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Updated: May 26, 2025
Anthony Fort, in northern Axim, and on other parts of the seaboard. Axim, the gate of this El Dorado, has not yet much reason to thank England for ruling her. The little plank-bridges are out of repair, and the merchants will not supply the Government with new boards, save for ready money; otherwise payment may be delayed for a year.
I was told that the annual cost of these establishments, to the home-government, is not more than twenty thousand dollars; most of their expenses being defrayed by duties, port-charges and other revenue accruing on the spot. We left Axim yesterday, and anchored, last night, off the British settlement at Dixcove.
The outlet of immense lagoons to the east and west, it winds down behind the factories, and bears the native town upon its banks. Here we discharged only trade-gin, every second surf-boat and canoe upsetting; the red cases piled upon the beach looked like a bed of rose-buds. The whole of this coast, as far as Axim, is so dangerous that men land with their lives in their hands.
On February 15 we proceeded down coast to inspect the mining-lands of Prince's River valley, east of Axim; and this time it was resolved to travel by surf-boat, ignoring that lazy rogue the hammock-man. Yet even here difficulties arose. Mast and sail were to be borrowed, and paddles were to be hired at the rate of a shilling a day each.
The bush-paths, which would require widening for hammocks, lead north through Wásá. There are many villages on the way, and in places provisions can be procured; the people are peaceful and willing to show or to make the path. At Axim I consulted a native guide who knew the Kong village, but not the Kong Mountains.
Sensensé's claims were contested by three chiefs Kofi Blay-chi, Kwáko Bukári, who brought an acute advocate, Ebba of Axim, and Kwáko Jum, a fine specimen of the sea-lawyer; this bumptious black had pulled down the board which marked the Abesebá reef, and had worked the pits to his own profit.
As a matter of fact the expenses arose to £6,000, making the net profit £10,000 Burton had wooed fortune in many ways, by hard study in India, by pioneering in Africa, by diplomacy at Court, by gold-searching in Midian and at Axim, by patent medicining.
This part had been chipped ready for grinding, and the article was evidently unfinished; one side still wanted polishing, and the part opposite the bevel showed signs of tapering, as if a point instead of an edge had been intended. At Axim I split off by gads and wedges a large slice of the grooved rocks described by Burton; it came home with me, and is now lodged in the British Museum.
It is easy to see that here again we have an ancient archipelago, like that which formerly fringed the shore of Axim, but of older formation. In fact, I should not expect to find a true coast before entering the grassy zone north of the great belt of forest. Each hill must carry at least one core of auriferous reef.
The former is a small smooth-haired terrier, who dearly loves to bark and bite, and who shows evident signs of early training in the cab-line. A dog with all the manners of a doggess, he eventually found a happy home in the fort, Axim. The second, a bastard Newfoundland with a dash of the bloodhound, and just emerging from puppyhood, soon told us the reason why he was sold for a song.
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