CHAPTER XV. — AXIM, THE GOLD PORT OF THE PAST AND THE FUTURE.
All the traveller's anxiety about the Known and apprehensions of the Unknown fell from him like a garment as, after passing the hummocks of Apollonia, his destination, Axim, [Footnote: The port lies in N. lat. 4º 52' 20" (say 5º round numbers) and in W. long. (Gr.) 2º 14' 45": it must not be confounded, as often occurs in England, with 'Akim,' the region north of Accra.] peeped up over the port-bow at dawn of the 25th of January.
The first aspect of Axim is charming; there is nothing more picturesque upon this coast.
After the gape of the Ancobra River the foreshore gradually bends for a few miles from a west-east to a north-south rhumb, and forms a bay within a bay. The larger is bounded north by Akromasi Point, the southern wall of the great stream; the bold foreland outlain with reefs and a rock like a headless sphinx, is known from afar, east and west, by its 'one tree,' a palm apparently double, the leader of a straggling row. On the south of the greater bay is Point Pépré, by the natives called Inkubun, or Cocoanut-Tree, from a neighbouring village; like the Akromasi foreland, it is black and menacing with its long projection of greenstone reefs, whose heads are hardly to be distinguished from the flotilla of fishing canoes. The lesser bay, that of Axim proper, has for limits Pépré and the Bosomato promontory, a bulky tongue on whose summit is a thatched cottage.
The background of either bay is a noble forest, a wall of green, the items being often 150 feet high, with branchless white boles of eighty, perpendicularly striping the verdure. The regular sky-line—broken by tall knolls and clumps, whose limits are rivulet-courses and bosky dells; thrown up by refraction; flecked with shreds of heavy mist
That like a broken purpose waste in air;
and dappled with hanging mists, white as snow, and 'sun-clouds,' as the natives term the cottony nimbus—is easily mistaken, in the dim light of dawn, for a line of towering cliffs.
The sea at this hour is smooth as oil, except where ruffled by fish-shoals, and shows comparatively free, today at least, from the long Atlantic roll which lashes the flat coast east of Apollonia. Its selvage is fretted by green points, golden sands, and a red cove not unlike the crater-port of Clarence, Fernando Po. The surface is broken by two islets, apparently the terminal knobs of many reefs which project westward from the land. To the north rises Asiniba ('Son of Asini'), a pyramid of rock below and tree-growth above. Fronting the landing-place is Bobowusúa, [Footnote: The Hyd. Chart calls them Suaba and Bobowassi; it might be a trifle more curious in the matter of significant words.] or Fetish Island, a double feature which we shall presently inspect. The foreshore is barred and dotted perpendicularly by black reefs and scattered diabolitos, or detached hard-heads, which break the surges. At spring-tides, when rise and fall reach at least ten feet, and fourteen in the equinoctial ebb and flow, it appears a gridiron of grim black stone. [Footnote: Not as the Hyd. Chart says—'rise and fall at springs six or seven feet.']
The settlement, backed by its grand 'bush' and faced by the sea, consists of a castle and a subject town; it wears, in fact, a baronial and old-world look. Fort Santo Antonio, a tall white house upon a bastioned terrace, crowns proudly enough a knob of black rock and low green growth. On both sides of it, north and south, stretches the town; from this distance it appears a straggle of brown thatched huts and hovels, enlivened here and there by some whitewashed establishments, mining or 'in the mercanteel.' The soil is ruddy and rusty, and we have the usual African tricolor.
The agents of the several Aximite houses came on board. We drained the normal stirrup-cup and embarked in the usual heavy surf-boat, manned by a dozen leathery-lunged 'Elmina boys' with paddles, and a helmsman with an oar. There are smaller surf-canoes, that have weather-boards at the bow to fend off the waves. Our anchorage-place lies at least two miles south-west-and-by-south of the landing-place. There is absolutely nothing to prevent steamers running in except a sunken reef, the Pinnacle or Hoeven Rock. It is well known to every canoeman. Cameron sounded for it, and a buoy had been laid by fishermen, but so unskilfully that the surge presently made a clean sweep. Hence a wilful waste of time and work. I wrote to Messieurs Elder and Dempster, advising them to replace it for their own interests and for the convenience of travellers; but in Africa one is out of the world, and receiving answers is emphatically not the rule.
There is no better landing-place than Axim upon this part of the African coast. The surf renders it impracticable only on the few days of the worst weather. We hugged the north of the Bobowusúa rock-islet. When the water here breaks there is a clear way further north; the southern passage, paved with rocks and shoals, can be used only when the seas are at their smoothest. A regular and well-defined channel placed us on the shingly and sandy beach. We had a succulent breakfast with Messieurs Gillett and Selby (Lintott and Spink), to whose unceasing kindness and hospitality we afterwards ran heavily in debt. There we bade adieu to our genial captain and our jovial fellow-travellers.
The afternoon was spent in visiting the Axim fort. Santo Antonio, built by the Portuguese in the glorious days of Dom Manuel (1495-1521), became the Hollander Saint Anthony by conquest in 1682, and was formally yielded by treaty to the Dutch West Indian Company. It came to us by convention at the Hague; and, marked 'ruined' in the chart, it was repaired in 1873 before the Ashanti war. It can now act harbour of refuge, and is safe from the whole power of the little black despotism. Bosman [Footnote: Eerste Brief, 1737: the original Dutch edition was lent to me by M. Paulus Dahse.] shows 'Fort St. Antonio' protected by two landward bastions and an old doorway opening upon a loopholed courtyard. Barbot (1700) sketches a brick house in gable-shape, based upon a triangular rock.
Passing the Swanzy establishment, a model board-house, with masonry posts, a verandah all round, and a flying roof of corrugated iron, we ascend the old paved ramp. Here we remark that the castle-gateway of the Dutch, leading to the outer or slave court, has been replaced by a mean hole in the wall. The external work was demolished, lest the enemy effect a lodgement there. We can walk seawards round the green knob scattered with black boulders, and pick an excellent salad, a kind of African dandelion, which the carnivorous English miners called 'grass,'—with a big, big D. Entering the hole in the wall, and passing through a solid arched gateway and across a small court upon which the prison opens, we ascend the steps leading to the upper work. This is a large square house, pierced in front for one door and three windows, and connected by a bridge, formerly a drawbridge, with the two tall belvideres, once towers guarding the eastern entrance. The body is occupied by the palaver-hall of the opper koopman (chief factor), now converted into a court-house and a small armoury of sniders. It leads to the bedrooms, disposed on three sides. The materials are trap, quartz, probably gold-bearing, and fine bricks, evidently home-made. The substantial quarters fronting the sea are breezy, comfortable, and healthy; and the large cistern contains the only good drinking-water in Axim. Life must be somewhat dull here, but, after all, not so bad as in many an out-station of British India. The chief grievance is that the inmates, the District-commissioner and his medico, are mere birds of passage; they are ordered off and exchanged, at the will of head-quarters, often before they can settle down, and always before they learn to take interest in the place. The works consist of two bastions on the land side; a large one to the south-east, and a smaller to the north-east. Seawards projects a rounded cavalier, fronted by dead ground, or rather water. In the days of the Dutch the platforms carried '22 iron guns, besides some patteraroes.' Now there are two old bronze guns, two 'chambeis' bearing the mark 'La Hague,' and an ancient iron tube dismounted: a seven-pounder mountain-gun, of a type now obsolete, lurks in the shadows of the arched gateway. I afterwards had an opportunity of seeing the ammunition, and was much struck by a tub of black mud, which they told me was gunpowder. The Ashantis at least keep theirs dry.
The dispensary appeared equally well found. For some weeks there was a native assistant; then Dr. Roulston came, and, after a few days, was ordered off at a moment's notice to the remotest possible station. He had no laudanum, no Dover's powders, no chlorodyne, no Warburg; and, when treating M. Dahse for a burst vein, he was compelled to borrow styptics from our store. This style of economy is very expensive. To state the case simply, officials last one year instead of two.
The late Captain P. D. O'Brien, District-commissioner of Axim, did the honours, showing us the only 'antiquity' in the place, the tomb of a Dutch governor, with a rudely cut inscription set in the eastern wall:—
WILLEM
SCHOORWAS
COMAD. OP AXEM
1659.
Amongst the slave-garrison of twenty-five Hausás I found a Wadai-man, Sergeant Abba Osman, who had not quite forgotten his Arabic. Several Moslems also appeared about the town, showing that the flood of El-Islam is fast setting this way. They might profitably be hired as an armed escort into the pagan interior.
Axim, preferably written by the Portuguese 'Axem,' was by them pronounced Ashim or Ashem: no stress, therefore, must be laid upon its paper-resemblance with Abyssinian Axum. [Footnote: I allude to The Guinea or Gold Coast of Africa, formerly a Colony of the Axumites (London, Pottle and Son, 1880), an interesting pamphlet kindly forwarded to me by the author, Captain George Peacock. I believe, as he does, that the West Coast of Africa preserves traces of an ancient connection with the Nile valley and the eastern regions; but this is not one of them.] Barbot calls it 'Axim, or Atzyn, or Achen.' The native name is Essim, which, in the language of the Mfantse or Mfantse-fo (Fanti-race), means 'you told me,' and in the Apollonian dialect 'you know me.' These fanciful terms are common, and they allude to some tale or legend which is forgotten in course of time. The date of its building is utterly unknown. The Fanti tradition is that their race was driven coastwards, like their kinsmen the Ashantis, [Footnote: In Wanderings in West Africa, (ii. 98) I have given the popular derivation of Fanti (Fan-didi = herb-eater) and Asyanti (Sán-didi = corn-eater). Bowdich wrote 'Ashanti' because he learnt the word from the Accra-men.] by tribes pressing down upon them from the north. They must have found the maritime lands occupied, but they have preserved no notices of their predecessors. The port-town became the capital of an upper factor, who ruled the whole coast as far as Elmina. It was almost depopulated, say the old authorities, by long wars with the more powerful Apollonia; but its commanding position has always enabled it to recover from the heaviest blows. It is still the threshold of the western Gold-region, and the principal port of occidental Wásá (Wassaw).
We may fairly predict a future for Axim. The town is well situated to catch the sea-breeze. The climate is equatorial, but exceptionally healthy, save after the rainy season, which here opens a month or six weeks earlier than on the leeward coast. The downfall must, however, have diminished since the times when 'the blacks will tell you the wet weather lasts eleven months and twenty-nine days in the year.' The rains now begin with April and end in September. The position is south of the thermal equator (22º R. = 81 5º F.), which runs north lat. 6º on the western coast, 15º in the interior, and 10º on the eastern seaboard. [Footnote: Berghaus, following Humboldt, places the probable equator of temperature (80º 16') in N. lat. 4º, or south of Axim, rising to N. lat. 13º in Central and in Eastern Africa] Add that the average daily temperature is 75º-80º (F.), rising to 96º in the afternoon and falling after midnight to 70º, and that the wet season on the seaboard is perhaps the least sickly. We were there in January-March, during an unusually hot and dry season, following the Harmatan and the Smokes and preceding the tornadoes and the rains; yet I never felt an oppressive day,—nothing worse than Alexandria or Trieste in early August. The mornings and evenings were mostly misty; the moons were clear and the nights were tolerable. An excessive damp, which mildews and decays everything—clothes, books, metals, man—was the main discomfort. But we were living, as it were, in the open, and we neglected morning and evening fires. This will not be the case when solid and comfortable houses shall be built. The improvement of lodging and diet accounts for the better health of Anglo-Africans, as of Anglo-Indians, in the present day. Our predecessors during the early nineteenth century died of bad shelter, bad food, and bad drink.
The town, built upon a flat partly formed by cutting away the mounds and hillocks of red clay, was well laid out by Mr. Sam, the District-commissioner, after its bombardment during the Ashanti war. The main streets, or rather roads, running north-south, are avenued with shady Ganian or umbrella figs. I should prefer the bread-tree, which here flourishes. These thoroughfares are kept clean enough, and nuisances are punished, as in England. Cross lines, however, are wanted; the crooked passages between the huts do not admit the sea-breeze. Native hovels, also, should be removed from the foreshore, which, as Admiralty property, ought to be kept for public purposes. The native dwellings are composed of split bamboo-fronds (Raphia vinifera), thatched with the foliage of the same tree. They are mere baskets—airy, and perhaps too airy. Some are defended against wind and wet by facings of red swish; a few, like that of the 'king' and chief native traders, are built of adobes (sun-dried bricks), whitewashed outside. Of this kind, too, are the stores and the mining establishments; the 'Akankon House,' near the landing-place; the 'Gold Coast House,' in the interior; the Methodist chapel, a barn-shaped affair; the Effuenta House to the north, and the Tákwá, or French House, to the south.
'Sanitation,' however, is loudly called for; and if cholera come here it will do damage. The southern part of the narrow ledge bearing the town, and including the French establishment, is poisoned by a fetid, stagnant pool, full of sirens, shrimps, and anthropophagous crabs, which after heavy rains cuts a way through its sand-bar to the sea. This marigot is the 'little shallow river Axim,' the Achombene of Barbot, which the people call Awaminísu ('Ghost's or Deadman's Water'). To the north also there are two foul nullahs, the Eswá and the Besáon, which make the neighbourhood pestilential. In days to come the latter will be restored to its old course east of the town and thrown into the Awaminísu, whose mouth will be kept open throughout the year. The eastern suburbs, so to call them, want clearing of offal and all manner of impurities. Beyond the original valley of the Besáon the ground rises and bears the wall of trees seen from the offing. There is, therefore, plenty of building-room, and long heads have bought up all the land in that direction. Mr. Macarthy, of the School of Mines, owns many concessions in this part of the country.
All the evils here noted can easily be remedied. As in the Cairo of Mohammed Ali's day, every house-holder should be made responsible for the cleanliness of his surroundings. The Castle-prison, too, rarely lodges fewer than a dozen convicts. These men should be taken away from 'shot-drill' and other absurdities of the tread-mill type, which diversify pleasant, friar-like lives of eating and drinking, smoking, sleeping, and chatting with one another. Unfortunately, humanitarianism does not allow the lash without reference to head-quarters. Labour must therefore be light; still it would suffice to dig up the boulders from the main thoroughfares, to clean the suburbs, and to open the mouths of the fetid and poisonous lagoons.
Mr. William M. Grant, the clever and active agent of our friend Mr. James Irvine, came on board to receive us, and housed us and our innumerable belongings in his little bungalow facing 'Water Street.' We found life at Axim pleasant enough. Even in these days of comparative barbarism, or at best of incipient civilisation, the station is not wholly desert. The agents of the several firms are hospitable in the extreme. Generally also a manager of the inner mines, or a new comer, enlarges the small circle. There is a flavour of England in 'A. B. and Co., licensed dealers in wine and spirits, wholesale and retail,' inscribed upon boards over the merchants' doors; also in the lawn-tennis, which I have seen played in a space called by courtesy a square: Cameron, by-the-bye, has hired it, despite some vexatious local opposition, and it will be a fine locale for the Axim Hotel now being opened. Sunday is known as a twenty-four hours of general idleness and revelry: your African Christian is meticulous upon the subject of 'Sabbath;' he will do as little work as possible for six days, and scrupulously repose upon the seventh. Whether he 'keeps it holy' is quite another matter, into which I do not care to enquire. Service- and school-hours are announced by a manner of peripatetic belfry—a negroling walking about with a cracked muffin-bell. From the chapel, which adjoins some wattled huts, the parsonage, surges at times a prodigious volume of sound, the holloaing of hymns and the bellowing of anthems; and, between whiles, the sable congregation, ranged on benches and gazing out of the windows, 'catches it 'ot and strong' from the dark-faced Wesleyan missionary-schoolmaster.
We were never wearied of the 'humours' of native Axim. The people are not Fantis, but Apollonians, somewhat differing in speech with the Oji; both languages, however, are mutually intelligible. [Footnote: Oji is also written Otschi, Tschi, Chwee, Twi, Tswi, Otyi, Tyi, or whatever German ingenuity can suggest. I can hardly explain why the late Keith Johnston (Africa) calls the linguistic family 'Ewe' (Ewhe, or properly Whegbe), after a small section of the country, Dahome, Whydah, &c. He was probably led to it by the publications of the Bâle and other German missions.] The men are the usual curious compound of credulity and distrust, hope and fatalism, energy and inaction, which make the negro so like the Irish character. But we must not expect too much from the denizens of African seaports, mostly fishermen who will act hammock-bearers, a race especially fond of Bacchus and worshippers of the 'devil Venus.' Perhaps a little too much license is allowed to them in the matter of noisy and drunken 'native customs,' palavers, and pow-wows. They rarely go about armed; if you see a gun you know that the bearer is a huntsman. They are easily commanded, and, despite their sympathies with Ashanti-land, they are not likely to play tricks since their town was bombarded. In the villages they are civil enough, baring the shoulders, like taking off the hat, when they meet their rulers. Theirs, also, is the great virtue of cleanliness; even when the mornings are coldest you see them bathing on the beach. They are never pinched for food, and they have high ideas of diet. 'He lib all same Prince; he chop cow and sheep ebery day, and fowl and duck he be all same vegeta'l.' They have poultry in quantities, especially capons, sheep with negro faces like the Persian, dwarf milch-goats of sturdy build, dark and dingy pigs, and cattle whose peculiarity it is to be either black or piebald. The latter are neat animals like the smallest Alderneys, with short horns, and backs flat as tables. There are almost as many bulls as there are cows, and they herd together without fighting. Being looked upon as capital, and an honour to the owner, they are never killed; and, although the udders of cows and goats are bursting with milk, they are never milked.
The women differ very little from their sisters of the Eastern Gold Coast. You never see beauty beyond the beauté du diable and the naïve and piquant plainness which one admires in a pug-pup. The forms are unsupported, and the figure falls away at the hips. They retain the savage fashion of coiffure shown in Cameron's 'Across Africa,' training their wool to bunches, tufts, and horns. The latter is the favourite; the pigtails, which stand stiff upright, and are whipped round like pricks of tobacco, may number half a dozen: one, however, is the common style, and the size is said to be determined by a delicate consideration. Opposed to this is the highly civilised atufu, 'kankey,' or bussle, whose origin is disputed. Some say that it prevents the long cloth clinging to the lower limbs, others that it comes from a modest wish to conceal the forms; some make it a jockey-saddle for the baby, others a mere exaggeration of personal development, an attempt to make Aphrodite a Callipygé. I hold that it arose, in the mysterious hands of 'Fashion,' from the knot which secures the body-cloth, and which men wear in front or by the side. Usually this bussle is a mere bundle of cloth; on dress occasions it is a pad or cushion. I had some trouble to buy the specimen, which Cameron exhibited in London.
Men and women are vastly given to 'chaffing' and to nicknaming. Every
child, even in the royal houses, takes a first name after the week-day
[Footnote:
Men. Women.
Adwo (Monday-born) ... Kajo (Cuddjo) ... Adwoa.
Bena (Tuesday-born) ... Kwábina ... Abiena.
Wuku (Wednesday-born) ... Kwáko ... Akudea.
Tan (Thursday-born) ... Kwáo ... Yá (Yawá).
Afio (Friday-born) ... Kofi (Coffee) ... Afuá.
Amu (Saturday-born) ... Kwámina ... Amma.
Ayisi (Sunday-born) ... Kwasi ... Akosúa (Akwasiba).
Monday is the first day of the Oji week. The Sunday-born is corrupted to 'Quashy,' well known in the United States; hence also the 'bitter cup' of guassia-wood. The names of the days are taken from the seven Powers which rule them. Kwa-Si would be Kwá (=akoa, man, slave), and Ayisi (a man) belonging to Ayisi. Amongst the Accra people the first-born are called Téte (masc.) and Dede (fem.), the second Tété and Koko, and the rest take the names of the numerals. So we have Septimus, Decimus, &c.] of its birth, and strangers after that on which they land. Cameron, who shaved his hair, was entitled 'Kwábina Echipu'—Tuesday Baldhead. I became Sásá Kwési (Fetish Sunday), from a fancied clerical appearance, Sásá being probably connected with Sásábonsam, 'a huge earth-demon of human shape and fiery hue.' He derives from asase ('earth'), and abonsam, some evil ghost who has obtained a permanent bad name. Missionaries translate the latter word 'devil,' and make it signify an evil spirit living in the upper regions, or our popular heaven, and reigning over Abonsamkru, the last home of souls, or rather shades of the wicked. Thus sasabonsam would be equivalent to Erdgeist, Waldteufel, or Kobold, no bad nickname for a miner. The people have a wealth of legend, and some queer tale attached to every wild beast and bird. In days to come this folk-lore will be collected.
The gorbellied children are the pests of the settlement. At early dawn they roar because they awake hungry and thirsty; they roar during the day when washed with cold water, and in the evening they roar because they are tired and sleepy. They are utterly spoiled. They fight like little Britons; they punch their mothers at three years of age; and, when strong enough, they 'square up' to their fathers.
The first mining business we had to transact was with Kwámina Blay, of Attabo, Ahin (Ahene) or King of Amrehía, Western Apollonia. He came to visit us in state on January 28. The vehicle, a long basket, big enough to lodge a Falstaff, open like a coffin, and lined with red cloth to receive the royal person and gold-hilted swords, was carried stretcher-fashion by four sturdy knaves. King Blay is an excellent man, true and 'loyal to the backbone;' but his Anglo-African garb was, to say the least, peculiar. A tall cocked hat, with huge red and white plume, contrasted with the dwarf pigtail bearing a Popo-bead, by way of fetish, at the occiput. His body-dress was a sky-blue silk, his waist-cloth marigold-yellow, and he held in hand the usual useless sword of honour, a Wilkinson presented to him for his courage and conduct in 1873-1874. The Ashanti medal hung from his neck by a plaited gold chain of native Trichinopoly-work, with a neat sliding clasp of two cannons and an empty asumamma, or talisman-case. The bracelets were of Popo-beads and thick gold-wire curiously twisted into wreath-knots. Each finger bore a ring resembling a knuckle-duster, three mushroom-like projections springing from each oval shield.
Ahin Blay dismounted with ceremony, and was as ceremoniously received. His features are those of the Fanti, somewhat darker than usual, and his expression is kindly and intelligent: though barely fifty-five his head is frosty and his goatee is snowy. The visit was a state affair, a copy in small of Ashanti and Dahome.
On the left, the place of honour, sat the 'King's father,' that is, eldest uncle on the female side, evidently younger than his nephew: the language makes scanty difference between the relationships, and here, as in other parts of Africa, the ruler adopts a paternity. Six elders, safahins and panins, [Footnotes: The 'Opanyini' (plur. of 'Opanyin') are the town-elders forming the council of the Ahin (king) or Caboceer, each with his own especial charge. The Safahin (Safohine or Osafohene) is the captain of war; the Ofotosanfo is the treasurer; the Okyame is spy and speaker, alias 'King's Mouf;' and the Obofo is the messenger, envoy, or ambassador. The system much resembles that of the village-republics in Maráthá-land.] sat down, in caps and billycocks; the other fifteen stood up bareheaded, including the 'King's Stick,' called further south 'King's Mouf.' This spokesman, like the 'Meu-'minister of Dahome, repeated to his master our interpreter's words; and his long wand of office was capped with a silver elephant—King Blay's 'totem,' equivalent to our heraldic signs. So in Ashanti-land some caboceers cap their huge umbrellas with the twidam, or leopard, the Etchwee, or panther, of Bowdich, [Footnote: Mission, &c., p. 230 (orig. fol.). The other two patriarchal families which preside over the eight younger branches, making a total of twelve tribes, are the Ekoana (Quonna), from eko (a buffalo), and the Essona, from esso (a bush-cat).] and others are members of the Intchwa, or dog-division. These emblems denote consanguineous descent, and the brotherhood (ntwa) of the 'totems' is uniformly recognised. Our guest's particular ambition is a large state-umbrella, capped with a silver elephant carrying in trunk a sword. He presently received one sent, at my request, by Mr. Irvine.
Amongst the elders were scattered small boys, relations of the headmen. They were all eyes and ears, and in Fanti-land they are formally trained to make the best of spies. When you see a lad lounging about or quietly dozing within ear-shot you know at once his mission.
The notable parts of the suite were the swordbearers and the band. The former carried five afõa, peculiar weapons, emblems of royalty. The blades are licked when swearing; they are despatched with messengers as a hint to enforce obedience; and they are held, after a fashion, to be holy. I have never seen more conventional, distorted, and useless weapons. Three blades showed the usual chopping-bill shape, pierced, like fish-slicers, with round, semicircular, and angular holes. One, measuring twenty-three inches and three-quarters, was leaf-formed, dotted with a lozenge-pattern and set with copper studs. Another was partially saw-toothed. All were of iron, rusty with the rust of years and hardly sharp enough to cut a pat of butter. The impossible handles were worthy of the blades, bulging grips between two huge balls utterly unfitted for handling; four were covered with thin gold-plate in repoussé work, and one with silver. The metal was sewn together with thin wire, and the joints had been hammered to hide them. Cameron sketched them for my coming 'Book of the Sword;' and Ahin Blay kept his promise by sending me a specimen of the weapon with two divergent blades used to cut off noses and ears. Bowdich [Footnote: Mission, &c., p. 312] mentions finely-worked double blades springing parallel from a single handle; here nothing was known about them.
The band consisted of two horns and three drums. Of the latter one was sheathed in leopard-skin and rubbed, not struck, with two curved sticks. A second was hourglass-shaped; the sticks were bent to right angles, and the drummer carried, by way of cymbal, a small round iron plate adjusted to the fingers with little rings loosely set in the edge. The horns were scrivelloes, elephant-tusks of small size. At times a horrid braying denoted the royal titles, and after every blast the liege lord responded mechanically, 'Kwámina Blay! atinásu marrah' (Monday Blay! here am I).
Interviews with African 'kings' consist mainly of compliments, 'dashes' (presents or heave-offerings), and what is popularly called 'liquoring up.' Gifts are a sign of affection; hence the proverb, 'If anyone loves you he will beg of you.' Money, however, is considered pay; curiosities are presents, and drink is 'dash.' The 'drinkitite' these men develope is surprising; they swallow almost without interval beer and claret, champagne and shandigaff, cognac, whisky, and liqueurs. Trade-gin, [Footnote: This article is made at Hamburg by many houses; the best brand is held to be that of Van Heyten, and the natives are particular about it. The prime cost of a dozen-case, each bottle containing about a quart, fitted with wooden divisions and packed with husks, chaff, or sawdust, is 3s. 6d.; in retail it is sold for 6s., or 6d. per bottle. Strange to say, it has the flavour of good hollands. The latter, however, in small bottles is always to be bought on the Gold Coast, and can be drunk with safety.] being despised, is turned over to the followers. Before entering upon this time-wasting process I persuaded the Ahin and panins to sign the document enabling me formally to take possession of the 'Izrah Mine.' The paper was duly attested and witnessed; and the visit ended with a royal 'progress' to the fort, where the District-commissioner did the rest of the needful.
Next day the King made a friendly call without basket or band. His cocked hat was exchanged for a chimney-pot so 'shocking bad' that no coster would dare to don it. Such is the custom of the chiefs, and if you give them a good tile it goes at once into store. He made us promise a return-visit and set out to collect bearers.
Hereabouts a week is as a day. Whilst carriage was collecting we inspected the neighbourhood of Axim. Our first visit was to Bobowusúa island, a 'fetish place for palavers,' where the natives object to guns being fired. Here it was that Admiral van Ruyter built his battery of twelve cannons and forced Fort Santo Antonio to surrender on January 19, 1642. The rock is of trap, greenstone, or whinstone, which miners call iron-stone and Cornishmen 'blue elvan:' this diorite, composed of felspar and the hardest hornblende, contains granular iron and pyrites like silver. Some specimens are beautifully banded in onyx-fashion and revetted with 'spar' (quartz) of many colours, dead-white and crystalline, red and yellow. We find the same trap on the mainland. Near the smaller Akinim or Salt-pond village there is a mass threaded with quartz-veins from north to south (1º 30'), bossed by granite dykes [Footnote: It is generally believed that these granite injections have been cooled and consolidated deep below earth's surface.] trending east-west (96º 50'), and traversed by a burnt vein striking 67º. From the surf-boat we remarked that there were no sharks; apparently they shun coming within the reefs. Our landing was not pleasant for the Krumen; the shallow bottom was strewed with rounded pebbles, and the latter are studded with sharp limpets and corallines. We climbed round the seaward bluff, fissured with deep narrow clefts, up which the tide-waves race and roar. Here the trap has a ruddy hue, the salt water bringing out the iron. Corallines, now several feet above water, clothed the boulders. This, corroborated by a host of other phenomena, argues a secular upheaval of the island, and we find the same on the mainland. There were fragments of grey granite, but not in situ; all had been washed from the continent, where it outlies all other formations. Water-rolled bits of brickstone also appeared; and hence, probably, Dr. Oscar Lenz [Footnote: Geolog. Karte von West-Africa. Gotha, Justus Perthes, 1882.] makes Axim and the neighbourhood consist of rother Sandstein upon laterite.
Bobowusúa is a cabinet of natural history. The northern flank is ever wet with dew and spray; the southern shows a little dry earth and sand. The latter in this and in other parts of the islet is a medley of comminuted shells. We collected cowries of four kinds, large and small, crabs and balani, lobsters and sea-urchins (erinacei) with short spines; diminutive rock-oysters and a large variety with iridescent mother-o'-pearl, pink, red and yellow. The latter yields a white seed-pearl, and here, perhaps, we might attempt to develope it into
That great round glory of pellucid stuff,
A fish secreted round a grain of grit.
A single snake-slough and an eight-ribbed turtle were found. The short, sandy neck of the eastern knob is a playground for 'parson-crows' and scavengers (turkey-buzzards); hawks, kites, and fish-eagles, white and black, while the adjacent reefs are frequented by gulls, terns, and small cranes.
Above the rock-line is a selvage of low vegetation—ipom[oe]a, white and mauve-flowered; rushes and tangle-grass, a variety of salsolaceæ, and the cyperus, whose stalk is used like the kalam, or reed-pen, further east. These growths are filmed with spiders' webs, whose central shafts lead to their nests. The highest levels, only a few feet above water, are grown with a dense bush that wants the matchet. Here are remains of plantations, a little knot of bananas, a single tall cocoanut, many young palms, and a few felled trunks overgrown with oysters. Europeans have proposed to build bungalows on Bobowusúa, where they find fresh sea-air, and a little shooting among the red-breasted ring-doves, rails, and green pigeons affecting the vegetation. It appears to us a good place for mooring hulks. The steamers could then run alongside of them and discharge cargo for the coming tramway, while surf-boats carrying two or three tons could load for the Ancobra River.
The eastern or inner continuation of Bobowusúa is Poké islet, a similar but smaller block. During spring-tides they are linked together and to the shore by reefs that stand up high and dry. Poké is the rock where, according to Barbot, 'the negroes put their wives and children when they go to war.' The tradition is that the Dutch mined it for silver. The metal is known to exist in several places on and behind the coast, at Bosumato, upon the Ancobra River south of 'Akankon,' and even at Kumasi. Besides, gold has not yet been found here unalloyed with silver.
I was fortunate in collecting from this part of Africa stone-implements before unknown to Europe. My lamented friend Winwood Reade, [Footnote: The Story of the Ashantee Campaign (pp. 2-4 and 314). London, Smith and Elder, 1874.] one of those
Peculiar people whom death has made dear,
was the first to bring them home from the eastern regions, Akwapim (Aquapim), Prahsu, and the Volta River. Arrived at Axim, I nailed to the walls of our sitting-room a rough print showing the faces and profiles of worked stones. The result was a fair supply from the coast both up and down till I had secured thirteen. [Footnote: I read a paper upon these stone-implements (July 11, 1882) before the Anthropological Society at the house of my friend, the President, General A. Pitt-Rivers; and made over to him my small stock. It will find a home at Oxford, with the rest of his noble anthropological collection, lately presented to the University.] All were of the neolithic or ground type; the palæolithic or chipped was wholly absent, and so were weapons proper, arrowpiles and spear-points.
Mr. Carr, the able and intelligent agent of Messieurs Swanzy, brought me sundry pieces and furnished me with the following notes. The 'belemnites' are picked up at the stream-mouths after freshets; but the people, like all others, call them 'lightning-stones' (osráman-bo) or abonua, simply axe. They suppose the ceraunius to fall with the bolt, to sink deep in the earth, and to rise to the surface in process of time. The idea is easily explained. All are comparatively modern, and consequently thinly covered with earth's upper crust; this is easily washed away by heavy rains; and, as thunder and lightning accompany the downfalls, the stones are supposed to be the result.
The osráman-bo are used in medicine; they 'cool the heart;' and water in which they are steeped, when given to children, mitigates juvenile complaints. One of my collections owes its black colour to having been boiled in palm-oil by way of preserving its virtues; it resembles the básanos of Lydian Tmolus; but the Gold Coast touchstone is mostly a dark jasper imported from Europe. The substance of the thunder-stone is the greenstone-trap everywhere abundant, and taking with age a creamy patina like the basalt of the Haurán. I heard, however, that at Abusi, beyond Anamabo (Bird-rock), and other places further east worked stones of a lightish slaty hue are common. About New Town and Assini these implements become very plentiful. Mr. S. Cheetham informs me that the thinner hatchets, somewhat finger-shaped, are copied in iron by the peoples of the Benin River. These expert smiths buy poor European metal and, like other West Africans, turn out a first-rate tool.
Axim seems to have been a great centre of stone-manufacture. Mr. Carr showed us a dozen huge boulders of greenstone, chiefly at the eastern angle of the wart that bears, in dangerous proximity to his stores, his powder-magazine. The upper surfaces are scored and striped with leaf-shaped grooves, formed like old Greek swords; some of them are three feet long by three inches wide and three deep. I made a sketch of the place; Cameron photographed it, and on return carried off a huge slice of the block, which is now in the British Museum. We afterwards found these striated stones on the sea-ward face of St. Anthony Fort, in northern Axim, and on other parts of the seaboard.
Axim, the gate of this El Dorado, has not yet much reason to thank England for ruling her. A mean economy annually hoards from 20,000l. to 30,000l, [Footnote: In 1878 the revenue was 105,091l. and the expenditure 68,410l., and in other years the contrast was even greater. The omniscient 'Whittaker' tells us that in 1879 the figures stood at 54,908l. income versus an outlay of 46,281l.; and there was no debt.] forwarded to the colonial caisse, to be wasted upon 'little wars,' and similar miseries, instead of being spent upon local improvements. The unwholesome bush (the Dutch 'bosch') or wood, backed by the primæval forest, surges up to the very doors. The little plank-bridges are out of repair, and the merchants will not supply the Government with new boards, save for ready money; otherwise payment may be delayed for a year. The highway to head-quarters, Cape Coast Castle, is a yellow thread streaking the green, a hunter's path trodden in the jungle. For 16s. 6d. a private messenger goes to and returns from the capital, a distance of eighty-two miles, in four or five days. The public post starts on Wednesdays, halts without reason between Fridays and Mondays at Sekondi (Seecondee), and consumes a week in the down-march. I have already noted the want of sanitation, the condition of the ammunition, and the absence of medical stores. It moves one's sense of the absurd to compare the desolate condition of the Goldland, which is to supply the money, with the civilised machinery in England which is to work it, companies and syndicates, shares, debentures, and what not.
I have treated the subject of Axim with a minuteness that is almost 'porochial;' its future importance must be my excuse. The next chapter will show that we are truly in the Land of Gold, in an Old New California.
And now to conclude this unpleasant account with the good words of old Barbot: 'Axim, in my opinion, is the most tempting of any on the coast of Guinea, taking one thing with another. You have there a perpetual greenness, which affords a comfortable shade against the scorching heat of the sun, under the lofty palm and other trees, planted about the village, with a sweet harmony of many birds of several sorts perching on them. The walk on the low flat strand along the seaside is no less pleasant at certain hours of the day; and from the platform of the fort is a most delightful prospect of the ocean and the many rocks and small islands about it.'
CHAPTER XVI. — GOLD ABOUT AXIM, ESPECIALLY AT THE APATIM OR BUJIÁ CONCESSION.
Any one who has eyes to see can assure himself that Axim is the threshold of the Gold-region. It abounds in diorite, a rock usually associated with the best paying lodes. After heavy showers the naked eye can note spangles of the precious metal in the street-roads. You can pan it out of the wall-swish. The little stream-beds, bone-dry throughout the hot season, roll down, during the rains, a quantity of dark arenaceous matter, like that of Taranaki, New Zealand, and the 'black sand' of Australia, which collects near the sea in stripes and patches. The people believe that without it gold never occurs; and, if they collect the common yellow sand, it is to extract from it the darker material. If the stuff does not answer the magnet, it is probably schorl (tourmaline), hornblende, or dark quartz. Strangers have often mistaken this emery-like rock for tin, which occurs abundantly in the northern region. It is simply titaniferous iron, iserine, pleonaste, ilmenite [Footnote: Or peroxide of iron, with 8 to 23 per cent, of blue oxide of titanium.] and degraded itabirite, the iron and quartz formation so called in the Brazil; and it is the same mineral which I found so general throughout the gold and silver fields of neglected Midian. It is found striating white sandstone about Tákwá and other places in the interior. The surface-stone is decomposed by the oxide of iron, and thus the precious dust with its ingrained gold is dissolved and separated from it. At a greater depth the itabirite will be found solid; and the occurrence of these oldest crystalline formations in large layers is a hopeful sign. When Colonel Bolton was interested in the Gold Coast diggings I advised him to send for a few tons of this metal, and to test it as 'pay-dirt.' A barrelful was forwarded from the coast to the Akankon Company: it was probably thrown away without experiment.
At Axim, as at Cape Coast Castle and other parts of the shore, women may be seen gold-gathering even on the sea-sands. They rarely wash more than 40 lbs., or a maximum of 50 lbs., per diem; and they strike work if they do not make daily half a dollar (2s. 3d.) to two dollars. They have nests of wooden platters for pans, the oldest and rudest of all mechanical appliances. The largest, two feet in diameter, are used for rough work in the usual way with a peculiar turn of the wrist. The smallest are stained black inside, to show the colour of gold; and the finer washings are carried home to be worked at leisure during the night. This is peculiarly women's work, and some are well known to be better panners than others; they refuse to use salt-water, because, they say, it will not draw out the gold.
The whole land is impregnated with the precious metal. I find it richer in sedimentary gold than California was in 1859. Immediately behind the main square of Axim a bank of red clay leads eastward to a shallow depression, the old valley of the Besáon, a swamp during the rains backed by rising and forested ground to the east. On the inland versant a narrow native shaft has been sunk for gold by Mr. Sam, now native agent under Mr. Crocker. We pounded and panned the rock, which yielded about twopence per 2 lbs., or one ounce to the ton. Observing its strike, we concluded that it must extend through Mr. Irvine's property. Throughout the Gold Coast auriferous reefs ran north-south, with easting rather than westing; the deviation varies from 5º west to 15º-22º east; and I have heard of, but not seen, a strike of north-east (45º) to south-west. This confirms the 'meridional hypothesis' of Professor Sedgwick, who stated, 'As some of the great physical agencies of the earth are meridional, these agencies may probably, in a way we do not comprehend, have influenced the deposit of metals on certain lines of bearing.' We may also observe that all the great mineral chains of the old and new world are meridional rather than longitudinal, striking from north-east to south-west. The geologist's theory, combined with the knowledge that the noble metal is 'chiefly found among palæozoic rocks of a quartzose type,' is practically valuable on the Gold Coast. Every mound or hillock of red clay contains one or more quartz-reefs, generally outcropping, but sometimes buried in the subsoils. They can always be struck by a cross-cut trending east-west. The dip is exceedingly irregular: some lodes are almost vertical, and others quasi-horizontal.
We now take the main road leading to the Ancobra. After crossing the fetid Besáon by its ricketty bridge of planks, we find on the right hand, facing Messieurs Swanzy's, a fine bit of rising ground, which I shall call, after its proprietor, 'Mount Irvine.' Over the southern slope runs a cleared highway, which presently becomes a 'bush-path;' it is named the 'Dudley Road,' after an energetic District-commissioner. This is the first Tákwá line, whose length is described to be about fifty miles, or four days' slow journey for laden porters. Mr. Gillett, who had covered twenty-six (sixteen?) miles of it, describes the path as unbroken by swamps or streams. Further north, according to the many native guides whom I questioned, travellers pass two rivulets, and finally they are ferried over the Abonsá, or Tákwá River. The second road follows closely the left bank of the Ancobra: it is used by the Hausá soldiers, but only in the heart of the Dries, and it must be impassable during the Rains. Dr. J. Africanus B. Horton, who contributes to a characteristic paper, [Footnote: The African Times, January 2, 1882. The paper is full of inaccuracies; it begins by placing Tomento (Tumento) ninety-five miles (for thirty) along the river-course from the mouth, and he makes steam-launches 'take from two to four days (say one) to go up to it.'] has never heard of the former when he says 'from Axim to Taquah (Tákwá) there is no direct route,' and he justly deprecates the latter. But he cries up the Bushua or Dixcove-Tákwá line, upon which he has large concessions. I shall return to this subject in a future chapter.
On the north side of Mount Irvine is a second nullah, the Eswá, which flows, like the Besáon, through the dense growth of bush covering the eastern uplands. A few minutes' walk along the right bank leads to a broadening of the bed, a swamp during the Rains and a field of cereals in the Dries. Thence we plunge into the jungle, and after a couple of hundred yards come upon signs of mining. In the Eswá bed, where the gulch is choked by two mounds or hillocks, appear the usual 'women's washings,' shallow pits like the Brazilian catas, whence the pay-dirt has been extracted. On the right bank, subtending the bed, their husbands have sunk the usual chimney-hole to scratch quartz from the bounding-wall of the reef. These rude beginnings of shafts reach a depth of 82 feet, and perhaps more. All are round, like the circular hut of the African savage; similarly in Australia the first pits were circular or oval. They are descended in sweep-fashion by means of foot-holes, and they are just large enough for a man to sit in and use his diminutive tool. The quartz is sent up to grass by a basket, and carried to the hut. After a preliminary roasting, the old custom of Egypt, it is broken into little bits and made over to the women, who grind it down upon the cankey-stone which serves to make the daily bread. In some parts of Africa this is men's work, and it is always done at night, with much jollity and carousing.
I named this place the 'Axim Reef.' It had been taken by Dr. J. Ogilby Ross, formerly district medical officer, Axim, and now preparing to explore the regions behind the Ancobra sources. He allowed, however, his prospecting term to elapse, and thus it has been secured by Mr. Grant for Mr. J. Irvine. It taught us three valuable lessons.
1. Wherever catas, or 'women's washings,' are found, we can profitably apply the hydraulic system of sluicing and fluming not by an upper reservoir only, but also from below by a force-pump. Water is procurable at all seasons by means of Norton's Abyssinian tubes, [Footnote: The Egyptian campaigners seem to have thought of these valuable articles somewhat late in the day. Yet two years ago I saw one working at Alexandria.] and the brook-beds, dammed above and below, will form perennial tanks. I am surprised that English miners on the Gold Coast have not borrowed this valuable hint to wash from the people who have practised it since time immemorial. Wherever we read, as on Mr. Wyatt's map, 'Gold-dust found in all these streams;' 'Natives dive for gold in the dry,' and 'Old gold-shafts all along this track,' we should think of 'hydraulicking.'
2. The natives, here and elsewhere, prospect for and work the bank-reefs after the subtending gutter-bed has proved auriferous. There is, however, no connection between the two, and the precious metal in the subsoil is either swept down by the floods or washed out of the sides, as we shall see on the Ancobra River.
3. The negroes, who ignore pumps and steam-navvies, have neglected the obvious measure of deep-digging in all the stream-beds, where much detrital gold and even nuggets will assuredly be found. This should be done either by shafting or by opening with 'steam-navvies' the whole course of the channel during the 'Dries.'
Regaining the main road and passing towards the northern town, which is separated from southern Axim by the fort and the grassy drill-ground, we cast a look at a heap of rotting cases at last stored under a kind of shed. Though labelled 'Akim' by the ungeographical manufacturer, they contain a board-house, with glass windows and all complete, intended for Axim, and eventually for the District-commissioner, Tákwá. But, with a futility worthy of the futile African, certain authorities at Head-quarters, after buying and landing the proposed bungalow, which probably cost 500l., discovered that they could not afford the expense of sending it to its destination. Consequently it was made over to the white ants, and it has now duly qualified for fuel.
At the end of the northern town a noble bombax notes the last resting-place of Europeans; and on it hangs a tale deserving a place in 'Spiritualistic prints.' A certain M. Thiebaut, transport-manager to the French Tákwá-Company, died at Axim, and was here buried in July 1881. Many persons, including Mr. Grant's mother and wife, declare that they saw during broad daylight his 'spirit' standing over his grave. And no wonder if he walked; a decent 'ghost' would feel unhappy in such a 'yard,' then a receptacle for native impurities. We represented the case to Mr. Alexander Allan, who succeeded poor Captain O'Brien, and that active and energetic 'new broom' at once took steps to abate the nuisance. The 'ghost' has not been seen since its last home has been surrounded by a decent paling and inscribed 'Ci-gît Thiebaut.' The same pious service was then done for one of our countrymen, Mr. Crawford who died at Axim in the same year.
Leaving on the left a neat bungalow, the 'Effuenta House,' we see to seaward of it the wooded knoll Bosomato. [Footnote: Abosom, Obosom or Bosom, vulg. Bossum, are imaginary beings, guardians and so forth, worshipped by the people and called 'fetishes' by Europeans. The word 'fetish' is properly applied only to charms, philters, amulets, and all that genus. See p. 78, Wit and Wisdom from West Africa, London, Tinsleys, 1865.] Here a thatched hut shows where the late M. Bonnat proposed to build a trading establishment, and to disembark his goods despite rock and reef. A few yards further the road is crossed by the Breviya ('where life ends'), another foul lagoon-stream, haunted by sirens and crossed by a corduroy-bridge. It leads to a village of the same name, which the Anglo-African calls 'Stink-fish Town,' [Footnote: As usual it is a translation; the natives call the preserve 'bomom,' from 'bon,' to stink.] alluding tersely and picturesquely to its sun-dried produce.
From this knot of huts and hovels we turn sharp to the east, or inland, and presently enter the Apatim or Bujiá concession, which has been leased for mining purposes to Mr. Irvine. There is a shorter road further north, but it is barred, we were assured, by a bad swamp. Our path, fairly open, ran up and down a succession of round-topped, abrupt-flanked hills, thrown together without system, and showing no signs of a plateau. They are parted by creek-valleys, gulches, and gullies, thick with tangled vegetation and varying in depth from a few feet to two and even three hundred. Many of them carry water even in the driest season. The country is remarkably like that behind Cape Coast Castle, where the Home Government, during the last Ashanti war (1873-74), proposed to lay down a tramway.
The land is not heavily timbered, but there is wood sufficient for everyday purposes. Its chief growth is the spiny bombax, whose timber is hardly durable enough for permanent shafting. Here, however, and in all the mines upon and near the seaboard, carpenter-work should be imported from England; it will be at once cheaper and better. The country is everywhere seamed with reefs and ridges of naked quartz, beginning near the coast and striking in the right direction. There must be many more underground, and all will be bared by 'washing' the country. Mr. R. B. N. Walker, whose energy and enterprise obtained this, as well as other concessions, tells me that during a second visit one of his company 'picked up two or three small pieces of quartz showing "free gold" among the refuse around the native pits.'
We progressed slowly enough, as we delayed to botanise, to net butterflies, [Footnote: Our large collection all came to grief, because we had neglected to carry camphor. The hint may be useful to those who follow us.] and to shoot for specimens. The path crossed and recrossed the Impima rivulet, which in parts was dammed and double-dammed; its bed of quartz-gravel and red ironstone again suggested deep digging. After a two hours' stroll we traversed the snaking course by a rude bridge, and presently came to the half-way plantation, Impatási: it is faced by a dwarf clearing, and we noted a fine clump of bamboo-cane. The next village was Edu-Kru, marked upon the maps 'Edu.' We then passed over the dry bed of the Bujiá wady, which looked as 'fit' as the Impima; and, at about twenty-five yards north of the bed we breasted the rough ascent of the Apatim Hill.
Here we turned to the right and found Mr. Grant's trial-shaft. It had been sunk amongst a number of round holes dug by the native miner, and it appeared to us that they had been working the southern butt-end of the eastern reef. He had preferred it to another pit sunk a little distance from the centre by a man named Jones, whose venture yielded the poorest results. Cameron drew my attention to the necessity of 'hydraulicking' this hill-side; and from three pounds of its yellow clay, gathered at random, we washed about fourpence worth of gold-dust, upwards of 8l. a ton. Other specimens assayed 1 oz. 13 dwts. and 13 grains. The quartz at a little lower than a fathom had yielded poorly, [Footnote: Messieurs Johnson and Matthey found only 0.650 oz. gold and 0.225 silver.] but better results were expected from a deeper horizon.
A few minutes of uphill-walk led us to the little Apatim village, our objective. We had spent three hours and a half over a distance which would be easily covered in two. The march may be about two and a half miles (direct geographical) from Axim, and five along the native path. During the night my companion took a good observation of Castor and Pollux, and with the aid of his chronometer laid down the position of the Apatim village at N. lat. 4º 55' and W. long. (G.) 2º 14' 2". Consequently the nearest point from Central Axim is 2,200 yards, and 200 from the shore. The north-western angle runs clean across the Ancobra River. [Footnote: Mr. Walker wrote to me, 'I am inclined to believe that the concession will be found to extend to the River Ankobra on the west and north-west sides. But I do not feel certain that this would be of any material advantage, the distance from Axim by land being so short, and the road between that port and the property being capable of improvement, so as to render transport a matter of small expense.'] The concession measures 4,000 square yards, the centre being an old native shaft a little north of the Bujiá bed. The quadrangle lies between N. lat. 4º 53' 56" and 4º 55' 56", and W. long. (G.) 2º 12' 48" and 2º 14' 48". The lease costs 12l. per annum, paid quarterly, and 120l. when the works shall open. Its lessor had forbidden his fraudulent people to prospect or to mine, because, as usual, they systematically robbed him of his royalty. This universal practice has made the kings and chiefs throughout the country ready and even anxious to sell mining-lands for small sums which will be paid honestly and regularly. They are also fully alive to the prospective advantages of European staffs settling amongst them. Like them we shall find the systematic dishonesty and roguery of the natives a considerable drawback; the fellows know good stone at sight and can easily secrete it. The cure for this evil will be the importation of labour, especially of Chinese labourers.
At Apatim, the name of the district as well as the village, we were civilly received by the chief, Kwábina Sensensé. He is also lessor of the unfortunate Akankon concession, and his right to sell or to let either of them has been seriously disputed. This practice, again, may lead, unless checked, to serious difficulties. When the local government shall have established a regular department and a staff of Gold-commissioners, every owner should be compelled legally to prove his title to the land. West Africans know nothing of yards and fathoms; they have hardly any words to express north or south. [Footnote: The four points are taken from the buried body, the feet being to the east and the head lying west.] Consequently they will sell, either wittingly or in their ignorance of dimension and direction, the same ground, or parts of it, to two or three purchasers. Indeed, they would like nothing better, and consequently 'jumpers' must be expected.
Sensensé is a dark man, apparently on the wrong side of fifty. His grizzly beard, grown comparatively long, his closely-trimmed mustachios, and his head-cloth, worn like a turban, made me take him at first sight for a Moslem. He has a cunning eye, which does not belie his reputation. His fad is to take money and to do no work for it; he now wants us to pay for the clearing of an uncleared path. The villagers fear him on account of certain fetish-practices which, in plain English, mean poison; and he keeps up their awe by everywhere displaying the outward signs of magic and sorcery. A man with this gift can rise at night when all sleep; cast off his body like a snake's slough; become a loup-garou; shoot flames from eyes and ears, nose, mouth, and arm-pits; walk with his head on the ground and kill man either by drinking his blood or by catching his kra (umbra), which he boils and devours. Here the sign of 'fetish' is mostly the koro, or pot full of rubbish. At Axim and Akankon we shall find our chief a mighty bore, each visit being equivalent to a bottle of gin.
After a restful sleep in the cool and pleasant air of Apatim, we proceeded to visit the valley east of the settlement, despite Sensensé's warning that the ground was 'fetish.' He had made the same objection to M. Bonnat, his evident object being to keep the rich placer for private use or for further sale. There are evil reports about the origin of the Frenchman's fatal illness after disregarding this and similar warnings. The deep and steep-banked depression runs north-south, and is apparently the head of the Bujiá stream. The vegetation, especially near the water, which flows some 300 feet below the village, was exceedingly dense and tangled, except where the ground had been cleared for bananas, maize, or ground-nuts. The bottom, especially at the sharp corners, gave the idea of exceeding richness; and there were many old works apparently deserted. The 'fetish-pot' stood everywhere, filled with oil, water, and palm-wine, leaves, cowries, eggs, and all manner of filth. This stuff, stirred by the komfo diviner, answers questions and enables man to soothsay. It also corresponds with the obeah of the West Indies, the ubio of the Efik race, a charm put into the ground to hurt or kill. How hot the rich hole was! What a perspiration and what a thirst came out of the climb!
In the evening we walked about half a mile to the south-west of the village, and prospected the central shaft, whence the measurements were made. Here it is sunk in a western reef, palpably running parallel with the eastern, which we first inspected. And this visit gave us a fair idea of the property. It consists of at least three ridges of clay running from north to south, and each containing one or more meridional walls of quartz. Some of the latter may turn out to be 'master lodes.'
I regret that this fine Apatim concession was not thrown into the market before the so-called 'Izrah.' The distance from Axim to the mining-ground is so small that provisions and machinery could be transported for a trifle. The village lies 220 feet above sea-level; and a hillock in its rear, perhaps 80 feet higher, commands a noble view, showing Axim Bay: it could be used as a signal-station. The rise is a fine, healthy position for the dwellings to be occupied by the European staff, and in such air white men could work for years.
Moreover, the short distance from the shore offers peculiar advantages for 'hydraulicking.' Flumes and sluices could carry the golden subsoil to the sea and discharge it into a series of tanks and cisterns, which would be cradled for 'pay-dirt.' Finally, it will be easy to baffle the plundering negro workman by sending all stone containing free gold to be worked in England, where superior appliances extract more than enough to pay transport-costs. Indeed, it is a question with me whether, despite great expenses, reduction at home even of inland produce will not be found preferable. [Footnote: Mr. C. H. Creswick, of the Gold Coast Mining Company, kindly drew up for me the following table of expenses from Abontiyakon (his diggings) to England, and the costs of reducing a ton of ore.
l s. d. 3 15 0 canoe-transport to the Abonsá River. 1 10 0 Abonsá to Axim by a boat of thirteen hands carrying five tons 0 3 6 landing at Axim and shipping on board steamer. 1 15 0 freight and landing charges at Liverpool. 0 15 0 carriage to reduction-works. 2 12 6 costs of reduction. ————— 8 11 0 which practically would rise to 9l. or 10l.
For local reduction Mr. Creswick calculates the outlay at 2l. per ton, including interest on prime cost of machinery, allowance for wear and tear, and labour-pay.] This remark applies only to rich ore; the poorer can be worked upon the spot.
We returned to Axim with the highest opinion of 'Apatim,' and I rejoiced to hear that the mine will be opened without delay.