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Updated: May 26, 2025
The masonry of the sea-front was pitted with seven large wounds, dealt by as many shells when we broke down our own work. Such was the consequence of sympathising with the Ashantis in 1873, when Axim also was bombarded.
He was followed by another roving Englishman, who was not more successful. The liberation of pawns and other anti-abolitionist 'fads' had so raised the wage-rate that the rich placers were presently left to the natives. We exchanged reminiscences, and he at once started down stream for Axim. As we were unable to work, Mr.
If the report of his nearest civilized neighbor, the Governor of Axim, is to be credited, this potentate's house is furnished most sumptuously in the European style. Gold cups, pitchers, and plates, are used at his table, with furniture of corresponding magnificence in all the departments of his household. He possesses vast treasures in bullion and gold dust.
Thus began the Tákwá mines, where, by a kind of irony of Fate, the beginner was buried. M. Bonnat wisely intended to open operations with wet-working. At Axim I was shown a model flume, made to order after the plans of a M. Boisonnet, or, as he signs himself, 'boisonnet. He was reported to be a large landed-proprietor who had made a fortune by mining in French Guiana.
It is a good and forcible illustration of the degradation which debt always implies, though it may not always be outwardly visible, as here at Axim. The Governor himself, who is a native of Amsterdam, and apparently a mulatto, is one of those pawn-brokers who deal in human pledges. He is a merchant-soldier, bearing the military title of lieutenant, and doing business as a trader.
I wrote to Messieurs Elder and Dempster, advising them to replace it for their own interests and for the convenience of travellers; but in Africa one is out of the world, and receiving answers is emphatically not the rule. There is no better landing-place than Axim upon this part of the African coast. The surf renders it impracticable only on the few days of the worst weather.
I therefore proposed to run south and to revisit my old quarters, 'F.Po' and the Oil Rivers, in the B. and A. s.s. Life on the coast was not unpleasant, despite the equinoctial gales which broke on March 19 and blew hard till March 25. I had plenty of occupation in working up my notes, and I was lucky enough to meet all the managers of the working mines who were passing through Axim.
These expert smiths buy poor European metal and, like other West Africans, turn out a first-rate tool. Axim seems to have been a great centre of stone-manufacture. Mr. Carr showed us a dozen huge boulders of greenstone, chiefly at the eastern angle of the wart that bears, in dangerous proximity to his stores, his powder-magazine.
By dropping off at Fiume I got ten days on board with him. He leaves her at Gibraltar about the 7th; goes to Cadiz, Lisbon, Madeira, and Axim on the West Coast. He has to change ship four times, and this is a great anxiety to me in this stormy weather. God keep him safe! Once at Axim, the mines are all round the coast, and then I dread fever for him.
The walk on the low flat strand along the seaside is no less pleasant at certain hours of the day; and from the platform of the fort is a most delightful prospect of the ocean and the many rocks and small islands about it. Any one who has eyes to see can assure himself that Axim is the threshold of the Gold-region. It abounds in diorite, a rock usually associated with the best paying lodes.
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