To the Gold Coast for Gold

the Gold Coast for Gold, by
Richard F. Burton

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Title: To the Gold Coast for Gold A Personal Narrative in Two
Volumes.--Vol. I
Author: Richard F. Burton

Release Date: September, 2005 [EBook #8821] [Yes, we are more than
one year ahead of schedule] [This file was first posted on August 13,
2003]
Edition: 10
Language: English
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GOLD COAST FOR GOLD ***

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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. I.

TO OUR EXCELLENT FRIEND
JAMES IRVINE
(OF LIVERPOOL, F.R.G.S, F.S.A, &C.)
WE INSCRIBE THESE PAGES AS A TOKEN OF OUR
APPRECIATION AND ADMIRATION FOR HIS COURAGE AND
ENERGY IN OPENING AND WORKING THE GOLDEN LANDS
OF WESTERN AFRICA

'Much have I travelled in the realms of gold'
SHAKESPEARE

PREFACE.
The following extract from 'Wanderings in West Africa,' a book which
I wrote in 1862 and published (anonymously) in 1863, will best explain
the reasons which lately sent me to Western Africa:--
In several countries, for instance, Dinkira, Tueful, Wásá (Wassaw), and
especially Akim, the hill-region lying north of Accra, the people are
still active in digging gold. The pits, varying from two to three feet in
diameter, and from twelve to fifty deep (eighty feet is the extreme), are
often so near the roads that loss of life has been the result. 'Shoring up'
being little known, the miners are not unfrequently buried alive. The
stuff is drawn up by ropes in clay pots, or calabashes, and thus a
workman at the bottom widens the pit to a pyriform shape; tunnelling,
however, is unknown. The excavated earth is carried down to be
washed. Besides sinking these holes, they pan in the beds of rivers, and
in places collect quartz, which is roughly pounded.
They (the natives) often refuse to dig deeper than the chin, for fear of
the earth 'caving in;' and, quartz-crushing and the use of quicksilver
being unknown, they will not wash unless the gold 'show colour' to the
naked eye.
As we advance northwards from the Gold Coast the yield becomes
richer....
It is becoming evident that Africa will one day equal half-a-dozen
Californias....
Will our grandsons believe in these times ... that this Ophir--that this
California, where every river is a Tmolus and a Pactolus, every hillock
is a gold-field--does not contain a cradle, a puddling-machine, a
quartz-crusher, a pound of mercury? That half the washings are wasted

because quicksilver is unknown? That whilst convict labour is
attainable, not a company has been formed, not a surveyor has been
sent out? I exclaim with Dominie Sampson--'Pro-di-gious!'
Western Africa was the first field that supplied the precious metal to
mediaeval Europe. The French claim to have imported it from Elmina
as early as A.D. 1382. In 1442 Gonçales Baldeza returned from his
second voyage to the regions about Bojador, bringing with him the first
gold. Presently a company was formed for the purpose of carrying on
the gold-trade between Portugal and Africa. Its leading men were the
navigators Lanzarote and Gilianez, and Prince Henry 'the Navigator'
did not disdain to become a member. In 1471 João de Santarem and
Pedro Escobar reached a place on the Gold Coast to which, from the
abundance of gold found there, they gave the name of 'São Jorje da
Mina,' the present Elmina. After this a flood of gold poured into the lap
of Europe; and at last, cupidity having mastered terror of the Papal Bull,
which assigned to Portugal an exclusive right to the Eastern
Hemisphere, English, French, and Dutch adventurers hastened to share
the spoils.
For long years my words fell upon flat ears. Presently the Ashanti war
of 1873-74 brought the subject before the public. The Protectorate was
overrun