My space compels me to
refer readers to the original. [Footnote: Murray's edition of 1816, vol.
i, p. 40, and vol. ii. p. 751.]
The traveller Caillie (1827), after crossing the Niger _en route_ to
Tinbukhtu, passed south of the Boure province, in the valley of the Great
River; and here he reports an abundance of gold. As in the districts
visited by Park, it is all alluvial and washed out of the soil. The dust,
together with native cloth, wax, honey, cotton and cattle, finds its way
to the coast, where it is bartered for beads, amber and coral, calicoes
and firearms. The gold-mines of Boure were first visited and described by
Winwood Reade. [Footnote: _Coomassie_, &c., p. 126.]
The peninsula of Sierra Leone is not yet proved to be auriferous. Here
stray Moslems, mostly Mandengas, occasionally bring down the Melakori
River ring-gold and dust from the interior. The colonists of Liberia
assert that at times they have come upon a pocket which produced fifty
dollars; the country-people also occasionally offer gold for sale. From
the Bassam coast middle-men travel far inland and buy the metal from the
bushmen. Near Grand Bassam free gold in quartz-reefs near the shore has
been reported.
Pages:
380
381
382
383
384
385
386
387
388
389
390
391
392
393
394
395
396
397
398
399
400
401
402
403
404