To The Gold Coast for Gold: A Personal Narrative. Vol. IIBurton, Richard Francis, Sir
History
To The Gold Coast for Gold: A Personal Narrative. Vol. II
Burton, Richard Francis, Sir
Ghana -- Description and travel; Gold mines and mining -- Ghana
The northern extremity of the Takwa ridge, whose length may be
nine to ten miles, remains unappropriated, as far as can be known. The
furthest concession has been made, I am told, to Mr. Creswick. South of
the section in question lies a property now in the hands of the late M.
Bonnat's executors: the grant was given to him as a wedding-present by his
friends, the chiefs. Report says that from this part of the lode, which is
riddled with native pits, came some of the specimens that floated the G.
C. M. Company. Succeeds in due order the African Gold Coast Company,
French and English, which was brought out in 1878. It is popularly and
locally known as the Takwa (not 'Tarcquah') mine, from the large native
village which infests its grounds. I have described the Effuenta, its
southern neighbour. Beyond this again is a strip belonging to the
Franco-English Company; and, lastly, at the southern butt-end, divided by
a break from the main ridge, lies the 'Tamsoo-Mewoosoo mines of Wassaw.'
The latter has lately been 'companyed,' under the name of the 'Tacquah
Gold Mines Company,' by Dr. J. A. B. Horton and Mr. Ferdinand Fitzgerald,
of the famous 'African Times.' When its directors inform us that 'twenty
ounces of gold lately arrived from a neighbouring mine, the produce of
stamping of twenty-five tons of ore, similar to that of Tamsoo-Mewoosoo,'
they may not have been aware that the produce in question was worked from
the alluvial drift discovered, about the end May 1881, in the
north-western corner of the Swanzy estates. This drift has no connection
with the Takwa ridge-lodes.
After morning tea on March 28 I bade a temporary adieu to my most
hospitable host, and walked along the ridge-crest to the establishment of
the Franco-English or African Gold Coast Company. Here I found only one
person, Dr. Burke, an independent practitioner, who is allowed lodging,
but not board. M. Haillot, of Paris, formerly accountant and book-keeper,
was in temporary charge of this mine and of Abosu during Mr. Bowden's
absence. I shall give further detail on my return march. Passing through
the spirit-reeking Takwa village, where nearly every hovel is a 'shebeen,'
I walked along the valley separating the ridge from its western neighbour,
Vinegar Hill, and in half an hour entered the huts belonging to the Gold
Coast Mining Company. [Footnote: These gentlemen are still (October 1882)
doing hard and successful work at the mines.] Here I breakfasted with the
brothers Gowan, who had been left in charge by Mr. Creswick. My notes on
this establishment must also be reserved for a future page.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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