To The Gold Coast for Gold: A Personal Narrative. Vol. II

Highest temperature on April 5 and 14, 96º (1881).

Lowest temperature on June 14, 66º.

Highest rainfall in 24 hours on July 25, 3 30.

Highest variation in 24 hours on April 14, 96º-74º = 22º.

Lowest variation in 24 hours on June 24, 75º-71º = 4º.]

CHAPTER XXIV. — TO THE MINES OF ABOSU, OF THE 'GOLD COAST,' AND OF THE TÁKWÁ

('AFRICAN GOLD COAST') COMPANIES.

On April 6 I reached the Mine d'Or d'Aboassu, this being my second visit. The first, on the previous Sunday, had been more interesting in the point of anthropological than of geological study. The day of rest had been devoted to a general jollification by most of the whites, and the blacks had ably followed suit. The best example was set by the doctor attached: he was said to have emptied sixty-two bottles of cognac during his twenty-three days of steamer-passage. But, brandy proving insufficient, he had recourse to opium, chloral, and bromide of potassium, a pint and a half of laudanum barely sufficing for the week. I need hardly say where the abuse of stimulants and opiates lands a man, either in Western Africa or in England.

From the Abosu village and its abominations I turned sharp to the north-west, and ascended the steep western flank of Abo Yáo, whose highest point is 312 feet above sea-level. The distance from Crockerville is a mile and three-quarters, or a mile in a straight line, and from Tákwá, about six. M. Dahse increases the latter to nine miles, the difference of latitude being three and a quarter miles, and of longitude four. My map will be the first to correct these distances, which are exaggerated by the native carriers to get more pay.

The summit of Abo Yáo commands an extensive view to the north. Here the range of vision is about sixteen miles over the greenest of second growths; and the whole is dotted with buttes of red clay, somewhat lower than 'On the Stone' (Abosu). It is easy to see that here again we have an ancient archipelago, like that which formerly fringed the shore of Axim, but of older formation. In fact, I should not expect to find a true coast before entering the grassy zone north of the great belt of forest. Each hill must carry at least one core of auriferous reef. The intervening valleys, gullies, and gulches, seldom more than a hundred feet above ocean-level, have been warped up by gradual deposition from the north, and are doubtless full of rich alluvium. This might be worked by steam-navvies, and washed upon the largest possible scale; the result would be excellent ground for plantations.

I look upon Abosu as an eastern outlier of the greater Tákwá ridge. But although the hill preserves the normal direction the reef lies almost at right angles to it, crossing the upper end and striking from north 40º west to south 40º east. I am unable to divine what caused this curious dislocation. The gold matrix is still the Tákwá gneiss, rarely showing visible metal. Possibly the present diggings have struck only a large branch or a break.

Here mining-operations have been extensive, and about 1,800 tons of rich stuff have already been brought to bank. The diggings begin with an open cut of 110 feet; this leads to a tunnel in the rock partly timbered, by which the lode with a dip of 41º is bisected. Eastward from the tunnel a gallery has been driven 147 feet along the vein, and westwards there is a similar passage of 202 feet. About 140 feet on either side of the tunnel two rises, one 16, the other 12 feet long, are being driven up the slope of the reef. On the hill-side above the tunnel a shaft 80 feet deep has been sunk, but it has not struck the vein: for some peculiar reason the bottom is made broader than the top; and the mining-captain has a shrewd idea that, like the native pits of similar form, it may end by 'caving in.' Again, a second tunnel has just been opened in the southern end of the butte, the engineer hoping to find the main lode lying conformably, or north with easting.

A little above the northern foot of the Abo Yáo the native workmen are employed in making a large platform, or terrace, for stamps and other machinery; now it is about 150 × 40 yards. As yet there is no power. A large open shed of timber-posts, with a roofing of corrugated iron, stands ready to receive the expected saw-mill. The only actual industry is digging.

At Abosu the personnel is lodged in bamboo-houses scattered over the hill-side, and the settlement contrasts dismally with the orderly comfort of Crockerville. M. Haillot, acting manager of Abosu and Tákwá, leads a caravan-life between the two. Fortunately for him the distance is inconsiderable. I here met Mr. Symonds, a Cornish miner, who has worked in Mexico, and who speaks Spanish fluently, enabling him to converse with M. Plisson. He was one of our fellow-passengers, and he rejoiced exceedingly to see me. He and his youngster, Mr. Mitchell, who suffers from chest-complaint, praised the prospects of the mine, but did not enjoy their pay being cut for passage and the system of ration-money. Another unwise plan adopted by the French Company is to stipulate upon twenty working-days, each of ten hours per mensem, in default of which salaries undergo proportional deduction. This makes the miner work even when he is unfit for exertion. White labour, however, is confined to superintendence and to laying out and building tunnels. A Swiss, M. Schneuvelly, acts as general superintendent, and he is assisted by two French ouvriers. The hands are chiefly Krumen. The style of working is decidedly 'loafy,' and the pipe is touched at all hours and in all places.

North of Abosu lies the Dahse concession, a square of 1,000 fathoms, to be worked by an Anglo-German company. I know it only by hearsay and by seeing it upon the owner's map.

M. Haillot invited me to be his guest, and I spent my day in the mine. Next morning (April 8) we retraced our steps towards Tákwá, halting by the way at the northernmost establishment on the ridge, the 'Gold Coast Mining Company (Limited).' This concession, an area of 1000 x 500 fathoms, on the west of the hill-height, does not as yet show much progress; and the works seem to have increased but little since last year. There are two shafts and two tunnels to strike the lode. The ore brought to grass was not in large quantities, although I had heard to the contrary. The stone is said to be abnormally rich, yielding seven ounces of gold to the ton; but I did not think it richer than its neighbours, and I suspect that it will have to be rated at one-seventh. The manager's house, also on the west of the hill, consists of one large room of plankage, raised on posts and thatched. The brothers Gowan, who are working exceedingly hard, and Mr. Kenyon, who is leaving for England, were the only white men I saw. The hands are chiefly Kruboys and the artificers Sierra Leonites. Since Mr. Creswick's departure for Europe some changes have been made. Mr. Growan, the acting manager, has transferred the future works to a higher level, and has fitted up a reduction-office where there is, at present, nothing to reduce. Crucibles and chemicals are ranged round a long room with an iron roof. The tenant has borrowed a mortar-box, two stamp-heads, shoes, and dies, and has fitted them with wooden stems and cam-shafts. He proposes to drive them by two-man power, in order to crush three tons of ore per diem and to test a new patent amalgamator.

I breakfasted with the scanty staff and then walked down the western valley to the Tákwá establishment, the oldest of the new mining-industries in the Protectorate. I place the African Gold Coast Company, by calculation, in N. lat. 18º 20' and W. long. (Gr.) 1º 57' 40". It is therefore fifteen direct geographical miles from Tumento instead of thirty; twenty-seven (not sixty) from Axim, and thirty-five from Dixcove, formerly supposed to be the nearest port. This position will make an important difference in sundry plans and projects which were made under old and erroneous ideas of its topography. At present the cost of transport from Tumento to Effuenta is 6d. for 10 lbs., 8d. to Tákwá, and 10 d. to Abosu.

The head of the valley shows a single stream, the Babeabárbawo or Tákwá rivulet, rising close to the works of the Gold Coast Company. It is swollen by small tributaries from either side; and, just below the settlement, an eastern dam with a small sluice has been thrown across the valley of the Franco-English company. As there is plenty of water in and near the mine, they should cut at once this abominable dam, which forms a pestilential swamp, the cess-pool of the neighbourhood. The Tákwá settlement, a line of bamboo and swish huts well built enough, lies, like a hamlet in Congo-land, along the winding road. It is bare of trees, but here and there a shaft yawns before the doors. M. Dahse makes the population before 1879 to have been 6,000 souls, and in 1881 about 3,000. I should reduce the latter figure to 600, and propose for 1882, before the May emigration, 1,500 to 1,600. The people are Coast-men and islanders of every tribe, with a fair sprinkling of dissolute ruffians, 'white blackmen,' from Sierra Leone and Akra, drunken Fanti policemen, and plundering Haussa soldiers. The ex-manager of the Effuenta mine says, in allusion to his early residence there, 'So wird Einem das Leben daselbst zu einer wahren Hölle;' and he rightly describes the peculiar industries of these true infernal regions as 'Schnappskneipen, Spielhöllen und Schlimmeres.' Almost every house combines the pub. and the agapemone: all the chief luxuries of the Coast-'factories' are there, and the 'blay' (basket) of Sierra Leone comes out strong. Brilliant cottons and kerchiefs hang from the normal line; there is pomatum for the lucky dandy and tallow for the miner down in his luck; whilst gold-dust is conjured from pouch or pocket by pipes and tobacco, needles and thread, beads, knives, and other notions.

The northern part of this veritable 'Nigger Digger's Delight' is now comparatively deserted: some chief died there, and the people have crowded into the main body of the settlement. The village of Kwábina Angu, King of Eastern Apinto, is now joined to Tákwá. I could not distinguish the 'Palast' of King Kwámi Enimill, who rules western Wásá, and whose capital is Akropong.

M. Haillot had preceded me in a hammock, and welcomed me to his quarters. He occupied one of the three or four raised plank-houses; another lodged Dr. Burke, and a third M. Voltaire, Mr. Carlyon, another young Cornishman, who came out with us, and sundry French ouvriers. A large bamboo-house had been built for a general restaurant: it became a barrack during the 'Ashanti scare,' and now it is quite unused. Standing farther back are the very respectable tenements of the same material, with broad verandahs, occupied at times by Mr. Ex-missionary Dawson and family. The negro quarters are mostly in the Tákwá village.

The 'Father of the African Mines,' dating from 1878, lies on the northern third of the celebrated Tákwá ridge, and its concession embraces an area of 1000 x 2000 fathoms. The rich auriferous reef is the backbone of a long narrow line of hill whose diameter ranges between 1,000 feet to 600 where it is pinched. The lode strikes to the north-north-east with a dip of 47º west. The angle of underlay, I may remark, greatly varies in these Gold Coast reefs; some are nearly vertical (82º), others are moderately inclined (20º to 50º), and others run almost flat. The richest part, not including the broken-off ore, is from eighteen inches to two feet broad. It is decidedly more than 'one to two hundred years old,' as reported home by a scientific official on the spot. The 'coffins,' or abandoned native diggings, must date from at least two centuries ago. The natives scraped off the gold-bearing stone till the water drove them out. The formation is upper Silurian or lower Devonian, a transition to gneiss, but not highly metamorphic. No fossils have yet been found: if any exist they would be microscopic. Where talcose it is bluish, and shows streaks of 'black sand,' titaniferous iron. The grey sand washes to white. There are pot-holes which have been filled with either a pudding or a breccia of quartz. In places the gneiss has been so little changed by heat and pressure that it forms arenaceous flags and shales. It suggests a deposit in some ancient lagoon, alternately fresh and salt. A hard fissile slate of purple colour is based upon the ground-rock of grey granite; there is also a modern clay-slate, which lies unconformably to the older, and through it the great veins of gneiss and quartz seem to pass. The alluvial detritus, which fills up the valleys to their present level, is formed by the diluvium of the hills: in parts these bottoms show strata, from one to three feet thick, of water-rolled pebbles bedded in clay. Here and there the couch must be a hundred feet deep, and the whole should be raised for washing by machinery. These strata were apparently deposited in a lagoon of more modern date.

The gold is sometimes visible in the gneiss; and I have seen pieces whose surface is dotted with yellow spots resembling pyrites. It is often in the form of spangles called float-gold and flour-gold. Select specimens have yielded upwards of eight ounces to the ton. If the blanketings and first tailings be properly treated, it should afford an average of at least an ounce and a half per ton. Treating a hundred tons a day gives a sum of 30,000 per annum; and, assuming 6l. of gold to the ton, we have a total of 180,000l. The working of this section of the mine should not exceed 30,000l. a year, which leaves a net gain of 150,000l.

The Bergwerke consist of four tunnels driven into the lower part of the western hill-side, further down than the bottom of the abandoned native workings. They are eccentrically disposed in curves and other queer figures. All abut upon galleries running in sections along the lode-line, and intended ultimately to connect. The total length may be a thousand feet. Being cut in the gneiss, they require no timbering; but the floors are little raised above the level of the rivulet, and water percolates through roofs and walls. The latest tunnel has been driven past the new gallery, and has struck a second lode; this has never been worked by the natives, and stoping to above the springs may be found advisable. Ventilation is managed by means of the old abandoned native shafts. A very large quantity of ore is brought to bank. I found it hard to form an estimate, because it was in scattered heaps overgrown with vegetation; but I should not be surprised if it amounted to 5,000 tons. This means that want of proper machinery has resulted in a dead capital of from 20,000l. to 30,000l.

A space has been cleared on the level of the trams uniting the mouths of the tunnel, and here will be placed the 'elephant-stamps' actually on their way out. They have now two batteries, each of six head, worked by the same shaft: the steam-engine, as usual, is the Belleville. The material is bad; the gratings, on the levels of the dies, have been smashed by the stones bombarding them, and the ill-constructed foundations of native wood are eaten by white ants. Yet they have done duty for only eighteen months. The sludge was treated in fancy amalgamators, especially in one with a pan and revolving arms, probably evolved out of the inner consciousness of some gentleman in Paris. The result was discharging upwards of 1,500 lbs. of mercury into the valley below. A little amalgam was obtained, and proved that the rock does contain gold—a fact perfectly well known for centuries to the natives.

The history of the 'African Gold Coast' Mine in the hands of Franco-English shareholders has already been noticed. M. Bonnat preferred reworking the old native diggings to the virgin reefs lying north and south of them. Some of the latter can be worked for years without pumping; on the others the plant will be expensive. But the Company, instead of mining, has gone deeply into concession-mongering, and their grants are scattered broadcast over the country. One of them, the 'Mankuma,' near Aodua, the capital of Eastern Apinto, extends twenty-six miles, with a depth of 500 yards on either bank of the Ancobra River above the mouth of the Abonsá influent. These gigantic areas will give rise to many lawsuits, and no man in the country has power to make such a grant. The ownership of the land is vested in a 'squirearchy,' so to speak, and only the proprietors have a right to sell or lease. When gold is worked the 'squire' takes his royalty from the miner, and he or his chiefs must in turn pay tribute to the 'king.' Hence the money may pass through three or four hands before reaching its final destination.

These indiscriminate concessions will be very injurious to the future of the Protectorate, and should be limited by law. At present the only use is to sell them to syndicates and companies, and so to pay a fictitious dividend to the actionnaires. Evidently such a process is rather on the 'bear and bull' system of the stock-market than legitimate mining.

I was well acquainted with the late M. Bonnat, a bright, cheery little Frenchman of great energy, some knowledge of the Fanti, or rather the Ashanti, language, and perfect experience of the native character. Born at a village near Macon, he began life as a cook on board a merchant ship; he soon became agent to some small French trading firm, and then pushed his way high up the unexplored Volta River. Here the Ashantis barred his passage, and eventually took him prisoner as he attempted to cross their limits; he was carried to Kumási, where he remained in confinement for three years. When the war of 1873-1874 set him at liberty he passed through Wásá to Europe, and by his local information, and that gathered in captivity, he secured the public ear for the gold-mines. His later proceedings are well known, and some of their unfortunate results are best unrelated.

I met M. Bonnat last in June 1881; he was then going up to Tákwá in company with Messieurs Bowden and Macarthy, and I was canoeing down the Ancobra on my way home. He was suffering severely from a carbuncular boil on the thigh, which he refused to have properly opened. His death, which occurred within a fortnight, is usually attributed to pleuro-pneumonia, but I rather think it was due to blood-poisoning. He had been exposing himself recklessly for some months, and two drenchings in the rain brought him to his end; yet there are people who remember his visit to the forbidden fetish-valley of Apatim. The father of the modern gold-mines, the Frenchman who taught Englishmen how to work their own wealth, lies buried at Tákwá; I did not see his tomb.

The two French mines, Tákwá and Abosu, have at last agreed to join hands and to become one. The capital has been fixed at 250,000l., and Paris will be the head-quarters. Mr. Arthur Bowden, the manager, has been sent for to, and has now returned from France: it is to be hoped that his extensive experience will instil some practical spirit into the new Directory.

CHAPTER XXV. — RETURN TO AXIM AND DEPARTURE FOR EUROPE.

I awoke on Saturday, April 9, in bad condition, and during the afternoon had my third attack of fever, the effect of the dam and its miasma. Wanting change of air, and looking forward to Effuenta, I set off in my hammock and found my friends. The tertian lasted me till Monday, Sunday being an 'off-day;' and, as the Tuesday was wet and uncomfortable, I delayed departure till Wednesday morning. My 'Warburg' had unfortunately leaked out: the paper cover of the phial was perfect, but of the contents only a little sediment remained. Treatment, therefore, was confined to sulphate of quinine and a strychnine and arsenic pill; arseniate of quinine would have been far better, but the excellent preparation is too economical for the home-pharmist, and has failed to secure the favour of the Coast-doctors. One of my friends has made himself almost fever-proof by the liberal use of arsenic; but I can hardly recommend it, as the result must be corrected by an equally liberal use of Allan's anti-fat. Burton, who has studied its use amongst the Styrian arsenic-eaters, denies that this is the common effect: he found that it makes the mountaineer preserve his condition, wind and complexion, arms him against ague, and adds generally to his health. He is still doubtful, however, whether it shortens or prolongs life.

On Wednesday, April 12, I left Effuenta after morning tea. My hospitable host had nearly seen the last of his stores, to which he had made me so cordially welcome; and there were no signs of fresh supplies, although they had long been due. This is hardly fair treatment for the hard-working employé: let the Company look to it. With a certain tightening of the heart I made over my canine friend, Nero, to Dr. Roulston. He had lost all those bad habits which neglected education had engrafted upon the heat of youth. He now began to show more fondness for sport than for sheep-worrying; and he retrieved one bird, carrying it with the utmost delicacy of mouth.

I set out on foot for Vinegar Hill, and found that the steep eastern ascent from the Tákwá ridge had been provided with a series of cut steps by Mr. Commissioner: in these lands, as elsewhere, new brooms sweep clean; but they are very easily worn out. This place has been for years the 'black beast' of travellers, especially in rainy weather, when the rapid incline becomes so slippery that even the most sure-footed slither and slide.

After crossing the Abonsá Hill I took to my hammock and was carried through rain, and a very devilry of weather, into the Abonsá village. The whole path was shockingly bad and muddy. Once more I became a lodger of Mr. Crocker's; his house, being as usual far the best, gave us good shelter for the night.

Next morning (7.30) we set out down the Abonsá stream in a small canoe belonging to Mr. MacLennan. The natives made the usual difficulties; the craft (which was quite sound) could not float, and amongst other things she had no paddles: for this, however, I had provided by making my men cut them last evening. Almost immediately after leaving this head of navigation, barred above by a reef and a fall, we saw that eternal mangrove. Presently the Aunábé creek broke the line of the right bank. Our course was as usual exceedingly tortuous, turning to every quadrant of the compass; and, during the last fortnight, the water-level had risen four feet. The formation of the trough is that of the Ancobra, and the bed bristles with rocks. In a distance of seven miles and a half by course there were four small breaks, and one serious rapid about a hundred yards long, where the decline exceeded five feet. Here the men had to get overboard and to ease the canoe down the swirling waters, which dashed heavily on the rocks. The snags were even thicker than on the upper Ancobra, and were far more dangerous than on the St. John's. In places the mangrove fallen from the banks had taken root in the river-bed. In fact, unless some exertion be soon made, even the present insufficient channel will be blocked up.

At the Abonsá embouchure Mr. Wyatt's map, copied from M. Dahse, shows an island backed by a ridge running nearly east-west. I found no river-holm, and only a small broadening of the Ancobra to about double its usual breadth. The banks at the sharp angle of junction are, however, low; and, perhaps, my predecessor saw them when flooded. The Mankuma Hill, on the right bank, belonging to the Franco-English Company, is somewhat taller than its neighbours: as usual in this silted-up archipelago, it trends from the north-east to the south-west.

I had already shot the Ancobra River when paddling up, and was not over lucky when coming down. The big kingfisher did not put in an appearance, and the sun-birds equally failed me: the smallest item of my collection measures two and a quarter inches, and is robed in blue, crimson, and sulphur. I was fortunate enough to bring home four specimens of a rare spur-plover (Lobivanellus albiceps): they are now in Mr. Sharp's department of the British Museum. I killed a few little snakes and one large green tree-snake; two crocodiles, both lost in the river, and an iguana, which found its way into the spirit-cask. A tzetze-fly (Glossina morsitans) was captured in Effuenta House, curiously deserting its usual habit of jungle-life in preference to a home on clear ground: its dagger-like proboscis, in the grooved sheath with a ganglion of muscles at the base, assimilated it to the dreaded and ferocious cattle-scourge which extends from Zanzibar to the Tanganyika Lake and from Kilwa (Quiloa) to the Transvaal. My kind friend and hospitable host Dr. (now Sir) John Kirk, who did the geography and natural history for the lamentable Zambeze expedition, met it close to the Victoria Falls. Burton also sent home a specimen from the Gold Coast east of Accra.

Mr. MacLennan gave me sundry beetles, but insisted on retaining one which is the largest I ever saw. The hunting-dog must scour the bush in packs, for the voice is exactly that of hounds. The laugh of the hyæna and the scream of the buzzard are commonly heard. The track of a 'bush-cow' once crossed my path: the halves of the spoor were some five inches long by three wide, and the hoofs knuckled backwards so as to show false hoofs of almost equal size. I was unable to procure for Dr. Günther a specimen of the 'bush-dog,' as the Kruboys call it: last year I was bringing home a live one in the s.s. Nubia; but one day the fellow in charge reported that it was dead and had been thrown overboard. I hold it to be a tailless lemur, the galago of the East Coast. The French name is orson, the popular idea being that it is an ursine. The Fanti peoples, whose 'folk-lore' is extensive, and who have some tale about every bird, beast, and fish, thus account for the loud cries which we heard at night in every 'bush.' King Leo, having lost his mother, commanded by proclamation all his subjects to attend her funeral, and none failed save Orson. One evening his Feline Majesty, when going his rounds, found the delinquent upon the ground, and roughly demanded the reason why. Orson, shuffling towards the nearest tree, pleaded in all humility, 'O King, is thy beloved parent really deceased? I never heard of it. I am so sorry; I would never have failed to show the respect due to the royal house.' When he had climbed the foot of the tree his tone began to alter. 'But, Sire, if thy Majesty hath lost a mother, I see no cause compelling me to attend her funeral.' And when quite safe the change was notable. 'Bother the old woman! very glad she is dead, and may her grave be defiled!' These people know the stuff of which courtiers are made.

My collection of specimens from the mines and the river-beds filled a dozen cases. The butterflies, of which we collected a large number, were all spoilt by the moth for want of camphor. 'Insect-powder' had been our only preservative. I had also a thirty-gallon cask of plants preserved in spirits, two boxes well stuffed, a large case of orchids, and a raceme of the bamboo-palm (Raphia vinifera), whose use has still to be found. The animals, including insects in tubes, filled nearly two kegs and three bottles, and I had two small cases of stuffed birds, the handiwork of Mr. Dawson.

Of stone-implements I was lucky enough to secure thirty-six, and made over four of them to my friend Professor Prestwich. They are found everywhere throughout the country, but I saw no place of manufacture except those noted near Axim. Mr. Sam, of Tumento, promised to forward many others to England. The native women search for and find them not only near the beds of streams, but also about the alluvial diggings. Nearly all are shaped like the iron axe or adze of Urúa, in Central Africa, a long narrow blade with rounded top and wedge-shaped edge. This tool is either used in the hand like a chisel, or inserted into a conical hole burnt through a tree-branch, and the shape of the aperture makes every blow tighten the hold. The people mount it in two ways, either as an axe in line with, or as an adze at a right angle to, the helve.

At Akankon I obtained from Mr. Amondsen a stone-implement of novel shape, not seen by me elsewhere. A bit of the usual close-grained trap had been cut into a parallelopiped seven and a half inches long with a flat head one inch and a half in diameter and a bevel-edge of two inches and one-third along the slope. This part had been chipped ready for grinding, and the article was evidently unfinished; one side still wanted polishing, and the part opposite the bevel showed signs of tapering, as if a point instead of an edge had been intended. At Axim I split off by gads and wedges a large slice of the grooved rocks described by Burton; it came home with me, and is now lodged in the British Museum.

The rest of my story is told in a few words. I canoed safely down the Ancobra River, and reached Axim on April 14. This return was made sad and solitary by the absence of my canine friend, Nero.

A week soon passed away at the port of the Gold-region. Mr. Grant presently returned from his excursion to the west. He showed me fine specimens of gold collected at Newtown, the English frontier-settlement immediately east of French Assini. I had also warned him to look out for, and he succeeded in finding, beds of bitumen permeated with petroleum: this material will prove valuable for fuel and for asphalting, if not for sale. My time was wholly taken up with papering and repacking my collection, which had now assumed formidable proportions, and time fled the faster as the days were occupied in also fighting an impertinent attack of ague and fever.

On April 24 the B. and A. s.s. Loanda (Captain Brown) anchored in the roads. Mr. Grant accompanied me on board, and showed himself useful and energetic as usual. At Cape Palmas we shipped the Honourable Doctor and Professor Blyden. He pointed out to me certain hillocks on the coast about Grand Bassá, where he said gold had lately been found. The lay of the land and the strike and shape of the eminences reminded me strongly of those I had left behind me. The 'Secretary of the Interior,' who had been compelled to leave his college, assured me that if wiser counsels prevail Liberia will abandon her old Japanese policy of exclusion, and will open her ports to European capital and enterprise. At Sierra Leone I called upon Governor Havelock, who was recovering from the accident of a dislocated shoulder. Both he and the 'Governess' were in the best of health. At Madeira, on May 12, my companion Burton joined us, and we had a week of dull passage to Liverpool. As we left on Friday and carried a reverend gentleman on board, the cranky old craft was sorely tossed about for two successive days, and we were delayed off the Liverpool bar, arriving on the 20th instead of the 18th of May, 1882.

CONCLUSION.

The journey and the voyage ended, as such things should do, with a dinner of welcome at the Adelphi, given to us by our hospitable friend Mr. James Irvine. And here we had the first opportunity of delivering the message which we had brought home from the Golden Land.

APPENDIX I

§1. THE ASHANTI SCARE.

That fears of an Ashanti attack upon the mines of the Gold Coast Protectorate are rather fanciful than factual we may learn from the details of the Blue Book 'Gold Coast, 1881.' The 'threatened Ashanti invasion,' popularly termed the 'Ashanti scare,' did abundant good by showing up the weakness of that once powerful despotism, and the superiority in numbers and in equipment of the coastlanders over the inlanders. It is true that there are tribes, like the Awunahs of the Volta, and villages, like Béin in Apollonia, which still sympathise with our old enemy. But only the grossest political mismanagement, like that which in 1876 abandoned our ally, the King of Juabin, to the tender mercies of his Ashanti foeman, aided by the unwisest economy, which starves everything to death save the treasure-chest, will ever bring about a general movement against us.

On December 1, 1880, died, to the general regret of native and stranger, Mr. Ussher, Governor and Commander-in-Chief of the Gold Coast; a veteran in the tropics and an ex-commissariat officer, whose political service dated from 1861. In British India a change of rulers is always supposed to offer a favourable opportunity for 'doing something,' often in the shape of a revolt or a campaign. The same proved to be the case in West Africa, where the Ashanti is officially described as 'crafty, persistent, mendacious, and treacherous.'

It may easily be imagined that after the English victories at Amoaful and Ordusu in 1873-74 the African despotism sighed for la revanche. The Treaty of Fománá, concluded (February 13), after the capture (February 4) and the firing (February 6) of Kumasi, between Sir Garnet Wolseley and the representative of the King, Kofi Kalkali, or Kerrikerri, subsequently dethroned, stripped her of her principal dependencies—lopped off, in fact, her four limbs. These were the ever-hostile province of Denkira, auriferous Akim, Adansi, and lastly Assin, now part of our Protectorate. The measure only renewed the tripartite treaty of April 27, 1831, when King Kwáko Dúa, in consideration of free access to the seaboard, and in friendship with the unfortunate and ill-treated Governor (George) Maclean, 'renounced all right or title to any tribute, or homage, from the Kings of Denkira, Assin, and others formerly his subjects.' But nulla fronti fides is the rule of the hideous little negro despotism, which, in 1853, again invaded the coveted lands on its southern frontier, Assin.

The treaty of 1874, moreover, compelled Ashanti formally to renounce all pretensions to sovereignty over Elmina and the tribes formerly in connection with the Dutch Government. It vetoed her raids and forays upon neighbouring peoples; like Dahome she had her annual slave-hunts and the captives were sold for gold-dust to the inner tribes. The young officers who replaced the veterans of the war would naturally desire, in Kafir parlance, to 'wash their spears.' Nor are they satisfied with the defeats sustained by their sires. 'I believe,' wrote Winwood Reade, 'that Sir Garnet Wolseley attained the main object of the expedition, namely, the securing of the Protectorate from periodical invasion. Yet still I wish that the success had been more definite and complete.' The wish is echoed by most people on the coast; and the natives still say, 'White man he go up Kumasi, he whip black boy, and then he run away.'

It is regretable that the Commander-in-Chief, if he could not occupy Kumasi himself, did not leave Sir John H. Glover in charge, and especially that he did not destroy the Bantama (royal place of human sacrifice), [Footnote: Sir Garnet Wolseley's admirable conduct of the Egyptian campaign, where he showed all the qualities which make up the sum of 'generalship,' have wiped out the memory of his failures in Ashanti and Kafir-land. Better still, he has proved that the British soldier can still fight, a fact upon which the disgraceful Zulu campaign had cast considerable doubt. But the public ignores a truth known to every professional. Under an incompetent or unlucky commander all but the best men will run: the worst will allow themselves to be led or driven to victory by one they trust. Compare the Egyptian troops under old Ibrahim Pasta, and under Arabi, the Fe-lah-Pasha.] or at least remove from it the skull of Sir Charles Macarthy. [Footnote: Captain Brackenbury throws doubt upon the skull being preserved in the Bantama; but his book is mainly apologetic, and we may ask, If the cherished relic be not there, where is it? The native legend runs thus: 'And they took him (i.e. Macarthy) and cut off his head, and brought it to their camp and removed the brains; but the skull, which was left, they filled it with gold, and they roasted the whole body and they carried it to Ashanti.... And the head, which they bore to Ashanti, has become their "fetish," which they worship till this day.'—Native account of Macarthy's death, Zimmermann's Grammar of the Accra or Ga Language, Stuttgart, 1858.] And yet we now learn that the campaign did good work. Captain Lonsdale, who has spent some time in Kumasi, reports that the Caboceers have built huts instead of repairing their 'palaces.' Moreover, he declares that the story of sacrificing girls to mix their blood with house-swish is a pure fabrication; the Ashantis would no longer dare to do anything so offensive to the conqueror.

Last on the list of solid Ashanti grievances is her exclusion from the seaboard. Unknown to history before A.D. 1700, the Despotism first invaded the Coast in 1807, when King Osai Tutu Kwámina pretended a wish to recover the fugitive chiefs Chibbu and Aputai. These attacks succeeded one another at intervals of ten years, say the Fantis. The main object was to secure a port on the coast, where the inlanders could deal directly with the white man, and could thus escape the unconscionable pillaging, often fifty per cent. and more, of the Fanti middleman. This feeling is not, indeed, unknown to Europe: witness Montenegro. I see no reason why the people should not have an 'Ashantimile' at the Volta mouth; and I shall presently return to this subject.

Hardly was Governor Ussher buried than troubles began. Mr. Edmund Watt, a young District-commissioner at Cape Coast Castle, officially reported to Lieutenant-Governor W. B. Griffith, subsequently Administrator of Lagos, that Opoku, 'King' of Bekwa (Becquah), had used language tending to a breach of the peace. This commander-in-Chief of the Ashanti forces in 1873-74 had publicly sworn in his sober senses at Kumasi, and in presence of the new king, Kwámina Osai Mensah, that he would perforce reduce Adansi, the hill-country held to be the southern boundary of Ashanti-land. Such a campaign would have been an infraction of treaty, or at least a breach of faith: although the province is not under the protection of the Colonial Government, King Kofi Kalkali [Footnote: This ruler succeeded his father, King Kwáko Dúa, in 1868; and his compulsory abdication is considered to have been an ill-advised measure.] had promised to respect its independence and to leave it unmolested.

Lieutenant-Governor Griffith lost no time in forwarding the report to the Colonial Office, adding sundry disquieting rumours which supported his suspicions. Missionaries and merchants had observed that certain 'messengers,' or envoys, sent from Kumasi to acknowledge the presents of the late Governor Ussher, were lingering without apparent reason about Cape Coast Castle, after being formally dismissed. Moreover, their residing in the house of 'Prince Ansah,' a personage not famous for plain dealing, boded no good.

A new complication presently arose. Prince Owusu, nephew of the King and heir to the doughty Gyáman kingdom, fled from Kumasi to the Protectorate, and reached Elmina on January 18. He appeared in great fear, and declared that a son of the chief Amankwá Kwomá and three 'court-criers,' or official heralds, were coming down to the coast on a solemn mission to demand his extradition. They carried, he said, not the peaceful cane with the gold or silver head, but the mysterious 'Gold Axe.' Opinions at once differed as to the import and object of this absurd implement. According to some its mission portended war, and it had preceded the campaigns of 1863 and 1873. Others declared that it signified a serious 'palaver,' being a strong hint that the King would cut through and down every obstacle. Strange to say, the first Ashanti messengers were never called upon to explain before the public what the 'Gold Axe' really did mean.

The Colonial Office acted with spirit and wholesome vigour. It was urged on by Mr. Griffith, whose energetic reports certainly saved the Protectorate grave troubles. He has thereby incurred much blame, ridicule, and obloquy; nor has he received due credit from those under whom he served.

The newly-appointed Governor and Commander-in-Chief of the Gold Coast, Sir Samuel Rowe, at once ordered out to relieve Mr. Griffith, left England in mid-February. He was accompanied by a staff of seven officers temporarily employed. Reinforcements were hurried from Sierra Leone and the West Indies. The Admiralty was applied to for the reunion of cruisers upon the Gold Coast waters. Estimates of native allies were drawn up, showing that 20,000 half-armed men could be brought into the field against the 30,000 of Ashanti. The loyal and powerful chief Kwámina Blay, of Atábo, in Amrehía, or Western Apollonia, offered 6,000 muskets, and an additional 1,000 hands if the Government would supply arms and ammunition.

On January 19 the ambassador with the 'Gold Axe' presented himself at Elmina. He was accompanied by Saibi Enkwiá, who had signed the treaty at Fománá, a village in Assin, between Kumasi and the Bosom Prah River. The envoy formally demanded possession of Prince Owusu and of one Amangkrá, an Ashanti trader who had aided him to escape. Saibi Enkwiá added by way of threat, 'The King said, if the Governor would not order the return of Owusu to Kumasi, he would attack the Assins.' He further explained that these Assins were the people who always caused 'palavers' between the Ashantis and the Protectorate, to which they belonged.

Naturally the ignominious demand was refused. The messengers left for Kumasi, and Lieutenant-Governor Griffith telegraphed from Madeira to England (January 25), 'War imminent with Ashanti.' It was considered suspicious that all the inlanders were disappearing from the coast. This was afterwards explained: they were flocking north for the 'native Christmas,' the Yam-custom, or great festival of the year.

Our preparations were pushed forward the more energetically as time appeared to be tight. The Ashantis were buying up all the weapons they could find when the sale of arms, ammunition, and salt was prohibited. Detachments were despatched to the Mansu and Prahsu stations; the latter is upon the Bosom (Abosom, or Sacred) Prah, the frontier between Ashanti and the Protectorate, to cross which is to 'pass the Rubicon.' Here, as at other main fords and ferries, defensive works were laid out. Arrangements were made for holding nine out of the eighteen forts, abandoning the rest; and Accra was strengthened as the central place. The 'companies,' or 'native levies,' who, with a suspicious unanimity, applied for guns and gunpowder, lead and flints, were urged to the 'duty of defence.' Five cruisers, under Commander (now Captain, R.N.) J. W. Brackenbury, were stationed off the three chief castles, Elmina, Cape Coast, and Anamabo, and the naval contingent was drilled daily on shore. The Haussa constabulary was reinforced. The First West India Regiment sent down men from Sierra Leone, and the Second 500 rank and file from Barbadoes. In fact, such ardour was shown that the Ashantis, scared out of their intentions of scaring, began to fear another English invasion. 'The white men intend to take Kumasi again!' they said; and perhaps the reflection that 48,000 ounces of gold were still due to us suggested a motive. They had been making ready for offence; now they prepared for defence.

About mid-February the 'situation' notably changed. Messieurs Buck and Huppenbauer, two German missionaries who were making a 'preaching-tour,' reported from Kumasi that King Mensah was afraid of war, and that his kingdom was 'on the point to go asunder.' The despot, with African wiliness, at once threw the blame of threatening Assin upon his confidant, Saibi Enkwiá. No one believed that an Ashantiman would thus expose himself to certain death; but the explanation served for an excuse. The King also asserted that his 'Gold Axe' meant simply nothing. Thereupon the officials of the Protectorate began looking forward to an ample apology, and to a fine of gold-dust for the disturbing of their quiet days. In fact, they foresaw 'peace with honour.'

Governor Sir Samuel Rowe, with his usual good fortune, landed at Elmina on March 9, exactly the right time. The attempt to intimidate had ignobly failed, and had recoiled upon the attempter. King Mensah, in order to remove all suspicions of intending a campaign, had resolved to send coastwards the most important and ceremonious mission of the age. It was to conclude a kind of Paix des Dames. Queen Kokofu had threatened that in case of hostilities she would go over to the British. The Queen-mother, a power in the country, which has often kept the peace for it and plunged it into war, threatened to take her own life—and here such threats are always followed by action. In fact, the peace-party had utterly overthrown the war-party.

The mission left Kumasi in May. It was headed by Prince Bwáki, step-father to the two royal brothers, Kofi Kalkali and Kwábina Osai Mensah, and the number as well as the high rank of the retinue made it remarkable. At Prahsu, where the envoys were met by Governor Rowe, a preliminary conversation took place. Despite the usual African and barbarian fencing and foiling, the Englishman carried the day; the message must be delivered with all publicity and proper ceremony in the old 'palaver-hall' of historic Elmina Castle.

A conclusive interview took place on May 30. Prince Bwáki explained that 'mistakes had been made, but that the mistakes had not been alone those of his king and son-in-law.' He declared that the messenger, Saibi Enkwiá, had exceeded his powers in threatening Assin. The King, he said, had sworn by 'God and earth,' that is, by the 'spirits' above and by the ghosts below, that he had sent no such message. At the same time the King confessed being partly to blame, as the message had been delivered by his own servant. In the matter of the 'Gold Axe,' however, the mistake was the mistake of the Lieutenant-Governor (Griffith).

The Prince further explained that Ashanti has two symbols of war, a peculiar sword and a certain cap; whereas the 'Gold Axe' being 'fetish' and endowed with some magical and mysterious power, is never sent on a hostile errand. He offered, in the King's name, as further evidence of friendly feeling, to surrender the 'so-called Golden Axe,' which important symbol of Ashanti power had been forwarded from head-quarters with an especial mission. It was delivered on the express understanding that it should be despatched to England for the acceptance of H.B. Majesty, and not be kept upon the coast, exposed to the ribaldry of the hostile Fantis. The weapon, said Prince Bwáki, is so old that no one knows its origin, and it is held so precious that in processions it precedes the Great Royal Stool, or throne, of Ashanti. The leopard-skin, bound with gold upon the handle, symbolises courage in the field; the gold is wealth, and the iron is strength.

Finally, the unhappy 'Gold Axe,' after being publicly paraded upon a velvet cushion through the streets of Elmina, was entrusted to Captain Knapp Barrow, who returned to England by the next steamer. It was duly presented, and found its way to the South Kensington Museum, after faring very badly at the hands of the 'society journals' and other members of the fourth estate. [Footnote: For instance: 'The gold axe of King Koffee of Ashantee, lately sent, for an unexplained reason, to the Queen, is described as a triangular blade of iron, apparently out from a piece of boiler-plate, roughly stuck into a clumsy handle of African oak. The handle is covered with leopard-skin, part of which, immediately above the blade, is deeply soiled, apparently with blood. Bands of thin gold, enriched with uncouth chevrons and lunettes en repoussé, are placed round the handle. The sheath of the blade, which is of tiger (leopard) skin, accompanies this hideous implement, and attached to it is the sole element which has anything like artistic merit. This is a nondescript object of beaten gold, in shape something like a large cockle-shell with curved horns extending from the hinge, and not inelegantly decorated with lines and punctures, en repoussé and open work of quasi-scrolls.'] Needless to say it was an utter impostor. The real Golden Axe is great 'fetish,' and never leaves either Kumasi or, indeed, the presence of the King.

The ceremony of delivering the message in the palaver-hall was satisfactory. Prince Bwáki grasped the knees of Governor Rowe, the official sign of kneeling. He expressed the devotion of his liege lord to the Majesty of England; and finally he offered to pay down at once two thousand ounces of gold in proof of Ashantian sincerity. All these transactions were duly recorded; the promises in the form of a bond.

The play was now played out; cruisers and troops dispersed, and golden Peace reigned once more supreme. Prince Owusu, a drunken, dissolute Eupatrid, who had caused the flutter, when ordered on board a man-of-war for transportation to a place of safety, relieved the Gold Coast from further trouble. He was found hanging in the 'bush' behind Elmina Castle. Most men supposed it to be a case of suicide; a few of course surmised that he had been kidnapped and murdered by orders from Kumasi.

Since that time to the present day our Protectorate has been free from 'scare.' The affair, as it happened, did abundant good by banishing all fear for the safety of the Wásá (Wassaw) diggings. During the worst times not a single English employé of the mines had left his post to take refuge in the Axim fort. This does them honour, as some of the establishments lay within handy distance of the ferocious black barbarians.

The native chiefs, especially 'King Blay,' proved themselves able and willing to aid us in whatever difficulties might occur. The kingdom of Gyáman further showed that it can hold its own against shorn Ashanti, or rather that it is becoming the more powerful of the two. The utter failure of the scare is an earnest that, under normal circumstances, while King Mensah, a middle-aged man, occupies the 'stool,' we shall hear no more of 'threatened Ashanti invasions.'

But the true way to pacify the despotism is to allow Ashanti to 'make a beach'—in other words, to establish a port. This measure I have supported for the last score of years, but to very little purpose. The lines of objection are two. The first is in the mercantile. As all the world knows, commercial interests are sure to be supported against almost any other in a reformed House of Commons; and, in the long run, they gain the day. The Coast-tribes under our protection are mere brokers and go-betweens, backed up and supported by the wholesale merchant, because he prefers quieta non movere, and he fears lest the change be from good to bad. I, on the other hand, contend that both our commerce and customs would gain, in quantity as well as in quality, by direct dealings with the peoples of the interior. The second, or sentimental, line belongs to certain newspapers; and even their intelligence can hardly believe the ad captandum farrago which they indite. The favourite 'bunkum' is about 'baring the Christian negro's throat to the Ashanti knife.' But the Fantis and other Coast-tribes were originally as murderous and bloodthirsty in their battles and religious rites as their northern neighbours: if there be any improvement it is wholly due to the presence and the pressure, physical as well as moral, of Europeans—of Christians, if you like. Even Whydah is not blood-stained like Agbóme, because it has been occupied by a few slavers, white and brown. Why, then, should the Ashantis be refused the opportunity and the means of amendment? Ten years' experience in Africa teaches me that they would be as easily reformed as the maritime peoples; and it is evident that the sentimentalist, if he added honesty and common sense to the higher quality, should be the first to advocate the trial.

But I would not allow the Ashantis to hold a harbour anywhere near Elmina. They should have their 'mile' and beach east of the Volta River, where they would soon effect a lodgment, despite all the opposition of their sanguinary friends and our ferocious enemies the Awunah and the Krepi (Crepee) savages.

I will end this paper with a short notice of the kingdom of Gyáman, generally written Gaman and too often pronounced 'Gammon.' Its strength and vigour are clearly increasing; it is one of the richest of gold-fields, and it lies directly upon the route to the interior. Of late years it has almost faded from the map, but it is described at full length in the pages of Barbot (1700) and Bosman (1727), of Bowdich (1818), and of Dupuis (1824). They assign to it for limits Mandenga-land to the north and west; to the south, Aowin and Bassam, and the Tando or eastern fork of the Assini to the east. This Tando, which some moderns have represented as an independent stream, divides it from Ashanti-land, lying to the south and the south-east. Dupuis places the old capital, Bontuko, whence the Gyámans were formerly called 'Bontukos,' eight stages north-west of Kumasi; and the new capital, Huraboh, five marches beyond Bontuko. The country, level and grassy, begins the region north of the great forest-zone which subtends the maritime mangrove swamps. It breeds horses and can command Moslem allies, equestrian races feared by the Ashantis.

The Gyámans, according to their tradition, migrated, or rather were driven, southwards from their northern homes. This was also, as I have said, the case with the Fantis and Ashantis; the latter occupied their present habitat about 1640, and at once became the foes of all their neighbours. King Osai Tutu, 'the Great,' first of Ashanti despot-kings (1719), made Gyáman tributary. The conquest was completed by his brother-successor, Osai Apoko (1731), who fined Abo, the neighbour-king, in large sums of gold and fixed an annual subsidy. Gyáman, however, rebelled against Osai Kwájo (Cudjoe), the fourth of the dynasty (1752), and twice defeated him with prodigious slaughter. The Ashanti invader brought to his aid Moslem cavalry, and succeeded in again subjugating the insurgents. The conquered took no action against the fifth king, but they struck for independence under Osai Apoko II (1797). Aided by Moslem and other allies, they crossed the Tando and fought so sturdily that the enemy 'liberally bestowed upon them the titles of warlike and courageous.' The Ashantis at length compelled the Moslems of their country to join them, and ended by inflicting a crushing defeat upon the invaders.

Osai Tutu Kwámina, on coming to the throne (1800), engaged in the campaign against Gyáman called, for distinction, the 'first Bontuko war.' He demanded from King Adinkara his ancestral and royal stool, which was thickly studded and embossed with precious metal. The craven yielded it and purchased peace. His brave sister presently replaced it by a seat of solid gold: this the Ashanti again requisitioned, together with a large gold ornament in the shape of an elephant, said to have been dug from some ruins. The Amazon replied, with some detail and in the 'spade' language, that she and her brother should exchange sexes, and that she would fight à l'outrance; whereupon the Ashanti, with many compliments about her bravery, gave her twelve months to prepare for a campaign.

In 1818 Dupuis found Ashanti engaged in the 'second Bontuko war' with Adinkara, who had again thrown off his allegiance. But small-pox was raging in the capital, and this campaign ended (1819-20) with the defeat and death of the womanly monarch, with a massacre of 10,000 prisoners, and with the sale of 20,000 captives. Thus Gyáman was again annexed to Ashanti-land as a province, instead of enjoying the rank of a tributary kingdom; and the conqueror's dominions extended from Cape Lahou (W. long. 4º 36') through Gyáman to the Volta River (E. long. 0º 42' 18"), a coast-line of some 318 direct geographical miles.

Gyáman, however, seems to have had a passion for liberty. She fought again and again to recover what she had lost in 1820; and, on more occasions than one, she was successful in battle. During the 'Ashanti scare' the sturdy kingdom was preparing for serious hostilities; and a little war of six or seven months had already been waged between the neighbours. The late Prince Owusu, before mentioned, deposed before the authorities of our Protectorate as follows: 'At Kumasi I was ordered to eat the skull of the late King of Gyáman, which was kept there as a trophy from the conquest of Gyáman; but I did not do it.' He also asserted that, in 1879, a white man, Nielson, and his interpreter, Huydecooper, had been sent by an intriguer to Gyáman, bearing a pretended message from the British Government and the Fanti chiefs, enjoining the King to conclude peace with the Ashantis, and to restore their 3,700 captives. Neither of these men saw the ruler of Gyáman, and it is believed that Nielson, having begun a quarrel by firing upon the people, was killed in the fray.

At this moment Gyáman is battling with her old enemies, and threatens to be a dangerous rival, if not a conqueror. Here, then, we may raise a strong barrier against future threats of Ashanti invasion, and make security more secure. The political officers of the Protectorate will be the best judges of the steps to be taken; and, if they are active and prudent, we shall hear no more of the Kumasi bugbear.