To The Gold Coast for Gold Volume II Part 16

We now reach the Gold Coast proper, which amply deserves its glorious golden name. I have shown that the whole seaboard of West Africa, between it and Morocco, produces more or less gold; here, however, the precious metal comes down to the very sh.o.r.e and is washed upon the sands. Its length from the a.s.sini boundary-line to the Volta [Footnote: Chapter XIV.

I would not a.s.sert that gold is not found east of the Volta River. M.

Colonna, of Lagos, told me that he had good reason to suspect its presence on the seaboard of Dahome, and promised me to make further enquiries.] has been laid down at 220 direct geographical miles by a depth of about 100.

The area of the Protectorate, which has been a British colony since 1874, is a.s.sumed to be 16,620 instead of 24,500 square miles, and the population may exceed half a million. Its surface is divided into twelve petty kingdoms; and its strand is studded with forts and ruins of forts, a total of twenty-five, or one to every eight miles. This small section of West Africa poured a flood of gold into Europe; and, until the mineral discoveries of California and Australia, it continued to be the princ.i.p.al source of supply to the civilised world.

The older writers give us ample details about gold-digging and trading two centuries ago. Bosnian (Letter VI.) shows that the people prospected for the ill.u.s.trious metal in three forms of ground. The first was in, or between, particular hills, where they sank pits; the second was about the rivers and waterfalls; and the third was on the seash.o.r.e near the mouths of rivulets after violent night-rains. He ends his letter with these sensible words: 'I would refer to any intelligent metallist whether a vast deal of ore must not of necessity be lost here, from which a great deal of gold might be separated, from want of skill in the metallic art; and not only so, but I firmly believe that vast quant.i.ties of pure gold are left behind; for the negroes only ignorantly dig at random, without the least knowledge of the veins of the mine. [Footnote: The origin of these mineral veins is still disputed, science being as yet too young for the task of solving the mystery. Probably, as Mr. Davies remarks, 'the mode of the origin and means of the deposition are not one only but many,' and we have the Huttonian (igneous) and Wernerian (aqueous) theories, the sublimation of Necker, the electricity of Mr. R. W. Fox, the infiltration and gravitation of fluid metals towards cracks, vughs (cavities), and shrinkages, and the law of replacement. 'If a steel plate be removed atom by atom,' says Mr. R. Brough Smyth (_Gold Fields of Victoria_, Melbourne, 1869), 'and each atom be replaced by a corresponding atom of silver--a fact established by direct experiment--it will be readily seen that a mineral vein may be formed in the same way.'] And I doubt not that if the land belonged to Europeans they would soon find it to produce much richer treasures than the negroes obtain from it. But it is not probable that we shall ever possess that liberty here, wherefore we must be content with being so far masters of it as we are at present, which, if well and prudently managed, would turn to a very great account.'

Times, however, are changed. England is now mistress of the field, and it will be her fault if she leaves it untilled.

The good old Hollander first mentions amongst his six gold-sites the kingdom of Denkira; it then included the conquests of Wasa (Wa.s.saw), of Enca.s.se, [Footnote: The Inka.s.sa of D'Anville, 1729.] and of Juffer or Quiforo. The gold of that region is good, but much alloyed for the trade with 'fetish'-figures. These are composed sometimes of pure mountain-gold; more often the ore is mixed with one-third, or even a half, of silver and copper, and stuffed with half-weight of the black earth used for moulding.

The second was Acanny (D'Anville's Akanni), with gold so pure and fine that 'Acanny sika' meant the best ley. Then came the kingdom of Akim, which 'furnishes as large quant.i.ties of gold as any land that I know, and that also the most valuable and pure of any that is carried away from the coast.' It was easily distinguished by its deep colour. The fourth and fifth were Ashanti and Ananse, a small tract between the ex-great despotism and Denkira. The sixth and last was Awine, our Aowin, the region to the east of the Tando, then and now included in the British Protectorate. The Dutch 'traded here with a great deal of pleasure,' the people 'being the civilest and fairest dealers of all the negroes.'

The Ashanti war of 1873-74 had the effect of opening to transit a large area of workable ground. English officers traversed the interior in all directions, and their reports throw vivid light upon the position, the extent, and the value of the auriferous grounds which subtend the Gold Coast and which supply it with the precious metal.

The gold-provinces best known to us are now three--Wasa, of which these pages treat; Akim, the hill-land, an easy journey of a week north with westing from Akra; and Gyaman, the rival of Ashanti.

Akim is divided into eastern and western. Mr. H. Ponsonby, when travelling through both regions, found the natives getting quant.i.ties of gold by digging holes eight to ten feet deep on either side of the forest-paths.

He saw as much as three ounces taken up in less than half an hour. Around the capital of eastern Akim, Kyebi, or Chyebi, the land is also honeycombed with man-holes, making night-travel dangerous to the stranger.

It requires a sharp eye to detect the deserted pits, two feet in diameter and 'sunk straight, as if they had been bored with huge augurs.' I have seen something of the kind in the water-meadows near Sh.o.r.eham. The workman descends by foot-holes, and works with a hoe four to six inches long by two broad: when his calabash is filled it is drawn up by his companions.

The earthquakes of April and July 1862 [Footnote: I happened to be at Akra during the convulsion of July 10. The commandant, Major (now Colonel) de Buvignes, and I set out for a stroll along the sands to the west. The morning was close and cloudy: what little breeze there was came from the south-west, under a leaden sky and over a leaden sea. At 8.10 A.M., as we were returning from the rocks about three-quarters of a mile off, there was a sudden rambling like a distant thunder-clap; the sands seemed to wave up and down as a shaken carpet, and we both staggered forwards.

Others described the movement as rising and falling like the waters of a lagoon. I looked with apprehension at the sea; but the direction of the shock was apparently from west-north-west; and the line was too oblique to produce one of those awful earthquake-waves, seventy feet high, which have swept tall ships over the roofs of cities. We ran as fast as we could to the town, where everything was in the wildest confusion. The 'Big House'

and Mr. John Hansen's were mere ruins; the Court-house had come to pieces, and the prison-cells yawned open. I distinctly saw that the rock-ledge under Akra, between Fort James and Crevecoeur, had been upraised: canoes pa.s.sed over what was now dry. A second shock at 8.20 A.M., and a third about 10.45, completed the destruction, split every standing wall, and shook down the three forts into ruinous heaps. Nor did the seismic movements cease till July 15, when I made my escape.

Men who remembered as far back as March 1858, when Colonel Bird ruled the land, declared that Akra had never felt an earthquake; but on the morning of April 14, 1862, there had been a sharp shock followed by sundry lighter movements, and lastly by the most severe. The direction was said to be north-south, and it was supposed to be the tail of a great earthquake, whose focus was behind Sierra Leone. A rumbling, like the rolling of guns, had been heard under the main square of Akra; the shocks were felt by the ships in the roads, and the disturbance was reported to have been even more severe up-country. When the wave reached Agbome, Gelele, King of Dahome, with characteristic filial piety, exclaimed, 'Don't you see that my father is calling for blood, and is angry because we are not sending him more men?' Whereupon he at once ordered three prisoners from Is.h.a.gga to take the road to Ku-to-men, Hades or Dead-land.] so tossed and broke up the hill-strata of Akim that all the people flocked to the diggings and dispensed with the chimney-holes generally sunk. The frontier-village of Adadentum, on the Prah, was nearly buried by a landslip from a spur of the 'Queeshoh Range.' Huge nuggets were uncovered, and the people filled their calabashes daily, thankful to their great fetish, the Kataguri. [Footnote: This is a huge bra.s.s pan which fell from heaven: it is or was surrounded by drawn swords and gold-handled axes in its sanctuary, the fetish-house.]

The provinces of Gyaman, especially Ponin, Safwi, and Showy, are famed for wealth of gold. In African phrase, while 'the metallic veins of Ashanti, Denkira, and Wasa lie twelve cubits deep, those of Gyaman are only five.'

The ore dug from pits is of deep colour, and occurs mixed with red gravel and pieces of white granite (quartz). It is held to be rock-gold (nuggets), and more valuable than that of Ashanti, although the latter, pa.s.sing for current, is mostly pure. This pit-gold appears in lumps embedded in loam and rock, of which 14 to 15 lbs. would yield 1 to 1 1/2 lb. pure metal. Nuggets are also produced, and chiefs wear them slung to hair and wrists; some may weigh 4 lbs. The dust washed from the torrent-beds is higher-coloured, cleaner, and better than what is produced elsewhere. It found its way to the Nigerian basin as well as to the Gold Coast, and was converted into ducats (miskals) and trinkets, chains, bracelets, anklets, and adornments for weapons. The King of Gyaman became immensely rich by the produce of his mines; and, according to Bowdich, his bed had steps of solid gold.

The reader will have gathered from the preceding pages that the negroes have worked their gold-fields for centuries but to very little purpose.

Their want of pumps, of quartz-crushers, and of scientific appliances generally, has limited their labour to scratching the top-soil and nibbling at the reef-walls. A large proportion of the country is practically virgin-ground, and a rich harvest has been left for European science, energy, and enterprise.

The Fantis have many curious usages and superst.i.tions which limit production. As a rule nuggets are the royalty of kings and chiefs; but in many places these 'mothers of gold' are re-buried, in order that gold may grow from them. [Footnote: It was long supposed in Europe that alluvial gold grew by a succession of layers imposed upon a solid nucleus, and by the coalescence of grains as a snow-ball is constructed. Mr. Sellwyn still holds that 'nuggets and particles of alluvial gold may gradually increase by the deposition of metallic gold (a.n.a.logous to the electroplating process), from the meteoric waters that circulate through the drifts.'--_Gold Fields of Victoria_, p. 357.] I have noted that a smoke, or thin vapour, guides to the unknown placer, and that white gold causes a mine to be abandoned. Rich ground is denoted by a peculiar vegetation, especially of ferns. Gold is guarded here not by a dragon, but by a monstrous baboon; and when golden dogs are found the finder dies. In 1862 I visited with Major de Ruvignes Great Sankanya, a village west of the Volta, where a large gold-field was reported. As we drew near the spot we were told that the precious metal appears during the 'yam-customs,' and that only prayers, sacrifices, and presents to the fetish will make it visible. Presently we saw a white rag on a pole, which the dark youth, our guide, called a 'sign,' and groaned out that it would surely slay us. A woman, whose white and black beads showed a 'religious,' pointed to a place where gold is 'common as ashes after a fire'--the priest being first paid. The report of this excursion spread to Akra; Major de Ruvignes had taken up in his arms a golden dog, and at once fell dead. I can hardly connect the superst.i.tion with old Anubis.

Whenever the unsh.o.r.ed pit caves in the accident has been caused by evil-minded ghosts, the kobolds of Germany, in which Cornwall till lately believed. Fetish then steps forward and forbids further search. Thus many of the richest placers have been closed. Such, for instance, is the Monte do Diabo (Devil's Hill), the native Mankwadi, [Footnote: Again, I cannot connect Mankwadi (or even Manquada) with 'Maquida or Azeb, Queen of Sheba'--the latter country probably lying in South Arabian Yemen.] near Winnebah, fifteen leagues east from Elmina. The miners were killed by the heat of the shafts, and the mine was at once placed 'in fetish.' But 'fetish' has now lost much of its authority; the Satanic hill will soon be exploited, and its only difficulty is its disputed ownership by 'Ghartey, King of Winnebah,' and 'Okill Ensah, King of Ejemakun.' These dignitaries condescend to advertise against each other in the local papers.

At Ada (Addah), west of the Volta and in its neighbourhood, the Krobo Hills included, a beggar would be grossly insulted by the offer of a sovereign; he dashes it to earth, spitting upon it with wrath. The Ashantis, as the story runs, once dug treasure near Sakanya; and, as the chiefs and people were becoming too independent of them, the high priests put the precious metal 'in fetish,' with the penalty of blindness to all who worked it. A Danish governor once filled his pockets, and recovered sight only by throwing away the plunder. A brother of the Ada chief offered to show this magic-fenced placer to the late Mr. Nicol Irvine, _moyennant_ the trifle of 50_l_. The transaction reminded me of the Hindu alchemist who asks you ten rupees to make a ton of gold.

As regards the gold-supply of this El Dorado, the Gold Coast, it has been estimated that the total since A.D. 1471 amounted to six or seven hundred millions of pounds sterling. Elmina alone, at the beginning of the seventeenth century, annually exported, according to Bosman, 3,000,000_l_.

At a later period Mr. McQueen increased the figures to 3,400,000_l_. Then came the abolition of slavery, which caused the decline and fall of mining-industry amongst the natives. In 1816 the export was reduced to 400,000_l_. (=100,000 ounces), a figure repeated in 1860 by Dr. Eobert Olarke; and in 1862 the amount was variously reported at 192,000_l_. (= 48,000 ounces) and half a million of money.

The following proportions were given to me by M. Dahse. Till 1870 the figures are computed by him; after that date the value is declared;--[Footnote: _Statistical Abstract of the United Kingdom._ Eyre and Spottiswoode. London, 1881.]

1866 1867 1868 1869 120,333_l_. 146,182_l_ 118,875_l_. 100,214_l_.

1870 1871 1872 116,142_l_. 137,328_l_. 108,869_l_.

Now began the notable falling-off, which reached its maximum next year:--

1873 1874 1875 1876 77,523_l_. 136,263_l_. 117,321_l_. 145,511_l_.

1877 1878 1879 1880 120,542_l_ 122,497_l_. 115,167_l_. 125,980_l_.

M. Dahse a.s.sumes the annual average to be in round numbers, 126,000_l_.

The official returns of imported silver from the Coast show:--

1872 1873 1874 1875 1876 7,074_l_. 6,841_l_. 40,964_l_. 23,587_l_. 21,667_l_.

1877 1878 1879 1880 10,905_l_. 41,254_l_. 61,755_l_. 63,337_l_.

Totals of gold and silver:--

1872 1873 1874 1875 1876 115,943_l_. 84,364_l_. 177,227_l_. 140,908_l_. 167,178_l_.

1877 1878 1879 1880 131,447_l_. 163,751_l_. 176,922_l_. 189,317_l_.

I was lately asked by an ill.u.s.trious geologist and man of science, how it came to pa.s.s that the Gold Coast, if so rich, has not been worked before this time. These notes will afford a sufficient reply.

_b. The Kong Mountains._

This range, which has almost disappeared from the maps, may have taken its name either from the town of Kong on the southern versant, or it may be a contraction of the Kongkodu, the mountain-land described by Mungo Park.

Messieurs J. Zweifel and M. Moustier, [Footnote: _Expedition, C. A.

Verminck, Voyage aux Sources du Niger_. Ma.r.s.eille, 1880.] who did not reach the Niger sources in 1879, explain 'Kong' as the Kissi name of the line which trends from north-west to south-east, and which divides Koronko-land from Kono-land. When nearing their objective they sighted the Kong-apex, Mount Daro, measuring 1,240 metres. Older travellers make it a lat.i.tudinal chain running nearly east-west, with its centre about the meridian of Cape Coast Castle, and extending 500 to 600 miles on a parallel of north lat.i.tude 7-8. Westward it bends north behind Cape Palmas, and, like the Ghauts of Hindostan, follows the line of seaboard. I have before noticed the traditions of Mount Geddia, an occidental Kilima-njaro. About the parallel of Sierra Leone the feature splits into a network of ranges, curves, and zigzags, which show no general trend. The eastern faces here shed to the Niger, the western to the various streams between the Rokel-Seli, the Gambia, and the Senegal; and the last northern counterforts sink into the Sahara Desert. The western versant supplies the gold of Senegambia, the southern that of Ashanti and Wasa. The superficial dust is washed down by rains, floods, and rivers; and the d.y.k.es and veins of quartz, mostly running north-south, are apparently connected with those of the main range.

That such a chain must exist is proved by the conduct of the Gold Coast streams. The Ancobra, for instance, which often rises and falls from twenty to forty feet in twenty-four hours, suggests that its sources spring from an elevated plane at no great distance from the sea. The lands south of the Kong Mountains are gra.s.sy and hilly with extensive plains.

This is known through the 'Donko slaves,' common on the coast. Many of them come from about Salagha, the newly-opened mart upon the Upper Volta; they declare that the land breeds ostriches and elephants, cattle and camels, horses and a.s.ses. Moreover, it is visited by the northern peoples who cross the Sahara. I have already noticed the gra.s.s-lands of Gyaman.

Captain Clapperton, on his second journey, setting out from Badagry to Busa (Boussa), crossed a hill-range which would correspond with the Kong.

It is described as about eighty miles broad, and is said to extend from behind Ashanti to Benin. The traveller, who estimated the culminating point not to exceed 2,600 feet, found the rugged pa.s.ses hemmed in by denticulated walls and tons of granite, 600 to 700 feet high, and sometimes overhanging the path. The valleys varied in breadth from a hundred yards to half a mile. A comparatively large population occupied the mountain-recesses, where they planted fine crops of yams, millet, and cotton. The strangers were made welcome at every settlement. Ascending hill after hill, they came to Chaki, a large town on the very summit of the ridge. The _caboceer_ had a house and a stock of provisions ready for his guests, put many questions, and earnestly pressed them to rest for two or three days. When the whole chain was crossed they fell into the plains of 'Yaruba' (Yoruba).

The next eye-witness is Mr. John Duncan, who visited Dahome in 1845. King Gezo allowed him a guard of a hundred men, in order to explore with safety the 'Mahi, or Kong Mountains.' His son and successor was not so generous; he systematically and churlishly refused all travellers, myself included, permission to pa.s.s northwards of his capital. The Lifeguardsman found the chain, which is distant more than a hundred miles from Agbome, differing from his expectations in character, appearance, and even position. The grand, imposing line looked from afar like colossal piles of ruins; a nearer view showed immense blocks, some of them 200 feet long, egg-shaped and lying upon their sides. Nearly all the settlements had chosen the summits, doubtless for defence. Mr. Duncan crossed the whole breadth of these 'Kong Mountains,' and pushed 180 miles beyond them over a level land which must shed to the Niger.

These descriptions denote a range of granite, the rock which forms the ground-floor of the Sierra Leone peninsula and the Gold Coast, possibly varied by syenites and porphyries. It would probably contain, like the sea-subtending mountains of Midian, large veins of eminently metalliferous quartz, outcropping from the surface and forming extensions of the reefs below. From the coast-line the land gradually upslopes towards the spurs of the great dividing ridge; and thus we may fairly expect that the further north we go the richer will become the diggings.

The Kong Mountains are apparently cut through by the Niger south of Iddah, where the true coast begins. Travellers describe the features almost in the words of Clapperton and Denham--the towering ma.s.ses of granite which contrast so strongly with the southern swamps; upstanding outcrops resembling cathedrals and castellations in ruins; boulders like footb.a.l.l.s of enormous dimensions; pyramids a thousand feet high; and solitary cones which rise like giant ninepins. We know too little of the lands lying south-east of the confluence to determine the sequence of the chain, whose counterforts may give rise to the Eastern 'Oil Rivers.' It is not connected with the Peak of Camarones, round which Mr. c.u.mber, of the Baptist Mission, travelled; and which he determined to be an isolated block. Farther south the Ghauts of Western Africa reappeared as the Serra do Crystal, and fringe the mighty triangle below the Equator. They are suspected to be auriferous in places. An American merchant on the Gaboon River, Captain Lawlin, carried home in 1843-44 a quant.i.ty of granular gold brought to him by the country-traders. He returned to his station, prepared to work the metals of the interior; but the people took the alarm, and he failed to find the spot.

Cameron and I, prevented by the late season of our landing from attempting this interesting exploration, were careful to make all manner of enquiries concerning the best _point de depart_, and if fate prevent our attempting it we shall be happy to see some more favoured traveller succeed. The easiest way would be to march upon Crockerville, two days by the Ancobra River and three by land. The bush-paths, which would require widening for hammocks, lead north through Wasa. There are many villages on the way, and in places provisions can be procured; the people are peaceful and willing to show or to make the path. At Axim I consulted a native guide who knew the Kong village, but not the Kong Mountains. He made the distance six marches to Safwi, where the gra.s.s-lands begin; and here he ascended a hillock, seeing nothing but prairies to the north. Eight more stages, a total of fourteen, led him to Gyaman, where he found horses and hors.e.m.e.n.

He also knew by hearsay the western route, _via_ Apollonian Bein.

_c. Native Modes of Working Gold_.

In all places, and at all times, gold, probably the metal first used by man, has been worked in the same way. This is a fair evidence of that instinctive faculty which produces a general resemblance of rude stone-implements from England to Australia. There are six methods for 'getting' the precious metal--surfacing or washing; shallow-sinking; sluicing, or removing the earth through natural and artificial channels; deep sinking; tunnelling, and quartz-mining.

The preceding notes show that the natives of the Gold Coast, and of West Africa generally, are adepts at procuring their gold by 'surfacing,'

washing with the calabash or wooden bowl the rich alluvial formations that underlie the top-soil. This is the rudest form of machinery, preceding in California the cradle, the torn, and the sluice. Westerns made their pans of bra.s.s or copper, about sixteen inches in diameter, and nearly two inches deep in the middle where the gold gravitates. Panning in Africa is women's work, and the process has been described in the preceding pages.

But the natives, as has been shown, can also work quartz, an art well known to the Ancient Egyptians. They either pick up detached pieces showing visible gold, or they sink pits and nibble at the walls of the reefs. But whereas the Nile-peoples pounded the stone in mortars and washed the dust on sloping boards, here the matrix must be laboriously levigated. A handful of broken quartz is placed upon the 'cankey-stone,'

with which the gudewife grinds her 'mealies.' It is a slightly hollowed slab of granite or hard conglomerate, some two feet square, sloping away from the worker, and standing upon a rude tripod of tree-branches secured by a lashing of 'tie-tie.' The stuff is then rubbed with a hand-stone not unlike a baker's roll, and a slight deviation is given to it as it moves 'fore and aft.' The reduced stone is caught in a calabash placed at the lower end of the slab. This is usually night-work, and all the dark hours will be wasted in grinding down a cubic foot of stone.

The late M. Bonnat had probably read Mr. Andrew Swanzy's evidence before the House of Commons in 1816: 'Gold is procured in every part of the country; it appears more like an impregnation of the soil than a mine.'