up the photographic stand and took the north-western angle. Here an enormous fig draws its life from the death of the wall. The morning air in the shade was delicious, a great contrast with the heavy dampness of Axim; and the view of the St. John's River west and of Cape Threepoints east was charming. With usual neglect the photographer had sent out his machine and dry plates without any means of developing them; we therefore worked blindly and could not see results.

When embarking in Prince's Bay, where the surf was perfectly safe, we were informed a little too late of a valuable gold-mine called Kokobene. It lies close behind the village Akitaki, which we had seen during our morning's walk along the beach leading to Cape Threepoints. The chief, Eshanchi, promised to forward specimens of the reefs, and did not forget to keep his promise. The quartz-specimens which were brought to us at Akankon by Wafapa, or Barnabas, promised excellently, and I authorised Mr.

Grant to buy an exploring right of the Kokobene-Akitaki diggings. Their position as well as their quality will render them valuable: they will prove a second Apatim.

We returned to Axim on February 19, after a short but very satisfactory trip which added much to our knowledge of the coast and its ways. It had also the merit of being economical; we took matters in hand, and consequently our four days cost us only 2_l_. 8_s_.

I have spoken much about 'hydraulicking' in this chapter, and I shall now borrow a few details concerning the operation from Sir William Logan, who, in his 'Geological Survey of Canada,' quotes Mr. William P. Blake.

Speaking of California, the learned author writes, 'In this method the force of a jet of water with great pressure is made available both for excavating and washing the auriferous earth. The water, issuing in a continuous stream with great force from a large hose-pipe like that of a fire-engine, is directed against the base of a bank of earth and gravel, and tears it away. The bank is rapidly undermined, the gravel is loosened, violently rolled together, and cleansed from any adhering particles of gold, while the fine clay and the sand are carried off by the water. In this manner hundreds of tons of earth and gravel may be removed, and all the gold which they contain liberated and secured with greater ease and expedition than ten tons could be excavated and washed in the old way. All the earth and gravel of a deposit is moved, washed, and carried off through long sluices by the water, leaving the gold behind. Square acres of earth on the hill-sides may thus be swept away into the hollows without the aid of a pick or a shovel in excavation. Water performs all the labour, moving and washing the earth in one operation, while in excavating by hand the two processes are of necessity entirely distinct. The value of this method and the yield of gold as compared with the older one can hardly be estimated.

'The water acts constantly with uniform effect, and can be brought to bear upon almost any point, where it would be difficult for men to work. It is especially effective in a region covered by trees, where the tangled roots would greatly r.e.t.a.r.d the labour of workmen. In such places the stream of water washes out the earth from below, and tree after tree falls before the current, any gold which may have adhered to the roots being washed away. With a pressure of sixty feet and a pipe of from one and a half to two inches' aperture, over 1,000 bushels of earth can be washed out from a bank in a day.

'Earth which contains only one-twenty-fifth part of a grain of gold, equal to one-fifth of a cent in value to the bushel, may be profitably washed by this method; and any earth or gravel which will pay the expense of washing in the old way gives enormous profits by the new process. To wash successfully in this way requires a plentiful supply of water, at an elevation of from fifty to ninety feet above the bed-rock, [Footnote: This is by no means necessary. The jet can be thrown from below like the fireman's hose playing upon a burning house. I shall return to this highly important subject.] and a rapid slope or descent from the base of the bank of earth to be washed, so that the waste water will run off through the sluices, bearing with it gravel, sand, and suspended clay.

'In the case of a deposit in North Carolina, where ten men were required for thirty-five days to dig the earth with pick and shovel and wash it in sluices, two men with a single jet of water could accomplish the same work in a week. The great economy of this method is manifest from the fact that many old deposits in the river-beds, the gravel of which had been already washed by hand, have again been washed with profit by the hydraulic method.

'In California the whole art of working the diluvial gold-deposits was revolutionised by this new method. The auriferous earth lying on hills and at some distance above the level of the watercourses would in the ordinary methods be excavated by hand and brought to the water, but by the present system the water is brought by aqueducts to the gold-deposits, and whole square miles which were before inaccessible have yielded up their precious metal. It sometimes happens from the irregular distribution of the gold in the diluvium in California that the upper portions of a deposit do not contain gold enough to be washed by the ordinary methods, and would thus have to be removed at a considerable expense in order to reach the richer portion below. By the hydraulic method, however, the cost of cutting away and excavating is so trifling that there is scarcely any bank of earth which will not pay the expense of washing down in order to reach the rich deposits of gold beneath.'

To conclude. Our collection of plants was sent to the Herbarium, Kew; and, as the Appendix (II. Part II.) shows, was kindly catalogued by the learned Professor D. Oliver.

CHAPTER XX.

FROM AXIM TO INGOTRO AND AKANKON.

After a long palaver with the three claimants to the Akankon mining-ground, Kofi Blaychi (Little Blay), Kwako Jum, and Safahin Sensense (the lessor), we left Axim once more (February 24) to inspect the head of the Ancobra river. At the sleeping-place, k.u.mprasi, we were visited by Mr.

Cascaden, District-commissioner for Takwa, a fine-looking man of fifteen stone, pulled down to twelve by dysentery. He was speedily followed to England by his _remplacant_, 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 Apo, of Asanta, 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 d.i.c.kenson, 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 Sanma.

We had nothing to complain of the engineer, Mr. William George, a Sa Leonite, and of the helmsman, Kwamina Ek.u.m, a Gold Coast man. Both did their best with the heavily laden trio of boats. Cameron established himself--compa.s.s, 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 Bonsa or Abonsa River, which falls into the Ancobra's left bank; and it ends a little north of a.s.seman, 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 ent.i.tles them; while the mangrove never quite disappears from this true lagoon-stream. The monotonous fringe of rhizoph.o.r.es 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 pa.s.sed the Kwabina 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.