Chapter 14

TO THE MINES OF ABOSU, OF THE 'GOLD COAST,' AND OF THE TÁKWÁ ('AFRICAN GOLD COAST') COMPANIES.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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