We halted for breakfast at Sanma, where Messieurs Swanzy have another storehouse, and where the French Company is building one for itself with characteristic slowness. The settlement is ill-famed for the Chigo or jigger (Pulex penetrans), unknown in my day upon the West African coast. It has killed men by causing gangrenous sores. From 'Tabon,' [Footnote: 'Tabon' is evidently corrupted from the popular greeting ''Sta bom?' (Are you well? How d'e do?)] the Brazil, it crept over to Sao Paulo de Loanda, and thence it spread far and wide up and down coast, and deep into the interior. This fact suggests that there may be truth in the theory which makes the common flea of India an immigrant from Europe.

At 1 P.M. we resumed our way along the beach, under sunshine tempered by the 'smokes.' These mists, however, are now clearing away for the tornado-season, and 'insolation' will become more decided. We ran by sundry little bush-villages: their names will be found in my companion's careful route-survey. I shall notice only those which showed something notable.

There is sameness in the prospect, which, however, does not wholly lack interest. Soon after dawn the village urchins begin disporting themselves among the breakers and billows upon broken bits of boat, while their fathers throw the cast-net nearer shore. The brown-black pigs and piglets root up the wet sand for shell-fish; and, higher up, the small piebald cattle loiter in the sun or shade. From afar the negro-groups are not unpicturesque in their bright red and brimstone yellow sheets, worn like Roman togas. A nearer view displays bridgeless, patulous noses, suggesting a figure of [Symbol: Figure-8 on its side.]; cheek-bones like molehills, and lips splayed out in the manner of speaking-trumpets: often, indeed, the face is a mere attachment to the devouring-apparatus. Throughout the day sexes and ages keep apart. The nude boys perch upon stones or worn-out canoes. Their elders affect the shade, men on one side of the village and women on the other. All the settlements are backed by cocoa-trees in lines and clumps. Those who view Africa biliously compare them with hearse-plumes; I find in them a peculiar individuality and likeness to humankind. There is the chubby babe, six feet high; the fast-growing 'hobbedehoy;' the adult, bending away from you like a man, or, woman-like, inclining towards you; there is the bald, shrunken senior; and, lastly, appears death, lean and cold and dry.

Between sea and settlement stand the canoes, flat-bottomed and tip-tilted like Turkish slippers; where the land is low and floods are high, each is mounted upon four posts. Fronting and outside the village stands a wall-less roof of flat matting, the palaver-house. The settlement is surrounded by a palisade of fronds stripped from the bamboo-palm and strengthened by posts; the latter put forth green shoots as soon as stuck in the ground, and recall memories of Robinson Crusoe. The general entrance has a threshold two to two and a half feet high. The tenements are simple as birds' nests, primitive as the Highlander's mud-cabin and shieling of wattle and heather. The outer walls are of bamboo-palm fronds, the partitions are of bamboo-palm matting, and the roofs are of bamboo-palm thatch. Each place has its osafahin, or headman, and each headman has his guest-house, built of better material, swish or adobe.

The only approach to grandeur are the long surges and white combers of the mournful and misty Atlantic. They roll like the waving prairie-land, curl their huge heads, and dash down in a fury of foam. 'On the top of a billow we ride,' with a witness. Here and there black dots peer through the surf, and to touch them is death. This foul shore presents a formidable barrier to landing: there absolutely is no safe place between Apollonia and the Ancobra. European employes avoid tempting the breakers; they disembark and re-embark for home, and that is all. Mr. Grant assures us that there is no risk; Mr. Grillett, who has worked the coast since 1875, says the contrary; no man knows it better or fears it more. Some places are worse than others; for instance, Inenyapoli is exceptionally dangerous. The sea is shallow, and ships, requiring eight fathoms, must, to be safe, anchor four miles out. The coast-soundings in the Admiralty charts are positively unsafe, and will remain so until revised. On the other hand, the reefs and rocks of Axim Bay have wholly disappeared, with some exceptions seen off Kikam and Esyama.

Looking inland we find the shore mostly subtended by a marigot, or salt-water lagoon, a miniature of those regular rivers which made the Slave Coast what it was. And along the sea we can detect its presence by the trickling of little rills guttering and furrowing the sandy surface. The formation of these characteristic African features, which either run parallel with or are disposed at various angles to the coast, is remarkably simple. There is no reason to assume with Lieutenant R. C. Hart that they result from secular upheaval. [Footnote: Page 186, Gold Coast Blue Book. London, 1881]. The 'powerful artillery with which the ocean assails the bulwarks of the land' here heaps up a narrow strip of high sand-bank; and the tails of the smaller streams are powerless to break through it, except when swollen by the rains. They maintain their level by receiving fresh water at the head and by percolation through the beach, while most of them are connected with the sea.

We halted for rest at the Esyama village; its landmarks are the ronnier, the glorious palmyra (Borassus flabelliformis), here called 'women's cocoa-tree.' The village looked peculiarly neat with its straight, sandy street-roads, a quarter of a mile long; and the tenements generally are better than those of Axim. We noticed the usual feature, a long thatched barn of yellow clay—school-cum-chapel. The people are fond of planting before their doors the felfa, croton or physicnut (Jatropha curcas), whose oil so long lighted Lisbon. It is a tree of many uses. Boys suck the honey of the flower-stalk; and adults drink or otherwise use, as corrective of bile, an infusion of the leaves and the under bark. They could not give me the receipt for the valuable preparation of the green apple, well known to the Fantis of Accra.

After returning to Axim we heard of rich diggings two hours' march inland, or north with easting from Esyama. They are called 'Yirima,' or 'Choke-full'—that is, of gold. The site is occupied by King Blay's family, and the place is described as containing three or four reefs which have all been more or less worked by the natives. After we left the coast Yirima was visited by Mr. Grant, who reported it as exceptionally promising.

About sunset we hit the Ebumesu, or 'Winding Water.' The people declare that it had a single mouth till the earthquakes of July 1862, which shook down Accra, raised a divide, and made a double embouchure. The eastern fork, known as the Pana, is the drain of a large and branchy lagoon, brackish water, bitumen-coloured or brassy-yellow, with poisonous vegetation, and bounded by mangroves abounding in tannin. These water-forests grow differently from the red and white rhizophores of Eastern Africa. We shall again be ferried over the upper part of the western mouth. Both have bad bars, especially the latter. I therefore can by no means agree with Mr. Walker's report:—'The western outlet of the Ebumesu, near the village of Eku Enu, or Ekwanu, is quite practicable for ordinary surf-boats during the dry season—say half the year—and even in the middle of June I found the bar smooth and safe. Having for thirty years worked some of the worst bars and beaches' (the Gaboon? or the Sherbro?) 'along some hundreds of miles of the West Coast, I am able to state that the Ebumesu bar might be safely utilised for landing goods and machinery; but during the heavy surf of the rainy season goods could always be disembarked at Axim, and, if necessary, carried along the beach to the mouth of the Ebumesu, and thence by boat to the tramway from that river to the mine.' This last statement is quite correct.

All the Aximites described the Ebumesu bars as practically impassable. Cameron and I agreed that the only way of entering them is by running the boat ashore, unloading her, and warping her round the point, as we shall afterwards do at Prince's. But the best line to the Izrah concession has not yet been discovered. I strongly impressed the necessity of careful search upon Mr. A. A. Robertson, the traffic-manager of the Company. For the present I hold the surf along shore and the Ebumesu bar to be equally dangerous. The land-tongue between the two streams is the favourite haunt of mosquitoes and sand-flies, and it produces nothing save mud and mangroves, miasma and malaria. Yet here in 1873-74 loyal and stout-hearted King Blay defended himself against the whole Apollonian coast, which actively sympathised with the Ashantis. [Footnote: Captain Brackenbury, vol. ii, p. 29, The Ashanti War, &c., gives an account of King Blay fighting the Ashantis on the Ebumesu.] He was at last relieved by the Wasas (Wassaws) coming to his side; and now he has little to fear. He can put some 5,000 musketeers into the field; and, during the late Ashanti scare, he offered to aid us with 7,000, if we could supply the extras with arms and ammunition.

When the 'Queen of Shades' arose, and it became too dark to see the world, we halted at the Sensyere village, and found good sleeping-quarters in the guest-house of the headman, Bato. Fortunately we had brought mattresses. The standing four-poster of the country offers only cross-planks covered with the thinnest matting. As the ancient joke of many a lugubrious African traveller says, it combines bed and board. Next morning, despite the chilly damp and the 'old-woman-cannot-see,' as the Scotch mist is here called, our men were ready within reasonable limits. After two hours' hammock we found ourselves at Atabo, capital of eastern Apollonia, about to pay our promised return-visit to good King Blay. It is useless to describe the settlement, which in no way differs from those passed on the path. The country-people related its origin as follows:—A Fanti man from the country between Secondee (Sekondi), or Fort Orange, and Shamah (Chamah), at the mouth of the Bosom Prah, when driven out by war, first founded 'Kabeku,' near the present place of that name. His sons built Bein, or Behin, [Footnote: The aspirate is hardly audible. Captain Brackenbury, generally so careful, manages to confound Bein and Benin.] meaning a 'strong man,' and Atabo, in Fanti ataba, the name of a tree with a reddish-yellow fruit. The latter was paramount till late years, when turbulent and unruly Bein was allowed to set up for herself an independent king; and the sooner things return to the status quo ante the better for peace.

King Blay's guest-house of whitewashed swish is a model of its kind. You pass through a large compound, which contains the outhouses, into a broad, deep verandah, generally facing away from the sea. It opens upon a central room adorned with German prints of Scriptural subjects—Mariahilf, for instance, all gaudy colour and gilt spangles. On each side of this piece are sleeping-rooms. The furniture of the five is exceedingly simple—a standing bedstead, a table, and a few wooden chairs. But Ahin Blay is a civilised man who strews his floors with matting, and has osier fauteuils from Madeira. These quarters are quite wholesome and comfortable enough for temporary use. They would be greatly improved by mounting on pillars or piles; and they might serve for all seasons save the rainy.

Mr. Graham, who dispenses elementary knowledge to the missionary pupils, came to us at once, and kindly offered his aid as 'mouf.' These useful men, who serve as go-betweens and interpreters, are called 'scholars' by the people, and are charged with making profit out of whites and blacks. In the afternoon Mr. Graham brought me two neolithic stone-implements. We then set out for the 'palace,' a large congeries of houses and huts, guided by a mighty braying of horns and beating of drums, and by Union Jacks, with the most grotesque adjuncts of men and beasts, planted in the clean and sandy street-road. King Blay received us in his palaver-hall, and his costume now savoured not of Europe, but of 'fetish.' He had been 'making customs,' or worshipping after country-fashion, and would not keep us waiting while he changed dress. The cap was a kind of tall hood, adorned with circles of cowries and two horns of the little bush-antelope; the robe was Moorish, long and large-sleeved, and both were charged with rolls of red, white, and blue stuff, supposed to contain grigris, or talismans. The Ashanti medal, however, was still there; indeed, he wore it round his neck even on the march, when his toilette was reduced to a waist-cloth and a billycock. After discussing palm-wine in preference to trade-gin, we persuaded King Blay, despite all his opposition, that 'time is gold,' and that with strange and indelicate haste we must set out early on the morrow for the Izrah mine. His main difficulty was about clearing the path; he had issued strong orders upon the subject, but African kings often command and no one cares to obey. The monarchy is essentially limited, and the lieges allow no stretch of power, unless the ruling arm be exceptionally long and strong.

Hearing that the gold-hilted official swords of the King of Bein were for sale, and wishing to inspect the place, we set off at 3.30 P.M. to cover the 4,769 yards measured along the sands by Mr. Graham. Reaching our destination, eighteen miles distant from Axim, we were carried up the long straight street-road which leads to the old English fort. It is the normal building, a house on bastions, both well and solidly made of stone and lime. Amongst the materials I found a fine yellow sandstone-grit and a nummulite so weathered that the shells stood out in strong relief. Both were new to us on this trap-coast, and no one could say where they were quarried; many thought they must have come from Europe, others that they are brought from inland. The masonry of the sea-front was pitted with seven large wounds, dealt by as many shells when we broke down our own work. Such was the consequence of sympathising with the Ashantis in 1873, when Axim also was bombarded.

What changes these factory-forts have seen, beginning with the days of the jolly old Hollanders, who, in doublets and trunk-hose, held high state, commanding large garrisons and ruling the rulers of the land. What banquets, what carousals, with sopies of the best schiedam, and long clay-pipes stuffed with the finest tobacco, when an exceptional haul of gold-dust or captives had come to hand! But Time got the better of them; the abolition of the export slave-trade cut the ground from under their feet; diminished profits made economy necessary, and the forts were allowed to become the shadows of their former selves. Then came the cession to England, when all appeared running on the road to ruin. Now, however, things are again changed, and 'Resurgam' may be written upon these scenes of decay. The Mines will once more make the fortune of the Gold Coast, and the old buildings will become useful as hospitals, and store-houses, and barracoons for coolie emigrants.

The Bein fort has been repaired and whitewashed inside by the lessees, Messieurs Swanzy, whose agent, Mr. Carr, we found here in possession. Unlike Axim, it still preserves intact the outer work with its dwarf belfry over the strong doorway. But the cistern in the middle of this slave-court must make the cleanly old Netherlanders turn in their tombs.

Opposite the fort is the normal school-room, occasionally served by Mr. Graham, of Atabo; Bein has a tide-waiter, but no pedagogue. Beyond it rises the large and uneven swish-house of the 'King,' who has lately been summonsed, as a defaulting debtor, to Cape Coast Castle: the single black policeman who served the writ evidently looked upon us as his colleagues. The people eyed us with no friendly glances; they were 'making custom' for the ruler's return. The vague phrase denoted, in this case, a frantic battering of drums, big and little; a squeaking of scrannel pipes; a feminine 'break-down' of the most effrenee description, and a general libation to the Bacchus of Blackland. A debauched and drunken Ashanti, who executed for our benefit a decapitation-dance, evidently wishing that we had been its objects, thanked us ironically for a sixpence. We met some difficulty in seeing the swords, which were not to be sold. They were the usual rusty and decayed fish-slicers; Cameron, however, was kind enough to sketch them for me, and they will appear in my coming book.

Most of the adult males had travelled inland to the Takwa or French mines, where the Apollonians bear the highest reputation. Whole gangs flock to the diggings, bringing their own provisions and implements. Thus they have begun working on tribute and contracting for piece-work. [Footnote: This information was given to me by M. Plisson, traffic-manager to the Company.] This is a favourable phase of the labour-question. At the same time it is clear that the labourer can easily keep the richest specimens for himself and palm off the worst stuff upon the stranger.

Here we are next door to the Ivory Coast, and elephants, they say, are still to be found within two days north of Bein. The hunters cross a broad stream (the Tando?) and a dry swamp; they then enter an uninhabited forest; and, after a couple of marches, they reach the animals' haunts. Small tusks are at times brought in, but no Europeans, so far as I know, ever killed a tusker in these wilds. My informants heard that a route from Bein leads to Gyaman, and that it may be travelled without difficulty.

The following note, by Mr. Edward L. McCarthy, describes an excursion from Bein to the unvisited Essua-ti, made by him in August 1881:—

'Accompanied by Prince John Coffee, heir to King Blay, three other chiefs, their servants, and my own party of Krumen, we left the town of Bein, Apollonia, to go up to the village in the bush called Essua-ti. Half a mile from the town we found canoes awaiting us, and in these we were poled along for over half an hour over what in the dry season is a native path, but now a narrow channel of water winding about in a dense jungle of reeds. Here and there we came upon small hillocks covered with trees, in which numerous monkeys sported about. Emerging from these reeds, one broad sheet of water presented itself to the eye, encircled by a low shore fringed with canes, bush, and palm-trees, and at its western extremity a range of hills rose out of the background. The lagoon receives several small streams, and empties itself into the sea by the Ebumesu river, its mouth being about half-way between Bein and the Ancobra. According to the natives the river used to be navigable to its mouth, but of late years has become overgrown with reeds. A few years back they set to work to cut a channel through them, but getting tired of the work gave it up. The length of the lagoon appears to be about three to four miles, and about one to one and a half in breadth. Its major axis runs parallel to the coastline, or nearly due east and west. Twenty minutes' paddling brought us round the point of a small headland, where we came in sight of a pretty lake-village built upon piles, at some little distance from the shore, the whole forming a most picturesque and animated scene. From house to house canoes laden with people, plantains, &c., were passing to and fro; groups of villagers, some standing, others sitting, upon the raised bamboo-platforms outside their houses, were busy bartering fish for plantains, while the children played around, apparently unconscious of any danger from falling into the water. The settlement consisted of over forty houses, mostly of bamboo, a few of "swish," forming one long irregular line, and three or four standing away from the rest round a corner of land, after the Fanti custom. These houses were built on a bamboo-platform supported by piles, and raised above the water some three and a half feet. One half of the platform is covered by the house; the other half, left free, is used to fish from, for the children to play about on, and for receptions when palavers are held.

'The distance from the shore varies with the overflow of the lake, at the time of my visit about thirty to forty yards, though for miles beyond this the ground was saturated with water, whose depth varied from three and a half to nine feet. The piles are made of stout sticks; the mode of driving them in is to lash two canoes abreast by means of two sticks or paddles, placed transversely, leaving an open space of about two and a half feet between them. Two men in each canoe, and facing each other, then vigorously twist and churn about the pole, or rather stick, into the soft bottom of the lagoon. Some fifteen of these poles are thus driven in and firmly braced together by cross-pieces, upon which the platform is constructed, and on this again the house is built.

'We stopped here to breakfast before ascending the Bousaha River; and, while so doing, I counted at one time over forty natives sitting round us on the platform. I was not without my fears that we should all be precipitated into the water, but the structure, though in appearance frail and very rude, was far stronger than what it looked.

'I closely questioned the natives as to why they had built their village upon the lake, and they invariably gave as their reason that they chiefly fished at night; and, as the water often overflowed, they would have to build their houses too far away to be able to come and go during the night; whereas "now," they said, "we are close to where we catch our fish, and we often catch them even from our houses." Underneath each house were tied from one to five, and sometimes more, canoes. These were much lighter, more rounded off in the keel, stem, and stern, than the beach-canoes.

'Three white men, they told me, had visited their village—Captain Dudley in 1876, judging from the age of a child who was born at the time of his visit; Captain Grant and Mr. Gillett, in 1878, I afterwards learnt, were the other two. None of them went further into the interior.

'After breakfast we crossed the lagoon, passing on our way several canoes fishing in the middle. The water was very clear and blue, and of considerable depth, judging from a stone dropped in. Unfortunately I had no other means of sounding. Not until a dozen yards from the shore were any signs of a stream discernible. Pushing aside some reeds, we entered a narrow lane of water, varying from three feet to eighteen feet in width, deep, and, according to the natives, navigable for three days by canoes. This stream is known by the name of Bousaha, and the lagoon by Ebumesu. After two hours' hard paddling in a northerly direction we stopped to walk to the village of Niba, a large place, principally engaged in raising food for the coast fishing-villages and Bein, and also in elephant-hunting.

'Elephants at the time of my visit were reported in large numbers two days' journey in the bush, and the villagers were then organising a party for a hunt. Outside the village I came across the skull of a young elephant, from which I extracted the teeth. The only report of a white man having been here before was long ago, when, some of the old men told me, he came from Assini direction, but turned back again. The village was neatly laid out in streets and was beautifully clean.

'Another three hours' pull, still bearing northwards, brought us to the village of Essuati, a smaller place than Niba, but very prettily laid out with trees, surrounded by seats in its central street. The people here, as at Niba, were mainly engaged in agriculture.

'Crowds came to see the "white man," many of the women and children never having been to Axim, the nearest place where whites are to be found, and, consequently, had never seen one before.

'After a few days' stay here I returned to the coast. While there I came across a curious fish-trap, a description of which may not be uninteresting. Across a stick planted in the river-bed a light piece of bamboo was tied, and at its further extremity was suspended a string carrying fish-hooks. Above these a broad piece of wood, suspended so as to be half in and half out of the water, acted as a float and spindle. Above this again were tied four large shells, so that when a fish is hooked the shells begin to jingle, and the fishermen, hid in the bush, immediately rush out and secure the fish.'



CHAPTER XVIII.

THE IZRAH MINE—THE IKYOKO CONCESSION—THE RETURN TO AXIM.

The next day (February 2) showed me my objective, Izrah, after a voyage of nearly three months. The caravan, now homeward-bound after a fashion, rose early, and we hammocked in the cool and misty morning along shore to Inyenapoli—the word means Greater Inyena, as opposed to Inyenachi, the Less. In the house of Mr. J. Eskine I saw his tradesman bartering cloth for gold-dust. The weighing apparatus is complicated and curious, and complete sets of implements are rare; they consist of blowers, sifters, spoons, native scales, weights of many kinds, and 'fetish gong-gongs,' or dwarf double bells.

Gold-dust is the only coin of the realm; and travellers who would pass north of the Protectorate must buy it on the coast. It is handier than one would suppose; even a farthing can be paid in it by putting one or two grains upon a knife-tip, and there is a name, peseha (Port. peso?), for a pennyworth. Larger values go by weight; the aki (ackie), [Footnote: The word aki sounds much like the Arab roukkah or roukkiyah. Its weight, the 16th of an ounce, never varies; but the value ranges from 4s. 6d. to 5s., according as the ounce is worth 3l. 12s. to 4l. 10s., the average being assumed at 4l. Other proportions are:— The toku (carat-seed) = 5d. The benna = 2 akis. The periquen, pereguen, or peredroano = 32 akis, or two ounces in weight; and ranging in value from 9l. to 10l. (Bowdich, p. 283). The word is Ashanti, little used by the Fantis.

For a list of these complicated gold weights, of which Mr. Grant has promised me a set, see Appendix B, A Dictionary of the Asante and Fante Language, Rev. Christaller, Basel, 1881.] or sixteenth of an ounce, being the unit of value. The people may be persuaded to take an English sovereign, but they spurn a French napoleon. Amongst the many desiderata of the Coast is a law making all our silver coins legal tenders. At present the natives will scarcely take anything but threepenny-bits, new and bright and bearing H.B.M.'s 'counterfeit presentment.' Copper has been tried, but was made to fail by a clever District-commissioner, who refused to take the metal in payment of Government dues. The old cowrie-currency, of which the tapo, or score, represented two farthings, is all but extinct. Its name will be preserved in the proverb, 'There is no market wherein the dove with the pouting breast (the cypraea) has not traded.' The same is the case with the oldest money, round and perforated quartz-stones, which suggest the ring-coinage of ancient Egypt. From Inyenapoli, preceded by King Blay, who so managed that a fair path had been hastily cut through the bush, we struck inland, the course being northwards, bending to the north-east and east. The first hour, covering some three miles, lay partly over a flat plain of grass used for thatch, pimpled with red anthills and broken by lines and patches of dense jungle. These savannahs are common near the sea; we had already remarked one behind Bein. They denote the 'false coast,' and they become during the wet season almost impassable swamps and mud-fields.

Then we struck the valley of 'Ebumesu, winding water,' whose approach, rank with mire and corded with roots, is the Great Dismal Swamp of Dahome in miniature. Here, seven and a quarter miles from the mouth, the stream measures about twenty yards broad, the thalweg is deep and navigable, and the water, bitumen-coloured with vegetable matter, tastes brackish. There is the usual wasteful profusion of growth. Ferns ramp upon the trees; Cameron counted at Akankon two dozen different species within a few hundred yards. Orchids bunch the boughs and boles of dead forest-giants; and llianas, the African 'tie-tie,' varying in growth from a packthread to a cable, act as cordage to connect the growths.

There is evidently a shorter cut up the river, at whose lagoon-mouth craft can be hired. Our ferryman with his single canoe wasted a good hour over the work of a few minutes. We then remounted hammock and struck the 'true coast,' a charming bit of country, gradually upsloping to the north and east. The path passed through the plantation-villages, Benya and Arabo, growing bananas and maize, cassava and groundnuts, peppers and papaws, cocoas and bamboo-palms (Raphia vinifera). The latter not only build the houses, they also yield wine of two kinds, both, however, inferior to the produce of the oil-palm (Elais guineensis). The adube, drawn from the cut spathe, which continues to yield for two or three months, is held to be wholesome, diuretic, and laxative. The insefu is produced in mortice-like holes cut along the felled trunk; they fill freely for a fortnight to three weeks, when fires must be lighted below to make the juice run into the pots. It is sweeter and better flavoured than the former, but it is accused of being unwholesome. The people drink palm-wine at different hours of the day, according to taste. The beverage is mild as milk in the morning; after noon it becomes heady, and rough as the sourest cider. The useful palm bears a huge bolster-like roll of fruit, which should be tried for oil: Cameron brought home a fine specimen for Kew. Here the land is evidently most fertile, and will form good farms for the Company. Leaving Arabo, we forded the double stream called the Bila, which runs a few yards west of the concession. The banks are grown with rice, showing how easily they will produce all the food necessary for the labourers. The quality, moreover, is better, and the grain more nutritious than the Chinese import. The bed of bright sand, supplying the sweetest water, has in places been worked for gold by the women, but much remains to be done.

In another hour, making a total of six miles from Inyenapoli, we reached our destination, Arabokasu, or 'One Stone for Top.' We lodged our belongings in the bamboo-house newly built by Mr. Grant, finding it perfectly fit for temporary use. Before I left Axim Mr. C. C. Robertson landed there, instructed by the Izrah Company to choose a fair site for a frame-house mounted on piles. It was presently made in England, but unfortunately not after the Lagos fashion, with the bed-rooms opening upon a verandah seven to nine feet broad, and a double roof of wood with air-space between, instead of thatch and corrugated iron. The house measures 52 x 32 feet, and contains four bed-rooms, a dining-room, and the manager's office. A comfortable tenement of the kind costs from 300l. to 500l., an exceptional article 700l.

We at once set out to cast a first glance upon the Izrah mine. The word is properly Izia, a stone, also the name of the man who began gold-digging on the spot. This style of nomenclature is quite 'country-fashion.' Apparently Izia became Izrah to assume a 'Scriptural' sound; if so, why not 'go the whole animal' and call it the Isaiah?

This fine concession is a rectangular parallelogram, whose dimensions are 2,000 yards long from north to south, by a breadth of half. The village stands outside the south-western angle, and the Fia rivulet runs through the south-eastern corner. The surface is rolling ground, with a rise and a depression trending from south-west to north-east. The whole extent, except where 'bush' lingers, is an old plantation of bananas, manioc, and ground-nuts. There is an ample supply of good hard timber, but red pitch-pine or creosoted teak from England would last much longer. Amongst the trees are especially noted the copal, the gamboge, rich in sticky juice, the brovi, said to be the hardest wood, and the dum, or African mahogany (Oldfieldia africana), well known in Ceylon as excellent material for boat-building. There was an abundance of the Calabar-bean (Physostigma venenosum), once used for an ordeal-poison, and now applied by surgery in ophthalmic and other complaints. The 'tie-tie,' as Anglo-Africans call the rope-like creepers, was also plentiful; it may prove valuable for cordage, and possibly for paper-making. I was pleased to see the ease with which the heaped-up jungle-growth is burnt at this season and the facility of road-making. Half a dozen Kru-boys with their matchets can open, at the rate of some miles a day, a path fit to carry a 'sulky;' and the ground wants only metalling with the stone which lines every stream. At the same time I hold that here, as in Mexico, we should begin with railways and tramways. Nor will there be any difficulty in keeping down the jungle. The soft and silky Bahama-grass has been brought from Sa Leone to Axim, where it covers the open spaces, and it grows well at Akankon. There is no trouble except to plant a few roots, which extend themselves afar; and the carpet when thick allows, like the orange-tree, no undergrowth.

The 'Izrah' concession is due to the energy and activity of Mr. R. B. N. Walker, who has told its history. In March 1881, when he first visited it, there had been a black 'rush;' the din and clamour of human voices were audible from afar, and on reaching the mine he found some 300 natives hard at work. I was told that the greatest number at one time was 2,000. The account reminds us exactly of the human floods so famous in other parts of the mining world. The men were sinking pits of unusual size along the south-eastern slope of the hillock, where the great clearing now is. The excitement was remarkable; and, negroes not being given to hard and continuous labour without adequate inducement, the bustle and the uproar, and the daily increasing numbers of miners flocking from considerable distances, were evidence sufficient that there was an unusually good 'find.' Their pits, attaining a maximum of 12 feet square by 55 deep, extended over some 150 yards from NN.E. to SS.W., with a breadth of about 20. From some of these holes rich quartz had been taken, one piece, the size of a 32-pounder cannon-ball, yielding more than ten ounces of gold. A shaft, however, soon caved in, for the usual reason: it had been inadequately timbered and incautiously widened at the bottom to the shape of a sodawater-bottle. All these works owed a royalty to Ahin Blay; but his dues were irregularly paid, and consequently he preferred to them a fixed rental of 100l. per annum.

The following anecdote will show how limited is the power of these 'kings.' He of Apollonia wished to sell this southern patch of ground, worked by the natives, it being, in fact, the terminal tail of the Izrah reef and the key of the property. But one Etie, head-man of Kikam, bluntly refused. Presently this chieflet agreed to sell to Mr. Grant the whole tract, a length of one thousand fathoms from north to south, the breadth being left undetermined. But Etie was deep in Messieurs Swanzy's books, and he wanted ready money. The tempter came in the shape of Mr. Dawson, a native missionary whom I met a score of years ago at Agbome, and whose name appears in all narratives of the last Ashanti war. Although an employe of the Takwa or French mine, he bought for himself, paying 200l., the best part of the reef (100 fathoms), leaving the butt-end, of inferior value, to Mr. Grant. This was a direct breach of contract, and might be brought into the local law-courts. I advised, however, an arrangement a l'aimable, and I still hope to see it carried out.

Life at Arabokasu was pleasant enough. The site, rising about 120 feet above ocean-level, permits the 'Doctor,' alias the sea-breeze, to blow freshly, and we distinctly heard the sough of the surf. Mornings and evenings were exceedingly fine, and during the cool nights we found blankets advisable. These 'small countries' (little villages) are remarkably clean, and so are the villagers, who, unlike certain white-skins, bathe at least once a day. At this season we had nothing to complain of mosquitoes or sand-flies, nor was 'Insektenpulver' wanted inside the house. The only physiological curiosity in the settlement was a spotted boy, a regular piebald, like a circus-pony; even his head grew a triangular patch of white hair. We wanted him for the London Aquarium, but there were difficulties in the way. Amongst the Apollonians albinoes are not uncommon; nor are the children put to death, as by the Ashantis. Both races cut the boss from hunchbacks after decease, and 'make fetish' over it to free the future family from similar distortion. Our villagers told us strange tales of a magician near Assini who can decapitate a man and restore him to life, and who lately had placed a dog's head on a boy's body. Who can 'doubt the fact'? the boy was there!

I will now borrow freely from the diary kept during our five days' inspection of the Izrah diggings. Cameron worked hard at a rough survey of the ground which Mr. Walker had attempted with considerable success, seeing that he carried only a pedometer and a small pocket-compass. My proceedings were necessarily limited, as I had no authority to disburse money.

February 3.—The night had been somewhat noisy with the hyena-like screams which startled our soldiers en route to Kumasi. They are said to proceed from a kind of hyrax (?) about the size of a rabbit; the Krumen call it a 'bush-dog', and, as will appear, Cameron holds it to be a lemur. The morning was cool, but not clear, and the country so far like the 'Garden of Eden' that there went up a mist from the earth and watered the whole face of the ground. But the mist was a Scotch mist, which, in less humid lands, might easily pass for fine rain; and the drip, drip, drip of heavy dew-drops from the broad banana-leaves sounded like a sharp shower. At this hour the birds are wide awake and hungry; a hundred unknown songsters warble their native wood-notes wild. The bush resounds with the shriek of the parrot and the cooing of the ringdove, which reminds me of the Ku-ku-ku (Where, oh, where?) of Umar-i-Khayyam. Its rival is the tsil-fui-fui-fui, or 'hair grown,' meaning that his locks are too long and there is no one to cut or shave them. Upon the nearest tall tree, making a spiteful noise to frighten away all specimens, sits the 'watch-bird,' or apateplu, so called from his cry; he is wary and cunning, but we bagged two. The 'clock-bird,' supposed to toll every hour, has a voice which unites the bark of a dog, the caw of a crow, and the croak of a frog: he is rarely seen and even cleverer than 'hair grown.' More familiar sounds are the roucoulement of the pigeon and the tapping of the woodpecker. The only fourfooted beast we saw was the small bush-antelope with black robe, of which a specimen was brought home, and the only accident was the stinging of a Kruboy by a spider more spiteful than a scorpion.

Reaching the ground after a ten minutes' walk, we examined the principal reef as carefully as we could. The strike is nearly north-south, the dip easterly, and the thickness unknown. The trial-shaft, sunk by Mr. Walker in the centre of the southern line, was of considerable size, eight by twelve feet; and the depth measured thirty, of which four held water based upon clay-mud. The original native shafts to the south are of two kinds, the indigenous chimney-pit and the parallelogram-shaped well borrowed from Europeans. The latter varied in dimensions from mere holes to oblongs six by seven feet; and all the more important were roofed and thatched with pent-houses of palm-leaf, to keep out the rain. The shaft-timbering, also a loan from foreigners, consisted of perpendicular bamboo-fronds tied with bush-rope to a frame of poles cut from small trees; they corresponded with our sets and laths. There were rude ladders, but useful enough, two bamboos connected by rungs of 'tie-tie.' The 'sollars' were shaky platforms of branches, but there was no sign of a winch.

We set Krumen and porters to clear and lay out the southern boundary, and to open a path leading direct to the beach. One would fancy that nothing is easier than to cut bush in a straight line from pole to pole, especially when these were marked by strips of red calico. Yet the moment our backs were turned the wrong direction was taken. It pains one's heart to see the shirking of work, the slipping away into the bush for a sleep, and the roasting of maize and palm-nuts—'ground-pigs' fare,' they call the latter—whenever an opportunity occurs. The dawdling walk and the dragging of one leg after the other, with intervals to stand and scratch, are a caution. Even the villagers appear incapable of protracted labour unless it leads immediately to their benefit, and the future never claims a thought.

February 4.—After the south-eastern corner had been marked with a tall cross, we opened a path from Arabokasu to the trial-shaft. We threw a bridge of the felled trunks cumbering the clearing over the Fia rivulet, and again examined its bed. Gold had been found in it by the women, and this, as usual, gave rise to the discovery of its subtending reef. The whole of the little river-valley extending to the sea should be bought and worked; there is no doubt that it will turn out rich. In the channel we found an outcrop of slates, both crumbling and compact; this is always a welcome sign. To the east of the water there is a second quartz-reef, running parallel with the upper ridge, and apparently untouched by the pick.

The next two days were spent in finishing the southern line and in planting a post at the south-western extremity. Here we found that our workmen had gone entirely wrong, and we were forced to repeat the work. I had exposed myself over-freely to the sun, and could do little for the next week: fortunately my energetic companion was in better condition.

February 7.—Cameron took bearings from the south of the concession, which he placed, with Mr. Walker, four geographical miles from the sea. Other informants had exaggerated it to him, and M. Dahse writes six. After 1,000 to 1,200 yards he struck the 'false coast,' crossed a deep and fetid swamp, and, after a short rise, came upon the miry borders of the Ebumesu. He canoed 800 yards down-stream without difficulty; and, finding the water brackish while the ebb-tide ran strong, he considered that this part was rather a lagoon than a river. The people also assured us that it runs along the coast, ending near and north of the Bein Fort-village.

In the evening my companion and Mr. Grant walked to the north-west of the concession; the place is called by Mr. Walker Izia-bookah (Izia Hill), but the natives ignore the term. Here, at a distance of 900 yards north and by west (true) of the Arabokasu village, they found and collected specimens of a fine reef of hard white quartz. 'Women's washings' were numerous, showing the proper way to begin working the ground. The right of prospecting the whole of the section to the N.E. had been secured by Mr. Walker for Mr. Irvine, and presently the 'Apollonian concession' appeared in the mining journals.

We had now done all we could; the circumstances of the case compelled us to study the geology and topography of the property rather than its geology and mineralogy. Nothing now remained save to rebrousser chemin. Good King Blay, who had formally made over to me possession of the 'Izrah' mine, left us for his own village, in order to cure an inflamed foot. He attributed it to the 'fetish' of some unfriend; but it turned out to be Guinea-worm, a malady from which many are suffering this season. We parted upon the most friendly terms and arranged to meet again.

Both of us came to the conviction that the 'Izrah Concession' will pay, and pay well. But instead of the routine shafting and tunnelling it must be treated by hydraulicking and washing away the thirty feet of auriferous soil, whose depth covers the reef. The bed of the Fia will supply the water, and a force-pump, worked by men, or preferably by steam-power. Thus we shall keep the mine dry: otherwise it will be constantly flooded. Moreover, the land seems to be built for ditching and sluicing, and the trenches will want only a plank-box with a metal grating at the head. I can only hope that the operations will be conducted by an expert hand who knows something of the Californian or the Australian diggings.

On February 8 we left Arabokasu, intending to march upon the 'Inyoko Concession.' Our guide and people, however, seemed to change every five minutes what they might call their 'minds,' and at last they settled to try the worst, but to us the most interesting line. At 8 A.M. we struck into the bush via a heap of huts, the 'Matinga' village, at the south-eastern corner of the fine mineral property. Here 'women's washings' again appeared. At the Achyako settlement we crossed the two branches of the Fia. One measures twenty feet wide and two feet six inches deep in the dry season; it runs a knot an hour, and thus the supply is ample. About a mile further on we were carried across the Gwabisa stream, four feet wide by eighteen inches deep, running over a bed of quartz-pebbles. This ended the 'true coast.'

The 'false coast' began close to the little settlement known as Ashankru. It shows a fine quartz-reef, striking north fourteen degrees east. The formation was shown by the normal savannah and jungle-strips. About noon we were ferried over the eastern arm of the Ebumesu, known as the Papa. I have noted scanty belief in the bar of the Ebumesu proper, the western feature. The eastern entrance, however, perhaps can be used between the end of December and March, and in calm weather would offer little difficulty to the surfboats transhipping machinery from the steamers.

Beginning a little east of the Esyamo village, the Papa lagoon subtends the coast. We shot over it in the evening, and at night found quarters at the Ezrimenu village marked Ebu-mesu in old maps.

This return march of two hours or so had been a mere abomination. The path, which had not been cleared, led through a tangle of foul and fetid thicket, upon which the sun darted a sickly, malignant beam. Creepers and llianas, some of which are spiny and poisonous, barred the thread of path, which could not be used for hammocks. The several stream-beds, about to prove so precious, run chocolate-tinted water over vegetable mire, rich, when stirred, in sulphuretted hydrogen. The only bridges are fallen trunks. Amongst the minor pests are the nkran, or 'driver,' the ahoho, a highly-savoured red ant, and the hahinni, a large black formica terribly graveolent; flies like the tzetze, centipedes, scorpions, and venomous spiders, which make men 'writhe like cut worms.' There was a weary uniformity in the closed view, and the sole breaks were an occasional plantation or a few pauper huts, with auriferous swish, buried in that eternal green.

God made the country and man made the town,

sang the silly sage, who evidently had never seen a region untouched by the human hand. Finally, this 'Fia route' will probably become the main line from Axim to the Izrah mine, and the face of the country will be changed within a year.

As I was still weak Cameron and Mr. Grant early next morning (Feb. 9) canoed over the 300 yards or so of the Papa lagoon bounding Ezrimenu village on the landward side. They then struck nearly due north; and, after walking three-quarters of an hour, perhaps two miles and a half, over a good open path, easily convertible into a cart-road, they reached the Inyoko Concession. It measures 2,400 yards square, beginning at the central shaft, on the northern side of the hill which gives it a name; and thus it lies only about eight miles westward of the Ancobra River. The ground has not been much worked of late years, but formerly Kwako Akka, the tyrant of Apollonia, 'rich in blood and ore,' who was deposed by the British Colonial Government about 1850, and was imprisoned in Cape Coast Castle, is said to have obtained from it much of his wealth.

They found the strike of the hill approximately north 22 east (true); [Footnote: In laying down limits great attention must be paid to variation. As a rule 19 45' west has been assumed from the Admiralty charts—good news for the London attorney. At Tumento this figure rises to 20; upon the coast it must be changed to 19 15' (W.), and in other places to 16 40'.] the dip appears to be easterly, and the natives have worked the Abbruch or debris which have fallen from the reef-crest. This wall may be a continuation of the Akankon formation; both are rich in a highly crystalline quartz of livid blue, apparently the best colour throughout the Gold Region. The surface-ground, of yellowish marl with quartz-pebbles, is evidently auriferous, and below it lies a harder red earth rusty with iron. From the southern boundary of the Inyoko concession, and the village of that name, runs a strong outcrop of a kindly white quartz, which, when occurring in conjunction with the blue, usually denotes that both are richer than when a single colour is found. Such at least is Cameron's experience.

Mr. Walker, who secured this concession also, notes that the native pits were very shallow and superficial. He was pressed for time, and sunk his trial-shaft but little more than three fathoms: here free gold was visible in the blue quartz, which yielded upwards of one ounce per ton.

My companion found the shaft still open, and observed that the valley contained many holes and washing-pits. One was pointed out to him by Mr. Grant as having yielded twenty ounces of dust in one day: these reports recall the glories of California and Australia in the olden time. The little Etubu water, which runs 200 yards from the shaft, would easily form a reservoir, supplying the means of washing throughout the year. Here, then, are vast facilities for hydraulic work; millions of cubic feet can be strained of thin gold at a minimum expenditure. There will be less 'dead work,' and 'getting' would be immediate. Thus, too, as in California, the land will be prepared for habitation and agriculture, and the conditions of climate will presently be changed for the better.

Early in the forenoon (Jan. 9) we hammocked to the Kikam village, and were much disappointed. King Blay, too lame to leave his home, had sent his interpreter to show us the Yirima or 'Choke-full' reef; and the man, doubtless influenced by some intrigue, gave us wrong information. Moreover the safahin Etie, before mentioned, had gone, they said, to his lands at Prince's: he was probably lurking in some adjacent hut. We breakfasted in his house, but all the doors were bolted and locked, and his people would hardly serve us with drinking water. We attempted in vain to buy the boma, or fetish-drum, a venerable piece of furniture hung round with human crania, of which only the roofs remained. King Blay, however, eventually sent us home a boma, and it was duly exhibited in town. Kikam was the only place in Apollonia where we met with churlish treatment; no hospitality, however, could be expected when the strangers were supposed to be mixed up in a native quarrel.

Unwilling to linger any longer in the uninviting and uninteresting spot, we ordered our hammocks, set out at noon, and, following the line over which we had travelled, reached Axim at 5 P.M.

We had no other reason to complain of our week's trip except its inordinate expense. Apparently one must be the owner of a rich gold-mine to live in and travel on the Gold Coast. We had already in a fortnight got through the 50l. of silver sent from England; and this, too, without including the expenses of bed and board.

We came home with the conviction that the Inyoko property should have been the second proposed for exploitation, coming immediately after the Apatim. Our reasons were the peculiar facilities of reaching it and the certainty that, when work here begins, it will greatly facilitate communication with 'Izrah.' But progress is slow upon the Gold Coast, and our wishes may still be realised.

I cannot better conclude this chapter than with an extract from Captain Brackenbury's 'Narrative of the Ashanti War.' [Footnote: Blackwoods, Edinburgh and London, 1874. Vol. ii. pp. 351, 352.] It will show how well that experienced and intelligent officer foresaw in 1873 the future of the Gold Coast.

'Are there no means of opening this country up to trade, no means of infusing into it an element superior to that of the Fanti races, of holding in check the savagery of the inland tribes, and preventing the whole coast again becoming abandoned to fetishism and human sacrifices? To the writer's mind there is but one method, and that one by an appeal to man's most ignoble passion—the lust of gold. This country is not without reason called the Gold Coast. Gold is there in profusion, and to be had for the seeking. We have ourselves seen the women washing the sand at Cape Coast and finding gold. When Captain Thompson visited the Wassaw (Wasa) country, he found the roads impassable at night by reason of the gold-pits upon them. Captain Butler describes western Akim as a country teeming with gold. Captain Glover has said that in eastern Akim gold is plentiful as potatoes in Ireland, and the paths were honeycombed with gold-pits. Dawson has distinctly stated his opinion that the Fanti gold-mines are far more valuable than those of Ashanti—that the only known Ashanti gold-mine of great value is that of Manoso; whereas the Wassaw and the Nquamfossoo mines, as well as the Akim mines, have rock-gold (nuggets) in profusion. He says that the Ashantis get their gold from the Fantis in exchange for slaves, whom they buy for two or three loads of coller- (kola-) nuts, worth less than half an ounce of gold, and sell to the Fantis for as much as two and a quarter ounces of gold. Let our Government prospect these mines; let Acts be passed similar to those by which vast railway companies are empowered to compel persons to sell their land at a fair price; let our Government, by means of Houssa troops, guarantee protection to companies formed to work the mines, and let the payment to the kings in whose country they are be by royalties upon the gold obtained. The kings would offer the utmost resistance to their mines being thus taken and worked; but they have never worked them properly themselves, and they will never work them properly; and it would be no injustice to allow others to do so. If the true value of these services were ascertained by Government mining engineers, if the Government would guarantee protection to those engaged in working them, companies would soon be formed to reap the rich harvest to be found upon the coast. Chinese coolies would be imported, who would breed in with the natives and infuse some energy into the Fanti races. Trade would soon follow, roads be made, and the whole country opened up. The engagement of our Government should be a limited one, for if once the gold-mines were at work there would be no further fear that the country would ever fell back into the hands of the Ashantis.'

The counsel is good, but we have done better. Private companies have undertaken the work, and have succeeded where the Government would fail. So far from resisting, the 'kings' have been too glad to accept our offers. And now the course is forwards, without costing the country a farthing, and with a fair prospect of supplying to it a large proportion of the precious metal still wanted.

NOTE.—Since these lines were written the Yiri (full) ma (quite) reef has been leased by Mr. Grant, who sent home specimens showing, I am told, 14 oz. per ton. The fine property belongs to King Blay, who built a village upon it and there stationed his brother to prevent 'jumping.' In the spring of 1862 he wished to keep half the ground for his own use.



CHAPTER XIX.

TO PRINCE'S RIVER AND BACK.

On February 15 we proceeded down coast to inspect the mining-lands of Prince's River valley, east of Axim; and this time it was resolved to travel by surf-boat, ignoring that lazy rogue the hammock-man. Yet even here difficulties arose. Mast and sail were to be borrowed, and paddles were to be hired at the rate of a shilling a day each. They are the life of the fishing Aximites; yet they have not the energy to make them, and must buy those made in Elmina.

The eastern coast, like that of Apollonia, is a succession of points and bays, of cool-looking emerald jungle and of 'Afric's golden sands' reeking with unkindly heat. Passing the long black tongue of Prepre, or Inkubun, and the red projection, Ponta Terceira, we sighted the important Ajamera village, so called from a tree whose young leaves show a tender pinkish-red. On the Awazan Boppo Hill, about two miles from the trial-shaft of his concession, Dr. Ross found a native 'Long Tom.' It was a hollowed palm-trunk rotten with age, closed at one end and open at the other, with a slant downwards; two forks supported it over a water-filled hollow, measuring ten feet each way by three deep. Ajamera lies a little west of the peninsula, Africanice Madrektanah, a jutting mass of naked granite glazed red by sea-water: on either side of the sandy neck, pinned down, like Pirate's Bay, by cocoa-nuts, there is the safest landing-place. And now we sight our port, distant some nine miles from Axim.

In front rises Prince's Hill, clad in undergrowth with a topping tuft of tall figs. At its eastern base lies the townlet, showing more whitewash than usual; and, nearer still, the narrow mouth of the fiery little Yenna, Prince's or St. John's River. The view is backed by the tall and wooded ridge of Cape Threepoints, the southernmost headland of the Gold Coast, behind which is Dixcove. It is interesting to us because a syndicate has been formed, and engineers are being sent out to survey the pathless 'bush' between the sea and Tumento on the Ancobra, whose site was at the time unknown. Cameron presently discovered that the Takwa ridge is nearer Axim than Dixcove is, and that the line would pass within easy distance of Kinyanko, one of its raisons d'etre.

This wild plan has been supported by sundry concessionists whose interests lie behind Dixcove and at Kinyanko. Dixcove of the crocodile-worship has one of the worst bars on the coast. Canoes and surf-boats must run within biscuit-throw of the Rock Kum-Brenni [Footnote: In the Oji or Ashanti-Fanti tongue bro or bronni (the Ga 'blofo') means somebody or something European. It is derived from abro (blo), maize, introduced by white men; others say that when the first strangers landed upon the coast, the women, who were grinding, said, 'These men are white as maize-meal.' 'Abrokirri' (Europe) is, however, explained by the Rev. Mr. Riis as perhaps a corruption of Puto, Porto, Portugal.] ('White Man's Death'), and the surf will often shut up the landing-place for four or five successive days. The place will become important, but not in this way. The Rev. Mr. Milum, in whose pleasant society I voyaged, showed me his sketch of the station with an isolated red 'butte,' possibly an island of old, rising close behind the houses and trending north-south. Grain-gold was found in it by the native schoolmaster, who dug where he saw a thin smoke or vapour hovering over the ground: throughout the Coast this, like the presence of certain ferns, is held a sure sign that the precious ore is present. Moreover, a small nugget appeared in the swish being prepared for a house-wall. Thus 'washing' will be easy and inexpensive, and the Wesleyan mission may secure funds for extending itself into the non-maritime regions.

We turned the boat's head shorewards, and, after encountering the normal three seas, ran her upon the beach near the right jaw of Prince's River. The actual mouth is between natural piers of sea-blackened trap-rock, and the gullet behind it could at this season be cleared by an English hunter. We unloaded and warped our conveyance round the gape till she rode safe in the inner broad. And now we saw that Prince's is not the river of the hydrographic chart, but a true lagoon-stream, the remains of a much larger formation. There has been, here and on other parts of the coast, a little archipelago whose islets directed the riverine courses; the shallows between were warped up by mangrove and other swampy vegetation, and the whole has become, after a fashion, terra firma. Each holm had doubtless a core of rock, whose decay produced a rich soil. Now they are mounds and ridges of red clay standing up abruptly, and their dense growths of dark yew-like trees contrast with the yellowish produce of the adjacent miry lowlands.

The chief of Prince's Town, Eshanchi, alias 'Septimulus,' a name showing a succession of seven sons, not without a suspicion of twins, would have accompanied us up stream. Guinea-worm, however, forbade, and he sent a couple of guides, one of whom, Wafapa, alias 'Barnabas,' a stout, active freedman of the village, proved very useful.

We resolved to shoot the banks going, and to collect botanical specimens on return. The land appears poor in mammals, rich in avifauna, and exceedingly abundant in insect life. Of larger animals there are leopards, cat o' mountains and civet-cats, wild hog and fine large deer; we bought a leg weighing 11-1/2 lbs., and it was excellent eating seasoned with 'poor man's quinine,' alias garlic. Natives and strangers speak of the jungle-cow, probably the Nyare antelope (Bos brachyceros) of the Gaboon regions, the empacasso of the Portuguese. Two small black squirrels, scampering about a white-boled tree, were cunning enough never to give a shot. We sighted only small monkeys with white beards and ruddy coats. 'He be too clever for we,' said the Kruboys when the wary mannikins hid in the bush. I saw nothing of the kontromfi, cynocephalus or dog-faced baboon, concerning whose ferocity this part of Africa is full of stories. Further north there is a still larger anthropoid, which the natives call a wild man and Europeans a gorilla. The latter describe its peculiar whoop, heard in the early night when the sexes call to each other.

Our results were two species of kingfishers (alcedo), the third and larger kind not showing; a true curlew (Numenius arquata), charming little black swallows (Wardenia nigrita), the common English swallow; a hornbill (buceros), all feathers and no flesh; a lean and lanky diver (plotus), some lovely little honeysuckers, a red oriole, a fine vulture (Gypohierax angolensis), and a grand osprey (hali[oe]tus), which even in the agonies of death would not drop his prey. Many other birds were given over to Mr. Dawson, who worked from dawn till dusk. Mr. Grant dropped from the trees three snakes, one green and two slaty-brown. The collection found its way to the British Museum after the usual extensive plunder, probably at a certain port, where it is said professional collectors keep customhouse-men in pay. Mr. R. B. Sharp was kind enough to name the birds, whose shrunken list will be found at the end of the volume.

Cameron, observing for his map, was surprised by the windings of the bed; we seemed ever within hearing of the sea. Where a holm of rock and bush splits the course its waters swarm with fish, as shown by the weirs and the baskets, large and small; some of its cat-fish (siluri) weigh 10 lbs. Every shoal bred oysters in profusion, young mangroves sprouted from the submerged mollusk-beds, and the 'forests of the sea' were peopled with land-crabs.

At first the vegetation of the banks was almost wholly of rhizophores, white and red; the wood of the latter burns like coal, and the bark is admirable for tanning. In places their long suckers, growing downwards to the stream, resembled a cordwainer's walk set on end. A bush of yellow-flowered hibiscus clothes the banks that are less level; and, higher still, grows a tall and beautiful mimosa with feathery web and pendent pods of brightest green and yellow. Then came the brabs and palms, fan-, cocoa-, oil-, and bamboo-, with their trunks turned to nurseries of epiphytes and air-plants. The parasites are clematis and a host with hard botanical names.

Towards evening, as the stream narrowed, the spectacle was imposing. The avenues and trees stood up like walls, but living walls; and in places their billowy bulges seemed about to burst upon us like Cape-rollers. Every contrast was there of light and dark, short and tall, thick and thin; of age and death with lusty youth clinging around it; of the cocoa's drooping frond and the aspiring arm of bombax, the silk-cotton-tree, which rains brown gossamer when the wind blows; of the sloth-tree with its topping tuft, and the tangled mantle of the calamus or rattan, a palm like a bamboo-cane. The bristly pod of the dolichos (pruriens) hangs by the side of the leguminosae, from whose flattened, chestnut-coloured seeds snuff-boxes are made further east. It was also a floresta florida, whose giants are decked with the tender little blossoms of the shrub, and where the bright bracts and yellow greens of this year's growth light up the sombre verdure of an older date. The type of this growth is the red camwood-tree, with its white flower of the sweetest savour. Imagine an English elm studded with pinks or daisies, gardenias or hyacinths. There is nothing more picturesque than the shiftings and changes of aspect upon these African streams, which at first seem so monotonous. After dawn the smoking water, feeling tepid to the hand and warmer than the atmosphere, veils the lower levels and makes the forest look as if based on air. Noon brings out every variety of distance with startling distinctness, and night, especially moonlit night, blurs with its mists long tracts of forest, rains silver over the ridges, and leaves the hollows in the blackest shade. Seen from above, the sea of trees looks like green water raised to waves by the wind, and the rustling in the breeze mimics the sound of distant surf.

A catamaran of four cork-trees, a cranky canoe, the landing-place of a bush-road, a banana-plantation, and a dwarf clearing, where sat a family boiling down palm-nuts for oil, proved that here and there the lowland did not lack lowlanders. The people stared at us without surprise, although this was only the fourth time they had seen a surf-boat. The river-bed, grid-ironed with rocky reefs, showed us twenty-two turns in a few miles; some were horseshoe-bends, sweeping clean round to the south, and one described a curve of 170. After slow and interrupted paddling for an hour and a half, at 6 P.M., when night neared, we halted at the village of Esubeyah, or 'Water-made;' [Footnote: The radical of water is 'su,' curiously corresponding with Turkish and with that oldest of the Turkish tongues, Chinese.] and my companion made sure of his distances by a latitudinal observation of Canopus.

Next morning we had 'English tea' for the first and last time in West Africa; usually we preferred the Russian form, drunk in a tumbler with a slice of lime that sinks or of lemon that floats. Mr. Gillett had given us a bottle of 'Romanshorn' from the Swiss farm, an admirable preparation which also yields fresh butter. The price is high, 1s. 6d. a bottle, or, for the case of forty-eight imperial pints, 72s.; this, however, is the Coast, not the cost figure. For invalids, who are nauseated by the sickly, over-sugared stuff popularly called 'tin-juice,' and who feel life put in them by rum and milk, it is an invaluable comfort.

We left Esubeyah in the 'lizard's sun' at 7 A.M., and found the river changed for the worse. The freshets had uptorn from the banks the tallest trees, which in places formed a timber-floor; and the surf-boat gallantly charged, till she leaked, the huge trunks, over which she had often to be lifted. Nothing would be easier than to clear away these obstacles; a few pounds of gun-cotton would remove snags and sawyers, and dredging by boats would do the rest. Then Prince's River would become an excellent highway.

An hour and a half's slow paddling placed us at the landing-place of Bekai (a village in general), the usual hole in the bush. Here navigation ends in the dry season. We walked to and through the mean little settlement, and established ourselves at Anima-kru, [Footnote: The English 'croom' is a corruption of kru-mu or krum, 'in the village.' Properly speaking 'kru' and 'man' are the town, or common centre of many akura (plantation-hamlets), in which the owners keep their families and familiae.] a mile from the landing-place on the Yenna, or Prince's River. It faces a splendidly wooded mound upon the right or opposite bank. Mra Kwami, the headman, received us hospitably, cleared a house, and offered us the usual palm-wine and snuff: the powder, composed of tobacco, ginger, and cloves, is boxed in a round wild fruit.

The village contained only two men; the rest were drinking, at Prince's town, the proceeds of a puncheon of palm-oil. The plantations still showed fruits and flowers probably left by the Portuguese—wild oranges, mangoes, limes, pine-apples, and the 'four o'clock,' a kind of 'marvel of Peru,' supposed to open at that hour. The houses, crepi or parget below and bamboo above, are mere band-boxes raised from the ground; the smaller perfectly imitated poultry-crates. All appeared unusually neat and clean, with ornamental sheets of clam-shells trodden into the earth before the thresholds. 'Fetish' was abundant, and so was that worst of all plagues the sand-fly.

After breakfasting we set out north over a sandy level, clearly reclaimed from the sea, and in a few minutes struck the true coast. Here begins the St. John mining-ground, conceded for prospecting to Messieurs Gillett and Selby. A fair path runs up hillocks of red-yellow clay, metalled with rounded quartz and ironstone-gravel, roped with roots and barred with trees; their greatest elevation may have been 120 feet. Two parallel ridges, trending north-north-east, are bisected by torrents pouring westward to the river: now dry, they have rolled down huge boulders in their frequent floods. These 'hard-heads,' which try the hammer, show a revetment of cellular iron upon a solid core of greenstone and bluish trap. Some fragments not a little resembled the clay-slates of the Brazilian gold-mines. Such was the concession which we named Sao Joao do Principe.

Presently the chief, Mra Kwami, announced to us that we had reached the northern boundary-line of the estate. He now would have left us, as it is not customary, when gold is in question, for one head-man to enter another's country. We succeeded, however, in persuading him to show us the other side of the river. A short walk up and down hill led to the ford of the 'Yenna,' the native name, probably a corruption of 'St. John.' It lies a little above the dyke where the stream breaks into a dwarf fall, and below the crossing where a ferry formerly plied. We now found a regular river, no longer a lagoon-stream; the clear water, most unlike the matter-suspending and bitumen-coloured fluid of the lower bed, was beautified by lilies with long leaves and broad flowers of virgin white.

We rode the Kruboys pick-a-back across the broken reef through which the stream bursts and brawls, and walked a few paces up the left bank to the Kumasi [Footnote: The Ashantis translate the word 'under the Kum-tree;' the Fantis make it mean 'slay all.'] village. It had been lately deserted; but we found there Kwako Benta, headman of Ajamera, who had spent a week in forcing the deserters to rejoin the corps. He was the reverse of cordial, probably wishing at once to prove importance and to give our guide the cold shoulder: we persuaded him, however, to show us the Muku concession, granted to Messieurs Lintott and Spink.

The ground which fronts the reef-ford reflects that of the left bank, and is pitted with diggings, large and small. In a dry torrent-bed, running north-south, was an oblong shaft, a native copy of European work, four feet by six, and timbered in the usual negro way. Its further bank was a high and steep slope of yellow clay with a midway step, containing another and a similar shaft: to the north and west were many other signs of exploitation. The rich-looking quartz of the lode is white and sugary, with black streaks and veins: its strike is nearly meridional, between north 20 and 25 east, and the dip 40-45 east. A glance shows that Fluthwerk and 'hydraulicking' would easily wash down the whole alluvial and auriferous formation to the floor of grey granite which has supplied the huge 'cankey-stones' [Footnote: This proto-historic implement, also called a 'saddle-quern,' is here made out of a thick slab of granite slightly concave and artificially roughened. The muller, or mealing-stone, is a large, heavy, and oval rolling-pin used with the normal rocking and grinding motion. These rollers are also used for crushing ore, and correspond with the stone polissoirs of ancient date.] littering the village. Cameron, who had before visited the site, and had remarked how vigorously the placer-gravels had been attacked by the natives, would 'hydraulick' by means of the St. John's River. This might also be done by damming up and tapping the adjacent bottom. And, if routine work be wanted, it would cost little to construct upon the topmost crest a large reservoir with channels to conduct the rains, and thus secure a fair fall for the water.

We slept once more at Anima-kru; and here Cameron made sure of his position by Jupiter and Procyon, and by his valuable watch-chronometer, the gift of his brother-officers: it worked peculiarly well. The St. John's mine lies in north lat. 4 49' 44", and in west long. (G.) 2 6' 44". While the owners would place it seven miles from the sea, it is distant only 2.2 from 'old Fort Brandenburg.' Early next morning we packed and prepared for return, the chief Mra Kwami insisting upon escorting us. And now the difference of travel in Africa and England struck me forcibly. Fancy a band of negro explorers marching uninvited through the Squire's manor, strewing his lawn and tennis-ground with all manner of rubbish; housing their belongings in his dining- and drawing- and best bed-rooms, which are at once vacated by his wife and family; turning his cook out of his or her kitchen; calling for the keys of his dairy and poultry-yard, hot-houses, and cellar; and rummaging the whole mansion for curios and heirlooms interesting to the negro anthropologist. Fancy also their bidding him to be ready next morning for sporting and collecting purposes, with all his pet servants, his steward and his head-gardener, his stud-groom and his gamekeeper; and allowing, by way of condescension, Mr. Squire to carry their spears, bows, and arrows; bitterly deriding his weapons the while, as they proceed to whip his trout-stream, to pluck his pet plants, to shoot his pheasants, and to kill specimens of his rarest birds for exhibition in Africa. Fancy their enquiring curiously about his superstitions, sitting in his pew, asking for bits of his East window, and criticising his 'fetish' in general, ending with patting him upon the back and calling him a 'jolly old cock.' Finally, fancy the Squire greatly enjoying such treatment, and feeling bitterly hurt unless handled after this fashion. Paddling down stream, we collected for Kew. But the hopelessness of the task weighs upon the spirits: a square mile of such flora would take a week. There is a prodigious variety of vegetation, and the quantity of edible berries, 'fowl's lard,' 'Ashanti-papaw,' and the Guinea-peach (Sarcophalus esculentus) would gladden the heart of a gorilla. Every larger palm-trunk was a fernery; every dead bole was an orchidry; and huge fungi, two feet broad, fed upon the remains of their victims. Climbers, chiefly papilionaceous, and llianas, bigger than the biggest boa-constrictor, coiled and writhed round the great gloomy trees which rained their darkness below. In the sunlight were pretty jasmines (J. grande), crotons and lantanas, with marantas, whose broad green leafage was lined with pink and purple. Deep in shadow lay black miry sloughs of sickening odour, near which the bed of Father Thames at low water would be scented with rose-water; and the caverns, formed by the arching roots of the muddy mangrove, looked haunts fit for crocodile and behemoth and all manner of unclean, deadly beasts. And there are little miseries for African collectors. 'Wait-a-bit' thorns tear clothes and skin. Tree-snakes turn the Kru-boys not pale but the colour of boiled liver; their 'bowels fail them,' as the natives say. Each tree has its ant, big or small, black or red; and all sting more or less. We see their armies marching up the trunks, and the brush of a bough brings down a little shower. Monstrous mangrove-flies and small brown-coloured 'huri,' most spiteful biters, and wasps here and there, assail the canoe; and we are happy if we escape a swarm of the wild bees: their curious, treacle-like honey is enjoyed by the people.

We landed in due time at 'Prinsi,' whose civilised chief had laid out a clean path, lined with umbrella-figs backed by a bush of self-sown guavas. A good upper-storied house was found for us, with standing bedsteads, sofa, table, and chairs. It belonged to one of the penins, or elders. The chapel, with its three front and five lateral windows, is the best we have yet seen. The schoolmaster, Mr. Sego, lives in a house hard by; and the adjacent school, a wattled cottage, echoes to the voices of some thirty to forty scholars. The town looks prosperous. Building is easy; oysters and other shells supply lime; the clay dug to the north makes good adobes, and stone is easily quarried from the old fort.

We found Prince's in a state of unusual jollity, drinking the proceeds of their three puncheons, dancing and playing what Sa Leone calls 'warry.' [Footnote: A game with counters and holes in the ground or a board hollowed with cups. The same, called bao, or tables, is found in East Africa (Zanzibar) and Cameron traced it extending clear across the Dark Continent.] The bell and the psalm blended curiously with the song and the palm-clapping that announces negro terpsichore. Of course 'fetish' was present, in the shape of a woman peculiarly ornamented. Her very black face was dazzlingly chalked, lines by threes running from hair-roots to nose-bridge and meeting others drawn across the temples; the orbits of the eyes were whitened, and thence triple streaks stretched up the nose and across the cheeks. Hung to the extensive necklace of beads and other matters were tassels of dry white fibre; her forearms carried yellow bunches of similar material, and she held a broom of blackened bamboo and the metal bell familiar to Unyamwezi. Whilst the juniors danced and sang the elders drank and gambled.

After a cool and comfortable night we visited the ruins which Bosman calls Casteel Groot Frederiksburg tot Pocquesoe (Prince's). Our Hydrographic Chart has 'old fort Brandenburg,' which is at Cape Threepoints. Others declare that it was the only good establishment owned by the Elector; and the best authority, Lieut. Jeekel, terms it G Friedrichsburg (Hollandia). I may note that 'Prinsi 'Ollandia' is still the native name. These buildings interest us greatly, because in the coming days of immigration they will serve for hospitals, stores, and barracoons. Ascending a few feet of bushy hill, called in books 'Mamfra,' and once evidently an island, we came upon the eastern flank, three substantial bastions and a cavalier, with masonry knitted by creepers. We then wound round by the southern or sea side, and, turning the angle, made the eastern flank. The gateway, stockade, and belfry shown in Bosman ('Eerste Brief,' 1737) have disappeared; so also has the slave-court, but the double doorway remains. The spacious centre, planted with bananas almost wild, would make a grand garden; the walls are built to stand for ages; and, although the floors of the upper stories have been torn down, there would be no difficulty in restoring them. As steps and stairs are absent, it was not possible to reach the battlements. These are luxuriant with vegetation, of which I should preserve a portion for shade and coolth. A fine arched cistern now affords a shelter to bats; and a building which appears to be the chapel remains on the northern side. Old iron guns still cumber the embrasures and the ground.

Issuing by the northern face, which has been torn down for ashlar, we set up the photographic stand and took the north-western angle. Here an enormous fig draws its life from the death of the wall. The morning air in the shade was delicious, a great contrast with the heavy dampness of Axim; and the view of the St. John's River west and of Cape Threepoints east was charming. With usual neglect the photographer had sent out his machine and dry plates without any means of developing them; we therefore worked blindly and could not see results.

When embarking in Prince's Bay, where the surf was perfectly safe, we were informed a little too late of a valuable gold-mine called Kokobene. It lies close behind the village Akitaki, which we had seen during our morning's walk along the beach leading to Cape Threepoints. The chief, Eshanchi, promised to forward specimens of the reefs, and did not forget to keep his promise. The quartz-specimens which were brought to us at Akankon by Wafapa, or Barnabas, promised excellently, and I authorised Mr. Grant to buy an exploring right of the Kokobene-Akitaki diggings. Their position as well as their quality will render them valuable: they will prove a second Apatim.

We returned to Axim on February 19, after a short but very satisfactory trip which added much to our knowledge of the coast and its ways. It had also the merit of being economical; we took matters in hand, and consequently our four days cost us only 2l. 8s.

I have spoken much about 'hydraulicking' in this chapter, and I shall now borrow a few details concerning the operation from Sir William Logan, who, in his 'Geological Survey of Canada,' quotes Mr. William P. Blake. Speaking of California, the learned author writes, 'In this method the force of a jet of water with great pressure is made available both for excavating and washing the auriferous earth. The water, issuing in a continuous stream with great force from a large hose-pipe like that of a fire-engine, is directed against the base of a bank of earth and gravel, and tears it away. The bank is rapidly undermined, the gravel is loosened, violently rolled together, and cleansed from any adhering particles of gold, while the fine clay and the sand are carried off by the water. In this manner hundreds of tons of earth and gravel may be removed, and all the gold which they contain liberated and secured with greater ease and expedition than ten tons could be excavated and washed in the old way. All the earth and gravel of a deposit is moved, washed, and carried off through long sluices by the water, leaving the gold behind. Square acres of earth on the hill-sides may thus be swept away into the hollows without the aid of a pick or a shovel in excavation. Water performs all the labour, moving and washing the earth in one operation, while in excavating by hand the two processes are of necessity entirely distinct. The value of this method and the yield of gold as compared with the older one can hardly be estimated.

'The water acts constantly with uniform effect, and can be brought to bear upon almost any point, where it would be difficult for men to work. It is especially effective in a region covered by trees, where the tangled roots would greatly retard the labour of workmen. In such places the stream of water washes out the earth from below, and tree after tree falls before the current, any gold which may have adhered to the roots being washed away. With a pressure of sixty feet and a pipe of from one and a half to two inches' aperture, over 1,000 bushels of earth can be washed out from a bank in a day.

'Earth which contains only one-twenty-fifth part of a grain of gold, equal to one-fifth of a cent in value to the bushel, may be profitably washed by this method; and any earth or gravel which will pay the expense of washing in the old way gives enormous profits by the new process. To wash successfully in this way requires a plentiful supply of water, at an elevation of from fifty to ninety feet above the bed-rock, [Footnote: This is by no means necessary. The jet can be thrown from below like the fireman's hose playing upon a burning house. I shall return to this highly important subject.] and a rapid slope or descent from the base of the bank of earth to be washed, so that the waste water will run off through the sluices, bearing with it gravel, sand, and suspended clay.

* * * * *

'In the case of a deposit in North Carolina, where ten men were required for thirty-five days to dig the earth with pick and shovel and wash it in sluices, two men with a single jet of water could accomplish the same work in a week. The great economy of this method is manifest from the fact that many old deposits in the river-beds, the gravel of which had been already washed by hand, have again been washed with profit by the hydraulic method.

'In California the whole art of working the diluvial gold-deposits was revolutionised by this new method. The auriferous earth lying on hills and at some distance above the level of the watercourses would in the ordinary methods be excavated by hand and brought to the water, but by the present system the water is brought by aqueducts to the gold-deposits, and whole square miles which were before inaccessible have yielded up their precious metal. It sometimes happens from the irregular distribution of the gold in the diluvium in California that the upper portions of a deposit do not contain gold enough to be washed by the ordinary methods, and would thus have to be removed at a considerable expense in order to reach the richer portion below. By the hydraulic method, however, the cost of cutting away and excavating is so trifling that there is scarcely any bank of earth which will not pay the expense of washing down in order to reach the rich deposits of gold beneath.'

To conclude. Our collection of plants was sent to the Herbarium, Kew; and, as the Appendix (II. Part II.) shows, was kindly catalogued by the learned Professor D. Oliver.



CHAPTER XX.

FROM AXIM TO INGOTRO AND AKANKON.

After a long palaver with the three claimants to the Akankon mining-ground, Kofi Blaychi (Little Blay), Kwako Jum, and Safahin Sensense (the lessor), we left Axim once more (February 24) to inspect the head of the Ancobra river. At the sleeping-place, Kumprasi, we were visited by Mr. Cascaden, District-commissioner for Takwa, a fine-looking man of fifteen stone, pulled down to twelve by dysentery. He was speedily followed to England by his remplacant, Dr. Duke.

Next morning, when the thick white fog, which made the smoking river resemble Father Rhine in autumn, had been licked up by fiery rays, we embarked, together with Chief Apo, of Asanta, the honest old owner of the 'Ingotro concession.' Our conveyance was the Effuenta, a steam-launch attached to the mine of that name, bought second-hand, and a fine specimen of what launches ought not to be. Built by Messieurs Dickenson, of Birkenhead, she is much too small (36 feet by 8) for a river which, even in the depth of the dries, averages two fathoms, and rarely runs less than ten feet. The engines are over far from the boiler, and the long raking stern swells out into a big belly worthy of a manatee or a Dutch hoy. Her boiler had been replaced with the usual inconsequence. She had been repaired by an 'intelligent artisan,' Mr. Emery; but, as he was allowed no tools and no time, he contented himself with reporting her in good working order. Consequently after every half-hour we had to unscrew the safety-valve, let off steam, and fill the boiler with a funnel and a tin pot. Pleasant three hours under a thin board-awning, in a broiling sun, off a poisonous mangrove-swamp! Presently she had to be started by the surf-boat lashed to one side, and a large canoe to the other. Finally, after a last breakdown, we saw steam-launch Effuenta lying high and dry upon the beach at Sanma.

We had nothing to complain of the engineer, Mr. William George, a Sa Leonite, and of the helmsman, Kwamina Ekum, a Gold Coast man. Both did their best with the heavily laden trio of boats. Cameron established himself—compass, log, lead, and dredge—in the steamer stern. His admirable geographical labours in 'Crossing Africa' are, after a few years of a swift-moving age, lapsing Lethe-wards; and

To have done is to hang Quite out of fashion, like a rusty nail In monumental mockery.

Now he has another opportunity of doing valuable service, none of these positions having been established by observations, and of showing travellers how topography should be worked. He has before him for correction the Hydrographic chart, which pretends to nothing within the Coast, and the 'River Ankobra and Tarquah(!) Gold Mines,' printed in 1878 by Captain Louis Wyatt, then District-commissioner for Axim. This first attempt at a regular survey is meritorious for an amateur; but of course it cannot compare with the produce of a scientific and experienced naval surveyor. We had Lieut. Jeekel, before alluded to, but his scale, 1:250,000, is too small for details. I did not see, till long after our return from this excursion, the then unfinished map by M. Paulus Dahse, a veteran West-Coaster, who has spent years in travelling through the interior. My fellow-voyager also was the first to show me the various cartes printed and published by the late M. Bonnat. [Footnote: Carte des Concessions de 'The African Gold Coast Company,' par M. J. Bonnat. Paris, August 1879. Beginning south at Tumento, it does not show the southern fork of the Bonsa or Abonsa River, which falls into the Ancobra's left bank; and it ends a little north of Asseman, the cemetery of the 'kings.' M. Bonnat had already printed in 1877 a Chart of the River Ankobra, extending north as far as the 'Gold Mines of Aodoua.']

The Ancobra is an enlarged copy of the Yenna or Prince's River. There are the same swampy borders and 'impenetrable forests,' as Captain Wyatt entitles them; while the mangrove never quite disappears from this true lagoon-stream. The monotonous fringe of rhizophores is broken, about two miles from the mouth, by bamboo-palms and hibiscus-beds, then by the bombax, the rubber-vine, the locust-tree (inga), and the banana-plantation. The mounds and hillocks on either side, beginning with the Akromasi and Kabudwe mounds, near the mouth, are evidently parts of an ancient archipelago built by the mangrove and silted up to mainland. The long and curious reaches are shown in my companion's map, and I shall notice only those details which claim something of general interest.