The sources are now only a few miles distant, but the
stream is unnavigable, and they must be reached on foot. The late M.
Bonnat walked up by a hunter's path, now killed out, to the ruins of Bush
Castle, which Jeekel calls Fort Ruyghaver. He there secured possession of
the rich Asaman mines, which the work was intended to defend. There is
some fetish there, and the place is known as the burial-ground of the
kings. I was also told that four or five marches off a _cache_ of
treasure, described to be large, had been made during the Ashanti-Gyaman
war, and had been defended by the usual superstitions. Fetish may have
lost much of its power on the coast; in the interior, however, it is still
strong, and few white men live long after being placed under its ban.
CHAPTER XXIII.
TO EFFUENTA, CROCKERVILLE, AND THE AJI BIPA HILL.
At Tumento the halt of a day (March 22) was necessary in order to hire
carriers and get ready for the march eastward. Here, too, I washed sundry
specimens of soft earth from various parts of the river-banks, finding
colour of gold in all except the grey clay. Our Mohammedan friends were
there; the eldest called upon me and was exceedingly civil, besides being
to a certain extent useful.
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