Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 10.djvu/780

756 GOLD Such are the chief points of interest along the Gold Coast, but there is a considerable range of territory extending from 20 to 60 miles inland, which belongs to the colonial protectorate; and about this a few words are necessary. The western portion of the pro- tectorate is occupied by the woody hill country of Fanti, which stretches northwards towards Ashantee. From the mouth of the Secoom a fine range varying in height from 1200 to 1500 or 1600 feet stretches N.N.E., and divides the eastern portion into two halves. Between the mountains and the sea there are large stretches of prairie land, in which the grass grows to a height of 10 or 12 feet. The inhabitants of the Gold Coast may be divided into two great classes the Tshi or Chee, a black type, and the Acra, a red type. The Fantis and Ashantis, both belonging to the former class, have already been described in ASHANTEE. The Akems live in a thick forest region, and maintain existence by hunting, gold-digging, and the gathering of wood snails. The capital of their country is Kyebi. The Aquapems are extensively engaged in agriculture and in trade, both with the other tribes and with Europeans. The Ga or Aera, a clever race, greatly modified by contact with European culture, are to be found in all the towns of the West African coast as artisans and sailors. They are employed by the interior tribes as middle men and interpreters. On the right bank of the Volta are the Adangme² or Adampe, distinguished by strength and rude- ness. The Crobos live in little villages in the midst of the palm tree woods which grow round about the Croboberg, an eminence about 1000 feet high. The Tshi or Chee language 3 belongs to the great prefix-prono- minal group. It comprises many dialects, which may, however, be reduced to two classes or types. Akan dialects are spoken in Assini, Amanahia (Apollonia), Awini, Ahanta, Wasaw, Tshuforo (Juffer or Tufel), and Denkyera in the west, and in Asen, Akem, and Aquapem in the east, as well as in the different parts of Ashantee. Fante dialects are spoken, not only in Fanti proper, but in Afutu or the country round Cape Coast, in Abora, Agymako, Akomfi, Gomoa, and Agona. The difference between the two types is not very great; a Fanti, for example, can converse without much difficulty with a native of Aquapem or Ashantee, his language being in fact a deteriorated form of the same original. Akem is considered the finest and purest of all the Akan dialects. The Aquapem, which is based on the Akem but has imbibed Fanti influences, has been made the book-language by the Basel missionaries. About a million people in all, it is estimated, speak dialects of the Tshi. The south-eastern corner of the Gold Coast is occupied by another language known as the Ga or Acra, which comprises the Ga proper and the Adangme and Crobo dialects. Ga proper is spoken by about 40.000 people, including the inhabitants of Ga and Kinka (i.e., Dutch and British Acra, in Tshi, Nkran, and Kankan), Osu (i.e., Christiansborg), La, Tessi, Ningua, and numerous inland villages. It has been reduced to writing by the missionaries. The Adangme and Crobo dialects are spoken by about 80,000 people. They differ very considerably from Ga proper, but books printed in Ga can be used by both the Crobo and Adangme natives. Another language known as Gu.in is used in parts of Aquapem and in Anum beyond the Volta; but not much is known either about it or the Obutu tongue spoken in a few towns in Agona, Gomoa, and Akomfi. The dialects of the Ahauta country have still to be investigated.5 Mahometanism and Christianity are both making themselves felt to some extent among the natives of the Gold Coast. A Danish mission was started at Christiansborg about 1736 by Protten and Huckoff, the Moravian brethren. In 1835 the Wesleyan mission began its labours among the Fanti. The Basel missionaries had made a start in 1828, but it was not till 1835 that they were fairly settled at Akropong, the capital of Aquapem. They now have stations also at Kyebi, at Kukurantimy, at Abune, at Abokoli, at Addah, and at Acra, and the leaders of the English expedition against the Ashantees speak very highly of their labours. The climate of the Gold Coast is notoriously unhealthy. At Cape Coast Castle the thermometer ranges from 72° to 85° or 90°, and the amount of moisture in the atmosphere is very great. Not only are the coasts in many places lined with swamps and lagoons, but, according to Dr Gordon, the 1 See an interesting paper by Captain Hay. "On the District of Akem in West Africa," in Journ. Roy. Geogr. Soc., London, 1876. 2 Adangme Adan-gbe, i.e., Adah language, so called from the town of Ada or Addah on the Volta.

3 This name appears in a great variety of forms-Kwi, Ekwi, Okwi, Oji, Odschi, Otsui, Tyi, Twi, Tshi, Tschi, Chwee, or Chee.

4 See Rev. J. G. Christaller, A Grammar of the Ashante and Fante Language called Tshi, Basel, 1875.

5 See D. L. Carr and F. P. Brown, Mfantsi (i.e., Fanti) Grammar, Cape Coast, 1868; Zimmermann, Grammatical Sketch and Vocabulary of the Akra or Ga language, Stuttgart, 1858; and A Dictionary, English, Tshi, Akra, by Christaller, Locher, and Zimmermann, Basel, 1874. COAST very basis rock of the country—a granite in which iron ore and hornblende are present-gives off under the influence of the air and the rain large quantities of sulphuretted hydrogen gas. The native towns are populous and dirty, and to add to the evil it was, until the prohibition of the British autho- rities (at Elmina by Colonel Festing, and at Cape Coast by Governor Strahan), the custom to bury the dead in the floors of the houses. Intermittent fevers, remittent fevers (the so-called coast fever is of this class), and dysentery are the diseases most to be dreaded by the European. "The native inhabitants," says Marcus Allen, "appear to enjoy tolerable health and to live to an average age; but in the rainy season it is not uncommon to find them suffering from pleuritis and pneumonia, rheumatic attacks, bronchitis, and catarrh." At Though the precious dust to which the Gold Coast owes its name is no longer obtained in any considerable quan- tities by the rude methods of collection employed by the natives, there is abundant proof that the whole region is more or less auriferous, and it is possible that European energy and skill might make it again a real gold coast. In some parts of the country-in the neighbourhood of the Volta, for example-the surface of the ground is broken by innumerable small pits dug by the native miners.6 present the value of the territory is mainly due to the pro- fusion of vegetable products supplied by the rich alluvial soil. Of the timber trees which abound in the vast stretches of forest, the best known are several species of the genus bombax (silk cotton tree, &c.), from which canoes and wooden wares are manufactured, and the odoom used for building and cabinet-work. The cocoa-nut and the palm oil are common along the coast, and the bread-fruit tree has been introduced with success at Napoleon. Indian corn, yams, cassava, sweet potatoes, tiger-nuts, ground-nuts (Arachis hypogaa), Guinea corn (Sorghum vulgare), Guinea grains (Amomum grana-paradisi), the egg-plant (Solanum ovigerum), bennie seed, oranges, limes, shaddocks, pine apples, ginger, and indigo are some of the many objects of cultivation. Nor must the kola nut be forgotten (Sterculia acuminata), variously styled colat, khola, and in older writers gura or gouroo; for it is the favourite substitute in Western Africa for the betel nut, and forms an important article of export. Both tobacco and cotton are indigenous, but neither is cultivated by the natives. Coffee and tobacco are grown by the missionaries at Akropong. The exports are mainly gold dust, palm oil, and palm kernels; and the imports, in exchange, dry goods from the United Kingdom, and tobacco and spirits from America. In 1875 and 1876 the exports were respectively of the value of £327,012 and £465,268, and the corresponding imports amounted to £364,672 and £146,088. The revenue of the Gold Coast, mainly derived from customis duties, was £67,368 in 1875, and £64,788 in 1876; the corresponding expenditures were £67,368 for 1875, and £93,944 for 1876. There is no public debt. The jurisdiction of England on the Gold Coast was defined by the bond of the 6th of March 1844, an agreement with the native chiefs by which Her Majesty receives the right of trying criminals and repressing human sacrifices, pannyaring, &c. The limits of the protectorate inland were not very rigidly defined. The purchase of the Danish forts in 1851, and of the Dutch forts and territory in 1871, led to the consolidation of the British power along the coast; and the Ashantee war of 1873-74 resulted in the extension of the area of British influence towards the interior. By the royal ordinances of December 1874 the selling, buying, or dealing in slaves was declared unlawful, and no person can any longer be put in pawn for debt; but those who were actually slaves at that date are left in the same state, except where cruelty can be proved against the masters. Seo The Golden Coast or a Description of Guinney, together with a 6 For many interesting details on the gold of the Gold Coast, see the chapter specially devoted to the subject in Burton's Wanderings