To The Gold Coast for Gold, Vol. II - A Personal Narrative by Verney Lovett Cameron;Sir Richard Francis Burton
page 104 of 310 (33%)
page 104 of 310 (33%)
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honey of the flower-stalk; and adults drink or otherwise use, as
corrective of bile, an infusion of the leaves and the under bark. They could not give me the receipt for the valuable preparation of the green apple, well known to the Fantis of Accra. After returning to Axim we heard of rich diggings two hours' march inland, or north with easting from Esyáma. They are called 'Yirima,' or 'Choke-full'--that is, of gold. The site is occupied by King Blay's family, and the place is described as containing three or four reefs which have all been more or less worked by the natives. After we left the coast Yirima was visited by Mr. Grant, who reported it as exceptionally promising. About sunset we hit the Ebumesu, or 'Winding Water.' The people declare that it had a single mouth till the earthquakes of July 1862, which shook down Accra, raised a divide, and made a double _embouchure_. The eastern fork, known as the Páná, is the drain of a large and branchy lagoon, brackish water, bitumen-coloured or brassy-yellow, with poisonous vegetation, and bounded by mangroves abounding in tannin. These water-forests grow differently from the red and white rhizophores of Eastern Africa. We shall again be ferried over the upper part of the western mouth. Both have bad bars, especially the latter. I therefore can by no means agree with Mr. Walker's report:--'The western outlet of the Ebumesu, near the village of Eku Enu, or Ekwanu, is quite practicable for ordinary surf-boats during the dry season--say half the year--and even in the middle of June I found the bar smooth and safe. Having for thirty years worked some of the worst bars and beaches' (the Gaboon? or the Sherbro?) 'along some hundreds of miles of the West Coast, I am able to state that the Ebumesu bar might be safely utilised for landing goods and machinery; but during the heavy surf of the rainy season goods could |
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