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The climate appeared wholesome; the river brought with it a breeze, and we were evidently entering the region of woods, between the mangrove-swamps of the coast and the grass-lands of the interior. At Tumento I met, after some twenty years, Mr. Dawson, of Cape Coast Castle. The last time it was at Dahoman Agbóme, in company with the Rev. Mr. Bernasko, who died of dropsy and heart-disease.
The second headman of Tumento, when pressed, managed to secure a very small load. But as payment is by weight, 6d. per 10 lbs. from the river to Effuenta, and no subsistence is allowed, his gains were small in proportion; he received for three days only 9d., the ordinary value of porter's rations.
Tumento was found by observation to lie in N. lat. 4º 12' 20" and in W. long. The latter figure would apply only by doubling the windings of the bed. This ascent of the river convinced me more than ever that Enfrámadié is the proper terminus of its navigation. I passed the next day at Tumento, which proved to be only half the distance usually supposed along the Ancobra bed from its mouth.
About three-quarters of the way from Tumento to Apankru is a hill rich in outcrops of quartz. I believe it to be French property. These rises and falls led over 7-1/2 direct geographical miles, usually done in three hours, to Apankru, a second 'great central Depôt. The village lies on the right bank of the Abonsá River, here some forty feet high.
It consists of the usual Koranic quotations in black, and of magic numbers in pink, ink. Dr. Roulston and Mr. Higgins, the new District Commissioner for Tákwá, entered Tumento about 3 P.M. The carriers hired in addition to my canoe-men would now be wanted, said the cunning old chief, for the 'Government man, with whom he wished to stand well.
No sooner said than done. On March 8 we left Tumento in our big canoe, passed the night at Riverside House, and next evening were inhaling, not a whit too soon, the inspiriting sea-whiffs of Axim. The rest of my tale is soon told. Cameron recovered health within a week, and resolved to go north again.
Sam, of Tumento, promised to forward many others to England. The native women search for and find them not only near the beds of streams, but also about the alluvial diggings. Nearly all are shaped like the iron axe or adze of Urúa, in Central Africa, a long narrow blade with rounded top and wedge-shaped edge.
I landed upon one of the rocks, sketched the Butabué, whose name none could explain, and returned down stream to the 'great central Depôt, Tumento. I can say little about the River Ancobra above the rapids, except that it resumes its course from the north-north-east and the north, apparently guided by the hills.
A few years may see thousands of them, with mosques by the dozen established upon the sea-board. The 'revival of El-Islam' shows itself nowhere so remarkably as in Africa. At Tumento Cameron found himself growing rapidly worse. He suffered from pains in the legs, and owned that even when crossing Africa during his three years of wild life he remembered nothing more severe.
At present the cost of transport from Tumento to Effuenta is 6d. for 10 lbs., 8d. to Tákwá, and 10 d. to Abosu. The head of the valley shows a single stream, the Babeabárbawo or Tákwá rivulet, rising close to the works of the Gold Coast Company.
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