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!'