] being despised, is turned over to the followers. Before entering
upon this time-wasting process I persuaded the Ahin and _panins_ to sign
the document enabling me formally to take possession of the 'Izrah Mine.'
The paper was duly attested and witnessed; and the visit ended with a
royal 'progress' to the fort, where the District-commissioner did the rest
of the needful.
Next day the King made a friendly call without basket or band. His cocked
hat was exchanged for a chimney-pot so 'shocking bad' that no coster would
dare to don it. Such is the custom of the chiefs, and if you give them a
good tile it goes at once into store. He made us promise a return-visit
and set out to collect bearers.
Hereabouts a week is as a day. Whilst carriage was collecting we inspected
the neighbourhood of Axim. Our first visit was to Bobowusua island, a
'fetish place for palavers,' where the natives object to guns being fired.
Here it was that Admiral van Ruyter built his battery of twelve cannons
and forced Fort Santo Antonio to surrender on January 19, 1642. The rock
is of trap, greenstone, or whinstone, which miners call iron-stone and
Cornishmen 'blue elvan:' this diorite, composed of felspar and the hardest
hornblende, contains granular iron and pyrites like silver.
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