Captain Glover has said that in eastern Akim gold is plentiful as
potatoes in Ireland, and the paths were honeycombed with gold-pits. Dawson
has distinctly stated his opinion that the Fanti gold-mines are far more
valuable than those of Ashanti--that the only known Ashanti gold-mine of
great value is that of Manoso; whereas the Wassaw and the Nquamfossoo
mines, as well as the Akim mines, have rock-gold (nuggets) in profusion.
He says that the Ashantis get their gold from the Fantis in exchange for
slaves, whom they buy for two or three loads of coller- (kola-) nuts,
worth less than half an ounce of gold, and sell to the Fantis for as much
as two and a quarter ounces of gold. Let our Government prospect these
mines; let Acts be passed similar to those by which vast railway companies
are empowered to compel persons to sell their land at a fair price; let
our Government, by means of Houssa troops, guarantee protection to
companies formed to work the mines, and let the payment to the kings in
whose country they are be by royalties upon the gold obtained. The kings
would offer the utmost resistance to their mines being thus taken and
worked; but they have never worked them properly themselves, and they will
never work them properly; and it would be no injustice to allow others to
do so.
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