He said West Africa has been called the "White Man's Grave." Bombay and Zanzibar both have had the same reputation, and to sleep ashore was considered certain death; but English officials now live ashore in both, and though no European is fever-proof in Africa, Englishmen who take precautions are pretty healthy. As for labour, if the natives won't undertake it they can get any amount of Indian coolies and Chinese. Richard said, "What Africa wants is an honest man at the head, and machinery;" and almost the last thing that he ever said to me upon business matters was, "Whatever interests I may have in the West Coast of Africa, or in Midian, I mean to stick to, and if you survive me, do you stick to them."
From the Press.
"West African Mines.
"When Sir Richard Burton was invited to go to the Gold Coast in search of the precious metal to which that region owes its name, he is reported to have said, 'Geography is good, but gold is better.' The result of his expedition, in which Commander Cameron took part, was to establish the fact that the Gold Coast still deserves its name, and many attempts have been made of late years to exploit the district. The Governor of the colony has recently sent a very careful report on the gold-mining industry to Lord Knutsford, based to a great extent upon personal observations. The conclusions he arrives at are that the country is rich in gold, and that earnest and well-considered attempts are being made to work the mines, the chief difficulty being the want of labourers, who would have to be imported, probably from China.
"Every two or three years Captain Burton appears like a meteor in London, and in that City of four millions he invariably succeeds in creating a stir. However hurried his visitations, his presence is keenly felt. He wakes up the learned Societies, startles the Geographers, is the hero of banquets, and drops a new book in his wake. As we all know, his early exploits have become a part of the history of our times, and in our annals of discovery or daring there is nothing to beat his work in Africa—tracking the secret sources of Old Nile, or his famous pilgrimage to Mecca. As time goes on, the grass does not grow beneath his feet. A man cannot set the Thames on fire every day, but he has lived to do many wonders. Cast away as he is to the east of Venice, and chained to his post at Trieste—doomed by perverse fate to an isolation that must be almost as irksome as the rock of St. Helena to Napoleon[3]—when he ought to be in some splendid position worthy of his powers, Captain Burton makes the most of leisure and leave of absence. If we do not hear of him and there is no sign, we may be sure he is not losing time. Either he is deep in some hard literary enterprise, such as his recent translation of the epic of Portugal, 'The Lusiads,' or he is off on some fresh quest interesting to science or to the multitude. He has just now returned from his old haunts, West Africa, and he comes this time in his familiar character of Gold-finder."
"Mining on the Gold Coast.
"To the Editor of the Mining World and Engineering Record.
"Sir,—Some months have passed since my last communication. I have had little to say, and was unwilling to intrude upon your valuable space. Now, however, the state of things has changed, and I am compelled once more to apply to you for hospitality.
"It is a pleasure to see the Gold Coast taking its proper place in your columns. The Mining World of November 10th contains three separate notices, highly encouraging to those who, like myself, thoroughly believe in the vast mineral wealth of our ill-fated colony, in the facility of 'getting' the metal, and in the manageability of the climate, which is certainly not worse than was that of Bombay at the beginning of the present century. I remark with satisfaction that the 'debauched, incapable' class, at first sent out, faute de mieux, has been gradually improved off, and that able men are taking its place. Lastly, I am delighted to observe that at least one of the new-comers has proposed to adopt the style of work especially adapted for the Gold Coast, and has determined to preface the good old 'shaft and tunnel' system by pouching the superficial deposits.
"A case in point. One of my correspondents kindly forwarded to me a copy of Mr. Lowman's last report to the directors of the African Gold Coast Syndicate, Limited. This manager, sent out to develop the huge and rich 'Ingotro Concession,' reached Axim only on August 16th. On reaching his destination he was at once informed by Chief Appo that the bottom of the Nánwá Valley, an old lagoon, abounds in gold, 'if we could but only get water out.' After puddling and washing, 'with extra good results,' sundry samples of the clay, he cut on the east bank of the rivulet a drain 350 feet long by 3 feet wide and 2½ feet deep, with a fall of 1 in 80. I may remind you that the stream in question, as shown by Captain Cameron's map, 'snakes' all down its valley, and that ditches from one loop to another would lay bare a great length of bed. Its width varies from 15 to 30 feet; the depth from 18 inches to 6 feet, and it runs all the year round. Mr. Lowman began another drain 400 feet long, to cross-cut the lagoon, which now infects the lower bed of the Nánwá, and which would easily empty into the Ancobra. He proposed to hydraulic with 350 feet of troughs or sluice-boxes, which were all ready for laying, and one Molyneux box (loose hopper, patent riffles, and slide tables), 'the first ever made or used on the Gold Coast.' A sketch of the 'flats' and of the machinery was attached to the report, and I can say nothing except in their praise.
"The lagoon clay to be puddled and 'Molyneux'd' is described as a still, yellow argile, resting upon a hard bottom of quartz pebbles. The cuttings opened up drifts of black sand, considered to be 'highly auriferous' (see the 'Gold Book'), and these were reserved for washing at convenience. The results of panning and cradling on the Nánwá flats, and on the whole line as far as Kitza, yielded samples varying from 4 dwts. to 10 ozs. per cubic yard of stuff. What would California and Australia say to those figures? Mr. Lowman adds, and I believe him, 'There is no property between Axim and Tacquah so well adapted for hydraulicking and alluvial mining in all its branches as the Ingotro Concession. There is plenty of water and a good fall for tailings by simply cutting channels from river bend to bend, and letting them run into one of the deep valleys or carrying them direct to the Ancobra river. Another great advantage is that the Ingotro mines can be worked at one-half the expense of any quartz mine on the coast. Water here will do the work of steam with half the number of hands. The whole of the Nánwá Valley is auriferous, good payable ground, which would take sixty to seventy years to work out, without touching the quartz.' Now we come to what will greatly benefit the climate, the only weak point noted at Ingotro by Cameron and myself. 'An absolute necessary piece of work will be to clear the river banks and to remove the trees which have fallen across the bed. We must also do away with (N.B.—I hope after panning) the large silted-up banks of sand and gravel which have accumulated in the river bends, causing the stream to overflow and to swamp the low lands, after each little freshet. Some of the banks, four to five feet high and fifteen across, are perfect natural dams. The work should not occupy more than three or four months.'
"The first thing which struck me on the Gold Coast was a conviction that its 'nullah beds' will supply the greatest quantity of metal for the least possible expenditure. The late M. Bounat, a Frenchman, who taught Englishmen the value of their colony on the Guinea Gulf, began (as I related in the 'Gold Book,' ii. 360) with the intention of dredging the Ancobra river for dust and nuggets. And he was right. Every little rivulet bed in the land must be ransacked before the hills are washed down by hydraulicking; and the sooner the 'steam navvy' appears upon the scene the better.
"Mr. Lowman evidently took good counsel, and, not being a consulting engineer, was not above taking a lesson from 'Chief Appo.' You may imagine my vexation on hearing that he had been recalled for 'want of funds.' Want of funds! Why, three months' work and a few hundred pounds would have enabled him to wash gold enough for paying all the labour he requires. Surely the directors of 'Ingotro' must see this as clearly as I do. It is a sorry time to draw back when standing upon the very verge of a grand discovery. I would state, in your pages, my certainty that such is the case; and if the Nánwá project fail, I would subside into a 'mere traveller,' as a booby acquaintance kindly described me.
"Excuse the length of this letter—the importance of the subject amply justifies it.
"I am, etc.,
"Richard Burton.
"Trieste, Austria, November 26th."
"To the Editor of the Mining World and Engineering Record.
"Sir,—You should have heard from me before had not petite santé stood in the way of good intentions. Life in a little Mediterranean harbour-town makes one almost look forward to leaving the world in view of some extensive explorations beyond the world.
"My letters from the Gold Coast are cheering. Captain Cameron and Mr. Walsten are doing prime work. The former is being supplied with funds, an essential point which I cannot urge too strongly upon the two companies for whom he is now labouring. The 'present and future' of the Gold Coast mainly depends upon his success.
"Many thanks to Mr. Louis F. Gowan for his 'pile of experience' about Chinese coolies. This is what we want—familiarity with the subject, not more dogmatism. And the question is whether Chinamen in Africa would be the 'pig-tailed cut-throats' described by Mr. Gowan. I did not find them so in Bombay, San Francisco, and Peru.
"On the other hand, I am in nowise edified by the dogmatism displayed at the annual meeting of the Guinea Gold Coast Mining Company. A chairman is hardly expected to be an expert, but he must not address his shareholders as if he were a high authority. I read: 'Now, gentlemen, hydraulic sluicing are very easy words to pronounce, but it is a deuced hard operation to perform.' After some exceedingly useless statements about hydraulicking in Australia, he continues: 'The directors took the best advice they could, namely, that of your consulting engineer, and he was opposed to it. He said, "It is quite true that if your country is impregnated with gold, and if you have got great results everywhere by assay, it is advisable, but you have not got any here (!), and therefore it would be very unwise expenditure."' The chairman concludes, 'We were bound then to take the opinion of an expert against the opinion of Captain Burton on that point, because otherwise you would have real reason for blaming us.'
"This is really too bad for the unfortunate shareholders, who have only £15,000 left wherewith to carry on the work. Their property is cut by two streamlets, and these have never even been tested for gold. I have still to learn what experience of mining is possessed by the consulting engineer; but that he has a complete ignorance of Africa, I well know. Every writer on the Gold Coast from Bosman to Swanzy tells him that the land is impregnated with gold. He says it is not. As regards his management, it is enough to wreck any company. He recommended a person who reported in his cups that he could find no gold. I am waiting to see how his second protégé turns out; present reports are the reverse of favourable, and if number two fail like number one, I shall offer you a suggestion of my own concerning management on the Gold Coast.
"Against these miserable theories let us see what is the language of actual experience. To begin with Mr. Edward Smith's report on the Kitzia Concession:—'When going up the creek from the native village, I saw fourteen native women washing alluvial soil in the bed of the creek; and, on inquiring as to the result of their washing, Mr. Grant, the interpreter, told me they were making six shillings each per day. The stuff they were washing was from the surface of the side of the hill hard by. The creek could be turned, and a water-race brought alongside of the hill, so as to command the surface and to ground-sluice this portion of the property with good paying results.' Such is the hydraulicking recommended by me; but, apparently, where native women succeed, consulting engineers expect only failure. I must say with Abernethy, 'Read my book!' And that is not all. Captain Cameron writes to me from Axim, 'I shall get very good washing by the engine (i.e. without expensive leats or water-races), and think about ten or twelve shillings to the ton. I have over thirty feet fall for the sluices, which will give me three hundred and sixty feet (if necessary) of boxes.' I reported to you what my friend declared in a former letter, that he could wash down a whole hillside.
"In conclusion, I hope that the shareholders, after comparing the statements of fact and theory, will insist upon their engineers abandoning the old humdrum, beaten track; and will compel them, whether they like it or not, to send home gold washed from the surface.
"I am, etc.,
"R. F. Burton.
"Trieste, Austria, April 20th, 1883."
From Mining Journal, February 5th, 1887.
"West African Gold Mines.
"To the Editor of the Mining Journal.
"Sir,—I have been surprised that these West African properties have not been brought to the front during the present excitement in gold-mining affairs, for that the gold is there is beyond all question. I do not forget that several of the companies which started a few years ago came to grief, but the cause of this was well known to be mismanagement and misfortune—forces which would ruin the best scheme in the world. But that these are going to prevent success in West Africa for ever I fail to believe. Let us look for a moment at what has really been going on quietly during the past twelve months there, and I think we shall see cause for much hopefulness in the near future. The Wassau Mining Company's monthly report is now before me. The crushing for twenty-two days in November gave 232 ozs., which netted the sum of £894 19s. in London, after deducting freight and expenses. This is at the rate of £1220 per month of thirty days. Their monthly expenses, I believe, are now somewhere about £500. This shows a profit at the rate of over £8000 a year, or 8 per cent. on the capital, and much more than this is a mere question of machinery. The manager reports on December 1: 'If anything, the mine looks better than ever.' The French Company have reorganized their affairs, and a large and able staff left England on January 1st. Their property, at a depth of 40 feet, gives an average yield of 17½ dwts. per ton in a south-west direction, and in a north-east direction it gives 21 dwts. At 63 feet it gives 2 ozs. 15 dwts., and in Bonnat's shaft, at 83 feet, it yields 5 ozs. 13 dwts. per ton. With figures like these one may fairly ask, Where are the East Indian mines? Where, even, are the Queensland properties? The Swanzy Estates Company, a private enterprise, carefully and economically managed, have been working for upwards of two years, on a property which, though not so rich as the others, is none the less likely to pay handsomely, as the quantity of mineral in sight is enormous, and it can be worked at a mere nominal cost, in consequence of its position. They are receiving regular returns, and the owners are more than satisfied. Cinnamon Bippo, another private property, equally well and economically worked, has at least one lode a mile in length, the average assay from which, over its entire distance, gives 2¼ ozs. to the ton, and by actual crushing of about 300 tons it has yielded 1 oz. 8 dwts. per ton, at an estimated profit of seventy shillings per ton. With improved machinery and appliances, the owners are satisfied that they will get about 2 ozs. per ton, and the quantity of ore is absolutely unlimited. I now turn to your issue of Saturday last, and draw attention to the report on Essaman. Mr. Harvey says, respecting the Prestea reef, 'I have discovered that this is only a portion of an auriferous belt over 200 ft. thick. The cross-cut has been driven through the belt to cut the reef, so there is proof undeniable of what I state, and, moreover, the whole is permeated with auriferous veins of quartz. Who knows but that some day or other this hill may be opened and worked as a quarry? Believe me, we know little of the wealth of Africa.' Mr. Harvey reports the main reef to be 10 feet thick at the point where driving will be commenced, and the average samples taken right through confirm his previous estimate of about 2 ozs. per ton. Mr. Harvey is right; we know little of the wealth of Africa, but it will not be much longer concealed.
"Pseudonym.
"January 31st, 1887."
I quote this prematurely, because it finishes the subject:
"An Explanation.
"Mr. W. J. Johns has called our attention to a very important letter respecting the Guinea Coast Company, Limited, which has been received from Sir Richard F. Burton. This letter would have been read by Mr. Johns to the shareholders of that company who assembled at last week's meeting, but no opportunity presented itself for him to do so. Many misstatements were made at that gathering respecting Mr. Johns and other gentlemen connected with the company, which in a really deliberative assembly, anxious only for the facts, might have been set aside. The letter of Sir Richard Burton (an old correspondent of the Mining World) tells its own tale. It is as follows:—
"'Hôtel Windsor, Cannes, January 25th, 1887.
"'I am greatly scandalized at seeing the papers crammed with the falsest statements about the property of the Guinea Coast Company.
"'Two great points require emphatic contradiction. The first is, that the place is a swamp; the second, that it contains no gold.
"'As regards both these statements I have only to bring in as evidence my own book, "To the Gold Coast for Gold," and I am ready to maintain every word therein printed.
"'The place, so far from being a swamp, struck me as peculiarly healthy, and the condition of the natives proved that such was the case.
"'As regards the gold, I noted in my book that Captain Cameron and I were unable to descend into the native shafts on account of their being full of water. But the number and extent of these diggings told their own tale, and I need hardly repeat that auriferous quartz reefs are only nibbed by the country people.
"'It would be impossible for me to be in England as early as the 24th of next month, but I have written to my friend and fellow-traveller, Commander Cameron, whose opinion of the mines and mine were identical, to print in some leading papers our distinct and emphatic denial of the two falsehoods above noticed, which have been unblushingly foisted upon the public.
"'(Signed) Richard F. Burton.'"
"'Hôtel Windsor, Cannes, January 25th, 1887.
"'I am greatly scandalized at seeing the papers crammed with the falsest statements about the property of the Guinea Coast Company.
"'Two great points require emphatic contradiction. The first is, that the place is a swamp; the second, that it contains no gold.
"'As regards both these statements I have only to bring in as evidence my own book, "To the Gold Coast for Gold," and I am ready to maintain every word therein printed.
"'The place, so far from being a swamp, struck me as peculiarly healthy, and the condition of the natives proved that such was the case.
"'As regards the gold, I noted in my book that Captain Cameron and I were unable to descend into the native shafts on account of their being full of water. But the number and extent of these diggings told their own tale, and I need hardly repeat that auriferous quartz reefs are only nibbed by the country people.
"'It would be impossible for me to be in England as early as the 24th of next month, but I have written to my friend and fellow-traveller, Commander Cameron, whose opinion of the mines and mine were identical, to print in some leading papers our distinct and emphatic denial of the two falsehoods above noticed, which have been unblushingly foisted upon the public.
"'(Signed) Richard F. Burton.'"
[1] Richard wrote "The Castellieri; or, Prehistoric Ruins of the Istrian Peninsula," and "More Castellieri—the Seaboard of Istria."
[2] This was deemed chivalrous and foolish by his own lawyer.—I. B.
[3] A good simile. The British Government seemed quite as afraid of one as of the other—friend or foe, she must cage her eagles.—I. B.