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I have mentioned that at Akankon my companion showed me a large vein of cinnabar. Copper occurs in small quantities with tin. This metal is found in large veins streaking the granite, according to M. Dahse, who gave me a fine specimen containing some ten and a half per cent. of metal.
Cameron's most sensible advice concerning the local establishment required for Akankon was as follows: He laid down the total expenditure at 21,000l. per annum, including expenses in England. The staff would consist of six officers. The manager should draw 800l. This is the pay of Government, which does not allow subsistence.
Gillett, who had lately passed over it, gave me these notes on the line. John, which the natives have corrupted to 'Senchorsu; the people, however, did not seem to know their whereabouts. We determined to push on to Akankon, despite the ugly prospect of a dark walk through the wet bush, and of deferring the survey to another time.
There is the usual wasteful profusion of growth. Ferns ramp upon the trees; Cameron counted at Akankon two dozen different species within a few hundred yards. Orchids bunch the boughs and boles of dead forest-giants; and llianas, the African 'tie-tie, varying in growth from a packthread to a cable, act as cordage to connect the growths.
The Akankon concession had been bought by Messieurs Bonnat and Wyatt from Sensensé of the fetish, whose ancestors, he declared, had long ruled the whole country. I have heard these gentlemen blamed, and very unjustly, for buying so cheap and selling so dear 17,000l. in cash and 33,000l. in shares.
I also had long conversations with Mr. A. A. Robertson, lately sent out as traffic-manager to the Izrah, and with Mr. Amondsen, the Danish sailor, then en route to the hapless Akankon mine. Mr. Paulus Dahse, who was saved from a severe sickness by Dr. Roulston and by his brother-in-law, Mr. Wulfken, eventually became my fellow-passenger to Madeira, where I parted from him with regret.
They are mere baskets airy, and perhaps too airy. Of this kind, too, are the stores and the mining establishments; the 'Akankon House, near the landing-place; the 'Gold Coast House, in the interior; the Methodist chapel, a barn-shaped affair; the Effuenta House to the north, and the Tákwá, or French House, to the south.
As they applied to us for justice and redress, we administered it, after 'seeing face and back, or hearing both sides, by a general cutting-off of the gin-supply and a temporary stoppage of 'Sunday-beef. I cannot leave this rich and unhappy Akankon mine without a few reflections; it so admirably solves the problem 'how not to do it. The concession was negotiated in 1878.
He is also lessor of the unfortunate Akankon concession, and his right to sell or to let either of them has been seriously disputed. This practice, again, may lead, unless checked, to serious difficulties. When the local government shall have established a regular department and a staff of Gold-commissioners, every owner should be compelled legally to prove his title to the land.
He has, however, I am told, changed his mind and built upon 'Plantation Hillock. On the left or western side of the road the Akankon ridge is subtended by a hollow, the valley of a streamlet in rainy weather. This supply, which can easily be made perennial, will greatly facilitate washing.
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