To The Gold Coast for Gold, Vol. II

To The Gold Coast for Gold, Vol. II, by

Richard Francis Burton and Verney Lovett Cameron This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
Title: To The Gold Coast for Gold, Vol. II A Personal Narrative
Author: Richard Francis Burton and Verney Lovett Cameron
Release Date: June 5, 2006 [EBook #18506]
Language: English
Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
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TO THE GOLD COAST FOR GOLD
A Personal Narrative
BY Richard F. Burton AND Verney Lovett Cameron
In Two Volumes--Vol. II.

CONTENTS OF THE SECOND VOLUME
CHAPTER
XII.
THE S�� LEONITE AT HOME AND ABROAD
XIII. FROM S�� LEONE TO CAPE PALMAS
XIV. FROM CAPE PALMAS TO AXIM
XV. AXIM, THE GOLD PORT OF THE PAST AND THE FUTURE
XVI. GOLD ABOUT AXIM, ESPECIALLY AT THE APATIM OR BUJI�� CONCESSION
XVII. THE RETURN--VISIT TO KING BLAY; AT��BO AND B��IN
XVIII. THE IZRAH MINE--THE INYOKO CONCESSION--THE RETURN TO AXIM
XIX. TO PRINCE'S RIVER AND BACK
XX. FROM AXIM TO INGOTRO AND AKANKON
XXI. TO TUMENTO, THE 'GREAT CENTRAL DEP?T'
XXII. TO INSIMANK��O AND THE BUTABU�� RAPIDS.
XXIII. TO EFFUENTA, CROCKERVILLE, AND THE AJI BIPA HILL
XXIV. TO THE MINES OF ABOSU, OF THE 'GOLD COAST,' AND OF THE T��KW�� ('AFRICAN GOLD COAST') COMPANIES
XXV. RETURN TO AXIM AND DEPARTURE FOR EUROPE
CONCLUSION

* * * * *
APPENDIX.
I. ��1. THE ASHANTI SCARE ��2. THE LABOUR-QUESTION IN WESTERN AFRICA ��3. GOLD-DIGGING IN NORTH-WESTERN AFRICA
II.
PART I.--LIST OF BIRDS COLLECTED BY CAPTAIN BURTON AND COMMANDER CAMERON

PART II.--LIST OF PLANTS COLLECTED ON THE GOLD COAST BY CAPTAIN BURTON
AND COMMANDER CAMERON, R.N. (FURNISHED BY PROFESSOR OLIVER)
* * * * *
INDEX

TO THE GOLD COAST FOR GOLD.
CHAPTER XII.
THE S�� LEONITE AT HOME AND ABROAD.
In treating this part of the subject I shall do my best to avoid bitterness and harsh judging as far as the duty of a traveller--that of telling the whole truth--permits me. It is better for both writer and reader to praise than to dispraise. Most Englishmen know negroes of pure blood as well as 'coloured persons' who, at Oxford and elsewhere, have shown themselves fully equal in intellect and capacity to the white races of Europe and America. These men afford incontestable proofs that the negro can be civilised, and a high responsibility rests upon them as the representatives of possible progress. But hitherto the African, as will presently appear, has not had fair play. The petting and pampering process, the spirit of mawkish reparation, and the coddling and high-strung sentimentality so deleterious to the tone of the colony, were errors of English judgment pure and simple. We can easily explain them.
The sad grey life of England, the reflection of her climate, has ever welcomed a novelty, a fresh excitement. Society has in turn lionised the marmiton, or assistant-cook, self-styled an 'Emir of the Lebanon;' the Indian 'rajah,' at home a munshi, or language-master; and the 'African princess,' a slave-girl picked up in the bush. It is the same hunger for sensation which makes the mob stare at the Giant and the Savage, the Fat Lady, the Living Skeleton, and the Spotted Boy.
Before entering into details it will be necessary to notice the history of the colony--an oft-told tale; yet nevertheless some parts will bear repetition. [Footnote: The following is its popular chronology:-- 1787. First settlers (numbering 460) sailed. 1789. Town burnt by natives (1790?). 1791. St. George's Bay Company founded. 1792. Colonists (1,831) from Nova Scotia. 1794. Colony plundered by the French. 1800. Maroons (560) from Jamaica added. 1808. S�� Leone ceded to the Crown; 'Cruits' introduced. 1827. Direct government by the Crown.]
According to P��re Labat, the French founded in 1365 Petit Paris at 'Serrelionne,' a town defended by the fort of the Dieppe and Rouen merchants. The official date of the discovery is 1480, when Pedro de Cintra, one of the gentlemen of Prince Henry 'the Navigator,' visited the place, after his employer's death A.D. 1463. In 1607 William Finch, merchant, found the names of divers Englishmen inscribed on the rocks, especially Thos. Candish, or Cavendish, Captain Lister, and Sir Francis Drake. In 1666 the Sieur Villault de Bellefons tells us that the river from Cabo Ledo, or Cape Sierra Leone, had several bays, of which the fourth, now St. George's, was called Baie de France. This seems to confirm P��re Labat. I have noticed the Tasso fort, built by the English in 1695. The next account is by Mr. Surveyor Smith, [Footnote: He is mentioned in the last chapter.] who says 'it is not certain when the English became masters of Sierra Leone, which