To The Gold Coast for Gold: A Personal Narrative. Vol. IBurton, Richard Francis, Sir
History
To The Gold Coast for Gold: A Personal Narrative. Vol. I
Burton, Richard Francis, Sir
Ghana -- Description and travel; Gold mines and mining -- Ghana
Formerly the red-tipped lantern-tower had attached to it a bungalow,
where invalids resorted for fresh air; it has now fallen to pieces, and
two iron seats have taken its place. Over this western end of the
peninsula's northern face the play of the sea-breeze is strong and
regular; and the wester and north-wester blow, as at Freetown, fifty
days out of sixty. The run-in from this point is picturesque in clear
weather, and it must have been beautiful before the luxuriant forest was
felled for fuel, and the land was burnt for plantations which were never
planted. A few noble trees linger beside and behind the lighthouse,
filling one with regret for the wanton destruction of their
kind. Lighthouse Hillock, which commands the approach to the port, and
which would sweep the waters as far as the Sá Leone River, will be
provided with powerful batteries before the next maritime war. And we
must not forget that Sá Leone is our only harbour of refuge, where a
fleet can water and refit, between the Gambia and the Cape of Good Hope.
The northern face of the Sá Leone peninsula is fretted with little
creeks and inlets, bights and lagoons, which were charming in a state of
nature. Pirate's Bay, the second after the lighthouse, is a fairy scene
under a fine sky; with its truly African tricolor, its blue waters
reflecting air, its dwarf cliffs of laterite bespread with vivid
leek-green, and its arc of golden yellow sand, upon which the feathery
tops of the cocoa-palms look like pins planted in the ground. To the
travelled man the view suggests many a nook in the Pacific islands. The
bathing is here excellent: natural breakwaters of black rock exclude the
shark. The place derives its gruesome name from olden days, when the
smooth waters and the abundant fish and fruit tempted the fiery
filibusters to a relache. It was given in 1726 by Mr. Smith, surveyor to
the Royal African Company, after Roberts the pirate, who buried 'his
loot' in the Isles de Los, had burned an English ship. There is also a
tradition that Drake chose it for anchoring.
Beyond Pirate's Bay, and separated by a bushy and wooded point, lies
Aberdeen Creek, a long reach extending far into the interior, and
making, after heavy rains, this portion of the country
Both land and island twice a day.
The whole site of Sa Leone is quasi-insular. Bunce or Bunch River to the
north, and Calamart or Calmont, usually called Campbell's Creek, from
the south, are said to meet at times behind the mountain-mass; and at
all seasons a portage of a mile enables canoes to paddle round the
hill-curtain behind Freetown. This conversion of peninsula into islet is
by no means rare in the alluvial formations further south.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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