From Ingotro we marched back to Nánwá and took leave of Chief Apó; his parting words were a request that work might be begun as soon as possible, and that at any rate his concession should be properly marked out. The limitation must not be neglected, but the exploitation of the diggings is another affair. The ground is exceptionally rich in gold, and it offers every facility for extracting the metal. But the climate of the lowlands presents difficulties. In so large an area of broken ground, however, there are eminences that command a prospect of the sea and which are within the influence of the sea-breeze. The conditions will, doubtless, improve when the adjacent mining-grounds, Inyoko and Izrah, shall have been opened and the country cleared and ventilated. In the meantime light works and hydraulicking on an extensive scale might be begun at once, especially during the rainy season, under seasoned and acclimatised overseers. An amelioration must be the result, and even before the rich surface has been washed it will be possible to set up heavy machinery for deep working, shafting, and tunnelling.
Embarking about 3 P.M. on board Effuenta, we steamed up the Ancobra, which here looks more like a river and less like a lagoon. The settlements become more important, the first being Nfia-kru, or the 'dog-village.' There were many influents, which showed like dark breaches in the rampart of verdure. Such was the Ahema (Huma), a creek that breaks the left bank. This name may become memorable. Upon its upper course Messieurs Gillett and Selby have a small mining concession, and in its golden gravels Mr. O. Pegler, Associate of the School of Mines, found a crystal which he strongly suspected to be a diamond. It was taken to Axim, where its glass-cutting properties were proved. Unfortunately during one of these trials the setting gave way, and the stone fell into a heap of rubbish, where it could not be found. Many have suspected that these regions will prove diamantiferous; and it is reported that an experienced French mineralogist, who has visited the South African diggings, landed at Assini and proposed to canoe up the Tando River to the Tákwá mines, prospecting in search of his specialty.
A portentous cloud ahead growled its thunder and discharged thin rain, while the westing sun shone clear and bright. In Dahome the combination suggests the ghosts of Kutomen going to market, [Footnote: The Akra-men make Sisaman, their Kutomen, Scheol or Hades, a town on one of the Volta holms or somewhere beyond. The Gold Coast has three species of departed 'spirits' (asamanfo)—the shades of men who fell in fight or by accident (as by a tree-fall); common spirits, and lingering spirits, so called because they do not enter Shade-land, but hover about man's dwellings. The slain never associate with the commonalty; they walk about rubbed with white clay and clad in white; nor are they afraid of, whereas the others fly from, and are unwilling to be seen by, the living. 'It is said in the Dead-land below the earth there are kings as well as slaves. If you have been long sick in this world you will recover health there after three years, but one killed in battle or by accident will be well in a month or so. It is said that Dead-land is below (earth); others declare it is above (the sky). About this there is no certainty. Where one is taken to when he dies there his spirit is; when they die and take you to the spirits' grove, then your spirit is in the grove. The town (or land) of the departed spirits is not in the grove, but in the earth; it is a large town, and going there a mountain has to be climbed. The way of one who died a natural death is dark in heaven; but if one who died in battle or by accident take that way, some of the white clay with which he is rubbed falls down; therefore his way (via lactea) appears white. In the spirits' grove the departed spirits do not stay always; only on certain days they assemble there for eating, drinking, and playing.' Yet these 'spiritualists' (with the spirits) have scant pleasure in contemplating the future. Their proverb is, 'A corner in the world of matter is better than a world of spirits,'—Page 407, Dictionary of the Asante and Fante Languages, by Rev. J. G. Christaller.] in Fanti-land the hunchback woman becoming a mother, and in England his Satanic Majesty beating his wife. Off the Eketekki village we saw, for the first time, bad snags, which will require removal. About sunset the Aka-kru settlement, the largest yet noted, appeared on the left bank. Here the Akankon Mining Company has a native house of wattle and dab, looking somewhat better than the normal mud-cabin. It had been unceremoniously occupied by natives, who roared their laughter when ordered to turn out. From Aka-kru there is a direct line to the Effuenta, within an hour's walk of the Tákwá mine; the four stages can be covered in twenty hours. [Footnote: Mr. Gillett, who had lately passed over it, gave me these notes on the line. No. 1 stage from Aka-kru crosses virgin land, the property of the 'King' of Axim, to Autobrun (three hours); No. 2 leads over fine level ground to Dompé (nine hours slow); No. 3 to Abrafu, on the Abonsá River, one march south of the Abonsá station (three hours); No. 4 to the Effuenta mine (five hours).]
At 6.30 P.M. we saw, a little above Aka-kru, and also on the left bank, Jyachabo, or 'Silver-' (Jyácho) 'stone.' Of this settlement Captain Wyatt notes, 'It is said that a silver-mine was formerly worked here by the Dutch and Portuguese.' Hard by the north of it lie the ruins of the old Hollanders' fort, St. John, which the natives have corrupted to 'Senchorsu;' the people, however, did not seem to know their whereabouts. We determined to push on to Akankon, despite the ugly prospect of a dark walk through the wet bush, and of deferring the survey to another time. Suddenly we saw on the right bank the black silhouette of a house, standing high and lone in its clearing, and we made fast to a good landing-place, an inclined plane of corduroy. It was an unexpected pleasure; both had been put up after Cameron left the mine by the native caretaker, Mr. Morris.
We slept soundly through a cool and pleasant night at 'Riverside House.' The large building of palm-fronds, with a roof like the lid of a lunch-basket, contains three rooms, and will be provided with outhouses. Inside and outside it is whitewashed above and blackwashed below. The coal-tar was suggested by my nautical companion; and, for the first time on the Ancobra River, we exchanged the bouquet d'Afrique for the smell of Europe. The big crate stands high upon the right bank, here rising about twenty feet, and affording a pleasant prospect of breezy brown stream deeply encased in bright green forest. The draught caused by flowing water keeps the clearing clean of sand-flies, the pest of the inner settlements, and European employés will find the place healthy. The up-sloping ground behind the house could be laid out in a pottage-garden; and, as Bahama-grass grows fast, there will be no difficulty about disposing of the under-growth.
Next morning (February 27) we were joined by Mr. Morris, who told the long tale of his grievances. He had been in charge of ten men for five months, during which he had not received a farthing of pay. Consequently his gang had struck work. Thus chatting we followed the cleared path leading up the right bank of the little Akankon creek: now dry, it is navigable for canoes during the rains, and falls into the Ancobra under a good corduroy bridge near the landing-ramp. A line of posts showed the levels which had been carefully marked by Cameron. It was a pleasure to see the bed; it had been scraped in many places by the gold-washer, and it promises an ample harvest when properly worked. We left on the left hand Safahin Sensensé's village, a cluster of huts surrounded by bananas; we crossed the shallow head of the creek, all a swamp during the rains; we walked up a dwarf slope, and after half an hour we found ourselves at 'Granton.'
The position of Granton is not happily chosen. Though the hill-side faces south it is beyond reach of the sea-breeze; the damp and wooded depression breeds swarms of sand-flies, and being only forty feet above the river, it is reeking hot. The thermometer about noon never showed less than 92º (F.), and often rose to 96º; in the Rains it falls to 72º, and the nights are cold with damp. It will be a question which season will here prove the safest for working. On the coast I should say the Rains; in the higher lands about the Effuenta mine I am told that the Dries must be preferred.
Granton is, or was, composed of eight tenements disposed to form a hollow square. Five of them are native cages of frond and thatch, which I should have preferred on a second visit. The rest are planks brought from Europe, good carpentry-work, and raised a little off the ground. Unfortunately the bulkheads are close above, instead of being latticed for draught. The items are two boxes—sleeping-room and store-room—with a larger lodging of four rooms which sadly wants a flying-roof. The offices are kept in good order by the penniless caretaker, who has been left entirely without supplies, and who is obliged to borrow our ink-bottles.
We lost no time in visiting the 'Akankon' reef, a word appropriately meaning 'abandoned' or 'left alone.' The people, however, understand it in the sense that, when a miner has taken possession of the ground, and has shown a right to it, his fellows leave him to work and betake themselves elsewhere. Immediately behind the huts we came upon a broad streak cochineal-red, except where tarnished by oxygen, where it looked superficially like ochre. The strike ran parallel with the quartz-reef, north 5º east (true). Cameron had broken some of the stone into chips, subjected it to the blow-pipe, and obtained bright globules of quicksilver. Veins of sulphide of mercury, cinnabar, or vermilion have been found in other parts of the Protectorate: we suspected their presence at Apatim, and collected specimens, still to be assayed. The natives have an idea that when 'the gold turns white' it is uncanny to work the place; moreover, silver is always removed from the person when miners approach the gold-diggings. I should explain the phenomenon by the presence of mercury.
A good road, with side-drains, running about half a mile to the north, has been kept open by the care-taker. To its right is a manner of hillock, evidently an old plantation, in some places replanted. From the top a view to the west shows three several ridges, the Akankon proper, Ijimunbukai, and Agunah, blue in the distance. Northwards the Akankon hog's-back is seen sweeping riverwards from north to north-east, rising to the hill Akankon-bukah. Here Mr. Amondsen, a Danish sailor long employed in Messieurs Swanzy's local sailing craft, and lately sent out by the Company, informed me that he proposed to transfer the quarters for European employés. He has, however, I am told, changed his mind and built upon 'Plantation Hillock.' On the left or western side of the road the Akankon ridge is subtended by a hollow, the valley of a streamlet in rainy weather. This supply, which can easily be made perennial, will greatly facilitate washing. The highway ended in a depression, where stood the deserted 'Krumen's quarters.' The only sign of work was a peculiar cross-cut made by Mr. Cornish, C.E., one of the engineers.