private messenger goes to and returns from the capital, a distance of
eighty-two miles, in four or five days. The public post starts on
Wednesdays, halts without reason between Fridays and Mondays at Sekondi
(Seecondee), and consumes a week in the down-march. I have already noted
the want of sanitation, the condition of the ammunition, and the absence
of medical stores. It moves one's sense of the absurd to compare the
desolate condition of the Goldland, which is to supply the money, with the
civilised machinery in England which is to work it, companies and
syndicates, shares, debentures, and what not.

I have treated the subject of Axim with a minuteness that is almost
'porochial;' its future importance must be my excuse. The next chapter
will show that we are truly in the Land of Gold, in an Old New California.

And now to conclude this unpleasant account with the good words of old
Barbot: 'Axim, in my opinion, is the most tempting of any on the coast of
_Guinea_, taking one thing with another. You have there a perpetual
greenness, which affords a comfortable shade against the scorching heat of
the sun, under the lofty palm and other trees, planted about the village,
with a sweet harmony of many birds of several sorts perching on them. The
walk on the low flat strand along the seaside is no less pleasant at
certain hours of the day; and from the platform of the fort is a most
delightful prospect of the ocean and the many rocks and small islands
about it.'



CHAPTER XVI.

GOLD ABOUT AXIM, ESPECIALLY AT THE APATIM OR BUJIÁ CONCESSION.