The Bay State Monthly — Volume 2, No. 6, March, 1885Various
History
The Bay State Monthly — Volume 2, No. 6, March, 1885
Various
Massachusetts -- Periodicals; New England -- Periodicals
Siphnos, and also from Pangaeus. It was found in abundance in
Turdeltania in Spain; it was brought down by the rivers Tagus and Duoro;
and it was plenty in Dacia, Transylvania, and the Asturias. Caligula
caused his guests to be helped with gold (which they carried away),
instead of bread and meat. The dresses of Nero were stiff with
embroidery and gold; he fished with hooks of gold, and his attendants
wore necklaces, and bracelets of gold. The Egyptians obtained large
quantities of gold from the upper Nile, and from Ethiopia. Among them it
was estimated by weight, usually in the form of bulls or oxen. In the
centre of the continent, upon which so much light has been recently
thrown by Livingston, Stanley, and others, rocks are to be met with
quartz veins containing gold, and thus auriferous alluvium has been
formed. Western Africa was the first field which supplied gold to
mediaeval Europe. Its whole seaboard from Morocco to the equator
produces more or less gold. This small section of the continent poured a
flood of gold into Europe, and until the mineral discoveries of
California and Australia, it continued to be the principal supply to the
civilized world. In eastern Akim gold is said to be as plentiful as
potatoes in Ireland. The Fanti gold mines are far more valuable than
Ashanti, and the Wassaw and the Nquampossoo have gold nuggets in
profusion. The King of Gyaman became immensely rich by the product of
his gold mines; his bed had steps of gold. The French claim that they
imported gold from Elmina in 1382. The Portuguese discovered gold in
1442, upon the borders of Rio de Ouro. Mungo Park, in 1797, drew
attention to the existence of gold in the provinces of Shronda, Kinkodi,
Dindiko, Bambuk, and Barabarra. Caille, in 1827, reported an abundance
of gold in the valley of the Niger. The gold mines of Boure were first
visited by Winwood Reade in 1872. The inhabitants of Western Africa have
worked their gold fields for centuries to very little purpose. Their
want of pumps, of quartz-crushing machinery, and of scientific
appliances, has limited their labors to scratching the top soil and
nibbling at the reef-walls. A large proportion of the country is
virtually virgin ground; and a rich harvest has been left for
Occidental science, energy, and enterprise. It is fast becoming evident
that Africa will one day equal half a dozen Californias. The annual
product of gold in Africa has declined from $17,000,000 in 1471 to
$3,000,000 in 1816. Since the latter date it has gradually declined to
$2,000,000. The gold product since 1471 has amounted to $3,500,000,000.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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